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At least seven persons have been arrested in the past three days in West Bengal, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh for sharing allegedly pro-Pakistan content on social media.
This comes amid escalating tensions and cross-border strikes between India and Pakistan after the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam, which killed 26 persons on April 22.
On Saturday, the West Bengal Police said that it has arrested a man, identified as Sarif Sheikh, from Maharashtra’s Mumbai for allegedly supporting Pakistan on social media, The Indian Express reported.
Sheikh, who hails from Danihat in West Bengal’s Purba Bardhaman district, had posted allegedly pro-Pakistan slogans, along with the Pakistani and Bangladeshi national flags, on the social media platform Facebook, the newspaper quoted unidentified police officers as saying.
After seeing the post, Sheikh’s neighbour filed a complaint and the police in Purba Bardhaman district informed the Mumbai Police, according to The Indian Express.
“Sedition, instigation and other charges have been slapped against him,” the officers told The Indian Express. “A team of Purba Bardhaman police will take him in transit remand and bring him here soon. We, however, have placed security at his residence so that nobody can hurt his parents.”
The officers added that Sheikh used to work as a mason in Kerala before moving to Mumbai and starting a garment business, according to The Indian Express.
On Friday, a 19-year-old student in Pune was also arrested for allegedly sharing pro-Pakistan content on social media, the Hindustan Times reported. A day later, a court in the district remanded her to five days in police custody.
The student was identified as Khadija Shaikh, who was pursuing an engineering degree.
“The police sought extended custody for Khadija Shaikh stating that they needed to investigate the origin of the post and whether she knew the original content creator,” the Hindustan Times quoted Inspector Vinayak Patankar from the Kondhwa police station as saying.
The arrest came after a Hindutva group on Friday claimed that Khadija Shaikh had posted pro-Pakistan slogans on the social media platform Instagram.
She was arrested under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita sections related to acts endangering the sovereignty, unity and integrity of India, promoting enmity between different groups, outraging religious feelings and intentional insult intended to provoke a breach of peace.
Khadija Shaikh was also rusticated from her college, according to the Hindustan Times.
In Uttar Pradesh, five persons were arrested in three separate cases in Muzaffarnagar and Aligarh districts for allegedly posting pro-Pakistan content, The Times of India quoted unidentified police officers as saying.
A man named Kamruddin, 45, and his sons, Mohammad Ali and Amir Ali, were arrested in Aligarh’s Khair town. This came after Mohammad Ali posted allegedly pro-Pakistan content on the messaging application WhatsApp, allegedly at the behest of his father and brother.
“A video containing an anti-national remark was posted online,” The Times of India quoted Khair Deputy Superintendent of Police Varun Kumar as saying. He added that a case was filed under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita section related to the circulation of false information and rumours online.
Two separate arrests were also made in the Muzaffarnagar district.
A man named Shahvez Ahmed from Morna village of the district was arrested for uploading a video with allegedly objectionable remarks about the conflict between India and Pakistan on social media, The Times of India reported.
He was charged with promoting enmity and spreading false information.
In the second incident, a man identified as Anwar Jameel from Muzaffarnagar city was arrested after of video of him allegedly praising Pakistan was circulated widely on social media.
A case was registered under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita sections pertaining to making inflammatory statements and disturbing public peace.
“They have been jailed and further investigations are ongoing,” The Times of India quoted Muzaffarnagar Superintendent of Police Sanjay Kumar as saying.
Additionally, in Assam, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that two more persons – identified as Jobbur Islam and Ruhul Amin – were arrested in the state government’s “crackdown against traitors”.
Several persons have been arrested in the state over the past few weeks for “defending Pakistan on Indian soil”. Sarma had earlier that anybody in Assam found to be “directly or indirectly” supporting Pakistan would be charged under the National Security Act.
On Saturday, the Bharatiya Janata Party leader said that a total of 50 “anti-nationals” had been arrested in the state. “We will continue to hunt these traitors,” Sarma added.
Earlier in the day, New Delhi said that India and Pakistan had come to an agreement to put an end to four days of military tensions that escalated on May 7 when the Indian military carried out strikes – codenamed Operation Sindoor – on what it claimed were terrorist camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
The strikes were in response to the Pahalgam terror attack.
The Pakistan Army retaliated by repeatedly shelling Indian villages along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir.
This article first appeared on Scroll.in
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