SRINAGAR: A week after the High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh granted bail to Kashmiri Journalist Fahad Shah, he was released on Wednesday.
The family sources said Shah reached his Srinagar home after being released from Kot Bhalwal jail in Jammu yesterday.
The Asia Desk of the Committee to Protect Journalists welcomed his release and said he should be allowed to resume his publication.
“Kashmiri journalist Fahad Shah returned home Thursday after nearly two years in detention on terror charges. CPJ welcomes his release on bail. All charges against Shah must be dropped, and the ban on his publication, The Kashmir Walla @tkwmag revoked,” CPJ, Asia, posted on X.
Shah, the editor of The Kashmir Walla, a news portal , was pulled down by the Union IT ministry in August this year under provisions of the Information and Technology Act, 2000.
Shah was first arrested on February 4, 2022, by the Pulwama district police under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). He was booked for allegedly "glorifying terrorism", "spreading fake news", and "inciting" the general public. After his arrest, the police said there were two more FIRs against him in Srinagar and Shopian districts.
The NIA court gave him bail on February 26, but Shah was immediately re-arrested in an FIR in Shopian. After his bail by the Shopian court on March 5, he was arrested for the third time by the Srinagar police in a separate case.
Shah was later arrested in the anti-terror case by J&K Police’s State Investigation Agency (SIA) following the registration of a case in Jammu on April 4, 2022, nearly 11 years after the publication of an article titled ‘The shackles of slavery will break’ on his portal in 2011.
The article was written by a Kashmir University scholar, Abdul Aala Fazili, who too has been arrested.
Last week, the High Court granted him bail on terror conspiracy charges and blamed the government for digging out a case against him after he was bailed twice by other courts. (UNI)9
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