Guns and pro-Hindutva slogans on Jamia shooter Gopal Sharma’s Facebook

:dateline:Seated in reverse on a chair and holding up a rifle, Gopal Sharma couldn’t have hoped to impress or shock more than a few thousand people — his Facebook friend count — with the January 14 post displaying that photo of him.

Now, just weeks later, he can be sure he has achieved wider notoriety.

Gopal Sharma opened fire Thursday at a protest against the amended Citizenship Act that was being held near Jamia Millia Islamia, one of the capital region’s best-known varsities. The demonstrators were marching to Rajghat�on the anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination.

One student, Shadab Farooq, suffered a hand injury (photo below); a friend of his who was witness to the incident said police standing behind barricades�did nothing as he shouted for help.

Sharma was taken into custody.

Gopal Sharma’s Facebook (rambhakt.gopal) posts�include live videos from the scene of the shooting and this line: “Shaheen Bagh, khel khatam,” a reference to a Delhi neighbourhood near Jamia Millia Islamia that has seen a weeks-long protest against the citizenship law, commonly known as CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act 2019).

His profile, with over 3,600 friends, became inaccessible soon after Thursday’s shooting. His posts indicate�he wanted revenge for the murder of Chandan, aka Abhishek Gupta, who was killed on Republic Day in 2018 in a communal clash in Kasganj, Uttar Pradesh.

In his January 14 post — the one showing his posing with the rifle — Gopal Sharma wrote: “Hindu Ekta Zindabad”.

There’s another photo showing him seated with two other young men, one of whom holds the rifle.

On Republic Day this year, Gopal Sharma wrote: “Hindi hai hum, Hindu hain hum. Yeh Hindustan hamara hai.”

Sharma’s Facebook profile was created in July 2018, but the earliest available post is from October 11, 2019. It shows him kissing a machete.

[Content originally published India Today @ https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/jamia-shooting-gopal-sharma-facebook-post-gun-photo-1641664-2020-01-30?utm_source=it_sticky_footer&fbclid=IwAR2Cu0IRD5YAveBqJB5RSnZiyvfVS3qBW7AjBICZ4wh6cCuuGE_RWFoumHQ]