The Forgotten Story:News Photographer Struggles To Save His Eyes, And His Life

IRFAN QURAISHI
Sunday, December 04,2016

SRINAGAR: For not from the last three months, confined in a dark room of his house, 30-year-old freelance photojournalist Zuhaib Maqbool is living with a blank future.

Maqbool is the victim of the pellet guns used freely by the police against the protestors in Kashmir.

Maqbool made the headlines on September 4 after he was hit in the body and the face by the pellets whle overing the protests in the Rainawari locality of Srinagar. However, he was just a headline as he received no help from either the fraternity or the state authorities.

“I was only a ‘selling’ story at the time. The more days pass, the more I am becoming irrelevant,” he said. He has has gone through three eye surgeries but with no real results. His vision is blurred and he said, “It is like I can see only 5%. There is yet another surgery for lens implant and cornea repair, after that the doctors are hoping further improvement”.

Maqbool is the only son of his father and whatever his family could afford has been already spent on his treatment and medicines. These pellets have changed his life forever. From his active story telling life, he has now been restricted to his mute dark room. He has turned into a story of his own.



While recalling the incident, he said on September 4 he reached Naidyar Bridge at Rainawari where hundreds of people were staging azadi protests. He took several photographs and as the protests intensified, police burst teargas shells to disperse the protestors. The two sides clashed.

Little did Zuhaib know that this moment was going to change his life forever.

He said that some of those covering the protests, say in an adjacent narrow lane for a brief respite.

“Unexpectedly, I saw a masked cop pointing his gun towards me and I immediately stood up. As he was about to press the trigger, I showed my camera shouting I am from the ‘Press’. In a few seconds, I heard a loud sound with some hot metal objects hitting my body and eyes. I found myself in a pool of blood,” he said.

There was no provocation, he knew that “I was from the media, and yet he fired.” No action has been taken against the cop who fired into Maqbool at close range.

Maqbool has realised through the weeks of surgeries and despair, that there was little by way of help or support for him from the state and the media community. He believes he was ignored because he was not attached to any organisation, but is a freelance journalist.

Ironically this is not a new thing in the Valley where free lance journalists are often in the front taking photographs, but have no protection at all, no insurance, or help if injured or killed. Even those publications who have used their photographs and their stories do not come forward, and like Maqbool are left in the dark.

The loss of vision in the eye is not the only ordeal bestowed by the forces on Zuhaid Maqbool with his body ridden with pellets that cannot be removed. There are pellets in his nasal cavity as well that make him writhe in pain even today, suffering high fever frequently.

For Maqbool though his eyesight is of the utmost importance at this stage. His family does not have the kind of money required for full treatment. And he still lives with hope that somehow his eyesight will be restored. “Those cameras were sort of my eyes”, he said showing pieces of the equipment shattered by the cops.

Maqbools friend and colleague Muzamil Matoo, another photojournalist who was with him on that day, was also hit by pellets on his head. He had to undergo a surgery to remove the pellets from his head.

Another journalist in Kashmir’s Kupwara district, Mir Javid was hit by pellets on August 5. He was standing on the side of the road and was targeted as a hit by the police there.

There are no rules for freelance journalists, particularly those working in conflict szones such as Kashmir in India. They live off what they can sell, and while on duty have no coverage, not even insurance. Journalists bodies too tend to ignore the freelance journalist and news photographer, in favour of those who work full time with media houses. There seems to be no solution in sight.

(Irfan Quraishi is a Kashmir-based broadcast & multimedia journalist. He has previously worked for Day & Night News and Kashmir Times.)

http://www.thecitizen.in/index.php/NewsDetail/index/1/9345/The-Forgotten-StoryNews-Photographer-Struggles-To-Save-His-Eyes-And-His-Life

The Forgotten Story : Pellet hit Kashmiri Lens-man restricted to dark room

IRFAN QURAISHI

SRINAGAR: From last three months, confined in a dark room of his house, 30-year-old freelance photojournalist Zuhaib Maqbool regrets of being a Kashmir based journalist. Zuhaib is the brutal victim of riots control weaponry called pellet gun among the valley’s media fraternity covering five months of ongoing unrest. 

Since on September 4, Zuhaib make headline in newspapers and television channels, after he was targeted with pellet bullets by the security forces while covering pro-freedom protests in Rainawari locality of Srinagar. However the truth is what Zuhaib says that he was mare a headline for his fraternity and just news for the state functionaries, as nobody actually turned to help him.   

Besides hit by scores of pellets on his body, Zuhaib’s left eye was bruised by the pellet bullets which turn him impaired in one eye.  “I was only a piece of ‘selling’ story. The more days are passed, the more i am getting irrelevant,” Zuhaib replied bigheartedly.     

As he could not bear the expenses of private hospital, Zuhaib has gone through the eye surgeries thrice so far in Srinagar’s government hospital but nobody has come to the front to help him in real. 

Despite the retina surgeon performed Vitrectomy on Zuhaib on 20 September, followed by the Lensectomy and Laser surgery, he can only see the blurred image with his eye. “It is like i can see only 5%. There is yet anothersurgery for lens implant and cornea repair, after that doctor are hoping further improvement”, he said. 

Zuhaib is the only son of his father and whatever his family could afford has been already spend on his treatment and medicines. These pellets have changed his life forever. The light which was a vital part of his profession has become a bane for him. From his active story telling life, he has been restricted to his mute dark room. He has turned into a story of his own. 

