As the order of J&K's Home department on ban of some books gets stringent, the Jammu and Kashmir Police on Wednesday carried out searches at bookshops across Poonch district to seize the 25 books banned by the Lieutenant Governor’s administration in the Union Territory.
These books have been banned by the government on the contention that content has been flaring up anti national sentiment and emboldening secessionist thought process, particularly among vulnerable and impressionable minds. “Acting on directions regarding the forfeiture of 25 books identified for promoting false narratives and secessionism, police conducted searches of bookshops across the district”, a police officer said. Earlier, such seacrhed were conducted at several places across J&K.
During the extensive searches at multiple locations across the district, no such books were found in any of the premises visited, he said.“Bookshop owners were sensitised about the directive and cautioned to ensure that such prohibited material is neither stocked nor sold in any form”, he said.The Jammu and Kashmir administration had last week banned the publication of 25 books for “promoting false narratives and glorifying terrorism.” According to an order issued by the Home Department, the books, including those written by famous authors like Moulana Moudadi, Arundhati Roy, A G Noorani, Victoria Schofield, and David Devadas, propagate secessionism in J-K and need to be declared as forfeited in terms of Section 98 of Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita 2023.
The J&K Home department through a notification dated 5 August, 2025, imposed a blanket ban on 25 books written about Kashmir. This included author and activist Arundhati Roy’s Azadi (2020), journalist Anuradha Bhasin’s A Dismantled State (2022), constitutional expert late A.G. Noorani’s The Kashmir Dispute (2013), and Australian political scientist Christopher Snedden’s Independent Kashmir (2021), among others.The issue of the notification coincided with a book fair in Srinagar in first week of August.
The notification issued by the principal secretary of the home department, Chandraker Bharti said the books propagate “secessionism”.
“…it has come to the notice of the Government, that certain literature propagates false narrative and secessionism in Jammu and Kashmir… This literature would deeply impact the psyche of youth by promoting (a) culture of grievance, victimhood and terrorist heroism,” read the notification.Adding, “Some of the means by which this literature has contributed to the radicalization of youth in J&K include distortion of historical facts, glorification of terrorists, vilification of security forces, religious radicalization, promotion of alienation, pathway to violence and terrorism etc.”
Since the announcement, Jammu and Kashmir police have raided bookshops, followed by inspection of roadside book vendors and other establishments dealing in printed publications in Srinagar and across multiple locations in the Union Territory to confiscate the banned literature. Earlier this year, Srinagar district police declared it had seized “668 books” which it said “promoted the ideology of a banned organisation”.
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