Anantnag: Photojournalist Kamran Yousuf was on Tuesday so badly beaten up by policemen while carrying out his professional duties that he had to be rushed to hospital and then shifted to SMHS Srinagar for specialised treatment, Yousuf and his colleagues told Kashmir Reader.
Yousuf was covering an encounter in Kakpora area of Pulwama district on Tuesday when policemen assaulted him, he said.
Yousuf told Kashmir Reader that he was taking pictures at the site of the gunfight when a group of policemen pounced on him and thrashed him mercilessly. He was so badly injured that he was immediately taken to a nearby hospital from where he was referred to SMHS hospital in Srinagar for specialised treatment.
“I have a trauma injury to my right foot. That is the main cause of pain right now. But that is not the only place I was hit at,” Yousuf said, adding that he was repeatedly kicked by the policemen on his back and other body parts.
Yousuf is the first journalist from Kashmir to be booked under the draconian UAPA. “I was falsely implicated in 2017 and was imprisoned for 6 months at Tihar jail. All for carrying out my professional duties,” he said.
Today Yousuf’s colleagues alleged that they were being followed by policemen in plainclothes at SMHS hospital, where they kept asking for a copy of Yousuf’s prescription.
“Some police officials were asking for Kamran’s prescription. I am uploading it here,” Aakash Hassan, Yousuf’s colleague, took to Twitter and posted a snapshot of the prescription along with a picture of Yousuf’s bandaged leg.
Following the incident, journalists and common people took to social media and condemned the police assault. They demanded immediate action against the guilty policemen.
Kashmir Reader talked to Nawaz Ahmad, the DySP Operations in Kakpora, who said that the police were looking into the matter.
“I got to know about this after the incident had taken place. I am not sure whether it was the police or any other force as there is a posse of different forces at a gunfight site and it is hard to tell one from another,” the DySP said, adding that the police were nevertheless looking into the matter.

Suhail A Shah