While recalling the incident, he said on September 4 when he reached Naidyar Bridge at Rainawari where hundreds of people were staging pro-freedom protests. He took several photographs and as the protests intensified, police burst teargas shells to disperse the protestors. Hence, the clashes between the forces and protesters broke out. 

Little did Zuhaib know that this moment is going to change his life forever, he says “We sat in a narrow lane and took some rest”. 

“Unexpectedly, I saw a masked cop pointing his gun towards me and I immediately stood up. As he was about to press the trigger, I showed up my camera shouting I am from ‘Press’. In a few seconds, I heard a loud sound with some hot metal objects hitting my body and eyes. I found myself in a pool of blood,” he recounts disastrously. 

“It was a target attack”, he adds. The culprit cop who fired at Zuhaib without any provocation remains unpunished as no legal action was initiated by the authorities.

Thinking about his parents can’t bear his condition; he mustered some courage and walked to his locality from where two neighbors rushed Zuhaib to the hospital on a motorcycle. 

Zuhaib says, in the beginning when he was a fresh case, many government, non-government and associations of his own fraternity assured him of a helping hand. “There were condemnations via press statements from associations of media fraternity, assurance of action by the state functionaries, promises for help but none of them actually helps”, he says while quickly adding “In real an injured Journo is very poor. I know it was my bad luck, but they (fraternity) didn’t even stage a protest for me.” 

Zuhaib believes that he was ignored because he is a freelancer, not a prominent one; perhaps then his life was worth. 

Ironically this is not a new thing in valley where attacks on journalists are selective indignation. On July, 30, 2015, Irfan Quraishi wrote a detailed story in the hoot titled, ‘Attacks in Kashmir- Selective indignation’ to ask why other violent incidents go unmarked. Are the others ‘Lesser’ journalists? 

The attacks on prominent journalists gets attention from all corners, demands for action, protest demonstration, voices for solidarity and help make buzz all over the mainstream media and alternate media till the goal is achieved. But when it is about journalists like Zuhaib Maqbool, after the story is sold, his own fraternity turns deaf, dumb and blind to their ordeal. They are left on God’s mercy. 

The loss of vision in the eye is not the only ordeal bestowed by the security forces to him while firing pellets at him. Zuhaib has a pellet ridden body, pellets in nasal cavity due to which he writhes in pain, suffers high fever frequently. 

Zuhaib says he has no hope for help which actually he needs to get proper treatment to regain his eye sight soon. But he is waiting the day when he can again go to the field to highlight the stories of brutalities. 

“These cameras were sort of my eyes”, Zuhaib said while showing his broken cameras hit by pellets.

Pertinently there were three pellet injuries reported in Kashmir media fraternity during the ongoing uprising so far. Zuhaib’s friend Muzamil Matoo, another photojournalist, who was with him on that day, was also hit by a few pellets on his head. Muzamil had also to undergo a surgery to remove the pellets from his head.

Another journalist in north Kashmir’s Kupwara district, Mir Javid was hit by pellets on August 5. He also alleges target attack by the forces when he was standing on a road.

The support from fellow-journalists is all the more essential for journalists working in the Valley where there are daily troubles to deal with and where, whenever there is unrest. Journalists are accused of biased, insensitive or provocative reportage from all sides. They are caught in the crossfire. 

They need to be united, but they need to demonstrate this unity every time a journalist is treated illegitimately, not just on selective incident. 

Irfan Quraishi is a Kashmir-based broadcast & multimedia journalist. He has previously worked for Day & Night News and Kashmir Times. He tweets @ irfanquraishi85.

http://kashmirpatriot.com/2016/12/08/the-forgotten-story-pellet-hit-kashmiri-lens-man-restricted-to-dark-room/

Nothing to See Here, Censoring Kashmiri Press is Just State Policy

Irfan Quraishi

A ban on the Srinagar-based daily ‘Kashmir Reader’ is a blot on Indian democracy, writes Irfan Quraishi.

On 2 October, J&K government banned the local daily newspaper Kashmir Reader saying that it had “credible inputs” that the daily was inciting violence, and barred it from publication until further notice. However, two weeks later, the government has not yet revealed what these ‘credible inputs’ were.

Editor of the Kashmir Reader, Hilal Mir, believes that this time, as he wrote in his column, that the gag order comes with legal armour apparently to frighten local media and force their submission.

A Ban in Legal Garb

“The order invokes local press laws and says that law and order in the state will be disturbed if the newspaper is allowed to be published. It would have been helpful if the gag order had made a mention of a specific report so that we could answer it,” Mir said. The order did not cite any specific examples of the offending coverage.

Section 3 of The Jammu and Kashmir Newspaper (Incitement to offences) Act 1971 has often been used for imposing arbitrary bans. Shrimoyee, a PhD scholar while tweeting on the issue wrote, “The JK Newspapers (Incitement to Offences) Act 1971 gives draconian administrative powers to authorities to stop presses even ex parte.”

Journalists protesting against the ban on Kashmir Reader newspaper. (Photo: Irfan Quraishi/ The Quint)

Gagging the Media

The editor of the Srinagar-based newspaper alleged that their printing press were reportedly raided around midnight in THE last three months of unrest, adding that the ban order was conveyed verbally to editors by a government official.

The state, which has 522 papers including 195 approved and 105 unapproved ones in the Jammu region and 222 in Kashmir, is not new to media censorship. In July, authorities had allegedly raided some media offices and detained a few of their employees while seizing printed copies. Newspapers were prevented from publishing for days in a curfew-bound Kashmir.

The Government usually imposes censorship by proxy.

