Arrest of Kamran Yusuf


Kamran Yusuf, also known as Kamran Yousuf is a freelance Kashmiri photojournalist. He was arrested by the National Investigation Agency, India's federal anti-terror organisation, on 5 September 2017 and was released on bail on 14 March 2018 from Tihar Jail, New Delhi. The bail has been opposed by NIA. His detention was questioned at a national level by various bodies such as the Press Council of India, the Kashmir Editors Guild and Kashmir Young Journalists Association as well at an international level by Committee to Protect Journalists, the International Federation of Journalists and Amnesty International which all issued statements for his immediate release.

Background

Kamran Yusuf was born on 26 January 1994 in Pulwama, Kashmir. He is an alumnus of Government Degree College Pulwama. Kamran dropped out of college in 2014 and took to photojournalism, gradually becoming a well-known name within the journalist fraternity of not only Pulwama but across the Kashmir valley as well.
Kamran was just two years old when his parents separated, and his mother Rubeena Akhtar shifted into her father's house. Kamran's parents got divorced a couple of years later. Rubeena Akhtar took up work as a teacher-cum-clerk at a local private school in Tahab village of Pulwama district to support her son and herself. Kamran Yusuf's grandfather, Mohammad Yousuf Ganai is a retired political science lecturer. Kamran's family has been associated with the Jamaat-e-Islami.

Career as a photojournalist

Kamran has worked as a freelance photojournalist with Greater Kashmir, Kashmir valley's largest circulated English daily. His photographs have also featured in Kashmir Times and Kashmir Uzma. He has worked as a reporter and stringer for two Urdu television channels, Chandigarh-based channel Gulistan News and Hyderabad-based news channel Musnif TV.

Controversy

The National Investigation Agency first registered a case related to terror and terror funding in Jammu and Kashmir in May 2017 and the first raids and arrests soon followed. During the course of investigation the NIA teams conducted searches at various locations and seized incriminating documents and electronic devices. Hundreds of witnesses were questioned.
Freelance photojournalist Kamran Yousuf was detained without charge by the NIA in September 2017 and was booked by the agency on 18 January in a chargesheet. He was part of 11 others listed in the chargesheet which accused him being a "stone-pelter" and for -
The NIA chargesheet also accuses Kamran Yousuf of -
forming strategies and action plans to launch violent protests and communicate the same to the masses in the form of 'protest calendars' released through newspapers, social media and religious leaders, creating an atmosphere of terror and fear in the state of Jammu and Kashmir.
The NIA has also accused Kamran of neglecting his moral duty of covering the government's developmental programs such as skill-building workshops and blood donation drives. This is the first time the NIA has arrested people allegedly involved in stone-pelting incidents.

Timeline