Year: 2015

No talks with India without Kashmir on agenda: Pak

Editor

• ‘If Kashmir is not an issue why India has stationed 7 lakhs troops in the region’  • ‘India should hold referendum in Kashmir to let people decide their fate’ • ‘India acting like regional superpower, wants talks on its own terms’ • ‘Nuclear power Pak knows how to defend itself’ Pakistan Prime Minister’s adviser of National Security and Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz Monday asserted that there could be no talks with India without Kashmir on the agenda. “There is no difference between the Pakistan Army and the political leadership.…

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JK fails to keep NHAI on toes

Editor

The expansion of Srinagar-Jammu highway continues to be on at a snail’s pace. This is notwithstanding J&K government’s repeated assurances that it would keep the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and its concessionaires on the toes. A latest status report of the project has exposed the sluggish approach of the NHAI and its concessionaires—Ramky Infrastructure Private Limited and Navayuga Engineering Company—in widening the Srinagar-Qazigund and Qazigund-Banihal portions of the highway. According to the report, 66-km Srinagar-Qazigund stretch of the mega project has recorded least physical progress among four portions…

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Army ‘forces’ youth to pose before camera along with AK-47 rifle in Srinagar

Editor

Seeking immediate removal of an Indian army officer and registration of an FIR against him, MLA Batamaloo, Noor Muhammad, and locals of Lawaypora HMT Srinagar Monday wrote a letter to SSP Srinagar Amit Kumar alleging that an Army party headed by an officer from Sharifabad camp forcibly took a local youth to a nearby paddy field and photographed him along with their service rifles and grenades. Reports said that on 14 August, an Army party from Sharifabad camp detained three youth from Lawaypora locality after they allegedly made a graffiti urging…

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Separatists—the silent winners in latest Indo-Pak slugfest

Editor

The slugfest over NSA level talks between India and Pakistan has brought into focus Kashmir’s separatist leadership after New Delhi asserted that any engagement between Islamabad and pro-freedom leaders was unacceptable to it. Last time, the separatists were at the centre-stage of Kashmir politics in the summer of 2010 when an anti-India uprising swept the Valley. That time an unnerved New Delhi rushed a parliamentary panel to Kashmir to reach out to the pro-freedom leadership, as a fire-fighting tactic. As war of words between New Delhi and Islamabad resulted in…

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Dy CM reviews works at 450 MW-Baglihar Power Project

Editor

After introducing amnesty power scheme in Jammu and Kashmir, Deputy Chief Minister, Dr Nirmal Singh visited Baglihar Hydroelectric Power Project in Ramban district to review ongoing work there. Jammu and Kashmir State Power Development Corporation is set to commission the 450-MW Baglihar-II hydro-power project by end of this year. Dr Singh, who is also the Power Minister, today visited Baglihar Hydroelectric Power Project Phase II at Chanderkote in Ramba district, an official spokesman said. Dr Singh called for time bound competition of the project. He expressed satisfaction upon the ongoing…

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Kashmiri youth released after hour-long protest

Editor

A Kashmiri youth was released by police on Monday after people led by separatist leader Nayeem Ahmed Khan blocked the highway and staged a peaceful sit-in out side police station Pattan in North Kashmir’s Baramulla district. Reports said that on 18 August, Special Operation Group (SOG) had picked up a youth Reyaz Ahmed Bhat during a nocturnal raid from his Wailo Pattan residence. The family members and people led by Nayeem Khan blocked Srinagar-Muzaffarabad road outside police station Pattan demanding immediate release of the arrested youth. Eyewitnesses told CNS that…

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New Delhi’s biggest blunder in NSA talks fiasco was to make Kashmir separatists relevant again

Editor

The separatists of Kashmir — both the moderate and hawkish wings — had been marginalised and were fighting for space, when New Delhi threw them the lifeline of relevance. The cancellation of talks at the national security adviser (NSA) level between the two nations might well work for New Delhi in domestic politics, but in Kashmir, the All-Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) leadership has emerged as the unlikely winner of this fiasco. If Pakistan continues to maintain its stand that no talks will be possible if the Hurriyat leadership is not…

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Counting the human cost of the conflict

Editor

Planned high-level talks between India and Pakistan have been cancelled hours before they were due to start on Sunday, amid mutual recriminations. The talks over the disputed Kashmir region aimed to resolve a dispute which has been a flashpoint for more than 60 years. The ongoing series of skirmishes between the two countries has a devastating impact on the lives of those living in Kashmir.

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Early 90s’ situation prevalent in South Kashmir

Editor

Due to surge in militancy and youth reportedly joining militant ranks in South Kashmir, army and other forces have revived the practice of roadside frisking of commuters and crackdowns, reminiscent of the early 1990s when militancy was at its peak in Kashmir. Reports said that it has become a routine for the army personnel to cordon and launch search operations in one or the other hamlets of South Kashmir’s Pulwama, Anantnag, Kulgam and Shopian district on daily basis. Forces have set up barricades at many places while frisking and nocturnal…

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Locals clash with police over harassment of girl in Pulwama

Editor

Violent protests broke out in Pulwama town of south Kashmir on Monday after a police constable allegedly misbehaved with a girl. A constable attached with the Special Operations Group of the police allegedly passed lewd comments at a girl passing through Rajpora Chowk in Pulwama town, 32 kms from here, a police official said. The girl reportedly slapped the constable and raised an alarm, the official said. The girl’s action drew attention of some passers-by, who started pelting stones at the police team deployed in the area, the official said.…

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