What TV doesn't, print can't; we deliver.
What TV doesn't, print can't; we deliver.
Arshia Malik recounts how pro-India voices like her & her journalist husband were hounded & suppressed in Kashmir
The Jammu and Kashmir Police have criticized a recent BBC article titled “Any story could be your last – India’s crackdown on Kashmir press,” claiming it unfairly portrayed their work. They specifically mentioned journalist Fahad Shah, who has been arrested under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and charged with providing a platform for advocating terrorism through his online magazine Kashmir Walla. The police also accused the BBC of using quotes from unidentified journalists to support unverified claims of state overreach against journalists to misrepresent the situation in Kashmir.
In its continued disinformation efforts, BBC has deployed its network of correspondents across South Asia to once again target India with concocted stories on democracy and freedom and glorify the lives of journalists and writers founded linked to terrorism and funding by Indian agencies.
The Kashmiri media, often referred to as the “Intifada factory” by dissenters of Azadi like me, has long been accused of serving as a conduit and mouthpiece for secessionist forces and terror groups. The BBC, along with other media houses like the Washington Post and New York Times, is now accused of recruiting radicalized Kashmiri youth for its various portals and funding anti-India biased reports and articles. This tactic of having native persons and portraying the lives of active terrorists, hybrid terrorists, and overground workers (OGWs) as heroes has been employed for years. The Western media is well known for propagating the views of people like Arundhati Roy who has been associated with separatist leader and assassin Yasin Malik.
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BBC’s stance towards India can be traced back to its colonial history, which has left lingering biases in the European region’s perception of the subcontinent. However, their new alignment with Islamism involves the use of Indian origin “useful idiots” like Ms Yogita Limaye, the writer of the recent article. The recent reports highlighting the incarceration of journalists in Kashmir do not take into account the role of Kashmiri media as a mouthpiece for secessionist forces.
I vividly recall the early 1990s when the Valley saw its first wave of the deployment of security personnel, facing a series of processions marching towards the United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) at Gupkar Road in Srinagar. As schoolchildren, we struggled to comprehend the sudden surge in slogans, processions, stone pelting, blackouts, and tin-roof drumming. Only later did we realize that something akin to the Afghan jihad was unfolding in Kashmir. With no internet, cable TV, or mobile phones, our only source of news was the BBC Radio on transistors and national newspapers like The Times of India and The Hindu, which arrived on evening flights and were distributed to a handful of vendors in Srinagar.
Understanding the situation took time. As high-profile assassinations of Kashmiri Pandits, like Doordarshan director Lassa Koul and Tika Lal Taploo, and secular figures like Kashmir University VC Mushir-ul-Haq and the killings of four Air Force personnel piled up, the forced exodus of Pandits began. The bias, prejudice, and hatred towards Kashmiri Pandits became increasingly overt, and the influence of Wahhabi Islam in the Valley exacerbated faultlines and sectarian divisions, leading to filial surveillance, suppression of dissent, and accusations of apostasy or blasphemy for those who did not conform.
The 1990s also saw a shift in the career choices of young Kashmiris with many aspiring to become media professionals. This generation, with a few notable exceptions, would later play a significant role in the disinformation warfare against India, supported by organizations like the Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC) and Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), as well as the Soros-backed groups like the Open Society Foundation. Among the exceptions was my late husband Arshid Malik who taught at the Mass Communication Department at Kashmir University. His journey was cut short due to mental health issues caused by unresolved trauma as an incest survivor and as a witness of the 1990 Gowkadal massacre.
Arshid’s journey in the Kashmiri media started as an Associate Editor of a Kashmiri daily. I met him when he was working for a journal run by surrendered terrorists who were still aligned with the Pak-ISI as double agents – taking funds from the Indian government as well, in what came to be known as the Dulat Doctrine. At that time, I was unaware of the editor-in-chief’s background, but years later, I realized the extent of foreign funding for destabilization efforts in the Valley through organizations like Stand with Kashmir and their lobbying efforts in Washington and London – led by the likes of FBI wanted Ghulam Nabi Fai.
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Arshid’s last years were marked by a desire to leave the Valley and secure a job as a journalist or columnist in a national daily. However, years of censorship, repression, and the inability to express his thoughts, coupled with financial struggles, took a toll on him. He was a poet, a sensitive soul who had opted for a simple, dowry-free marriage with me. Witnessing less talented journalists profit from the conflict industry while struggling to express himself freely and give voice to his freethinking and pro-India sentiments weighed heavily on him.
He admired my courage in speaking out against the totalitarianism of the ‘tehreek’ and the glorification of terrorism in the Valley, even as he kept a watchful eye out for any threats to my safety from the Intifada factory. His investigations revealed that I had lost my teaching job due to a popular veteran journalist who was chummy with the Kashmiri Pandit tycoon running the institution I worked for. This particular journalist was later killed by terrorists for suggesting the secessionists should talk to the government of India. This was the extent of the depth of foreign funding in the Valley’s conflict narrative which Arshid Malik and I understood and lived through.
It angers me to see biased media outlets like BBC portraying such puppet scribes as victims and overlooking the experiences of secular Kashmiris and the sacrifices made by the police, counter-terrorism task forces and their families. The NIA and SIA charges are a reckoning for all the discrimination and suffering that pro-India voices endured in the 1990s and beyond.
This time, we are not the helpless schoolchildren of the 1990s; we are informed citizens of India, and we will protect our freedom of expression and rights. No BBC correspondent or foreign-funded activist can distort the truth or glorify terrorism without facing scrutiny. It’s time to build a strong counter-narrative and a national identity that stands against such disinformation campaigns. Enough is enough!
