Arrests – Journalists

Two journalists from south Kashmir’s Anantnag district were arrested last week: Salman Shah (30), an editor at the online weekly Kashmir First, and Suhail Dar (21), is a freelance journalist. Both have been booked under Sections 107 and 151 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. Under 107, a person can be kept in preventive custody on an executive magistrate’s order to prevent ‘breach of peace’.

Section 151 deals with commission of cognisable offences, stating that “a police officer knowing of a design to commit any cognisable offence may arrest, without orders from a Magistrate and without a warrant, the person so designing, if it appears to such officer that the commission of the offence cannot be otherwise prevented”.

“We have no idea why he has been summoned. He was told to report to the police station, and police have not told us until yet what his crime was,” said Dar’s relative. He had come to court to pay Dar’s bail, but got to know that the police have asked the executive magistrate for seven days’ remand. “Dar is the only one who looks after his ailing parents. They are not able to come to court,” he said, wishing to remain anonymous.