Police in Bihar’s Buxar district have taken cognisance of anti-Muslim videos circulating online by a channel named ‘MVS Films’. The police action came after widespread social media protests objecting to the derogatory videos.
The SP office in Buxar, in its statement released on Monday, stated that the police received information about anti-Muslim videos being circulated on Facebook and Twitter by the channel – MVS Films which makes entertainment content. Police confirmed that the channel’s head is a guy named Ashish Pandey, a resident of Buxar. Despite derogatory videos posted on the account, the account has nearly ten lakh followers on Instagram and YouTube.
The police’s response came after many social media users condemned the content published by the channel and tagged Bihar Police authorities.
Appealing to the public not to post any photos and videos of hurting religious and communal sentiments, the police stated, “He and other guys are making objectionable videos which disturb the communal harmony of the society by displaying the characters as Muslims.”
A team led by the DSP cybercrime was set up by SP to look into the derogatory videos.
A video published on the account with the title – “Madarse me train palatne ki training (Training in madarsa to derail the trains) features 2 men noticing a Muslim guy near a railway track on being asked what the Muslim guy was doing there he responds by saying he needs to board that train then within some moments, a screwdriver falls from his pocket and he escapes them and promises to himself to do “rail jihad” by exclaiming “Allahu Akbar” and “Kafir”(disbeliever).
Another video shows three Muslim characters discussing the allegations of a temple being under the dargah at Ajmer. One youth among them says that when Muslims came to India, they demolished temples and built mosques over them. Another youth says that he feels Ajmer Dargah will go under Hindu control as they have woken up now.
Yet another video shows a Muslim guy approaching two other Muslims and saying that he has found a way to live in India without being noticed by “Kafirs.” He says to them, “Our Rohingya brothers in Jharkhand have already made a ‘Jamai tolly’, We will go there, trap Adivasi girls, marry them and become jamai (son in law). At the end of the video, they all rejoice over this idea of “jamai jihad.”
Many social media users called out the false stories portraying negative roles played by characters in Muslim attire.
Mohammad Shadab Khan, a social media user who wrote an email to the police demanding action against the creators tweeted, “The main aim of their videos is to portray Muslims in a negative image in India. In most of the cases of damaging trains destroying railway tracks and pelting stones the religious identity of the accused was not Muslim but propaganda is being done against Muslims on the basis of exceptional incidence Indian Muslims are being targeted in the name of rohingya Muslims. There is a deliberate attempt to change the atmosphere by creating communal content based on sensitive issues like the Ajmer dargah case which is pending in the court.”
