Srinagar, April 06 : The Cyber Cell of Jammu and Kashmir police Monday claimed to have busted module involved in spreading old encounter videos on social media to instigate people for violence.
“We have traced and arrested three youth from various parts of Kashmir who had shared old video to spread fake message about civilian killings in Kulgam district and were also uploading pictures of militants on social media to gain sympathy for militancy,” Tahir Ashraf, SP Cyber police Kashmir told news agency.
According to the SP, “ Three youth from Baramulla ,South Kashmir and Srinagar respectively, were arrested for sharing a video of 2018 uploaded on Youtube by National News Group showing content of an encounter. “The youth had changed the caption of the small clip by writing three civilians killed and 30 others injured in Kulgam encounter,” said Ashraf.
He said that the clip was uploaded by several other people and in some parts of South Kashmir, law and order situation was about to break. “Timely intervention of the cyber cell that brought down the content from all accounts and blocked the content saved the situation from turning bad,” the officer said.
He further told : “The other youth, who have also been arrested, had uploaded the pictures of militants by portraying them as martyrs in a bid to gain people’s sympathy. This was a common in year 2016 as even some people had kept the display picture (DPs) of slain militants in a bid to eulogies militants,” he said. “But the swift action of cyber police has helped to prevent these youth from luring others towards militancy.
We are investigating whether they were doing it on their own or were directed from the handlers from across of within Kashmir. That is subject to investigation,” he added.
He said that the social media is the fastest means to spread fake news, instigate people through wrong information etc. “Apart from these three youth, a few more have also been identified who are involved in the same act,” the officer, who oversees cyber wing operations in Kashmir said.
He said that action will be initiated against the arrested trio under section 505 Indian Penal Code (IPC) and there is also a provision to put them behind the bars for three years. “An FIR has been lodged and further investigations are on while as more arrests are on cards,” the officer told.
He warned of a toughest action and severe punishment under serval sections of Indian Penal Code against those trying to fake uploading videos to trigger law and order situations in Kashmir.
“Some people of Kashmir use to upload videos of militants on social media and even keep the pictures of militants as their DPs. It’s a serious offence and now it can invite action against IPC sections, especially 505 section of IPC that also allows three years of jail,” he maintained.(KINS)
