Pro-Pakistan slogans: Ten held; NSA invoked against four in Ujjain

BHOPAL: In a significant development in the case pertaining to Thursday night's alleged raising of pro- Pakistan slogans at a Muharram related gathering in Ujjain city of Madhya Pradesh, the Ujjain district administration has invoked the National Security Act (NSA) against three of those arrested in the case.

The stringent NSA has been invoked on three people involved in the pro-Pakistan sloganeering-Azhar alias Ajju (21), Shadab alias Bachcha (40) and Mohd Samir alias Baldi (28) and a fourth person, Sahil Lala alias Soyam (20), who has been arrested in a separate case for making abusive mentions about India in his Instagram post. Sahil, who works at a furniture shop in Ujjain only, has been booked under IPC Sections 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by a public servant), 505(2) and 153-B (imputation, assertion prejudicial to national integration).  

While confirming the invoking of NSA against the four men in two separate cases, the additional SP (Ujjain) Amrendra Singh told The New Indian Express that NSA has been invoked against the four men by the Ujjain district administration following recommendation by the district’s police chief Satyendra Shukla.

Over 20 people who have been identified from videos of the Thursday night Muharram related gathering indulging in the alleged pro Pakistan slogan raising, have so far been booked under IPC Sections 124A (sedition) and 153B (imputation, assertion prejudicial to national integration). Out of them so far 10 men have been arrested by the Jiwaji Ganj Police.

However, the former MP chief minister and Congress Rajya Sabha member Digvijaya Singh tweeted on Sunday evening, that “the case was registered against many people based on  fake news, in which “Qazi Sahab Zindabad’ slogans were portrayed as “Pakistan Zindabad” slogans. Before acting on the matter, the MP Police should have ascertained the reality. If arrests have been made, then the case should be withdrawn.”

However, Ujjain police sources, made it clear that not only pro-Pakistan slogan was raised at the Thursday night religious gathering in Geeta Colony, but even anti-India slogan was raised during the same gathering, just when Qazi Sahab Zindabad and other religious slogans were being raised there.

“We’ve sufficient audio-visual evidence about pro Pakistan and anti India slogans having been raised at the Thursday night religious gathering. Not only this, but some senior police and administrative officials who were present at the spot during the gathering had not only tried to stop those indulging in pro-Pakistan and anti-India sloganeering, but even driven them away. It was only after thorough examination of the original video of the gathering that a case has been registered in the matter,” an Ujjain police source said on Sunday.

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