Charges framed against 2 over ‘seditious’ article

Jammu, March 18

In a first, a designated court here has framed charges against a journalist and a university scholar for writing and publishing a “seditious” article on a news portal.

The case against arrested journalist Peerzada Fahad Shah and Kashmir University scholar Abdul Ala Fazili was probed by the State Investigation Agency (SIA), which successfully brought it up to the stage of framing charges, an official said.

He said Ashwani Kumar, the special judge designated under the NIA Act, framed the charges on Thursday. The case pertains to information received by the CIJ police station (SIA-Jammu) on April 4 last year, along with a copy of an article titled The Shackles of Slavery Will Break, written by Fazili and published by a digital magazine (portal) — The Kashmir Walla — through its editor-in-chief-cum-director Shah, according to the official.

“The duo, under an active conspiracy and Pakistan’s support, resurrected a platform reviving the narrative in support of the terrorist and separatist ecosystem. They were spreading an anti-India narrative with the help of illicit funding received from hostile foreign agencies and proscribed terrorist organisations,” he said.