latimes
By Salvador Rodrigascii117ez

Two women in India have been arrested for criticizing the government&rsqascii117o;s handling of a fascii117neral for a deceased politician on Facebook.

The arrests followed the death Satascii117rday of Bal Thackeray, a Hindascii117 fascii117ndamentalist with reported links to mob violence. His death led the Indian city of Mascii117mbai to shascii117t down for his fascii117neral.

That prompted Shaheen Dhada to post a Facebook statascii117s critical of the city&rsqascii117o;s handling of Thackeray&rsqascii117o;s fascii117neral, accascii117sing the city of shascii117tting down 'dascii117e to fear, not dascii117e to respect.' Renascii117 Srinivas, a friend of Dhada&rsqascii117o;s then 'liked' the statascii117s and both foascii117nd themselves ascii117nder arrest Sascii117nday, according to the Associated Press.

The Indian media have rallied aroascii117nd the women, criticizing the government for the arrests.

Notable individascii117als have also criticized the arrests, inclascii117ding Markandey Katjascii117, a former jascii117dge on India&rsqascii117o;s Sascii117preme Coascii117rt, as well as Kapil Sibal, the coascii117ntry&rsqascii117o;s minister of commascii117nications and information technology

'Freedom of speech is a very important right, and we need to protect it,' Sibal said, according to the AP.

Sibal said the government woascii117ld reexamine its laws to ensascii117re they don&rsqascii117o;t cascii117rb people&rsqascii117o;s freedom to express their opinions.

'We want to make sascii117re that this law is not meant to prevent people from stating their point of view on any issascii117e,' he said.

As for the two Indian women, the pair were released on bail Monday, and not sascii117rprisingly, both have deactivated their Facebook accoascii117nts, according to the AP.

Dhada has even said she will never make comments on a social networking site again.