Why The Kashmir Times Raid Matters: Memory, Journalism And The Long Arc Of Strategic Dissent
The recent raid on Kashmir Times is more than another attempt to intimidate an independent newsroom. It is a reminder of what is at stake when a paper that has, for decades, documented Kashmir’s political shifts, human suffering, and strategic debates is suddenly pushed into vulnerability.
At moments like this, the question is not just why a newspaper was targeted, but what India risks losing when it tries to silence the archives, voices, and narratives that have defined Kashmir’s public memory.
This is why Ali Ahmed’s newly shared compilation, “Kashmir: Strategic Sense and Nonsense,” arrives with renewed urgency.
The compilation of op-eds by Ali Ahmed (a former Indian Army officer and a strategic expert), published in the Kashmir Times between 2010 and 2019, chronicles how ideology crept into military decision-making, how counterinsurgency became unmoored from political purpose, and how the rise of the right wing pushed India toward a slow-moving instability that threatened not only Kashmir but the broader South Asian region.
What makes this collection especially relevant today is the sharp alignment between the concerns raised a decade ago and the political climate that has now produced raids on newsrooms, throttled dissent, and shrunk the space for free commentary.
The central argument that strategy becomes nonsense when ideological agendas contaminate it is no longer an academic warning.
The raid on Kashmir Times is evidence of the same drift he cautioned against - a governing culture that treats journalism as an obstacle, not a democratic necessity, and an army increasingly used as a political instrument instead of a professional institution insulated from partisan pressure.
Ali’s preface underscores another uncomfortable truth: Kashmir has rarely been allowed to define its own story.
Instead, its fate has been tethered to India’s internal political battles and the right wing’s strategy of Othering. When the state grows insecure, it turns its attention not only to the streets but also to the pages, archives, and editors, who document those streets.
The raid, therefore, is not an isolated domestic law-and-order exercise. It is part of a larger struggle over who gets to frame the narrative of Kashmir and who must be pushed aside for that narrative to hold.
By revisiting collected edits now, readers can see how consistently Kashmir Times warned against this path.
The work remains a valuable guide for students, scholars, soldiers, policymakers, and citizens who want to understand what Kashmir has endured and what India stands to lose when strategic clarity is replaced by ideological zeal.
Above all, the compilation, posted on Substack, stands as a tribute to the people of Kashmir and to Kashmir Times, a paper that—despite pressure, raids and intimidation—has kept a lonely light burning in a difficult decade.
At a moment when the free press is again under attack, these essays offer context, memory, and a reminder that journalism must remain a witness, even when power prefers silence.
The articles can be accessed here and here. We will be reproducing some of these in the next coming days. Below is the preface by Ali Ahmed:
