3 arrested for abusing Kashmiri rock girls, Omar 'will not spare guilty'

One more person was arrested by the police in connection with the online abuses and threats to Kashmir's first all-girl rock band, taking the total number of arrests to three.

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah today was satisfied with the arrests made in the Valley and said more people were likely to be apprehended.

Irshad Ahmad Chara, a resident of Batamaloo in Srinagar, was arrested late last night by the police, which raided different places to apprehend him.

The other two youth – Tariq Khan and Rameez Shah – were apprehended a few hours earlier from Bijbehara and Ganderbal last night in the first arrests in the case.

The three-member all-girl band 'Pragaash' was forced to call it quits following the online threats and a fatwa by Grand Mufti Bashiruddin Ahmad that singing was 'un-islamic' and that the girls should abandon it.

Police have started tracking down the Internet Protocol addresses of the 26 users whose comments, out of the total 900 posts on the band's Facebook page, were found abusive, officials said in Srinagar.

They said the delay of three days in lodging the FIR was due to large number of posts on the Facebook page of the all-girl band that took time to get scanned.

A case has been registered under Section 66A of Information Technology(IT) Act and Section 506 RPC (criminal intimidation) in the Rajbagh police station in Srinagar.

Omar while expressing happiness over the arrests during a visit to Dargah of Sufi saint Khawaja Moinuddin Chisiti in Ajmer said more arrests were likely.

He said some of those who had issued threats had left the Valley and police were trying to nab them.

Omar, however, maintained there was no need for legal action against the grand mufti who issued a Fatwa terming singing un-Islamic.

... contd.

ALSO READ

Manhunt launched to nab anti-national graffiti suspects in Kashmir

Kashmir: Strike against spurious drug trade evokes little response

Kashmir has become hub of sub-standard medicines: Darakshan Andrabi

Girl becomes first Kashmiri to develop Android app