The Jammu and Kashmir Police on Tuesday detained a journalist, Hilal Mir, for allegedly spreading “anti-national content”.

Mir was detained by the police’s counter-intelligence unit and his digital devices, including a mobile phone and laptop, were seized.

The police called Mir a “radical social media user” and said that he “used to disseminate extremist/distorted content with an intention to disturb peace and promote disaffection and secessionist ideology and present India in a bad shape”.

It added: “A preliminary inspection of the digital devices revealed access to the radical account along with incriminating materials and other extremist/distorted content/propaganda.”

A journalist for over two decades, Mir has worked with several local and national news publications, including Greater Kashmir, Kashmir Reader and Hindustan Times. For the last seven years, he has also been working as a contributing reporter for the Turkish state-run news agency, Anadolu Agency. He has also contributed to international publications like TRT World and Huffington Post.

Mir’s family member told Scroll that he has been sent to preventive detention till May 13 and has been lodged in Srinagar’s Central Jail. The journalist was questioned for two days before being detained.

Unidentified police officers told The Indian Express that the journalist “actively engaged in posting and sharing content aimed at inciting sentiments among young minds and instigating secessionist sentiment by portraying Kashmiris as victims of systemic extermination”.

They also claimed that he “was found in touch with some suspected foreign-based cell numbers involved in suspicious activities, presumably taking dictation from the adversary for disturbing the peace and tranquillity in the Valley, which is a matter of investigation”, The Indian Express reported.