Man arrested in Madhya Pradesh for offensive social media post on Pahalgam terror attack

BHOPAL: Madhya Pradesh police on Thursday arrested a 27-year-old man from Jabalpur for allegedly posting an objectionable comment on social media related to the recent terrorist attack in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir.
The accused, Mohammad Osaf Khan, son of Basir Khan and a resident of New Anand Nagar, was taken into custody within hours of making the post. In a comment on a photo from the attack, Khan wrote: "The woman standing near the dead body and crying should be investigated. It is possible that she hired the shooter and got her husband killed as soon as she got the chance."
This comes shortly after two youths were arrested in Damoh district for making similar inflammatory remarks regarding the same terror attack.
Jabalpur SP Sampat Upadhyay responded to the incident by urging citizens not to post any provocative or offensive content on social media. The local police, including the social media monitoring cell, have increased vigilance and are actively tracking online posts connected to the Pahalgam attack.
The controversial comment by Khan was made on Facebook on April 23 and was reported to Hanumantal police by a concerned resident. Authorities promptly registered a case under Crime No. 287/25, Section 196(1) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNSS), and launched a manhunt. Khan, who works at an eye clinic in New Anand Nagar, was arrested within hours under Section 170 BNSS due to public backlash.
In a related case, police in Damoh district booked two individuals—Wasim Khan and Tanveer Qureshi—on April 23 for sharing objectionable posts referencing the same terrorist incident. The First Information Report (FIR) filed at Thana Kotwali Damoh cited confidential intelligence indicating the posts could incite communal discord. The two were charged under Sections 353(2), 196, 299, and 3(5) of the BNSS for promoting enmity and disrupting public harmony.
The arrests follow a nationwide alert after the Pahalgam terror attack, in which 28 people, mostly tourists, were killed on Tuesday in the Baisaran Valley area of Anantnag district, Jammu and Kashmir. Madhya Pradesh authorities have since intensified digital surveillance to prevent the spread of hate content online.