As many as 58 global rights groups, including Hu-man Rights Watch, Committee to Protect Journalists and Reporters Without Borders, have urged the authorities in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) to release the incarcerated Kash-miri journalists Fahad Shah, Asif Sultan, Sajad Gul and Manan Gulzar.
In a letter to the New Delhi-appointed Lieuten-ant Governor of IIOJK, Manoj Sinha, the groups drew his attention to the illegal arrests and subse-quent incarceration of the aforementioned scribes and urged him to ensure their immediate release using his good offices.
The letter reads, “We, the undersigned 58 press freedom organizations, human rights organizations, and publications write to request your urgent inter-vention to secure the immediate release of Fahad Shah, editor of the online news portal The Kashmir Walla, from jail, and the withdrawal of all police investigations launched into his journalistic work.”
Fahad Shah was arrested on February 4 at the Pulwama police station after summoning him for questioning. The first information report (FIR) states that he is under investigation under draconian law, Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act for al-leged sedition over his social media posts and unlawful activities.
During his interrogation at the police station, Shah was questioned about The Kashmir Walla’s coverage of a cordon and search operation by Indian troops. Drawing his attention to the reputation Shah commanded in South Asia and around the world as a journalist of high integrity, the statement im-pressed upon Manoj Sinha on the need to release him.
As regards Shah’s professional acumen, they say, “His writing for The Nation magazine was recognised at the 2021 Human Rights Press Awards. His reporting on events in Jammu and Kashmir is a public service, not a crime, and should be protected under Indian law.”
Besides Shah, the letter called for the release of Sajad Gul, Aasif Sultan, and Manan Gulzar Dar by name among the journalists who have been illegally arrested in Kashmir. “We also urge you to arrange the immediate release of other detained Kashmiri journalists – Sajad Gul, Aasif Sultan, and Manan Gulzar Dar – all of whom, like Shah, have been jailed under anti-terror or preventative detention laws in apparent retaliation for their work,” reads the letter.
The groups maintain that press freedom and rights groups have documented numerous incidents of detentions and threats to journalists in IIOJK since the abrogation of the special of the territory in August 2019. “In view of this,” they say, “the re-lease of Fahad Shah and other arbitrarily detained journalists is a critical step to prevent further crimi-nalisation of the profession in Jammu and Kash-mir.”
The letter urges the Lieutenant Governor to see to it that “the authorities drop retaliatory investiga-tions into all four journalists, unwarranted charges brought against them, and allow Kashmiri members of the press to work freely without facing detention, harassment, and other forms of government repri-sal.”
The letter was signed by Alliance for a Secular and Democratic South Asia, Ambedkar King Study Circle, Ambedkar International Centre, Aotearoa Alliance of Progressive Indians, Banglar Mana-badhikar Suraksha Mancha, Boston South Asian Coalition (BSAC), Committee Against Assault on Journalists (CAAJ), Committee to Protect Journal-ists (CPJ), Council on Minority Rights in India (CMRI), C19 People’s Coalition, Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma, Digipub News India Foun-dation, Forum Against Oppression of Women, Mumbai, Foundation The London Story, Free Press Unlimited, Free Speech Collective, Friends of India, Texas, German Indian Alliance for Peace, Global South Against Xenophobia, Himal Southasian, Hin-dus for Human Rights, Human Rights Law Net-work, Human Rights Watch, The Humanism Pro-ject, India Solidarity Germany, Indian American Muslim Council, Indian Federation of Working Journalists (IFWJ), Indian Journalists Union (IJU), Insider Inc., International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), International Federation of Journal-ists (IFJ), International Press Institute, International Solidarity for Academic Freedom in India (InSAF India), Jammu and Kashmir Journalists Association (JAKJA), Jacobin, Journalist Federation of Kashmir (JFK), Justice for All, Canada, Justice for All, USA, Kashmir Working Journalists Association, The Na-tion, Network of Women in Media, India (NWMI), Overseas Press Club of America, PEN America, People Against Apartheid and Fascism (PAAF), Press Club of India, Programme Against Custodial Torture & Impunity (PACTI), Pulitzer Centre, Re-porters Without Borders (RSF), Rural Indigenous Health, Boston, Scottish Indians for Justice, Semil-las Collective, Sikh Human Rights Group, South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT), South Asian Journalists Association (SAJA), South Asia Media Defenders Network (SAMDEN), South Asia Peace Action Network (SAPAN), South Asia Solidarity Group, and Turbine Bagh.—KMS
