In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, the ongoing flopped G20 meeting has brought a new wave of terror for the Kashmiri people with Indian army troops and paramilitary personnel being deployed in strength particularly in the Kashmir valley and Jammu region.
The frisking and checking at public places, including bus terminals in Srinagar, Jammu and Highways of the territory have been intensified.
Checkpoints have been set up across the territory where vehicles are being stopped and searched while people undergo intense frisking at bus terminal.
The atrocities and frisking in the name of security are going unnoticed in far-off areas of Poonch, Kathua, Rajouri and Samba districts.
The New York-based media watchdog, Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has said that press freedom in Jammu and Kashmir remains under attack while India holds a G20 meeting in Srinagar.
The CPJ in a statement issued in New York called upon the Indian government to end its brutal crackdown on the media and immediately release the four arbitrarily detained Kashmiri journalists.
It said, “CPJ has also documented foreign travel bans on Kashmiri journalists, indicating efforts by the Indian gov-ernment to chill reporting on rights abuses and repression in the region.”
“Government conducts raids on news outlets and journalists’ homes are also commonplace in Kashmir. In November 2022, police raided the homes of at least seven Kashmiri journalists, one of whom told CPJ he believed he was targeted for his critical reporting,” the statement added.
Pertinently, four journalists from Kashmir Fahad Shah, Asif Sultan, Sajad Gul and Irfan Mehraj are currently facing detention under various sections of the law.—KMS
