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Journalism of Courage
The majority community in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kishtwar town observed a shutdown demanding the arrest of three Bharatiya Janata Party and IkkJutt Jammu leaders for their alleged social media post extending their support to BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma, who was suspended for her remarks against Prophet Muhammad.
The three leaders, according to the protesters, include Ashish Sharma, the BJP’s Youth Wing general secretary in Jammu and Kashmir, and IkkJutt leaders Saparsh Parihar and Anshuman Rathore. The police have registered a First Information Report (FIR) under Sections 295A and 66 C of the IT Act, but no arrests have been made so far.
Pointing out that its cyber cell was monitoring such activities on social media platforms, the police advised people to refrain from making comments online on issues which have the potential to spread communal disharmony. Anyone found doing so will be dealt with strictly under law, they added.
The Facebook post “#StandWithNupurSharma” appears to have originated from the account of Ashish Sharma and the two other leaders had endorsed it saying “I support Nupur Sharma”.
Nupur Sharma was suspended by the BJP following outrage over her remarks against Prophet Muhammad and the party’s Delhi media unit head Naveen Kumar Jindal was expelled for sharing a screenshot of her offensive comment in a tweet.
Though Sharma and others had later deleted the posts on their own, but a large number of people had taken their screenshots and forwarded them to their contacts resulting in widespread condemnation and various local Muslim leaders approaching the Kishtwar deputy commissioner for action in the matter.
Significantly, the shutdown in Kishtwar came only two days after the minority community in neighbouring Doda district’s Bhaderwah town and its outskirts had closed their establishments and held a demonstration last Monday in protest against alleged vandalism at the Vasuki Nag Temple near Kailash Kund situated at a height of 13,500 ft.
Members of the Sanatan Dharam Sabha in Doda town and Jammu city too had held demonstrations seeking the arrest of the accused at the earliest.
The police have already registered an FIR in this case as well and set up a special investigation team to investigate the matter. Meanwhile, additional security force personnel were deployed in the Bhaderwah town to avoid any untoward incident.
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