New Delhi, November 20, 2025—Police in the Indian-administered territory of Jammu and Kashmir must return any documents or other property seized during Thursday’s raid on the Kashmir Times, reported by multiple news outlets, and ensure that members of the news outlet are not threatened with criminal charges for their work, the Committee to Protect Journalists said.
“Reports of a raid on the Kashmir Times office are deeply troubling and raise concerns about increasing pressure on media outlets in Jammu and Kashmir,” said CPJ Asia-Pacific Program Coordinator Kunal Majumder. “Authorities must clearly explain the legal basis for this action and ensure that any investigation is conducted with transparency and full respect for due process. News outlets should not face punitive action simply for doing their journalistic work.”
A video on the Zee J&K Ladakh news platform showed State Investigation Agency officers raiding Kashmir Times’ offices in Jammu on Thursday morning. The Hindu reported that documents and digital devices were seized.
The SIA said in a November 20 statement that the Kashmir Times was involved in a “criminal conspiracy” with secessionist and anti-national entities in Jammu and Kashmir, and that police had confiscated arms, ammunition, digital devices, and incriminating material. The outlet had been “disseminating terrorist and secessionist ideology” and “spreading inflammatory, fabricated and false narratives,” it said.
It is unclear which articles published by the English-language daily may have triggered the raid.
The agency added it had raided the house of the newspaper’s owners and editors, Anuradha Bhasin and her husband Prabodh Jamwal, in Jammu. The Indian Express reported officers had also questioned its manager.
“These allegations are completely bizarre and a desperate attempt to target out credibility. Our office has been shut for the last four years, and I and Prabodh have been abroad during this entire period. We reject these claims outright — they are entiredly baseless,” Bhasin told CPJ via phone on November 21.
She said the premises contained only old computers and archival material from the publication and the outlet has been operating primarily online since 2022 due to financial difficulties.
The newspaper’s Srinagar office — in government-rented premises — was sealed by authorities in 2020 in apparent retaliation for its reporting.
The investigation agency has opened a first information report (FIR) — which initiates a police investigation in India — naming Bhasin, according to the daily newspaper Deccan Herald.
Bhasin told CPJ she was not aware of any FIR filed against her.
Jammu and Kashmir police did not immediately respond to CPJ’s email requesting comment.
Editor’s note: This text has been updated in the third paragraph to add a video report, the fourth paragraph to add a SIA statement, and the seventh paragraph to update comment from the Kashmir Times.