Scribe ‘thrashed’ over report, police deny

Tribune News Story

Srinagar, September 21

A Kashmiri journalist Auqib Javeed, who was summoned by the cyber police station (CPS) of the Jammu and Kashmir Police, over a story has alleged that he was beaten up and abused by cops, the charge refuted by the police.

Javeed had written a story on September 17 on the disappearance of Twitter users due to the alleged police intimidation in an online news portal Article-14.

The journalist said he was summoned by the CPS on September 19 and went there along with two members of the Kashmir Press Club.

Javeed claimed that he was slapped by masked policeman and later abused by the Superintendent of Police, in charge of the police’s cyber cell, Tahir Bhatti, for the story.

The SP, according to the journalist, told him it was a fake story and he had maligned the image of the cyber police and threatened to book him under various sections of the law. Javeed told the SP that the story was based on facts, but the picture and headline were not in his domain.

The journalist also claimed that his phone was also tampered with by the police.

He said after a five-hour ordeal, he was asked to sign a letter.

The police, however, refuted the allegation of excesses by their men.

“They are misleading and factually incorrect, hence refuted,” SP Bhatti said.

He said a story titled “The Real Cyber Bully: Police in Kashmir Question Kashmir Twitter” was published on Article-14.

“In the story the writer depicted a misleading picture with incorrect detail. The headline and the picture with some of the content were factually incorrect, hence misleading. The writer published a picture of a building showing it as Cyber Police Station, Kashmir Zone, Srinagar, which is incorrect. The said writer has misled the general public about the functioning of the Cyber Police Station and its establishment,” the SP said.