[Reader-list] Kashmir: Call for explanations about arrest of journalist Abdul Rouf

[Shivam Vij]

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From: RSF ASIA <asie at rsf.org <asie%40rsf.org>>
Date: 12-Dec-2006 21:17
Subject: INDIA: Call for explanations about journalist arrested in Kashmir
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Reporters Without Borders/Reporters sans frontières
Press release

Tuesday 11 December 2006

INDIA
CALL FOR EXPLANATIONS ABOUT JOURNALIST ARRESTED IN KASHMIR

Reporters Without Borders has urged the Indian authorities,
particularly Union home minister Shivraj Patil, to provide clear and
objective information about the detention of Abdul Rouf, an editor on
the Srinagar News, and his wife Zeenat Rouf.

"The rule of law should be guaranteed in Kashmir as elsewhere in
India. It is unacceptable that the security forces arrest, detain and
charge journalists in the most dubious circumstances," the worldwide
press freedom organisation said.

"We want explanations about the detention of Abdul Rouf and his wife
from both the State and Union authorities. If this arrest is linked to
his work as a journalist, he should be released immediately," it
added.

The organisation pointed out that another reporter, photo-journalist
Maqbool Sahil, has been held without trial in Kashmir since September
2004.

A judge in the capital Srinagar on 9 December 2006 ordered the
release on bail of Zeenat Rouf, who is currently in custody at a
police station in Rambagh, but police have so far refused to release
her.

Since 4 December, Abdul Rouf and his wife have been held under a
weapons law. Police who presented a first report (FIR 341/2006) accuse
them of sheltering armed separatists at their home. The couple's
families deny the accusations, saying that they have never committed
any crimes. Between 21 November and 4 December, the journalist was
held at the Special Operations Group (SOG) centre without ever going
before a judge.

A police officer in Srinagar, reached by telephone by Reporters
Without Borders, refused to give any information about the reasons for
their detention.

Described by his colleagues as "calm and loyal in his work", Abdul
Rouf was a calligrapher for various publications in Srinagar for 15
years. For the past four years he has worked as deputy editor on
Srinagar News.

The couple's two daughters, Rafiya and Rubiya, and their son, Amir,
who is a deaf-mute, told how the SOG agents searched the family home
in Srinagar on the night of 21 November. They have been forced to take
refuge at the home of a neighbour. They have been unable to return
home since the house has been sealed and "police are preventing the
children from having access to their clothes, books and toys," the
journalist's brother told the newspaper Greater Kashmir.

Photo-journalist Muhammad Maqbool Khokar, better known as Maqbool
Sahil, has been held in Kashmir since 18 September 2004 under an
emergency public security law. Despite calls for his release from the
Jammu and Kashmir High Court and the National Human Rights Commission
the security services refuse to set him free.

- --
Vincent Brossel
Asia - Pacific Desk
Reporters Sans Frontières
5 rue Geoffroy Marie
75009 Paris
33 1 44 83 84 70
33 1 45 23 11 51 (fax)
asia at rsf.org <asia%40rsf.org>
www.rsf.org
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