Raids on media outlets in IIOJK attempt to coerce critical voices into submission: DFP
Srinagar: The Jammu and Kashmir Democratic Freedom Party (DFP), while condemning the recent raid on the Kashmir Times office in Jammu, has termed the action an attempt by the Indian authorities to further muzzle independent media in Kashmir.
According to Kashmir Media Service, in a statement issued in Srinagar on Thursday, DFP spokesman Advocate Arshad Iqbal said that the attack on one of Kashmir’s oldest and most respected independent media outlets was totally unjustifiable and unwarranted. The charges levelled against the newspaper and its editor-in-chief, Anuradha Bhasin, he added, were part of a “sinister design to coerce independent and critical voices into submission.”
Iqbal said the Kashmir Times is a widely circulated newspaper and a leading source of credible information on Indian illegally occupied Kashmir. “It is quite unfortunate that the outlet has repeatedly come under attack of the authorities solely for adhering to the principles of independent and objective journalism”, he noted.
He also expressed serious concern over the rising incidents of harassment and intimidation of journalists, political workers and social activists in the territory. “Illegal confiscation of civilian properties and demolition of their houses and business centres has now become a new norm in Kashmir,” he said, adding that such repressive measures were not just an administrative issue but deliberate attempts to punish people and strangulate them economically.
The spokesman further voiced his party’s concern over the worsening political and human rights situation in the territory. Referring to the continued illegal detention of Kashmiri prisoners, particularly the incarcerated party chairman Shabbir Ahmed Shah and other political detainees, he urged international human rights organisations to take effective notice of the situation and hold the Indian government accountable.
