No relief for Kashmiri journalist, Fahad Shah arrested for third time

Srinagar: The 33-year-old Fahad Shah, the Editor-in-chief of the online news magazine, 'thekashmirwalla', has been arrested for the third time in a month.

The recent arrest by the Srinagar police on Saturday, hours after getting bail, is linked with a reporting an encounter in the city in May 2020 in his magazine.

He had secured bail from Shopian court and bail from a special court in two different cases over the reporting terrorism related news on his online Magazine. The Kashmir police justified his arrests citing his way of reporting terrorism related news which have been found to be glorifying the terrorism.

In a statement, the J&K police noted that he has been found to be "glorifying terrorism, spreading fake news & inciting general public for creating law and order (L&O) situations.

Shah was for the first arrested on February 4 by the Pulwama police, and had secured bail from a special court under the NIA Act after 22 days in custody, on February 26. Days after, he was arrested by the Shopian police, and was granted bail on Saturday.

He was also arrested for some social media posts in which, the police alleged, he glorified terrorist activities that in turn caused dent to the image of law enforcing agencies besides causing ill-will & disaffection against the country.

As per a statement from the magazine, while granting bail to Fahad, Shopian magistrate Qayoom noted: "In a barbaric society you can hardly ask for bail, in a civilised society you can hardly refuse it. In other words, 'bail is a rule and its refusal is an exception'."