Proxy in the sense that they would create circumstances in which it would become difficult and impossible for us to work.

Abrar Bhat, Bureau Chief of a national media house

He adds that the curbs come in the form of denial of access to locations and government officials. On many occasions, curfew passes issued by the government to the press have not been accepted by law enforcement agencies.

Dangling the Carrot of Government Ads

In the absence of a strong private sector, government advertising is another tool that is used in such tussles as the newspapers in Kashmir depend to a great extent on the revenue from government advertisements. Slots of these advertisements are solely dependent on the government’s discretion. Newspapers that are close to the government or in any sense pro-government are given advertisements in abundance while the rest are deprived.

Especially during times of unrest, the advertisement tool is being used by the government during the clampdown on the newspapers criticising government, by curtailing their advertisements.

According to the official figures, government advertisements had gone down 80 percent in the ongoing unrest. The advertising dropped from 2.10 lakh square centimetres in June to 32,000 square centimetres in July this year.

In 2013, in the wake of the Afzal Guru execution, printing press owners and hawkers were indirectly threatened to stop circulation allegedly by the government machinery. However, Omar Abdullah, the then chief minister, denied such allegations of any such media gag imposed by the state government.

History of Media Bans

Even before the 1990s, the state government had a tradition of banning newspapers or detaining editors under the Preventive Detention Act and later the Public Safety Act that replaced it.

In April 1990, the government banned Urdu dailies, Al-Safa and Daily Aftab among others. In the years that followed, newspapers remained suspended for days as their staff failed to get to work due to curfew or were paralysed into inaction by the threats of the government and militants over coverage. Srinagar Times was banned for carrying a statement by Akbar Jehan Abdullah, wife of the late Sheikh Abdullah, condemning state violence.

Whenever there is unrest in valley, printing presses are raided, and printed copies are seized. Nothing is new in this unrest. Earlier in July the same tactics were repeated to gag the media. It was not an official ban anywhere, but they didn’t allow us to print, it is equal to a ban.

Bashir Ahmad, Editor and Owner of a Newspaper

India Almost as Bad as Pakistan on Press Freedom

“Both India and Pakistan rank abysmally among democracies in the World Press Freedom Index. India ranks 133rd out of 180, and Pakistan ranks 147th. The governments of both countries clearly have lines that journalists should not cross, and which most do not cross for fear of repercussions,” Washington Post concluded in a report referring to ban on the daily newspaper Kashmir Reader and the episode involving Cyril Almeida, a columnist and reporter at Dawn, Pakistan's most prominent English-language newspaper, who was put on the Exit Control List – a roster of those forbidden from leaving the country.

In an editorial, national newspaper Deccan Herald said that bans on newspapers and media channels, censorship and other methods are against the spirit of democracy and a violation of the fundamental right on freedom of expression. “Governments in Kashmir have resorted to all these methods in the past. The ban on Kashmir Reader was imposed arbitrarily,” it said. It said that the government’s clampdown on the newspaper perhaps was to send out a warning to others.

The media is under heavy pressure in Kashmir. Some weeks ago, the government had shut down all printing presses and temporarily banned all newspapers for three days. Other channels of information including social media have also faced controls and curbs. Violation of normal constitutional rights can only worsen the situation, and it cannot be justified on any pretext.

Editorial in Deccan Herald

It’s worth mentioning that historically too, the press in Kashmir has seen difficult situations. Independent newspapers were disallowed through much of the Dogra rule in the state. Newspapers had to be smuggled into the Valley via Lahore, then the centre of the Urdu press. Post-1947, press in the Kashmir valley has functioned under pressure from state and non-state actors.

(The writer is a Kashmir-based broadcast & multimedia journalist. He has previously worked for Day & Night News and Kashmir Times. He tweets @irfanquraishi85. This is a personal blog and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for the same.)

https://www.thequint.com/blogs/2016/10/28/censorship-by-proxy-means-in-kashmir-part-of-the-states-policy-kashmir-reader-burhan-wani-mehbooba-mufti

http://m.dailyhunt.in/news/india/english/the+quint-epaper-quint/nothing+to+see+here+censoring+kashmiri+press+is+just+state+policy-newsid-59615164

Bruised Eye, Broken Lens: Being a Reporter in Strife-Torn Kashmir

KASHMIR AFTER BURHAN WANI

| 6 min read

Bruised Eye, Broken Lens: Being a Reporter in Strife-Torn Kashmir

Irfan Quraishi

September 23, 2016, 4:43 am

In a place where fire fights, protests, curfews and restrictions are making headlines, no one knows the story of the storytellers. Amid strict curfew and communication blockades, one of the most difficult jobs today in Kashmir is to tell the story.

The journalists in Kashmir walk on the razor’s edge. They are seen as “a mere propaganda tool of the State” and blamed for “hiding the truth”. As the public feels that the journalists aren’t reporting the truth on the ground, not only does the government gag the Kashmiri media, the security forces allegedly beat up local journalists and restrict them from reaching the spots to cover the killings and protests.

In the latest attack by the protesters on 20 September, a Journalist was injured in stone pelting incident in Srinagar. Anees Zargar, who works with a New Delhi based media organization, was returning home from Uri in North Kashmir where in a deadly attack on army, 18 army men were killed on 18 September.

I, along with other several media colleagues, was on my way home around 8:30pm from Uri when our vehicle was attacked with stones by the protesters near Chek-i-Hokersar at Lawaypora. I was hit by a stone in my left arm.

