Celia Mercier, head of the South Asia desk of Reporters Without Borders (RSF), has condemned the raid on the offices of the Kashmir Times in Jammu.
The RSF said in a press statement that the attack on one of the few independent media outlets in Kashmir was unacceptable, calling for charges against the newspaper and its editor-in-chief to be dropped.
Agents from Kashmir’s State Investigation Agency (SIA), accompanied by police, searched the premises of the Kashmir Times on Thursday. According to RSF, the agents seized documents and computers even though the newspaper’s offices have been out of use since 2021.
The SIA reportedly filed an FIR against Anuradha Bhasin, the editor-in-chief, claiming that she and the media outlet had shared content which is a “threat to India’s sovereignty and integrity”. Anuradha Bhasin currently lives abroad. She told RSF that she was not informed about any legal proceedings against her.
The Kashmir Times, an independent English-language newspaper, was founded in 1954. Recognised as a leading source of information about Kashmir, it has been a target of repeated attacks in recent years.
“The Kashmir Times is a recurring target of the authorities in a context of increased repression of the media in Jammu and Kashmir, a region that has become a virtual black hole as far as information is concerned since its autonomy was revoked in 2019,” the RSF said in its statement.
“RSF condemns the punitive targeting of an independent media outlet and a fabricated case designed to silence one of the few critical voices that continues to cover Kashmir.
“We call on the Indian authorities to put an end to this harassment and drop the false charges against the media outlet and its editor-in-chief.”
Anuradha Bhasin said in her reaction to the raid: “The reported raids on our office, the baseless accusations of activities ‘inimical to the state’, and the coordinated crackdown on the Kashmir Times are yet another attempt to silence us.
“We have received no official intimation or statement to confirm the official actions. Our office, where the media reports suggest the raids took place, was out of operation for the last four years. The bizarre allegations against us are baseless.”
In 2019, the Indian government withdrew its advertisements from the newspaper after the editor challenged in the Supreme Court the 18-month-long internet blackout imposed in Kashmir.
In Oct 2020, its offices in Srinagar were sealed off by the authorities and employees were evicted without notice. The outlet was then forced to suspend its print edition between Oct 2022 and Nov 2023, before relaunching solely online.
