Kashmiri journalists stage protest against ‘media gag’

SRINAGAR: Journalists in Indian Occupied Kashmir on Thursday staged a small silent protest against what they say has been a “media gag” by Indian authorities that has badly affected their ability to work in the disputed region for the last 60 days.India stripped Muslim-majority Kashmir of autonomy on Aug. 5, shutting off phone networks and imposing curfew-like restrictions in some areas to dampen discontent. Mobile and internet communications in the Kashmir valley are largely blocked, severely impacting the ability of journalists to report from the region. Carrying placards and wearing black badges, more than 100 Kashmiri journalists gathered inside the Kashmir Press Club premises in Srinagar to stage a protest, as street protests are still restricted. “End information clampdown”, “Stop criminalising journalists”, “Journalism is not a crime”, read placards held up during the silent protest.The Indian government has provided an internet connection at a media centre set up for journalists, but reporters say this is insufficient and it lacks privacy. “There’s no privacy. Some 300 journalists use that facility daily and it is crowded. It is also being monitored and we are under surveillance,” said Ishfaq Tantray, General Secretary of the Kashmir Press Club.The president of the Kashmir Press Club, Shuja Thakur said that they had several times approached the Indian government in Kashmir for restoration of mobile and internet services for journalists. “They keep promising and say they are looking into it, but so far there has been no action,” he said.Meanwhile, normal life continues to remain badly hit on the 60th successive day, today, with heavy military deployment, restrictions and communications blockade in place in the Kashmir Valley and Muslim majority areas of Jammu region in Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK).According to Kashmir Media Service, restrictions have virtually made it impossible for both shopkeepers and customers to access markets and students and teachers to educational institutions amid public transport being off the road. The residents continue to face shortage of essential commodities including food and medicines. No one knows the scale of miseries of the people living particularly in far-flung areas due to suspension of all means of communication including mobile and internet services.Meanwhile, Indian police have confirmed to a four-member Juvenile body of the High Court of the occupied territory that scores of children as young as nine years of age were picked up since 5th of August when India revoked Kashmir’s special status and imposed a lockdown.Earlier, a report released by a delegation of Indian women organisations in New Delhi after a recent visit to the Kashmir Valley testified that 13,000 children were subjected to enforced disappearance by the Indian forces in Kashmir.In New Delhi, Jamaat-e-Islami, India, has expressed grave concern over the human rights situation in occupied Kashmir saying that imprisonment of the entire political leadership is against democratic ethos. According to Kashmir Media Service, the Indian troops arrested over a dozen youth in different areas of the territory in Indian Occupied Kashmir. The troops continued siege and search operations in Ganderbal, Bandipora, Ramban, Kishtwar, Doda, Kathua and several other districts of the occupied territory.Meanwhile an influential American newspaper today characterized as "absurd" the claim by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi that revocation of occupied Kashmir's special status meant that the people there, have got equal rights with other Indians, pointing out that the disputed state was "essentially under martial law"The New York Times'' Editorial Board said that Modi's clampdown on Kashmir would, in fact, only heighten tensions in the region and make life more miserable for Kashmiris, instead of his claim that it would resolve the conflict and bring normality and development to the troubled state.The Times, in its editorial, also said that the United Nations cannot ignore Kashmir anymore, as it focused on Prime Minister Imran Khan's warning that failure to resolve the crisis, could result in a war between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan. "He (Modi) could avoid disaster by lifting the siege, relaxing movement across the border between zones of the Kashmiri region that are held by India and Pakistan, releasing political prisoners and allowing independent investigators to look into alleged human rights abuses, " said the Times, which carried a large photograph atop its editorial.During his recent 7-day visit to New York at the head of Pakistan delegation to the 74th session of the UN General Assembly, PM Imran Khan visited The New York Times and briefed the newspaper's editorial Board. The editorial said, "Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan was a man on a mission at the United Nations, imploring members last week to persuade India to lift its siege of Kashmir, a longtime flash point between the two nations, which both have nuclear weapons."Failure to do so, he warned in a speech before the General Assembly on Friday, could result in war between the neighbours if Kashmiris push back against the suffocating presence of thousands of Indian troops.India cut phone and internet service, leaving millions of people isolated, the editorial also cited the prime minister's vigorous call for the UN to act on Kashmir. "If the UN doesn't speak about it, PM Khan told The Times editorial board the day before his UN speech last Friday, who is going to speak about it?" He may need to keep looking.Resting any hopes on the United Nations seems futile, given the approach it has taken to the dispute in recent decades, the Times said.

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