Indian police in India-occupied Kashmir (IoK) have raided dozens of bookshops and seized hundreds of copies of books by an Islamic scholar, sparking angry reactions from Muslim leaders.

Police claimed searches were based on “credible intelligence regarding the clandestine sale and distribution of literature promoting the ideology of a banned organisation”.

Officers did not name the author, but store owners said they had seized literature by the late Abul Ala Maududi, founder of the political party Jamaat-e-Islami.

Fighter groups, demanding IoK’s freedom or its merger with Pakistan, have been fighting Indian forces for decades, with tens of thousands killed in the conflict.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu-nationalist government banned the Kashmir branch of Jamaat-e-Islami in 2019 as an “unlawful association”.

New Delhi renewed the ban last year for what it said were “activities against the security, integrity and sovereignty” of the nation.

Plainclothes officers began raids on Saturday in the main city of Srinagar, before launching book seizures in other towns across the Muslim-majority region.

“They (police) came and took away all the copies of books authored by Abul Ala Maududi saying these books were banned,” a bookshop owner in Srinagar told AFP, asking not to be named.

“These books were found to be in violation of legal regulations, and strict action is being taken against those found in possession of such material,” police said in a statement.

Police said the searches were conducted “to prevent the circulation of banned literature linked to Jamaat-e-Islami”.

The raids sparked anger among supporters of the party.

“The seized books promote good moral values and responsible citizenship,” said Shamim Ahmed Thokar.

Umar Farooq, Kashmir’s chief cleric and a prominent leader advocating for the right to self-determination, condemned the police action.

“Cracking down on Islamic literature and seizing them from bookstores is ridiculous,” Farooq said in a statement, pointing out that the literature was available online.

“Policing thought by seizing books is absurd — to say the least — in the time of access to all information on virtual highways,” he added.

Critics and many residents of IoK say civil liberties were drastically curtailed after Modi’s government imposed direct rule in 2019 by scrapping IoK’s constitutionally enshrined partial autonomy.