Jammu and Kashmir Police has warned social media users of strict action including being booked under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) for supporting and promoting terror.
In advertisements published in at least three local dailies in Kashmir on December 12, JK Police has warned social media users that “supporting and promoting terror is as grave as the actual act of terror”. The advertisements appeared a day before militants attacked a police vehicle in Srinagar, injuring 12 and killing at least two policemen.
In the advertisement, the police have cited three examples of social media posts, which they claimed either promoted violence or acted as agents of terrorist handlers or were threat messages. The first example shows the screenshot of a post urging all village/mohalla/ town committees to ensure that “not a single non-local lives in their areas”. This is followed by the screenshot of a report about a Bihari vendor and a labourer from Uttar Pradesh being shot dead in Kashmir. “It is not normal to promote violence”, the advertisement says.
The second example appears to show a screenshot of WhatsApp messages where one person seems to be identifying someone in a picture. “It is not normal to act as information agents of terrorist handlers in Pakistan and help them kill your neighbour and colleagues”, runs the caption in the advertisement.
The third example features the screenshot of a statement released by the United Liberation Front of Jammu and Kashmir, a militant group, on the killing of a policeman in Srinagar, warning other policemen that they would face similar violence if they did not resign from their jobs. A news report on the policeman’s killing is also featured in the advertisement, along with the caption “It is not normal either to post or forward threat messages”.
