Our Bureau/

Bengal’s recent communal disturbances might change it’s epicenter, from Bengal  to Seemanchal region in Bihar which is also bordering with Nepal and near to Bangladesh border. And the courier to migrate the communal disharmony to the region might be the over enthusiastic activists engaged on social media round the clock, as apprehended by intelligence and administration of some districts in the region.

District administration at  Katihar  on yesterday issued a fresh public notice, asking residents  to refrain from posting inflammatory messages, which could potentially disturb communal harmony in the region.

Prior to that, the  district magistrate, Katihar, Mithilesh Mishra issued a order for his sub ordinates in recent past, asking the concerned officer in the district to keep a close watch on social media, especially WhatsApp groups and Facebook posts which nowadays has  maximum users.

A well-established source,  disclosed that, entire Seemanchal region consists of Purnea, Katihar, Araria, Forbesganj, Kishanganj, is considered communally sensitive zone in Bihar. Despite composite population, the region earlier had many incidents of cross border smuggling, fake currency notes’ business and ISI’s links, intelligence source pointed out adding the proximity of Bangladesh border and Nepal border from this region. Secondly, the numbers of infiltrators from Bangladesh has compounded the situation in the region, admitted a top ranking intelligence officer. “We have some information that some destructive minded people could take a chance to repeat the Bengal incident in Seemanchal,” the source further added.

It is to be mentioned here that recently Bengal has witnessed the very unfortunate communal incident having its epicenter at  Baduria in West Bengal’s North 24 Parganas district.  Tension  sparked off at  Baduria following a Facebook post which subsequently converted into riots. Intelligence agencies already have put on alert adjoining districts of Bihar.

Sources revealed that recently  two incidents were reported in which a few messages on social media were potentially disturbing. One youth was arrested for such objectionable postings, the sources said .  Earlier, Purnia police arrested a youth  for instigating a  Facebook post against the local JD(U) MP Santosh Kumar. Similarly on last month, a 17-year-old boy was arrested by Kishanganj police after he posted his photograph on Facebook with the comment ‘Pakistan Zindabad’.

Concerned district police at places like Katihar etc  has started concentrating more on  cyber cells so that anti-social elements on social media platforms could be identified and also such activities could be countered. “We asked all our concerned higher officers to keep close vigil on social media and for that they are told to upgrade cyber cells as well as deployed trained officials,” confirmed a top ranking cop from state headquarters.