After three months, the Jammu and Kashmir government has decided lift the ban on the daily the Kashmir Reader. The decision to lift the ban comes after a period of relative calm in the Valley.
The ban was put in place during severe unrest in the Valley after the killing of militant leader Burhan Wani.
Director Information, Jammu and Kashmir government, Shahid Iqbal Choudhary told The Indian Express, "The newspaper had made a representation before the government seeking permission to resume its publication. The case was examined and the government was satisfied that there is no further need to disallow its publication."
He also told the newspaper that an order regarding the lifting of the bad would be released in a couple of days.
The editor of the daily Hilal Mir told The Telegraph that the director of information had told an employee of the newspaper that the government would allow its publication.
On October 2, the government had banned the Kashmir Reader, along with two other newspaper, by invoking section 144 of CrPC, Section 3 of Newspapers Incitement of Offences Act 1971 and Section 10 Press and Publication Act of 1989.
The Indian Express reports that Deputy Commissioner Srinagar Farooq Ahmad Lone had said the newspaper had "material and content which tends to incite acts of violence and disturb public peace and tranquility" and hence the ban was put in place.
Journalists in the Valley had taken to the streets after the ban, the Kashmir Editors Guild had said the ban was "against the spirit of democracy and freedom of press", and had sought intervention of the Press Council of India.
