Books of Jamaat-e-Islami founder Abul Ala Maududi seized in Kashmir

WEB DESK: The Indian police in India-administered Kashmir have conducted raids on various bookshops, and have seized of hundreds of books by late Syed Abul Ala Maududi, founder of the Jamaat-e-Islami.

This has sparked angry reactions by Muslim leaders, while police officials have claimed that there was” credible intelligence regarding the clandestine sale and distribution of literature promoting the ideology of a banned organisation”.

According to TRT World, the officers were not willing to name the author, but store owners said they had seized literature by the late Maududi.

Witnessed shared that officers in plainclothes began raids on Saturday in the main city of Srinagar, before launching book seizures in other towns across the Muslim-majority region.

The raids sparked anger among Muslim leaders.

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“The seized books promote good moral values and responsible citizenship,” said Shamim Ahmed Thokar.

Kashmir’s chief cleric and a prominent leader advocating for the right to self-determination Umar Farooq, condemned the police action.

“Cracking down on Islamic literature and seizing them from bookstores is ridiculous,” Farooq said in a statement, pointing out that the literature was still available online.

“Policing thought by seizing books is absurd — to say the least — in the time of access to all information on virtual highways,” he added.

Critics and many residents of Kashmir say civil liberties were drastically curtailed after Modi’s government imposed direct rule in 2019 by scrapping Kashmir’s constitutionally enshrined partial autonomy.

Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since their independence from British rule in 1947, and both claim the Himalayan territory in full.

Separatist groups who are also considered as freedom fighters in Pakistan, have been demanding Kashmir’s freedom or its merger with Pakistan. They have been fighting Indian forces for decades, with tens of thousands killed in the violence.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu-nationalist government banned the Kashmir branch of Jamaat-e-Islami in 2019 as an “unlawful association”.

New Delhi renewed the ban last year for what it claimed were “activities against the security, integrity and sovereignty” of the nation.

Modi and his party are known for anti-Islamic speech and activities in India.