SRINAGAR: Police in India-held Kashmir have been asking journalists working in the region to sign a pledge vowing not to “disturb peace” in the region, two of them told Reuters on Wednesday.
An assistant editor with The Indian Express, one of the country’s most respected dailies, was summoned to a police station in Srinagar, the capital of the federal territory, four times between Jan 15 and 19.
Officers asked the journalist to sign the pledge on Jan 16, the newspaper reported on Wednesday. The journalist did not sign the document.
“He has not signed the bond as asked by the police,” Raj Kamal Jha, the paper’s chief editor, said. “The Indian Express is committed to doing what is necessary to uphold and protect the rights and dignity of its journalists.”
Seek ‘peace’ pledge from reporters
Two other journalists told Reuters they had also been summoned. One was travelling and the other did not go to the police station. Both declined to be identified because of the sensitive nature of the issue.
Profiling of mosques
The journalists and The Indian Express said the summons were issued after they reported that police in the region were seeking information from mosques regarding their funding, management and budgets.
A spokesperson for Srinagar police did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Press Club of Kashmir, an association of journalists in the region, said in a statement that several of its members had been summoned or advised by police to stop covering stories on the profiling of religious institutions.
“Using police powers to summon journalists over their legitimate reporting is part of a pattern of intimidation against the media in Jammu and Kashmir,” said Kunal Majumder, coordinator for the CPJ Asia-Pacific Programme, a non-profit that advocates for press freedom.
India has imposed several restrictions in the troubled Muslim-majority region since revoking its constitutional autonomy in 2019, laying out rules for how the insurgency is covered.
An anti-India insurgency that began in 1989 has killed tens of thousands of people in Indian Kashmir, though violence has since ebbed. India and neighbouring Pakistan have fought two wars over Kashmir. Both control parts of the region but claim it in its entirety.
Published in Dawn, January 22nd, 2026
