After subduing the mainstream media, the government has turned its attention to independent journalists, who now find themselves under similar pressure. Faced with raids, threats and detentions, they are self-censoring, refraining from writing stories critical of the government and fearful of even protesting against police harassment.

Srinagar: The facts of the case were disputed, so as a journalist Umar Mukhtar, 28, did what he always tried to do: present both sides of the story.

On 7 June 2021, Mukhtar, a freelance journalist, reported in The Wire the killing of 38-year-old Mohammad Amin Malik, who had been in police custody for three days before being killed on 2 June while being questioned in Tral, southern Kashmir.

Malik, according to the police, was a militant and was shot when he tried to grab a policeman’s weapon. In Umar’s report, the family said he was a labourer and had presented himself to the police for questioning.

A day later, Mukhtar received a call from a local police officer. The office of the senior superintendent of police in Awantipora had issued a summons against him. Soon, two constables knocked at the door of his house in Koil, Pulwama. They were carrying a hard copy of the summons.

The following day, Mukhtar presented himself before Awantipora senior superintendent of police (SSP) Muhammad Yousuf Choudhary.

“You are trying to create discord between the police and the public,” Mukhtar quoted the SSP as saying. He had not reported the incident accurately, the SSP told him.

SSP Choudhary first told Article 14 that Mukhtar had only the family’s version, which alleged was “fabricated” and had not spoken to the police.

But Mukhtar had indeed quoted the police in his story, reproducing their statement verbatim. To this, Choudhary said: “We had issued summons to Umar to know if he had more details about the case, which could help the police in investigation.”

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