Year: 2015

Vaishno Devi shrine bags ‘Best Managed Religious Destination’ award

Editor

Recognising various initiatives taken by the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board in continually improving the pilgrimage, the CNBC-AWAAZ, a Hindi business news channel, has awarded the Shrine Board with ‘Best Managed Religious Destination Award’ for 2015. “This is for the third time that Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board has bagged the CNBC-AWAAZ Travel Award. Earlier, the Board had received this award in 2011 and 2013. This year CNBC-AWAAZ Travel Awards were presented by the Chhattisgarh Government,” said an official spokesperson of the board. The Shrine Board has been…

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FIFA U-17 World Cup: Ex-Olympian sees hope in Kashmir valley youth

Editor

With the football lovers upbeat over India hosting its maiden FIFA Under-17 World Cup in 2017, former Olympian and football great SS Hakeem today said he was hopeful that Valley youth would get selected to for the marquee event. Hakeem, who was part of the Indian team that participated in 1960 Rome Olympics, also said “much more football” was being played in Kashmir than in other parts of the country. “There is much more football in Kashmir than anywhere else in the country. I have high hopes that selectors will…

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Quietly, a piece of Kashmir culture withers away

Editor

Kani Shawls dying a slow & sure death As is so imminent in every sense, Kashmir is known for its art and crafts. Be it papier mâché, wood work, stone carving, metal work or the traditional shawl weaving and embroidery work, the ingenuity and craftsmanship of the local populace has been globally lauded. Kanihama, a small village on Srinagar-Gulmarg highway is the serene abode of Kani Shawls, a craft which demands patience, practice and great amount of skill in order to write mastery over a piece of special cloth. The…

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Three south Kashmir districts lay claim over Abu Qasim’s body

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People from three districts of south Kashmir are laying claim over the body of Abu Qasim who died in a gunfight with government forces last night. Thousands of people who participated in the funeral prayers of Qasim at Bugam village in Kulgam district have so far failed to evolve at a consensus over the custody of Lashkar militant’s body, said a witness. He said delegations of people from Kakapora in Pulwama, Khudwani in Kulgam and other areas want the body to be buried in their villages. The basis of the…

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Mufti’s statement a beautiful joke: Hurriyat (G)

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Hurriyat (G) Thursday termed the statement of chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed that he wants to change destiny of the people of Kashmir and  didn’t like putting people behind bars, as a beautiful joke, Hurriyat Conference (G) said it was just a lip service of Mufti sahib. Hurriyat (G) said the actual situation is contrary to what is being said and the destiny of the people is day by day diminishing under the attacks of Sangh Parivar. “The real leadership of Kashmiri people is being silenced either by house arrest…

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Hydropower can raise state’s economic status: Lone

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Minister for Science and Technology and Animal Husbandry Sajad Gani Lone today said the hydropower sector had the potential to raise the state’s economic status. “The hydropower sector has a huge potential. If we can apply ourselves professionally we can easily supersede the tourism sector,” the minister after inaugurating the Energy Bhawan at Bemina here. Lone said the agro-climatic conditions in J&K were so good that a lot could be gained from the sector. “Our state has the potential to fulfill the energy demand and supply gap,” he added. Terming…

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67 Persons held for Enforcing Shutdown in Shopian post Abu Qasim’s Death

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Amid spontaneous shutdown and clashes, thousands of people, including women, today turned up for the funeral of slain Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) Kashmir chief, Abu Qasim in south Kashmir’s Kulgam district. Eyewitnesses told Srinagar-based news agency that soon after the news about the death of Abu Qasim spread, thousands of people from Kulgam and other districts of south Kashmir including Pulwama and Shopian rushed towards Bogam so that they could have a glimpse of the slain commander and can participate in it. Within no time, the Bugam village – where Qasim’s funeral…

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Quake-prone state has no mechanism to keep check on unsafe buildings

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Past tragedies fail to bring successive regimes out of slumber Tectonically active Jammu and Kashmir has no mechanism to identify and keep a tab on unsafe buildings in all major cities and towns. Enforcement agencies have ‘miserably failed’ to check haphazard construction despite ‘repeated warnings’ of the possibility of an overdue high-intensity earthquake. This is in addition to the failure of successive governments to put in place a concrete disaster management plan in the state, which is in seismic zones IV and V. “No exercise to have official data of…

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Sombre atmosphere ahead of PM visit

Editor

Evokes mixed response from traders, civil society Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Jammu Kashmir on November 5 has not generated much hype, and traders, civil society activists, and Kashmir watchers have not pinned too many hopes on him. The development package that Modi is set to announce, according to reports, is expected to be worth around Rs 92,000 crore but it has not generated much interest in Kashmir valley. Kashmir Centre for Social and Development Studies (KCSDS) member and social activist, Shakeel Qalander said people in Kashmir had lost…

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Govt provoking people by arresting youth: KEA

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Kashmir Economic Alliance (KEA) Chairman Haji Mohammed Yasin Khan Thursday expressed concern over the arrest of youth in south Kashmir in the last few days, following protests over death of Zahid, who was burnt in truck by rightwing forces. In a statement Khan said youth who resorted to protests have been arrested but the Chief Minister forgets that reason behind the protests was the burning down of three innocent Kashmiri youth in a truck on Udhampur highway by RSS agents. “Instead of crushing the right wing forces sponsored by the…

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