Activists Criticize Journalist's Arrest on Terror Charges in India-Administered Kashmir

Activists this week described the March 20 arrest of Kashmiri freelance journalist Irfan Mehraj for association with a Kashmir-based human rights group as another in a series of instances of Indian government punishment of journalists and activists who expose rights abuses in Indian-administered Kashmir.

Mehraj was arrested by India's National Investigation Agency for his connection with Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society, or JKCCS, for which he provided research support. The organization, a federation of rights organizations and individuals in Indian-administered Kashmir, is being investigated as part of what is known as the "NGO terror funding case" -- security agencies allege that several organizations have funded Kashmiri terrorist groups.

The group's leader, Kashmiri rights activist Khurram Parvez, had been detained on terrorism-related charges since November 2021. He was formally arrested in the terror funding case March 22.

Mehraj worked for such Indian news portals as Article 14 and The Caravan magazine. He also contributed to international media outlets, including Deutsche Welle and Al Jazeera, apart from his work for the JKCCS.

"Investigation revealed that the JKCCS was funding terror activities in [Kashmir] valley and had also been in the propagation of secessionist agenda in the Valley under the garb of protection of human rights," the NIA said in a statement after Mehraj's arrest.

However, Mehraj's arrest "for his principled articulations is grievous," Angana Chatterji, a University of California at Berkeley scholar who has long worked on Kashmir human rights issues, said.

"The strategy of the Indian government to brand certain Kashmiri journalists and human rights defenders as agents of 'terror' is an assault on freedom of speech and seeks to effectively silence reportage on the egregious political violence and human rights abuses in Indian-administered Kashmir," Chatterji told VOA.

The crackdown on journalists and rights activists has increased since August 2019, when the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party-led national government unilaterally revoked the autonomy that Kashmir had had for 70 years, dissolved its government, and brought it fully under the control of the central Indian government.

Source: VOA