At least 19 people have been arrested in three states in the northeast over remarks on the terror attack in Pahalgam, which claimed 26 lives, including those of a Navy officer and an officer from the Intelligence Bureau.

The people who have been arrested in Assam, Meghalaya and Tripura include an MLA, a journalist, students, a lawyer and retired teachers. Most of the arrests were from social media posts.

So far, 14 arrests have taken place in Assam alone.

The first arrest came on Thursday when Aminul Islam, an MLA from the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) – an opposition party in Assam – was arrested and charged with sedition for his statement that the Pulwama attack in 2019 and Tuesday’s Pahalgam attack were “conspiracies by the government”. He was sent to police custody for four days on Friday.

The other arrests in Assam till Friday included Md Jabir Hussain from Hailakandi, Md AK Bahauddin and Md Javed Mazumder from Silchar, Md Mahahar Mia from Morigaon and Md Sahil Ali from Sivasagar. Md Musta Ahmed alias Sahel from Karimganj was arrested on Friday night for posting ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ on Facebook.

Among them, Hussain is a journalist, Bahauddin is a computer science student at the Assam University in Silchar and Mazumder is a lawyer.

On Saturday, the police arrested 25-year-old Md Jarif Ali and Anil Bania, the district secretary of a student body, Satra Mukti Sangram Parishad, from Biswanath. Sumon Mazumdar alias Bulbul Alom Mazumdar was arrested in Hailakandi, Mashud Azhar in Nagaon and another person was arrested from Hajo near Guwahati – all for making “anti-India comments” online.

The Cachar district police also arrested two more individuals for posting “content supporting Pakistan” on social media.

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said, “If required, we will impose provisions of the National Security Act on them. We are examining all social media posts, and action will be taken against those who, we feel, are anti-national… There are no similarities between Bharat and Pakistan. The two countries are enemy nations and we must remain that way.”

Tripura

In Tripura, there have been four arrests so far, including those of two retired teachers.

Jawhar Debnath, a retired teacher and one Kuldip Mandal were arrested for making “anti-national comments online” in the context of the Pahalgam terror attack in Dhalai district. Another retired teacher, Sajal Chakraborty, was arrested from Dharmanagar of North Tripura district and Jahirul Islam was taken into custody from Sonamura in Sepahijala district.

Meghalaya

In Meghalaya, a 30-year-old man named Simon Shylla was arrested on Friday from the East Khasi Hills district after he posted an “anti-national comment” on a video telecast by a news channel from Guwahati.

In a veiled message after the Pahalgam terror attacks in which 26 people were killed, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat has said non-violence is India’s religion and a key part of its values, but so is teaching a lesson to “oppressors and hooligans”. 

Speaking at an event to mark the release of the book ‘The Hindu Manifesto’ in New Delhi on Saturday, Mr Bhagwat also gave the example of Ravan and said he was killed not to harm him but for his own good. 

“We never harm or disrespect our neighbours but if someone is bent on being evil, what is the cure? The king’s duty is to protect the people and he will do his duty. The Gita teaches non-violence, but the teaching is to ensure that Arjun fights and kills… because he was confronted with people whose development could only be done this way,” Mr Bhagwat said in Hindi. 

“Non-violence is our nature, a key value,” Mr Bhagwat said, asserting, “our non-violence is to change people and make them non-violent too. Some people will change, seeing our example, but others will not… they won’t change no matter what you do and cause disorder in the world. So what will you do?”

The RSS chief then cited the example of Ravan and said he was a devotee of Lord Shiva who had knowledge of the Vedas and knew how to govern very well. 

“He (Ravan) had all the qualities required to be a good person. But the body and intelligence he accepted did not allow the good qualities in. So, if he wanted to be good, the only option was to end that body and intelligence. So, God killed him. That killing is not violence, it’s still non-violence,” Mr Bhagwat said.  

Degrees Of Punishment

“Non-violence is our religion, but not getting beaten by oppressors and teaching hooligans a lesson is also our religion. In Western thought, these two things can’t go together because the thought that you should assess whether your enemy is good or not does not exist… We see it, though, and punish some a little, others a lot and still others none at all to reform them. But those that cannot be reformed are sent, for their own good. to places where they need to be sent to get basic material,” he added.

Speaking at an event in Mumbai on Friday, the RSS chief had also said that the current fight is between ‘dharma’ (righteousness) and ‘adharma’ (unrighteousness), rather than just a conflict between sects and religions. 

Referring to the Pahalgam attack, he said, “The fanatics who killed people by asking about their religion, Hindus would never do this. That is why the country should be strong,” he had said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin told US envoy Steve Witkoff that Russia is ready to hold talks with Ukraine “without preconditions”, the Kremlin said on Saturday.

“During yesterday’s talks with Trump’s envoy Witkoff, Vladimir Putin reiterated that Russia is ready to resume negotiations with Ukraine without any preconditions,” said Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, who also added that Putin has repeated the same several times.

This comes in the midst of US President Donald Trump’s talks with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky in Rome, at the funeral of Pope Francis. 

In a post on Truth Social after his talks with Zelensky, Trump also said maybe Putin “has to be dealt with differently, through ‘Banking’ or ‘Secondary Sanctions?'”

He posted on his social media platform he said, “…there was no reason for Putin to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities and towns, over the last few days. It makes me think that maybe he doesn’t want to stop the war, he’s just tapping me along, and has to be dealt with differently, through “Banking” or “Secondary Sanctions?” Too many people are dying!!!”

Trump, who promised on the campaign trail to strike a deal between Moscow and Kyiv in 24 hours, has in three months failed to wrangle concessions from Russian President Vladimir Putin to halt his invasion.

The Republican had said over the weekend he hoped a peace deal could be struck “this week” despite no signs the two sides are anywhere close to agreeing even a ceasefire, let alone a wider long-term settlement.

Moscow’s forces occupy around a fifth of Ukrainian territory and tens of thousands have been killed since they invaded in February 2022.