Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma conducted a press meet today at Lok Sewa Bhawan in Dispur. He expressed concerns regarding the sudden activation of thousands of suspicious Facebook accounts ahead of the upcoming state elections. He informed the media, "Around 5,000 Facebook accounts have suddenly become active." He said these accounts were linked to a particular community and added that most of them were operated from outside India.

He said that the profiles predominantly shared content related to Assam's elections and further stated that they promoted a particular political party. He said they did not comment on national political figures like Prime Minister Narendra Modi or Rahul Gandhi. Mr. Sarma said, "They only post hardcore Islamic fundamentalist content, often mixing it with political narratives around Assam." He clarified that when not posting about Assam, they shared content related to Iran, Iraq, Palestine, or religious subjects like Umrah.

The Chief Minister stated that many of these accounts were newly created. He said several accounts listed IIT Guwahati as their location to gain credibility. He stated, "We checked with IIT Guwahati and found no record of such individuals." He disclosed that his team traced two of the exposed accounts to Bangladesh and Pakistan. He said the users used false identities and addresses to mislead the public.

The Chief Minister verified that his team flagged these activities and added that the individuals behind these accounts were under the government's radar. He hinted at the possibility of a local connection in Guwahati and pointed to the GS Road and Kharghuli areas but did not provide more details.

He stated, "This has been going on for about a month now." He added, "I won't name anyone, but we are closely monitoring the situation." He explained that these people were connected through WhatsApp or Telegram groups and reported that they became active especially after any controversial incident.