India asks Al-Jazeera correspondent to leave

New Delhi, Jul. 7 2002 (INS News) -- India has asked the correspondent of Al Jazeera news channel, based at Qatar, to leave the country following his reports on the recent riots in Gujarat.

The Indian government was uncomfortable with television journalist Nasir M Shadid's reporting on the insurgency in Kashmir and the violence in Gujarat earlier this year in which nearly 1,000 people died.

A few days ago the Indian foreign ministry had told Shadid that he was not welcome in India any more.

However, a close associate of Shadid's said the Al-Jazeera reporter had not been formally asked to leave although his request for government accreditation had been refused. "When your visa expires and you do not get it renewed and the government does not give you an accreditation, it means that you are not welcome any more," he said.

When contacted by a news agency, Shadid declined to comment on the report.

The Al-Jazeera channel has at least 35 million viewers in the Arab world and elsewhere. It captured world attention for its exclusive reports during the US-led strikes on Afghanistan and for showing taped statements by presumed al-Qaeda mastermind Osama bin Laden.

-- Sam Asharaf - South Asia Correspondent in Trivandrum, India
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