Srinagar: The government of India has blocked news website, The Kashmir Walla and its social media accounts without serving a notice or issuing an official order, the news portal said on Sunday.
In a statement, the portal described the action as an “opaque censorship” and said it was gut-wrenching and “another deadly blow” to press freedom in Jammu and Kashmir.
The server provider informed the staff on Saturday that the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology had blocked the website under the Information Technology Act, 2000, according to the statement.
After this, the staff discovered that The Kashmir Walla’s Facebook page with nearly half a million followers had been removed and its Twitter account had been withheld “in response to a legal demand”.
The statement noted that the action had been taken at a time when The Kashmir Walla staff were in process of vacating their office in Srinagar after being served an eviction notice by the landlord.