Police in the Indian illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) raided dozens of bookshops and seized hundreds of copies of books by an Islamic scholar, sparking angry reactions by Muslim leaders, police said on Wednesday.
Police said searches were based on "credible intelligence regarding the clandestine sale and distribution of literature promoting the ideology of a banned organisation". They did not name the author but store owners said they had seized literature by the late Abul Ala Maududi, founder of the Jamaat-e-Islami.
Plainclothes officers began raids in the main city of Srinagar on Saturday, before launching book seizures in other towns across the 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, told AFP.
The Foreign Ministry in Islamabad said that it was "the latest step in a series of measures to crush dissent and to intimidate the local people". Spokesman Shafqat Ali Khan said: "They must be given freedom to read the books of their choice."
Police said in a statement that the searches were conducted "to prevent the circulation of banned literature linked to Jamaat-e-Islami", adding: "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."
The raids sparked anger among supporters of the party. "The seized books promote good moral values and responsible citizenship," said Shamim Ahmed Thokar. "Cracking down on Islamic literature and seizing them from bookstores is ridiculous," said Mirwaiz Umar Farooq.
In a statement, Farooq pointed 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," the Mirwaiz added.
Critics and many residents of IIOJK said that civil liberties were drastically curtailed after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu-nationalist government imposed direct rule in 2019 by scrapping IIOJK's constitutionally enshrined partial autonomy.
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