Tahir Mushtaq, a B-Tech student from Kashmir, has accused a section of leading news channels of misusing a video he had uploaded on Youtube to sensationalize the recent student protests in the national capital and to link them with militancy. He said that the national media fabricated a story to link the protests held in Kashmir with Lashkar chief Hafiz Sayed’s son in Pakistan.
Mushtaq also added that he was shocked to see a TV channel known for its prime time news hour unethically linking the video of “Freedom conference” actually held in Kashmir in September last year with protests staged by Delhi University students. “The news anchors repeatedly labeled a Kashmiri youth leading protests in my video as Hafiz Sayeed’s son leading protests in Pakistan only to send a wrong message that same Aazadi slogans were being voiced from Delhi University to Pakistan out of conspiracy.”
Mushtaq claimed that during last year’s uprising in the Valley, he had personally uploaded the footage of protests held in his native Kulgam area of South Kashmir. “I was neither attending those protests nor did I film the footage. Knowing my tech savvy skills some fellow youth had asked me upload it so I knew details.”
The youth says he tried to counter the misreport. “I instantly tweeted to the news channel that it was unethical on their part to show Kashmir as Pakistan. But by the time this channel had stopped airing the concocted story and its competitors had started airing the same video and it has been a chain reaction of lies since then!”
Mushtaq said that through such “cheap journalism” the news channels were misinforming people. “All such acts will only add to hatred between India and Pakistan when peace is needed the most.”
Born and brought up in turmoil, Mushtaq aaid that violence is no solution. “Kashmir needs to be resolved through peaceful means but such TV channels seem to be hell bent on war mongering.”
