With Press Council of India having it’s fact finding team in Kashmir, to inquire about the allegations of intimidation and harassment of journalists five journalists were detained in a week in the valley.
In the past one week, journalists that have been summoned by the police and different investigative agencies include photojournalist Mukhtar Zahoor, editor Salman Shah, freelance journalist Suhail Dar, freelance journalist Sajad Gul and senior journalist Majid Hyderi.
Mukhtar Zahoor, who works as a stringer with BBC, said that he was picked up from his home at around 12:30 midnight on 13 October and was kept in a Ram Munshi Bagh police station all night.
“I kept asking them [police] the reason for my detention, but they didn’t give me any concrete reply,” said Zahoor.
After spending the night behind the bars, Zahoor said that in the morning, the concerned officer started questioning him about his whereabouts on 1 September – the day Hurriyat Conference leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani passed away.
“They had all the information about my location on that day,” he said. “The route I took. The wifi connection of my phone that I shared with my colleagues. They specifically told me about the purpose of my presence in Sanat Nagar and Rajbagh area on that day. They also checked my phone and inquired about all the pictures in my gallery.”
Zahoor said it was around 2 pm, when he had answered all their questions, that he was finally let go.
In South Kashmir’s Anantnag district, two journalists have been detained by the Jammu and Kashmir police in the last week for “questioning”.
According to the family of Salman Shah, who works as an editor of an online weekly magazine – Kashmir First, it was around 7 pm on Tuesday when a police team from Sherbagh police station came to their house and took Shah away.
“When we questioned about his detention, the police told us to visit the police station the next morning,” said Imran Shah, his elder brother.
On 8 October, Suhail Dar, a freelance journalist, received a call from the police asking him to report to the Sadder Police station, Anantnag. As per the family, Dar went to the police station around 6 pm and has not been released since.
“They [police] are not telling us what the reason is. They have just kept him locked. At least we deserve to know the allegations [against him],” Tariq Ahmad Dar, his elder brother had said.
