Gazetted officers among employees promoting Jihad, Khilafat, Intifada on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram
Ahmed Ali Fayyaz
SRINAGAR: Following repeated communications from Government of India, besides publicly made statements of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Chief of Army Staff Gen Bipin Rawat, the Jammu and Kashmir Police have taken in hand detailed profiling of the thousands of the State Government employees allegedly promoting Jihad, caliphate and stone pelting in social media. As of now, nearly 300 Government employees have been summoned and grilled for hours of sustained questioning and their profiles have been completed.
Prime Minister, Home Minister and the Army Chief have said on numerous occasions in the last four or five months that social media had emerged as the prime mobiliser and instigator of turbulence in Kashmir. Union Minister of Home Affairs and other security, intelligence and IT-related organisations of the Central government have expressed concern over the way a section of people in Jammu and Kashmir had been freely posting “anti-national, subversive, incendiary, communally outrageous, pro-terror and intimidating” content on social media, particularly Facebook, Twitter, Viber, Instagram, WhatsApp and other platforms.
[box fontsize=”14″ radius=”5″]FUTILE EXERCISE
The widespread menace of anti-national activities on social media in the Kashmir Valley is manifestation of ‘criminal’ inaction and lack of will by the successive governments during the past over two and half decades to proceed against separatists involved in criminal offences ranging from killings to money laundering, sedition to coercion and intimidation to indoctrination. Despite almost proven cases against the killer(s) of three unarmed IAF personnel in early 1990, minorities, so-called Ikhwanis, political opponents, religious clerics etc, not a single conviction has been sought due to weak prosecution. Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Yasin Malik, Bitta Karate and likes are the cases in point. This has emboldened various segments of society including government servants, who are overtly or covertly promoting anti-India sentiment through their posts on various social media platforms. There has been no deterrence, which is why the number of anti-national posts by those holding positions in the government is on rise. The massive screening exercise initiated by Jammu and Kashmir Police and its Cyber Wing will be futile if those involved are not dealt in by relevant provisos of law and Civil Service Conduct Rules. Inaction will encourage and embolden more and more employees to glorify terror and indulge in India bashing, which is a ‘popular theme’ among ‘creamy layer’ of the Kashmir society. They feel elated to be seen on other side of the fence while having best of both the worlds. [/box]
Well-placed authoritative sources on Wednesday revealed to STATE TIMES that the task of profiling of the government employees on social media had been assigned to a particular wing of J&K Police. In the last around three months, profiling of around 300 Government employees is said to have been conducted in 13 Police districts in the Valley.
Public servants found involved in using social media for promotion of separatism, armed insurgency,terrorism, communal hatred and disharmony, intimidation, black-mailing and glorification of terrorists could be booked under different provisions of Ranbir Penal Code, PC Act and Information Technology Act.
“This is in addition to the disciplinary action by respective departments against these Government employees found involved in anti-national activities. We have completed 300 profiles and the process is still underway”, said a senior officer. He said that around 15, whose profiles were ready, were gazetted officers of junior ranks.
Sources said that the suspects had been marked and identified, summoned to headquarters of a wing of the J&K Police and subjected to sustained interrogation before their Interrogation Reports (IRs) were prepared and shared with different security and intelligence officials.
“As many as 15,000 to 20,000 of such accounts are being operated and controlled by around 100 Kashmiri youths based in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. We have raised this issue with management and owners of Facebook, Twitter etc. but their response has not been forthcoming. We are now initiating other measures”, said a senior government functionary. He claimed that over a hundred Facebook Accounts have been forced to close down in just 3 months.
