(RSF/IFEX) – On 24 December 2002, RSF reiterated its call for the immediate release of detained Kashmiri journalist Iftikhar Gilani after a senior military officer told the judge in charge of the case that Gilani is innocent. On 23 December, officer O. S. Lochab, director general of the Indian military secret service, testified before Judge […]
(RSF/IFEX) – On 24 December 2002, RSF reiterated its call for the immediate release of detained Kashmiri journalist Iftikhar Gilani after a senior military officer told the judge in charge of the case that Gilani is innocent. On 23 December, officer O. S. Lochab, director general of the Indian military secret service, testified before Judge Sangita Dhingra Sehgal of the New Delhi Metropolitan Court that the files found on the journalist’s computer were “neither secrets nor a threat to national security.”
In a letter to the federal interior minister and deputy prime minister, L. K. Advani, RSF called on the authorities to explain the police’s behaviour, and in particular, state why the police lied and presented false documents to the court handling the case. The organisation also suggested that the government should compensate Gilani for having been the victim of an abusive detention designed to punish his critical coverage of India’s policy on Kashmir. Gilani is the “Kashmir Times” bureau chief in New Delhi. He is also a correspondent in India for the Pakistani daily “The Nation”.
Lochab testified that his agency told the Interior Ministry in a 12 December letter that Gilani’s files on the position of Indian troops and paramilitary forces in Kashmir were freely available on the Internet. According to Lochab, Gilani is not a spy. The police claimed they had not received the letter. The judge asked the government to clarify its position on the case at the next hearing on 3 January.
Arrested by police in New Delhi on 9 June, Gilani was charged on 7 September with “military espionage” on behalf of Pakistan. He has been held for the past six months in Tihar Prison and has always claimed his innocence.
