Radical since childhood, says police dossier on Kashmir Walla editor Fahad

Dossier prepared to book him under stringent Public Safety Act

The dossier prepared by the police to book journalist and editor of Kashmir Walla Fahad Shah (33) under the stringent Public Safety Act (PSA) has described him as “a radical since childhood and anti-national, whose story finds no mention of the government’s good governance or positive intervention”.

It was on the basis of this police dossier that Mr. Shah, who was first arrested on February 4 under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, was booked on March 4 under the PSA, a law under which a person can be detained without a trial for two years. Mr. Shah had secured a bail in two other cases.

In the detailed dossier, the police accused Mr. Shah of “having a radical ideology right from your childhood”. 

“Being a prominent journalist, your approach has been based on creating a rift between the groups of law-abiding masses. You are continuously propagating stories which are against the interest and security of the Nation and the stories mostly highlight the allegations of Kashmir conflict and Indian state high-handedness,” it alleged.

The police said the reportage of Kashmir Walla, a news portal and a magazine run by Mr. Shah, was “propagating stories in a particular selective narrative, which is in line with the ISI and separatist propaganda”.

“Over the last two years, you have followed a selective pattern of disseminating anti-India sentiment in a very subtle manner, though some of the stories are brazenly provocative as well. You legitimize and romanticize stone pelters and other instruments of violence. Your modus operandi is to carry one to two stones per month which are based entirely on the victimhood narrative that portrays anti-India sentiment, glorifies stone pelters, terrorists, and justifies separatism and violence,” it said.

The police questioned the style of reporting on Mr. Shah’s portal. “Any other news item or story related to good governance or positive Intervention by the Government of India hardly finds any mention,” the dossier stated.