Posts share 'terror groups' list that mistakenly included Indian political party

  • This article is more than one year old.
  • Published on April 12, 2023 at 08:10
  • Updated on April 12, 2023 at 08:44
  • 3 min read
  • By Sumit DUBEY, AFP India

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A graphic from a global think tank's report on terrorist attacks that mistakenly lists an Indian political party as one of the "20 deadliest terror groups of 2022" has been misleadingly shared by multiple social media users in the country. The Global Terrorism Index produced by the Institute of Economics and Peace incorrectly included the Communist Party of India in its ranking instead of the similarly named Communist Party of India (Maoist), which is on the Indian government's list of banned terrorist organisations. The think tank said in a tweet that it corrected the error as soon as it was made aware of the mistake.

A screenshot of the graphic was shared on Facebook here on March 19, 2023.

Its caption reads: "On March 14, Institute for Economics & Peace released its Global Terrorism Index 2023. In its report, the organization listed the twenty most deadly terrorist organizations globally. India’s Communist Party of India (CPI) made it to the list in 12th place."

The Institute of Economics and Peace says its Global Terrorism Index analyses the impact of terrorism on 163 countries, or 99.7 percent of the world's population.

The Communist Party of India (CPI) is one of the world's oldest communist parties and became a powerful force after independence in 1947, claiming to fight for the country's army of poor.

Screenshot of the misleading Facebook post, captured on April 11, 2023

The same graphic was shared in similar posts on Facebook here and here; and on Twitter here.

But the posts are missing important context.

The inclusion of the CPI in the Global Terrorism Index graphic was an error that the Institute of Economics and Peace subsequently corrected in an updated report.

'Mislabelled' entry

The think tank said on March 17 that the graphic should not have included the CPI.

Responding to a tweet that pointed out the error, the Institute of Economics and Peace said: "The GTI (Global Terrorism Index) report utilises Dragonfly's Terrorism Tracker data and incorporated the terminology used in their database, which mislabelled the Communist Party of India as it did not include the correct (Maoist) attribution."

"As soon as we were made aware of this mistake, we took immediate action and corrected the report to accurately reflect the title of Communist Party of India (Maoist)," the think tank added.

According to an article in the Times of India, the Dragonfly intelligence service company also "acknowledged the error" when contacted by the newspaper.

The Communist Party of India (Maoist) is included on the Indian government's list of banned terrorist organisations.

Local media reported the group was banned on June 22, 2009, and quoted the home ministry as saying the group "may indulge in demonstrative acts of violence by targeting security forces and economic infrastructure such as trains, buses, railway and bus stations and other places where people are likely to gather in significant numbers".

The Ministry of Home Affairs describes the Communist Party of India (Maoist) as "the largest and the most violent Maoist formation in the country."

The updated list -- now titled "20 groups with the largest number of deaths attributed in 2022" -- can be seen here.

In 12th spot is the "Communist Party of India (Maoist)", with 39 deaths and 61 attacks attributed to the group.

A screenshot of the updated list in the Global Terrorism Index, captured on April 11, 2023 
April 12, 2023 This article was updated to fix the name of the report in the final picture caption.

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