The year 2021 was definitely rough for the journalist community of the Kashmir valley. Data recorded by The Kashmiriyat reveals that as many as 49 Kashmir-based journalists were subjected to 32 incidents of harassment or intimidation. These incidents of harassment ranged from snatching of ID Cards, physical assault, summons, FIRs, arrests, and raids at their residences.
ALSO READ: 2021- At Least 45 Kashmiri Families Left Roofless, 57 Structures Damaged During Encounters
In the month of August, Kashmiri Journalist Asif Sultan, who is lodged at Central Jail in Srinagar completed 3 years in jail.
In April, the Jammu Kashmir police issued an order banning the ‘live’ coverage of encounters between the government forces and militants.
In October, the Directorate of Information in Central Kashmir’s Budgam district has decided to restrict the number of journalists for covering the functions of union ministers and other VVIPs to maintain discipline during the official events.
ALSO READ: 2021- A Year of Death, Internet Shutdowns, Arrests in Kashmir; 170 Militants Killed
After blocking advertisements to Greater Kashmir– once the most circulated English daily of the valley, the officials removed them from the office in Srinagar’s press colony in October.
Here’s the timeline of the assault, intimidation and the harassments faced by Kashmiri journalists:
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January, 2021
Jan. 30 : FIR against The Kashmiriyat’s Mir Junaid and The Kashmir Walla’s Yashraj Sharma for their reports about Security Forces compelling a school to celebrate Republic Day.’
The FIR was based on a complaint by an unnamed army official in the local army camp. The police said that the (FIR) against Sharma and Junaid were filed under Section 153 (wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot) and Section 505 (statements conducing to public mischief) of the Indian Penal Code.
If convicted, Sharma and Junaid may face up to three years in prison.
February, 2021
Feb. 12 : Freelance journalist Sajad Gul from Bandipora, booked for ‘rioting, trespassing, and assault’ under Sections 147, 447 and 353 of the Indian Penal Code, based on complaints by a land revenue tax officer (Tehsildar).
Gul had reported a story on a demolition drive in district Bandipora for a local news outlet on February 10, wherein the locals had alleged ‘harassment’ by the above mentioned ‘Tehsildar.’
Feb. 28 : Journalist Baba Umar, working with TRT, wrote to the Kashmir Press Club that allegations were leveled against him in a factually incorrect and libelous article by the Greek City Times, a “Greek lifestyle site” headquartered in Sydney. This baseless article was later amplified by Zee New and IANS without fact checking or seeking the version of Baba.
Stories ran by fact checking websites www.altnews.in and a news portal reporting on media – News laundry revealed that the reports against Baba Umar were “factually incorrect and deliberately misleading,” KPC said in a statement.
Baba said that the aim of the slander was to target him and endanger him and his family.
March, 2021
March 05 : Journalist Shafat Farooq (BBC Urdu) and Photojournalist Saqib Majeed roughed up by police outside Jamia Masjid, Srinagar.
People from all around the valley rushed to the Jamia Masjid anticipating Mirwaiz Umar Farooq’s visit to the grand mosque after he was released from a 20 month detention at his residence.
Shafat Farooq alleged being mishandled and bashed with a gunstock. Meanwhile, a viral video of the incident shows Saqib asking a policeman, “You choked my throat.”
“A policeman took hold of me, strangled my neck under his arm and slapped on my face several times,” Saqib had told The Kashmiriyat.
March 06 : Journalist Fahad Shah, the editor of a local news portal ‘The Kashmir Walla’ detained for questioning. Fahad was released after hours of ‘questioning,’ after a report was published at his portal about the clashes outside Jamia Masjid, Srinagar, a day before. Fahad, like many other journalists from Kashmir, has been often called in for such ‘questioning.’
April, 2020
On record, The Kashmiriyat has no data of assault on any Journalist for the month of April. However, on April 07, the Jammu Kashmir police issued an order banning the ‘live’ coverage of encounters between the government forces and militants.
The order also met with a widespread condemnation from the journalistic fraternity. “While covering encounters and law and order situations we strictly follow the rulebook and never exceed our brief. If we are not allowed to discharge our professional responsibility, then what are we there for?” Mr. Farooq Javed Khan, president of the Kashmir Photographers’ Association, had said after calling the order ‘obnoxious’ and ‘unacceptable.’
May, 2020
May 10 : Photojournalist Saqib Majeed thrashed for the second time after March. Majeed alleged that while he was taking pictures around Dal lake, security forces stopped him, snatched his camera and started thrashing him before bundling him into their armored vehicle.
