Human rights defender Fahad Shah released on bail
On 17 November 2023, human rights defender and journalist from Kashmir, Fahad Shah, was granted bail by the Jammu and Kashmir High Court. Fahad Shah had been arrested in February 2022 by police in Pulwama, Jammu and Kashmir, on charges of ‘sedition’, ‘making statements causing public mischief’, and ‘unlawful activities’ under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), India’s counter-terrorism legislation.
On 14 March 2022, human rights defender and journalist Fahad Shah was charged under the Jammu & Kashmir Public Safety Act (PSA), a stringent legislation that allows for detention for up to two years without trial.
On 4 February 2022, the Jammu and Kashmir Police arrested human rights defender and journalist Fahad Shah on charges of terrorism and sedition. Fahad Shah was held by the police at Pulwama police station under the First Information Report (FIR) 19/2022 and remanded to ten days of custody by the Judicial Magistrate of Pulwama. If convicted, the human rights defender faces life imprisonment.
Fahad Shah is the founder and editor-in-chief of The Kashmir Walla, an online news portal that reports on political and human rights issues. He writes extensively on culture, human rights, and identity politics. His work has been published in several international publications. In 2021, he won the Human Rights Press Award for his report on the riots in New Delhi in February 2020. He has also been nominated for the RSF Press Freedom Prize for Courage.
On 17 November 2023, human rights defender and journalist from Kashmir, Fahad Shah, was granted bail by the Jammu and Kashmir High Court. Fahad Shah had been arrested in February 2022 by police in Pulwama, Jammu and Kashmir, on charges of ‘sedition’, ‘making statements causing public mischief’, and ‘unlawful activities’ under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), India’s counter-terrorism legislation.
Additional First Information Reports (FIRs) were filed against him in Safakadal police station in Srinagar and Imamsahib police station in Shopian. Despite being granted bail by a National Investigation Agency (NIA) court for charges under the UAPA, Fahad Shah faced repeated arrests under different FIRs to hinder his release. In March 2022, he was charged under the Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act (PSA) to prolong his detention.
In April 2023, the Jammu and Kashmir High Court dismissed the charges under the PSA against Fahad Shah and criticized authorities for violating his constitutional rights. Following his release, Fahad Shah spoke about the severe mental anguish of imprisonment and the hardships endured by his family due to his wrongful incarceration. In August 2023, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology blocked the website and social media accounts of The Kashmir Walla, an independent news outlet founded by Fahad Shah, under the Information Technology Act 2000.
On 14 March 2022, human rights defender and journalist Fahad Shah was charged under the Jammu & Kashmir Public Safety Act (PSA), a stringent legislation that allows for detention for up to two years without trial. Fahad Shah was arrested on 4 February 2022 by the Jammu and Kashmir police and was charged with offences under three First Information Reports (FIR), including under the anti-terror law Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). Fahad Shah was granted bail in two cases including under the UAPA. The PSA charges were introduced in a fourth case a day prior to the bail hearing in the third case scheduled for 15 March, putting the human rights defender at risk of prolonged incarceration irrespective of the court’s verdict. The defender is currently being held at Kupwara District jail in Kashmir.
On 4 February 2022, Fahad Shah was arrested on charges including under the UAPA, and remanded to judicial custody at Pulwama police station. On 26 February 2022, Fahad Shah was granted bail in the case filed at Pulwama police station and was immediately arrested again in another case lodged against him in Shopian. On 5 March 2022, the Shopian court granted bail to the human rights defender, after which he was re-arrested in a case lodged against him at Safakadal police station in Srinagar. On 14 March, fresh charges under the PSA were introduced against the defender. The District Magistrate of Srinagar has named the human rights defender an “anti-national” and has justified his detention on the grounds that his “activities are prejudicial to the security and sovereignty of the country as [he] tweets controversial statements and provokes the general masses which cause mischief to disrupt the peace and tranquillity of the Kashmir valley.” The use of PSA ensures his prolonged incarceration without due process.
