Those who threatened girl band won't be spared: Omar

The government will not spare those who issued threats to Kashmiri girl band, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdulhah on Thursday said, but maintained there was no need for legal action against the grand mufti who issued Fatwa terming singing as un-Islamic.

Abdullah, during a visit to dargah of Sufi saint Khawaja Moinuddin Chisiti in Ajmer, expressed happiness over the arrests made in connection to the online abuse and threats to the all-girl rock band 'Pragaash' and said more arrests were likely.

He said some of those who had issued threats had left the valley and police were trying to nab them. Referring to grand mufti Bashiruddin Ahmad, through a decree, terming singing as ‘un-Islamic’ and asking the girl band to abandon it, Omar said there was no need to take legal action against him as he has not violated any law.

Omar had earlier posted on the micro-blogging site Twitter that he was glad that the police in Kashmir has identified and arrested those who had issued online threats.

"I'm told more arrests possible," he tweeted. Three persons have been arrested from Ganderbal, Anantnag and Srinagar districts in J&K for posting threatening and abusive messages on the Facebook page of 'Pragaash'.

The police have started tracking down the Internet Protocol addresses of the 26 users whose comments, out of the total 900 posts on the band's Facebook page, were found abusive, officials said.

A case has been registered against them under Section 66A of IT Act and Section 506 RPC (criminal intimidation). The band, consisting of base guitarist Aneeqa Khalid, singer Noma Nazir and drummer Farah Deeba, decided to call it quits in view of the grand mufti's decree.

The group had been the target of an online hate campaign ever since it won a ‘Battle of the Bands’ contest in December.