india

Updated: Jun 25, 2019 22:05 IST

A 62-year-old editor of an Urdu newspaper was arrested from his residence in Srinagar on Monday night in a case dating back to the 1990s. A local court granted Ghulam Jeelani Qadri, the editor of Daily Afaaq, bail on Tuesday and directed the Jammu and Kashmir police to furnish a detailed report about his arrest by July 31.

A police officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Qadri had been booked for publishing a militant group’s statement in the 1990s, and a summon issued against him in this regard had remained unexecuted.

Qadri’s family said he was arrested around midnight. His brother, Muarifat, said other people were also named in that case but only Qadri was arrested.

“This night raid shows that there is something more to this arrest. The court bailed my brother and also pulled up the police.”

Kashmir Editors Guild (KEG) condemned the manner in which the arrest was carried out. In a statement, the KEG said Qadri was arrested in connection with the 1990 case that was registered against eight journalists. It added two of the eight are no more.

The statement questioned why Qadri was singled out for allegedly defying the due process in a case he is not aware about. “He [Qadri] does not know how and why he was declared a proclaimed offender. The case is curious because the same police verified and attested the antecedents of the editor for issuance of his passport twice in last 30 years.’’

The KEG said the police failed to explain what the case was in the court.

“After bailing out the editor, the court directed the police to explain how it investigated the case in last three decades before they finally swooped on the residence of Qadri and arrested him in the dead of the night,’’ the statement said.

It said Qadri is a law abiding citizen and could have appeared before the police or the court had he been informed. “He has been a newspaper editor for last more than two decades... How can a person be a proclaimed offender if he is available in his office in the heart of Srinagar for more than 15 hours daily?’’

A police officer said Qadri’s arrest was a routine part of an investigation. “It [arrest] has nothing to do with the journalists. He was declared proclaimed offender. So his arrest was required,” he said on condition of anonymity.