The police have questioned a senior journalist from The Hindu’s J&K Bureau, Peerzada Ashiq, a move that drew further criticism from the journalist community in the Valley.  According to a report by The Hindu, Ashiq was called in for questioning by the Cyber Police in Srinagar Sunday and then again on the same evening by the Anantnag police before being permitted to return home.

“Describing a report headlined “Kin allowed to exhume bodies of militants in Baramulla” published by The Hindu on April 19 as “fake news,” the Jammu and Kashmir police have registered an FIR in the matter,” reads The Hindu report on 20 April. The report was on two militants killed in an encounter in South Kashmir’s Shopian region. Two families had come forward to claim the bodies of the slain militants whom the authorities had said were unidentified. The administration had buried the slain militants in a graveyard in Sheeri, Baramulla, reserved for foreign, unidentified or unclaimed militants.