147 arrested after communal violence in Maharashtra’s Akola

Around 147 persons have been arrested in connection with the communal violence in Maharashtra’s Akola city, Scroll has learnt.

The violence broke out between Hindus and Muslims on Saturday over a social media post related to The Kerala Story film.

Directed by Sudipto Sen, the movie claims to depict how women from Kerala were converted to Islam and recruited by the Islamic State terrorist group. The filmmakers had initially claimed that 32,000 women from Kerala had joined the Islamic State but when asked for evidence, they altered the trailer to state the movie was a “compilation of the true stories of three young girls”.

On Saturday, one person was killed and eight persons were injured in Akola. Internet was suspended and a curfew was imposed in some pockets of the city.

According to the Maharashtra Police, the violence in Akola was triggered after a chat between two individuals on social media regarding the post went viral.

“The two had an argument over a chat in which one of them insulted the other’s religion,” Parag Kamble, the vice president of the Indian Youth Congress in Akola, told Scroll. “The screenshots of this chat went viral within hours and a huge crowd marched towards the police station in old Akola city demanding an FIR [first information...

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