KARACHI: Veteran Kashmiri leader Syed Ali Gilani has said that he neither has a Twitter account nor has he ever criticised a Pakistani newspaper for its coverage of the protest movement by Kashmiris for their right to self-determination in India-held Kashmir.

Mr Gilani’s family sources said the recent outburst on social media, quoting Ali Gilani in the debate about the use of phrases like ‘militants’, has no basis. It was done through a fake account as Mr Gilani doesn’t use social media.

Meanwhile, Iftikhar Gilani, son-in-law of the veteran leader, while referring to the coverage of events in IHK said in a tweet that “Dawn is perhaps the only hope left in South Asia that stands for objectivity, credibility and accountability. [we] need to celebrate the feat and feel proud rather than berate”.

The younger Gilani was referring to the controversy over the use of phrase ‘militants’ in some of the reports carried by a section of the Pakistani media. “If ‘militants’ mean ‘askariat pasand’, the Hurrieyet [has] used it umpteenth times in its statements,” he said in his tweet.

Published in Dawn, October 1st, 2018