The Kashmir Editors Guild on Tuesday said it was concerned about the detention of freelance photographer Kamran Yousuf by the National Investigation Agency, Greater Kashmir reported. The media organisation has asked the investigation agency to release the photographer immediately and expressed appreciation over media coverage about Yousuf’s detention.
A spokesperson for the guild said the National Investigation Agency arrested Yousuf but did not say why, and that this goes against the law in a democratic setup. Yousuf, 23, is a freelance photojournalist and contributor to the valley’s largest circulated English daily Greater Kashmir.
On September 4, Yousuf was at a makeshift office of local journalists in Pulwama town when he received a phone call from the local police station. Yousuf was kept there overnight and taken to Srinagar the next day. He was arrested on September 5.
Arrested for stone-pelting
Yousuf and Javed Ahmed Bhat from Kulgam were arrested on charges of being stone-pelters, India Today reported. “Yousuf was not only involved, but was systematically circulating videos and photos of militants to incite youth,” the report quoted unidentified officials in the National Investigation Agency.
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