Srinagar —
For over a decade, has provided weekly political insight and news from Indian-controlled Kashmir.
Founded by Fahad Shah when he was 22 and still in college, the news portal strives to give young audiences a better understanding of life in the disputed territory.
“The idea was to cut through the filters of national and international lenses. Shah believed that the story of Kashmir should be told by Kashmiris based in Kashmir,” said Yashraj Sharma, the site’s interim editor.
But those plans are now on hold. Shah is currently in prison after being accused of terrorism and secession.
Shah was first summoned by police in Pulwama district on February 4 and questioned about ’s coverage of a gunfight in the south Kashmir area on January 29.
Police charged Shah with sedition, public mischief, and unlawful activities. He was detained for 22 days before a special court released him on bail.
His freedom was short-lived.
Police in the district of Shopian had opened a separate case and that same day, February 26, Shah was detained again.
A Shopian magistrate on March 5 freed Shah but again that night, police in Srinagar detained him. On March 14—one day before the bail hearing in that case—he was ordered detained under the public safety act.
“Everything has changed since February,” said Sharma, “We don’t know whether Shah will come back or not.”
Accusations of terrorism and repeat arrests are not uncommon for Kashmiri journalists. Media have been under increased pressure since India revoked the disputed territory’s special autonomous status in 2019.
“It has become a thing that this happens in Kashmir,” Sharma said, referring to the media arrests and police summonses. “Now, I don’t remember how many times [Shah] had been summoned."
The current situation for is a far cry from the optimism with which it was founded.
When Shah founded it in 2011, based on a blog he had started under the same name a few years earlier, it was an innovative product: “the first digital magazine to come out of Kashmir,” said Sharma.
“At that time there were not many professional digital news websites in the valley. Even established media outlets were not focused on online versions,” he told VOA.
Shah had wanted to provide an alternative voice to the youth. “A lot of young journalists were joining Shah and contributing to on contributory and voluntary basis,” Sharma said.
For the first few years, the news website was not updated regularly, while Shah attended university in London on a scholarship.
But when he returned in 2018, Shah rented an office in Srinagar, bought equipment, and hired staff.
Audiences in the region were just getting used to internet access and the digital age when The Kashmir Walla started out, Sharma said.
The audience is mostly “young Kashmiris and that entire generation has grown up with us,” Sharma said.
Independent media like are important, particularly in conflict regions, where many sides are trying to prioritize their take on events, said U.S.-based journalist Amelia Newcomb.
Newcomb, the managing editor of , told VOA via email that Shah reported for her publication for several years.
“He's been very attentive to the kind of journalism the Monitor does,” Newcomb said. “While most of his stories for have been from Kashmir, he has also written from elsewhere in India and has supported visiting Monitor writers in their work.”
Newcomb said is objective in its reporting—including in the article that led to Shah’s arrest.
had interviewed the family of a teenager killed in a gunfight between authorities and suspected militants.
“The story was balanced, including comments from the police and the army, in addition to the family. Yet it was categorized by police as part of a body of work glorifying terrorist activities,” Newcomb said.
“Without balanced reporting, people have little opportunity to judge events fairly,” Newcomb added, “And the lack of such work undermines democracy, which thrives only when independent media can provide accurate information and hold officials accountable.”
Shah is not the only journalist detained this year. Police in January detained one of its contributors, Sajad Gul. A police statement said that the 26-year-old had “uploaded objectionable videos with anti-national slogans.”
In an interview with VOA at the time, Shah described the arrest as a “brazen violation of freedom of press [that] threatens the very core of people's rights.”
Gul, like Shah, remains in detention.
Police in April also raided the news website’s offices and Shah’s home in Srinagar, confiscating laptops and phones.