Srinagar: A day after violence broke out in a remote village of Kishtwar district in Jammu and Kashmir, the administration imposed a sweeping ban on social media posts on Monday (December 29) which are “likely to disturb public order and peace” while warning of action against the offenders.The Kishtwar police have also filed two first information reports, including against an unidentified man who posted a video of the violence on social media on Monday.In an advisory, the police claimed that the man had tried to give a “communal angle” to the violence “thereby disturbing public peace and order” following which he was booked (FIR No 263/25) under section 353 (statements conducing to public mischief) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita 2023 (BNS).The police have also filed a second case (FIR No 262/25) under sections 125 (acts endangering life or personal safety) and 191-2 (punishment for rioting) of the BNS in connection with the violence on Monday in which some unidentified people suffered minor injuries.The two cases were filed a day after a Muslim seminary and a mosque were allegedly attacked by unidentified persons in Padyarna Nagesni, a remote village in Kishtwar.Reports said that the incident took place at around 3 pm on Sunday when a local young man who could not be identified immediately was returning to his village with some wooden logs which he tried to secure near a mosque in the hilly village.“The imam of the mosque objected, arguing that the logs could fall on the building. This led to an argument. The youngster later returned to his area following which some members of the Hindu community arrived in the area and the two sides clashed,” a local said, wishing to stay anonymous.In its advisory, the Kishtwar police said that the members of “one community were bringing wooden logs from jungle and one log slipped and stopped near madrassa due to which an altercation arose between two communities”.The incident “triggered stone pelting from both sides and few people sustained minor injuries,” the Kishtwar police advisory said.Videos circulating on social media show a large crowd of young men, women and children scrambling down a hilly village, with the Himalayan mountains towering in the background.The screams of panicked adults and children in the vicinity of the seminary and the sounds of stones raining down on the tin roof of the mosque can be heard reverberating in the air.A video which seems to have been shot moments after the attack shows a group of at least dozen children with terrified faces scattered near the seminary with the man filming the video alleging that it was a “targeted attack”.The visibly distraught children stare into the camera while the man filming the aftermath who is not seen in the video can be heard condemning the attack.“You can see that the mosque and the seminary have been directly attacked. There are small kids here. It is wrong to target an institution. It’s strange and condemnable. It should not have happened,” the man says in the video which has been verified by The Wire.In another video, a Muslim man can be heard urging others to “let them do what they want to”.“Let them demolish everything. Look at how they’re chasing us like dogs. You can imagine what the situation here is like. They have come to attack us. All of them have come,” he says, pointing his smartphone camera towards the higher slope of the mountain where two groups appear to be involved in a commotion.Some women can also be seen participating in the commotion. Senior superintendent of police (Kishtwar) Naresh Singh could not be reached for comment about whether any arrests have been made in the two FIRs.Kishtwar has a history of communal violence and the village is part of the Padder-Nagseni assembly constituency which was won by the senior Bhartiya Janata Party leader and Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in J&K assembly Sunil Sharma in the 2024 assembly election.Meanwhile, the Kishtwar district magistrate (DM) Pankaj Kumar on Monday imposed an ex-parte ban on the “circulation of objectionable, misleading, or inflammatory messages” on social media which are “likely to disturb public order and peace”.The ban has been imposed under section 163 (2) of Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita which states: “An order under this section may, in cases of emergency or in cases where the circumstances do not admit of the serving in due time of a notice upon the person against whom the order is directed, be passed ex parte”.The ban order which warns of stern action against the violators draws attention to the Union ministry of electronics and information technology’s order dated February 25, 2021, under which the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 were notified.The IT rules have faced criticism for curbing freedom of speech, lacking transparency and undermining privacy while granting excessive government control and content restrictions among others.The Kishtwar DM’s order also directs the district information officer of Kishtwar to prepare a “comprehensive list” of “all registered and unregistered news portal owners/operators, media organisations, and social media news handles” within seven days while asserting that the ban will remain in force for two months.“Any violation of this order shall be punishable under the relevant provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, and other applicable laws,” it mentioned.