Various political factions including the People’s Conference, All Parties Hurriyat Conference and Dal Khalsa strongly condemned the arrest of Journalist Fahad Shah.
The All Parties Hurriyat Conference, on Saturday, released a statement condemning “policy of use of force and intimidation by the authorities to silence voices that report facts and are critical of those in power by clubbing them as ‘anti-national.'”
The Hurriyat also iterated that it had been two and a half years since Mirwaiz Umar Farooq’s detention.
Referring to the arrest of Journalist Fahad Shah, the APHC asked the authorities “to reconsider this authoritarian approach and release Fahad and all other journalists who are languishing in jails for doing their duty.”
APHC asked the Government of India to release the Mirwaiz and all other political leaders, activists and youth from house detention and jails, “without delay and unconditionally initiate the process of peaceful resolution of the Kashmir conflict.”
“APHC, as in the past will give all-our support to every such sincere initiative,” it concluded.
It is pertinent to mention that journalist Fahad Shah was called in for questioning on January 31, along with journalist Majid Hyderi, in connection with a case registered following an encounter in Pulwama, wherein the forces had claimed that four militants had been killed. Apparently, the two were summoned for “incorrect reporting.”
Fahad confirmed on his Twitter handle on Tuesday that he had returned home after questioning.
Fahad Shah’s magazine The Kashmir Walla had reported the version of the family, who on record, claimed that their son Inayat killed during the encounter in Pulwama on January 30 was innocent and not a militant, a claim which was denied by Jammu Kashmir Police.
Meanwhile, Dal Khalsa on Saturday, strongly condemned the arrest of Fahad Shah, editor of The Kashmir Walla, a magazine with an online news portal.
“When will the Government of India (GoI) stop gagging the Media? Fahad was arrested on February 4, three days after he was questioned by police along with three other journalists for “incorrect reporting” about a gun battle in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district,” the statement said.
Dal Khalsa said that “framing of Fahad under draconian laws sedition and UAPA is misuse of state power, an assault on press freedom and utter disregard of the fundamental right of journalists to report freely and safely.”
Seeking Fahad’s immediate release, the party spokesman Paramjit Singh Mand said that “the silencing of a fearless journalist reflects how the state was scared of his truthful reporting.” And that to hide its repressive policies and actions, “the State wants to coerce the mediapersons to toe its line.”
Meanwhile, People’s Conference chief Sajad Lone referring to Fahad Shah’s arrest expressed that the administration should know that it won’t change anything and that it was not the worst that has been seen in Kashmir.
“Fahad Shah arrested. What times we are living in. Just a word caution for the administration. This is not the worst that we in Kashmir have seen.
We have seen even worse in nineties. That didn’t change anything. This won’t change anything either. Take my humble word for it,” Sajad Lone tweeted on Friday.
Meanwhile, on Friday, former Chief Minister of the erstwhile state of Jammu Kashmir and PDP Cheif Ms. Mehbooba Mufti, taking a dig at the government of India after arrest of journalist Fahad Shah, took to her Twitter handle and asked, “How many Fahads will you arrest?”
“Standing up for the truth is deemed anti-national. Showing the mirror to a deeply intolerant & authoritarian government is also anti-national. Fahad’s journalistic work speaks for itself & depicts the ground reality unpalatable to GOI. How many Fahad’s will you arrest?” Ms. Mufti said after Fahad was arrested by the Jammu Kashmir police on Friday.
Reports suggest that the court remanded Journalist Fahad Shah to police custody for ten days, today.