anonymous blog vilifying me and Iftikhar Gilani : Kashmiri journalist Ahmed Ali Fayyaz
In the blog, editor Shujaat Bukhari, who was gunned down in Srinagar on June 14, was accused of ‘betraying the Kashmir struggle’.
Kashmiri journalist Ahmed Ali Fayyaz on Sunday said unidentified people who had run a vilification campaign against Rising Kashmir’s assassinated editor Shujaat Bukhari, were now targeting him and journalist Iftikhar Gilani.
A blog post titled “Touts who are betraying the Kashmir struggle” appeared online 11 days before Bukhari was gunned down in Srinagar on June 14, the Hindustan Times reported last week. The blog’s authors have also targeted other journalists, businessmen, politicians and activists engaged in Track-2 diplomacy, berating them for betraying the “struggle of Kashmir” and for carrying out the “dirty work of defaming [the] Kashmir cause”.
“They have posted our photographs on the same portal with a vitriolic heap of text which vilifies and denigrates us both as ‘dubious characters’, men of ‘hypocritical approach’ et al,” Fayyaz wrote in a Facebook post.
Fayyaz wrote that the allegations against him were unfounded. “I have never ever taken upon myself the task of strengthening or weakening any narrative or ideology or attempted to impose my personal ideology on my esteemed readers who are from vast, diverse opinions and backgrounds,” he said. “So it is completely malicious and preposterous to allege that I have anybody’s brief in discharging my duty.”
The journalist denied that he had ever taken part in a Track-2 diplomatic initiative. “I have never ever claimed to be the ‘saviour of Kashmiri cause’ or someone ‘finding a solution to the Kashmir problem’, he wrote. “I believe this is not a proscribed activity for a journalist but I have been holding the opinion that this job should be left to other organs of the civil society.”
He also refuted the allegation that he had not spoken up against Bharatiya Janata Party leader Choudhary Lal Singh’s threat to journalists, and that he influenced American and Indian policies in the region. “Throughout my career I have steered clear of such state and non-state affiliations and diplomatic operations,” the journalist wrote. “My activity has been purely professional and academic while attending only those conferences and workshops which are not directly or indirectly sponsored by any side of the Kashmir conflict.”
Fayyaz said he had written against both state and non-state actors and exposed “the atrocities they committed against helpless, voiceless people”.
“I neither need a certificate from any masked keyboard actor nor will I ever take dictation under any naked or insidious threat from any individual or country under any circumstances,” he wrote. “Those trying it, for whatever purpose, will be simply wasting their own time and energy.”
courtesy : scroll.in
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Bengaluru: Woman killed, body parts found in refrigerator
Bengaluru, Sep 21: A 29-year-old woman's dismembered body was found in a residential flat in Malleswaram here, police sources said on Saturday.
According to police, the women's body, cut into over 30 pieces, was stuffed in a refrigerator.
Senior police officers reached the spot and barricaded the road leading to the building where the body was found in a single bedroom house.
ALSO READ: 22 people injured after mini truck collides with car in Mandya district
Police suspect it to be a case of murder, which took place about a fortnight ago.
An investigation has been launched into the case.
“We have identified the deceased but we are not disclosing it right now,” a police officer said.
