Police in Indian-administered Kashmir raided bookstores and seized 668 books linked to a significant Islamic organisation within the disputed area, the place strict controls on the press have escalated in recent times.
The raids started on Friday in Srinagar, the area’s most important metropolis. Police mentioned they acted “primarily based on credible intelligence concerning the clandestine sale and distribution of literature selling the ideology of a banned organisation”.
In response to booksellers, the seized books had 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.
Many of the books seized had been authored by Abul Ala Maududi, a outstanding 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 stop the circulation of banned literature linked to Jamaat-e-Islami”, a police assertion mentioned.
The crackdown on books has been broadly 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 a press release, they mentioned the seized books had been legally revealed in New Delhi and had 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 data on digital highways,” Mirwaiz mentioned in a press release.
