Crackdown on 'Pakistan sympathisers': 50 including an MLA, arrested in Assam post-Pahalgam terror attack - report

Assam Police has so far arrested at least 50 people in connection with its crackdown on what it calls ‘Pakistan sympathisers’ in the aftermath of the Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 people, mostly tourists, on 22 April.

Those arrested include students and a Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA), mostly based on the complaints by ABVP members, according to a report by the Indian Express. Among the arrested includes a 25-year-old who was traced from Telangana over a post on social media.

Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad or ABVP is a student organisation affiliated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the ideological mentor or the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

On April 24, AIUDF MLA Aminul Islam was picked up by police for statements in a political rally allegedly suggesting that the attack was a “conspiracy” by the Union government. Islam is accused of “acts endangering sovereignty, unity and integrity of India” in accordance with Section 152 of the BNS or the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023.

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has said that district administrators were given the power to invoke the National Security Act against ‘repeat offenders’. Sarma, who has been updating on these arrests regularly on his X account, referred to the accused as “traitors defending Pakistan on Indian soil”.

“Any act of sympathising with the enemy is an act of treason,” he said in one of the posts on X.

These 50 arrests have been made across 21 districts, and include one woman. Five of the arrests were made after Operation Sindoor had commenced, the Indian Express report said.

Indian Armed Forces launched Operation Sindoorin the early hours of May 7, targeting nine terrorist camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK).

This operation was a retaliatory response to the 22 April terror attack in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, which resulted in the deaths of 26 civilians, mostly tourists.

Of these, 7 have been arrested from Cachar district in the Bengali-majority Barak Valley. The report quoted Superintendent of Police Numal Mahatta, saying that the social media monitoring cell in his office is tracking social media posts.

For complaints tagged on Social Media

“While some of the posts have been detected by this cell, the Cyberdome in the Assam police headquarters is also alerting. There are also three cyber police outposts in Assam: one in Guwahati, one in Dibrugarh and one here in Cachar, which we are observing closely,” he told the Indian Express.

In many cases, Assam police acted after people tagged it on social media. Social media user Ajibor Rahman, for example, was arrested after police were tagged about a post by him on April 24, Rahman was s arrested by Barpeta police 10 days later, from Lakshmipur, Telangana.

Similarly, two students in the Barak Valley — one studying Computer Science in Assam University Silchar, and another, aged 20, studying in SS College, Hailakandi — were arrested following complaints filed by the ABVP. One was over a Facebook post, and the other over a comment.