Updated:
NIA arrests Kashmiri Journalist in connection with alleged ‘militant funding’ case
Srinagar, Mar 21, KNT: A Kashmir-based Journalist was arrested by National Investigation Agency (NIA) on charges of militant funding on Tuesday morning.
The journalist in question is Irfan Mehraj.
Reports said that NIA raided his house in Srinagar uptown and arrested him.
Sources told news agency Kashmir News Trust that Irfan has been arrested in connection with an FIR lodged in 2020. The case is related to militant funding.
Pertinently, Human Rights activist Khuram Parvez was arrested in 2021 under the same FIR vide number 37/2020/NIA/DLI.
Irfan was formerly a researcher with Khurram’s human rights organization Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society.
The LinkedIn profile of Irfan Mehraj reads that: “I am an independent journalist and researcher based in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir (India). My work has appeared in TRT World, Indian Express, The Caravan, Kashmir Life, Kashmir Reader, Greater Kashmir among others.”
Suchitra Vijayan – The author of ‘Midnight’s Borders’ in a tweet informed that: Kashmiri journalist Irfan Meraj was arrested by the National Investigation Agency under draconian UAPA in Srinagar today. He has been moved to Delhi,” she said adding that Irfan is a reporter and the founding editor of Wande Magazine.
One of the journalists that Irfan had worked at different media houses in Kashmir. He said currently Irfan is an Editor at TwoCircles.net. [KNT]