NEW DELHI: Indian police are seeking the owners of around 100 social media accounts accused of sharing “fake news” after mob attacks on mosques in the country’s northeast.
Last month’s violence in Tripura state erupted on the sidelines of a rally for hundreds of followers of a right-wing Hindu nationalist group.
The incident appeared to be a revenge attack prompted by the killing of several Hindu worshippers across the border in Muslim-majority Bangladesh.
Four mosques were vandalized and several Muslim-owned homes and businesses were ransacked.
According to police, people aiming to whip up further violence shared misleading images on social media after the incident.
“The accounts identified were spreading rumors, fake news, fake videos and fake photographs that were not even linked to Tripura,” a senior police officer in the state told AFP on Sunday, on condition of anonymity.
“It is still too early but everyone will be identified and arrested for such fabrications.”
A police report released to media on Saturday identified 102 posts that it said were published by “unknown miscreants” to provoke conflict between “people of differing religious communities.”
Local media reports said police had written to Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to demand the posts be removed.
Much of the offending posts had been removed by Sunday and AFP could not determine their content.
Those that remained online largely appeared to be highlighting the plight of Muslims targeted in the attacks.
“Tripura is burning!” read a post by an Indian journalist based in New Delhi, which was published on the day of the incident without accompanying photos or footage and highlighted in the police document.
Last month’s attacks put the state on high alert, with security forces guarding mosques and police banning gatherings of more than four people.
Tripura is ruled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party.
Leaders of India’s minority Muslim community say they have increasingly been subject to attacks and threats, with little opportunity for official recourse, since the Hindu nationalist party came to power in 2014.
“The state government is yet to initiate any big action against those who perpetrated violence,” said a statement from a coalition of Indian Muslim groups on Saturday.
“Those police officers who did not prevent the violence should also be subject to enquiry and action must be taken against them,” it added.
India hunts ‘fake news’ spreaders after anti-Muslim attacks
https://arab.news/z73p5
India hunts ‘fake news’ spreaders after anti-Muslim attacks
- Four mosques were vandalized and several Muslim-owned homes and businesses were ransacked
Book by jailed Palestinian political leader Marwan Barghouti set for November release
- Prison letters, photographs and other documents to feature in the book
DUBAI: A new book by jailed Palestinian political leader Marwan Barghouti is set for publication in November, with Penguin confirmed as the publisher, The Guardian reported.
Titled “Unbroken: In Pursuit of Freedom for Palestine,” the book brings together a selection of Barghouti’s writings, including prison letters, interviews, public statements, conversations with public figures, and other documents and photographs.
It also features excerpts from his book “1,000 Days in Solitary Confinement,” which has so far only been published in Arabic.
Fadwa Barghouti, who wrote the introduction to the book, said she hoped it would allow the world to hear her husband “in his own voice, not through the noise surrounding him.”
She said in a statement: “This book finally makes that possible — and I hope it helps people understand who Marwan Barghouti truly is, and how he embodies the Palestinian struggle for freedom and dignity.”
Barghouti, who has spent over two decades in Israeli prison, is a member of the Fatah party. He has long advocated a two-state solution and is widely regarded as a powerful and unifying voice for Palestinians, with many supporters describing him as “Palestine’s Mandela.”
His detention has prompted repeated international advocacy efforts over the years.
In December 2025, an open letter calling for his release was signed by hundreds of celebrities, including Margaret Atwood, Philip Pullman, Zadie Smith and Annie Ernaux; actors Sir Ian McKellen, Benedict Cumberbatch, Tilda Swinton, Josh O’Connor, Mark Ruffalo and Stephen Fry; and musicians Sting, Paul Simon, Brian Eno and Annie Lennox.
In November 2025, his family and several UK-based human rights advocates ran a campaign that included demonstrations and public art installations in Palestine and London.
Barghouti has been jailed by Israel since 2004, having been handed five life sentences plus 40 years for his role during the second Palestinian uprising. He has spent significant time in solitary confinement, has been denied visits by his family for three years, and has been denied access to the International Committee of the Red Cross.
His name was on a list of prisoners to be exchanged for Israeli captives in October 2025, but Israel declined to release him.
