The oral summonses issued to at least five national media journalists in Kashmir, following their reporting on the profiling of mosques, mark the latest episode of what many describe as systematic surveillance of the valley’s press.

On Wednesday, The Indian Express detailed the harassment faced by the paper’s Srinagar bureau journalist and assistant editor Bashaarat Masood. It reported that Masood was called to the city’s cyber police station for four days and asked to sign a bond. “Masood, who has been reporting for The Indian Express from Srinagar for 20 years, did not sign the bond,” the newspaper said in its front-page report. 

An officer, who did not wish to be named, told The Indian Express that the police had sought to take preventive action under Section 126 of Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), 2023, claiming it had information he would commit a “breach of peace” or disturb “public tranquillity”. This section states that if the magistrate is of the opinion that there is sufficient ground for proceeding, he may require such person to show cause why he should not be ordered to execute a bond or bail bond for keeping the peace.

While The Indian Express report said the police did not specify to Masood the reason for calling him to the station, it quoted another officer who said the police had called him following his news report.

Hindustan Times’ reporter Ashiq Hussain also received an oral summons, but the newspaper “sought a written summons, with reason, so that it can respond,” according to a report published on Wednesday. 

Two other journalists who were among those summoned by the police informed Newslaundry that they were travelling. The fifth journalist could not be reached for comment. Apart from these five journalists from the national media, there was a sixth journalist from the local press who was summoned too. 

The Kashmir Press Club linked the summons to reportage on the police exercise seeking to profile mosques in the valley. In a statement on Tuesday, it flagged what it described as the “intimidation” of journalists from national media organisations, saying its members were “summoned or advised by the J&K Police to stop covering stories related to the profiling of specific religious institutions in the region”. The club said journalists were told this direction had come from higher authorities. 

Part of a pattern

But this is merely part of a troubling pattern: around 25 Kashmiri journalists have been reportedly intimidated in a similar way over the past year, according to journalists operating in the region.

“For the last one year, almost 25 Kashmiri journalists, especially freelancers, have been intimidated, harassed and silenced,” a journalist told Newslaundry, requesting anonymity due to fear of reprisal. 

The journalist said he found it astonishing that the issue was grabbing eyeballs only now. “Yes, this time the issue got highlighted; some noise was made because some of the valley’s top journalists were summoned. The fate of freelancers is sealed. They are at God’s mercy.”

Referring to the circumstances in the region after the Narendra Modi government’s August 2019 decisions, he added: “For the last six years, even their families have paid a cost in terms of psychological pressure, forcing most of them to self-censor. Some of them spent years in prison. Some are still languishing in jails. Some continue to face travel bans, while a few bid adieu to the profession out of fear. Survival took precedence in a culture of fear.”

After Jammu and Kashmir lost its special status and statehood in August 2019, and after the introduction of the J&K Media Policy 2020, more than 100 journalists in Kashmir have been summoned by authorities for their work.

“If we are summoned even on routine ‘he said, she said’ reports, you can only imagine the fear among the journalist community in Kashmir for attempting any serious investigative piece,” another journalist told Newslaundry, requesting anonymity.

Newslaundry spoke to a freelance journalist who narrated his ordeal at a police station after being called there repeatedly. On November 22, 2025, after receiving a call in the evening, he was asked to report immediately. When he asked why, the police reportedly informed him there was a “verification issue”.

“When I reached the police station, an officer asked me whether I had committed any wrongdoing and whether I was a journalist,” he told Newslaundry, adding that he responded with a “no” to the first question, and a “yes” to the second. He was then asked whether he had uploaded anything to social media platforms, to which he responded by saying that he sometimes shares his body of work there.

Police personnel allegedly clicked his photograph and directed him to furnish complete details of his residential house, personal life, educational background, and travel and work history. “My mobile phone device was confiscated. I was prohibited from calling anyone, including close friends and colleagues. Later, I was taken to the Cyber Police Station, Srinagar. There, the police checked my mobile device one more time. I saw other journalists present there, including a woman journalist,” he claimed.

When he enquired what crimes he had committed, he was told: “Upar se order hai, humein kuch nahi pata (The orders are from the higher-ups. We are not privy to any details.)”

He was made to sit at the police station for the entire day and asked to report the next day. “I was helpless, hopeless and scared, and on my own,” he said. After three days, his phone was returned. No explanation was offered, he said.

Another journalist, working for an international organisation, told Newslaundry that respected journalists in Kashmir were being treated as if they were hardcore criminals. “Our colleagues are routinely summoned, humiliated and treated like hardcore criminals. Then, the authorities direct them to sign ‘good behaviour’ bonds, as if they are a threat to public order. Are we street thugs, gangsters or what?” the journalist said.

