by Muzaffar Raina
The new police chief of Jammu and Kashmir seems to be in dissonance with the high court over the limits of freedom of speech and expression here and which “writings” can constitute a “terrorist act”.
Director-general of police Rashmi Ranjan Swain on Saturday vowed a tougher anti-militancy campaign, promising action against writers “hiding behind freedom of speech and expression” but whose “writings” are believed to have incited youth to pick up arms.
A day earlier, the High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh had put up a rare defence of freedom of speech in the Union Territory.
Swain on Saturday told reporters that security agencies and police were discussing new ways that could check militant recruitments in Jammu and Kashmir. He said the security forces would ask parents, teachers and mosque imams who were the people who “incited” the youths to pick up arms.
“Each act of recruitment will be treated as an act of terror in which people who decided to or helped the facilitated boy, this youngster, to join the terrorist ranks are equally liable, if not more,” Swain said.
This story was originally published in telegraphindia.com. Read the full story here .
