KARACHI: The administration of occupied Kashmir has sealed the offices of prominent English daily, Kashmir Times, the paper's executive editor Anuradha Bhasin said in a tweet on Monday night.

Bhasin said that the administration had sealed the Kashmir Times' offices in Srinagar "without any due process of cancellation and eviction", just like she herself was evicted from her apartment, which was located in the Jammu region.

According to Scroll.in, Bhasin had been evicted from her apartment two months ago. In her tweet last night, Bhasin said that her "valuables were handed over to the 'new allottee'" by the Estates Department when she was evicted.

"Vendetta for speaking out! No due process followed. How peevish!" she tweeted.

Speaking to Kashmir Reader, Bhasin said: "There was no technical reason on which the office could have been sealed. However, it was due to me speaking up for press freedom. We are going to fight it."

Officials of the Estates Department, however, said that there were two buildings, one of which was the Kashmir Times' office, while, another was "allotted as a residence to Ved Bhasin sahib", according to Indian media outlets. Anuradha is a daughter of Ved Bhasin - the founding editor of Kashmir Times.

"Since Bhasin sahib died some years ago, we issued them notices to vacate the house. They themselves handed over the building to us and today our officials went to take possession," the department's deputy director was quoted as saying.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020