
Fortnightly Feature- Onslaught: Press Freedom in Kashmir under attack
In mint green overalls, the police officer is focused on the pistol parts lying on the table. With another rub on the metal part, the officer is satisfied that the pistol is now clean. He shifts his gaze to the person sitting on the other side of the table. “Do you know where you are?” the officer asks.
The journalist, well aware of the history of this torture center in Kashmir, where young boys were made to scream while their legs were crushed, is unfazed. “I have my allegiance to my profession”, said the journalist. “If you believe these threatening tactics are going to work, well then I don’t have much to do here,” the journalist tells the officer as he prepares to leave.
“You know, people come here, sometimes of their own will, but they never leave of their own accord, even if we let them go. They never reach their homes, you know, Kashmir is a scary place,” the officer remarks. “I’ll make sure I reach home and file my story,” and the journalist walks out, putting up a brave face. The journalist, however, knows that the threat is real. His family was threatened twice. “Kashmir is in a perpetual state of horror,” the journalist says, wishing to be anonymous.
Freedom of press in Kashmir has been facing a significant state offensive for the past few years, where summons, interrogations, and raids by the Indian agencies on the media offices and residences of the media personnel have become an everyday affair. After India abrogated the autonomy of Jammu and Kashmir on August 5, 2019, the situation has only worsened.
In November, after unknown individuals made online threats against several journalists, some of them were summoned and interrogated in person at the Srinagar-based torture centers, CARGO and Cyber Cell instead of investigating the anonymous online threats.
Journalists say that the Indian authorities continue to intimidate, harass and threaten them for doing their professional duty on the false pretext of online threats from the pro-freedom individuals.
One of the journalists interrogated by the Cyber Cell Police for several days states, “they questioned me about some of the published writings since 2016, and not a single question was asked about the online threat incident.”
In its recent briefing of September 2022, Amnesty International revealed that there were over 60 instances in which journalists and human rights activists have been subjected to interrogations, criminal investigations, surveillance, arbitrary arrest, and detention since August 2019. Amnesty revealed, “since August 5, 2019, at least 180 journalists have been called by the Jammu and Kashmir police for interrogation.”
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), “legal harassment, threats, physical attacks, and raids on the homes of journalists and their family members have become the new norm in Kashmir.” As per CPJ’s data, four Kashmiri journalists are in detention— Aasif Sultan, Manan Gulzar Dar, Sajad Gul, and Fahad Shah.
Repression tactics are common in the Kashmir valley, and people have been familiar with them for decades. Ever since the movement for independence from India gained momentum, unlawful arrests and illegal detentions have become a favorite weapon in addition to the brutal power of the firearms used by the Indian armed forces against the population.
After a crackdown on resistance, political organizations, and any form of dissent, the ruling Indian regime has shifted its gaze toward neutral spaces like the ‘fourth pillar of democracy,’ the press. The right-wing BJP of India is working on suppressing voices through arbitrary detentions and crackdowns on freedom of expression. Thought itself is criminalized.
The report by CPJ states that Kashmiri journalists have been systematically targeted under anti-terrorism laws like the UAPA. Photojournalist Kamran Yousuf was the first Kashmiri journalist detained under the act in September 2017. He was released in March 2018, when police could not produce evidence for the charges against him.
In August 2018, Asif Sultan, an assistant editor with Kashmir Narrator, a local news magazine, was detained under the UAPA after publishing an article on Burhan Wani, the leader of the Hizbul Mujahideen, whose death by Indian armed forces in 2016 triggered widespread anti-India protests. Procedural delays and evidentiary problems have hampered the case against Sultan. On April 5th, 2022, Sultan was granted bail in the UAPA case, but he was kept in the police station for five days without legal justification until his re-arrest under the Public Safety Act. He is now imprisoned in Uttar Pradesh.
Fahad Shah, editor-in-chief of the local magazine, Kashmir Walla, has spent more than a year in a local prison in Kashmir, charged with several fake cases, and booked under anti-terror laws. Shah was granted bail in two cases on December 8th, 2021, and was again arrested on February 4th, 2022.
India has targeted senior journalists and aimed its guns at journalism students to completely silence the freedom of expression; a case in point is Sajad Gul, a student and trainee reporter at The Kashmir Walla. He was arrested on the night of January 5th, 2022, from his home in Bandipora for reporting on an anti-Indian protest. Gul had been earlier threatened with legal action by occupation authorities for his story on a demolition drive in Hajin area.
Qazi Shibli, the editor for the online news portal The Kashmiriyat, was arrested under UAPA and imprisoned in India’s Uttar Pradesh for nine months.
In the recent past, Yashraj Sharma, interim editor of The Kashmir Walla, Shahid Tantray, a journalist with The Caravan magazine, and several others have reported that they were harassed, intimidated, and threatened by occupation authorities.
Occupation authorities have set up agencies for monitoring Kashmiri journalists working with various local and international media houses, according to a report published in The Wire. The CID section set up by occupation authorities named “Dial 100” collects journalists’ information about their professional careers in the media, family relations, foreign travels, etc. Similarly, another section called the “Ecosystem of Narrative Terrorism” does the profiling of human rights activists, civil society members, lawyers, academics, and other associated people.
Indian occupation authorities also prevent journalists from traveling outside India. At least 43 people are on an “Exit Control list” consisting of journalists, human rights activists, and academicians.
Some journalists barred from traveling outside India include Gowhar Geelani, Sanna Irshad Mattoo, and Aakash Hassan.
Despite human rights activists and press freedom watchdogs from across the world denouncing Delhi’s heinous crackdown against the press, the threats, and intimidation from the Indian occupation authorities to silence Kashmiri voices and alter the narrative continues.
Indian troops deployed in Indian-Occupied Kashmir operate under the protection of a host of draconian laws, specific to Kashmir, which have made these forces take on the role of an occupying army. They have been given a free hand to wreak havoc onthe hapless Kashmiris’ life, honor, and property.
The following are some of the black laws used by Indian occupation authorities to suppress the freedom struggle in Kashmir:
- JAMMU & KASHMIR PUBLIC SAFETY ACT, 1978
- JAMMU & KASHMIR DISTURBED AREAS ACT, 1990
- TERRORIST AND DISRUPTIVE ACTIVITIES ACT (TADA) 1990
- THE ARMED FORCES (JAMMU & KASHMIR) SPECIAL POWERS ACT, 1990
- PREVENTION OF TERRORISM ACT (POTA), 2002
- UNLAWFUL ACTIVITIES (PREVENTION) AMENDMENT ORDINANCE 2004
- THE NATIONAL SECURITY ACT (NSA)
- OFFICIAL SECRETS ACT (OSA)
- NEWSPAPERS INCITEMENTS TO OFFENCES ACT
- CRIMINAL PROCEDURE CODE
- INDIAN TELEGRAPH ACT