According to the Shopian Police Press release, major raids were conducted in the district on Friday.
The police were carrying out meticulously coordinated searches at multiple locations across the Shopian district, targeting individuals and premises linked with the banned organisation Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI), proscribed under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).
Jamaat-e-Islami Jammu and Kashmir (JeI-J&K) has been banned multiple times by the Indian government. The most recent ban was imposed in 2019 under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) for alleged “anti-national separatist activities” and links with militant groups like Hizbul Mujahideen. The ban was extended for another five years in February 2024.
Jamaat-e-Islami is an Islamist movement founded in 1941 in British India by the Islamic author and theorist Syed Abul A’la Maududi. After the partition of India in 1947, the movement split into independent organisations in the successor states, ‘Jamaat-e-Islami’ Pakistan and ‘Jamaat-e-Islami’ Hind in India.
Further details of the raid are awaited.
Anantnag Police had also carried out coordinated raids in the district on November 12 amid a massive crackdown against the banned organisation Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI).
A team of the Jammu and Kashmir Police’s State Investigation Agency (SIA) also conducted a raid on the Kashmir Times office in Jammu on November 20.
Deputy Chief Minister Surinder Choudhary asked the investigative agencies not to “pick-and-choose” media organisations for raids, saying there should not be any pressure on the press.
“The agencies are doing their work. Shopian police conduct coordinated searches against banned Jamaat-e-Islami a raid has to be conducted, it should not be done on a pick-and-choose basis. If they have done anything wrong, action should be taken, but not just to create pressure. The Press is the fourth estate, and it should get space to practice journalism,” Surinder Choudhary told reporters.
The Kashmir Times was established in 1954 by Anuradha Bhasin’s father, Ved Bhasin, as the oldest English-language daily newspaper from Jammu and Kashmir.