Kashmiri Journalist Arrest: Editors Guild asks government to stop harassing journalists

Srinagar: The Editor's Guild of India (EGI) has condemned the arrest and detainment of Kashmir Walla editor Fahad Shah and has demanded that the Jammu and Kashmir government stop using laws to harass journalists.

"The guild also demands immediate release of Fahad Shah as well as Sajad Gul, and to ensure that FIRs under harsh penal laws, intimidatory questioning and wrongful detainment are not used as tools for suppressing journalists' rights," the statement issued by the Guild said.

The Jammu and Kashmir police arrested Shah on Friday for allegedly uploading anti-national content on social media with a "criminal intention" to provoke the public to disturb law and order. The EGI noted that Shah was earlier questioned for four days over his reporting on "a deadly police raid" in Pulwama in late January that left four people dead.

Over the last few years, Shah was summoned and detained "multiple times" for his writings, the editors' body noted.

Fahad Shah's arrest was as a result of his "frequently glorifying terrorism, spreading fake news, instigating people to create law and order problem," said Vijay Kumar, Inspector General of Police in Kashmir. The current controversy erupted after the Kashmir Walla published a story on a family who alleged their 17 year-old son had been liked by security forces during an encounter.

Police said the 17-year old was a "hybrid terrorist" and had been killed alongside his comrades in the encounter.

"This arrest is part of a larger trend in Kashmir of security forces calling journalists for questioning and often detaining them, because of their critical reporting of the establishment," it said.

Sajad Gul, who also worked for the Kashmir Walla, was arrested last month's over alleged "objectionable posts" made on social media, which the EGI said was part of a larger trend of eroding media rights in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir. The matter of journalist Gowhar Geelani has also been highlighted by the Guild, who noted that he had been summoned by the executive magistrate of Shopian district for allegedly behaving "in a manner prejudicial to public interest".

Last month, security forces "abetted" some journalists "in a coup" of the Kashmir Press Club management and "the state authorities later shut down the club completely, reverting the land back to the Estates department," the EGI said.