Kashmir news portal vacates office after India crackdown

SRINAGAR (AFP): A news portal in Indian-occupied Kashmir was forced to dismantle and vacate its office in Srinagar city on Monday, two days after its website and social media accounts were blocked.

Critics have linked the shuttering of The Kashmir Walla news portal to a larger press crackdown in the disputed region where dozens of journalists have been regularly summoned by police and questioned about their work since 2019, when New Delhi revoked the territory’s partial autonomy and brought it under direct rule.

“Six persons used to sit at the office and we removed all our belongings and emptied out the premises today,” a staff member at the news portal told AFP on Monday.

India’s Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi — who remains widely popular, and looks set to seek a third successive five-year term in office next year — has been accused by critics of stifling opposition and critical media.

On Saturday, “we woke up to another deadly blow of finding access to our website and social media accounts blocked”, staff at the outlet said in a statement late Sunday.

Their internet service provider blamed the blocks on a government order, and they were also serviced an eviction notice by their landlord, the statement added.

“The opaque censorship is gut-wrenching. There isn’t a lot left for us to say anymore,” it said.

Fahad Shah, the portal’s editor — accused of “glorifying terrorism” and “spreading fake news” by Indian authorities — was arrested last year and remains in jail.

Kashmir has been divided between Pakistan and India since both countries were granted independence from British rule in 1947, and both claim the former Himalayan kingdom in full. India is continuously denying Kashmiris their right to a plebiscite as per the United Nations resolutions. 

Over half a million Indian soldiers are deployed in the territory, battling a running insurgency from rebel groups demanding Kashmir’s merger with Pakistan.

The fighting has killed tens of thousands of people, mostly civilians.