SRINAGAR: A PhD scholar in Srinagar was arrested by Jammu and Kashmir’s State Investigation Agency (SIA) on Sunday for an allegedly “highly provocative and seditious” article published in an online magazine.
The scholar, Abdul Aala Fazili was arrested from his residence in Humhama on the outskirts of Srinagar. The official said Fazili’s article, titled The shackles of slavery will break is “highly provocative, seditious and intended to create unrest in Jammu and Kashmir, and written with the purpose of abetting the youth to take the path of violence by glorifying terrorism”.
Fazili, BSc Bpharm, Mpharm (Pharmaceutics) is a PhD scholar in the department of pharmaceutical sciences at Kashmir University.SIA statement pointed out that the scholar was getting a scholarship of Rs 30,000 per month for five years till March 2021 through UGC MANF (Maulana Azad national fellowship) so that he can sustain himself and complete his PhD.
According to the reports, the SIA carried out the searches in connection with an FIR registered under various sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and the IPC against Fazili and the editor and other associates of the magazine The Kashmir Walla.
Searches were also conducted at the office of the newspaper in Rajbagh and at the residences of Fazili in Humhama and at the residence of the jailed editor of the magazine, Farhad Shah. The SIA has said that they “seized incriminating evidence, including material in computers, laptops and other digital equipment”.
Kashmir walla on its website said they cooperated with the investigators. In the office, it said, the sleuths “seized the laptops of two reporters, a Mac from the multimedia department, six hard drives that had backups, and five CDs”. It added: “In the raid at Shah’s residence, a laptop of another Kashmir Walla staffer, who was also there during the searches, a tablet device, and a voice recorder were seized.”
