ISLAMABAD, Mar 30 (APP): Several journalists and members of civil society in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) paid rich tributes and condolences to martyred journalist Rayees Ahmad Butt on his first martyrdom anniversary.
Indian troops martyred young Kashmiri freelance journalist Rayees Ahmad along with a youth during a cordon and search operation on March 30 last year in the Rainawari area of the Srinagar city, Kashmir Media Service (KMS) reported.
“Occupied Kashmir is one of the most dangerous places in the world where people associated with the press and media are performing their professional duties in the most difficult circumstances and situations,” said a report released by KMS on Thursday.
It said 20 journalists had been confirmed as being killed while performing their duties during the Kashmiris’ ongoing liberation struggle since 1989. They include Shabbir Ahmed Dar, Mushtaq Ali, Muhammad Shaban Wakeel, a woman scribe Aasiya Jeelani, Ghulam Muhammad Lone, Ghulam Rasool Azad, Pervez Muhammad Sultan, Shujaat Bukhari, Ali Muhammad Mahajan, Syed Ghulam Nabi, Altaf Ahmed Fakhtoo, Saidan Shafi, Tariq Ahmed, Abdul Majid Butt and Javed Ahmed Mir.
The report said almost routinely, the journalists in the occupied territory face manhandling, abductions, murder attempts and death threats by the Indian troops and all this has made their everyday work extremely difficult.
It pointed out that the Kashmiri journalists and many other scribes while performing their professional duties in the territory were roughed up, threatened, assaulted, summoned and detained by the Indian police, agencies and troops on fake charges.
Several journalists, including Aasif Sultan, Fahad Shah, Irfan Meraj and Sajad Gul had been facing illegal detention under draconian laws and remain lodged in different jails in India and IIOJK.
The report said India was using different intimidating tactics to harass the journalists in IIOJK and victimization of media persons had increased manifold since August 05, 2019 when the Narendra Modi-led fascist Indian government repealed the special status of the territory. “Fascist Modi’s regime is using strong-arm tactics to stifle the media in the held valley. Kashmiri journalists are abducted, threatened and tortured just for doing their job,” it deplored.
The report maintained that India was targeting the Kashmiris journalists to hide the ground realities of IIOJK from the world but would never succeed in its nefarious designs.
