A CPI leader in Bihar was arrested on Sunday after he allegedly raised pro-Pakistan slogans during a candlelight march on the Pahalgam terror attack, organised by the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD).
The controversy unfolded when a video, which has now gone viral online, claimed that the RJD protestors had chanted “Pakistan Zindabad.” However, police later stated that the video had been doctored. The video had been manipulated by looping a single instance of the slogan, creating the false impression that it was repeatedly chanted.
“During the investigation, it was found that the predominant slogan raised throughout the event was ‘Pakistan Murdabad’ (an anti-Pakistan slogan), and that the march was organised as a united protest against terrorism. However, at one point, ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ was found to have been shouted once by an individual, after which other participants immediately corrected the slogan back to ‘Pakistan Murdabad’,” Lakhisarai Superintendent of Police Ajay Kumar said.
The police official confirmed that the individual who raised the controversial slogan was identified as Kailash Prasad Singh (66), a member of the Communist Party of India (CPI), who has been arrested.
“We are preparing to present him before the court after registering an FIR,” the SP added. Additionally, he pointed out that Singh, as one of the organisers of the march, had not obtained prior permission, and action was being taken against him for that as well.
Police, however, emphasised that the viral video was “edited to loop the single instance of the controversial slogan”, creating a misleading impression that it was repeatedly chanted.
“Upon reviewing both the original and viral videos, we confirmed that only one individual shouted the slogan once. The viral clip was created by repeating that specific moment from the original footage,” the SP explained.
The police are also investigating who edited and distributed the manipulated video.
In response, the CPI issued a statement denouncing the slogan and announced that Kailash Prasad Singh had been expelled from the party. “The candlelight march was organised to protest the heinous attack on April 22 and to honour the martyred tourists. The slogan ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ was raised mistakenly, either due to carelessness or a moment of anger. Once the issue came to light, the crowd immediately corrected the slogan to ‘Pakistan Murdabad,’ though this correction is not visible in the viral clip,” the statement from the party’s district unit read.
RJD district president Kalicharan Das described the incident as an “unintentional error,” reiterating that the march was meant to show unity against terrorism, with no deliberate intention behind the pro-Pakistan slogan.
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