SRINAGAR, June 25 -- Showing "urgency that liberty of a journalist is not barred and press is not trampled", a court in Srinagar granted bail to senior journalist and a known public figure Ghulam Jeelani Qadri who was arrested by police during a midnight raid in a case registered in 1993.

The police was left red-faced after the local court-Chief Judicial Magistrate- granted bail to the Editor of daily Afaaq and raised questions about investigation, pointing out that the police had cleared the scribe twice in the past 29 years for passport.

"The Court has shown urgency that liberty of a journalist is not barred and press is not trampled," advocate Tassaduq Khawaja, who led a team of lawyers to defend Qadri before the court of CJM, told r...