When words become weak, and the ink from the pen turns to a mere stain on the paper, her photos echo of the agony in Kashmir. Some young journalists from the valley say, "Her photos are mightier than our words."
When the valley saw its first female photojournalist on the front line, covering encounter and shootouts, they labelled her a Mukhbir.
"People in Kashmir haven't seen a woman at encounter sites, among armed men or security forces. It was new to them. They thought I was an informer. So they trolled me and called me a mukhbir. That disturbed me a lot. It left me depressed."
These are the words of Musaharat Zahra, a 24-year-old freelance photojournalist from Kashmir, who was registered under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) for uploading "anti-national" pictures on social media. Later, three other photojournalists Dar Yasin, Mukhtar Khan, and Channi Anand, won Pulitzer in the field of feature photography for their coverage on Kashmir. Not long after the scrapping of Article 370 under communication lockdown.
The news was not well received by many, and over 100 people, of which 16 vice-chancellors of Indian universities, retired defence personnel, former senior bureaucrats, Olympians, and five Padma Shri awarded officers signed an open letter to the Pulitzer jury.
They not only have objected their authenticity of the work but also of being accused of propagating violence and fake news. The letter states, "The purpose of the Pulitzer Prize is to encourage free journalism. Ironically, by giving the prize to photographers like Dar Yasin and Mukhtar Khan, you are promoting journalism and photography of lies, misrepresentation of facts and separatism."
These two different cases narrate the same bottom line: Why is there no press freedom in the valley? For these photojournalists with bare minimum safety equipment, gunfire, stone-pelting and tear gas is a common sight for them.
Sharafat Ali, a freelance photojournalist, hailing from Kashmir, says, "When I go on-ground to cover something, I'm not sure that whether I will come back in the evening." He also stated. "Clicking a photo is just one layer of being a photojournalist in Kashmir, dodging bullets & stones, sneaking camera through security checks have its own risk involved. Filing a story is another tedious job here as it takes ages for us to upload images using a 2G network."
On questioning about the Pulitzer controversy, he added, "They have not won Pulitzer Just for their photos, it is also for their hard work and dedication towards their profession even in such harsh and inhumane circumstances. I'm a human before I'm a photojournalist, I'm a son to a mother, I'm a brother to a sister, the entire valley is my family, and I'm just doing my bit to help my family."
It's not the first time photojournalists from Kashmir have made the news. Dar Yasin, too, made headlines in 2017, when he handed over his camera to another photographer to help a student injured in a protest in Kashmir. Yasin's action was praised for being immensely humanitarian and was also considered socially responsible.
The case of Musahart Zahra and controversy over Pulitzer an example of why India is ranked 142nd on the World Press Freedom Index.
There have been constant press freedom violations. This includes police violence against journalists, ambushes by political activists, and reprisals instigated by criminal groups or corrupt local officials.
Photojournalists like these put their life at stake and bring us stories without a political agenda or selfish interests. They get human interest stories from conflicted areas, without giving a second thought about the risk involved. This is the kind of coverage that is earned by spending years on the field. So, instead of commenting/trolling on their innumerable efforts these heroes, they require a little motivation and encouragement that by the government for making our country proud.
