India launches crackdown on 'fake news' spreaders after anti-Muslim attacks

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.

Four mosques were vandalised 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 rumours, fake news, fake videos and fake photographs that were not even linked to Tripura," a senior police officer in the state told AFP news agency on Sunday, on condition of anonymity.

"It is still too early but everyone will be identified and arrested for such fabrications."

Provoking conflict

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.

Muslims subject to attacks and threats

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.

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