SIA raids Kashmir Times office, seizes AK-47 cartridges in explosive probe

JAMMU: The State Investigation Agency of Jammu and Kashmir Police tore through the Jammu office of the Kashmir Times on Thursday, hauling out AK-47 cartridges, pistol rounds and hand-grenade pins in a search tied to allegations that the paper was pushing anti-India content.

Officials said SIA teams swept the premises, digging through computers and files as part of the widening probe. Promoters of the publication are expected to face questioning in the coming days.

Deputy chief minister Surinder Singh Choudhary urged restraint, warning that action must follow proof, not pressure. “If they have done something wrong, then action should be taken. If you do it only to build pressure, then that will be wrong,” he said.

Founded in 1954 by veteran journalist Ved Bhasin, the Kashmir Times has long carried a pro-separatist tag. After Bhasin’s death, his daughter Anuradha Bhasin Jamwal and her husband Prabodh Jamwal took charge of the paper’s management and editorial direction. Both are currently abroad. The print edition in Jammu has been defunct since 2021–22, though its online wing still ticks along. Bhasin’s name had earlier surfaced in the Ghulam Nabi Fai terror-seminar scandal.

With ammunition recovered, computers seized and questions piling up, the heat around the once-storied newsroom has suddenly turned blistering.