Police in Jammu and Kashmir on August 9, 2017, detained and harassed Idrees Bukhtiyar, an intern reporter for the Hyderabad-based TV news channel MunsifTV, Bukhtiyar told the Committee to Protect Journalists.
The incident occurred around 11 p.m., Bukhtiyar wrote in an account of the incident for the website Greater Kashmir, as he recorded video of police attempting to clear traffic for the passing cavalcade of a senior judge.
“Suddenly, a cop came and dragged me into a police vehicle and took me to a police station,” Bukhtiyar told CPJ. “I showed him my ID card and told him I was doing my professional duty but he dismissed it as fake.”
Bukhtiyar said he protested when the officer began to look through the photos on his phone, but that the officer told him, “I’m a policeman. I can do anything I want,” and deleted a video.
The journalist said that the sub-divisional police officer asked the station house officer to file a criminal complaint against him, but that the more senior officer listened to Bukhtiyar’s version of events, “understood the situation,” and did not file a complaint.
Imtiaz Ismail Parray, senior superintendent of police in Srinagar for the Jammu and Kashmir police force declined to comment, saying, “I want to check with my officers what the complete issue is. Only then will I be in a position to comment.”