Indian police in India-administered Kashmir have raided dozens of bookshops and seized hundreds of copies of books by an Islamic scholar, sparking angry reactions by Muslim leaders.
Police claimed searches were based on "credible intelligence regarding the clandestine sale and distribution of literature promoting the ideology of a banned organisation".
Officers did not name the author, but store owners said they had seized literature by the late Abul Ala Maududi, founder of the Jamaat-e-Islami, an Islamic organisation and political party.
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, demanding Kashmir's freedom or its merger with Pakistan, have been fighting Indian forces for decades, with tens of thousands killed in the conflict.
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.
Anger among Muslims
Plainclothes officers 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.
"The seized books promote good moral values and responsible citizenship," said Shamim Ahmed Thokar.
Umar Farooq, Kashmir's chief cleric and a prominent leader advocating for the right to self-determination, 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 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.
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