Saima Bhat
Srinagar
Taking suo motto cognizance of the much hyped “threat” and abusive messages on the Facebook page of ‘Pragaash’, the only girl’s band in Kashmir, the state police have filed an FIR.
“An FIR No. 5/2013 is lodged under Section 66 A of the IT Act and Section 506 RPC (Criminal Intimidation) has been registered,” said police spokesman. “It is our responsibility to take cognizance of the matters when they come in public domain like this.”
City Police Chief Syed Ashiq H Bukhari told Kashmir Life: “The FIR has been lodged in police station Rajbagh with regard to the comments posted on the Facebook page of the Pragaash band.” But the officials at Rajbagh police station said, “No such FIR was lodged in this police station.”
Officials associated with the investigation said, “We will first identify 30 to 40 characters whose comments were intimidating and vulgar and then we will start hunting them.” Official further added that few have been identified from Islamabad, Srinagar and Bijhbehara. On asking for further details the official said to contact IG Kashmir.
“I am not commenting on Pragaash,” said SM Sahai and dropped the call.
Pragaash, the first all-girls rock band of Kashmir, on Monday decided to disband in the wake of a ‘fatwa’ issued by Bashir ud Din Mufti, the self styled grand Mufti terming singing as un-Islamic.
The 10th-class students vocalist-guitarist Noma Nazir, drummer Farah Deeba and guitarist Aneeka Khalid had formed a band “Pragash” and performed for the first and now last time in December last year at the annual ‘Battle of the Bands’ competition in Srinagar and won the best performance award in their first public appearance. The competition was sponsored by CRPF.
Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah was among a large number of political leaders who extended their unflinching support to the girls, urging them not to quit singing because of a “bunch of morons”. The hardline Hurriyat led by Syed Ali Geelani also criticised the grand Mufti.
Sensing the mounting support for the girls, hardline faction of Hurriyat Conference led by Geelani had distanced itself from the ‘fatwa’ and said, “There is no threat to the girls. Nobody has issued any threats. It is a mere propaganda by the media and they are making a big bomb out of a normal issue to defame Kashmiris.”
