Year: 2018

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

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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

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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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End of road likely for BJP-PDP govt in J&K as cracks in alliance widen

Editor

Has the PDP-BJP alliance in Jammu and Kashmir reached a tipping point from where there is no point of return? That is the question on the minds of political observers in the state who have been watching the alliance drift apart after coming together in 2014, in what was described as an ‘unholy marriage’ of two ideas lying at the opposite ends of the political spectrum. “We are tired of their (BJP’s) deception,” a senior PDP leader and member of Jammu and Kashmir’s legislative council, told Firstpost, adding, “We were…

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Won’t let law be impeded: Mehbooba Mufti

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Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Thursday said her government would not allow law to be obstructed and that justice would be delivered in the Kathua rape and murder case even as Jammu and Kashmir High Court Bar Association (JHCBA) president BS Slathia termed the charge-sheet filed by the Crime Branch as lopsided and full of discrepancies. “The law will not be obstructed by the irresponsible actions & statements of a group of people. Proper procedures are being followed, investigations are on the fast track & justice will be delivered,” the…

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#JusticeForAsifa, From Silence to a rush of empathy for the victim, Humanity Lost and Found

Editor

As soon as the bone-chilling details about rape and murder of a child in Kathua came to fore this week, the gruesome incident hogged the headlines in media. From TV studios in New Delhi to reputed newspaper like New York Times, the cries of justice for the victim, eight-year-old Asifa, have grown louder since. In its report headlined“an 8-Year-Old’s Rape and Killing Fuels Religious Tensions in India,” the New York Times wrote that the incident “seemed another isolated, horrific episode of sexual violence in India, perpetrated against a powerless girl…

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Outrage across India over Rape & Murder of 8 Year old Kathua girl

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The groundswell of horror against the alleged bid to communalise the gory gang rape and murder of eight-year-old Asifa + in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kathua grew across the country on Thursday as outrage reminiscent of the Nirbhaya protests erupted on social media. On a day when junior foreign minister and former Army chief Gen V K Singh spoke forcefully for the hapless victim, J&K deputy CM Nirmal Singh said he had called for an explanation from two BJP colleagues — Lal Singh and Chandar Prakash Ganga — but said they…

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Rahul Gandhi leads ‘Silent Vigil’ in Delhi against Kathua and Unnao rapes, says protest not political

Editor

The Congress held the candlelight vigil near India Gate to protest the rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl in Jammu’s Kathua district as well the alleged rape of a teenager by UP BJP legislator Kuldeep Singh Sengar. Congress president Rahul Gandhi led a “silent march” in Delhi on Thursday night to protest the gang rape and murder of a child in Jammu and Kashmir and a teenager’s allegation of rape against a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lawmaker in Uttar Pradesh. “Women in India are scared to step out of their…

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People throng Khudwani gunfight site, contribute to rebuild houses

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Hundreds of people thronged the house of Ghulam Mohammad Wani, for the second consecutive day on Thursday at Khudwani, in which the militants had taken shelter leading to a 16-hour long standoff between them and government forces which subsequently resulted in torching of three houses, along with Wani’s. Some 18 family members of Wani family were asked to vacate the house after militants took the position in their house. The stench of burnt petrol still filled in the environs at the encounter site making one feel nauseated. Locals claim that…

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PDP, BJP partners in crime, Kashmiris may have to pay with blood: Tassaduq Mufti

Editor

Although Mufti is not the party’s official spokesman, his views carry weight because besides being a minister in the PDP-BJP government, he is also son of the late PDP patron and former CM Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and brother of Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti. In perhaps the strongest indictment by the Peoples Democratic Party of its alliance with the BJP since it came to power in 2015, J&K Tourism Minister Tassaduq Mufti has said that the two parties have “ended up being partners in a crime (for which) an entire generation…

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