Srinagar: Police in Kashmir warned journalists and social media users to desist from using the hashtags #istandwithmasratzahara and #istandwithpeerzadaashiq, which they said prima facie “violate social distancing protocols”.

“We have seen since yesterday, everyone is claiming to stand with Masrat Zahra, and even Peerzada Ashiq. We believe they are not maintaining the required six-feet distance while standing. And we have thousands of people coming out to stand with the two journalists,” Police Chief Dee Bee Singh told Dapaan. “This is preposterous.”
Singh said the police was going to take this social distancing violation very seriously.

“You see, they are even omitting the required space between words (istandwith..),” Singh said.

Dapaan has learnt police has set out to explore whether to treat the crime as cyber crime or COVID crime.

“Police can club the two, or apply the offline rules to online world, or do whatsoever. Well, I can justify their actions in courts of law,” government advocate Iqbal Wani said. “The working of our cute intelligent supercops has already surprised the citizenry as to how they manage to book people for doing their jobs.”

Police spokesman Anoj Shehri informed Dapaan that if people do not cede the hashtag support, the case will most likely be handled by the cyber wing, which “is already gaining accolades ” for its shocking work.

“They have the ability to book a photojournalist for uploading photographs, and reporter for reporting stories,” Anoj said. “They can book you for having an anti-national look. They are super,” the spokesman said.

In a statement issued later in the wake of controversy, police advised media to desist from reporting the “unapproved facts.”

“We want media to desist from reporting unapproved facts which can create undue dissension in the society. Reporters can always seek divine guidance from police media wing on what to report and not.”