Srinagar 14 Mar 2018
The NIA has said it will continue to oppose the bail application of photojournalist Kamran Yousuf, who was arrested last year in the J&K terror-funding case.
On Sunday, J&K Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti wrote on Twitter that she spoke to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and urged him to look into the case. “I’ve requested him to intervene so that the life of a young budding journalist does not get ruined,” she said.
Yousuf’s arrest has been condemned by journalist associations in the State. Soon after his arrest in September last, a huge poster with Yousuf’s photograph wearing a bulletproof jacket that had “Press” inscribed on it was put up at Press Colony in Srinagar. The caption read: “Kamran Yousuf is a journalist, not a stone-thrower.”
A senior official of the Union Home Ministry said Mr. Singh was yet to issue any instruction. The official said a chargesheet was filed against Yousuf and 10 others, and it was for the court to decide.
“We will continue opposing bail for Yousuf. The court will decide on the merit of the case,” said the official.
1,843 videoclips found
At a hearing in a city court on Yousuf’s bail application, the NIA had said 1,843 videoclips were retrieved from his laptop, and all of them were on “arson, burning of the national flag, stone-throwing and violent protests.” The NIA said most of these videos were shot by Yousuf and he was not a “true journalist.” His family has maintained that he was doing his job as a freelance journalist.
The NIA’s chargesheet called him a “stone-thrower” and said he was found involved in several stone-throwing incidents.
“During the investigation, some WhatsApp groups active in Jammu and Kashmir were also analysed and some mobile phone numbers that were persistently located at places where counter-terrorist operations were in progress were identified…Investigation also revealed his links to overground workers of terrorist organisations.”
The NIA arrested 10 persons in 2017 in the terror-funding case. Besides Lashkar-e-Taiba leader Hafiz Saeed and Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin, the agency filed a charge sheet against separatist leader Syed Shah Geelani’s son-in-law Altaf Ahmad Shah alias Fantoosh, Geelani’s personal assistant Bashir Ahmad Bhat and businessman Zahoor Ahmad Shah Watali, Javed Ahmad Bhat, Hurriyat Conference leaders Aftab Ahmad Shah, Altaf Ahmad Shah, Nayeem Ahmad Khan, Farooq Ahmad Dar alias Bitta Karate, Mohammad Akbar Khanday and Raja Mehrajuddin Kalwal.
