By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter,
Srinagar: As many as 10 journalists have been killed and several others injured while performing their professional duties since the inception of militancy in 1989, a report release here has claimed.
“Kashmir is one of the most dangerous places of the world where people associated with the press and media are carrying out their professional duties in the most difficult situation. Journalists routinely face manhandling, abductions, murder attempts and death threats by troops and this has made their everyday work extremely difficult,” the report released by Kashmir Media Service, a news agency and a data bank on Kashmir conflicts, has said.
The report was released on the occasion of World Press Day on May 3 here. The dead scribes include: Shabir Ahmad Dar, Mushtaq Ali, Ghulam Muhammad Lone, Ghulam Rasool Azad, Muhammad Shaban Wakeel, Pervez Muhammad Sultan, Mushtaq Ahmad and a woman scribe, Aasia Jeelani.
The police assaulted, abused and harassed video and photojournalists while they were covering protests in Hyderpora area of Srinagar earlier last month. “We were doing our professional duty but policemen misbehaved with us as if we were criminals,” Zubair Dar, who works with Press TV as a video journalist said. “There were senior journalists as well. They too were abused by the police,” he added.
Syed Shahriyar, another photo-journalist, said while the cops were chasing the scribes, senior officers were watching like mute spectators. He said that the policemen could have roughed them up had the locals not given them shelter.
The report asserted that, “besides manhandling and humiliation, journalists are forced to move boulders on a road despite curfew pass. Many photo journalists are being stopped from covering the spots of action.”