Kamran Yousuf Is Not A Terrorist

The NIA’s chargesheet against an independent photojournalist involved in conflict reportage in the Kashmir Valley is outrageous as it undermines the professional duties of media persons and is against Constitutional rights,

- Riyaz Wani

There is nothing on the Facebook and Instagram accounts of arrested photojournalist Kamran Yousuf that would convey that he was not a ‘real journalist’, as claimed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA). In fact, he has posted an array of diverse pictures reflecting various aspects of life in the Kashmir Valley, not only those about the ongoing turmoil that the Central agency has objected to.

The picture uploaded by him on Facebook on September 3, a day before his arrest, captures the silhouettes of two peasant women walking in a field against a setting sun. Another is about a woman begging outside a prayer ground on Eid last year. There is one that zeroes in on a small boy offering Eid prayers alongside adults. Another picture also shows sunset.

However, by the NIA’s standards, Yousuf wouldn’t qualify as a journalist as the “moral duty of a journalist” is to cover the government’s “developmental activity”.

According to the investigative agency, “He (Yousuf) had never covered any developmental activity of any Government Department/Agency, any inauguration of a hospital, school building, road, bridge, statement of political party in power or any other social/developmental activity by state government or Govt of India,” the NIA said in its charge sheet against Yousuf. “Kamran Yousuf had hardly taken any video of such activity and video or image of any such activity can rarely been seen in his laptop or mobile which clearly show his intention to only cover the activities which are anti-national and earn money against such footages”.

But even if we go by the NIA’s definition of a journalist, Yousuf does fit the bill. For he did cover activities organised by the government too. “He covered blood donation camps of the Army and also attended their