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(Inputs by Pankul Sharma, Piyush Rai, Anuja Jaiswal and Arvind Chauhan)

NEW DELHI: A mix of rumours on social media and misinformation about quarantine centres could be provoking mobs to attack medical teams. In at least two recent instances — in UP’s Moradabad and Indore — where doctors and cops were attacked while trying to take people to quarantine centres, local residents told TOI that videos and messages about alleged mistreatment in such places were circulating in the days preceding the assault.On Thursday, Union minister for minority affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi tweeted that rumours about isolation centres were being floated and there was a need to educate the public on it.Dr S C Agarwal, a member of the team that was pelted with stones on Wednesday in Moradabad (a missile left him bleeding from a deep gash on his head), said a video about alleged mistreatment and mismanagement at quarantine centres might have provoked the mob. Residents in Nawabpura locality where the incident occurred said they had seen a video that warned them about "quarantine centres acting like detention centres".A woman at Nawabpura told TOI, "The medical team had come to pick up four members of a family that had already lost two men within days of each other, one of them in a quarantine centre. This fanned fear that something was going on in these centres. Soon there was a video which claimed people were being sent there to die. This made everyone anxious."Moradabad SSP Amit Pathak said police were aware that some anti-social elements were indulging in rumour-mongering. "People are being misled. We will take strict action against spreaders of fake news," he said.In Indore’s Tatpatti Bakhal area, where a medical team was attacked on April 1, Mohammad Ishrat Ali, the shahar qazi, said a message had been circulating on social media that health workers were "injecting members of a community with coronavirus ". He added, "Most people in the area are illiterate and lack information. They couldn’t understand that it was a lie."Zafar Alam, an activist in Firozabad who has previously helped the administration in its efforts to eradicate polio in the community, agreed many were susceptible to rumours but said there were other factors at play as well. "People are aware that the community has been accused of spreading the virus deliberately even in some news reports. But this anxiety has not been addressed. There have been no strong statements against such fake news. Perhaps that has added to the frustration."Other social workers said the debate about the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and the National Register of Citizens was still raging when the Covid-19 outbreak occurred. "They connected the quarantine centres to detention camps," an activist said.Shadab Chauhan, a social worker, said, "Word spread that people were being picked up and locked in quarantine centres. The administration should have released photos of the facilities or sent their representatives to address concerns." In certain pockets, talk is rife that those sent to quarantine centres are left without treatment.The seriousness of the situation has forced many community members to announce that doctors were risking lives to save them and they shouldn’t be targeted.In Indore, Ishrat Ali said mosques were making announcements, asking people to cooperate with health workers. "Community members are going door to door," he said. "The difference is visible. When a health team arrived in Tatpatti Bahal days after the attack, people clapped for them."Chhatripura police station in-charge RNS Bhadoria confirmed to TOI that locals had indeed cheered the team that arrived in the area after the incident. "We are investigating what led to a sudden attack."Cops are also releasing videos and audio clips to clear the air. On Friday, a clip released by the Moradabad administration has a man say he is getting three meals a day and medical care at a centre.