Year: 2018

61 Dead, scores injured as train mows into crowd watching Ravan burn in Amritsar

Editor

A passenger train that mowed down scores of people watching the Dussehra celebrations near Jaura Phatak (level crossing) was inaudible to the crowd as the firecrackers in the Ravana effigy were at a crescendo on Friday evening. “We didn’t hear the train coming. It had become dark and everyone was watching the effigy in flames when the train suddenly appeared,” said Mintoo, a migrant labourer staying in the vicinity. Most of the victims are migrant labourers. “Families have been wiped out,” he said. Wails and cries filled the air as…

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Kashmiri students returning home frightening of police profiling in Punjab

Editor

Kashmiri students studying at various colleges in Punjab have started returning home to the valley fearing harassment and arrest, alleging police were profiling them. The students and their parents said Punjab police have issued “forms” through college administrations to be filled in by the Kashmiri students. The forms entitled “Other students database” asks for details like full name, date of birth, gender, father’s name, address, contact, Aadhaar detail, date of admission and a photograph to be pasted on the supplied data sheet. Kashmiri students were also being asked to intimate…

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Resistance group urge world bodies to break silence on Kashmir Issue

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Separatists leaders in Kashmir have urged world bodies to break their “silence”—condemning the civilian killings in Kashmir region. In this regard, peaceful protests after congregational Friday prayers were held in Srinagar. Earlier separatist leadership including Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, and Mohammad Yasin Malik had called people to register their protest “against civilian killings, and use of pellets and vandalizing properties in Jammu and Kashmir by government forces.” The spokesman in a statement issued here said that the killing spree at the hands of government forces, leadership and people…

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‘Shastra Poojan’ performed, rallies taken out by RSS, VHP, Bajrang Dal activists on Vijaydashmi

Editor

In order to celebrate its 93rd foundation day on the occasion of Vijaydashmi on Thursday, activists of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Vihswa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Bajrang Dal took out rallies and performed the “Shastra Poojan” (weapon worshipping) across the Jammu Region. During the day, the RSS activists performed Shastra Poojan (weapon worshipping) and marched through the main towns of RS Pura, Kathua, Vijaypur, Bari Brahamana, Udhampur, Ramban, Kishtwar and Bhaderwah in the “Ganvesh” (the complete RSS dress) and sang the “Sanchalan Geet” (RSS group song) invoking “Maa Bharti” (motherland).…

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Build Ram temple at the earliest: RSS Chief to Govt

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The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sang (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat on Thursday asked the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government to consider introducing legislation for the construction of a Ram Temple in Ayodhya, cautioning that it was “in nobody’s interest to test the patience of the society without any reason.” Bhagwat’s comments drew flak from critics of the RSS who linked the timing to key state elections at the year-end leading up to the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. The demand for the legislation, earlier made by RSS affiliate Vishwa Hindu…

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Extending 73rd, 74th constitutional amendments to J&K direct attack on Article 370: NC

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Extending 73rd and 74th constitutional amendments to Jammu and Kashmir is a “direct attack” on Article 370, the National Conference said on Thursday, and slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party for advocating such “alterations.” Day after state BJP president Ravinder Raina pitched for extension of these amendments to Jammu and Kashmir—which would give greater financial and administrative powers to panchayats by putting in place a three-tier panchayat system—the NC’s general secretary Ali Muhammad Sagar said: “It is a calculated attempt to fiddle with the state’s special status. The amendments in J&K’s Panchayati…

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161 Free symbols including, Shoe, Chappals, Chilli to spice up coming panchayat election

Editor

From chappals to shoe and from bangles to green chilli, at least 161 symbols finalised by the state election authority for the upcoming panchayat elections will offer a bewildering choice to the electorate who will elect their new sarpanches and panches. The interesting part of the show during the campaigning will include the ‘mode of expression’ to be chosen by a candidate highlighting his or her symbol, including chappals, shoe, green chilli, bangles, bricks, etc. to woo voters. It will also be exciting to see as how the candidates, having…

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Unopposed poll not new in local bodies elections, In 2005, 114 candidates were chosen uncontested

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Even as Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and National Conference (NC) leaders are claiming that due to their boycott many candidates have been chosen unopposed in the local bodies elections, the poll data makes it clear that the uncontested election at the local level is not a new thing in J&K. In the 2005 civic elections, nearly 114 candidates were elected unopposed when the security situation was predominantly normal. In the just-concluded civic elections, 244 candidates have been elected unopposed and there was not even a single candidate in 177 wards,…

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Omar Abdullah attacks Mehbooba Mufti for calling Manan Wani a ‘Victim of Violence’

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Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister and National Conference chief Omar Abdullah has accused PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti of showing ‘fake sympathy’ with sedition case accused Kashmiri students of Aligarh Muslim University and shedding crocodile tears over the encounter of slain Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist Mannan Wani. “How short Ms Mufti’s memory is! She forgets that she was the architect and beneficiary (it kept her allies in good humour) for her entire period in office. She is in no position to criticise anyone for ‘relentless violence’,” Omar wrote on Twitter. Omar…

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