Police India hold three citizens Muslim in a volatile area Cashmere for allegedly celebrating the national team’s victory cricket Pakistan during the T20 World Cup last weekend.

Agra Uttar Pradesh Police Inspector Vikash Kumar said Jagdishpura Police Station received the complaint on Tuesday (26/10).

The public complaint came after ‘anti-national’ messages were broadcast by a group of students from the Raja Balwant Singh Technical School (RBS) ahead of a cricket match between India and Pakistan, two nations rivals.

The following day, Uttar Pradesh police said five people had been arrested in separate raids across the state in response to “anti-national elements using disrespectful words against the Indian cricket team and making anti-Indian comments that disturb the peace”.

Indian police said three of the five were RBS students. The three men were arrested for committing an offense intended to cause public fear and disturb public order.

Police said the three students were also arrested for committing cyberterrorism offenses under India’s Information Technology Act.

The national spokesperson for the Jammu and Kashmir Students’ Association said on Thursday evening that three of the students arrested were Muslim students from Indian-administered Kashmir.

“This is really targeting Kashmiri Muslims, I spoke to other local students today, non-Kashmirian students on campus, they all said yes, they were cheering (supporting the Pakistan national team) and were posting something on social media but what is claimed by complaint is that they shouted anti-Indian slogans and those partisan slogans were not true,” Khuehami said. CNN.

“It’s not true, it’s completely baseless, local students told me, so they are being deliberately scapegoated ahead of elections in Uttar Pradesh,” he added.

Uttar Pradesh, India’s largest state, is expected to hold parliamentary elections in the first quarter of 2022.

Meanwhile, Kashmir has been a disputed territory between Pakistan and India since independence.

Most Kashmiris are Muslims and often support Pakistan. In 2019, the Indian government even put in place strict rules such as curfews to internet shutdowns to reduce unrest in the region.

“We believe there is nothing wrong with encouraging cricketers or sportsmen, but slapping them for criminal charges, with incitement, we believe is a serious and severe punishment and we must not confuse cricket with politics,” Khuehami continued.

“There is nothing wrong with cheering or shouting for certain teams, it is the individual’s right to cheer or support the team they prefer, and it is an arbitrary act by the authorities. academics and the government of Uttar Pradesh,” he said. added.

In last weekend’s game, the Indian national team lost hard to Pakistan by a margin of 10 wickets. A member of the Indian national team, Mohammad Shami, has also been the subject of various harassments on social networks.

Shami is the only Muslim player in the Indian cricket team. However, a number of colleagues, senior athletes and Indian politicians are also busy defending Shami.

“Mohammad Shami being targeted in yesterday’s cricket match shows how radicalism and hatred (of Indians) towards Muslims has increased dramatically. A team has 11 players, one of whom is a Muslim, so now he is being targeted,” said Asaduddin Owaisi, chairman of the political committee. Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen of the All India party told reporters.

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