Representative Image (Ashish Bagchi: Twitter)

By Syeda Faiza Kirmani / The Siasat daily

Hyderabad: Alt news co-founder, journalist, Mohammed Zubair received an email from Twitter on Wednesday notifying him of a request from Cyber Crime Rachakonda for the removal of a tweet, they deemed as “sensitive”.

Zubair shared a screenshot of Twitter’s notification over his tweet and also added the video of the hijab-clad girl Muskan retaliating with chants of AllahuAkbar against saffron-clad bullies who heckled her screaming slogans of “Jai Shree Ram“.

When contacted by Siasat.com, Assistant Commissioner of Police Cyber Crimes, Rachakonda, S.Harinath said that the police took the action based on a complaint received by the IT cell.

“The complaint was received over WhatsApp. We hold nothing against the journalist, but we received a complaint about the sensitive content of the video. This was after protests by students of the Unani Medical College at Charminar (against the Hijab controversy in Karnataka), where students held placards of ‘Hijab is my right’, pictures of which surfaced on social media.

“It’s people’s right to protest..I agree..but the disturbance of peace and harmony in such a sensitive city would lead to precipitation of events,” he added.

Speaking about the atmosphere of the city, he further added, “Hyderabad is a sensitive city that strictly follows law and order, and to prevent communal unrest, we sent a notification to Twitter asking them for the removal of the video which may precipitate public unrest.”

The Hijab Row:

The Karnataka High Court bench on February 25 concluded hearing petitions seeking the right to wear a hijab while attending classes and asked all counsel to submit written submissions as it reserved its verdict.

The three-judge bench of Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi, Justices Krishna S. Dixit, and J.M. Khazi heard arguments and counter-arguments for 11 days on a day-to-day basis considering the urgency and sensitivity of the matter.

Counsel appearing for petitioners who are college students maintained that the government order issued in this regard does not have any legal standing and it violated their fundamental right to practice religion and thereby denied the right to education which is paramount. They also argued that the constitution of the College Development Committee (CDC), and the School Development and Management Committee (SDMC) do not have legal sanctity.

The row erupted towards the end of last year after Muslim students of Udupi Government Pre-University College were prohibited from attending classes wearing hijab.

Later, the students went on protest refusing to attend classes without hijab. The issue became a controversy and spread to other districts, leading to tension and even violence, in some parts of the state.

This article first appeared on siasat.com