Kashmir Online Blog Case : Special court grants bail to third accused Akbar Sofi

A third accused in the Kashmir Online Blog Case has been granted bail by the Court of Special Additional and Sessions Judge (TADA) Srinagar Manjeet Singh Manhas on Thursday. Earlier in the year, J&K Police had arrested five persons running an online blog site kashmirfight.wordpress.com that ran smear campaigns against prominent personalities in Kashmir, including assassinated editor Shujaat Bukhari

Srinagar (Jammu-Kashmir):A special court in Srinagar on Thursday granted bail to yet another accused in the Kashmir Online Blog Case. The Court of Special Additional and Sessions Judge TADA Srinagar Manjeet Singh Manhas said that the accused, Akbar Sofi is admitted to bail on furnishing bail bond.

Sofi's lawyer Mushtaq Ahmad Dar also confirmed the bail, saying, "Sofi Akbar, a resident of Pulwama, has been granted bail in the Kashmir Online Blog case. Earlier, his daughter and Javed, a resident of Poonch, were granted bail."

He added that "Akbar has been booked under Sections 13, 16, 18 and 20 of the ULAP Act at Kothi Bagh in Srinagar. He has been granted bail in 51/2018 case but will still remain in custody for other cases."

Earlier, on September 11, the court had granted bail to two more accused - Nazish Rahmani and Javed Khalid - in the same case.

On July 7, this year, J&K Police had arrested five persons running an online blog site kashmirfight.wordpress.com that ran smear campaigns against prominent personalities in Kashmir.

Various government officers, journalists, social activists, lawyers and political functionaries were on the hit list, including Shujaat Bukhari, the founding editor of Kashmiri daily Rising Kashmir, who was gunned down by unknown assailants in 2018.

The police in its statement had said that the blog had designed a modus operandi wherein the name of the victim was first published, a justification was given as to how and why he is a legitimate target of the terrorists and execution by the terrorists

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