In the northern city of Isfara, police officers detained a man who had spread a false voice message on WhatsApp about the alleged escape of six patients from a psychiatric hospital.
As reported by Isfara police, the fake audio recording caused panic among the city’s residents.
After investigation, police officers identified the distributor of the message. It turned out to be a 27-year-old resident of the Khonaobod jamoat (rural municipality), Ibrohim O. According to the police, the man himself suffers from a mental disorder.
Currently, preventive and explanatory measures are being conducted with him, and the issue of taking appropriate measures is being resolved.
The police urge citizens not to believe various unfounded rumors and fake audio recordings, and not to forward them to others. They emphasized that trust should be placed only in official information.
Earlier in Dushanbe, an audio message circulated on the WhatsApp messenger about “unknown doctors” allegedly spreading a dangerous disease in the country. It was later revealed that this information was not true, and the Ministry of Health of Tajikistan refuted the rumors.
The Ministry of Health and Social Protection of the Population (MoHSPP) then stated that the circulated audio recording was fake and misled citizens to disinform the population and create panic. The department explained that in the message, an unknown woman claimed that certain individuals, posing as doctors, were going door to door spreading an infection, and it also mentioned an alleged “state of emergency” in certain regions.
The Ministry of Health also urged citizens not to trust unverified information and to refer only to official sources.
