“No one has right to spread fake news and instigate people,” the police in Kashmir’s Shopian told Aditya Raj Kaul after the journalist protested their filing of an FIR against Sajid Yousuf Shah, the CEO of the Real Kashmir News.

Sajid’s pro-state website had carried a report claiming that the police shot dead two Kashmiri militants in Kupwara on June 20. The police claimed that the militants were foreigners and accused the Real Kashmir News of spreading fake news.

On June 21, the Real Kashmir News factcecked its own report, admitting that it had erred in identifying as local men the militants killed in Kupwara. The “confusion” was caused, the website claimed, because one of its “social media executives” mixed up the slain militants with a couple of suspected militants arrested by the police in Shopian.

While regretting the “discomfort” that its “misprint” may have caused the families of the arrested militants and “the disrepute it may have caused to brave and compassionate JK police”, the Real Kashmir News “applauds the bravery of JK Police which risks its own life to catch militants alive, in order to give them a second chance, when it was always easier for JK Police to simply shoot them down at sight”.

Speaking to the Telegraph, Sajid said, “I have always been at the forefront to defend Jammu and Kashmir police.”

Update on June 25:

A local court has granted anticipatory bail to Sajid, Kaul tweeted on Friday. The journalist also took a dig at Shopian district police. “Instead of telling journalists on social media about so called “facts”, if cops focus on basic “policing” it will go a long way to bring a positive change and peace.”