The family members of Qari Mohammad Iqbal, a teacher who died on May 07, 2025 due to cross border Pakistani Shelling at Poonch, have served a legal notice upon two TV channels that labelled the deceased as a hardcore Terrorist associated with Lashkar-e-Toiba/Hizbul Mujahideen and further claimed that the deceased teacher was on the most wanted hit-list of NIA and was killed by Indian Forces in a Terrorist Camp at Kotli (POK).
Family members of the teacher have sought damages /compensation to the tune of Rupees 5 Crore each for airing a “false, highly misleading and slanderous” news item pertaining to Qari Mohammad Iqbal S/o Peer Baksh R/o Baila, Tehsil Mandi, District Poonch who died on 07/05/2025 at District Hospital Poonch because of Pakistan’s Shelling but the two leading news channels of the country “maliciously” labelled the deceased as a hardcore terrorist associated with Lashkar-e-Toiba/Hizbul Mujahideen and further claimed that the deceased Teacher was on the most wanted hit-list of NIA and was killed by Indian Forces in a Terrorist Camp at Kotli(POK).
The News Channels also claimed that the deceased Qari Mohammad Iqbal had played a pivotal role in the Pulwama terrorist attack and Indian Forces were in search of this ‘Khoon khaar Commander’.
In the legal notice served through SS Ahmed & Associates Advocates, it has been alleged that the damage caused by the misleading/malicious reporting to the deceased and his family members is irreparable and is a classic example of Yellow/unethical Journalism and the said news items also exhibited the high level of carelessness, gross misconduct and lack of responsibility on the part of the two channels as despite government advisories/Press Council of India guidelines and norms of journalistic ethics, the story of war like situation was carried out without verifying its contents from genuine Government sources and an innocent teacher was dubbed as a “dreaded terrorist” aligned to outlawed terrorist organisations and the damage which is irreparable can only be indemnified by paying exemplary damages quantified as Rupees 5 Crore each to the family members of the deceased teacher as no apology of any kind can repair the damage caused to the reputation of the deceased and his family members. A period of 3 weeks has been given to the management of the two channels to do the needful.