Ahead of first phase of Assembly elections police have arrested several youth from the valley for alleged misuse of Facebook and other social networking sites for spreading poll boycott messages. Police sources said all social networking sites have brought under scanner as some youth are involved in creating fake accounts and pages to influence public opinion on violence and ‘anti-national’ activities. They said police arrestedd Sajad Ahmad Mir and Tabeeb Mir of old city Khanyar and Tral in south Kashmir respectively for creating Facebook page ‘Khanyar Tigers’ and ‘Tral The Land of Martyrs’ and spreading poll boycott message.
Another youth Shaukat Salafi was arrested from North Kashmir’s Naidkhai town of Bandipora district for creating a Facebook page and spreading of election boycott messages.
Police also arrested two more youth from south Kashmir. ‘Zahid Hamid of Pulwama was arrested for being an administrator of a page ‘Land of Martyrs/Martyrs never die’ on social networking site Muneeb farooq of Hardpora, Anantnag was for running a page Geelani Hurriyat-2 police sources said.
The crackdown on social networking sites, according to sources, would continue and people involved in misuse of technology will be booked under law.
‘We would not allow anybody to disturb peace during the ongoing election process. All those who will try to take law in their hand and disturb it will be severally dealt with,’ said police officer.