The journalist had deleted the What's App status however learnt two days later that a FIR was registered against him in Bandipora police station

New Delhi, June 7

J&K Police booked journalist Sajid Raina allegedly for a What's App status which he had deleted in an hour of posting it. 

In the purported status message, he had allegedly putting up a picture of 22 children, who were killed 15 years ago in a boat tragedy.

The Bandipora police had tweeted that “FIR No 84/2021 lodged in police station Bandipora against one person namely Sajid Raina for his WhatsApp status on 30-05-2021 which attracts investigation into the contents and intention behind it". 

In a subsequent tweet, the police posted, “It was not against anyone’s profession particularly journalists, as is being circulated on social media. Investigations are underway.”

The journalist, Sajid Raina, who works for a Srinagar-based news agency.

On May 30, 2006, a group of children from Burning Candle School in Handwara was on a school picnic to a hilltop shrine on the banks of Wular when some of them wanted to go on a boat ride in the lake. The teachers accompanying them asked the Navy’s MARCOS for help. A motorboat of the Navy’s MARCOS that took the children capsized, killing 21 children, all below the age of 10 years and a teacher.

The tragedy sparked huge protests, with villagers accusing Navy personnel.

Then chief minister Ghulam Nabi Azad ordered a judicial inquiry into the incident, which concluded that the sailor of the boat, three Navy officials and the school principal were guilty of negligence.

In memory of the children, the Navy built and dedicated a paediatric wing at the District Hospital in Handwara.