Police summonses to journos a 'new low', say J&K parties

NEW DELHI: Several political parties have reacted strongly to the reported police action of summoning Kashmiri journalists, describing it as "a new low".

"Kashmir has been turned into Dante's hell and anyone, including journalists, who highlight govt's dehumanising illegal actions, such as an Orwellian-type surveillance of mosques and imams, is summoned and threatened," PDP's Iltija Mufti wrote on X. "Nothing in Kashmir is normal yet we must appease Delhi by normalising its abnormal & inhumane actions towards Kashmir and Kashmiris," she added.




Over the past week, an assistant editor who has been part of the Srinagar bureau of a national daily since 2006 was summoned by police on four separate occasions and asked to sign a bond. Another journalist was called in by police in connection with a news report on the profiling of mosques and imams. J&K police have not issued any statement on the matter. Political parties say journalists across the Valley have reported being summoned by police.

People's Conference chairman Sajad Lone described it as reprehensible. "Why should the police intervene and summon journalists when they are doing a story based on facts. This is a new low," Lone wrote on X.

CPM legislator M Y Tarigami wrote on X that "summoning reporters and asking them to sign bonds is a fresh attempt to browbeat them into submission. It reflects a wider pattern of intimidation of journalists aimed at silencing independent voices."

Mirwaiz Umar Farooq posted on X, "First intrusive and arbitrary profiling of mosques, imams and seminaries is being carried out by the authorities in J&K, and then journalists reporting on it are targeted and harassed." "Forcing reporters into affidavits, undertakings and bonds at police stations is condemnable... Free press needs to be protected," he added.

Syed Naseer Hussain, Congress general secretary in charge of J&K and Ladakh, said, "A democratic society cannot function when the basic act of asking questions is treated as an act of defiance. For years, Kashmiri journalists have worked under conditions that test professional integrity and personal security alike."
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