Srinagar: The National Investigation Agency (NIA), India’s top anti-terror agency, arrested a Kashmiri freelance journalist in an alleged NGO terror funding case, officials said.
Irfan Mehraj, a resident of Mehjoor Nagar in Srinagar, was asked by the central anti-terror agency to appear at its Church Lane office on Monday evening, March 20. According to Irfan’s father Mehraj-ud-Din Bhat, Irfan was out on a professional assignment.
According to a note on the NIA website, the case (FIR No RC-37/2020), in which Irfan was reportedly arrested, was filed to probe the “money transfer to J&K by NGOs through Hawala Channel for terrorist activities in Kashmir valley”. Several persons have been questioned in the case by the agency.
NIA in a tweet on Tuesday said that the arrest took place a day earlier due to Mehraj’s collaboration with the Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS), a human rights non-profit based in Srinagar, directed by jailed human rights activist Khurram Parvez.
NIA has claimed that Mehraj is its first arrest in the ‘NGO-terror funding case’. Khurram Parvez is also an accused in the same case.
The JKCCS is facing an anti-terror probe and Parvez’s arrest in 2021 triggered global outrage.
Following comprehensive investigations into the NGO Terror funding case registered in October 2020, the National Investigation Agency arrested Irfan Mehraj from Srinagar (J&K) yesterday (20.03.2023),” said an NIA spokesman, in a statement.
“Investigation revealed that the JKCCS was funding terror activities in the valley and had also been in the propagation of secessionist agenda in the Valley under the garb of protection of human rights,” added the statement. “Involvement of some Valley based NGOs, Trusts and Societies in funding of terror related activities is being probed in this case.”
According to reports, Irfan, an editor at TCN Live, also contributes to The Caravan magazine, Article 14 and Al Jazeera among other national and international media outlets, has been arrested in connection with FIR No RC-37/2020/NIA/DLI filed by the agency on October 8, 2020 at NIA Police Station, New Delhi, reports TheWire.
A contributor for German public broadcaster, Deutsche Welle, Irfan has reported extensively on the conflict in Kashmir and the social, political and economic turmoils triggered by more than three decades of internecine violence, as quoted by TheWire.
The journalist who also runs Wande Magazine, an online magazine, was questioned multiple times by the NIA for his association with JKCCS, where he briefly worked as a researcher. During a 2020 raid, his electronic gadgets were also confiscated.
“He was on a story when the investigators called him on his mobile phone. They told him to come over to their office [for questioning] for five minutes. Later, we got to know that he had been arrested and was going to be shifted to Delhi on Tuesday. My son and brother have gone there seeking legal assistance,” Bhat, who is a Kashmir arts trader, said, reports The Wire.
The case has been filed under sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy) and 124-A (inciting disaffection towards government through words, signs, etc. of Indian Penal Code and 17 (fund raising for terror activities), 18 (conspiracy to commit terror act), 22A & 22C (relating to offences committed by registered companies), 38 (offence relating to membership of a terrorist organisation), 39 (supporting terrorist organisation) and 40 (raising funds for terrorist organisation) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967.
The arrest has triggered outrage from rights activists and press bodies who see it as part of “intimidation tactics” of the government to curb the free press in Kashmir.
The Press Club of India said it opposes the “imposing of UAPA on mediapersons” and the “misuse of this draconian law by NIA in randomly arresting Irfan Mehraj”, saying that Mehraj’s arrest “ominously points towards a violation of freedom of speech and expression.”
Mary Lawlor, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders, expressed concern and called for his “immediate release”, a demand which was also made by Amnesty International.