The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Friday summoned a journalist of the Kashmir Observer to its Delhi office. An official said Mr. Javeed had been called to appear as a “witness.”
The journalist, Auquib Javeed Hakeem, had interviewed separatist leader Asiya Andrabi in January this year for Kashmir Ink , a weekly supplement of Greater Kashmir .
Ms. Andrabi, chief of the banned terrorist outfit Dukhtaran-e-Millat (DeM) and two of her associates — Sofi Fehmeeda and Nahida Nasreen — were arrested by the NIA for “using various media platforms to spread insurrectionary imputations and hateful speeches that advocate use of violence against India and secession of J&K from the Union of India.”
ADVERTISEMENT
Mr. Javeed was served a notice under Section 160 CrPc and has been asked by the agency to appear before it at their Delhi office on July 15. “It's shocking. I interviewed Asiya Andrabi in January after she was released from prison after ten months and it was published in the newspaper,” Mr. Javeed said.
The notice said since Mr. Javeed was “acquainted with the circumstances of the case”, he was required to “attend” before the NIA.
In the interview Mr. Javeed had asked Ms. Andrabi whether “the gun was the only solution to the Kashmir dispute”. In 2017, the NIA had arrested a photo journalist Kamran Yousuf in a case pertaining to terror funding. A special NIA court granted Mr. Yousuf bail in March this year, saying the agency had not placed on record any single photo or video that the accused had indulged in stone pelting activities.
ADVERTISEMENT