Kashmiri Photojournalist Booked Under UAPA For 'Anti-National Posts' On Social Media

According to a statement issued by J-K Police on Monday, April 20, they have registered a case against 26-year-old Masrat Zahra under section 13 of UA(P) Act and 505-IPC in Cyber Police Station, Kashmir Zone.

The amended UAPA allows the government to designate individuals as "terrorists" and empowers the federal National Investigation Agency to probe such cases. They can also be sentenced to jail for up to seven years.

"Cyber Police Station received information through reliable sources that one Facebook user namely "Masrat Zahra" is uploading anti-national posts with criminal intention to induce the youth and to promote offences against public tranquillity," The Indian Express quoted a statement issued by the J-K Police on Monday, April 20, as saying.

"The Facebook user is also believed to be uploading photographs which can provoke the public to disturb law and order. The user is also uploading posts that tantamount to glorify the anti-national activities and dent the image of law enforcing agencies besides causing disaffection against the country," it added.

Zahra, a freelance photojournalist, reports mostly about women and children in conflict, and has been published in Washington Post, Al Jazeera, and Caravan, among other publications.

According to the report, on Saturday evening, the photojournalist was contacted by Cyber Cell of J&K Police and was asked to appear before the police immediately. However, following the intervention by Kashmir Press Club and the J & K's Directorate of Information, Zahra was informed that "matter has been sorted now."

Zahra said that she has not been officially informed that a case has been registered against her and that she found out about it from her colleagues.

"In the morning a friend of mine called me and told me some journalists had tweeted that I had been booked by police. I saw the posts and then read more about the sections of UAPA I was booked under. I was speechless for a moment but my main concern at that time was not to panic my family," she told The Print.

"I am among the very few female photojournalists in Kashmir and have been working really hard to learn and to create my space for the past four years. They (police) want to silence me. They want to suppress me as I bring out the repressed voices and stories of Kashmir," she said.

Condemning the cases against Zahra, J&K Peoples Democratic Party tweeted, "Anyone not toeing the statist line is reportedly harassed, intimated & a vilification campaign unleashed. Journalists in Kashmir work in hostile conditions to keep the public informed sometimes even at the cost of their lives."

"Slapping UAPA an anti terrorism law against Masrat Zahra a female journalist for merely representing a contrarian view is a manifestation of the urge to control the tone & tempo of the conversation in & on Kashmir," it added.

Also Read: Govt Slaps Anti-Terror Act On Those 'Misusing' Social Media In Kashmir