The khaps are back with a ban on Facebook and WhatsApp for Jat girls. At a meeting of 18 khaps of western Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday, the leaders declared that girls from the community must not use these social networking sites and must also avoid getting involved in love affairs.

The meeting was held at Sauram village in Muzaffarnagar; the khaps cover 100 villages across Muzaffarnagar, Shamli and Meerut.

The meeting was convened to celebrate 125th birth anniversary of Chaudhary Kabul Singh, a Jat leader known for preserving the written history of all the khaps. He had died in 1991.

The khap leaders also declared that love marriage was completely prohibited in the Jat community and those who defy this diktat would be killed. Last year, the same khap panchayats had decided to ban Jay girls and women from using mobile phones and wearing jeans.

Speaking at the meeting, Chandrapal Fauzi-a Jat leader owing allegiance to the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU)-was quoted as saying that the girls should be thrown into river Ganga if they have a love affair with anybody. "You must try to convince your daughters to protect themselves from love affair. But you should also be ready to throw them in Ganga if they don't obey you," he said.

Raju Ahlawat, Muzaffarnagar president of BKU said, "There is no need to fear any authority when it comes to protecting our community. The truth is that those who claim that they are in love and then get married in the same gotra are lunatics. Boys and girls of same gotra are brothers and sisters. They cannot live as husband and wife. Such people are insane and they don't have any right to live."

Thakur Narendra Pundir, national president of Maharana Pratap Sangharsh Samiti and a known Jat leader of the area said, "Parents must keep a close watch on their daughters. They shouldn't allow their daughters to use mobile phones and other devices to access the Internet. The use of By Piyush Srivastava in Lucknow Facebook and WhatsApp is a western culture. We cannot follow such things mindlessly."

Chaudhary Naresh Tikait, leader of BKU and chief of Baliyan Khap said, "We had rejected such things many years ago. But there are still complaints that girls are using mobile phones and wearing jeans. They are also getting involved in love affairs through Facebook and WhatsApp. This is something completely unacceptable to us."

While several diktats were issued by the khaps in previous years, they were dormant since September 2013 when massive communal riots broke out in Muzaffarnagar and Shamli over an incident of eve-teasing.

Interestingly, Minister for State for Agriculture and Muzaffarnagar MP Sanjeev Baliyan has supported the decision of the khaps.