Early morning on Wednesday, reports emerged that the homes of 4 journalists- Showkat Motta, the editor of Kashmir Narrator, freelance journalists Azhar Qadri and Abbas Shah, and Hilal Mir, who reports for a Turkey-based media outlet were raided by authorities in Srinagar, Kashmir.
Reportedly, the police seized documents and electronic devices, including cellphones and laptops, of the journalists and their spouses, and later summoned these journalists to a local police station for questioning.
Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemned these raids and said that the police should “stop raiding the homes of journalists and immediately return any seized electronic devices.”
Steven Butler, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator, in Washington, D.C. said that the repeated harassment of journalists in Kashmir needed to stop immediately.
“Police should halt any interrogations of and investigations into journalists Showkat Motta, Azhar Qadri, Abbas Shah, and Hilal Mir, and return all electronic devices seized from the journalists’ homes,” he added.
Meanwhile, a joint statement written by 7 journalist bodies in Kashmir, which came a day after the raids also condemned the police raids.
The Journalist Federation of Kashmir, Kashmir Working Journalists Association, Kashmir Press Photographers Association, Kashmir Press Club, Kashmir Union of Working Journalists, Kashmir Journalist Association, and the Kashmir Video Journalist Association “vehemently” condemned the act, which “according to the eye-witnesses, the forces laid, what appeared to them, a massive cordon in the localities of their respective residences Wednesday morning.”
“The raids by police and paramilitary forces carried out at the respective residences of these journalists is a stark reflection of how authorities in Jammu and Kashmir are targeting journalists,” the statement said.
The statement added that for the last few years the pressure on the journalists in Kashmir had mounted to unprecedented levels with dozens of incidents of attacks, harassment, and intimidation by authorities that their colleagues had reported.
“Several journalists, especially for the last two years, were… summoned, questioned and even booked under controversial laws while many were even asked to reveal their sources,” it read.
The statement added how journalists in Kashmir have worked amidst immense pressure, especially since the last three decades. And that many of their colleagues had “lost their lives or sustained injuries while discharging their professional duties.”
It also said that the cases of harassment against Kashmiri journalists were growing with each passing day and that no words were enough to indicate the levels of strain the media was facing.
“The assault on freedom of press in Kashmir continues and it appears condemnations made in each case by media groups have fallen on deaf ears in absence of any respite,” it concluded.