The Jammu and Kashmir National Conference Vice President, Omar Abdullah, has expressed serious concern over the state of media in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir. According to Kashmir Media Service, addressing a talk on “Kashmir Today” at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club (FCC) of South Asia in New Delhi, he said, “The fact is that I have never known the media to be as pressured as it is today in terms of what they can report and what they cannot. The fact is that even cartoonists today in Jammu and Kashmir are afraid to draw cartoons about the government.”

He said the people in occupied Jammu and Kashmir are suffering and public anger is growing. “Almost everything provokes the people to come out because there is a simmering, sort of, resentment about the way things have been after August 5, 2019. And it is more visible in Jammu than Kashmir,” he said, referring to the installation of smart meters, levying of house tax and operationalisation of toll plazas among others.

Omar Abdullah dared the Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party government to hold elections in the territory. “I can only speculate but the only conclusion I can draw is that the BJP is afraid of what the results will look like. They don’t want to damage their chances in the Parliament elections.”

 
Credit: Independent News Pakistan (INP)