SRINAGAR, India: Indian police in disputed Kashmir have raided dozens of bookshops and seized hundreds of copies of books by an Islamic scholar, sparking angry reactions by Muslim leaders.
Police said searches were based on “credible intelligence regarding the clandestine sale and distribution of literature promoting the ideology of a banned organization.”
Officers did not name the author but store owners said they had seized literature by the late Abul Ala Maududi, founder of the Islamist political party Jamaat-e-Islami.
Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since their independence from British rule in 1947, and both claim the Himalayan territory in full.
Rebel groups, demanding Kashmir’s freedom or its merger with Pakistan, have been fighting Indian forces for decades, with tens of thousands killed in the conflict.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu-nationalist government banned the Kashmir branch of Jamaat-e-Islami in 2019 as an “unlawful association.”
New Delhi renewed the ban last year for what it said were “activities against the security, integrity and sovereignty” of the nation.
Plainclothes officers began raids in the main city of Srinagar on Saturday, before launching book seizures in other towns across the Muslim-majority region.
“They (police) came and took away all the copies of books authored by Abul Ala Maududi, saying these books were banned,” a bookshop owner in Srinagar, who asked not to be identified, told AFP.
Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry said it was “the latest step in a series of measures to crush dissent and to intimidate the local people.”
“They must be given freedom to read the books of their choice,” spokesman Shafqat Ali Khan said.
Police said the searches were conducted “to prevent the circulation of banned literature linked to Jamaat-e-Islami.”
“These books were found to be in violation of legal regulations, and strict action is being taken against those found in possession of such material,” police said in a statement.
The raids sparked anger among supporters of the party.
“The seized books promote good moral values and responsible citizenship,” said Shamim Ahmed Thokar.
Umar Farooq, Kashmir’s chief cleric and a prominent leader advocating for the right to self-determination, condemned the police action.
“Cracking down on Islamic literature and seizing them from bookstores is ridiculous,” Farooq said in a statement, pointing out that the literature was available online.
“Policing thought by seizing books is absurd — to say the least — in the time of access to all information on virtual highways,” he said.
Critics and many residents of Kashmir say civil liberties were drastically curtailed after Modi’s government imposed direct rule in 2019 by scrapping Kashmir’s constitutionally enshrined partial autonomy.
Indian police seize books by Islamic scholar in Kashmir
https://arab.news/8zuz9
Indian police seize books by Islamic scholar in Kashmir
- Officers did not name the author but store owners said they had seized literature by the late Abul Ala Maududi
- Plainclothes officers began raids in the main city of Srinagar on Saturday
Venezuela swears in 5,600 troops after US military build-up
- American forces have carried out deadly strikes on more than 20 vessels, killing at least 87
CARACAS: The Venezuelan army swore in 5,600 soldiers on Saturday, as the United States cranks up military pressure on the oil-producing country.
President Nicolas Maduro has called for stepped-up military recruitment after the United States deployed a fleet of warships and the world’s largest aircraft carrier to the Caribbean under the pretext of combating drug trafficking.
American forces have carried out deadly strikes on more than 20 vessels, killing at least 87.
Washington has accused Maduro of leading the alleged “Cartel of the Suns,” which it declared a terrorist organization last month.
Maduro asserts the American deployment aims to overthrow him and seize the country’s oil reserves.
“Under no circumstances will we allow an invasion by an imperialist force,” Col. Gabriel Rendon said Saturday during a ceremony at Fuerte Tiuna, Venezuela’s largest military complex, in Caracas.
According to official figures, Venezuela has around 200,000 troops and an additional 200,000 police officers.
A former opposition governor died in prison on Saturday where he had been detained on charges of terrorism and incitement, a rights group said.
Alfredo Diaz was at least the sixth opposition member to die in prison since November 2024.
They had been arrested following protests sparked by last July’s disputed election, when Maduro claimed a third term despite accusations of fraud.
The protests resulted in 28 deaths and around 2,400 arrests, with nearly 2,000 people released since then.
Diaz, governor of Nueva Esparta from 2017 to 2021, “had been imprisoned and held in isolation for a year; only one visit from his daughter was allowed,” said Alfredo Romero, director of the NGO Foro Penal, which defends political prisoners.
The group says there are at least 887 political prisoners in Venezuela.
Opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Corina Machado condemned the deaths of political prisoners in Venezuela during “post-electoral repression.”
“The circumstances of these deaths — which include denial of medical care, inhumane conditions, isolation, torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment — reveal a sustained pattern of state repression,” Machado said in a joint statement with Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, the opposition candidate she believes won the election.
