After arresting 15 people for their social media posts since the car blast in Delhi on Monday, police in Assam began a crackdown similar to the one they carried out after the terror attack in Pahalgam in April this year.
The 15 people were arrested between Wednesday and Thursday in 10 districts of Assam.
In the crackdown that followed the Pahalgam attack, Assam police arrested at least 97 people over two months for posts and comments that ranged from those supporting Pakistan and others deemed offensive to Hindus, to those suggesting the attack was an election-related “conspiracy.” Section 152 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) Act has been imposed on many detainees, which relates to “acts endangering the sovereignty and integrity of India”, a charge akin to “sedition” under the erstwhile Indian Penal Code (IPC).
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This time too, the arrests are taking place in the same manner. In the wake of the blast in Delhi, Wahol Kamal, a resident of Rangia in Kamrup district, made a post on Facebook claiming that terror attacks always happen when elections are around the corner. A police official from Kamrup district confirmed that he was arrested over the now-deleted post, and that he has been booked under Section 152 and Section 147 of the BNS (waging war, attempting to wage war, or incitement to wage war against the Indian government), among other charges.
A similar statement in the same vein was made by Matiur Rahman, a resident of Darang district, in a comment on a post about the Delhi blast, and he was also arrested on Wednesday.
The Assam government suggested that these arrests should continue.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma announced on Wednesday that his government had “identified” 34 people, and that he had instructed police to arrest those “who express support for terrorists.”
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“After the Delhi blast, I understood one thing – education does not mean that someone will not be a terrorist. All these days in our legislative assembly, it was being said that they are being used for different purposes because of their backwardness in education. But we have seen from the Delhi events that this was not done by uneducated people, rather educated people did jihad. After educated people did jihad, instead of condemning, a section of people in Assam put smiley faces and expressed their support in different ways,” the Prime Minister said.
(tags for translation)Assam Police arrests
