The Students Islamic Organisation of India (SIO) has slammed the Tripura Police for booking 68 Twitter users under the draconian Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act for tweeting about the anti-Muslim violence in the state.
The students’ organisation called the targeting of social media users who raised alarm over the anti-Muslim violence in the state as ‘highly reprehensible’ and said that they won’t be silenced by the ‘intimidation tactics’ of the police.
Accusing the state police of failing to perform its duty of protecting the property and livelihood of Muslims, SIO’s National Secretary, Fawaz Shaheen said that social media users were instrumental in bringing to light the various incidents of violence, which were largely ignored by the mainstream media.
“Instead of taking any stringent action against the rioters, they are hounding innocent social media users,” Shaheen said in a statement.
The Tripura Police have booked 68 Twitter users under UAPA and sections of the Indian Penal Code accusing them of spreading “distorted and objectionable content” about the recent violence in the state. The police have also written to Twitter asking the social media platform to suspend their accounts.
The police said in its letter to Twitter that some posts and news items on these handles contained photographs or videos of some other incident and fabricated statements or commentary. “The posts have potential to flare up communal tension in Tripura State between people [of] different religious Communities, which may result into communal riots,” the letter stated.
The Tripura Police have sought user registration details of the Twitter accounts, their browsing log details, IP addresses used to log in to the accounts and mobile numbers linked to the accounts.
The accounts against whom the police have sought action include those of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind (JIH) Vice President Prof. Mohammad Salim Engineer, Popular Front of India General Secretary Anis Ahmed, SIO India National President, Salman Ahmad, Former Chairman, Delhi Minorities Commission, Dr Zafarul-Islam Khan, journalists Mohammad Sartaj Alam, Shyam Meera Singh and CJ Werleman, former Aligarh Muslim University student leader Sharjeel Usmani among others.
Earlier this week, the police also booked two lawyers, Mukesh Kumar and Ansar Indori – under the UAPA. The duo was part of a fact-finding team that visited the state to investigate the anti-Muslim violence that broke out in October.
The fact-finding report released on Tuesday said that at least 12 mosques, nine shops, three houses of Muslims were targeted during the violence.
The lawyers have also been charged under Indian Penal Code (IPC) Sections 120 (B), 153 (A), 153 (B), 469, 471, 503, 504, among others, which include charges of criminal conspiracy, promoting enmity between groups, forgery and provoking breach of peace.
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