Fayaz Bukhari
SRINAGAR, Feb 5: Police have identified around half a dozen Facebook users who have posted hate message on the Facebook page of Pragash all-girl rock band in Kashmir and few arrests are on the cards.
Earlier in the morning an FIR was lodged against unknown persons who had posted hate messages on the Facebook page of the rock band. A police spokesman told Excelsior: “A case FIR Number 05/2013 under Section 66 A of the IT Act and Section 506 RPC (Criminal Intimidation) was registered in police station Rajbagh against known persons who had posted hate messages on the Facebook page of the Pragash band.”
Soon after the lodging of FIR under the directions of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, Rajbagh Police with the help of the experts from the cybercrime cell identified around half a dozen persons who had posted hate messages on the wall of Pragash. The Facebook page of the band had received a large number of posts and it would be a lengthy process for the Police to go through all the users who had posted hate message.
Police sources said that police is concentrating on around 40 users who have posted intimidating and vulgar messages on the Pragash wall. Few of them are from Srinagar, Bijbehara and Anantnag. Police is trying get into details of these users.
The band disbanded yesterday following a Fatwa from grand Mufti of Kashmir, Mufti Bashirudin, who declared their performances un-Islamic.
One of the members of Pragash band broke her silence today and said that they decided to quit because they respected the Grand Mufti’s fatwa and not because of the abuses and threats hurled at them on Facebook. She said that she was too small to know whether music was un-Islamic or not and that the Grand Mufti would be more aware of the religion.
“I am too little to know whether music is un-Islamic. The Grand Mufti will be more aware of our religion. So we respect his decision. He is a well-respected man,” She said. She said that she had the support of her parents and friends. She also admitted that Kashmir was not the place if one wanted to pursue music. “That’s the lesson I have learnt. If one has to pursue music, one has to move out”, She added.
The 10th standard students Noma Nazir, Farah Deeba and Aneeka Khalid had formed a band Pragash last year and it won the best performance award in their first public appearance last December at the annual Battle of the Bands competition in Srinagar. The competition was sponsored by Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF).
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah was the first politician to support the band and urged them not to quit because of these bunch of morons. The hardline Hurriyat Conference led by Syed Ali Shah Geelani criticised the grand Mufti for his fatwa against the band and said: “There is no threat to the girls. Nobody has issued any threats. It is a mere propaganda by the media.”
Opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) president, Mehbooba Mufti, had also condemned the abusive threats to the rock band and blamed the media for negative portrayal of the issue. She said that Government should have acted on time to avoid the threats these girls are now facing.
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