On Wednesday, the Jammu and Kashmir Police filed a FIR against a number of individuals in the Poonch district for allegedly yelling “anti-national” chants during a demonstration.
The shouts were inadvertently used during a demonstration by Gujjars and Bakerwals against a bill that was submitted in the Parliament last week to award the Pahari group Scheduled Tribe status, according to PTI.
The report quoted a police officer as saying, “An FIR under section 153-A of the Indian Penal Code (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc. and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony) was registered at police station Poonch for raising anti-national slogans during the rally.”
The bill that proposed adding the Pahari ethnic group, Gadda Brahmin, Koli, and Paddari to the list of Scheduled Tribes by amending the constitution (Jammu and Kashmir Scheduled Tribes order, 1989) gave the Gujjar and Bakerwal protests in Jammu and Kashmir more traction.
It said that a video of the protest event that supposedly showed some attendees hoisting “pro-freedom” shouts was shared on social media.
According to the article, a senior police official was quoted as saying, “We are forensically studying the footage to see if it is genuine or phoney, and legal action will follow appropriately… Tricolours have so far been flying high throughout the protest rally.
Six prominent Gujjar leaders had previously asked the central to hold “participative decisions on sensitive issues” that may sour relations between the various communities in the Union Territory.
The joint statement on Monday was issued by former ministers Mian Altaf Ahmad Larvi (National Conference), Chowdhary Zulfikar Ali, Aijaz Ahmad Khan and former legislator Choudhary Qamar Hussain (Apni party), former deputy chairman J-K Legislative Assembly Choudhary Javed Ahmad Rana (NC) and former MLA Choudhary Mohammad Akram Lassanvi who resigned from Congress last year.
“The widespread Gujjar-Bakerwal protests and community unrest in the Union Territory of J-K are grave developments,” said the speaker. We are highly disturbed and completely perplexed by the current scenario, and the Gujjar-Bakerwal tribe’s protests against the UT administration and the Union government are an anomaly, they had stated.
The BJP branch in J&K referred to the claim as “ridiculous, untimely, and misleading” and questioned the demonstrators as to what they were protesting because the government had previously made it plain that there would be no reduction in the 10% quota for scheduled tribes.
The administration is taking tangible initiatives for the betterment and welfare of all worthy backward regions and classes, according to a statement by Gujjar officials connected with the BJP.
The BJP released a statement that stated, “The people fully understand the fact that the narrative of the incomprehensible thing you are making is only of a political nature and not of public interest. The panchayat, local body, and parliamentary elections are approaching.”
