Year: 2015

Foggy weather affects flight movement at Srinagar airport

Editor

Air traffic to and fro Srinagar international airport was hit for the third day running today due to foggy weather, stranding hundreds of passengers including tourists. Flight operation at the airport is suspended for the last two days due to the fog. “Air traffic remains affected for the third day today as no flight has either landed or taken off from the airport here this morning,” Director, Airport Authority of India here, R K Shinde told PTI. He said bad weather was hampering the air traffic and no clearance has…

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Geelani made lifetime chairman of Hurriyat (G), organization expanded to Jammu & Ladakh

Editor

Hardline Hurriyat Conference on Wednesday appointed Syed Ali Shah Geelani as its lifetime chairman while restructuring the separatist amalgam to accommodate leaders who defected recently from the rival faction headed by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq. “Seeing the unshakable, steadfast, uncompromised and active leadership of Geelani, the Hurriyat conference had accepted him as its lifetime Chairman,” a spokesman of the Hurriyat said after a meeting of the conglomerate of various separatist groups here. The meeting thoroughly discussed the prevailing political situation in Kashmir and Hurriyat also made some vital changes in the…

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Traders protest ‘forced evacuation’ for Flyover construction

Editor

Traders in the city staged a protest today accusing the Economic Reconstruction Agency (ERA) of forcing them to evacuate their shops ahead of a flyover construction without proper rehabilitation. Traders staged a protest at the Hari Singh High Street this morning and demanded that they should be provided proper rehabilitation. The executing agency, ERA, was in the process of evacuating many commercial and residential properties to facilitate the ongoing construction of the longest flyover in Kashmir connecting Jahangir Chowk with Rambagh in which many shopkeepers have already been evacuated from…

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Police await Centre’s nod to prosecute Brigadier

Editor

Charges of abduction, murder invoked against the Army officer The Jammu and Kashmir Police have invoked charges of abduction, murder and disappearance of evidence against a brigadier-level officer of the Army, accused of the custodial death of a chemist from the Rawalpora locality of Srinagar in 2002. In its status report, a Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the police has told the Jammu and Kashmir High Court that the investigation into the 14-year-old case had been completed and the Central government nod for prosecution of accused Brigadier Kishore Malhotra was…

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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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