Info blackout as printing stopped, newspapers seized in Srinagar
Ehsan Fazili
Tribune News Service
Srinagar, June 16
In view of the week-long violence that so far has claimed around 40 lives, the authorities seized copies of all local Urdu and English dailies during midnight raids on the printing presses here on Saturday creating an information gag in the Valley.
As most dailies were being printed, the police raided these places and stopped the printing in the wee hours of Saturday. A few employees associated with printing and drivers of vehicles carrying the papers were also detained, only to be let off later.
These newspapers include the Jammu and Kashmir edition of The Tribune, which is printed from the Greater Kashmir Press at Rangreth near here. The printed copies of the Urdu edition of Greater Kashmir were seized and no printing of its English edition besides that of The Tribune was allowed by the police, employees said.
The fresh gag on communication follows as two more protesters were killed and several others were injured as fresh clashes ensued on Friday. Except the BSNL, all mobile phone services were suspended on Thursday, while the internet services continued to remain suspended since July 8 following the death of Hizbul commander Burhan Wani. Only government-owned BSNL mobiles and internet have been functioning in the Valley.
Cable TV services were also suspended here since Friday midnight, residents said. The lone BSNL landline services in north and south Kashmir areas were also stopped, they said.
The police raided the printing presses of other newspapers, including the Kashmir Times press, which prints most English and Urdu dailies here.
On Friday morning, the police had stopped the circulation of all local newspapers in the Lal Chowk area after they seized all copies. The newspapers for other areas of the Valley had already been dispatched before the police action on Friday.
