Kashmir Editors Guild (KEG) Tuesday condemned the police raid on the residence of its senior member, Ghulam Jeelani Qadri, editor daily Afaaq, and his subsequent arrest during Monday night.
Terming the raid on his residence as shocking, the KEG in astatement said that Qadri, 62, a known hypertensive, has spent more than 35years in public life.
To arrest Qadri, the police invoked a 1990s case registeredagainst eight journalists and editors, of whom two veterans Sofi GhulamMohammad of ‘Srinagar Times’ and Ghulam Mohammad Aarif of ‘Daily Hamdard’ havealready passed away.
“It is still notknown why Qadri was singled out,” the statement said, adding that he wasaccused of defying due process of law in a case, of which he was not aware of.
The statement quoted Qadri as saying that he did not knowhow and why he was declared a proclaimed offender. “The case is curious becausethe same police station verified and attested the antecedents of the editor forissuance of the passport twice in last 30 years,” the statement said.
The editor was today granted bail by a court.
The KEG said that in the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate,the police failed to offer even an iota of evidence about what the case was allabout.
“After granting bail to the editor, the court directed thepolice to explain how it had investigated the case in last three decades beforeit finally swooped on the residence of Qadri and arrested him in the dead ofthe night,” it said.
KEG condemned the way the senior editor was declared”proclaimed offender in the books” and finally arrested during the dead of thenight.
“Qadri, like every member of the media in Kashmir, is a lawabiding citizen and could have personally appeared before the police station orthe court had he been informed. He has been a newspaper editor for last morethan two decades, has contributed to the institution of media and has been inpublic life for three decades.
“How can a person be a proclaimed offender if he isavailable in his office in the heart of Srinagar for more than 15 hours daily?”the statement said.
Meanwhile, KEG regretted that the arrest of Qadri led to thedelay in the electoral process of the Aiwan-e-Sahafat “because most of thejournalists were busy shuttling between courtrooms and the police station forthe whole day.”
KEG hailed the judicial intervention that led to Qadri’srelease. “The Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) Srinagar actually showed thejudiciary’s concern in the case insisting that the liberty of the media is notbarred or trampled upon,” it said.