During a protest demonstration held in support of the Kashmiri people in the UK, Geo News journalist Murtaza Ali Shah faced strong public reaction and anger from Kashmiri protesters, after which the British police removed him from the demonstration and shifted him to a safe place.
The protesters allege that the Geo News journalist, through a controversial tweet, justified the firing and actions of the state forces against the ongoing public movement in Kashmir and called the protesters terrorists.
They said that the state forces are killing our unarmed and innocent people by firing on them and on the other hand, the paid journalists and activists of the Pakistani army are justifying this brutality.
Protesting strongly, the protesters said that hundreds of journalists, politicians, and political and social activists including Murtaza Ali Shah are active in making the real and ground-based movement of Kashmiris controversial at the behest of Pakistani state institutions.
The protesters claim that the state of Pakistan regularly funds these individuals to make the Kashmiri people’s movement controversial and justify the actions of the forces to confuse the people.
The Kashmiri people are deeply unhappy with the baseless and false propaganda of the Pakistani-controlled media. The media houses are calling the protesting Kashmiris “traitors” and “anti-Pakistan”, while propaganda is constantly being spread that this movement is Indian-funded, although the Jammu and Kashmir Joint Public Action Committee is protesting for its fundamental rights.
The situation in Kashmir has been extremely tense for the last two months and there has been a complete shutdown. Public sit-ins and long marches are ongoing, on which more than 100 people have been killed and thousands injured due to direct firing and shelling by the forces. Hospitals are under complete control of the forces and hundreds of people have been arrested and forcibly disappeared, including a prominent leader of the movement, Shaukat Nawaz Mir, about whom no information is available.
In addition, the forces have imposed an economic and medical blockade. Internet, transport, shops and educational institutions have been closed for the past two months, due to which the people are facing acute shortage of food items and medicines. Despite this, a large number of women and children are sitting on dharna in different areas.
According to the details released by the protesters, Murtaza Ali Shah belongs to Padar Syedan village in Bagh district and has been an active leader of the Jammu Kashmir National Students Federation (JKNSF) in the past. Later, he moved to Islamabad where he allegedly participated in protests against Pakistan’s nuclear program. After moving to the UK on a student visa, his life also witnessed ideological and religious changes.
According to local sources, he initially joined the Qadiani sect, but after intense public protests and processions against it in his hometown, he allegedly converted to Shia Islam and changed his name to Murtaza Hussaini.
Later, based on family connections with a bureaucrat in Azad Kashmir, he got a job at Jang and Geo News Group, after which he allegedly became popular with the ruling circles and started propagandizing against the movement for the rights of the people of Azad Jammu and Kashmir.
Protesters say there is a need to be wary of vested interests who damage movements and ideologies for their own personal interests.
Share this content:
