Kashmir Times editor Anuradha Bhasin’s home ransacked

On Sunday, Kashmir Times editor Anuradha Bhasin went home to find her house being ransacked. In addition to that shock, she found a man, Dr Imran Ganai, sprawled on her bed. He was accompanied by a few security men.

She posted on social media:

The apartment was first allotted to her father, Ved Bhasin, who is hailed as the ‘Grand Old Man’ of English journalism in Jammu and Kashmir. When Anuradha became an established journalist, the house was allotted to her.

Under the changing political scenario, especially the revoking of Section 370, her work has come under scrutiny. Anuradha had approached the Supreme Court after the abrogation of Article 370 and 35A of the Constitution in 2019. In 2020, she stated that the region’s economy was in shambles and that they could not trust the government.

Even if this raid may or may not be related, it should be noted raids are a common form of intimidation, though none of Anuradha’s officially allotted houses have been targeted before.

Anuradha told Sabrang India that though she believes in due process, she was surprised that she wasn’t given a notice on the allotment status of the flat or an eviction notice. Moreover she questioned why the Shahnaz Ganai (whose brother Imran was in her house) had been allotted more than 5 flats within the locality.

“To add insult to injury Bhasin, a well known journalist, was told she must only go to the police station accompanied by a man if she wanted to file the complaint”.