The challan includes the names of 14 individuals, including Sardar Awais. According to his lawyer, Junaid Akbar, the next hearing in the case is scheduled for November 11.
Bagh: Four months have passed since the arrest of Sardar Awais—a working journalist for the daily Shadab and president of the Young Journalists Forum, Bagh—who hails from the Bagh district of Pakistan-administered Kashmir. According to his lawyer, Junaid Akbar, the police submitted an incomplete challan to the District Criminal Court on October 16, naming 14 individuals, including Sardar Awais.
Lawyer Junaid Akbar stated that the police claim in the challan that videos and screenshots related to incidents in the Chamyati area were recovered from Sardar Awais’s mobile phone. These incidents occurred on September 29, 2025, during a ‘long march’ organized by the Jammu Kashmir Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC).
According to the police challan, a case has been registered against 500 identified individuals and between 5,500 to 6,000 unidentified persons in connection with the violent events that took place that day. The charges against Sardar Awais and the others include various sections of the Pakistan Penal Code as well as provisions of the Anti-Terrorism Act.
Sardar Awais was arrested by local police on June 21, 2026, while he was attending a school meeting regarding his children’s education. In September 2025, he had been covering the JAAC long march in Chamyati, Dhirkot, where the violent incidents occurred. According to his lawyer, Junaid Akbar, Sardar Owais has been sent on judicial remand; however, due to a lack of space for prisoners in the jail, he has been kept in the Dhirkot lock-up. Meanwhile, sources also claim that the transfer of accused individuals to the jail often takes place at the behest of local politicians.
According to the lawyer, Sardar Owais was presented before the District Criminal Court yesterday; he is now scheduled to appear in court again on November 11.
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