Year: 2017

Centre to offer better monetary incentives to surrendered militants

Editor

The Centre is planning to soften its surrender policy for terrorists at a time when footballer Majid Khan returned from the LeT after the security forces led a well-coordinated plan to get him back. The Centre is preparing a new surrender policy to bring terrorists back into the mainstream with the possibility of more attractive monetary and social security support. Apart from launching a multi-pronged crackdown on jihadis and their sympathisers in the Kashmir valley, the government is also trying to woo the local population with the promise of a…

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Gaw Kadal Massacre of 1990 back to haunt Govt, Police accepts 22 persons died in forces firing

Editor

After 27 years, police in a reply to State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) have accepted that 22 persons were killed and 12 others were injured in a Gaw Kadal Massacre. Zonal Police Office East Zone Srinagar through District Police Headquarters Srinagar in a report submitted before SHRC have stated that “Report sought from Station House Officer (SHO) Police Station Kral Khud reveals that 22 persons died and 12 others were injured at Gaw Kadal on 21-01-1990.” SHRC Wednesday said that the Chief Prosecuting Officer of the commission has submitted the…

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Focus on militancy left rising drug addiction unchecked; Political unrest and growing unemployment to blame

Editor

Drug addiction is a bigger challenge than militancy in Jammu and Kashmir today, the state’s director general of police, Shesh Paul Vaid, told a news agency on 16 November, 2017. Drug seizures have increased and the number of cases being registered under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985, for peddling and smuggling of banned substances are rising, said Vaid. Drug seizures have increased and the number of cases being registered under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985, for peddling and smuggling of banned substances are…

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Over 3800 hit by pellets in Kashmir Valley last year: Govt to SHRC

Editor

The government has disclosed that at least 3896 people sustained pellet injuries in forces firing during over five month long unrest in Valley last year following killing of 21-year-old Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani. In response to a notice by State Human Rights Commission (SHRC), the government submitted the reports about the pellet injuries compiled by deputy commissioners of eight out of 10 districts of the Valley and medical superintendents of eight hospitals to the commission. As per the reports of the deputy commissioners’ and hospitals, at least 3896 people…

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‘Operation All-Out’ aimed at forcing us into submission: Joint Resistance

Editor

The Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL) on Wednesday said that the “Operation All-Out” launched by the government forces in May this year to wipe out militancy was also aimed at forcing the pro-freedom leadership into submission. The JRL, comprising Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik, also said that there has been no shift in New Delhi’s Kashmir policy. Instead, they said, New Delhi has unleashed a “reign of terror” in Kashmir, terming the recent assault on Kashmiri prisoners at Tihar Jail “part of a game plan aimed…

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Pakistan trying to revive Harkat-ul-Mujahideen in Kashmir

Editor

Forces on alert to foil infiltration bids Known for its war-time exposure in Afghanistan, the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HuM), considered “dead on the Kashmir front” since its split in 1999, “is being revived to start operations” in the Valley. A note generated by intelligence agencies on the basis of communication intercepts suggests that HuM commander Masood Shaheen alias Masood Talibani has started operating from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir’s (PoK) Palandari area. “Talibani is commanding the (armed) groups and trying to push them into this side of Kashmir,” reads the note. Multiple intelligence agencies on…

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State drops stone-pelting cases against 4,327 youth

Editor

On recommendations of DGP-headed panel, CM orders withdrawal Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti today ordered the withdrawal of stone-throwing cases against 4,327 youth. The decision came after the recommendation of a high-powered committee headed by the Director General of Police which submitted its report to her today. Director General of Police SP Vaid has been asked to regularly monitor the progress in the matter and furnish a fortnightly report, reads a communication from the Home Department to the DGP sent late this evening. Today’s decision marks the revival of the process…

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More than 3 lakh migratory birds arrive in Kashmir Valley

Editor

With the onset of winter, over three lakh migratory birds from central Asia and southern Europe have arrived at more than 400 water bodies in the Kashmir Valley. Thousands of Mallards, Common Mergansers, Northern Pintails, Common Pochards, Red-crested Pochards, Ruddy Shelducks, Northern Shovelers, Common Teals, Eurasian Wigeons, Tufted Ducks, Gadwalls, Brahminy Ducks, Garganeys, and Greylag Geese have come to Kashmir in the first batch of migration this season. Wildlife warden of Jammu & Kashmir wildlife protection department, Abdul Rauf Zargar, told TOI that the birds mainly throng the wetlands of…

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North Korea fires ballistic missile near Japan’s economic zone, Trump says ‘will take care of it’

Editor

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called the test an intolerable, “violent” act. North Korea test fired an intercontinental ballistic missile on Wednesday, in a major challenge to US President Donald Trump after he slapped fresh sanctions on Pyongyang and declared it a state sponsor of terrorism. It was the nuclear-armed North’s first ballistic test in more than two months and an initial Pentagon assessment said the ICBM flew about 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) before splashing down within Japan’s maritime Economic Exclusion Zone. At least one expert said its lofted trajectory…

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Farooq Abdullah hungry for publicity: Jammu West Assembly Movement

Editor

Terming former Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah as ‘TRP hungry’, the Jammu West Assembly Movement (JWAM) on Tuesday said the Abdullahs only wanted to remain inthe limelight. Addressing a press conference, Jammu West Assembly Movement president Sunil Dimple said the statements issued by Farooq Abdullah were irrelevant in the present situation and people across the state knew that National Conference leaders Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah were hungry for publicity. “J&K is an integral part of India and it will remain a part of this great country. Unfortunately, those who are…

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