Two days after the article on Kashmiri journalists, the Jammu Kashmir Police has said that the State Investigation Agency will initiate legal proceedings against the British Broadcasting Corporation. (BBC).
The BBC earlier released a report titled ‘Any story could be your last’ which spoke of the “intimidation” journalists in Kashmir face, however, the Police have issued a statement denying the claims made in the report.
In its statement, Police said, J-K Police strongly objects to an article published by the BBC on 1 September 2023, “Any story could be your last – India’s crackdown on Kashmir Press” by Yogita Limaye. The article unfairly castigates the efforts of J&K Police in maintaining law and order and security in J&K as biased against journalists.
Police maintains the highest standards of professionalism and functions squarely within the ambit of the law, added the statement.
“It is pertinent to mention that one of the cases mentioned in the article – that of Fahad Shah is one where a trial is already on going against the accused Fahad Shah and the court has already framed charges against him under the UAPA for providing terror sympathisers a platform for advocating terrorism through publishing inflammatory and secessionist articles on its online magazine Kashmir Walla,” Police said.
While the actions of J&K Police have stood the test of law and judiciary and changed the security environment in the UT immensely, the article of the author Ms Limaye follows an unabashedly biased line referring to UT of Jammu and Kashmir as India Occupied Kashmir, placing quotes of unidentified journalists in her article to bolster her non-existent claims of state overreach against journalists and mentioning instances without particulars of date and place, police spokesman said.
“J&K Police condemns the attempt of a media house such as the BBC to misrepresent the conditions in J&K in which the J&K Police has stood firmly on the front lines in the war against terror and lost thousands of its bravest men in an attempt to safeguard the people of J&K,” they added.
SIA J&K Police which is the investigating agency in the Fahad Shah case reserves the right to initiate further legal action against the media house for misreporting facts in a case which is sub judice, concluded the statement.