On Monday, October 31, a special court in Bengaluru held Faiz Rasheed, an engineering student, guilty of celebrating the Pulwama terrorist attack and sentenced him to 5 years in prison. Rasheed, who was a 3rd-year student of Electronics & Communications Engineering, was arrested in 2019 from a bakery near his house. Rashid is a resident of HRBR layout in eastern Bengaluru.
Rasheed had reportedly created a Facebook account just to post provocative posts following the terror attack. Several internet users tagged Bengaluru Police below his provocative posts. Following that, a complaint was registered against him at Banaswadi Police Station and he was subsequently arrested on February 17, 2019. Rasheed is currently in judicial custody inside Parappana Agrahara central prison.
Rasheed has been sentenced under Indian Penal Code sections 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion), 124A (sedition), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence), and section 13 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. He also been fined Rupees 25,000, failure to pay which will add 6 months to his prison sentence.
Following the Pulwama terrorist attack, several people were arrested around India for expressing glee, and celebrating the suicide bombing.
Pulwama terrorist attack in Jammu & Kashmir
On 14 February 2019, more than 2,500 Central Reserve Police Force personnel, many of them returning from leave to rejoin duty in the Kashmir Valley, were travelling in a convoy of 70 vehicles when they were ambushed on the Srinagar-Jammu highway at Latoomode in Awantipora in south Kashmir around 3.15 pm
A terrorist belonging to the Pakistani Army-backed Islamic terrorist outfit Jaish-e-Mohammad, identified as Adil Ahmad Dar, rammed an SUV laden with over 300 kg of explosives into the CRPF bus carrying about 40 personnel. The collision exploded the bus and the vehicle, causing the deaths of more than 40 CRPF soldiers.
Following the terror attack by the Pakistan-backed terrorists, India launched the Balakot airstrikes across the border which resulted in the death of several terrorists inside Pakistan-occupied territory.
