Archives 2005-1014: Press Freedom
The 16 March 1997 slaying in Kashmir of Saidain Shafi, a contributor to programs carried on the official Indian television network Doordarshan, marks the second time in 1997 that a Kashmiri broadcast journalist has been killed and the eighth time that a journalist has been assassinated in Kashmir since an armed insurgency against Indian rule broke out in late 1989. On 16 March, two unidentified gunmen, suspected of being militant separatists, ambushed Shafi in the Narsingh-Garh area of Srinagar... MORE
Altaf Ahmed Faktoo, a news reader for the state-owned Doordarshan Kendra television station in Srinagar, Kashmir, was assassinated on 1 January 1997 by suspected militant separatists. Three unidentified men entered the Crown Hotel, owned by Faktoo's family, in Srinagar's heavily patrolled LalChowk area. They fired two shots at the journalist with a silencer pistol before fleeing the scene. No one has claimed responsibility for the murder. Faktoo is the seventh journalist to have been murdered... MORE
On 25 October 1996, at least five journalists were assaulted after they and approximately seven other print and broadcast reporters had assembled in front of the residence of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader Kanshi Ram to question him about his party's plans following hung assembly elections in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. After asking the journalists what they were doing there, an enraged Ram slapped one of the correspondents, Ashutosh Gupta of Aaj Tak Television, and called on his... MORE
On 1 August 1996, three unidentified men -- one armed with a pistol -- abducted Ashraf Shaban, the editor-in-chief of the Urdu-language daily "Al-Safa", from the newspaper's offices in Srinagar, Kashmir, and forced him into an auto-rickshaw taxi. Shaban has not been seen since and no one has claimed responsibility for his abduction. Shaban, who assumed the editorship of "Al-Safa" following his father's assassination, has frequently been intimidated by both militant separatists and government... MORE
On 8 July 1996, an Indian-backed counter-insurgency militia kidnapped and detained 19 journalists in Kashmir. The journalists, who were released unharmed that same evening, were held as hostages by the militia to secure a meeting with the editors of Kashmir's leading newspapers. The 19 journalists were traveling together from Srinagar, the summer capital of Kashmir, to a press conference called by the Muslim Mujahideen, one of several Indian- backed militias in the region. They were intercepted... MORE
On 17 May 1996, journalist and human rights activist Parag Kumar Das was shot by unidentified gunmen in Guwahati, in the northeastern state of Assam. Das, the editor-in-chief of the daily "Asomiya Pratidin", was picking his son up from school when three men drove up in an automobile and opened fire. Das was shot at least eight times. His seven year-old son, Rohan Das, sustained an injury to his right hand, but is reportedly in stable condition. The gunmen fled the scene immediately after the... MORE
On 10 April 1996, the body of Kashmiri newspaper editor Ghulam Rasool Sheikh was found in the state's Jhelum river. Sheikh had been missing since late March, when family members said that he was kidnapped by an Indian-backed militia. Local police, on the other hand, contend that he was abducted and slain by separatist guerrillas. The editor of two Kashmiri newspapers, the Urdu- language daily "Rehnuma-e-Kashmir" and the English-language weekly "Saffron Times", Sheikh had recently spoken out... MORE
On 6 March 1996, Ghulam Nabi Khayal, a Kashmiri journalist and correspondent for Pakistan Television (PTV), and formerly a reporter with United Press International (UPI), was threatened by three unidentified men who threw two grenades at his home located in the city of Srinagar. One of the two grenades exploded, damaging window panes in the house; however, there were no injuries. Khayal had refused to comply with an order by the men to come with them. Indian police attributed the grenade attack... MORE
Mushtaq Ali, a Kashmiri photojournalist who is a stringer for Agence France Presse (AFP) and a cameraman for the video agency Asian News International, died in Srinagar, Kashmir on 10 September 1995. He was pronounced clinically dead after a parcel bomb exploded in his hands on 7 September, but was not taken off life support until 10 September.MORE
Mushtaq Ali, a Kashmiri photojournalist who strings for the Agence France Presse (AFP) news agency, was pronounced clinically dead in Srinagar on 7 September 1995, after a parcel bomb exploded in his hands. The parcel was delivered on the afternoon of 7 September to the office of Yusuf Jameel, the Srinagar, Kashmir correspondent for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and Reuters news agency. At about 15:15 hours local time (5:45 EST), an unidentified woman clad in a black burkha (a long... MORE
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