Siraj-Ul-Uloom R-Day celebration row: Social media erupts as police files FIR against media outlets

Srinagar, Feb 01, KDC: Social media witnesses conspicuous reactions from users over the incident of police filing FIR against two media outlets following an army complaint.

As per News Agency Kashmir Dot Com (KDC), the media outlets ‘The Kashmiriyat’ and ‘The Kashmir Walla’ have been booked for publishing news about army pressurizing the religious institution Jamia Siraj Ul Uloom to hold Republic Day celebrations.

The news outlets had carried out the stories impartially and mentioned the quotes from the chairman of the school.

The news outlets had maintained the news and quoted the chairman of the institute saying that they had been pressurized by the army.

However, on January 31st, the institute on its letterhead contradicted the news reports and negated any pressure by the army in holding R-Day celebrations. As such army’s 44 RR filed a case against the two outlets for what they called spreading ‘fake news’ thereby maligning the image of the Army and police registered an FIR number 06/5021 under 153, 505 sections of IPC.

Ironically these repeated incidents invited reactions from prominent personalities on social media, these personalities posted on facebook and twitter condemned the act of filing an FIR against the outlets.

Gowhar Geelani a senior journalist quoted Fahad Shah’s (who is editor in chief of The Kashmir Walla) & said “Each time Fahad and his organisation are being harassed, targeted and harassed through multiple means. This is also evidence that he is doing his job professionally. That is why this singling out and constant harassment.”

Another journalist Shams Irfan posted on his twitter handle, “It is really painful to see @tkwmag being targeted over and again. To save independent journalism in #Kashmir it is important to support and stand by the TKW team.”

Hundreds of other users also condemned the step of booking the two news outlets and posted in their solidarity and prosperity of independent media. (KDC)