UN Rights Chief Michelle Bachelet slams India for inaction on Kashmir Rights violations report

Newly appointed UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet on Monday slammed India for lack of any ‘meaningful improvement’ on addressing issues highlighted in the UN report on human rights violations in Kashmir. It was Bachelet’s first address to the United Nations Human Rights Council after her appointment while succeeding Zeid Raad al Hussain as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights this month. “In her opening remarks at the 39th session of the UN Human Rights Council, Bachelet said the people of Kashmir had the same rights to justice…

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PDP won’t contest Municipal and Panchayat elections in J&K: Mehbooba Mufti

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) will boycott the municipal and panchayat elections in October, party chief Mehbooba Mufti said on Monday, citing an “atmosphere of fear” due to the “assault on the special constitutional position” of Jammu and Kashmir. The announcement came after a meeting of top PDP leaders at Mufti’s residence in Srinagar earlier. The former chief minister said that the linking of the local body elections with an Article 35A case in Supreme Court “has created serious apprehensions in the minds of people who genuinely see it as…

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‘German Khars’, who could repair any Pre-Electronic era equipment are fading away from Kashmir

The art of repairing all kinds of machines and other items has been handed down generations and over time, the craftsmen came known as ‘German Khars’ for their ability to repair German-made machines – a rare skill in the Valley. A narrow lane in Banduk Khar locality of Rainawari area of Srinagar leads to a dead end where a few houses dating back to over a hundred years stand out. Their intricately designed lattice widows and small bricks from the era of Maharaja Hari Singh distinguish them from the concrete…

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1 Year, 160 Arrests: In run up to 2019, NSA is the latest weapon against Muslims in UP

After attempts to instigate communal clashes all over eastern Uttar Pradesh, the Adityanath government is using the draconian law to target Muslims, even as Hindutva activists involved in the violence get off lightly. On March 4, 2018, a year after the Bharatiya Janata Party came to power on the plank of improving law and order in Uttar Pradesh, chief minister Adityanath claimed that not a single incident of communal violence had taken place in the state since he took over. Ten days later, the Union home ministry tabled statistics in…

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Farooq trying to outsmart PDP by appearing to side with resistance: BJP Spokesperson Anil Gupta

The Jammu and Kashmir BJP said Sunday that National Conference president Farooq Abdullah tried to “outsmart” the PDP by appearing to side with separatists with his threat to boycott assembly and parliamentary polls. It claimed Abdullah was trying “all tricks” to fill the political void created by the PDP in the Valley after it had formed a coalition government in Jammu and Kashmir. The coalition collapsed in June, resulting in imposition of Governor’s rule in the state. The comments from BJP state spokesperson Anil Gupta came in response to Abdullah’s…

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Fuel On Fire: Bharat bandh begins with protests, train blockades, Rahul Gandhi joins protest in Delhi

Congress and 21 political parties are observing a ‘Bharat Bandh’ across the country on Monday to protest the steep rise of petrol and diesel prices, causing hardships to the common man and the poor. Although the parties and some non-BJP state governments had promised not to inconvenience people and ensure supply of essential services, the shutdown is expected to affect normal life in many parts of the country. While Karnataka and Odisha governments declared a holiday owing to the bandh, the Trinamool Congress-led West Bengal government said there would be…

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Hold civic poll on non-party basis: Congress urges Governor

Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee (JKPCC) president GA Mir on Sunday urged Governor SP Malik to build a consensus on holding the urban and local bodies elections on a non-party basis. “So far there has just been the mere announcement of elections… the Governor should build a consensus on holding municipal elections on a non-party basis just like the panchayat polls were held in the past… political parties can be kept away,” Mir said while addressing a press conference here. However, he reiterated the party stand that elections should…

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Shadows of Article 35A, Will people’s vote have an effect?

‘Listen as the crowd would sing: Now the old king is dead, Long live the King, ( King Louis XV1) Alone before he was executed) Dear God , guide us and protect us, ‘we are too young to reign , people of Kashmir are voting again.’ If only as an experiment India held a referendum to ascertain and decide if they want to retain A-35 or scrap it, a political solution to a political problem was in sight. This would be the route taken by all democratic countries of the…

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‘Mysterious Killings’ Return to Haunt Kashmir, Again

In 2009, Hakeem-ur-Rehman, a small-time cloth trader, spearheaded a mass agitation against the army in north Kashmir’s Bomai. A junior commissioned officer and two soldiers of 22 Rashtriya Rifles were indicted by a J&K government inquiry in the killing of two civilians – Muhammed Amin Tantray and Javid Ahmed Dar, on 21 February that year. The damning indictment was followed by the army’s own admission of guilt in another inquiry report. And, in a very rare case, a peaceful agitation led by Rehman culminated in the removal of the army…

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