Police takes action against news portal for carrying Phd scholar-turned-militant’s letter

SRINAGAR:THE Jammu and Kashmir police have taken a legal action against the local news portal after it carried a letter from PHD scholar-turned-militant Mannan Wani.

Police said that legal proceedings have been initiated for carrying “propaganda” material of a proscribed terror outfit on web portal.

“Police have taken a cognizance of the propaganda material circulated by the responsible portal involving a proscribed terrorist organisation Hizbul Mujahideen, wherein a member of this banned outfit has circulated certain material,” a police spokesman said.

Mannan Wani, a PHD scholar who went missing in January and later surfaced on social media after joining the ranks of militants, wrote about why he chose to join the separatist movement in Kashmir.

The 26-year-old research student of applied geology at Aligarh Muslim University had gone missing in January 2018 only to appear on social media holding a weapon.

In a letter mailed to a local news agency on Monday, Wani describes himself as a former PHD scholar from the AMU and currently a member of Hizbul Mujahideen.

The news agency uploaded the 3000-word letter on its website but later took it down.

The police spokesman said that the legal proceedings were initiated under relevant provisions of law but did not specify which laws were invoked.

A police officer claimed that the legal action in the case is “not infringement” upon the freedom of speech and expression. “Hizbul Mujahideen is a proscribed organisation and under law you can’t carry an article by any of its members,” the officer said.

“You can report, you can interview but you can’t carry its article and then say views are author’s own. It is propaganda,” he said.