Nearly a month after Omar Abdullah was sworn in as the chief minister, the J&K Police’s SIA raided the Jammu office of Kashmir Times on November 19, 2025, as part of an investigation into alleged “anti-national” and “secessionist” activities. Officials claimed to have recovered a revolver, empty and live AK-series cartridges, fired bullets, suspected pistol rounds, and grenade safety levers, along with digital devices and documents.

However, the paper’s chief editor, Anuradha Bhasin, called it “another attempt to silence us”. The newspaper, established in 1954 by her father Ved Bhasin, suspended its print edition in 2021-22 after what the editors called relentless targeting. It now operates digitally. Bhasin and co-editor Prabodh Jamwal rejected allegations that the newspaper promoted “anti-national activities” or peddled a “pro-separatist narrative”.

Months before the raid, the authorities also banned her book A Dismantled State.

Several journalists in Kashmir earlier told Newslaundry they receive background-verification calls from government offices many times a month, asking them to disclose PAN and Aadhaar numbers, bank account details, salary slips, property records, and even their marital status. Local officials, the story found, have been tasked with compiling personal and financial information of working journalists. This sort of intimidation, the statement noted, "weaken(s) independent journalism and undermine(s) the public's right to information”. 

National Conference silent

Earlier this week, senior journalist Nirupama Subramanian posted on X about reporters being asked to sign bonds in Kashmir. The summons subsequently came under criticism from journalists, activists and press associations  

The DIGIPUB News India Foundation, which Newslaundry is a part of, urged the government to cease the practice of summoning journalists and called for greater transparency in any action involving journalists. “These incidents are part of a broader pattern. Since the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019, press freedom in J&K has steadily deteriorated. Rights groups and media watchdogs report that more than 200 journalists have faced summons, questioning, raids, threats or legal harassment since. This repression has now expanded from local Kashmiri journalists to reporters from major national media and freelancers, even as several large media houses remain silent, leaving the most vulnerable journalists to bear the brunt,” DIGIPUB said in a statement.

The Editors Guild of India has called out the police for issuing summonses. “Arbitrary summons and police questioning of journalists, and bids to obtain affidavits under duress, are tantamount to coercion and intimidation of the media in pursuit of its legitimate duties,” the guild said in a statement on Wednesday.

Several political leaders and religious figures have condemned the summoning of Kashmiri journalists to police stations and forcing them to sign bonds and affidavits for reporting on the profiling of mosques and imams in Jammu and Kashmir.

PDP leader Iltija Mufti said Kashmiri journalists were “forcibly being made to sign bonds as a punishment for throwing light on the illegal punitive surveillance of mosques & imams”.

Mirwaiz Umar Farooq also criticised the actions of the authorities. “First intrusive and arbitrary profiling of mosques, imams and seminaries is being carried out by the authorities in J&K and then journalists reporting on it are targeted and harassed,” he wrote on X. 

People’s Conference chairman Sajjad Lone termed the reported police action a “new low”. “This is reprehensible. Why should the police intervene and summon journalists when they are doing a story based on facts?” he asked.

While opposition parties expressed outrage, the governing National Conference continues to maintain radio silence. Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has not spoken a word, and the party is yet to issue a formal statement condemning the summoning of journalists.

A couple of months before the 2024 elections for the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly, the National Conference released a manifesto promising ‘the freedom of the press’ and the restoration of the erstwhile Kashmir Press Club (KPC), whose registration was put in abeyance in early 2022 after a forcible takeover. 

“The National Conference has been the biggest letdown on the freedom of the press in Kashmir. During its election campaign, the Omar Abdullah-led NC had promised the freedom of the press and the restoration of the Kashmir Press Club, which has been converted into a police station where a senior-ranked officer is posted,” said a journalist working for a New Delhi-based organisation.

With over 20 years of experience covering Kashmir, the journalist told Newslaundry that “restoring the Kashmir Press Club to its original glory would have sent a message that the current Chief Minister is serious and sincere about press freedom in the troubled region. Instead, Omar Abdullah and his party have chosen silence on the issue that was a central plank of the National Conference's campaign before the assembly polls.”

Newslaundry made repeated attempts to get a response from Tanvir Sadiq, the National Conference’s chief spokesperson, Head of Communications and Member of the J&K Legislative Assembly. Calls to Kashmir zone IGP Vidhi Kumar Birdi remained unanswered. A questionnaire has been sent to him. This report will be updated if a response is received. 

In the 2025 World Press Freedom Index, India was placed 151st out of 180 countries, with the ranking citing political interference, economic pressure and media control as key factors.

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