Raids at Kashmir Times Office in Jammu; Editors Call it 'Attempt to Silence' Independent Media

Srinagar: The State Investigation Agency (SIA) of Jammu and Kashmir Police raided the office of Kashmir Times in Jammu on Thursday (November 20), in what the outlet’s owners have termed as an “attempt to silence independent media”.

The police raid was condemned by the Committee to Protect Journalists, along with other media defenders and some political groups. It comes at a time when the newspaper’s print edition has largely ceased to exist, though it had scaled up its digital content production in recent months.

In a statement, the counter terrorism agency said that the media outlet’s office on Residency Road in Jammu was raided in connection with a case filed for “their involvement in criminal conspiracy with secessionist and other anti-national entities operating within and outside Jammu & Kashmir”.

However, the SIA statement didn’t specify the details of the FIR.

The agency said that Kashmir Times “was allegedly disseminating terrorist and secessionist ideology, spreading inflammatory, fabricated and false narratives, attempting to radicalise the youth of Jammu & Kashmir, inciting disaffection and separatist sentiments, disturbing peace and public order, and challenging the sovereignty and territorial integrity of India through print and digital content”.

However, Anuradha Bhasin, the executive editor of the daily, who has been reportedly named in the FIR, alleged that they were being targeted for “speaking truth to power”.

The outlet is run by Bhasin and her husband Prabodh Jamwal, also a senior editor there, and both are based out of the country. The agency said that it also carried out searches at the house of Jamwal, identifying him as the owner of the media outlet.

In a joint statement, they said that the SIA’s allegations were “designed to intimidate, to delegitimize, and ultimately to silence… independent media” in Jammu and Kashmir.

The agency claimed to have recovered a “revolver, 14 empty cases of AK-series weapon, three live AK rounds, four fired bullets, three grenade safety levers and three suspected pistol rounds (apparently)” besides digital devices and unspecified documents.

“All recovered items were seized in presence of executive magistrate following due legal procedures. These recoveries indicate possible unlawful possession and suspected linkages with extremist or anti-national elements, warranting further detailed investigation,” the agency said.

The daily was headquartered in Jammu but it also used to be published from Srinagar before 2019 when Jammu and Kashmir was a state.

However, its fortunes began to sink in the aftermath of the reading down of Article 370 when J&K lost its special status. Bhasin swayed towards activism by challenging the prolonged internet shutdown in the Supreme Court.

The author of A Dismantled State: The Untold Story of Kashmir After Article 370, which was recently banned by the J&K lieutenant governor’s administration along with 24 other books, her case led the apex court to uphold that internet can’t be restricted indefinitely even in the name of national security because it was crucial for freedom of expression.

Speaking with The Wire, Bhasin whose father and veteran J&K journalist Ved Bhasin founded the paper in 1954, said that their print edition had “largely ceased to exist” after the political developments and media curbs in Jammu and Kashmir post 2019.

“Our print edition was suspended in 2021-2022 after relentless targeting, but we continue to operate digitally,” she said.

The J&K government hands out hundreds of crores of rupees every year in the form of advertisements which is the major source of revenue for newspapers in the Union territory.

However, Kashmir Times is among several newspapers who have been blacklisted from receiving government advertisements without citing any reason in writing.

The SIA raid took place more than five years after the English daily was evicted in 2020 from its office in Srinagar’s Press Enclave “without any due process of law”, Bhasin had alleged at that time.

After the closure of the Srinagar office, the paper’s Jammu office was operating for a year or so out of a building in the old heritage city on the Residency Road which had been taken on lease from the government many years ago.

“We had applied for renewal of the lease agreement but it has been pending for years. The office was occasionally functional till 2021 after which it closed down,” she said.

A security guard linked to Kashmir Times has been reportedly detained in connection with the case.

Bhasin said that the paper has “stood as a pillar of independent journalism” which has “chronicled the region’s triumphs and failures with equal rigour”.

“We have given voice to communities that would otherwise go unheard. We have asked difficult questions when others remained silent. We are being targeted precisely because we continue to do this work. In an era when critical voices are increasingly scarce, we remain one of the few independent outlets willing to speak truth to power,” the joint statement said.

The statement urged the authorities to “immediately cease this harassment, withdraw these unfounded allegations, and respect the constitutional guarantees of press freedom”.

“We call on our colleagues in the media to stand with us. We call on civil society, on citizens who value their right to know, to recognise that this moment is a test of whether journalism can survive in an environment of increasing authoritarianism,” the statement said.

It added, “Journalism is not a crime. Accountability is not treason. And we will continue to inform, investigate, and advocate for those who depend on us. The state may have the power to raid our offices. But it cannot raid our commitment to the truth.”

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