“Out of 206 social media posts that are responsible for inciting CAA-related violence, three provocative and offensive posts originated in the United Arab Emirates (UAE),” said Himanta Biswa Sarma.
The Assam finance minister was addressing the media on Monday, where he informed social media played a major role behind the recent violence in Assam over the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA).
Sarma further informed that the Assam police have registered 28 cases for provocative and offensive social media posts and arrested ten persons so far for inciting violence against the CAA.
He added there were 206 social media posts which were linked to the law and order situation in the state post-December 9.
Sarma, who is also the spokesperson of Assam government, said police are investigating to trace the details of these posts.
“Our government respects the democratic protests. However, the violence that took place since December 10 also has the involvement of some people who wanted to disrupt the peace. We are going to deal strictly with all those people,” Sarma said.
He said although ten people have been arrested over the 28 cases of provocative and offensive social media posts, five of them have been released on bail and rest five are sent to judicial custody.
“Apart from this, we have also called parents of 23 minor who also posted such messages on social media and they were let go after proper counselling to desist them from such activities in future,” Sarma said.
The government has also deleted 58 such offensive and provocative posts.
The minister further said a total of 393 persons have been arrested so far against 244 number of cases registered for their alleged involvement in violence during anti-CAA protests.
A total of six anti-CAA protesters lost their lives in police action during protests against CAA.
The minister further said vested interests are trying to further disrupt the peace in tea garden areas.
He said that a misinformation campaign is being spread that excess land of the tea gardens will be allotted to Illegal Bangladeshis, who are coming to Assam taking advantage of the Citizenship law.
“The government has already taken a decision to allow the excess land of tea gardens to tea tribes and Adivasi people. We are going to take stern action against those spreading this misinformation to disrupt the peace,” he added.