chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq on Wednesday reacted sharply to the Jammu and Kashmir government's social media gag order on its employees.Mirwaiz said the gag order has exposed the “occupational regime of New Delhi and its local agents in Jammu and Kashmir.”“Ordering gags and threatening punishment to State employees for expressing their opinion on social media completely exposes the aversion to truth or its disclosure by the occupational regime and its unscrupulous local agents! The charade of “normalcy” in #Kashmir will continue to be maintained by silencing people through bullets, jails, gags and bans,” Mirwaiz tweeted. Meanwhile, Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chief Yasin Malik termed as “dictatorial” the social media gag order issued by the government for its employees.Dictatorial order suppressing use of social media by government employees resembles to that of North Korean dictatorship,” said Malik, in a statement.“Fraud politicians who once used to make hue and cry on human rights violations and propagated healing touch and battle of ideas by their undemocratic diktats have turned Kashmir into a military dictatorship where every voice of dissent is being suppressed by military might,” he said.The government on Tuesday amended the conduct rules for employees and barred them from airing political views on personal social media accounts.
"They shall also not use their personal social media accounts for any political activity or endorse the posts or tweets or blogs of any political figure," the new rule states.Terming the order gagging government employees from using social media “as a direct attack on the freedom of speech”, Malik said that “fascist regime ruling Jammu Kashmir led by Mehbooba Mufti is setting new records of authoritarianism in the name of democracy.”He said “this regime has banned every peaceful political activity, restricted every peaceful protest and choked even the tiniest of political space in Jammu Kashmir.”“Thousands of young and old, men and even women and even minors have been jailed for raising their voices. Hundreds of students are being penalized for making hue and cry against killings, blinding and maiming. From a seven year minor to an 80 year old are languishing in jails under black law PSA and to prolong their incarceration repeated PSA’s are being slapped on them,” he said. (CNS)