New Delhi (Sputnik) — French journalist Comiti Paul Edwards, who was arrested by Indian police while shooting a documentary in Kashmir, has been released on bail. Comiti was arrested on Saturday by the Jammu and Kashmir police for carrying out journalistic activities despite only having a business visa. Earlier on Monday, Comiti had been remanded to police custody up to December 16 by a Srinagar court.
Sources said that the belongings of the award-winning journalist will remain in police custody until he is acquitted of all the charges. The police claimed that before arresting him they had repeatedly summoned Comiti to the police station for questioning but he did not turn up. The police then intformed the French Embassy in New Delhi about Comiti's activities in Kashmir.
SRINAGAR, India: Indian police arrested a freelance French journalist in Kashmir for violating visa regulations, the city police chief said, Comiti Paul Edward was arrested late Sunday in the Kothibagh area of Srinagar, the summer capital of Kashmi. #freedomofpress pic.twitter.com/VKbtUPINAb
— Ijaz Khan Sahu (@IjazKhanSahu) 11 декабря 2017 г.
Comiti had arrived in Kashmir on a business visa that had been valid till December 2018 and had met some separatist leaders and pellet gun victims in the valley. Some 4,000 people were wounded when security forces in Kashmir resorted to pellet gun firing to suppress mob violence triggered by the death of Burhan Wani, a local militant last year. A section of the local population had took to the streets to throw rocks at the security forces, claiming Wani was a "freedom fighter" fighting on behalf of Kashmiris. Occupied Kashmir has been at the heart of nearly seven decades of hostility between Pakistan and India.
