Assam police on Thursday arrested nine more persons for posting “offensive” content on social media after Monday’s Delhi blast, which left 12 dead, taking the total number of arrests to 15 since Wednesday.
Those arrested on Thursday belong to the minority community, as did the six individuals apprehended the previous day for their social media posts.
Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma announced the fresh arrests through a post on his X handle, just as he had done on Wednesday.
“In connection with the offensive social-media posts following the Delhi blasts, 15 persons have been arrested across Assam so far… Assam Police remain uncompromising against those who glorify violence,” Sarma said, revealing the names of the nine individuals arrested
from seven districts in the ongoing crackdown, similar to the disclosures made the previous day.
Those arrested include Rafijul Ali (Bongaigaon); Forid Uddin Laskar (Hailakandi); Inamul Islam and Firuj Ahmed (Lakhimpur); Shahil Shoman Sikdar and Rakibul Sultan (Barpeta); Nasim Akram (Hojai); Taslim Ahmed (Kamrup); and Abdur Rohim Mollah (South Salmara).
The number of arrestees is expected to rise further because 34 persons had been identified by state police till Wednesday — including those already taken into custody — for “spreading offensive and inflammatory content online” in the aftermath of the Delhi blast.
The state police had carried out a similar crackdown earlier this year on individuals posting “offensive” comments following the Pahalgam (Kashmir) terror attack in April that killed 27 people, most of them tourists.
Sarma had said on Wednesday that tough action would be taken against all those identified, particularly those with alleged extremist links to individuals in
Bangladesh and elsewhere. Many of those flagged had posted “smileys, thumbs up” and other celebratory reactions, he had noted.
Alluding to the suspected involvement of doctors in the Delhi blast, Sarma said that education was not a safeguard against radicalisation.