A First Information Report(FIR) has been lodged against a freelance reporter for a story he did for a local news organisation The Kashmir Walla, by the police in police station Hajin, a village in North Kashmir’s Bandipore district.
Sajad Gul, who works as a freelance journalist, had reported a story for The Kashmir Walla on an alleged demolition drive conducted by the local revenue authorities in a village called Shahgund of the Hajin area on February 9, 2021.
An FIR vide number 12/2021 dated February 10, 2021, has been lodged against the reporter under sections 147, 447, and 353 of the Indian Penal Code.
Speaking to Tahrir, Sajad said, “I did a story on a the Tehsildar who was harassing locals during the demolition drive here in Bandipore; I even got the story quote from the concerned Tehsildar.”
“After my story got published he couldn’t digest the bitter truth and started threatening me through the deputy SP and police” Sajad added.
Sajad says that he wasn’t at home when protests broke out against the administration and the FIR was registered against him and several others.
“I have requested the DSP and the SSP to trace my mobile phone location and I’m going to challenge the False FIR in the court,” Sajad said.
The Kashmir Press Club has condemned the action by the police and has expressed deep concerns over this. Allegedly, the young reporter is being harassed for reporting against the authorities, and the FIR lodged by the police has been done on insistence of the Tehsildar implicating him in false and fabricated charges of ‘stone-pelting’.