J&K Police Arrest PhD Student Under UAPA for 11-Year-Old Online Article

Abdul Aala Fazili, a student at Kashmir University, is pursuing his doctoral studies in pharmaceutical sciences.

Kashmiri journalists stage a silent protest against communication blockade in Kashmir. Photo used for representational purposes.

(Photo Courtesy: Masrat Jan)

The Jammu and Kashmir Police's recently created State Investigation Agency (SIA) on Sunday, 17 April, arrested a PhD scholar under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act from Budgam district for an article published 11 years ago in the online magazine The Kashmir Walla.

The SIA said that the article published on 6 November 2011 was "highly provocative, seditious, and intended to create unrest in Jammu and Kashmir."

Abdul Aala Fazili, 39, a student at Kashmir University, is pursuing his doctoral studies in pharmaceutical sciences and was scheduled to get married next month.

Fazili was a recipient of the University Grants Commission (UGC) Maulana Azad National Fellowship for five years till March 2021.

The residences of PhD student Abdul Aala Fazili and Fahad Shah, the editor of The Kashmir Walla who is already in jail, and the magazine's office premises were raided by officers of the SIA for conducting intensive searches, The Indian Express reported.

The searches were reportedly in connection with a First Information Report (FIR) registered against Fazili, Shah, and other associates for the "seditious" article, the SIA said.

The SIA said in a statement:

"The article titled The shackles of slavery will break… on the one hand is highly provocative, seditious and intended to create unrest in Jammu and Kashmir, written with the purpose of abetting the youth to take the path of violence by glorifying terrorism, and on the other, the write-up prompted and propagated the false narrative, which is essential to sustain secessionist cum terrorist campaign aimed at breaking the territorial integrity of India."

J&K Police's State Investigation Agency

(With inputs from The Indian Express.)