Kashmiri journalist Irfan Mehraj has been arrested by India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) under “terrorism” charges as New Delhi continues its crackdown on journalists in the Muslim-majority Himalayan region.
NIA, India’s top “anti-terror” agency, in a tweet on Tuesday said the arrest took place a day earlier due to Mehraj’s collaboration with the Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society, an organization directed by jailed human rights activist Khurram Parvez.
India’s Hindu nationalist government stripped the region’s semi-autonomy in 2019, saying this was aimed at tackling “terrorism.” Indian forces stationed in the region have been accused of widespread human rights abuses, with the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2018 calling for an international probe into the allegations of rights violations. India’s Hindu nationalist government has jailed several journalists as part of its intensifying crackdown on media freedom since 2019. Amnesty India called for the journalist’s immediate release, saying the arrest in connection with a “terror funding case” is “a travesty.”
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