May 20 : Journalist Peerzada Tahir stopped by police near Bus Stand, Sopore. He was manhandled despite showing a press identity card and Covid-19 curfew pass. The security personnel in return used cuss words against him and media, Tahir alleged.
May 24 : Five journalists, along with thirteen civilians, were wounded after the forest eviction drive launched by the Forest department turned violent in the upper reaches of Zampathri area of South Kashmir’s Shopian district.
The journalists who received minor injuries included Aijaz Ahmad Dar (Zee news), Irshad Ahmad (News18), Shahid Tak (ETV Bharat), Nazir Wani (Punjab Kesari) and Firdous Ahmad (News Nation).
May 29 : Photojournalist Reshi Irshad’s camera and mobile phone snatched while covering an encounter between the government forces and the militants at Shopian’s Ganopora.
Irshad was called by the local police, at least five hours later, and handed over his camera and mobile phone.
June, 2021
June 04 : Journalist Sajid Raina from north Kashmir’s Bandipora booked over a WhatsApp status showing 20 children who died in boat capsize incident on May 30, 2006, at Wular Lake as “martyrs.”
July, 2021
July 10 : Journalist Shah Junaid beaten by security forces at an encounter in Kawarigam of south Kashmir’s Anantnag district.
July 17 : Journalist Aakash Hassan beaten by security forces at Sangam, Bijbehara, while he was on his way from Anantnag to Srinagar.
July 23 : It was revealed in an investigative report by the independent media organization The Wire that along with various political figures and social activists, five Kashmir based journalists were spied upon through the Israeli spyware ‘Pegasus.’ Muzamil Jaleel (The Indian Express), Aurangzeb Naqshbandi (Hindustan Times back then), Iftikhar Geelani (DNA formerly) and Sumir Kaul (PTI) and another journalist, whose name was withheld on their request, were the targets of surveillance, The Wire reported.
August, 2021
August 05 : Massive raids on the house of The Kashmiriyat editor, Qazi Shibli, in the middle of the night. Two of his relatives’ houses searched, too.
The raid at Shibli’s home went on for two hours, approximately, and for 20 and 30 minutes at his relatives’ homes, respectively, while he was not home.
The police broke the lock of Shibli’s home and forcibly entered the premises of his house. The police also broke several glasses, window panes, and a security camera outside Shibli’s home, and confiscated a CCTV intercom monitor.
Police asked for Shibli’s whereabouts, which the family refused to provide. They confiscated the family members’ phones and computers, after harassing them.
Along with several call-ins for ‘questioning,’ Shibli has been subjected to detention twice. Once in August 2019, when he published a news article that said that the govt. was set to abrogate Kashmir’s semi-autonomy. The semi-autonomy was abrogated and Shibli was kept in solitary confinement for nine months at a jail in Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh.
Shibli, in July 2020, was detained for the second time, after nearly two months of his release. He spent 18 days in jail for reporting that three killed in the Amshipora, Shopian encounter were labourers and not militants. On investigation, it was discovered that the labourers had been killed for a sum of ₹20 Lakh.
August 8 : Journalist Irfan Ahmed Malik ‘questioned’ by Jammu Kashmir police for five hours over a tweet that he said he had deleted within 2 minutes. The tweet was critical of a newly introduced Film policy in the valley of Kashmir.
August 17 : Photojournalists Mehran Bhat, Sajad Hameed, Burhan Bhat and Waseem Andrabi assaulted by security forces at Jehangir Chowk, Srinagar. The photojournalists were beaten by the police using batons, while they were covering Muharram processions. Photojournalist Sajad Hameed’s camera was damaged.
In a separate incident on the same day, photojournalist Mir Junaid was roughed up by some people, while covering Muharram processions at Rainawari.
Meanwhile, on the same day, journalist Imran Ali was subjected to harrassment while covering Muharram procession at Munawrabad, Srinagar.
In another incident, ID cards of three journalists Irshad Hussain, Abdul Hamid Khan and Basit Ali Rajput while covering Muharram processions were snatched by forces at Lal Chowk, Srinagar. The journalists were asked to report at Kothi Bagh police station in order to collect their ID cards.
August 27 : Incarcerated journalist Asif Sultan completes three years in prison. Asif Sultan was detained in August 2018, in relation to a news story about militant Commander Burhan Wani. Asif languishes in jail despite several pleas by the family. In February this year, the Clooney Foundation for Justice (CFJ), founded by Hollywood actor, producer and screenwriter George Clooney and his lawyer wife Amal Clooney, announced it will monitor Asif’s trial.
