4 booked under NSA over ‘pro-pak’ slogans

UJJAIN (MP): Police on Sunday invoked the stringent National Security Act (NSA) against four people out of 10 arrested so far for allegedly raising pro-pakistan slogans during a Muharram procession in Madhya Pradesh’s Ujjain, police said.

The development comes a day after some right-wing organisations and religious leaders staged demonstrations, torched effigies of Pakistan, and demanded tough action by the police against those people who had raised pro-pakistan slogans in the Geeta Colony area on the night of August 19.

Confirming the development, Ujjain superintendent of police Satyendra Shukla told news agency PTI that the NSA has been invoked on four people who allegedly shouted the slogans. The district collector invoked the NSA on four accused on the recommendation of the police, officials familiar with the matter said.

Shukla said the police have arrested ten people for sloganeering so far.

Reacting to the incident on Friday, chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had said his government would not tolerate a “Taliban-like” mindset.

Asked if the sloganeering was a reaction to the district administration’s decision to ban all public processions because of the Covid-19 pandemic, Ujjain police denied any such link.

Police had booked over a dozen people under sections 124 (a) (sedition) and 153 (provocation which can cause riot) of the Indian Penal Code. “We have identified 16 persons who raised the slogans. Efforts are on to identify others,” Shukla said.