The crisis-hit Kashmir Press Club was shut on Sunday for a week apparently to stave off protests against its alleged illegal takeover by a group of journalists, the development unfolding on a day major journalist associations in the country condemned the “armed takeover” and “coup”.

Kashmir Press Club, the Valley’s biggest organisation of journalists, witnessed a coup on Saturday with a group of members removing its ad hoc but elected body and taking over the reins.

The club was locked on Sunday after the group, which called itself the interim body, in a statement urged members not to visit the club for a week beginning Sunday. The group said the decision was taken after one of its members tested positive for Covid-19 after the takeover of the club.

“(Additionally) the local police had approached the premises seeking implementation of the restrictions as issued by the District Magistrate Srinagar,” the statement read.
But a member of the existing ad hoc body said it was a ruse to shut down the club to prevent protests.

“This is the only place where journalists could assemble. They want to buy time and prevent protests to legitimise the illegal takeover,” the member said.

The interim body is facing allegations of a coup, with the Editors Guild of India, Press Club and other top journalist associations slamming its
action.

The EGI, in a statement, said it was “alarmed by an arbitrary (government) order of putting the registration of Kashmir Press Club “in abeyance”.

“The armed takeover has effectively scuttled this rule-based functioning of the Club. Even more disturbingly, the state police entered the premises without any due warrant or paperwork, and have therefore been brazenly complicit in this coup, in which a group of people have become self-declared management of the Club,” the statement said.

“This violation of the sanctity of the club by the police and the local administration is a manifestation of the continuing trend to smother press freedom in the state.”

The guild demanded the “immediate restoration of the status quo, announcement of elections to appoint a new management body and executive council, and strict prohibitions on any armed forces from interfering with the functioning of the Club, without due legal sanction” besides an “independent inquiry as to how armed forces entered the Club premises”.

The administration on Friday suspended Kashmir Press Club’s just-issued re-registration certificate following an adverse CID report, sparking allegations about government efforts to take over or emasculate one of the few pillars of resistance to the Centre’s iron-fist rule in the Valley.

Mumbai Press Club, in a statement, condemned the “forcible takeover of the Kashmir Press Club (KPC) from the legally elected management body in conjunction with security forces”, on Saturday.

“The MPC also deplores the Jammu & Kashmir administration for scuttling the Club’s election process the previous day, Friday, 14th January, by holding in abeyance the registration of the Kashmir Club, which is registered under the Societies Act, 1860,” it said in a statement.