{"id":169129,"date":"2025-02-15T10:06:53","date_gmt":"2025-02-15T05:06:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/?p=169129"},"modified":"2025-02-15T10:06:53","modified_gmt":"2025-02-15T05:06:53","slug":"kashmiri-politicians-condemn-book-seizure-in-iiojk-call-it-an-attack-on-religious-freedom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/2025\/02\/15\/kashmiri-politicians-condemn-book-seizure-in-iiojk-call-it-an-attack-on-religious-freedom.html","title":{"rendered":"Kashmiri politicians condemn book seizure in IIOJK, call it an attack on religious freedom"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-169130\" src=\"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/kas-politions.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"761\" height=\"428\" srcset=\"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/assests\/2025\/02\/kas-politions.jpg 761w, https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/assests\/2025\/02\/kas-politions-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/assests\/2025\/02\/kas-politions-390x220.jpg 390w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 761px) 100vw, 761px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Srinagar: Kashmiri political leaders have strongly condemned the recent seizure of hundreds of books linked to Jamaat-e-Islami by Indian police in Srinagar, calling it a direct assault on religious freedom in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir.<\/p>\n<p>According to Kashmir Media Service, Indian police, during a raid in Srinagar, confiscated over 650 books written by renowned Islamic scholar and Jamaat-e-Islami founder, Abul A&#8217;la Maududi, as well as the iconic pro-freedom leader, Syed Ali Gilani. The police claimed the move was aimed at preventing the &#8220;secret sale and distribution&#8221; of literature linked to banned organizations. It is worth noting that Jamaat-e-Islami, along with several other pro-freedom organizations, remains banned in IIOJK. The book seizures, restrictions on mosques, and banning of organization underscore BJP-led Indian government\u2019s growing attempts to suppress political dissent and erase religious institutions in IIOJK.<\/p>\n<p>Senior National Conference leader and Indian parliamentarian, Ruhullah Mehdi, took to X (formerly Twitter) to condemn the raid, warning that interference in Kashmiri Muslims&#8217; religious affairs had crossed a red line. He added, \u201cThis is blatant state oppression and intolerance. Will the state now dictate what Kashmiris read, learn, and believe? This is an unacceptable overreach.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He demanded an immediate revocation of any order related to the book seizures. Ruhullah also condemned the sealing of Jamia Masjid on Shab-e-Barat, calling it an unjustified restriction on religious freedom.<\/p>\n<p>Similarly, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leader Iltija Mufti linked the raid to a recent so-called security review meeting in New Delhi, asserting that under the pretext of &#8220;security,&#8221; oppressive measures were being unleashed on the Kashmiris.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNow even the freedom to read and consume information is being violated,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Iltija also pointed out that the occupation authorities were targeting Jamaat-e-Islami, a religious organization that she said had engaged in social work and participated in the recent elections.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Srinagar: Kashmiri political leaders have strongly condemned the recent seizure of hundreds of books linked to Jamaat-e-Islami by Indian police in Srinagar, calling it a direct assault on religious freedom in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir. According to Kashmir Media Service, Indian police, during a raid in Srinagar, confiscated over 650 books written by &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":169130,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5],"class_list":["post-169129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-top-story"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/assests\/2025\/02\/kas-politions.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169129\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}