Srinagar: Indian Police raided the houses of several journalists in an investigation of anonymous online threats to around a dozen journalists in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) a top police confirmed.
Indian security agencies and government sponsored media has started a planned and coordinated media campaign to drag Pakistan into it failures maligning the image of Pakistan internationally through false accusations. India LEAs in Kashmir apprehended more than six journalists without any charge Local journalist for questioning during the raid seized their laptops, cameras and cellphones.
Indian Police also raided the house of a lawyers who has been representing defendants in anti-militancy cases. Many Kashmiri journalists refused to file fabricated stories on Kashmir and opted to resign from several English newspapers instead of the toeing the Modi regime’s line to advance the Hindutva agenda in the territory.
Besides being prevented from reporting the real ground situation, military violence and atrocities, the newspaper owners were also forcing these journalists to prepare fabricated anti-Kashmir and pro-India, mostly carrying BJP-RSS narrative, news stories.
Rising Kashmir and several other Srinagar and Jammu based newspapers are run and funded by the Indian army and Home Ministry to advance anti-Kashmir agenda. Journalists like Jahangir Sofi, Ishtiyaq Joo, Shaharar Bikhari and Yaqoob Ali who were working with English daily Rising Kashmir for past several years have quitted the newspaper.
Similarly in August, 2016, Kashmiri Journalist Naseer Ahmed had resigned from an Indian News channel saying that the channel was forcing him to file fabricated anti-Kashmir stories. There’s a lack of voices to speak on the targeting of journalists. Journalist associations have disappeared in the Valley by Indian authorities. Press Club of Kashmir has been shut down.
Such is the fear that those who have been targeted are quietly accepting it as fait accompli. In Kashmir, journalists have often been under threat. Threats to life, intimidation, assault, arrest and censorship have been part of the life of a typical local journalist.
Since 2019, when Kashmir’s special status was revoked, several journalists have been jailed and called for questioning by the police. Many have been put on the no-fly list and disallowed from travelling abroad.
Recently, a Pulitzer winning Kashmiri journalist was stopped from flying to New York to receive the prize. India wants to hide ground realities of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) from the world by criminalizing journalism in Kashmir and the International community must come forward to rescue independent media in the occupied territory. India must also be pressurized to allow media to operate freely in the territory.
Please visit our website London Institute of Peace Research for latest peace news
