India police seize 670 books about Jamaat-e-Islami in Kashmir

Police in the Indian-administered Kashmir capital Srinagar seized more than 600 books by or about Abul Ala Maududi, a noted twentieth-century Islamic scholar and founder of Jamaat-e-Islami, one of the largest religious organisations in the Indian subcontinent.

In a statement on X, police said: “Based on credible intelligence regarding the clandestine sale and distribution of literature promoting the ideology of a banned organisation, police conducted a search in Srinagar, leading to the seizure of 668 books.”

The police said that “legal action has been initiated under Section 126” of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, which allows a magistrate to intervene when authorities fear breach of peace.

Anadolu learned that a few major bookstores were raided in Srinagar, and books written by Maududi or other scholars associated with the Jamaat were seized.

Jamaat-e-Islami Kashmir was declared an “unlawful association” on 28 February 2019 by the Indian government, months before the region’s autonomy was scrapped in August 2019 and dozens of its leaders and activists were arrested. In February last year, the ban was extended for five more years.

Even though several members of the organisation fought the recent assembly elections in Kashmir, the authorities have shown no leniency towards its cadres.

The organisation was at the forefront of the raging anti-India insurgency when it began in the late 1980s and was widely believed to be the political front for the largest militant organisation, Hizbul Mujahideen. In the early 2000s, however, it announced that it had no association with Hizb but would continue to call for a negotiated settlement of the Kashmir dispute under UN resolutions.

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