Day: November 25, 2015

Frequent hartals making Hurriyat unpopular, separatists needs to look for alternate means to be heard

Editor

Hartals and protest calendars are losing traction among the masses. And frequent shutdown calls are only alienating them from the people they want to address. Hurriyat leaders in Kashmir have woken up to the reality rather late. After using hartals as strategy to make themselves heard in the over two decades old Kashmir conflict, the representatives of Hurriyat Conference, an amalgam of different separatist parties in Kashmir, sat at Mirwaiz Manzil in Srinagar last week to think of “alternate means” of protest. To many people in Kashmir, it is a…

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Militants attack army camp in Tangdhar

Editor

Militants on Wednesday attacked an Army camp in Tangdhar sector near the Line of Control (LoC) using small arms and under barrel grenade launchers. No casualties have been reported so far. “There was a stand off fire from Kalsuri Ridge (in Tangdhar sector) towards an army camp this morning,” an army official said. He said there was a brief lull before the militants opened fire again, triggering off a gunbattle, which was going on till last reports came in. The official said the militants seem to be heavily armed as…

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Govt wants school lecturer sacked for wrong marking post student suicide

Editor

Suicide By Polytechnic Student The Jammu and Kashmir Government today proposed the sacking of a senior school lecturer accused of giving wrong marks to the Srinagar teenager who had committed suicide four months ago. Mohammad Adnan Hilal (17), a first-semester student of a polytechnic, was declared to have failed in physics, which was his favourite subject. After this, he committed suicide. After re-evaluation, not only did Adnan pass the subject, but topped in his class as well. “After a time-bound probe, we have found Mushtaq Ahmad Tiploo, senior lecturer at…

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GOI may establish IIM campus in Kashmir

Editor

The Government of India and the J&K government may explore the possibility of establishing an off-site campus of the Indian Institute Management (IIM), in Kashmir, we have learnt. Sources disclosed that GoI communique spelling details of Rs 80000 crore financial package announced by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Srinagar on November 7 provides for the prospect of setting up an “offsite campus” of IIM Jammu in the Valley—something seen as balancing act by the Centre after announcing establishment of AIIMS in Jammu. Under the package, Rs 1000 crore central assistance…

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Protest in Pampore over AIIMS site

Editor

The highway township of Pampore, famous for the world-class saffron produced from the carevas around it, seems to have lost its sheen due to the declining production for multiple reasons and an “indifferent and apathetic” approach of the authorities over the years. The latest grouse of the people is the coalition government’s decision to select the site for establishing the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) at Awantipora instead of Galandhar, close to the saffron town overlooking the vast carevas producing the costliest spice. Even as the government is…

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Kargil BJP pitches for opening Kargil-Skardu road to allow divided families meet

Editor

Welcoming Deputy Chief Minister’s statement regarding opening of LoC routes, Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) and its youth organisation Bhartiya Janata Yuva Morhca (BJYM) today appreciated the proposed move. BJP State Executive Member Mohammad Subhan Jaffary said BJP Kargil welcomes and appreciates this statement of Deputy CM and appeals Government of India and the State government to go ahead with this pro-people step. In its statement, BJP Kargil said, “We think we cannot win the hearts and minds of people of State until we address their demands.” Reminding about protests, BJP…

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Resistance to antibiotics growing in Kashmir, say medicos

Editor

Taking antibiotics for “slight ailments” in Kashmir is leading to a dangerous scenario where resistance to these drugs is fast growing among people, experts have warned.  Although antibiotics are prescription drugs, these are sold over-the-counter in Kashmir with no monitoring and adherence to the Drug Act that mandates that these be sold only with a prescription. “We have reported resistance to not just gram positive bacteria but also gram negative. We are sometimes left with no choice but to use the antibiotics that were considered toxic. Very soon, we will…

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Hizb militants laid to rest amid azadi slogans

Editor

• Thousands attend funeral prayers in Bijbehara • Pakistani flag hoisted at CM’s ancestral house  • Day-long clashes between youth and cops Thousands of people attended the funeral prayers of three Hizbul Mujahideen militants in Bijbehara town of south Kashmir’s Anantnag district amid shutdown. The militants were killed in a gunfight with forces at Aishmuqam on Monday. After the burial of militants, violent clashes erupted in the town and continued throughout the day and angry youth hoisted Pakistani flag at Chief Minister, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s ancestral house. Adil Shiekh, son…

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Kashmir to reel under darkness

Editor

Metered areas to have 3 hr power cuts, non-metered areas more: Drabu ‘T&D losses responsible for power cuts’  Kashmir will continue to face the power crisis this winter, the government said Tuesday. “There are no financial constraints but the issue is Transmission and Distribution (T&D) losses,” Minister for Finance, Haseeb Drabu said after reopening of the Kitab Ghar at M A Road in Lal Chowk, here. Against the demand of 1600 MWs of electricity in Kashmir, Power Development Department is presently supplying only 1200 MWs of electricity. “With a deficit…

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Police suspect Kashmir youth of IS links

Editor

A business administration graduate from Kashmir is suspected of affiliation with the Islamic State militant group based in Syria and Iraq, a secret police note which described him as having an “ardent extremist ideology” has revealed. The note is the first official confirmation that police intelligence suspect Adil Fayaz Waida, a resident of Srinagar, of having links with the middle-eastern militant group Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), which declared a caliphate last year. The police note titled “Kashmiri youth affiliated with ISIS” discusses “reports” that Waida of Srinagar’s…

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