Police in Indian-administered Kashmir raided bookstores and seized 668 books linked to a serious Islamic organisation within the disputed area, the place strict controls on the press have escalated lately.
The raids started on Friday in Srinagar, the area’s most important metropolis. Police stated they acted “primarily based on credible intelligence concerning the clandestine sale and distribution of literature selling the ideology of a banned organisation”.
In accordance with booksellers, the seized books have been largely revealed by New Delhi-based Markazi Maktaba Islami Publishers, which is affiliated with the Indian department of one of many largest Islamic and political organisations within the Indian subcontinent, Jamaat-e-Islami Hind.
Indian authorities banned Jamaat-e-Islami in Kashmir as an “illegal affiliation” in February 2019, months earlier than New Delhi ended the area’s semi-autonomy.
In New Delhi’s effort to form what it calls “Naya Kashmir”, or “new Kashmir”, the territory’s folks have since been largely silenced as India has proven no tolerance for any type of dissent.
A lot of the books seized have been authored by Abul Ala Maududi, a distinguished Twentieth-century Islamic scholar and founding father of Jamaat-e-Islami who advocated integration of state and faith.
Police groups additionally carried out raids in another components of Kashmir and performed “stringent checks” of bookshops “to forestall the circulation of banned literature linked to Jamaat-e-Islami”, a police assertion stated.
The crackdown on books has been extensively criticised in Kashmir.
A number of Jamaat leaders, who contested a latest native election in Kashmir, known as the seizure of those books “unjust, unconstitutional and a violation of basic rights”. In an announcement, they stated the seized books have been legally revealed in New Delhi and have been being lawfully distributed to bookstores throughout the area.
Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, a key resistance chief in Kashmir, known as the police operation “condemnable” and “ridiculous”.
“Policing thought by seizing books is absurd to say the least, within the time of entry to all info on digital highways,” Mirwaiz stated in an announcement.
