Massive searches by Kashmir Police over terrorists warning journalists

New Delhi: Jammu and Kashmir Police in a tweet on Saturday morning said “massive searches in connection with investigations of cases related to the recent threat to journalists started by Police at ten locations in Srinagar, Anantnag and Kulgam."

Police said further details will follow and some arrests are not ruled out. Joint troops from police and paramilitary are searching several houses and other locations in three districts.

Massive searches in connection with #investigation of case related to recent #threat to journalists started by Police at 10 locations in #Srinagar, #Anantnag and #Kulgam. Details shall be followed.@JmuKmrPolice

— Kashmir Zone Police (@KashmirPolice) November 19, 2022

Turkey-based terror operative Mukhtar Baba and six of his contacts in Jammu and Kashmir are suspected to be behind threats received by several journalists in the Valley in the past couple of days, according to an intelligence dossier.

Several journalists resigned from local publications recently after being threatened by terror outfit The Resistance Front (TRF), a shadow organisation of the Lashkar-e-Taiba. 

Condemning the threats, the Editors Guild of India recalled that the editor of Rising Kashmir Shujaat Bukhari was assassinated in June 2018.

It is after years that journalists are getting threats from the terroirists.

The security agencies have found that Baba visits Pakistan from Turkey and propagates a false narrative to groom youngsters for terrorism under the banner of The Resistance Front (TRF). The security agency has identified six people in touch with Baba, including four journalists.

Baba hailed from Srinagar and was working as a journalist in Kashmir. He is a resident of Nawgam Srinagar. He shifted his base to Turkey in 2018.

The police registered a case on November 12 against several people for sending threatening letters to senior journalists. Five journalists resigned after receiving the threat. 

Several journalists are showing concern and feel they are walking on a razor's edge, and many times they have to self-censor their reports for fear of their lives. 

Some half-a-dozen journalists have been killed in Kashmir over the last three decades, and dozens of them have been arrested allegedly for being sympathizers to the separatists. 

Journalists in the past have gone on strike asking for immunity from both sides, and several times newspapers protested by keeping their editorials blank.

Committee to Protect Journalists, Reporters San frontier, Editors Guild of India, Press Club of India and several other media organizations have many times condemned atrocities on journalists in Kashmir.