Taking cognisance of the alarming rise in communal disharmony among the people in Jammu and Kashmir, the state police has launched an operation to identify the 'keypad jehadis', people who spew venom on social networking sites to try and create a law and order situation in the state by spreading on the Internet rumours or giving communal colour to any event. A report in PTI said, that the police till now has registered cases against five Twitter handles while filing complaints with service providers against such misleading posts on Facebook and WhatsApp. Officials also said that the micro-blogging site has been asked to provide details of the twitter handles so that action can be taken against them at the earliest. They added that police has increased its efforts on monitoring the social networking websites and also various groups created on messaging services like WhatsApp, Telegram. The objective behind the move is to ensure police have more time to focus on nabbing and eliminating terrorists with real guns rather than tackling those who wage war against the state using the internet as a primary weapon. Officials said that post-2016 there has been a significant rise in spreading misinformation from some groups in Kashmir as well as in Jammu, with each group trying to project incidents supporting their political goals which carry a potential of pushing the state to communal clashes. The officials were quoted by PTI as saying, "We have passed on several complaints to the Computer Emergency Response Team-India (CERT-IN) for blocking several pages on Facebook and Twitter", adding many SIM cards which were used to spread canards on messaging services like WhatsApp have been blocked with the help of the service provider. Officials confirmed that the immediate worry for security agencies is the forthcoming two-month-long Amarnath Yatra, which will start from June end, as thousands of pilgrims reach the shrine dedicated to Lord Shiva and any false information circulated on the internet can plunge the entire state into communal violence. Officials claimed that in the past there have been instances when fake pictures of desecration of shrines are circulated by a particular community and all of sudden there is an outrage. Similarly, in order to create unrest in various regions of the state, false news regarding firing and subsequent killing of civilians have also been circulated. The officials also claimed that there have been instances of circulation of photo-shopped images of civilians as militants. "We had many such cases including the one in Ganderbal where the picture of a shopkeeper was circulated with an assault rifle as having joined a militant group. On inquiry, we found that he was selling his groceries and one of his business rivals had played the mischief. A case was registered under relevant sections of Information and Technology act and the accused was arrested," a senior police official said. The official added, "It is a virtual battleground where a bloody war is fought, but with words. However, this has an impact on the young minds." In the Valley, social media access had been controlled to a large extent after authorities clamped down on over two dozen websites but the problem in Jammu and other parts of the country continues. (with inputs from PTI)
