
‘Seditious’ article probe: JIC gets Kashmir journalist’s custody
May 25, 2022 | Communication Blockade
Express News Service | The Indian Express
After being booked in different cases by three districts — Pulwama, Shopian and Srinagar — Shah was subsequently booked under the PSA. This is the fifth case in which he has been booked and will be questioned at the JIC.
The custody of journalist Fahad Shah who remains detained under the Public Safety Act has been transferred to the Joint Interrogation Centre (JIC), Jammu, in connection with investigations into a case by the State Investigation Agency.
The case pertains to the arrest of a PhD candidate under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act for an article appearing under his name on the online news magazine — thekashmirwalla.com — headed by Fahad Shah, 11 years ago. The agency said the article published on November 6, 2011, was “highly provocative, seditious and intended to create unrest in Jammu and Kashmir”.
An order passed by the third Additional Sessions Judge, Jammu, on May 18 noted that during questioning, the author (Abdul Aala Fazili) “has denied writing of the article” titled ‘The shackles of slavery will break’, therefore, for “the investigation agency to come up with facts, the custody of the editor-in-chief of ‘thekashmirwalla.com’ (Fahad Shah) is imperative”.
After being booked in different cases by three districts — Pulwama, Shopian and Srinagar — Shah was subsequently booked under the PSA. This is the fifth case in which he has been booked and will be questioned at the JIC.
Shah, 33, had been lodged at the District Jail, Kupwara since March 2022. This followed his arrest three times and securing bail twice. Calling him an “instigator”, the PSA dossier against Shah said that he had been found to be “working against the ethics of journalism” and misusing the profession “by posting anti-national content which has a multidimensional adverse impact on sovereignty and unity of country”.
Fazili shot to limelight during the 2016 street protests when he participated in several television programmes condemning the use of force on civilian protesters. He was called for questioning by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) five years ago.