Anees Zargar, Journalist Based in Delhi

Anees was rushed to Bone and Joints Hospital Barzulla where doctors after treating his broken arm said that it was fractured in the incident.

While as on 4 September this month two Kashmiri photojournalists were covering a rally in old city Srinagar when pellets rained on them. While Muzamil Matto escaped with a few pellets in his head as he ducked on seeing policemen aim guns on them, Zuhaib Ahmad had his whole body, including the left eye, pierced by the minute particles.

Zuhaib underwent an eye surgery and is recuperating at SMHS hospital. The incident was the latest in a series of attacks on media persons by security forces in the ongoing Kashmir turmoil.

Zuhaib, a photojournalist who was targeted with pellets. (Photo Courtesy: Provided to The Quint by Irfan Quraishi)

Ironically on one hand the people label media as “agents” for siding with the state and not telling the truth and showing the “real” picture, while on the other hand the government forces rough up and harass them, labeling media men “Pakistan or Hurriyat sympathisers” who are adding fuel to the deteriorating situation.

Photographers, always the first to be at the scene, have to bear the brunt repeatedly during the ongoing turmoil that so far killed 89 people, including two policemen. Last month, on 8 August policemen thrashed photojournalists in Batamaloo area of the city after an altercation over taking snaps of the protest. In south Kashmir’s Bijbehara town on same day last month, photojournalist Muneeb-ul-Islam was allegedly assaulted by security personnel while covering a stone-pelting incident.

Senior photographer Farooq Javed Khan said policemen presume photographers to be mob inciters. “That’s wrong. Clashes happen without us in the spot,” added Khan, who is president of Kashmiri Press Photographers Association.

During the longest spell of curfew in Kashmir’s history, journalists often got into heated exchanges with security forces as they travelled across restricted areas of the city.

On the other hand, annoyed by the way media, especially ‘television channels that have kept on peddling lies as news’, the protesters in the current upsurge have been hostile towards journalists. At the Srinagar’s SMHS hospital where injured civilians have been admitted, journalists find it difficult to speak to the victims or their family members. People refuse to talk and often ask journalists to leave. There are several instances where protesters didn’t allow a journalist to visit the spot.

Most of the journalists, however, keep on trying to report, at times risking their lives. 

Once travel became impossible during daylight – because the streets have become a battleground between the protesters and government forces – they moved around in the night to collect stories. Subsequently, the government decided to impose curfew at night as well.

As the protests have continued, despite an uninterrupted curfew since 9 July, the government views the messenger with distrust. The curfew passes issued to journalists by the administration aren’t entertained and reporters are regularly harassed on the road. There are several instances where journalists were beaten up or their vehicles damaged.

This sometimes leads to terrifying situations. On 10 July, three of us – I, along with two more photojournalists – were beaten to pulp at SMHS hospital by enraged people who first labeled us as CID agents and then for working for Indian media houses.

Daanish bin Nabi, Rising Kashmir

A reporter with The Indian Express and a senior photographer with an international photo agency also faced the same fate at the hospital.

Night curfews add to our daily problems. My two senior editors at Rising Kashmir, Faisul Yaseen and Adil Masood, met with an ugly incident on the evening of 18 August. Even before they could reach near the barricade at Sanat Nagar, forces standing there yelled at them, “either go back or we will shoot.”

On 20 August the security personnel associated with paramilitary Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) late Saturday night aimed guns at the staff of local daily shortly after they left home from their offices in Srinagar.

Greater Kashmir senior correspondent Abid Bashir along with Kashmir Uzma senior correspondent Bilal Furqani and another staffer Shafqat Ahmed were stopped by SSB men at TRC crossing near Radio Kashmir building.

They shouted at us and asked us to go back. We told them that we are journalists and showed them our curfew passes. They became more furious and refused to entertain the curfew passes. They aimed their guns at us.

Greater Kashmir Staffers

“It was only after we called a senior police officer that we were let off,” they added.

Sumaiya Yousuf, Assaulted and Abused

On 17 August last month, 25-year-old woman journalist Sumaiya Yousuf was allegedly abused and beaten up by an IPS officer and his team at Jawahar Nagar in Srinagar city. According to her, the incident occurred at around 7.30pm.

“I had filed my story and was on way home. My mother called, asking if I could buy some vegetables because there was nothing at home. I saw a shop in Jawahar Nagar and stopped to check. I bought some vegetables. The moment I began to walk back towards my car, the officer and his men jumped out of their Rakshak. First, they started beating up the shopkeeper. Then they hit and abused me”.

Sumaiya says that she has brought the episode to the notice of the top brass of the police who promised to “look into the matter”. “Nothing happened,’’ she said.

No journalist body has come out to show solidarity with her or highlight the troubles faced by the reporters in Kashmir.

“Journalists walk a very tight rope in Kashmir,” said Iqbal Mir, reporter with a local daily. Mir finds “nothing new” in security forces targeting journalists. “What’s new is the common Kashmiri’s anger against the media,” he says.

(Irfan Quraishi is a Kashmir-based journalist. This is a personal blog and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for the same.)

https://www.thequint.com/kashmir-after-burhan-wani/2016/09/23/how-is-it-being-a-journalist-in-strife-torn-kashmir-burhan-wani-killing-uri-attack-kashmir-protests-pellets

Kashmir Artist in Team India For US Snow Sculpture Contest-2017

IRFAN QURAISHI

Friday, October 28,2016

A young Kashmiri artist has been selected among four participants of team India for the Budweiser International Snow Sculpture Championship 2017 to be held in the United States.This is the first time that India will be represented by a team of four at this event.

