The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has asked the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to drop charges against, and release, Kashmiri photojournalist Kamran Yusuf immediately.
Kamran was arrested by the NIA on 7 September last year on charges of stone throwing.
Steven Butler, CPJ’s program coordinator for Asia, said in a statement that Kamran was “doing public service”.
“India’s National Investigation Agency is way out of its league and has no business defining what a real journalist should cover,” said Butler.
“Kamran Yousuf’s work taking photographs of conflict in Jammu and Kashmir is a public service in the best spirit of journalism. He should be freed immediately,” he added.
The CPJ is a global non-profit organisation working towards press freedom worldwide.
In its observations filed by the NIA in court, the agency had said that Kamran was “not a real journalist” as he not covered government developmental activities, statement of a political party”, which, according to the NIA is the “moral duty” of a journalist.
The accusations against Kamran include charges of stone pelting incidents at various locations in the Kashmir Valley. The NIA had also said that he was in regular touch with “anti-national elements”.