Photoshopped image of Canadian Sikh surfaces again, now as Nice attacker

The photoshopped picture of a Canadian Sikh who was wrongly identified as one of the terrorists behind the November 2015 Paris attacks has surfaced again after the attacks in Nice, media reports said.

Less than a year after being accused of the attacks in Paris, an image circulating online claims that Veerender Jubbal was involved in the Nice attack.

Last November, people tweeted that Jubbal was one of the Paris attackers after an image of his was photoshopped to make it look like he was wearing a suicide vest.

The image - which was printed in some of the world's biggest newspapers - was quickly debunked by social media users, who noticed the iPad he was holding had been photoshopped as a Quran, reported Buzzfeed.

A closer look showed the image had been heavily photoshopped.

Jubbal spoke out against the fake image, and said he believed he was targeted by supporters of Gamergate because he was an outspoken critic of the controversial online movement.

Jubbal had then described the experience as "deeply disturbing".

"People are editing, and photoshopping my selfies as if I am one of the people causing the issues/problems in Paris," he had tweeted then.

On Friday, after the Bastille Day attacks in Nice, in which 84 people were killed, the fake image of Jubbal was being circulated online again.

Simran Singh, a friend of Jubbal, said the circulation of the faked image was not "a joke" and urged people to end the rumors.

"People are wrongly identifying my Sikh friend as being responsible for the #Nice attack. Please help end the rumors," she posted.

's not "just a joke."

"Last year several newspapers named him as a suspect. His life has never been the same," she wrote on Twitter.

@gildedspine tweeted: "Please, PLEASE do your best to report and take down any pictures accusing @Veeren_Jubbal. This is the SECOND TIME he is being framed."

The original picture of Jubbal featured him standing in a bathroom in front of the mirror, taking a selfie with his iPad. This was then changed and edited by trolls to add a suicide-bomb vest to Jubbal, change the iPad into a Koran, and add a dildo into the corner of the photo.

A group of trolls spread the picture around with the sole purpose of fooling the media, and the picture was picked up shortly after in November last year following the Paris attacks.

--IANS

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