The Jammu & Kashmir Government on Sunday banned publication of a prominent English daily Kashmir Reader saying the paper contains such material and content which tends to incite acts of violence and disturb public peace and tranquility.
Deputy Commissioner of Srinagar Farooq Ahmad lone issued orders to the printer, publisher and owner of the newspaper and ten printing presses in the jurisdiction of Srinagar district to stop printing and publication of the newspaper.
“On the basis of credible inputs it has been observed that the newspaper namely Kashmir Reader published within the jurisdiction of district Srinagar contains such material and content which tends to incite acts of violence and disturb public peace and tranquillity,” said the order.
“It has been observed that the contents published in above newspaper is of such nature that can easily cause incitement of acts of violence and disturbance of public tranquility in the State of Jammu & Kashmir and Srinagar district in particular,” the order reads.
Kashmir Reader, is publishing since 2010, and is among a few widely read newspapers from Srinagar. The newspaper owner and editor Haji Hayat Muhammad Bhat condemned the government action. “The allegations leveled against the newspaper have no bases. The reportage of our newspaper has been extensively based on objectivity and truthfulness,” he told The Pioneer.
The action has been initiated through invocation of section 144 CrPC read with section 3 of newspapers incitement of offences act1971 and section 10 of press and publication act 1989.
A police team from Shaheed Ganj police station late on Sunday evening arrived at the newspaper office to deliver the ban order.
This is for the first time since the massive public uprising erupted in Kashmir in July after the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani that a newspaper has been banned officially. Earlier, the authorities stopped publication of newspapers for five days in mid-July, which drew international flak compelling the government to lift the unannounced ban.
Editor of Urdu daily Nidai Mashriq Haroon Rashid said the act of banning publication of a newspaper reflects the government’s frustration and failure to handle the ground situation. “The newspapers in Srinagar publish what is happening on the ground. If the government wants situation to normalize, it should work on the ground to change the situation. Muzzling news and banning newspapers is not the remedy,” he said.