Kashmir Times office in Srinagar sealed by estates department

On Monday, the Srinagar office of the Kashmir Times, one of Jammu and Kashmir’s leading English newspapers, was sealed by the union territory’s administration. The daily’s editors were quoted as saying by PTI that they had not been served a cancellation or eviction notice, nor were they given a reason in writing for the sealing. The paper is headquartered in Jammu with a bureau office in the summer capital.

The office, situated in the Press Enclave, was sealed by the estates department, which had earlier allegedly overseen the ransacking of the government quarters of the paper’s executive editor Anuradha Bhasin in Jammu.

Bhasin said her paper’s office was sealed without due process. She described it as “political vendetta” against her for daring to petition the Supreme Court against the total communications blackout imposed in the region by the Narendra Modi government when Article 370 was abrogated last year.

Speaking to the Indian Express, Bhasin said, “They haven’t served any eviction or cancellation notice to us. They have simply locked our office. We haven’t handed over anything to them. Our infrastructure is here, our computers are here, all the machinery and technical things are here, our generators and other equipment are here.”

The action against the Kashmir Times drew condemnation from the journalist fraternity as well as the Committee to Protect Journalists, which condemned the “ongoing harassment” of Bhasin.