By Auqib Javeed for TwoCircles.net
Pulwama: Family members of a freelance photojournalist from South Kashmir, Kamran Yousuf, who was arrested by National Investigating Agency (NIA) on Tuesday on charges of stone pelting have contested the NIA claims that he was a ‘stone pelter’ and was mobilising others to ‘pelt stones on government forces’.
Kamran a resident of Tahab village of South Kashmir’s Pulwama district has been accused of ‘inciting youth to pelt stones by NIA’.
Rubeena, mother of the Kamran while talking to TwoCircles.net denied that his son was a stone pelter, saying that he was carrying his professional duties and that he has no links with stone pelting.
She said her son used to cover every incident that took place in south Kashmir for a Srinagar-based English newspaper and was very focused on his work.
“I don’t know why my son was arrested. I have not seen him since Eid. We were living for each other, he was supporting me in running the house,” said Rubeena who works as a clerk in a private school in Pulwama.
Rubeena said her son is being implicated in a fabricated case as he was reporting from truth ground zero.
While slamming the organisation and media fraternity of the valley for not taking a stand on his arrest, Rubeena said her son was putting his life at risk while covering encounters and other incidents in the South Kashmir.
“No one from any media fraternity except few local Journalists approached me. At least the organisation with whom Kamran was working for past three years should have called me and shown their concern and sympathy,” she told TwoCircles.net.
Kamran is living with his mother at his maternal home as his father divorced his mother 18 years ago.
“He was the only hope for his mother,” said his maternal uncle Irshad Ahmad.
“Kamran was not involved in any kind of case, we fail to understand why he was arrested and that too by a central agency. Why didn’t Pulwama police summon him if he was a stone pelter before his detention?” asked Irshad.
He along with another youth Javid Ahmad of Pulwama district was arrested by NIA on the charges of stone pelting on Tuesday. The duo was taken to New Delhi for interrogation.
Kamran is also accused of uploading ‘Provocative’ video on his Facebook profile while Javaid, a labourer by profession, is accused of instigating violence via WhatsApp.
In August 2017, Yusuf was named among nine emerging photographers in Jammu and Kashmir by With Kashmir, a digital media company.
The NIA has also summoned senior lawyer and Kashmir Bar Association chief Mian Abdul Qayoom for questioning at its New Delhi headquarters.
The central agency is probing the militancy and separatist funding in Jammu and Kashmir.
An official from the senior official from the Jammu and Kashmir Police said that the Kamran’s case is under investigation by NIA and they can’t comment on it.
Meanwhile, the heads of three separatist groups in the Valley had announced on Wednesday about their plans to fly to Delhi on September 9, to volunteer arrest before the NIA but were put under house arrest by the state police. This decision according to them was taken to end harassment by the NIA in Kashmir.