Month: December 2017

Rain pours misery on city roads

Editor

With the city receiving its first rain of the season, all major roads remained chock-a-block throughout the day today. Intermittent rains lashed the winter capital since last night. The city has already been facing traffic chaos since the time of Durbar move, following which the traffic flow has increased by 40 per cent. The marriage season has also added to the woes of the commuters with roads such as Canal Road, Janipur-New Plot Road and Talab Tillo Road remaining stuck up to five hours in the evening. “A few days…

Read More

IS asks Kashmiris to behead Indian troops

Editor

An article in Islamic State magazine ‘Rumiyah” asks Kashmiri Muslims to restart their fight “under the banner of Khilafah” and behead Indian and Pakistani troops who confront them. The article, originally published in Urdu but translated by a Kashmir centric, pro-IS media group ‘Al-Qaraar’ in a Telegram post dated December 1, asks Kashmiri Muslims not to be fooled by “spies from RAW or ISI”, the two agencies handling external intelligence in India and Pakistan respectively, or those working with them, and “kill them everywhere” . “Even if their names resemble…

Read More

Snow, Rain end Valley’s long dry spell

Editor

A four-month-long dry spell came to an end today as snowfall and rain lashed the Kashmir valley. Though all major highways were blocked, the precipitation revived hopes of the tourism industry of increase in footfall. The region’s tourism industry, which faced a rough year so far, had been waiting eagerly for the snow to attract holidaymakers and adventure tourists seeking thrill on the skiing slopes of Gulmarg. The rain and snow began overnight across the Valley and continued with a few pauses for almost 20 hours. The forecast issued by…

Read More

Chief Secretary dismayed over sluggish highway expansion

Editor

Expressing his dismay over sluggish pace of work on upgradation of Banihal-Ramban stretch of the Srinagar-Jammu highway, J&K’s chief secretary B B Vyas on Monday asked the executing agency to immediately flag the issues hampering the work for their redressal at appropriate levels. “We can’t afford to drag on this key connectivity project endlessly. Enough time has been already lost and there has to be now tangible movement forward on providing all-weather connectivity to Kashmir with the rest of the country,” Vyas, according to an official spokesman, told the executing…

Read More

Talk about Gujarat not Pakistan: Congress to Modi

Editor

Hitting out at Narendra Modi for dragging Pakistan into the Gujarat elections, Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi Monday said that rather than talking about foreign countries in his election campaign speeches in Gujarat the Prime Minister should say something about the state. “The Prime Minister talks sometimes about Pakistan and sometimes about China and Japan. Modi, this is the election for the future of Gujarat. Talk something about Gujarat too,” Gandhi said while addressing an election rally in Tharad assembly constituency of Banaskantha district. His remark came in the wake…

Read More

Three Lashkar militants, woman killed in Handwara gunfight

Editor

Protests erupt in area after 25-year-old local dies in the crossfire At least three militants of the Lashkar-e-Toiba were killed in a gunfight in north Kashmir’s frontier Kupwara district. A 25-year-old woman was also killed in the “crossfire”, triggering protests. The gunfight erupted around 12.30 am when joint teams of the police, Army and the CRPF launched a cordon and search operation at Unisoo in Handwara, 70 km from Srinagar, after a specific input about the presence of militants. “The militants tried to break the cordon and fired indiscriminately. In…

Read More

Articles 370, 35A contravene fundamental rights: Panun Kashmir

Editor

Demanding the abrogation of Articles 370 and 35A, an organisation representing displaced Kashmiri Pandits today alleged that they contravened fundamental rights enshrined in the constitution. “Panun Kashmir would like to make it very clear that Articles 370 and 35A exist in contravention of the fundamental rights guaranteed under Article 14 of the Indian Constitution,” the organisations national spokesperson Virender Raina told reporters here today. Article 370 grants special status to Jammu and Kashmir, while Article 35A empowers the state legislature to define permanent citizens. “These need to be abrogated under…

Read More

Have mantris taken kickbacks in the name of Muftis for allowing this illegal construction?

Editor

In brazen violation of High Court directives and Master Plan for Srinagar, the ruling Peoples Democratic Party led Govt has allowed construction of a mega commercial building on the virgin banks of river Jhelum near busy Abdullah Bridge in Srinagar. The construction started at the “disputed site” only after the ruling PDP came to power. Earlier, in 2006, the then Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad had outrightly disallowed proposed construction and notified the site for construction of a public park. But the Dracula has returned from the grave. While the man…

Read More

Don’t drag us into your electoral debate, win on own strength: Pak to Modi

Editor

Addressing an election rally in Gujarat, PM Narendra Modi had said Pakistan was meddling in the Gujarat assembly elections. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s allegations that Pakistan was trying to influence the outcome of the assembly elections in Gujarat was “utterly baseless and irresponsible”, the neighbouring country has said. “India should stop dragging Pakistan into its electoral debate and win victories on own strength rather than fabricated conspiracies, which are utterly baseless and irresponsible,” spokesperson of Pakistan’s ministry of foreign affairs Mohammad Faisal tweeted on Sunday. Modi on Sunday referred to…

Read More

6 killed, 12 injured in road accident in Udhampur

Editor

Six persons have been killed and 12 injured in a road accident in Udhampur district of Jammu and Kashmir. The accident took place late on Sunday evening in Sarori village when the driver of the bus carrying a marriage party lost control over the vehicle and it plunged into a deep gorge in Chenani area, a police officer said. Five passengers died on the spot and another succumbed in the hospital.

Read More