The National Investigation Agency has arrested Kashmiri journalist Irfan Mehraj, the founding editor of an online magazine, in a terror-funding case, triggering allegations that laws were being “weaponised against journalists”.
An NIA spokesman did not refer to Mehraj as a journalist and said he was part of a human rights group propagating a “secessionist agenda in the Valley under the garb of protection of human rights”.
The authorities have arrested several Kashmiri journalists in the past but seldom referred to them as journalists. Mehraj is the founding editor of Wande Magazine and senior editor at TwoCircles. net, both online platforms.
His work has appeared in national and international media organisations including Al Jazeera, Turkish Radio and Television Corporation and The Indian Express.
“Following comprehensive investigations into the NGO terror-funding case registered in October 2020, the National Investigation Agency arrested Irfan Mehraj from Srinagar yesterday,” an NIA spokesman said.
“Irfan Mehraj was a close associate of Khurram Parvez and was working with his organisation, the Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Societies (JKCCS). Investigation revealed that the JKCCS was funding terror activities in the Valley and had also been in the propagation of a secessionist agenda in the Valley under the garb of protection of human rights,” the spokesman added.
Parvez had been arrested in 2021 under the anti-terror law UAPA, sparking international outrage. The United Nation’s human rights body had described him as a “tireless advocate for the families of the disappeared”.
“This is pathetic. Laws are being weaponised against journalists,” Anuradha Bhasin, the executive editor of the Kashmir Times newspaper, tweeted on Tuesday.
Bhasin’s recent opinion piece in The New York Times had infuriated the Centre as she had accused the Narendra Modi government of stifling media freedom in Kashmir and the rest of India.
Former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti said “conmen are given a free run” while journalists like Irfan Mehraj are arrested for “speaking the truth”.
International media watchdog Committee to Protect Journalists had recently noted seven journalists were in jails in India.
