Srinagar, (UNI): A Kashmiri journalist has been arrested by police in north Kashmir’s Bandipora district , officials said.
He was arrested Friday.
Sajad Gul, a journalism student who had recently joined online newsportal “The Kashmir Walla” as a trainee reporter, was booked days after he posted a video on his social media account showing a protest against the killing of a top Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) commander at Hajin.
Gul, as per his relatives, was detained on January 5 and later handed over to the police.
As per the “The Kashmir Walla” , Gul was charged under 120B (party to criminal conspiracy), 153B (imputations, assertions prejudicial to national integration), and 505B (fear or alarm to the public) sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
Editor of ‘The Kashmir Walla’, Fahad Shah demanded Gul’s immediate release.
Police said,” Sajad always Tweets “controversial statements” and after “provoking” the masses, “deletes” the same and thereby is “involved in mischievous activities to disrupt peace and tranquility of the region.”
“So called journalist runs a Twitter account in the name of Sajad Gul who is always in search of anti-government news and uploads tweets which are not based on facts in order to provoke the people against Government and to spread enmity among people towards nation ,” IGP Kashmir Vijay Kumar said.
He said last year an FIR was also registered against him during anti-encroachment drive wherein he “instigated” the locals against that drive.
“The day when most wanted terrorist Saleem Parray was eliminated in Shalimar Srinagar the subject uploaded the videos of anti- national slogans by some women folk mostly relatives at the slain’s residence in Hajin thereby trying to disrupt the peace.
The activities of the subject are prejudicial to the security and sovereignty of the country,” he said.
“The so called journalist always tweets controversial statements and after provoking the masses delete the same tweets and thereby is involved in mischievous activities to disrupt peace and tranquility of the region,” he said.
The arrest of Gul has triggered criticism.
Mehbooba hit out at the government over the arrest of the journalist.
“There is a different set of laws applicable to J&K vis-a-vis rest of India. Radicalised groups openly calling for genocide of muslims are roaming free while Kashmiri journalists shining a light on state sponsored human rights violations are jailed. Laws too have been communalised,” Mehbooba tweeted.
The Committee to Protect Journalists tweeted that it was “deeply disturbed” by reports of Gul’s arrest and urged authorities to “immediately release” him.
“#Kashmir: CPJ is deeply disturbed by reports that Kashmiri journalist @SajadGUL_ was arrested days after posting a video of a protest on social media. Authorities must immediately release Gul and drop their investigations related to his journalistic work,” CPJ said in a tweet.
