The Tripura police have charged 68 Twitter profiles with Section 13 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) for allegedly posting “distorted or objectionable” contents regarding the vandalism of Mosques in the state, reported NDTV.
In connection with the same, the Tripura police have also asked Twitter to suspend all these accounts. In a letter, the West Tripura district police mentioned the links of all the 68 profiles to Twitter’s grievance officer at his official address in California in the United States.
“That some persons/organization are publishing/posting distorted and objectionable news items/statements in Twitter regarding the recent clash and alleged attack upon mosques of Muslim communities in the state.” the letter states.
The letter mentioned that the news posts shared on these profiles were doctored and as such could lay the ground for promoting enmity between religious groups in the presence of “criminal conspiracy”.
“The posts have potential to flare up communal tension in Tripura state between people different religious Communities, which may result into communal riots,” the letter added.
In connection with the same, the police have sought a detailed list of IP addresses where the user logged into accounts, and also mobile numbers affixed to these accounts. The 68 individuals have also been charged with Sections 153A, 153B, 569, 471, 503, 504 and 120 B of the Indian Penal Code.
Supreme court lawyers charged with UAPA
A day ago, four of the Supreme Court lawyers who were a part of a fact-finding team probing the Tripura violence were also charged with UAPA. The police claim that the lawyers were allegedly promoting communal disharmony with their social media posts targeting Muslims. The fact-finding report titled “Humanity under attack in Tripura; #Muslim lives matter” has revealed that if the BJP government in Tripura wanted to, they could have stopped the violence but they chose to give a free hand to the Hindutva mobs in the state.
Communal violence in Tripura state
Muslims in Tripura have stated that a Hindutva rally led by the Bajrang Dal, Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh kick-started the riots. The rally started to condemn the killing of Hindus in Bangladesh during Durga Puja. Though the Bangladesh government had promptly contained the clashes, the discontentment has spilled over to India, mostly in Tripura.
“We have informed the authority about the attacks. Now, few authorities and media are creating confusion regarding these attacks. But, those actually happened and we have informed the authorities accordingly,” Mufti Taybur Rahman, president of the Tripura chapter of Jamiat Ulama told NDTV.