Hit-list against 76 J&K journalists issued and the guilds, committees which back liberals are silent

New Delhi, Nov 18: The Resistence Front which is a front of the Pakistan based Lashkar-e-Tayiba has put out a new hit-list in which it has put out the names of 76 journalists from Jammu and Kashmir which it claims are paid agents and collaborators of the Indian police and Intelligence agencies.

Out of this 32 are said to be journalists based out of Srinagar. The The Resistence Front has however denied putting out the list and took to its media propaganda platform KashmirFight which stands banned in India.

The outfit has labelled these journalists as traitors, agents, stooges and collaborators of the Indian police and Intelligence agencies.

Before going further, we would like to tell you that this is not the first time such a list has been drawn out and journalists targeted. In the last 33 years there have been 20 fatal attacks by terrorists. Despite such a list being released there is not a word from the Editors Guild of India, Press Club of India, Committee to Protect Journalists and Reporters Sans Frontiers.

The virtual hit-list has been put up after a span of two years and this has sent a chill among the media persons named by the group, but the entire media fraternity across Jammu and Kashmir.

The Srinagar police have registered an FIR against against unknown persons and their handlers in Pakistan under provisions of the Indian Penal Code and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. Several persons including five in custody have been interrogated by the police.

Some television channels had claimed that the hit-list has been prepared by one Mukhtar Baba of Srinagar who has been based in Turkey. Baba is said to have received this list through a source in Srinagar. Baba is an operative for the terror group Hizbullah who was arrested, but released in 1990.

Baba is said to have settled in Turkey with the help of a German-American woman Carin Jodha Fischer who was expelled from India after staying in Kashmir as a confidant of PDP president Mehbooba Mufti in 2018. A Disinfo Lab report said that she was working with the ISI and taking USD 7,000 per month in the name of her two firms.

Reports also state that so far five journalists named in the hit-lists have submitted their resignation. This time the targeted journalists are mostly from Greater Kashmir, Rising Kashmir and Asia News Network. Rising Kashmir was founded by Shujaat Bukhari who was killed by terrorists.

The targeting of media persons comes in the wake of several journalists close to Pakistan losing their jobs or changing their track to pro-India. The changed scenario is a contrast to what the scene was in the 1990s when journalists would refer to terrorists as mujahids, freedom fighters or rebels. They would cover their crimes against the helpless civilians. It was in the same period that these journalists would spread hate against India, discredit the nation and demonise the police. The biggest change is that for the first time since the outbreak of the separatist movement in Kashmir, journalists today are referring to militants as terrorists.