Fifty-eight global rights groups, including Human Rights Watch, Community to Protect Journalists and International Press Institute, urged Governor of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJ&K), to release the incarcerated Kashmiri journalists Fahad Shah, Asif Sultan, Sajad Gul and Manan Gulzar.

In a joint statement, the press freedom organizations, human rights organizations, stressed the immediate release of Fahad Shah, editor of the online news portal The Kashmir Walla, from jail, and the withdrawal of all police investigations launched into his journalistic work.