Kashmir parties denounce police over summoning of journalists

Political parties across Kashmir have strongly condemned the summoning of several journalists by the Jammu and Kashmir Police, calling it an attempt to intimidate the media.

Over the past few days, several national and freelance journalists were reportedly asked to appear at Srinagar’s Cyber Police Station, where officials allegedly questioned them about their stories. Till late Tuesday, the J&K Police had not issued any official statement on the matter.

Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti criticised the move, saying journalists in Srinagar were being summoned to police stations and forced to sign bonds. “I condemn it and had hoped that Dr Farooq Abdullah Sahab would speak out and condemn it as well,” she said.

Her daughter, Iltija Mufti, alleged that Kashmir had been turned into “Dante's hell” and that anyone, including journalists, who highlights what she termed the government’s “dehumanising and illegal actions”, such as “Orwellian-style surveillance of mosques and imams”, was being summoned and threatened.

“Everyone here is safe only until they turn a blind eye to the oppression unleashed on a daily basis. Nothing in Kashmir is normal, yet we are expected to normalise abnormal and inhumane actions to appease Delhi,” she said.

J&K Congress chief and legislator Tariq Hameed Karra said he was “deeply concerned” by reports of journalists from national newspapers being questioned over routine reporting. “Such actions, if true, raise serious questions about the space for independent journalism in a democracy,” he said.

Congress general secretary and in-charge of J&K, Syed Naseer Hussain, called upon the Centre to “issue clear and binding guidelines preventing the summoning or questioning of journalists for routine and lawful reporting.”

He said the office of the J&K L-G, functioning under the authority of the Union government, “must ensure that governance in UT is exercised through transparent, consultative, and lawful means.”

National Conference spokesperson Tahir Sayeed said democracies thrive on a free press and any attempt to silence the media through intimidation must be condemned. “Journalists in Kashmir work under extremely difficult conditions and deserve to do their job with freedom, dignity and without fear,” he said.

People’s Conference chairman and MLA Sajad Lone termed the reported action a “new low”. “This is reprehensible. Why should the police intervene and summon journalists when they are doing a story based on facts?” he asked. CPM leader and Kulgam MLA MY Tarigami said summoning reporters and asking them to sign bonds was a fresh attempt to “browbeat them into submission”.

Hurriyat chairman and Jamia Masjid chief cleric Mirwaiz Umar Farooq said authorities were first carrying out “intrusive and arbitrary profiling” of mosques, imams and seminaries, and then targeting journalists who reported on it.

“Forcing reporters to sign affidavits, undertakings and bonds at police stations is condemnable. Religious spaces are not surveillance targets, nor is reporting facts a crime. Media houses must stand firmly behind their reporters. A free press must be protected,” he said.