Ghaziabad: Six people, including an advocate and a madrasa teacher, have been arrested under Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) from Nahal village near Masuri for allegedly following terrorist outfits and terrorists, such as Jaish-e-Mohammed and Pakistan-based militant Farhatullah Ghori, on social media. DCP (rural) Surendra Nath Tiwari said they had received a tipoff from their social media team that a few men from the village had been regularly watching and sharing videos of terrorist organisations banned in India. Their social media history allegedly featured videos that depicted oppression and atrocities against members of the minority community. They forwarded these videos on messaging apps. “We conducted surveillance. The chowki-in-charge of Nahal, along with his team, arrested the men on Thursday near the Mubarikpur culvert on the route between Nahal and Masuri,” he said. During questioning, a 20-year-old grocery store worker, allegedly told police that he was the leader of the group and that they wanted to make others aware of the atrocities and oppression faced by the community. The other five men included an advocate, a maulana who later became a madarsa teacher, an LLB student and two labourers.It was about one and a half years ago that the 20-year-old started watching the videos, trying to influence others, according to police. He and the others allegedly kept revisiting videos from militant training camps of various banned organisations. The leader is also accused of starting a WhatsApp group to get more followers. An FIR was filed against the six men under sections sections 152 (act endangering sovereignty, unity and integrity of India); 196 (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, regional groups, castes and communities); and 61 (2) (criminal conspiracy) of BNS besides sections of UAPA. Police are also probing the social media handles that posted the videos. Police claimed the advocate’s mother was an illegal immigrant from Bangladesh. They have registered a case against her as well.
