Srinagar, September 22, 2021 (PPI-OT):In order to keep the outside world unaware of Indian war crimes in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, the Indian authorities have placed restrictions on scores of journalists, human right activists and academicians to travel abroad.
43 people including 22 journalists have been banned from traveling outside Jammu and Kashmir and India as per a look out circular list prepared by the authorities in IIOJK. These journalists, human rights activists and academicians are critical of the Modi regime’s inhuman treatment of the Kashmiri people. Media reports said that the decision, in this regard, was taken on a so-called ‘adverse report’ from different Indian secret agencies.
“Most of these journalists are working for international organisations. And there is a fear that allowing them to travel abroad can dent the image of the Union government in international media,” a Srinagar-based news portal said in its report. It added that Indian police have created various sections that are currently monitoring and profiling Kashmir-based journalists.
As per the report, one section, called “Dial 100”, works on the “background updation” of journalists, which includes verifying their entire professional career in the media, including their body of work, family relations, foreign travels and so on. This section is mostly looked after by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), to whose branches in their respective police stations journalists are called for verification.
Adding that the other wing of the investigation is called the “Ecosystem of Narrative Terrorism” in which, apart from journalists, the profiling of human rights activists, civil society members, lawyers, academics and other associated people, is being carried out.
In this investigation, officials largely focus on the body of work of the people related to their respective field. “Here the officials minutely check the body of work of the particular individual. Like in [case of] lawyers, the investigative officer checks the kind of cases they take up. Similarly, in journalists’ [cases], an officer checks the stories they are doing,” the report added. “After the investigation is complete, the cases are then sent to the higher authority to take a call on them,” it concluded.
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Kashmir Media Service
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