Guwahati: As many as 19 people, including an MLA, have been arrested in the states of Assam, Meghalaya and Tripura over the last 48 hours for adverse comments on the Pahalgam massacre in Jammu and Kashmir that claimed the lives of 26 persons, including tourists, on Tuesday.
Of them, 14 were arrested from Assam. According to NDTV, the first person arrested on Friday was Aminul Islam, an MLA of the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF), an opposition party in Assam. Islam was arrested and charged with sedition for claiming that the Pahalgam massacre and the 2019 Pulwama blast were ‘conspiracies of the government’. He was remanded to four days in police custody by a court.
The others arrested include a journalist, a lawyer, retired teachers and students. Most of them were picked up for posting anti-government messages on social media. Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has made it clear that such activities will not be tolerated.
The others arrested from the state include Md Jabir Hussain, a journalist from Hailakandi; Md A K Bahauddin, a computer science student of the Assam University in Silchar; and Md Javed Mazumder, a practicing lawyer, NDTV has claimed. Md Mahahar Mia from Morigaon and Md Sahil Ali from Sivasagar were also arrested while Md Musta Ahmed, also known as Sahel, was held in Karimganj after allegedly posting “Pakistan Zindabad” on Facebook.
Anil Bania, a student leader from Biswanath, Assam and several others were arrested for alleged online ‘anti-India’ comments. The Cachar district police picked up two more individuals for allegedly promoting pro-Pakistan sentiments online.
“If required, we will impose provisions of the National Security Act on them. We are examining all social media posts, and action will be taken against those who, we feel, are anti-national,” Sarma said.
Four persons were arrested in Tripura, including retired teachers Jawhar Debnath, Kuldip Mandal and Sajal Chakraborty for allegedly posting “anti-national” comments about the Pahalgam incident. Another man, Jahirul Islam, was detained in Sonamura. The Meghalaya Police arrested 30-year-old Simon Shylla from East Khasi Hills district after he posted a controversial comment related to a news broadcast from Guwahati.
