Indian city spooked by "ghost" photo news
John Donaldson
(NOTE: Photograph at above link)
Indian city spooked by "ghost" photo
Police in an Indian city say children have stopped going to school
after a local newspaper was duped into publishing a photograph of a
'ghost'.
Officers say the picture, in the Thanthi newspaper in the southern
city of Tiruchi, was a computer-generated fake.
The photograph shows a youngster with a legless 'ghost' with long
loose hair and empty eye-sockets standing behind him.
The newspaper story claimed the boy was among a group of students from
Bangalore who were visiting a picnic spot in the hills and says he
went into coma after seeing the image.
The story was picked up by other newspapers and caused a panic among
the local population.
Locals have steered clear of the Pulianjolai hills and parents have
even decided to keep their children at home after hearing the ghost
was stalking young boys.
Local police have now came up with a public awareness campaign to
expose the fraud which they say was created by some computer-savvy
pranksters.
According to the Asian Age District Superintendent of Police K N
Sathiyamurthy said: "Some prankster has downloaded the stuff from the
internet and created a new scare from an old photo."
Andrew
> http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_820471.html?menu=news.latestheadlines
>
> (NOTE: Photograph at above link)
>
> Indian city spooked by "ghost" photo
Cool looking ghost photo; I wonder if it was inspired by Sadako?
Andrew
John Donaldson
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/xml/uncomp/articleshow?art_id=16606011
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Crawling ghost scare grips Biswan
MANJARI MISHRA
TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ SUNDAY, JULY 21, 2002 01:31:31 AM ]
BISWAN: Giving goose bumps to the district officials since last
fortnight in Biswan, a sleepy little township 85 km off the state
capital, is the "ghost who crawls".
The mystery surrounding the object, according to Dr S P Verma, medical
officer of the government hospital, is puzzling as "no one has seen it
but dozens have experienced". "There certainly is much more to it than
meets the eye," he concedes.
Confirming reports of spooky assaults from all over the town,
sub-divisional magistrate Akhilesh Singh admits that the incidents are
very much real. It is neither superstition nor hallucination, he adds.
So what is it? Singh wished he himself knew.
Biswan Kotwali sub-inspector RD Yadav is similarly frank in admitting
that in the last one week he had visited at least 20 such victims. The
police have intensified patrolling and additional force, including two
sections of PAC, have arrived on Saturday.
"But even as we patrol the streets, the "object" does appear on
terrace or in rooms and simply vanishes leaving his victim completely
harassed. "We cannot guard each terrace or rooms in town," Yadav said.
Friday saw large-scale violence as an unruly mob attacked a power
sub-station and burnt down files and vehicles. The entire official
machinery including SDM, circle officer, town area chairmen,
accompanied by senior citizens are keeping vigil at nights, but the
incidents have not stopped, admitted Yadav.
Fear is the key as markets and offices close much before sunset and
people scurry back to the safety of their homes. However, nights are
no more meant for resting but for keeping watch.
"The entire town has turned insomniac," claimed Prmaod Shrivastav,
chief pharmacist, Biswan. "You will find men, women and children
standing on the terrace with mashal or torches to ward off the evil
spirit," he claimed.
Out of the five victims this correspondent met on Saturday - two of
them post-graduate students - all share identical scratched on their
bodies. The victims lose consciousness and complain of headache and
giddiness, said Dr Varma. With two daylight attacks in the hospital
premises, the patients have begun to flee now, he said ruefully.
Interestingly, the victims don't remember having seen anything. "All
recall being hit by something heavy, slippery and creepy and
experienced electric shock," claimed municipal board member Guru Saran
Varma, whose daughter fell victim on Friday.
An expert team from Regional Science Centre has urgently been summoned
to probe the happenings, confided SDM hoping that science calls off
the supernatural ruse.
__________________________________________________________
https://ssl.cpsr.org/pipermail/india-gii/2002-October/002230.html
Goa villagers 'haunted' by fake ghost-phone rumours
Sun, 13 Oct 2002
by Frederick Noronha
PANAJI (Goa), Oct 12: It sounds like a believe-it-or-not story. But
villagers from Saligao, some eight kms from here, are not amused by
reports that omniscient "ghosts" answer some of the telephones in
their
North Goa village.
Nobody really knows how this prank began. But it is now plaguing a
handful
of unlucky phone-owners in the village. This virtually paralising the
hapless few's communication lines, even if earns some additional
revenue
for the puzzled but equally-harassed Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited,
Goa's
official telecom department.
"We've been harassed by these phone calls. Last night, till eleven
p.m. we
kept getting calls asking for information about the 'bhoot'
(ghost in the local Konkani langauge)," said villager Gordon Vaz, one
of
those plagued by the rumours.
"I don't mind being quoted, but please don't mention my telephone
number
again," he told this correspondent.
According to the rumour, a 'ghost' answers the phone when one rings up
a certain number, starting with 27XXXX, the six-digit local Saligao
telephone exchange number. Many of the rumours seem emanating from, or
circulated by, schoolchildren.
One version of the rumour was that the all-knowing 'ghost' can then
tell you
details about yourself -- like what clothes you're wearing, or your
name,
and where you live. Another, even more ludicrous version is that the
'generous' ghost promises you a whole range off boons and gifts!
Naturally, everyone -- specially youngsters -- would like to talk to
the
'ghost'. "Did you find out something about the ghost?" asked an
employee
of the state Department of Information, getting his daughter on the
telephone to explain what she had heard.
"It's nonsense of course," laughed a harassed telephone exchange
employee
from Saligao.
To complicate matters, one of the local Marathi daily-newspapers
published
the 'story' and the phone number, only increasing the rush of people
trying to speak to the modern-day "generous ghost".
Another daily mentioned this on its editorial page.
BSNL telephone authorities are learnt to be monitoring the numbers.
Over the
past few days, they logged "nearly a thousand" calls to the victimised
phone
number, other villagers who complained about this told this
journalist.
Meanwhile, the earlier owner of the targeted phone has gone ahead and
got it
disconnected, to avoid the incessant harassment.
But that has not solved the problem.
Other villagers with similar telephone numbers have also started being
harassed by calls from eager-beavers, mostly youngsters wanting to try
their
luck.
"I've complained to the police, raised the matter with the Goa
Telecom/BSNL,
and spoke to the acting sarpanch and also the editor concern, but this
is of
no avail," said Vaz.
Calls are being tracked and many seem to be coming from the
Bicholim-Sanquelim area, some 30-40 kms away, and also from nearby
Porvorim, going by the telephone numbers of the incoming callers.
To fight back the prank, one of the afflicted villager has
tape-recorded a
message saying that those interested in the "ghost story" should call
up to
the newspaper who reported on the matter, giving it the credibility it
doesn't deserve.
In past decades, dark and rustic Goa had a number of "ghost" stories
doing the rounds and being whispered about. But it was felt that time,
increased education levels, and brightly lit neon-lights and
sodium-vapour
bulbs that light up the night skies would have made the place
less "spooky".
But, as this incident shows, the rumours have got a little more
sophisticated. Less-frequently, there are other strange stories
emerging
here, ranging from visions of gods to even one about the appearance of
a
deity in the skies.
Goa's high teledensity -- with the state having the
second-highest number of telephones nationwide, after only Delhi --
has
created hi-tech 'telephone ghost stories', it would seem. Modern-day
media
could only be fanning the same. (ENDS)