Kashmir daily sealed for derogatory caption to Sonia picture

SRINAGAR - The authorities in Kashmir have sealed an Urdu daily for publishing a photograph of Congress president Sonia Gandhi and the party’s state unit chief Saifuddin Soz with a derogatory caption.

The Srinagar district administration Monday ordered the police to seal the Alsafa newspaper office here and asked its editor Ashraf Shaban to appear before the district magistrate June 23.

The daily in its May 30 issue carried a photograph of Gandhi’s visit to Jammu with a caption derogating Soz and his daughter.

“Seize the office of the Alsafa newspaper, its publishing material along with its printing press,” district magistrate Meraj Ahmed Kakroo directed the police.

“The comments in the newspaper are highly indecent, defamatory and have potential to incite the general public to resort to violence,” Kakroo said in his order.

Kashmir journalists and their associations have hailed the government decision of sealing the newspaper office

“Alsafa had violated all norms of ethics, rules, press code. The action was imperative and we hail the government’s move,” said Bashir Manzar, editor of an English daily from Srinagar.