The news of the alleged murder of Afghan singer Haseeba Noori has turned to be fake, according to a journalist from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Social media was rife with her death news on Monday.

“Just spoke to Haseeba Noori, the Afghan Singer who was reported to be killed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. She is well and alive,” Iftikhar Firdous tweeted that began with a fact check. “She is in Karachi. Social media and some news websites had shared the news of her death.”

The Twitter bio of Firdous says he is the founder of The Khorasan Diary.

His post was shared with a screenshot of a tweet, which claimed that she was “shot dead” in Pakistan where she had taken refuge.

“Her picture was taken while she was undergoing an operation and was under the effect of anaesthesia,” he said. When asked about the kind of anaesthesia put in her nostrils by a user, Firdous replied that she asked the same question to the Afghan singer in his call.

“She [Noori] said her head hit the car and that she had excessive bleeding from her nose. But that’s her version of things. She’s published a video of herself now,” Firdous said.

Later, the journalist also shared a screenshot of her taken during a video interview. He claimed that the screengrab was taken with her permission.

He also shared a four-minute video of the Afghan singer, apparently from the interview. She spoke Dari, a Farsi language, and Pashto. The video shows her in a black dress.

Aaj News translated the bit where she spoke in Pashto from one of its staff members. Below is the edited version of the translation.

The singer described the news about her death as wrong and against morality to spread such rumours without confirmation.

“They should have confirmed it with my family before spreading rumours about my death. Several fabricated videos and pictures were circulated on media platforms,” Noori said.

She said that she was “happy” in Pakistan and has been working “without any problems”. The Afghan singer also rubbished the claims that she had been “receiving threatening letters” that directed her to stop performing.

“I have never received any threatening letters. I am freely working in Pakistan and thank Pakistanis and the media industry of the country,” Noori said.

The damage was unfortunately done to a great extent before the series of tweets as many journalists and influencers had commented on the “murder”. But many of them deleted their tweets after knowing that the report was “fake”.

Journalist Anas Mallick in a tweet on Monday afternoon claimed that Noori “died a few days ago”.

Ziauddin Yousafzai, father of Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai, deleted his tweet after a journalist checked the reports.

“I deeply regret sharing #Hasiba_Noori’s unverified news and apologise sincerely to all those who have commented and shared it,” he said.

His reaction was in response to Journalist Syed Wiqas Shah’s tweet, which said that he checked the case with KP police and there wasn’t any such case registered recently.

“As per my inquiry an Afghan women was died due to sleeping pills overdose in Quetta, however it is not confirmed whether she was the singer Hasiba nori or some other female,” he tweeted.