The PSA is a draconian legislation that violates fundamental civil and political liberties guaranteed under international human rights laws that India has an obligation to uphold. The use of the PSA punishes human rights defenders and journalists in Kashmir, violates their fair trial rights, and suppresses the voices of dissent which are crucial for the functioning of a democracy. The law has been used especially against journalists reporting on human rights violations and peacefully carrying out their media work. On 6 January 2021, the Jammu & Kashmir Police arrested Sajad Gul, a trainee reporter at The Kashmir Walla under criminal conspiracy and other charges for posting a video of a family shouting slogans that were critical of government actions, after their kin was killed in a gunfight in Srinagar. A day after being granted bail, he was arrested under the PSA on 16 January 2021. In July 2019 Qazi Shibli, editor at the news portal The Kashmiriyat was charged under the PSA for tweeting about the deployment of additional troops in Kashmir and imprisoned without trial for nine months.
Front Line Defenders is deeply concerned about the continuous reprisals against human rights defender Fahad Shah. The application of the PSA in the case of Fahad Shah appears to aim at keeping him detained even when bail is granted in other cases filed against him. It urges the relevant authorities in India to immediately and unconditionally release Fahad Shah and dismiss all the charges filed against him.
On 4 February 2022, the Jammu and Kashmir Police arrested human rights defender and journalist Fahad Shah on charges of terrorism and sedition. Fahad Shah was held by the police at Pulwama police station under the First Information Report (FIR) 19/2022 and remanded to ten days of custody by the Judicial Magistrate of Pulwama. If convicted, the human rights defender faces life imprisonment.
Fahad Shah is the founder and editor-in-chief of The Kashmir Walla, an online news portal that reports on political and human rights issues. He writes extensively on culture, human rights, and identity politics. His work has been published in several international publications. In 2021, he won the Human Rights Press Award for his report on the riots in New Delhi in February 2020. He has also been nominated for the RSF Press Freedom Prize for Courage.
On 4 February 2022, Fahad Shah received a phone call from the Pulwama police station and was asked to go to the station in order to record a statement in relation to the summons issued on him. When he reached the police station however, he was arrested under FIR 19/2022 and charged under Section 13 “advocating, abetting, advising or inciting unlawful activity” of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), and under Section 124 A for “sedition” and Section 505 for “public mischief” of the Indian Penal Code.
On 31 January 2022, Jammu and Kashmir police issued summons to four human rights defenders and journalists, including Fahad Shah, regarding a police encounter in Pulwama during which four people were killed. One of them was a 17-year-old boy suspected by the police of being involved with the militants, while his family claims his innocence. The human rights defenders reported on both the family’s and on the police’s accounts of the incident on their respective media channels. Their reporting prompted the police to issue summons to the journalists. The family’s account of the incident had been reported in Fahad Shah’s news portal, The Kashmir Walla.
The police have accused Fahad Shah of “glorifying terrorism, spreading fake news and instigating people.” However, The Kashmir Walla has been reporting on human rights issues of Kashmiri civilians, which have increasingly deteriorated since the Indian state revoked the limited autonomy of Jammu and Kashmir in August 2019. It appears that the arrest of human rights defender Fahad Shah is a way to intimidate Kashmiri journalists and to discourage them to speak on behalf of the civilians.
According to the police, there are three cases opened against human rights defender Fahad Shah, including the one filed in Pulwama police station. Two other FIRs have been registered against the human rights defender in Safakadal police station, in Srinagar, and Imamsahib police station in Shopian.
According to the India Press Freedom Report 2021 by the Rights and Risks Analysis Group, the states of Jammu and Kashmir saw at least 25 attacks on journalists and media organizations in the past year, higher than any other state in India. The recent takeover and shut down of the Kashmir Press Club by the authorities represents another indication of the silencing of dissenting voices and curtailment of the freedom of press in the valley. The use of UAPA appears as a tactic to suppress FadahShah and other human rights defenders’ legitimate human rights work and to prolong incarceration even without substantial evidence.
Front Line Defenders is deeply concerned about the arrest of human rights defender Fahad Shah. It is also concerned about the frequent use of UAPA and other stringent anti-terror legislations against human rights defenders and journalists in Kashmir to quash dissent and to deter them from pursuing their legitimate human rights work.
