Why J&K Govt Withdrew 4,767 Books from Colleges, Libraries After Screening 21.8 Lakh Publications
Gulam Jeelani | 23 September 2026 | The Mint
Jammu and Kashmir government has withdrawn over 4,700 books, including banned ones, containing objectionable content from colleges and libraries across the Union territory after scanning nearly 2.2 million publications, news agency PTI said. Nearly 94 per cent of the withdrawn books, were from the Kashmir division while 253 withdrawn from Jammu .
The information was revealed by the UT government in a a written reply to a question in the assembly by Awami Ittehad Party (AIP) MLA from Langate, Khursheed Ahmad Sheikh. The government said it has examined 21,81,582 books/publications till date, in the reply during the assembly session.
Out of these, 9,32,941 were examined in Jammu division, while 12,48,641 in Kashmir division, the Higher Education Department said in its reply. The government said it has withdrawn from circulation 4,767 books including 518 banned publications.
While 293 books have been withdrawn in Jammu region, 4,474 have been withdrawn from the Kashmir valley.
The government has also referred 1,752 books - 538 in Jammu and 1,214 in Kashmir - for expert examination to director of colleges. It said a clear and objective criteria has been adopted for identifying objectionable material for scrutiny of books available in colleges.
However, it added, that the process of scrutiny of objectionable books/material to be withdrawn is under process in the department.