The release called her a “Facebook user” who “uploads photographs” which can provoke the public. “The user is also uploading posts that tantamount to glorify the anti-national activities and dent the image of law enforcing agencies besides causing disaffection against the country,” the police statement said.
Zahra says she doesn’t understand what she was being targeted for. “They’re saying I’m just a Facebook user who is uploading pictures. They are not saying I’m not a journalist,” said Zahra. “I’ve to be there at the cyber police station tomorrow (Tuesday).”
As a freelancer, Zahra _ her photographs have appeared in Al Jazeera, Washington Post, The Caravan, Scroll and Quint, among others _ has no organisation to support her in her fight against, what she calls, “intimidation by security forces”.
The Network of Women in Media, India (NWMI) has demanded that charges against Zahra be dropped. “Even a cursory look at Masrat Zahra’s Facebook account reveals that her stories and photographs are deeply empathetic and accurate reports of the ground reality. Photographs do not lie but her exceptional work as a photojournalist obviously causes discomfort among the powers that be,” the network said in a statement.
NWMI pointed out that Zahra was “vilified and trolled online as an “army informer”, barely two years ago” for her work covering an encounter between the Indian Army and a group of militants in Kashmir’s Shopian region.
The Kashmir Press Club (KPC) has been critical of the police of intimidating and harassing Kashmiri journalists, that too during the coronavirus pandemic. “Even in the time of the Coronavirus pandemic journalists in Kashmir have been called to police stations and forced to present themselves to explain their stories,” KPC said in a statement.
It said on Sunday police summoned a senior journalist of The Hindu, Peerzada Ashiq, all the way to Anantnag to explain alleged factual inaccuracies in a story. Last week, police beat up and arrested Kashmir Observer's Mushtaq Ahmad in Bandipora when he was out for a story during the lockdown. Ahmad was later released on bail.
A Kashmiri freelance photojournalist, whose work has been published in national and international newspapers and websites, has been charged with the draconian Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) for alleged 'anti-national' posts on social media.
Masrat Zahra (26), who received a phone call on Saturday from the cyber police station in Srinagar summoning her to the police station, however, said that she wasn’t sure what she was being targeted for.
“They told me to reach the station immediately. They said, ‘we will talk here (at the station)’ and added that no one would stop me on the way... I told them it was already 5pm and my father wasn’t at home. ‘I’ll come tomorrow’. But they insisted on immediate appearance,” Zehra said.
Ultimately, the Kashmir Press Club (KPC) intervened on Zahra’s behalf and helped drop the police summons on Saturday.
“Today (Monday) morning, I found out from a tweet that I was booked (under UAPA). I had no idea that they’d do this,” she said.
Under UAPA, Zahra could be detained without bail for as long as 90 days which could be extended to 180 days by a court.
In a press release dated Saturday, April 18, the cyber police station of Kashmir zone accused her of “uploading anti-national posts with criminal intention to induce the youth and to promote offences against public tranquility.”
