Online Outrage Over Calling Female Kashmiri Photojournalist As 'Army Informer'

Activists and journalists are angry in the Valley over some Facebook posts that described a female photojournalist Masrat Zahra an "informer of the army."

The online accounts and some Facebook posts which were hurling abuses on the female photojournalist and calling her informer has created a widespread outrage on the social media. Kashmiri journalists are coming out in support of the female photojournalist and calling for action against the online abusers, who called her as "mukhbir" (informer).

The journalist was covering an encounter and subsequent clashes between protesters and the forces in volatile south kashmir's shopian district.

"Last night, I uploaded my picture from a gun battle site and within no time people circulated it on their pages and walls with the caption 'MUKHBIR'. This is really shocking, that fateful day i was seriously injured my leg and shoulder got an serious injuries despite of that i did my job and clicked picture with a broken arm, even my trousers were torn off, and now it has been one and a half month still i am not recovering. And to be honest my parent are not supporting me to be in this field. It is shameful and depressing," Zahra wrote on Facebook.

Senior journalist Majid Maqbool extended his support to Zahra on Facebook, saying: "Masarat Zahra, a promising young photojournalist was recently injured while covering protests in Shopian. I'm told, a photo of her from that protest, in which she can be seen covering it, is being circulated online, on some pages etc, where her image is circled and captioned, commented as "mukhbir" etc by some pathetic people online. This is shocking, utterly disgusting, and dangerous and can be discouraging for such young and promising photojournalists like Masarat (there aren't many of them out there) who are trying to do their job in difficult circumstances here. Please report, block such pages, accounts",

Human rights activist Khuram Parvez said some people scandalise anything on social media. "Without any truth and with disgusting lies, they are making a false allegation against young female photojournalist Masarat Zahra who is known to be a promising budding professional. Let us discourage people to be so reckless on social media", Khuram said.