Srinagar: In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, a self-proclaimed Hindu Nationalist Rajesh Jhaveri has threatened to kill a Kashmiri journalist Raqib Hameed Naik for writing a piece that reveals the COVID funding that five right wing groups had received – Kashmir media service reported Saturday.
Raqib Hameed Naik in a tweet said that on May 13, he received a long message on Facebook with death threats from Hindu nationalist Rajesh Jhaveri regarding his COVID funding report.
As per the tweet, Rajesh has threatened to kill Raqib incase he writes more on Hindu right-wing.
The journalist further wrote that he had reported the threat to the Indian Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and was to follow it up with the local law enforcement as well.
In a piece published in Al-jazeera, Raqib had reported that about five organisations with ties to Hindu supremacist and religious groups had received COVID-19 relief funding amounting to $833,000. These funds were released by the US Small Business Administration (SBA), a federal agency that helps small business owners and entrepreneurs.
As per the report, SBA gave the funds as part of its Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act’s Economic Injury Disaster Loan Advance (EIDLA), Disaster Assistance Loan (DAL) and Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).
All three programmes were aimed to provide economic relief to distressed businesses and keep their workforce employed during the COVID-19 crisis in India.