The Bagalkot police in Karnataka have arrested a man for his alleged comment on a Facebook post sympathising with the extremist group Taliban. The youth, identified as Asif Galgali, is a resident of Jamkhandi town and had commented below a post on the Taliban, shared by someone else. His comment ‘I love Talibani’ enraged people after it went viral. The comment comes at a time of crisis in Afghanistan after the Taliban recently took over the country.
The comment made by the youth—who used to work at a pharmacy earlier—came to the police’s notice after another resident of the town submitted a complaint against him. “The accused Galgali’s comment came to our notice after a certain Nadaf Yakub submitted a complaint in the matter. Based on the complaint, an FIR was registered with our station,” Bagalkot Superintendent of Police (SP) Lokesh said.
The accused was arrested on the night of August 20 after he reportedly went absconding and has been produced before a magistrate. “The accused has been booked under Section 295 A (Deliberately hurting religious sentiments) of the Indian Penal Code and has been produced before the magistrate and we are investigating the case further,” the SP added.
The inspector of the Jamkhandi police station told TNM that the accused has confessed that he did write the comment below the post. The inspector added that the accused Galgali was remanded to judicial custody and further decision will be taken by the magistrate later on Saturday, August 21.
“The youth was remanded to judicial custody after he was produced before the magistrate yesterday. He confessed to having written the comment below the post. The magistrate has ordered to produce him before an Open Court on August 21 and further decision will be taken after that,” the inspector said.
A protest reportedly erupted in Jamkhandi town of Bagalkot after the alleged pro-Taliban post went viral.