J&K Police send media list of Twitter handles they’re ‘monitoring’, then ask them to ignore

The list also contained screenshots of tweets from Pakistan PM Imran Khan, political activist Shehla Rashid and many international TV channels, among others.

File photo of Kashmir police (representational image) | Commons

Srinagar: The Jammu and Kashmir Police Friday “inadvertently” sent an email to journalists, attaching a .doc file with a list of Twitter handles of politicians, activists and Pakistani TV channels that sources said were being “monitored”.

The email included a press release about the arrest of three drug peddlers in Budgam, and had three attachments — two were pictures of the car and the contraband seized in the incident, while the third was the eight-page document.

The document contained screenshots of Twitter posts on Kashmir written by different politicians, political parties, news channels, activists and journalists, besides the list of Twitter handles.

Over an hour after sending the email, the J&K Police again sent another one, asking the journalists to ignore the previous email. 

“In reference to our Press release no Note, S-11/19/872 dated 22/11/2019 an attachment DNA Sep.doc has been inadvertently received by you. You are requested to ignore this attachment,” the email stated.

When contacted, the PRO of J&K Police Manoj Pandita told ThePrint the email was not sent by him, but by Budgam Zone. 

A police source said the original email might have been sent by a junior officer by mistake.

ThePrint tried to contact senior police officers, but no one responded.

Imran Khan, Shehla Rashid among those ‘monitored’

Twitter handles of Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan and Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir were on the list, as were those of activist Shehla Rashid, Kashmiri journalist Ahmed Ali Fayyaz and RoflRepublic. 

Among the news channels on the list were German news channel DW News, Turkish broadcaster TRT World, Pakistani channels ARY News and Samaa English, and Radio Pakistan.

A second police source said they always keep a record of Twitter accounts that share news related to Kashmir.

In a press conference in August, following the scrapping of Article 370, senior police officers had said they were monitoring Twitter accounts that were spreading rumours.