J&K police warn against disseminating JeM video on Doda terror attack
Srinagar: The Jammu and Kashmir police on Monday warned against circulating what it said is a propaganda video made by Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) using Bollywood actor Saif Ali Khan’s portrait and a poster of the Phantom movie. It said that any person found disseminating the highly objectionable video will face action under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1976.
Phantom, directed by Kabir Khan with Saif Ali Khan, Katrina Kaif, Sabyasachi Chakrabarty and Rajesh Tailang in lead roles, is a 2015 political thriller in which the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), India's primary intelligence agency, sends an enigmatic operative on a top-secret mission to avenge the 11/26 terrorist attack on Mumbai.
The J&K police in a statement alerted people that a 5.55-minute-long video made by JeM with a poster of Phantom and a photo of Saif Ali “has just been released by the enemy around 2 PM today on 22 July 2024”.
The statement placed by the police also on its social media handles including ‘X’, said, “General public is alerted that they will do the following: 1), they will not forward it in any manner to anyone; 2), they will report by a message as to who have they received this propaganda video from”. It asked for mentioning the telephone number and the date and time of the receipt of the video and said that, thirdly, the police officers “shall report it to their supervisory officer and civil officers should equally report it to their supervisory officers by way of a text message”.
The police warned that “under no circumstances, this video shall be forwarded” and said, “It should be remembered that position and forwarding of content of this nature is an offence under section 13 and 18 of UAPA”.
JeM which since its inception in 2000 has carried out several deadly terror attacks in J&K and some other parts of the country including the 2016 Pathankot airbase attack has been designated as a terrorist organisation by the United Nations, the United States, the United Kingdom, India, Pakistan, Russia, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the European Union and the United Arab Emirates. However, in J&K and Pakistan, the JeM has surfaced and is operating under other names and offshoots, the officials said.
As per some media reports, the latest video released by the JeM is reportedly on a terror attack in which an Indian Army captain and three other jawans were killed in J&K’s eastern Doda district earlier this month. The video purportedly shows the terrorists and the slain soldiers-the body of one of them being desecrated - in the aftermath of the attack. It reportedly claims that the desecration of the dead body was done in retaliation to the Army’s purportedly dragging a terrorist's body in a separate encounter.