The Jammu and Kashmir administration has locked one of the two properties allotted to the oldest and largest circulated newspaper Kashmir Times in Srinagar.
The newspaper owners claimed that the due process of law was not followed.
“Today, Estates Deptt locked our office without any due process of cancellation & eviction, same way as I was evicted from a flat in Jammu, where my belongings including valuables were handed over to “new allottee”. Vendetta for speaking out! No due process followed. How peevish!,” Anuradha Bhasin, executive editor of the newspaper tweeted.
The government officials said it was the Jammu and Kashmir Estates Department who sealed the office of Kashmir Times at Mushtaq Memorial Press Enclave in Srinagar on Monday.
Kashmir Times was first published in 1954 as a weekly. In 1964 it was converted as a daily.
Committee to Protect Journalists, an international journalists body has condemned the ongoing targeting and harassment of Anuradha Bhasin and the Kashmir Times.
“Authorities must stop trying to silence independent and critical voices and should respect press freedom,” it said in an official tweet.
Bhasin had earlier filed a petition in Supreme Court against the internet shutdown and communication blackout after abrogation of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status seeking direction to the Union Government for immediate relaxation on communication blackout in the Kashmir.
She was also evicted from her official residence in Jammu two months ago.
At that time in a statement she said: :Today some goons, led by Dr Imran Ganai, brother of Shehnaz Ganai, former MLC, entered the government flat allotted to me at Wazarat Road (since 2000) and committed theft, stole my jewellery, silverware and other valuables in my house in connivance with Estates Deptt and some police personnel. Few cops in civvies were assisting them in the loot and they were present in every room and tried hiding their faces when I was clicking their photos.”
