Exiled UKPNP chief asks Pak to release 'kidnapped' PoK journalist immediately

Strongly condemning "kidnapping" of Kashmiri journalist Tanveer Ahmed the Pakistani armed forces from Kotli, Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), exiled United Kashmir People's National Party (UKPNP) chairman Sardar Shaukat Ali Kashmiri on Friday demanded his immediate release.

The UKPNP chairman asked the Pakistani authorities, "While he (Ahmed) is detained, ensure that he is protected from torture and other ill-treatment."

According to an application submitted by Ahmed wife's at a local police station, the Kashmiri journalist was "kidnapped" by the Pakistani armed forces on August 15 from Dohsa Morr in Abbaspur sub-division of Poonch district, PoK, said a statement issued by UKPNP here, adding: "nobody knows his whereabouts."

The UKPNP chairman alleged, "Kashmiri journalists, including those working for unification and freedom of Kashmir, were being harassed, kidnapped, abducted, tortured and in some cases killed by the Pakistani armed forces."

He called upon the international human rights organisation and the international union of journalists to help secure Ahmed's life and to put pressure on the Pakistani security agencies to stop harassing, abducting and killing Kashmiri nationalists and journalists.

"If organisations working for freedom of press, freedom of expression and freedom of media still keep silent on such criminal acts of Pakistan, journalism in Kashmir will vanish and the voice the people of the occupied-Kashmir cannot reach to the world community," he added.

The UKPNP chairman urged "reporter without borders", International Association of Journalists, International Union of Journalists, Union of Journalists, and Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) to "call emergency" to put pressure on Pakistan to stop harassing and intimidating journalists in occupied Kashmir.