SRINAGAR(PTI):Leading Urdu daily of Kashmir, “The Srinagar Times”, did not hit the stands Sept.30 following abduction of its manager, Abdul Gani, by unidentified man from his office Wednesday.
Sofi Ghulam Mohammad, Editor in Chief and proprietor of the paper said three men claiming to be associated with “Zia Platoon” of Hizbul Mujahideen entered the office at Badshah Chowk and abducted Abdul Gani at 1445 hours Wednesday. The abductors had left a note asking for “closing the office,” Sofi said.
The men later telephoned Soft and asked him to appear before them for “certain clarifications” so that Abdul Gant could be released, Sofi said, adding that he told them that the aim of the action (abduction and summoning the editor) was to stop the paper which has been achieved as we have decided to stop publication.” It was” for them to release the abducted manager,” he said.
This is the second time in less than a month that the paper was banned.
Two other leading newspapers ~ the “Daily Aftab” and “Daily Alsafah News” had to be closed down in view of the threat by unidentified abductors since Sept.26.
“The Daily Aftab” had resumed publication only on Sept.24 after great persuasion by all political organizations.
Article extracted from this publication >> October 8, 1993