September, 2021
Sep. 9 : Massive raids were conducted, early morning, on the houses of four Srinagar based journalists Showkat Ahmad Matta, Azhar Qadri, Abbas Shah and Hilal Mir. Gadgets belonging to them and their family members confiscated.
Jammu and Kashmir police said that the four were quizzed in connection with the investigations related to a blog—Kashmirfightwordpress.com case and they will again be questioned again, while as scrutiny of their gadgets have shown they had numbers of Pakistan, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia.
The incident gathered widespread condemnation from civil society, political factions and journalistic bodies, worldwide.
October, 2021
Oct. 08 : Journalist Suhail Dar called in for ‘questioning,’ by a local police station in Anantnag, booked under under section 107 of the CrPC. The law allows pre-emptive detention of a person based on suspicion. Released after 12 days in detention.
Suhail was detained in April, last year, for a month for covering a militant’s funeral and sharing it over his social media. He was booked under the Unlawful Activity Prevention Act (UAPA) for a month, and after dropping the charges, he was booked under section 505 of Indian Penal Code. His health deteriorated in the jail and he was shifted to a hospital in Srinagar. His phone and media cards were confiscated.
Oct. 10 : Photojournalist Manan Gulzar Dar called in for questioning. He did not return home since that day. His home was searched by NIA in relation to the case of “hatching of conspiracy both physically and in cyberspace for undertaking violent militancy acts in J-K,” on October 13. Later, on October 17, his younger brother Hanan was summoned for questioning, and detained, subsequently. Both the brothers have been shifted to a jail in Delhi, after being accused of accused of being part of a “conspiracy to carry out terrorist activities.”
Oct. 12 : Editor of Kashmir First, Salman Shah, detained from his home in Anantnag at around 7 p.m. He was booked under section 107 of the CrPC. Salman was released after 8 days in detention.
Oct. 13 : Photojournalist Mukhtar Zahoor detained from his home in Srinagar in the middle of the night, released next day after questioning.
On the same day, Senior journalist Majid Hyderi was ‘questioned’ for hours and let go later. Hyderi was summoned by the Cargo [Special Operations Group of the Jammu and Kashmir police] in relation to his social media posts. Hyderi was asked to submit his phone, which he objected to, after which, he was asked to switch it off.
In another incident, the same day, freelance journalist Sajad Gul summoned by police after he shared a video of a family from north Kashmir’s Bandipora alleging that their kin was not a militant and was killed in a fake encounter, instead.
The forces, on Oct. 11, claimed to have killed Imtiyaz Ahmad Dar’s (Kakroo), who the forces alleged affiliated with Laskhar-e-Toiba (LeT), in Gund Jahangir village area of Bandipora. However, the family said otherwise.
Gul posted the videos of the family’s version on his social media, soon after which, he was called in for questioning. He was let go after hours of questioning.
Oct. 17 : Freelance journalist Sulaiman Sath from Ganderbal, associated with Urdu newspaper Daily Gadyal, detained from his residence.
Oct. 19 : Junaid Shafiq Peer, a photojournalist working with Tameel e Irshad was detained from his house in the Untoo Hamam area of Sopore, during a nocturnal raid.
Oct. 21 : Photojournalist Mir Junaid from Srinagar, summoned to a nearby police station for ‘questioning.’ Junaid was released after 22 days of detention.
Oct. 31 : Photojournalist Ubaid Mukhtar attacked at Kashmir University campus with a sharp iron object by a security guard. Ubaid’s left eye started bleeding, and he was rushed to the hospital.
December
Dec. 05 : An online troll campaign targeted various journalists from the valley of Kashmir using hashtag (#WhiteCollarTerrorists) on microblogging site Twitter.
On target of the trolls were journalists Qazi Shibli, Fahad Shah, Aakash Hassan, Syed Shahriyar, Gowher Geelani, Safwat Zargar and others.
Dec. 08 : Viral video shows an armed forces personnel pointing gun towards reporters Zainab and Vikar Syed of Free Press Kashmir.
Stone throwing clashes had erupted between locals and the govt. forces, after an encounter ended Cholar village of Shopian district. While the reporters were covering the clashes, an armed forces personnel can be clearly seen pointing his gun towards them.
Dec. 10 : Two journalists Dimple Verma and Meenu Verma thrashed by a BJP leader while interviewing the Congress leader Dr. Manohar Lal Sharma, in Jammu’s Kathua.
NOTE: The incidents recorded in the report are only those that have made it to the fore. Several incidents of harrassment and intimidation go unreported or the journalists tend to stay quiet due to various reasons.
Data compiled by Jaskamal Bains