The renewed violence on the streets of Kashmir—against the presence of armed forces, the stifling of free movement and speech, the alienation of the State and the humiliation of the people—is not sparing journalists on the job, too.
Samar Halarnkar of the Hindustan Times reports in today’s paper that…
“A friend’s husband, the chief of bureau of a national television channel, was recently made to get out of his car and sweep the streets — this on a day there was no curfew.”
Elsewhere in the same paper, correspondent Taufiq Rashid writes in a New Delhi datelined story:
Asif Qureshi, bureau chief of Star News, was recently made to clear stones on the roadside by the CRPF. “All Kashmiris represent stone-pelters for securitymen,” he said. “They asked me to clear the road, telling me my brethren had thrown them.”
And to think that Star News belongs to the world’s biggest media baron, Rupert Murdoch.
Photograph: via Facebook
IJR 