INSTEAD of addressing the core issues that fuel discontent amongst the citizenry, the state prefers to go after those who highlight and criticise its deficiencies. This is borne out by the case of Kashmiri poet Ahmed Farhad Shah. Mr Shah was reportedly picked up from his Islamabad home on May 15 and ‘surfaced’ two weeks later in an Azad Kashmir village after the Islamabad High Court was approached to seek his whereabouts. The poet remains in detention, denied bail, and faces a slew of charges, including in the Anti-Terrorism Act. His apparent ‘crime’ is the fact that he published material linked to the anti-government protests that had rocked AJK last month, with prosecutors alleging Mr Shah ‘incited hatred’. His counsel have argued that the poet was in Islamabad at the time of the alleged offence in Muzaffarabad.

Ahmed Farhad Shah is not the first critical voice to be detained for simply voicing an opinion. Over the decades, countless poets, writers, journalists and political activists have been hauled up under similarly ominous charges. Terrorism charges are an extreme overreaction to publishing a poem or a critical social media post. Moreover, the way in which the poet was apprehended, and later ‘surfaced’, speaks of the dubious methods the state employs against dissidents, while circumventing due process. Instead of hunting down dissenting voices, and accusing them of spreading violence, the government does little about those sectarian and communal groups whose actual bread and butter revolves around promoting hatred. The state should consider dropping the extreme charges levelled against Mr Shah and let him return to his family. Sadly, instead of honestly confronting the economic and other issues that are fuelling discontent in AJK, Gilgit-Baltistan, Balochistan and elsewhere, the state prefers to deal with the symptoms and not the cause of the malaise. After decades of applying failed prescriptions, it is time for a new approach to alleviate popular concerns.

Published in Dawn, June 7th, 2024