Rumours take centre stage in newspaper-less Kashmir
UNCERTAINTY People forced to settle for unverified information in the absence of print news
SRINAGAR: Kashmir’s traditional morning cup of nun-chai (salted tea) has not tasted the same for sixty-year-old Syed Ghulam Nabi for the past three days. Local newspapers are off the shelves following a government crackdown on the media and Nabi has been forced to settle for rumours in the absence of his daily dose of news.
Monday was the third and final day of the governmentimposed ban and Srinagar residents were still coming to terms with unconfirmed reports of a ruling Peoples Democratic Party MLA, Mohammad Khalil Band, being hurt in an attack by a stone-pelting mob.
The government claimed the reports were just rumours and insisted that the legislator had been injured in a road accident.
That rumours have had a free run is not surprising. “When you have banned newspapers and internet, you have taken away the common man’s only sources of verified information. As a result, what spreads is rumours,” said Sheikh Mushtaq, a senior journalist.
With no newspapers coming out, many local journalists twiddled their thumb sitting at home as tensions simmered outside.
Printing plates and copies of several local newspapers in the Valley were seized after their offices and printing presses were raided by security forces on Friday. The next day, the state government announced a ban on local newspapers such as English daily Greater Kashmir and Urdu dailies Srinagar Times and Aftaab for three days “to ensure peace”.
Since then, there has been no dearth of such rumours. On Sunday, reports emerged that a youth had been killed in Bandipora in street protests triggered by the death of Hizbul Mujhahideen commander Burhan Wani.
This rumour too turned out to be baseless. But not long after it died down, another one took hold of the city’s alleys: this time the unverified news of another youngster being killed in the Rainawari area of the city. This too turned out to be false. In between, there were also rumours that a police constable had been killed in clashes in south Kashmir’s Kulgam district.
In the aftermath of Wani’s death and the storm of protests it sparked, mobile internet in the Valley remains suspended. Nabi’s cell phone has also been down for 10 days with mobile connectivity at best being patchy.
“The ban on press – in addition to the ban on internet – comes as a part of the government’s overall step to ensure normalcy at any cost,” pointed out Shuja Ahmad, Nabi’s bankemployee son.
Kashmir’s media houses are fighting the ban on printing papers by aggressively updating their web portals with breaking news.
Yet, rumours are having a field day. The police constable, rumoured to be dead in Kulgam, was not dead but critical, an official press statement later clarified.
Made mostly redundant for three days, print journalists say the crackdown is counterproductive.
“This gag on media in Kashmir will have counterproductive effects and the situation will worsen because of it. Kashmir already has a bad reputation for rumours and this time they are spreading like wildfire. Such rumours can easily provoke people and more clashes can happen,” said Daanish Bin Nabi, an editor with the English daily, Rising Kashmir.