Five journalists resign in J-K after TRF issues threat

SRINAGAR — Five journalists working for local newspapers in Kashmir have resigned after militant outfit TRF released a threat list against many journalists on social media.

Militant outfit TRF through its media mouthpiece ‘Kashmir Fight’ recently published a list of over one dozen journalists who were accused of working for security agencies and the army. The names on the list included two editors of local newspapers, a manager, few cameramen, and reporters.

After the list became public, five journalists quit their jobs and three published their resignations on their social media accounts, announcing their separation from the newspapers they had been working for years.

Top police officials said that The Resistance Front (TRF), an offshoot of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militant group, is behind these threats. TRF had issued similar threats earlier, targeting reporters working for national news channels after which the government had provided security cover and secure accommodation to a few journalists working for the national media.

Top police officials said, “The contents of the threats depict the intention of terrorists and anti-national elements. They have put the lives of people, especially media persons, in danger by publicly calling them corrupt and giving a direct threat.”

An FIR has been registered in this case and around a dozen suspects have been picked up who are currently being questioned, the police added.

In Kashmir, journalists have often been under threat. Shujaat Bukhari, Editor of Rising Kashmir, who was killed in June 2018 by militants, is part of over a dozen Kashmiri journalists who were killed for their work.

Since 2019, when Kashmir’s special status was revoked, several journalists have been jailed and called for questioning by the police, alleging they have links with anti-national elements.

The journalist fraternity in Kashmir has always remained at the forefront of covering the news in the toughest situations, but brazen is that no voice is alive to support this fraternity in its difficult times.