Virtual to real: How war on social media triggered arson in Nuh

Sumedha Sharma

Gurugram, August 1

Even before first clashes erupted on the streets of Nuh yesterday, a virtual war had already been fought between the two sides over the preceding two weeks.

Police teams led by acting SP Narendra Bijarniya have been raiding village after village, detaining around 100 youths in connection with the violence so far. Aged 18 to 25, the youths do not claim allegiance to any group, but are avid YouTubers.

According to the police, the war with cow vigilante groups and right-wing activists started on the social media and spilled on to the streets. While many of these social media videos were provocative, the local law enforcement agencies remained indifferent, leading to violence.

While cow vigilantes Monu Manesar and Bittu Bjarangi, through different videos, allegedly challenged their social media rivals, police investigations reveal videos uploaded by the other group showed stockpiling of cylinders amid open threats of immolation and accidents using dump trucks.

Had the Intelligence agencies and local police followed it up throughly, they would have sensed what was coming. Home Minister Anil Vij has also stated the violence was pre-planned and police investigations so far also point to this.

“So far, the prime reason behind the arson emerges to be the YouTube war. They were all fighting on the social media, with the trigger being a dare by a Faridabad vigilante. As of now, we are reviewing videos of arson and rounding up suspects. Further details will be revealed in the course of investigation,” says acting SP Bijarniya.

The raiding police teams, meanwhile, have been facing tough resistance in villages. A mild scuffle was reported between police and villagers at Shikarpur village near Tauru, where a police vehicle was attacked with stones by villagers, who were dispersed using aerial fire.

A majority of men in villages such as Khedla, Mewli, Shikarpur, Nlahar, Tauru, etc. has fled to Rajasthan to evade arrest. Women and children are standing guard and preventing entry of outsiders. Flag marches are being held across Nuh and no outward incident has been reported.