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Basharat Peer in New Delhi
Journalist Iftikhar Geelani, arrested under the Official Secrets Act by the Delhi Police for allegedly possessing 'classified documents', has been beaten up by fellow prisoners in Tihar jail.
"The prisoners had come to know his identity. They called him anti-national and beat him up," Iftikhar's wife, Aaanisa told rediff.com.
"The prisoners told him, 'we know you are (Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah) Geelani's son-in-law' before beating him up," she said.
Aaanisa, who met her husband, after the incident took place, said, "Fortunately, there are no serious injuries. And the jail authorities have promised to take care of Iftikar and ensure that such an incident does not take place again."
Meanwhile, the Delhi Union of Journalists has moved the Press Council of India urging its intervention for his release.
In its complaint, DUJ has urged the PCI to direct the authorities to stop the 'fishy' investigation mounted to 'implicate' Iftikhar to the insurgency in Kashmir with the aim to 'hold him under detention indefinitely'.
The complaint contended that the document seized by the Delhi Police from Iftikar was a ten-year old Pakistani government's published report on the deployment of the Indian Forces in Jammu and Kashmir.
It said possession of the document does not come under the purview of the Official Secrets Act.
"No other documents have been seized from him nor any classified government information has been found in his possession to warrant his arrest under Section 3 and 9 of the Official Secrets Act," the DUJ complaint said.
"If mere possession of such information is sufficient cause for detention under the Official Secrets Act, we are afraid it will be a gross violation of the freedom of the press as the Act can be misused and abused to haul up any journalist," it added.
Joining the DUJ, the Editors Guild of India has also demanded a 'fair and open trial' of Iftikhar Geelani.
"Denial of this basic democratic right to him will be a blow to the very concept of the freedom of the press," Guild president Hari Jaisingh said in a statement.
Iftikhar, who is the Delhi bureau chief of Jammu-based Kashmir Times, also worked for Pakistani publications Friday Times and The Nation.
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