Tripura Police Slammed for FIR Against Social Media Users Who Raised Alarm over Violence

NEW DELHI — The Students Islamic Organisation (SIO) has condemned the Tripura Police’s move of filing an FIR under the stringent UAPA law against unspecified persons for highlighting the incidents of communal violence in the northeastern state. The FIR, which was filed on November 3 in West Agartala Police Station, includes a list of 102 links to posts by several social media users that had expressed concern over the spate of hate crimes against Muslims in the state.

The West Agartala Police Station has also written to Twitter head office asking them to suspend the accounts of these users.

In a statement issued in New Delhi on Saturday, November 6, the SIO said: “The Tripura Police’s targetting of social media users that had raised alarm over anti-Muslim violence in the state is highly reprehensible. We won’t be silenced by these strong arm-tactics of the majoritarian state and continue



raising our voice against communalism.”

The statement further reads: “The social media users were instrumental in bringing to light the various incidents of violence, which were largely ignored by the mainstream media. The state police and authorities did their best to downplay these criminal acts and paint a false picture of normalcy.

“The Tripura Police utterly failed to perform its duty of protecting the property and livelihood of Muslims, as it gave a free run to right-wing goons, said the SIO. “Now instead of taking any stringent action against the rioters, they are hounding innocent social media users.

We stand in solidarity with the individuals targetted by the police and vow to fight back against these slanderous charges. We will continue demanding justice for Tripura Muslims and action against the culprits. This high-handedness by the police won’t work.”