INDIA

July 8
Fayaz Ahmed, New Delhi Television, HARASSED
Gulzar Ahmed, Uqab, THREATENED
Masood Ahmed, Wadi-ki-Awaz, THREATENED
Shujaat Bukhari, Kashmir Times, THREATENED
Bilal Butt, Asian News International (ANI), HARASSED
Javed Farooq, The Pioneer, Greater Kashmir, HARASSED
Arshad Hussein, ZeeTelevision, HARASSED
George Joseph, Business India Television (BITV), HARASSED
Fayaz Kabli, Reuters, HARASSED
Meraj-ud-din, Associated Press Television (APTV), HARASSED
Sheikh Mushtaq, Reuters, HARASSED
Tauseef Mustafa, Agence France-Presse (AFP), HARASSED
Surinder Singh Oberoi, Agence France-Presse (AFP), HARASSED
Abdul Qayoom, Uqab, THREATENED
Maqbool Sahil, Chattan, THREATENED
Afzal Shah, Kashmir Times, HARASSED
Zahoor Shair, Al-Safa, THREATENED
Amin War, Daily Excelsior, HARASSED
Unidentified, Chattan,HARASSED
Gunmen for the Indian-backed militia Jammu and Kashmir Ikhwan abducted 19 journalists who were traveling together to a press conference in the Kashmir Valley. The gunmen intercepted the journalists at Anantnag, 50 kilometers (35 miles) south of Srinagar, and took them to the Ikhwan's nearby headquarters. There, Ikhwan commander Hilal Haider threatened to kill six of the journalists who worked for Kashmiri newspapers--reporters Gulzar Ahmed and Qayoom of Uqab, Masood Ahmed of Wadi-ki-Awaz, Bukhari of the Kashmir Times, Shair of Al-Safa, and photographer Sahil of Chattan--unless the editors of Srinagar's eight major dailies appeared before him by noon the following day. The editors had disregarded a "ban" that Haider had ordered on their newspapers the previous week for having given the Ikhwan inadequate coverage. The editors, who were informed of the threat to kill the journalists by phone, said they would not heed the summons. Seven-and-a-half hours after the abduction, the elite Indian commando unit Rashtriya Rifles intervened and secured the release of all 19 journalists. CPJ in a July 9 statement condemned the abduction and called for the disarming of the government-backed militias.

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August 1
Ashraf Shaban, Al-Safa, ATTACKED, THREATENED
Shaban, editor in chief of Al-Safa, an Urdu-language daily published in Kashmir, was abducted by three unidentified menÑone armed with a pistolÑfrom Al-Safa's Srinagar offices and forced into an auto-rickshaw taxi. Shaban was taken to a private residence in the town of Chadoora, about 12 kilometers (eight miles) north of Srinagar. For nearly 24 hours, Shaban's captors repeatedly beat him and threatened him with death. They released him at the insistence of a woman whom he suspected was the landlord of the house. He then made his way back to his office in Srinagar, where he fainted and was immediately taken to a local hospital. Doctors released him later that afternoon. Local journalists speculated that an Indian-backed militia may have been involved in the kidnapping, since the place where Shaban was detained is near the base camp of one such militia.

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