10 Army soldiers missing in Siachen avalanche

At least 10 Army jawans are missing after an avalanche hit Siachen’s northern glacier in Jammu and Kashmir. The soldiers were hit as they patrolled a glacier at an altitude of 5,800 metres (19,000 feet), Colonel S D Goswami said. “In the early hours of today, 10 soldiers were hit by an avalanche at the northern Siachen Glacier while on patrol,” Goswami said. Rescuers from the Army and Air Force have been deployed to search for them, he added. Avalanches and landslides are common in the area during the winter…

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Police ‘pressurising’ family to ‘hand over’ 8 year old boy

Parents of a Class 2 student in south Kashmir are scared about the safety of their son after the police visited their home looking for the boy and continuously called the boy’s father to the police station. The relatives of the boy alleged that the police have been visiting their home in Malangnag-Sherbagh area of Anantnag district since January 27, time and again, looking for the eight-year-old school student. “The police told the family that there was an instance of stone pelting on January 26 in Anantnag and the boy…

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Sun shines bright in Jammu, Srinagar; dry weather to prevail

Bright sunshine greeted the people in Jammu and Srinagar on Wednesday as the weather office forecast dry weather across Jammu and Kashmir during the next 24 hours to THursday morning. “A bright morning sunshine will further help raise the maximum day temperature in Jammu and Srinagar while night temperature is likely to drop further due to clear night sky in Jammu and Kashmir in the next 24 hours,” a meteorological department official told IANS. The official said the minimum temperature again dropped below freezing point at minus 2.3 degrees Celsius…

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5 Kashmiri women who won’t let you forget Kunan-Poshpora mass rape

Five young Kashmiri women have worked relentlessly for three years to comprehensively document one of the worst crimes against humanity committed by the Indian armed forces in the Valley: the mass rape of more than 30 women in Kunan-Poshpora villages of Kupwara in 1991. The fruit of their labour, ‘Do You Remember Kunan-Poshpora’, was recently a topic of discussion at the Jaipur Literary Festival that concluded last week. On February 23, 1991, an unspecified number of soldiers gang-raped the women, some of them old, during a search operation in Kunan…

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Mehbooba wants assurance on CBMs from none but PM

Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti has demanded substantial confidence-building measures (CBMs) to create an environment of peace and stability before forming the government. She wants assurance on CBMs from the highest authority of Government of India (GoI), without elaborating much on these measures. After this statement, it is clear that she wants an assurance not from the BJP, but from Prime Minister Narendra Modi. She wants to be in a position to show people of the state something which justifies her delay in government formation and continuing the…

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HC miffed over collusion between LAWDA, police, mafia over encroachment on Dal Lake

Disapproving “collusion between LAWDA, mafia and police,” the Jammu and Kashmir High Court on Tuesday observed that a comprehensive workable plan is required to do away with the encroachments in Dal lake. “The court in order to save the Dal Lake from further encroachments and to have workable plans of removing the existing encroachments, would require to have holistic and comprehensive plans,” a division bench of Justice Muzaffar Hussain Attar and Ali Muhammad Magrey observed while hearing a Public Interest Litigation on preservation of Dal lake.  The bench urged that…

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Geelani, Malik, Mirwaiz call for shutdown on Feb 9, 11

Kashmir’s top separatist leadership on Tuesday called for a complete shutdown on February 9 and February 11 on the anniversaries of Muhammad Afzal Guru and Muhammad Maqbool Bhat respectively. The Hurriyat Conference (G) chairman Syed Ali Geelani called for complete and state-wide shutdown on 9th and 11th February and appealed people to hold special prayers on these days as a tribute to Afzal Guru and MaqboolBhat who were executed on these days respectively. While reiterating his demand for the return of the mortal remains of Bhat and Guru who were…

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All is well on PDP-BJP alliance; Nirmal Singh

Former Deputy Chief Minister and senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Dr Nirmal Singh on Tuesday met the Peoples Democratic Party president Mehbooba Mufti here, hours before the former coalition partners separately met Governor NN Vohra at Raj Bhavan. Nirmal, who was Deputy Chief Minister in Mufti Muhammad Sayeed-led Cabinet, drove to the State Guest House here to meet Mehbooba after she arrived here. Mehbooba was in the winter capital for the first time after the death of Sayeed on January 7. Although it couldn’t be known what transpired in the…

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‘Disappointed’, Srinagar traders down shutters in protest

Business establishments in and around Srinagar City Centre Lal Chowk remained shut on Tuesday in response to a call by a traders’ body against the J&K government’s “failure” to rehabilitate the Valley’s flood-hit businessmen. The shutdown, called by a faction of the Kashmir Traders and Manufacturers Federation (KTMF), evoked partial response. The business establishments in various markets in and around Lal Chowk remained closed for the day. The traders from main Srinagar markets—barring those from old city areas—responded positively to the call. However it had a limited impact on traffic…

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Mehbooba breaks silence over BJP’s backstab

‘Mufti was made to run from pillar to post’ PDP President, Mehbooba Mufti Tuesday said her father and former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed was made to run from pillar to post by the BJP-led government at the Centre for even the constitutionally guaranteed funds. “Despite having taken a huge political risk of going against the public sentiment in Kashmir by aligning with BJP, he was virtually made to run from the pillar to post by New Delhi to get even the constitutionally guaranteed funds for the…

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