Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir police on Saturday arrested a journalist in Bandipora district of North Kashmir, days after he posted a video of family and relatives of a killed militant, raising anti-India slogans.
Police said the journalist was involved in “mischievous activities to disrupt peace and tranquillity of the region.”
Sajad Gull, a journalism student, a resident of Shahgund Hajin Bandipora was detained by army during a raid last night and subsequently handed over to police, family said.
He has been charged under 120B (party to criminal conspiracy), 153B (imputations, assertions prejudicial to national integration) and 505B (fear or alarm to the public) sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
Gull had posted a video of the protest against the killing of Salim Parray, a Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) commander. Parray was killed on January 3 in a gunfight in Harwan, Srinagar. After the killing, minor protests and sloganeering happened in Hajin in north Kashmir. Parray was the most wanted militant commander, police had said soon after his killing.
The family of the journalist said that Gull was detained by the army on Wednesday at 10:00 pm. “Later we came to know he is under police custody,” the family said, adding that they were informed that a case had been registered against him.
Police in a statement said, “Sajad Ah. Dar son of Gh. Mohd Dar resident of Shahgund Hajin, so called journalist, runs a Twitter account in the name of Sajad Gull is always in search of anti-government news and uploads tweets which are not based on facts in order to provoke the people against government and to spread enmity against the nation among people.” “Last year encroachment drive was carried out by revenue department in his native village wherein he has instigated the locals against that drive and restrained the officials in discharging their legitimate duties,” police said adding that to this effect case FIR No.12/ 2021 U/S 147,447,336,353/IPC was registered against him and the final charge sheet against him was produced before the court of JMIC Sumbal for judicial determination.
“The subject has spread, by virtue of his false tweets, fake narrative regarding the recent anti-terrorist operation in Gundjahangeer in which one local terrorist namely Imtiyaz Ahmad was eliminated thereby provoking the local masses against the army and police,” police said adding that in this regard case FIR no.79/2021 U/S 120B,153B,505/IPC was registered against him.
“It is also worth mentioning that the day when most wanted terrorist Saleem Parray was eliminated in Shalimar Srinagar the subject uploaded the videos of anti- national slogans by some women folk, mostly relatives at the slain’s residence in Hajin thereby tried to disrupt the peace,” police said.
“The activities of the subject are prejudicial to the security and sovereignty of the country. The so-called journalist always tweets controversial statements and after provoking the masses delete the same tweets and thereby is involved in mischievous activities to disrupt peace and tranquillity of the region.”
“Therefore the said person under the garb of journalism is habitual of spreading disinformation or false narratives through different social media platforms in order to create ill will against the government by provoking general masses to resort to violence and disturb public peace and tranquillity. Moreover his overall activities are prejudicial to the sovereignty, integrity and unity of India. Accordingly, a case has been registered against him in which he has been arrested and presently is on police remand,” police said.