Alternative Viewpoint expresses its full solidarity with Farooq Sulehria, editor of Daily Jeddojehad, his co-editor Harris Qadeer, and the entire Jeddojehad collective, who are facing an escalating campaign of repression by the Pakistani state and its military establishment.
On 4 August 2026, the Pakistani authorities banned Daily Jeddojehad, Pakistan’s first and only socialist online daily, which since 2019 has provided independent reporting and political analysis in Urdu, Pashto and Persian. No formal explanation was provided for the ban. But there is little doubt about what provoked it: Jeddojehad‘s reporting and political analysis of the rapidly developing situation in Pakistani-administered Jammu and Kashmir (PaJK).
Two days later, on 6 August, personnel of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the intelligence agency of the Pakistani military, raided the family home of Farooq Sulehria in an attempt to arrest him. Farooq was abroad at the time and therefore escaped arrest. His younger brother and two nephews, however, were taken into custody. The justification reportedly given by the ISI personnel was Farooq’s writings on Kashmir.
This is an outrageous act of political intimidation. An intelligence agency of the military has no legitimate authority to conduct such a raid, yet Pakistan’s military establishment has for decades operated with a degree of impunity that places it effectively above civilian law.
The repression has not been confined to Farooq Sulehria. Another Jeddojehad contributor, Mujib Akbar, was forcibly disappeared by state agencies. Mujib, who hails from Rawalakot in Jammu and Kashmir and is an MPhil scholar, was illegally detained and his whereabouts were concealed for four days. Importantly, this detention was not carried out by the ISI, but by other state agencies. He was released only after Jeddojehad launched a social-media campaign demanding information about his whereabouts and his release.
The case of Mujib Akbar demonstrates the breadth of the repression. The state is not merely attempting to silence a publication; it is intimidating, detaining and disappearing those who contribute to an alternative political and journalistic narrative. That Mujib was recovered only after a public campaign also underscores the importance of solidarity and public pressure in confronting such abuses.
The attack on Jeddojehad must be understood in the context of the mass uprising that has shaken Pakistani-administered Jammu and Kashmir since 5 June. The movement, led by the Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC), has raised demands concerning democratic rights, governance, economic hardship and the manipulation of elections. The response of the state has been brutal, with dozens of people killed by state violence.
In this situation, Jeddojehad has played a particularly important role. With the authorities imposing an extensive internet shutdown in PaJK and much of the mainstream Pakistani media either remaining silent or reproducing the official narrative, Jeddojehad became one of the few sources providing sustained and independent information about the movement and the repression accompanying it.
The ban is therefore not simply an attack on one publication. It is an attempt to silence an important source of information about a popular mobilisation that the Pakistani establishment does not want the wider public to see.
The repression has also extended to other journalists and media organisations. On the same day that Jeddojehad was banned, Pakistan prohibited Al Jazeera from operating in the country, following its critical reporting on the July elections in PaJK. Journalist and YouTuber Danish Irshad has been placed on Pakistan’s notorious Fourth Schedule, subjecting him to surveillance and restrictions, after reporting extensively on PaJK. International journalists have simultaneously been confronted with new restrictions requiring permission to report outside Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi and threatening the withdrawal of accreditation for activities deemed contrary to Pakistan’s “ideology, sovereignty, security, or public order”.
The pattern is unmistakable. The Pakistani establishment is tightening its control over information precisely when its political narrative is being challenged on the ground.
The repression of Daily Jeddojehad is particularly significant because it is a socialist publication. Farooq Sulehria and Harris Qadeer has consistently combined journalism with political analysis rooted in the perspective of the working class, oppressed peoples and democratic movements. Jeddojehad has not confined itself to reporting humanitarian suffering. It has sought to understand the political structures and power relations underlying the conflicts and crises confronting Pakistan and the region. That is precisely why it is being targeted.
The Pakistani military establishment has long attempted to monopolise the political discourse on Jammu and Kashmir, presenting the Kashmir question through the prism of state nationalism and geopolitical rivalry with India. Jeddojehad has challenged this framework by giving space to the democratic and popular aspirations of the people of Pakistani-administered Jammu and Kashmir and by reporting on their struggles against both political manipulation and state repression.
The present crackdown must therefore be opposed as part of the wider struggle against military authoritarianism, censorship and the suppression of democratic and popular movements in Pakistan.
We are particularly concerned that Farooq Sulehria is now effectively prevented from returning to Pakistan, where he teaches at Beaconhouse National University in Lahore. His co-editor Harris Qadeer has been forced into hiding. No journalist, teacher or political activist should have to remain outside their own country because an intelligence agency is seeking to arrest them for their writings.
We demand:
- The immediate lifting of the ban on Daily Jeddojehad.
- An end to the persecution and intimidation of Farooq Sulehria and Harris Qadeer.
- An end to the harassment and surveillance of journalists covering the situation in Pakistani-administered Jammu and Kashmir.
- The restoration of the right of journalists, including international correspondents, to report freely throughout Pakistan.
- An end to the censorship and military interference in the media.
- An end to the repression of the popular movement in Pakistani-administered Jammu and Kashmir and respect for the democratic rights of its people.
Alternative Viewpoint stands firmly with Farooq Sulehria, Harris Qadeer, Mujib Akbar, Daily Jeddojehad and all those fighting for freedom of expression, democratic rights and social justice in Pakistan and Pakistani-administered Jammu and Kashmir.
Silencing Jeddojehad will not silence the struggle.
Solidarity with Farooq Sulehria, Harris Qadeer, Mujib Akbar and Daily Jeddojehad!
Lift the ban! End the repression!
According to information from Revista Movimento
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