Anuradha Bhasin, the executive editor of Kashmir Times, who yesterday moved a petition in the Supreme Court asking for curbs on information exchange to be lifted, spoke about the 'absolute silence' from her state.

The “debilitating restrictions imposed through the complete shutdown on Internet and telecommunication services, and severe curbs on the movement of photo journalists and reporters be immediately relaxed in order to ensure the freedom of the press and media,” her petition says.

Kashmir Times, with a stated 3.5-lakh circulation, is the most read English daily in the state. When this website called up Bhasin, who is now outside Jammu and Kashmir, she said: 'I filed it (the plea) because for days this time, it has been a blanket ban. We had got used to working with limited information, which in such circumstances would trickle in through a few odd phones, through some weak Internet connection, but at least there was some work happening somewhere. This is a time when there is absolute silence.'

Bhasin compared her memory of earlier shutdowns with the current lockdown in force. 'What I can say from my past experience is that the clampdown this time is much more stringent than the last few years,' she said.

'I've been working as an editor for almost 20 years, and the last 10 years have been particularly bad. In 2010 we faced a similar situation. It wasn't this bad. We faced a lot of threats and intimidation from security personnel. They used to come and intimidate us and say 'yeh sab band karo'. We could have still resisted them. In 2013... on some days no paper was published. In 2016 it was much worse (after Burhan Wani's killing). But even in those days, reporters were sending something in. Either by dictating to us over the phone, sending SMSes. At least, the Jammu office was operational. This time I have no information. I get calls to authenticate some news but I have no means,' she said.

Kashmir Times has two offices, one in Jammu and the other in Srinagar.

'There is absolute silence from Srinagar. We had people in Jammu who have contacts in Srinagar and work somehow. We had adapted ourselves to crisis. But this time it is worse than a crisis. I don't even know about the safety of my staffers,' Bhasin said. 'We were actually dependent on the news coming out from New Delhi. Can you believe it!'

Whether the Supreme Court will hear Bhasin's petition will be clear on Tuesday.