"Police arrested a printing press foreman Biju Chaudary and two other employees," media reports claimed. Photo: ReutersSrinagar: Local newspapers in the curfew-bound Kashmir valley failed to hit the stands as authorities allegedly raided some media offices and detained a few of their employees while seizing the printed copies.
"No newspaper - English, Urdu or Kashmiri - was available as the authorities gagged the media in the Valley," media houses claimed.
Attempts to seek an official version of the events did not fructify.
Apprehending fresh trouble, Jammu and Kashmir Police raided the offices of at least two newspaper printing presses in Rangreth Industrial Estate in the outskirts of the city here barring them from printing the newspapers.
On its website, Kashmir's largest circulated daily alleged that the authorities midnight last "gagged" the newspaper by raiding the Greater Kashmir Corporate (GKC) office at Rangreth.
Police arrested a printing press foreman Biju Chaudary and two other employees, it claimed.
“Policemen seized the plates of a popular daily and more than 50,000 printed copies of another publication. The media house also said that the policemen had and closed down printing press, of one of Kashmir's largest circulated daily,” an online publication stated.
The police seized copies of various newspapers besides other printing material and printing plates. Staff members including foreman, machine man and helper, were arrested by the police, the owner said.
The hawkers in the Lal Chowk city center alleged that the police did not allow them to distribute the newspapers and seized their copies.
The authorities have also blocked cable TV network across Kashmir, a police official said.
(With agency inputs)
