SRINAGAR, 06 February 2022, (TON): Police in Indian-administered Kashmir have arrested a prominent journalist under stringent anti-terror law and sedition, accusing him of glorifying terrorism  and spreading fake news, in an intensifying crackdown on press freedom in the Himalayan region.

Fahad Shah, 33, editor of a local news portal, The Kashmir Walla, was arrested on Friday from the southern district of Pulwama – a month after Sajad Dar, a Kashmir Walla contributor, was arrested for social media posts.

A number of Kashmiri journalists have been arrested, questioned and investigated for doing their work since India’s Hindu nationalist government scrapped the region’s special status in 2019.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a New York-based media watchdog, in a statement called the arrest “utter disregard for press freedom and the fundamental right of journalists to report freely and safely”, while the International Press Institute (IPI) also spoke against the “continuous crackdown” on the press in Kashmir.

Steven Butler, CPJ’s Asia programme coordinator said “authorities must immediately release Shah, and all other journalists behind bars, and cease detaining and harassing journalists for simply doing their jobs.”