The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) is
shocked to learn of an attack on Riyaz Masroor,
a senior journalist, near his home in the Alucha Bagh neighbourhood of Srinagar, capital of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir.
According
to information accessed by the IFJ, Masroor was attacked by police on his way
to collect a curfew pass from the State Government’s Information Department,
after receiving a telephone call asking for his presence. Masroor’s press pass
had been cancelled as part of the security clampdown that began on July 7,
following month-long civil disturbances in the valley.
IFJ
sources report that the journalist was leaving home on the morning of July 9 to
visit the department’s office when he was stopped at a police checkpoint on the
main thoroughfare near his home.
Personnel
of the Jammu and Kashmir
police reportedly did not ask him why he was stepping out during the curfew,
nor did they wait for an explanation.
Masroor
was attacked with heavy batons and forced to return home. He suffered injuries to
his hip and right wrist.
The attack
comes soon after a traumatic day for the Kashmir
media on July 6, when 12 media workers, mostly still and video camera operators
working for local, national and international media, suffered serious injuries
at the hands of security personnel seeking to enforce a total curfew.
“The IFJ is
shocked and concerned that Riyaz Masroor
was deemed to be in violation of the Kashmir curfew
when he was simply responding to a summons to pick up a fresh curfew pass from the
Information Department of the State Government,” IFJ
Asia-Pacific Director Jacqueline Park said.
“The IFJ
is not convinced by the official claim by Kashmir’s
authorities that all official permissions for journalists to pass through
curfew-bound areas have been restored.”
The IFJ has
serious worries over the continuing clampdown on the media in the Kashmir region, now into its fifth day, and notes that
the Delhi Union of Journalists, the Editors’
Guild of India and the Press Club of India have reacted with strong condemnation
of the attacks on the press.
“We hope
that these expressions of solidarity with the journalists of Kashmir and
outrage at troubles in the region will convince the authorities in India that they must reverse their approach and
lift the restrictions on the press operating in Kashmir,”
Park said.
For further
information contact IFJ Asia-Pacific
on +612 9333 0919
The IFJ
represents more than 600,000 journalists in 125 countries
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Twitter: @ifjasiapacific