Rights activist and former journalist Zamser Ali was arrested in Assam’s Mangaldai on Thursday, in connection with a case where he had objected to communal social media posts made by a pro-Hindutva social media handle.
Ali is an Assam state coordinator of Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP), a human rights movement.
Ali took to Facebook and Twitter to criticize the communal posts by Rupa Rani Bhuyan, who was arrested by Assam Police and an FIR was registered against her for recent “demeaning” social media posts against noted Assamese litterateur Sayed Abdul Malik.
Bhuyan who has been spewing venom at Muslims for some time is a teacher English at the Mangaldai College, Assam.
Ali was arrested under sections 294 (a), 295 (a), 500, 506 of the IPC read with section 67 of the IT Act. He has been remanded to judicial custody pending a bail hearing.
CJP has condemned the arrest of its state chief Ali as ‘it is rather ludicrous to arrest someone for protecting and preserving communal harmony’.
“Zamser Ali is not a criminal. If anything this act of defending Assam’s honor and culture should be celebrated as one of heroism,” they said.
Ali has played a key role in organizing CJP’s Assam team of over 500 volunteer motivators and community volunteers spread across 18 districts to help people from far-flung villages complete documentation and application procedures for various processes related to the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam.
