UP’s Shahjahanpur tense over Facebook posts on Quran, Hindu gods; 2 arrested

A woman and a man were arrested over objectionable social media posts targeting Hindu deities and Prophet Muhammad, prompting police flag marches and heightened security in Shahjahanpur.

Shahjahanpur: A woman was arrested here on Saturday for her alleged indecent posts on Facebook about Hindu deities, while a few people have been booked for propagating those social media posts, police said here.

This came a day after police arrested a 45-year-old man for his objectionable social media posts against Prophet Muhammad and the Quran that triggered a protest in Shahjahanpur district of Uttar Pradesh on Saturday.

Superintendent of Police (SP) Rajesh Dwivedi said the woman who made indecent posts on Facebook about Hindu deities has also been arrested and sent to jail.

At the same time, the police have registered an FIR against two named and a few other unnamed people for propagating the woman's Facebook post, the SP said.

A large number of police personnel have been deployed across the city, and a flag march was held to maintain law and order.

The Eidgah committee here demanded that the accused arrested for his objectionable social media posts against Prophet Muhammad and the Quran be booked under the stringent National Security Act, while pointing out that the comments have deeply hurt the community.

The chairman of the committee, Rahat Ali Khan, and secretary Qasim Raja handed over the memorandum addressed to the President of India to SP Dwivedi.

The memorandum stated that the person crossed all limits by posting an objectionable post on social media, making the city's Muslim community enraged.

Demanding that action against the accused be taken under the National Security Act, the committee alleged that there is a big conspiracy behind the post, and other people involved should be identified and action initiated against them.

"Apart from this, those who are doing fake journalism on Facebook should be investigated, and action should be taken by running a campaign against the fake journalists," the memorandum stated.

"Our social media monitoring team spotted the post, after which the police arrested the accused," Dwivedi said and appealed to people not to post, like and share anything against any religion on social media.