NEW DELHI: A senior journalist based in Srinagar city of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) has been detained by Indian authorities for posting a poem on social media.
Hilal Mir, who has worked with Indian and international outlets including as a freelancer for Turkish state-run Anadolu Agency news agency, was taken into custody by the Counter Intelligence Kashmir (CIK) wing last week.
He was questioned over a Facebook post he shared on May 1 and later deleted.
The post featured a photograph of an elderly woman walking through the debris of homes reportedly demolished by security forces in south Kashmir following a recent Pahalgam terrorist attack.
The image was accompanied by Mir’s text:
“My schizophrenic Kashmiri soul, don’t spread yourself thin. Think. The side you should be on has already been chosen for you. Focus. Don’t look elsewhere. You are the victim. You have been trampled upon, dispossessed, brutalised, humiliated, maimed, for no sin of yours. You are being erased. You don’t owe anything to anyone, least of all to those who revel in your misery, who have on their mind the medieval Spain and Gaza as templates for your annihilation. Take rest, or a 15-day chilla if you may. Contemplate. You alone are in danger, vulnerable, weakened. You alone are the target.”
According to a police statement released on Monday, Mir was detained for allegedly “inciting sentiments among young minds and instigating secessionist sentiment by portraying Kashmiris as victims of systemic extermination” through social media. –Agencies
