Year: 2017

Dineshwar Sharma arrives on Mission Kashmir, meets nine delegations, all want peace

Editor

Begins five-day visit to state; to also meet Governor, CM Dineshwar Sharma, Centre’s representative for sustained dialogue in Jammu and Kashmir, arrived in Srinagar today and started the process of talks and reconciliation in the volatile Valley which has been reeling under bloodletting and uncertainty for the past three decades. His search for peace and dialogue started from the Hari Niwas Palace where several delegations came to meet him. According to sources, the delegations said their prime interest was in peace in Kashmir and needed hand-holding. They hoped that the…

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The forgotten Jammu Genocide- Was it planned?

Editor

Millions of people were brutally killed by communal mobs under the tutelage of erstwhile Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir in the winter capital in the months of October and November in 1947, but, one of the biggest genocide and ethnic cleansing in the contemporary times hardly finds a mentions in the pages of history. Each year, India— ‘the world’s largest democracy’— commemorates, April 1919, Jallianwalla Bagh massacre in which British army’s Brigadier General Reginald EH Dyer fired over crowd for nearly ten minutes and killed hundreds and left thousands injured,…

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Centre should make road map for dialogue in J&K public: Congress

Editor

The Jammu and Kashmir state unit of the Congress asked the central government today to make its road map for talks with various stakeholders public, alleging that it had made a U-turn on its Kashmir policy by appointing a special representative. “For the last three years, they have been saying that there will be no talks with those who do not want to talk under the ambit of the Constitution. Today, the BJP is saying we are open to dialogue with everyone in the state. This is the U-turn on…

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Time Syed Ali Shah Geelani showed independent leadership

Editor

The top separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani inspires awe. Such is the impact of his personality cult that some are ever-willing to bare their chests to face bullets for him. Others hate him for his relentless pro-Pakistan campaign and wonder why he is not being stopped from his “anti-national activities” on the country’s soil. But in the recent months some changes have taken place in which he is seen more of a Pakistani than a Kashmiri. A very strong feeling is running among many Kashmiris that this is the…

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Most meat animals are raised with the assistance of doses of antibiotics on most days of their lives

Editor

Every year I spend some time in a tiny apartment in Paris, seven storeys above the mayor’s offices for the 11th arrondissement. The Place de la Bastille – the spot where the French revolution sparked political change that transformed the world – is a 10-minute walk down a narrow street that threads between student nightclubs and Chinese fabric wholesalers. Twice a week, hundreds of Parisians crowd down it, heading to the marché de la Bastille, stretched out along the center island of the Boulevard Richard Lenoir. Blocks before you reach…

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Mehbooba steps into power crisis issue, directs PDF to follow curtailment schedules

Editor

Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Sunday pulled up commissioner-secretary Power, Dheeraj Gupta, for continued delay in completion of a vital infrastructural project in Kashmir which would enhance its power transmission capacity. “How long will you take to complete it (Alstang grid construction)? Last time you also sought eight months. What happened then?” Mehbooba told Gupta during a meeting she chaired here to review the power scenario in Kashmir which is reeling under darkness due to unabated electricity outages. The power scenario has worsened across the Valley for the past four…

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Resettle Pandits at their native places: Parveen Togadia

Editor

Staunchly opposing a dialogue with separatist groups, fire-brand VHP leader Parveen Togadia today urged the Centre’s special representative on Jammu and Kashmir, Dineshwar Sharma, to set a time frame for the return of displaced Kashmir Hindus to their native places in the Valley. “Unless Kashmiri Hindus are allowed to return to their native places in the Valley, any dialogue on Kashmir would be meaningless and worthless,” he said while interacting with mediapersons after launching a “Hindu helpline” here this afternoon. “Both the state and Central governments are duty-bound to resettle…

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Projecting Gulmarg festival, efforts on to woo tourists from South

Editor

State Tourism Department takes part in ‘Discover India Travel Expo’ in Chennai Ahead of the snow fest in north Kashmir’s Gulmarg ski resort, the Tourism Department has upped its promotional campaign and is particularly focusing on the markets in South India. Even as the department participated in the ‘Discover India Travel Expo’ in Chennai today, the authorities also have several other plans to woo tourists from South India. Deputy Director, Tourism, Kashmir, Peerzada Zahoor, who inaugurated the event in Chennai, said they promoted the state’s tourism products, including food, art…

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No magic wand, but serious effort for peace: Dineshwar Sharma

Editor

Dineshwar Sharma will meet political leaders, traders and other delegations on November 6. Centre’s special representative for Kashmir Dineshwar Sharma says he does not have a magic wand, but wants to be judged by his actions when he starts the process of talks in the Valley on November 6. “I do not have a magic wand but my efforts have to be judged with sincerity and not through the prism of the past,” Mr. Sharma said. The former Intelligence Bureau director said that no one should jump to conclusions before…

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BJP working hard to make inroads in Kashmir and Muslim pockets of Jammu

Editor

The killing of BJP youth wing’s district president, Gauhar Ahmad Bhat of Bonagham village of South Shopian proves that the militants are getting apprehensive of the national party’s influence in the valley. The BJP is working hard on the ground to connect the Muslim youths to the mainstream. The police, which recovered Gauhar’s throat-slit body from a Shopian orchard on Thursday, blamed the killing on the militants. The BJP has been able to bring some youths from far off villages of Kashmir into the party fold in the recent months.…

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