Reporters Without Borders (RSF) in a statement has called for the immediate release of a Kashmiri journalist Sajad Gull.
In a statement, the RSF said, “The reporter for The Kashmir Walla website has been detained in a completely arbitrary manner for the past six days in Indian-administered Kashmir and is facing the possibility of more than six years in prison for nothing more than a tweet.”
Sajad Ahmad Dar, who writes under the by-line of Sajad Gul, was arrested by Indian soldiers on the night of 5 January and was taken to the police station in Sumbal, a town 20 km north of the region’s capital, Srinagar, RSF stated.
On 8 January, he was charged with criminal conspiracy, assertions prejudicial to national integration, and statements conducing to public mischief under sections 120B, 153B, and 505 of India’s penal code, which carries a possible combined sentence of six and a half years in prison.
By way of “conspiracy,” Gul simply posted a tweet on 3 January with a video showing sporadic protests against the death earlier that day of Salim Parray, a separatist activist regarded by the Indian authorities as a terrorist. RSF has learned that The Kashmir Walla’s lawyers filed a request this morning for Gul’s release on bail.