Month: January 2018

Swedish skier killed in avalanche at Gulmarg, another rescued

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A Swedish tourist was killed Thursday when an avalanche tore through a Himalayan resort in Indian Kashmir popular with skiers, police said. The 25-year-old victim was skiing with a fellow Swede in Gulmarg, a hill resort in Indian-administered Kashmir frequented by families and winter adventurers alike, when the avalanche barrelled down the slopes. Rescuers found one of them alive and “safe” in the snow but his fellow skier was killed in the deluge, said local police superintendent Imtiyaz Hussain. Hussain said an avalanche warning had been sounded the day before…

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Minor raped and murdered in Kathua, triggers outrage; Mehbooba Mufti says ‘Guilty will be punished’

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She went missing on January 10 after she had left home in Rasana village. An eight-year-old girl in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kathua was raped and murdered before her body was dumped on a roadside. She went missing on January 10 after she had left home in Rasana village. Expressing concern Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti‏ on Thursday took to Twitter assuring expedite the investigation. She added that the guilty will be punished. “Outraged by the heinous incident in which a young Bakerwal girl has lost her life. Incidents like this will…

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Winter losing its bite over the years

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The winter in Kashmir is synonymous with snow, freezing cold, dearth of essentials and disruption in connectivity. Elders, however, believe that winter has lost its intensity over the decades due to low levels of snow. The landlocked Valley continues to rely on the snow reserves on high mountains which act as a source of water for drinking and irrigation during the summer months. Though the winter has lost its severity, people in Kashmir have learned to fight the weather vagaries with modern gadgets. Apart from the commonly used ‘kangri’, ‘hamams’,…

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NIA charges Hurriyat leaders with ‘Sedition’, Move aimed at forcing Hurriyat into submission, says Mirwaiz

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A charge sheet was filed on Thursday against 12 people by the NIA including Lashkar-e-Taiba chief Hafiz Saeed and Hizbul Mujahideen head Syed Salahuddin for “conspiring to wage war against the government” and “fomenting trouble in Kashmir.” The charge sheet also alleged that officials of Pakistan high commission here were passing on money through now-arrested businessman Zahoor Watali to separatists who would hand it over to them after deducting his cut. The National Investigation Agency filed the 12,794-page charge sheet, along with annexure, before a designated NIA court here and…

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Republic Day still 9 days away, but frisking begins across Kashmir

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Government forces have started a massive “frisking operation” in Kashmir way ahead of January 26, even as the police have erected makeshift checkpoints in Srinagar where the main official R-day function shall be held. A source in the police said that over 40 checkpoints have been set-up from Hari Singh High Street to Dalgate on the one side and from Amira Kadal to Zero Bridge, on the other. “Similar ‘nakas’ have been set-up on Srinagar-Baramulla highway and also on the entire byepass stretch from Nowgam to Hyderpora. A tight vigil…

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Russia sees minus 67 degrees Celsius were even the eyelashes freeze

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Even thermometers can’t keep up with the plunging temperatures in Russia’s remote Yakutia region, which hit minus 67 degrees Celsius (minus 88.6 degrees Fahrenheit) in some areas Tuesday. In Yakutia — a region of 1 million people about 3,300 miles (5,300 kilometers) east of Moscow — students routinely go to school even in minus 40 degrees. But school was canceled on Tuesday throughout the region and police ordered parents to keep their children inside. In the village of Oymyakon, one of the coldest inhabited places on earth, state-owned Russian television…

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Energy drinks are more dangerous for the heart than coffee

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Over half of the youth and young adults who consume an energy drink, have reported experiencing an adverse health event. Beware! Teenagers and adults who consume energy drinks may suffer from rapid heartbeat, nausea and seizures, warns a recent study. According to the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, over half of the youth and young adults who consume an energy drink, have reported experiencing an adverse health event, including rapid heartbeat, nausea, and in rare cases, seizures. Currently, Canadian legislation is meant to prohibit energy drinks from being marketed…

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Kashmir can’t secede from India: General Bipin Rawat

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People in Jammu and Kashmir are tired of militancy as they have realised that it cannot give them what they want, the army chief, general Bipin Rawat, said on Wednesday. In a Facebook Live session at the ongoing Raisina Dialogue organised by the observer research foundation (ORF), he also said that people of Kashmir have “come to know that it is not possible to secede from India.” “The people of Kashmir in general, I think, are getting tired of terrorism. They have seen it for too long and they have…

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GOI using so-called dialogue to dilute Kashmir movement: Syed Salahuddin

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The chairman of United Jihad Council (UJC) and supreme commander of Hizbul Mujhahideen Syed Sallahudin today hit out at New Delhi for what he termed as “using talks as an instrument to dilute the intensity of freedom movement in Kashmir.” “Under the garb of so-called dialogue, successive regimes in New Delhi have always tried to create a smokescreen in the eyes of international community,” Salahuddin said. “Our stance in this regard is crystal clear that the dispute of Kashmir can be resolved by implementing the UN resolutions on Kashmir or…

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TV Channel booked for passing innocent Kashmiri youth as militants

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Jammu and Kashmir Police on Wednesday registered a case against a news channel that telecasted pictures of youth and passed them off as militants. In a statement, a police spokesman said that the news channel showed “two innocent youth namely Farhan Shafi, a class 12th student, son of Mohammad Shafi resident of Wanigund Qaimoh and Farhat Rashid, a Diploma holder, son of Abdul Rashid Wani resident of Redwani Payeen as militants in place of killed militant Farhan Wani of Wanigund.” Farhan Wani, he said, was killed in a gunfight with…

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