PoJK Puppet PM Lashes Out After SIA Raids on 'Kashmir Times': What’s Behind Pakistan’s Anger?
Total Views |
The State Investigation Agency raid on the Kashmir Times head office in Jammu on Thursday didn’t stay limited to J&K. What started as a routine search over alleged anti-national activities soon turned into a major issue across the border, with Pakistan quickly jumping in to defend the newspaper even as J&K investigators said they had recovered arms, ammunition and other incriminating material from the office.
According to the SIA, the searches, conducted in the presence of an Executive Magistrate; were a continuation of a case already registered against Kashmir Times for its “alleged involvement in criminal conspiracy with secessionist and other anti-national entities operating within and outside Jammu & Kashmir.”
According to the agency, the FIR against the media house says the platform has been spreading “terrorist and secessionist ideology,” pushing “inflammatory, fabricated, and false narratives” and trying to radicalise the youth of J&K, create separatist feeling, disturbing peace and public order, and challenging the sovereignty and territorial integrity of India through digital and print content.
During the search at the Residency Road Jammu office, officials said they recovered one revolver, 14 empty AK-series cases, three live AK rounds, four fired bullets, four grenade safety levers and three suspected pistol rounds.
But what caught everyone’s attention was how fast Pakistan reacted. The puppet “Prime Minister” of Pakistan-occupied Jammu & Kashmir, Faisal Mumtaz Rathore, immediately condemned the raids and the case against the editor.
In his statement, he said the newspaper had long supported the “Kashmiris UN-recognised right to self-determination” and had “consistently exposed grave human rights violations in the India-occupied region”.
“India was attempting to silence every voice in the occupied territory that sought to highlight "its crimes against humanity", he added.
_202511211415528320_H@@IGHT_1170_W@@IDTH_882.jpeg "PoJK Puppet PM Lashes Out After SIA Raids on")
Soon after, the Pakistani media echoed the same line.
Pakistan Today reported: “Press bodies alarmed as SIA targets Kashmir Times in new ’anti national’ probe.”
Dawn wrote: “Indian authorities raid offices of Kashmir Times in crackdown against anti-national content.”
Pakistan’s quick defence of the publishing is not surprising. For years, Kashmir Times has been quoted by Pakistan in its narrative on Kashmir. Any action against it naturally triggers reactions across the border, especially because the paper has been critical of New Delhi, particularly after Article 370 was abrogated in 2019.
Earlier this year, in August, Anuradha Bhasin’s 2022 book A Dismantled State: The Untold Story of Kashmir After Article 370 was also among the 25 books banned by the J&K government for allegedly promoting “false narrative” and “secessionism.”
The Kashmir Times office in Srinagar had earlier been sealed by the Centre in 2020, after which the publication discontinued its print edition. Since November 2023, it has been functioning solely as a digital portal.
Kashmir Times editors Anuradha Bhasin and Prabodh Jamwal called the raids “yet another attempt to silence us.”
With the SIA still investigating the case, Pakistan’s loud reaction backed by its puppet administration in PoJK; adds another twist to the ongoing debate over propaganda, information, and separatist narratives in Jammu & Kashmir.