Year: 2015

Sartaj Aziz warns against ‘unrealistic expectations’ from Indo-Pak talks

Editor

‘Delhi has changed hostile attitude towards Islamabad’ Foreign secretaries of India and Pakistan will meet here on January 14-15 to prepare a schedule of meeting for the comprehensive dialogue, Advisor on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz has said even as he cautioned against “unrealistic expectations” from the talks. Aziz made a policy statement in the Senate yesterday regarding the short visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Pakistan on December 25. “The foreign secretaries would meet on January 14-15 and draw up a map for the next six months for talks…

Read More

2015: Cricket loses sheen, mountaineering revived, JK gets first international cyclist, Parvez shines

Editor

If the year 2012 belonged to football, year 2013 to resurgence of cricket and the year 2014 for the flood devastation that affected the sports infrastructure, year 2015 would be known for the cricket uncertainty and revival of the trekking and mountaineering sport in Kashmir. It was also the year that gave star international cycling star Muhammad Akber Khan and skiing star Arif Khan respectively. At the Government end, apart from hollow promises tall claims nothing changed at grass root level with all the sports fields, stadiums remaining in dilapidated…

Read More

Vigilance raids house of former LAW Enforcement Officer

Editor

Vigilance Organization of Kashmir (VOK) on Wednesday raided the house of former Enforcement Officer of Lakes and Waterways Development Authority (LAWDA), at Rajbagh here and seized documents pertaining to purchase of immovable property. “Vigilance Organisation Kashmir raided the residential house of former Enforcement Officer of LAWDA namely Shah Sikander Khan son of Abdul Rahman Khan at Rajbagh Srinagar in the wee hours. Pursuant to the allegation that he has amassed wealth disproportionate to his known sources of income by resorting to corrupt practices, Vigilance Organisation Kashmir had obtained a search…

Read More

2015: From civilian killings to e-curfew, Hurriyat (M) documents ‘Kashmir Pain’

Editor

For the first time in the past 25 years of strife in Kashmir, the Hurriyat Conference led by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq Wednesday released a detailed report on use of force, civilian killings and fate of government probes in the Valley, especially in 2015. Mirwaiz said the report is an eye-opener for the coalition government as it “contains facts on rights abuses in Kashmir this year.” The 25-page report, prepared by the Hurriyat’s Human Rights Wing headed by Manan Bukhari, paints a grim picture of rights violations. “This is for the…

Read More

Mufti in ICU, put on oxygen therapy

Editor

Doctors at the All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, have said that Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed was “sick” and has been put on oxygen therapy. They, however, said that Mufti was hemodynamically (forces involved in the circulation of blood) stable and his condition was being closely monitored by a team of experts. “Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, who is admitted to AB 8 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) since December 24, is sick, requiring oxygen therapy but hemodynamically stable,” said a statement issued by the AIIMS authorities today. “He…

Read More

Minister warns against nexus between docs, pharma companies

Editor

Minister for Health and Medical Education Choudhary Lal Singh today said the process of e-tendering was being followed to make the functioning of the Health Department more accountable and transparent. The minister said this during a general body meeting of the Jammu Pharmaceutical Distributors Association. Lal Singh told distributors to provide medicines to the poorest at affordable cost and warned against any type of nexus between the pharmaceutical companies and doctors. Controller of Drugs and Food Control Organisation Lotika Khajuria along with several other officials of the department was also…

Read More

Two militants killed in Pulwama, one Pakistani national

Editor

Two separatist guerrillas were killed on Thursday in an overnight gunfight between holed up militants and security forces in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district. “Two militants including Manzoor Ahmad Dar of Samboora (Pulwama) and a Pakistani national have been killed in Gusoo village encounter,” a senior police officer told IANS in summer capital here.

Read More

JK cricketers to play in UAE

Editor

Minister for Youth Services and Sports Imran Raza Ansari today flagged off a 42-member group to the UAE to participate in the JK-UAE T20 Friendship Cup – 2016 from January 1 to 7. The three teams selected for the event also include former and current Ranji players. The tournament is being organised by the Simula Sports Club in association with the Department of Youth Service and Sports and the Jammu and Kashmir Police. A total of 13 matches will be played at the Ajman Oval Cricket Stadium and the Sharjah…

Read More

India’s longest road tunnel – more than nine kilometres long will be opened for traffic in July

Editor

India’s longest road tunnel – more than nine kilometres long and located on the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway nearly 170 km from Srinagar – will be opened for traffic in July. The tunnel will connect Cheneni with Nashiri on the road between Jammu and Srinagar, cutting down the journey by 30 km and nearly an hour. Being built at a cost of over Rs. 2,500 Crore across a highly seismic zone, the tunnel is dubbed an engineering marvel. There is a parallel escape tunnel along with the main tunnel for evacuation…

Read More

Hardliner Andrabi says never met Andhra trio with IS plans

Editor

Kashmiri separatist leader Asiya Andrabi, who heads the woman-only radical group Dukhtaran-e-Millat, said she visited Hyderabad last year but never met the three youths who were recently arrested while attempting to join the Islamic State. Andrabi said she never met the three youths, who had planned to travel to Srinagar and later join the Islamic State. “Someone has been arrested and he has said that he had to visit me, where is my role in all this… I have no role in it. They have not said Asiya Andrabi invited…

Read More