By Siddhant Mohan & Raqib Hameed Naik, TwoCircles.net
Srinagar – After banning mobile internet in Kashmir, the Government of Jammu and Kashmir has now stopped Cable TV reception in the Valley. The ban started early Saturday morning.
The reason behind the decision is to put a halt on local coverage of the events being taking place in the valley, as these channels were the only sources of the real time news after internet and mobile services, except BSNL postpaid, had been cutoff since Thursday. Direct to home satellite TVs have not been affected by this lock down.
In addition the J&K police also cracked down on local newspapers. On Friday midnight, police also raided printing presses situated in greater Kashmir.
Not only did they stop printing, they also seized already printed copies of the newspapers. Raids and seizing were done without any charges told but sources inform that this was done to stop the news circulation in the valley.
Police also raided corporate office of valley’s largest newspaper ‘Greater Kashmir’ arresting two employees and one press foreman. They stopped printing of Greater Kashmir and even took out the printing plates from the machine.
A story on GK website reads, “Cops misbehaved with the employees present there and snatched their cell phones. The employees who tried to resist were beaten up by the policemen.”
Sources inform that more than 120,000 copies of the published newspapers have been seized by the police.
Police also raided Srinagar based KT Press, which publishes some of the major newspapers of the valley including Kashmir Times, Kashmir Monitor, Brighter Kashmir, Kashmir Reader, Kashmir Observer and Mission Kashmir. Police also arrested staff at KT Press.
Rising Kashmir is the second-largest newspaper in the valley. Police seizes printed copies of the Rising Kashmir early on Saturday morning.
Forces also stopped the distribution of newspapers. Firdaus Ilahi, a local journalist from Srinagar, told TwoCircles.net, “Police was deployed outside major newspaper distributing agency in Srinagar to stop the distribution of newspapers.”
A news hawker said on the condition of anonymity, “By the time we reached to collect copies, they had already seized the printed edition. When we asked ‘Why’, they started misbehaving.”