The championship is being organized by the International Snow Sculpture Organizing Committee (ISSCOC) for the last 26 years in Breckenridge, Colorado. The four artists to represent team India are Zahoor Din Lone, Sunil Kushwaha, Ravi Prakash, and Mridul Kumar Upadhyay.

Zahoor Din Lone hails from Singpora village of Pattan town in district Baramulla. Zahoor, has completed his Masters in Fine Arts from Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi after a Bachelors in Fine Arts from University of Kashmir.

Zahoor is the team leader of the first ever team to represent India at the Snow Sculpture Championship. This is not the first time, however, that Zahoor will be competing at a snow sculpture competition. He has earlier participated and gained experience at the ‘Snow Fiesta-2014’, organized by the Eplanner event management and J&K Tourism in Gulmarg.

Zahoor says that it was due to the ‘Snow Fiesta’ camp that he got this big opportunity which also sees him lead team India at an international platform in the United States. “I submitted work samples of the sculpture camp in which I participated in 2014. That camp really helped me to make the most of this opportunity. In the valley we have enough talent but lack of platforms”.

He adds that. “I am very thankful to Eplanner Event management who organized Snow Fiesta -2104 and made that happen for the first time in Asia besides providing a platform to explore my talent.” Zahoor said that unfortunately, due to lack of support from the government and other bodies, the organizers could hold the event every year.

It is worth mentioning that every year the ISSCOC receives hundreds of fantastic submissions for the event, amongst which just sixteen teams are chosen. Interestingly, this year for the first time, a team from India has been chosen from amongst these fine submissions for the world class snow event at Breckenridge in US.

Sunil Kushwaha, a young national sculpture artist whose sculptures are based on perfectly combined concepts of social issues, criticism and aestheticism. He belongs to a rural village of Singrauli, one of Madhya Pradesh’s Maoist-hit districts. He says that art kept him engaged during tough times. In his work, repetition and rhythm implies dynamic, complex narratives, at times playful or urgent. His fine sculptures are ‘Stages of Desire (Medium: black stone-glass)’ and ‘Voyage’ (Medium:stone-metal sculpture). Sunil earned a Master’s of Fine Arts (Sculpture) from Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi.

Ravi Prakash, a young national sculpture artist, describes his artwork as an expressive representation of his social experience. Ravi belongs to a very backward region of Bihar and he looks at art as the medium of social and economic development. The rawness can be seen in his work. He can work in a variety of materials but prefers to work in metal wire; an unconventional, flexible and long lasting material. Weaving and molding the wire to give a physical form shows his hard work. His fine sculptures include ‘Milkman’, ‘Mother Nature in Pain’ and ‘Soulmate’ (the other half). He is a double Gold Medalist, both in Bachelors of Fine Arts (Sculpture) from Allahabad University and Masters of Fine Arts (Sculpture) from Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi.

Mridul Kumar Upadhyay is a design engineer, commonwealth correspondent and photographer. He has been very passionate about empowering youth through art and has been advocating for young artists on national and international platforms. Mridul was conferred several international awards for his sustainable development work. He feels that art and snow-based tourism is a perfect way to channelize the local youth’s energy and give them the chance at employment in rural India and the Kashmir valley. Mridul hopes this team will create entirely a new culture of youth engagement in snow art.

These artists said that India gets snow every year but they don't find culture, recognition and appreciation for snow sculpting in India, unlike elsewhere in the world. They said they -- as a team -- hope to create an entirely new culture of youth engagement in snow art.

However, in its 27th year, the Budweiser International Snow Sculpture Championships will bring together 16 teams representing 12 countries from around the world to present intricate works of snow art. In the championship, four-person teams will carve 20-ton, 12-foot-tall blocks of snow without the use of power tools, internal support structures, or colorants – just the ingenuity of the sculptors and a medium that lends itself, if only temporarily, to the persuasion of hand tools. 

http://www.thecitizen.in/index.php/NewsDetail/index/8/9070/Kashmir-Artist-in-Team-India-For-US-Snow-Sculpture-Contest-2017

Being A Journalist In Strife Torn Kashmir

IRFAN QURAISHI

Wednesday, September 21,2016

SRINAGAR: In a place where fire fights, protests, curfews and restrictions are making headlines, what is forgotten is the story of the story tellers. Amidst strict curfew and communication blockades, one of the most difficult jobs in Kashmir today is to tell the story. 

The journalists in Kashmir walk on a razor’s edge. They are caught between a rock and a hard place -- with the public, on one hand, accusing them of no reporting the truth on the ground, and the government, on the other, moving to gag the Kashmiri media. Additionally, reports have emerged of security forces allegedly beating up local journalists, in a bid to prevent them from reaching spots to cover controversial killings and protests.

A recent incident where a local journalist targeted was on September 20. A journalist, Anees Zargar, was injured in a stone pelting incident in Srinagar. Zagar, who works with a New Delhi based media organization, was returning home from Uri in North Kashmir where in a deadly attack on the army, 18 soldiers were killed on September 18.

“I along with other several media colleagues was on way home around 8:30 PM from Uri when our vehicle was attacked with stones by the protesters near Chek-i-Hokersar at Lawaypora. I was hit by a stone in my left arm”, he said. Anees was rushed to Bone and Joints Hospital Barzulla where doctors, after treating his broken arm, said that it was fractured in the incident.

