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NEW DELHI: The State Investigation Agency (SIA) of the J&K Police connected Thursday raided the Jammu bureau of the Kashmir Times, alleging that the work was progressive successful activities “against the country.
” Officials said the hunt led to the betterment of AK firearm cartridges, pistol rounds and hand-grenade pins, among different items.According to officials, SIA teams examined the newspaper’s premises and machine systems aft registering a lawsuit against the work and its promoters. The promoters are apt to beryllium questioned arsenic the probe proceeds.Deputy Chief Minister Surinder Singh Choudhary, reacting to the raid, said enactment indispensable beryllium based connected grounds and not pressure."The agencies are doing their work. If a raid has to beryllium conducted, it should not beryllium done connected a pick-and-choose basis. If they person done thing wrong, enactment should beryllium taken, but not conscionable to make pressure. The Press is the 4th estate, and it should get abstraction to signifier journalism," Surinder Choudhary told reporters.
Raid an effort to “silence” autarkic media
The Kashmir Times absorption sharply criticised the raids, calling the allegations of anti-state activities “baseless” and portion of a broader effort to soundlessness “independent journalism.”
Editors Prabodh Jamwal and Anuradha Bhasin, successful a associated statement, said, "The reported raids connected our bureau successful Jammu, the baseless accusations of activities inimical to the authorities and the coordinated crackdown connected the Kashmir Times are yet different effort to soundlessness us."“Criticising the authorities is not the aforesaid arsenic being inimical to the state. In fact, it is the precise opposite. A robust, questioning property is indispensable to a steadfast democracy,” they said, adding that their “work of holding powerfulness to account, investigating corruption, amplifying marginalised voices strengthens our nation.
It does not weaken it.”The editors besides highlighted the newspaper’s agelong bequest since its founding successful 1954 by Ved Bhasin. “We person chronicled the region’s triumphs and failures with adjacent rigour. We person fixed dependable to communities that would different spell unheard. We person asked hard questions erstwhile others remained silent,” they said.They alleged that the organisation was being targeted precisely for its autarkic reporting. “In an epoch erstwhile captious voices are progressively scarce, we stay 1 of the fewer autarkic outlets consenting to talk information to power.”Calling the allegations an intimidation tactic, they said, “We telephone connected the authorities to instantly cease this harassment, retreat these unfounded allegations, and respect the law guarantees of property freedom.”They urged authorities to retreat the charges and extremity the “harassment,” appealing to civilian nine and media colleagues for support.“Accountability is not treason. And we volition proceed to inform, investigate, and advocator for those who beryllium connected us. The authorities whitethorn person the powerfulness to raid our offices. But it cannot raid our committedness to the truth. The editors noted that portion the paper’s people variation was suspended successful 2021–22 owed to “relentless targeting,” Kashmir Times continues to run digitally, with each contented accessible connected its website.
