Month: April 2018

In a Kashmir Valley, a Massive Dam Threatens to Wash Away Lives

Editor

There are few roads in the Marwah Valley, and those that exist are snowed under during the winter. For the most part, there is no electricity. Snow leopards, ibexes and other endangered animals shelter in the high peaks, while some of the continent’s mightiest rivers rush through lush valleys. The area feels remote, but it’s far from empty. The Marusudar River – a tributary to the Chenab River, which first forms in India before flowing deep into Pakistan – is bounded on both sides by houses. Fields show signs that…

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SC orders protection to Kathua rape victim’s family, lawyer; issues notice to JK Govt

Editor

The father of the Kathua rape and murder victim had moved the Supreme Court seeking to shift the trial to Chandigarh, saying he would not get a fair hearing in Jammu The Supreme Court on Monday issued a notice to the Jammu and Kashmir government on a petition to shift the trial of the eight accused in the Kathua gang rape and murder case out of the state and ordered protection for the victim’s family and their lawyer. Even as the trial got underway on Monday in a Kathua court,…

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Kashmir’s indifference bigger threat to Gujjar Bakarwals than Jammu’s Xenophobia

Editor

Masud Choudhary, founding VC of Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah University, describes the irony of how Bakarwals, whose people have repeatedly made great sacrifices for India, are now conveniently being branded as ‘anti-nationals’. In January, when local police began investigations into the abduction, torture, gang-rape and murder of eight-year-old girl in Kathua, it found her to be a victim of another brutality. In the earlier days of investigation some police officers, who did not want to be named, said they were also probing the angle of hate crime. Subsequent protests in…

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Amid rising demand for alcohol ban in J&K, sales grow 13%

Editor

Raising alarm bells in Kashmir society, liquor sales in J&K have increased by 13 percent in last five years to 5.65 crore bottles in 2016-17. While the people in general are dismayed over the rising consumption of alcohol, as it is ‘causing social distraught’, civil society members, social activists and business community has called for immediate ban on the sales of alcohol in the state like Gujarat, Bihar and Lakshadweep. Pro-alcohol ban groups in the state, particularly in Kashmir, argue that it will ruin the social fabric of the Muslim…

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Had State acted on Kunan-Poshpora, Kathua wouldn’t have happened

Editor

The rape and murder of an 8-year old nomadic girl in Kathua has reopened the wounds of the survivors of the Kunan-Poshpora mass rape of 1991, who came all the way down from their small hamlet to show solidarity with the minor victim. “If the State would have acted in case of Kunan-Poshpora, Kathua would have never happened,” they said. As many as 27 years have passed, but the survivors of the mass rape are still longing for the guilty army personnel to be punished, as the probe has been…

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Bar Council to probe lawyer’s ‘Misconduct’ in Kathua rape & Murder case

Editor

The Bar Council of India (BCI) on Sunday decided to probe the “misconduct” on part of lawyers in connection with the Kathua rape and murder case on a day Jammu and Kashmir CM Mehbooba Mufti accepted the resignations of two BJP ministers who had participated in a rally in support of the accused. The resignations of Lal Singh and Chander Prakash Ganga, received from BJP state chief Sat Sharma, were immediately accepted and sent to Governor NN Vohra. The BCI decision came after its general body met in the backdrop…

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Our ministers are not pro-rapists, BJP counters allegations over Kathua rape and murder case

Editor

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday attempted to douse the controversy that erupted after two of its ministers in Jammu and Kashmir attended a rally supporting the accused in the Kathua rape and murder case. Defending the leaders, BJP’s Ram Madhav said: “On 1 March, a huge crowd gathered in Kathua and our ministers went there to pacify them. A misunderstanding took place. They should have been more alert. Their intention was not to hamper the investigation. The allegations on them being pro-rapists aren’t true.” The defence comes a…

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Kathua Rape & Murder triggers political row, BJP asks Cong to sack its JK chief

Editor

The BJP on Sunday demanded the sacking of state Congress chief Ghulam Ahmad Mir, claiming that he was seen in a video terming the police probe in the Kathua rape-and-murder case motivated and defending the public protests against it. Citing the BJP’s decision to remove two of its Jammu and Kashmir ministers, who had joined the public protests against the probe, Union minister Prakash Javadekar wondered if Congress president Rahul Gandhi would only point fingers at others but maintain silence on the comments of his party’s Jammu and Kashmir unit…

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Must sit down together to bring peace: Army Chief General Bipin Rawat

Editor

Army Chief General Bipin Rawat on Sunday said the radicalised youth of the Valley would soon realise that the gun was not the solution to their problem as neither security forces nor terrorists would achieve their goals through it. Peace, he said, was the only way to improve the situation in Kashmir that had been witnessing militancy for about three decades now. “There is hope that the situation in Kashmir will improve…. There are some youths in Kashmir who have strayed and have been radicalised. They think they can achieve…

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Ministers who defended accused in Kathua rape case submit resignation

Editor

Two BJP ministers, who were at the centre of a storm over their participation in a rally in support of the accused in the Kathua rape and murder case, on Friday submitted their resignations to the party’s state president Sat Sharma. “Yes, the two ministers have submitted their resignation to me,” Sharma told PTI. He said a legislature party meeting of the BJP is scheduled to be held on Saturday in Jammu where the future course of action on this issue will be discussed. “We are going to discuss this…

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