The reasons behind the sudden unrest following the Hathras case are slowly becoming clear.
A website called Justice for Hathras, which had sprung up the day after the victim passed away, is under the UP Police lens for attempting to instigate caste-based violence in Uttar Pradesh. The website, which has since been taken down, had detailed instructions on how to riot, including the precautions to take, how to handle the police, what to wear during riots, and how to evade arrest. The content seemed copied from the Black Lives Matter riots in the US, and the hashtag Dalit Lives Matter had also trended on Twitter following the incident.
In images shared by OpIndia, the website had details on what to bring to a protest, and what to do if you were arrested. It even had instructions on how to fire gas cannisters, saying that they must be fired in the air, and not shot directly at civilians.
Another section on the website dealt with how to avoid the harmful effects of tear gas, with sections on treatment (wearing masks), and treatment if rioters were hit with tear gas.
Yet another section had details on how to successfully riot. “Don’t wear branded clothes with logos on them, they CAN identify you,” the website says. The website also suggested wearing loose clothing so that the police wouldn’t be able to identify rioters even by body shapes.
The website was taken down after raids conducted by the Police on Sunday night. According to the probe, the website had received funding from Amnesty International, and fundamentalist organisations based out of Islamic Countries. Incriminating content such as fake videos, photoshopped images, doctored visuals was uploaded on the website to provoke riots and unrest in the country. The purpose of the website was allegedly to create a wedge between the majority community in the country and cause caste-based riots.
