The newest prohibition on critical literature in Kashmir strikes at shared memory and stifles voices that dispute the state’s official account of power and history.

On Thursday, in the middle of an unusually hot and sticky summer day, police in Jammu and Kashmir carried out surprise checks at number of bookshops across the Valley. The goal of these operations was to ensure the seize 25 titles that the regional administration  led by Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha  had recently ordered to be “forfeited.”

The directive came exactly six years after the revocation of Articles 370 and 35A of the Indian Constitution. In it, the Sinha-led government invoked Section 98 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita to declare these books as promoting “false narratives and secessionist ideas.”

Issued by the Home Department of the Jammu and Kashmir government, the order placed these works under a “forfeiture” notice in practical terms, amounting to a complete ban.