While on September 4, two Kashmiri photojournalists were covering a rally in the old city of Srinagar when pellets rained on them. While Muzamil Matto escaped with a few pellets in his head as he ducked as soon as he saw policemen train their guns at him, Zuhaib Ahmad had his whole body -- including the left eye -- pierced by the minute particles. Zuhaib underwent an eye surgery and is recuperating at SMHS hospital. The incident was the latest in a series of attacks on media persons by security forces in the ongoing Kashmir turmoil. 

Ironically, on one hand the people label media men “agents” for siding with the state and not telling the truth and showing the “real” picture, while on the other hand, the government forces rough up and harass them, labeling media men “Pakistan or Hurriyat sympathisers” who are adding fuel to the deteriorating situation. 

Photographers, always the first to be at the line of action, have bore the brunt repeatedly during the ongoing turmoil that has thus far killed 87 people, including two policemen. Last Month on August 8, policemen thrashed photojournalists in Batamaloo area of the city after an altercation broke out over taking snaps of a protest. In south Kashmir’s Bijbehara town on the same day last month, photojournalist Muneeb-ul-Islam was allegedly assaulted by security personnel while covering a stone-pelting incident. 

Senior photographer Farooq Javed Khan said policemen presume photographers are mob inciters. “That’s wrong. Clashes happen without us in the spot,” added Khan, who is president of the Kashmiri Press Photographers Association. 

During the longest spell of curfew in Kashmir’s history, journalists often got into heated exchanges with security forces as they travelled across restricted areas of the city. 

At the same time, annoyed by the way the media -- especially “television channels that have kept on peddling lies as news” -- the protesters in the current upsurge have been hostile towards journalists. At Srinagar’s SMHS hospital where injured civilians have been admitted, journalists find it difficult to speak to the victims or their family members. People refuse to talk and often ask journalists to leave. There are several instances where protesters didn’t allow a journalist to visit a spot. 

Most of the journalists, however, keep on trying to report, at times risking their lives. Once travel became impossible during daylight — because the streets have become a battleground between the protestors and government forces — they moved around in the night to collect stories. Subsequently, the government decided to impose curfew at night as well.

As the protests have continued, despite an uninterrupted curfew since July 9, the government views the messenger with distrust. The curfew passes issued to journalists by the administration aren’t entertained and reporters are regularly harassed on the road. There are several instances where journalists were beaten up or their vehicles damaged. 

“This sometimes leads to terrifying situations. On July 10, three of us — I, along with two more photojournalists — were beaten to pulp at SMHS hospital by enraged people who first labeled us as CID agents and then for working for Indian media houses”, said Daanish bin Nabi, an Editor with Rising Kashmir. 

A reporter with ‘Indian Express’ and a senior photographer with an international photo agency also faced the same fate at the hospital. 

Daanish adds, “Night curfews add to our daily problems. My two senior editors at Rising Kashmir, Faisul Yaseen and Adil Masood, met with an ugly incident on the evening of August 18. Even before they could reach near the barricade at Sanat Nagar, forces standing there yelled at them, “either go back or we will shoot”. 

On August 20, the security personnel associated with the paramilitary Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) aimed guns at the staff of a local daily shortly after the latter left for home from their offices in Srinagar. Greater Kashmir senior correspondent Abid Bashir along with Kashmir Uzma senior correspondent Bilal Furqani and another staffer Shafqat Ahmed were stopped by SSB men at TRC crossing near Radio Kashmir building. 

"They shouted at us and asked us to go back. We told them that we are journalists and showed them our curfew passes. They became more furious and refused to entertain the curfew passes. They aimed their guns at us,” the terrified staffers said after the incident. "It was only after we called a senior police officer that we were let off,” they added. 

In another incident on August 17, 25-year-old journalist Sumaiya Yousuf was allegedly abused and beaten up by an IPS officer and his team at Jawahar Nagar in Srinagar city. According to her, the incident occurred at around 7.30 pm. “I had filed my story and was on my way home. My mother called, asking if I could buy some vegetables because there was nothing at home,” she says. “I saw a shop in Jawahar Nagar and stopped to check. I bought some vegetables,” she said. “The moment I began to walk back towards my car, the officer and his men jumped out of their Rakshak. First, they started beating up the shopkeeper. Then they hit and abused me”. 

Sumaiya says that she has brought the episode to the notice of the top brass of the police who promised to “look into the matter”. “Nothing happened,’’ she said, as no action has yet been taken. 

No journalist body has come out to show solidarity with her or highlight the troubles faced by the reporters in Kashmir. 

“Journalists walk a very tightrope in Kashmir,” said Iqbal Mir, a reporter with a local daily. Mir says there is “nothing new” in security forces targeting journalists. “”What’s new is the common Kashmiri’s anger against the media,” he says. 

(Irfan Quraishi is a Kashmir-based broadcast & multimedia journalist. He has previously worked for Day & Night News and Kashmir Times. )

http://www.thecitizen.in/index.php/NewsDetail/index/1/8777/Being-A-Journalist-In-Strife-Torn-Kashmir

Infringement, proxy censorship of press freedom in Kashmir

IRFAN QURAISHI

SRINAGAR: The Jammu and Kashmir governments in ordinary times are seen as apathetic to the press and its freedom. Whenever there is unrest, the clampdown begins. As violence erupted across Kashmir in July this summer, the government temporarily curbs, raided printing presses and seizes the publication of Valley-based newspapers.

For a while in last three months, it also pulled national and Pakistani news channels off the air. In Kashmir, governments use covert and overt ways to influence the press.

 While there have been instances of formal action being taken, as in the case of Kashmir Reader, they are also known to use indirect methods, such as choking the flow of information or of advertisements.

On October 2, government bans the local daily newspaper ‘Kashmir Reader’ while saying that it had “credible inputs” that Kashmir Reader was inciting violence and barred it from publication till further notice. However two weeks later, the government has not yet said what these credible inputs were.

Editor of the Kashmir Reader newspaper, Hilal Mir believes what he wrote in his recent column regarding the ban, that this time, the gag order comes with legal armour apparently to frighten the rest of the local media into submission.

“The order invokes local press laws and says that law and order in the state will be disturbed if the newspaper is allowed to be published. It would have been helpful if the gag order had made a mention of a specific report so that we could answer it," Mir said. The order did not cite any specific examples of the offending coverage.

Section 3 of The Jammu and Kashmir Newspaper (Incitement to offences) Act 1971) has often been used for imposing arbitrary bans. Shrimoyee, a PHD scholar while tweeting on the issue wrote, “The JK Newspapers (Incitement to Offences) Act 1971 gives draconian administrative powers to authorities to stop presses even ex parte.”

Tweet link :

https://twitter.com/shrimoyee_n/status/782829652444192768?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

The editor of the Srinagar-based newspapers alleged that their printing press were reportedly raided around midnights in last three months of unrest adding that the ban order was conveyed verbally to editors by a government official.

The state which has 522 papers, including 195 approved and 105 unapproved ones in the Jammu region and 222 in Kashmir, is not new to media censorship. In July, authorities had allegedly raided some media offices and detained a few of their employees while seizing printed copies. Newspapers were prevented from publishing for days in a curfew-bound Kashmir.

Government usually imposes censorship by proxy. “Proxy in the sense that they would create circumstances in which it would become difficult and impossible for us to work,” said Abrar Bhat, working as bureau chief with national media house.

He adds that the curbs come in the form of denial of access to locations and government officials. On many occasions, curfew passes issued by the government to the press have not been accepted by law enforcement agencies.

In the absence of a strong private sector, government advertising is another tool that is used in these fights newspapers in Kashmir as they depend to a great extent on revenue from government advertisements. These advertisements are solely under discretion of the government. Newspapers that are close to the government or in other sense pro governments are given advertisements in abundance while the rest are deprived.

Especially during the times of unrest advertisement tool is being used by the government to clampdown the newspapers criticizing government by stopping or curtailing down their advertisement.

According to the official figures the government advertisements had gone down 80% during the ongoing unrest, hence rendering newspapers to bear the brunt. The advertising dropped from 2.10 lakh square centimeters in June to 32,000 square centimeters in July.

In 2013, in the wake of the Afzal Guru execution, printing press owners and hawkers were indirectly threatened to stop circulation allegedly by the government machineries. However, Omar Abdullah, the then chief minister, denied any media gag.

There was a trust deficit between the government and journalists in the state. As a result, the government shared information with journalists from outside the state while denying those within.

Even before the 1990s, the state government had a tradition of banning newspapers or detaining editors under the Preventive Detention Act and later the Public Safety Act that replaced it.

In April 1990, the government banned Urdu dailies Al-Safa and Daily Aftab among others. In the years that followed, newspapers remained suspended for days as their staff failed to get to work due to curfew or were paralysed into inaction by the threats of the government and militants over coverage. Srinagar Times was banned for carrying a statement by Akbar Jehan Abdullah, wife of the late Sheikh Abdullah, condemning state violence.

“Whenever there is unrest in valley, printing presses are raided, and printed copies are being seized. Nothing is new in this unrest. Earlier in July same tactics were repeated to gag the media. It was not an official ban anywhere, but they didn’t allow us to print, it is equal to a ban.” Bashir Ahmad, Editor and Owner of a newspaper.

“Both India and Pakistan rank abysmally among democracies in the World Press Freedom Index. India ranks 133rd out of 180, and Pakistan ranks 147th. The governments of both countries clearly have lines that journalists should not cross, and which most do not cross for fear of repercussions,” Washington Post concluded in a report referring to ban on the daily newspaper Kashmir Reader and episode involving Cyril Almeida, a columnist and reporter at Dawn, Pakistan's most prominent English-language newspaper, who was put on the “Exit Control List,” a roster of those forbidden from leaving the country.

In an editorial, Indian National newspaper Deccan Herald said that bans on newspapers and media channels, censorship and other methods are against the spirit of democracy and a violation of the fundamental right to freedom of expression. “Governments in Kashmir have resorted to all these methods in the past. The ban on Kashmir Reader was imposed arbitrarily,” it said. It said the government clamped down on the newspaper perhaps was to send out a warning to others.

“The media is under heavy pressure in Kashmir. Some weeks ago, the government had shut down all printing presses and temporarily banned all newspapers for three days. Other channels of information including social media have also faced controls and curbs,” it said, emphasizing that media freedom is especially relevant and important in disturbed conditions like those in Kashmir. “Violation of normal constitutional rights can only worsen the situation, and it cannot be justified on any pretext,” it added.

Worthy to mention that historically too, the press in Kashmir has seen difficult situations. Independent newspapers were disallowed over much of the Dogra rule in the state. Newspapers had to be smuggled into the valley via Lahore, then the centre of the Urdu press. Post-1947, press in the Kashmir valley has functioned under pressure from state and non-state actors.

Kashmiri reporters caught in the crossfire

BY IRFAN QURAISHI| IN MEDIA FREEDOM | 21/09/2016

Scorned by Kashmiris for being state ‘agents’ and abused by the security forces for being ‘Hurriyat sympathisers’, the media are getting it in the neck.

