Around 10 am, the phone of Suhail Dar, a freelance journalist, a resident of Islamabad (Anantnag) district in South Kashmir on the 05th of April rang- no number, he did not pick up, the phone rang constantly, “I picked up to be informed that it was Cyber Police Station that wanted me to come down to Srinagar- the summer capital of Kashmir.” Dar was not informed why he was needed by the Cyber Police. “Being a journalist in Kashmir, you know its tough, i started my journey towards Srinagar- a two hour journey and i was in Srinagar.
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Suhail said he had been summoned to the Superintendent of Police’s (SP) office, Cargo in Srinagar where he reached around 12 noon. “The SP came only after three hours, who questioned me for, like an hour, may be,” Suhail told The Kashmiriyat. He was questioned again, one hour after in connection with various photographs and videos that he had posted to his facebook page. ‘They called my videos and photos as ‘Fake news”’.
The 25-year old freelance journalist who has several published stories in various Kashmir-based newspapers says that there were several rounds of questioning before his phones were confiscated and he was handed over to Cyber Police station, who handed me over to Shergari Police Station in Srinagar, where Cyber Police questioned us at regular intervals, twice in a day.
“I was admitted in hospital as my blood pressure level rose up considerably, they did shift me to the nearby hospital, i was then remanded by the court for one month,” Suhail told The Kashmiriyat. Suhail was also shifted to Central jail in Srinagar, however due to the eminent threat of COVID 19, they refused to lodge him in there.
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“Journalism has become too dangerous in Kashmir, we are stopped from reporting truth and taking a factual line. “It is the duty of the state to protect us, not to harass us, we are not PR Agents to anyone, but we are a bridge and our job is mainly to spread truthful information,” Suhail said. He said that journalists from major cities receive attention, while as those, who risk their lives and step into danger, to get access to the ground realities, are put on the back-burner.
Mubashir Ahmed, the lawyer of Suhail Dar upon being contacted by The Kashmiriyat said that Suhail Dar wasb booked under FIR number 5/2020 at Shergari Police Station. The charges against Suhail include Section 505 of IPC accusing him of spreading fake news, which states that “Whoever makes, publishes or circulates any statement, rumour or report.”
Suhail was released on the 08 May after he was granted bail by the High court in Srinagar.
The authorities have been questioning the journalistic credentials of various media personnel who report the ground facts possibly in an attempt to help nourish a narrative and moonlight journalists as the government’s public relations arm.
Earlier too journalists have been harassed and arrested. Prominent jounralists including Gowhar Geelani, Naseer Ganie, Peerzada Ashiq have been questioned, Qazi Shibli, the editor of The Kashmiriyat was booked for more than nine month for his factual reporting. Kamran Yusuf was also arrested in 2017, Masrat Zehra, photojournalist too was questioned for reportage that often counters the ‘false’ claims of normalcy in the region. Asif Sultan was detained in 2018 and still remains under detention.