Kashmir YouTube channel puts out enactment video of anti-terror ops, warned

Source : Hindustan Times

Security forces have eliminated 35 terrorists in 15 encounters since the beginning of the year in Jammu and Kashmir. (HT Photo/Representative use)

A YouTube channel being operated from Jammu & Kashmir’s Baramulla district was ordered to take down a video enacting a recent terror encounter, police said in a statement. The statement added the army and police counselled the channel’s administrators, but no action was taken considering their young age. It added “misguided youth and social media influencers” of the channel uploaded the video “replicating/enacting” the gun battle and circulated it on WhatsApp. A senior police officer confirmed that the administrators were asked to delete the video and the incident was also reported to YouTube.

“The incident received quick attention of Baramulla Police and 46 Rashtriya Rifles [of the Army]… the youth involved were identified and caught within no time. The video was deleted immediately from YouTube handle ensuring timely containment of radical thoughts,” the statement said.

It cited an investigation and added it came to the light that the YouTube channel has been uploading videos on problems such as drug menace. “The subscribers of their channel were on [the] rise, and in the mad race for more subscription, they uploaded the inappropriate content that could provoke radical ideas.”

The statement said the parents and guardians of the administrators were also called and Baramulla’s senior police superintendent Rayees Mohammad Bhat counselled them too. Bhat advised them to keep a check on the activities of their children so that they do not fall prey to false propaganda, it added.

“The police have released the individuals considering it as inadvertent act not amounting to sedition… such acts will not be tolerated and will be dealt in accordance with the law,” the statement said. It added as a part of its efforts to bring “misguided youth back into the mainstream” the security forces “are transforming hearts and minds by bringing them close to the local masses with various efforts to include regular counselling of misguided youth to prevent them from falling prey to anti-national propaganda”.