IRFAN QURAISHI on their plight

A Kashmiri photo journalists' protest on September 3, 2016. Photos on this page by Zuhaib Maqbool

SRINAGAR: Amid all the fire fights, protests, curfews, communication blockades, and restrictions that are making the headlines, one of the most difficult jobs today in Kashmir is to tell the story.

Journalists are seen as “a propaganda tool of the State” and blamed for “hiding the truth”. The public feels disgruntled that journalists aren’t reporting the ‘truth’ on the ground, the government gags the media, and the security forces allegedly beat up local journalists and restrict them from reaching the spots they need to in order to cover the killings and protests.

In the latest attack by protesters on September 20, a journalist was injured in a stone pelting incident in Srinagar. Anees Zargar, who works with a New Delhi-based media organization, was returning home from Uri in North Kashmir where 18 soldiers were killed on September 18.

“I, along with other several media colleagues, was on the way home around 8:30 pm from Uri when our vehicle was attacked with stones by the protesters near Chek-i-Hokersar at Lawaypora. I was hit by a stone in my left arm”, he said. Zargar was rushed to hospital where doctors said his arm was fractured.

On September 4, two Kashmiri photojournalists were covering a rally in the old city in  Srinagar when pellets rained down on them. While Muzamil Matto escaped with a few pellets in his head as he ducked on seeing policemen aim guns on them, Zuhaib Ahmad had his whole body, including his left eye, pierced by the minute particles. Ahmad underwent eye surgery and is recuperating at SMHS hospital. The incident was the latest in a series of attacks on media persons by security forces in the ongoing Kashmir turmoil.

Journalists are caught in a bind. Ordinary people label them “agents” while government forces harass them for being ‘Pakistan’ or ‘Hurriyat sympathisers”.Photographers, always the first in the line of action, have borne the brunt repeatedly during the ongoing turmoil that has so far killed 87 people, including two policemen.

On August 8, policemen thrashed photojournalists in Batamaloo after an altercation over the taking of snaps of the protest. In south Kashmir’s Bijbehara town on the same day, photojournalist Muneeb-ul-Islam was allegedly assaulted by security personnel while covering a stone-pelting incident. Senior photographer, Farooq Javed Khan, said policemen presume photographers are mob inciters. “That’s wrong. Clashes happen without us in the spot,” said Khan.

At Srinagar’s SMHS hospital where injured civilians have been admitted, journalists find it difficult to speak to the victims or their family members. People refuse to talk and often ask journalists to leave. “This sometimes leads to terrifying situations. On July 10, three of us - I, along with two more photojournalists - were beaten to pulp at SMHS hospital by enraged people who first labeled us as CID agents and then for working for Indian media houses”, said Daanish bin Nabi, an editor with Rising Kashmir. A reporter with theIndian Express and a senior photographer with an international photo agency also faced the same fate at the hospital.

Most journalists, however, keep trying to report, at times risking their lives. During the longest curfew in Kashmir’s history, journalists have often got into heated exchanges with the security forces as they travelled across restricted areas of the city. Once travel became impossible during daylight - because the streets have become a battleground between the protestors and government forces - they moved around in the night to collect stories. Then the government imposed a night curfew as well.

Nabi adds:“Night curfews add to our daily problems. My two senior editors at Rising Kashmir, Faisul Yaseen and Adil Masood, met with an ugly incident on the evening of August 18. Even before they could reach near the barricade at Sanat Nagar, forces standing there yelled at them, “either go back or we will shoot”.

This distrust of journalists means that the passes issued to them by the administration aren’t entertained and reporters are regularly harassed on the road. There are several instances where journalists were beaten up or their vehicles damaged.

On 20, August, the security personnel associated with paramilitary Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) late on Saturday night aimed guns at the staff of a local daily shortly after they left home from their offices in Srinagar. Greater Kashmir’s senior correspondent Abid Bashir, along with Kashmir Uzma senior correspondent Bilal Furqani, and another staffer Shafqat Ahmed, were stopped by SSB men at a crossing near the Radio Kashmir building.

"They shouted at us and asked us to go back. We told them that we are journalists and showed them our curfew passes. They became more furious and refused to entertain the curfew passes. They aimed their guns at us,” the terrified staffers said after the incident. "It was only after we called a senior police officer that we were let off.”

On August 17, 25-year-old woman journalist Sumaiya Yousuf was allegedly abused and beaten up by an IPS officer and his team at Jawahar Nagar in Srinagar. “I had filed my story and was on way home. My mother called, asking if I could buy some vegetables because there was nothing at home. I saw a shop in Jawahar Nagar and stopped to buy some vegetables. The moment I began to walk back towards my car, the officer and his men jumped out of their Rakshak. First, they started beating up the shopkeeper. Then they hit and abused me,’’ said Yousuf.  

No journalist body has come out to show solidarity with her or highlight the troubles faced by the reporters in Kashmir. “Journalists walk a tightrope in Kashmir,” said Iqbal Mir, a reporter with a local daily. For Mir, there is nothing new in the security forces targeting journalists. “What’s new is the common Kashmiri’s anger against the media,” he says.

Irfan Quraishi is a Kashmir-based broadcast & multimedia journalist. He has previously worked for Day & Night News and Kashmir Times. He tweets @ irfanquraishi85.

http://www.thehoot.org/free-speech/media-freedom/kashmiri-reporters-caught-in-the-crossfire-9656