Tributes paid to IIOJK journalist Rayees Butt on his martyrdom anniversary
Srinagar: Several journalists and members of civil society paid rich tributes and expressed condolences to martyred journalist Rayees Ahmad Butt on his 4th martyrdom anniversary in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
According to Kashmir Media Service, Indian troops martyred a young Kashmiri freelance journalist, Rayees Ahmad Butt, along with a youth during a cordon and search operation on this day in 2022 in the Rainawari area of Srinagar city.
The journalist fraternity of the Kashmir Valley paid tributes to the departed soul and to all victimized journalists in occupied Kashmir.
Occupied Kashmir is one of the most dangerous places in the world for media professionals, where those associated with the press are performing their duties under extremely difficult circumstances, said a report released today by Kashmir Media Service.
It said that 20 journalists have been confirmed killed while performing their duties during the Kashmiris’ ongoing liberation struggle since 1989. They include Shabbir Ahmed Dar, Mushtaq Ali, Muhammad Shaban Wakeel, woman scribe Aasiya Jeelani, Ghulam Muhammad Lone, Ghulam Rasool Azad, Pervez Muhammad Sultan, Shujaat Bukhari, Ali Muhammad Mahajan, Syed Ghulam Nabi, Altaf Ahmed Fakhtoo, Saidan Shafi, Tariq Ahmed, Abdul Majid Butt, and Javed Ahmed Mir.
The report said that journalists in the occupied territory routinely face manhandling, abductions, murder attempts, and death threats by Indian troops, making their daily work extremely challenging. It pointed out that Kashmiri journalists and other media persons are often roughed up, threatened, assaulted, summoned, and detained on fabricated charges while performing their professional duties.
Several journalists, including Irfan Meraj and Sajad Gul, have been facing illegal detention under draconian laws and remain lodged in different jails in India and IIOJK.
The report said that India is using various intimidating tactics to harass journalists in IIOJK, and the victimization of media persons has increased manifold since August 5, 2019, when the Hindutva BJP government revoked the special status of the territory. The BJP regime, it added, is using strong-arm tactics to stifle the media in IIOJK. Kashmiri journalists are abducted, threatened, and tortured simply for doing their job, it deplored.
The report maintained that India is targeting Kashmiri journalists to conceal the ground realities of IIOJK from the world but would never succeed in its nefarious designs.
