Month: September 2015

Punjabi pickles tickle taste buds of Kashmiris

Editor

Homemade Punjabi pickles have turned out to be a treat for Kashmiris at the 10th Regional Saras Exhibition being held at Kashmir Haat in Srinagar. Like Punjabis, Kashmiris are food lovers. Amar Singh (55) of Khudi Kalan village in Barnala, who has a stall of pickles at the exhibition, is more than happy with the response. “Like pickles are being loved in Punjab, Kashmiris seem equally excited. The smell of pickles catches attention of visitors,” he says. For people like Amar Singh, opportunities like selling their homemade products in different…

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7-day Ladakh Festival begins

Editor

With an aim to extend the tourism season in Ladakh, Secretary for Tourism Farooq Ahmad Shah inaugurated the Ladakh Festival in Leh today. Shah said tourists would enjoy grand celebrations during the next seven days. He said holding the Ladakh Festival in September was initially aimed at stretching the tourist season. “Now, the objective is achieved with the presence of a large number of tourists here. This success story is being replicated in other parts of the state to boost tourism,” he added. Terming J&K as the best tourist destination…

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Shutdown hits life in Kashmir Valley

Editor

A protest shutdown called on Sunday by separatists against the murder of a four-year-old child and his former militant father impacted life here, with markets being shut and public transports going off roads. Although it is a public holiday here, the weekly Sunday pavement market remained closed because of the shutdown. Public transport also remained off the roads in Srinagar city and all other major towns and cities in the Kashmir valley. Unidentified motorcycle-borne assailants had on Friday shot dead former militant Bashir Ahmad Bhat in Sagipora area of Kashmir`s…

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State wants trains to run during Eid

Editor

A couple of days after the Railways decided to suspend operations for two days, fearing damage to the trains during the upcoming Eid festivity, Jammu and Kashmir has decided to take up the matter with the department. “We will surely take up the issue with the Railways so that train services remain operational during Eid,” Chief Secretary BR Sharma told . The decision to suspend train service in the Valley on September 26 and 27 on the occasion of Eid-ul-Azha was taken by the Railways after a meeting with the…

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Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani decides to participate in OIC meet in New York

Editor

Hardline Hurriyat Conference chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani has decided to participate in the annual meeting of the foreign ministers of member states of Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and Kashmir contact group to be held in New York from September 27. “Geelani has decided to participate in the meeting and has started to fulfill the necessary formalities in this regard,” a Hurriyat spokesman said here. He said the Hurriyat chairman has many times in the last 25 years got invitation from the OIC, but due to non-availability of travel…

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Valley’s first multi-level parking lot by June 2016

Editor

Residents of the Valley will get some relief from congestion and traffic jams by June next year as the commercial hub of Lal Chowk will get its first multi-parking facility. The parking facility is being constructed by Economic Reconstruction Agency (ERA) at a cost of Rs 26.75 crore. This will be the first-of-its-kind multi-storeyed mechanised parking facility in the state which is being constructed at the Kashmir Motor Drivers Association (KMDA) bus stand. The project, which received much hype from the former government, missed its first deadline on February 23,…

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Three bodies recovered in J&K in last 24 hours

Editor

Police have recovered three bodies from three different places in Jammu and Kashmir in the last 24 hours. The body of Bushan Lal Raina (69), a resident of Durga Nagar, was on Sunday found in a canal at Belicharana area of Jammu district and taken to Government Medical College hospital for postmortem, police said. In Poonch district, the body Abdul Majid, a resident of Dharana area of Mendhar tehsil, was today found near GREF camp, they said, adding that it was later taken to a hospital. Police had yesterday recovered…

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Jammu district tops chart for heinous crimes in J&K

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Jammu district has topped the list for heinous crimes in Jammu and Kashmir as 576 such crimes were registered in the district in 2014. Heinous crimes, according to Jammu and Kashmir Police, include murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping or abduction, rape, molestation, cruelty by husband, causing hurt and rioting. Cases of cruelty by husbands (159) topped the list of heinous crimes in the district followed by 86 cases of attempt to murder. The police in Jammu district also registered 21 murder cases in 2014, the highest in the entire state.…

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Leh elections: BJP ties up with PDP, Congress to go it alone

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A day after the BJP announced an alliance with its coalition partner in the state government, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), for the elections to the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC), Leh, the Congress today made it clear that it would go it alone in the polls. The elections to the 26 constituencies of the Leh council are scheduled for October 17. The 30-member outgoing council has 21 elected Congress members, four BJP members and one Independent member. Four members are nominated. “We will go it alone and not enter…

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Beef and meat bans cast shadow over Eid-ul-Azha

Editor

With hundreds of families across the country preparing Eid-ul-Azha in the last week of September, the ban on sale of meat, including beef, has come as a huge setback for the traders who were expecting a good business during the festive season. Akbar Qureshi, a meat trader in the Mankhurd area of Mumbai, is a worried man since the ban on beef came into force in Maharashtra in March this year under the Maharashtra Animal Preservation (Amendment) Act, 1995. Since then, he has been able to sell very little buffalo…

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