Year: 2021

Hurriyat at a crossroads

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Hurriyat at a crossroads

The Hurriyat Conference, the political platform of separatists in Kashmir, is getting increasingly marginalised, with the Centre cracking down on its leaders and considering a ban on both factions. By -Bashaarat Masood After banning the Jamat-e-Islami and the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), there have been reports that the Centre is considering a ban on both factions of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference. What does the Hurriyat Conference stand for, and what is its relevance? The beginnings In the winter of 1992, when militancy was at its peak in…

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Tarigami moves Supreme Court to challenge abrogation of Article 370, 35-A

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Tarigami moves Supreme Court to challenge abrogation of Article 370, 35-A

Prays for an early hearing of the case in the ‘interest of justice. The Central Committee of Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI-M) and spokesperson of the People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD), MY Tarigami Friday filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court of India, challenging the constitutional validity of abrogation of Article 370 and 35-A and passing of the Jammu and Kashmir (Reorganisation) Act 2019 in the parliament, which bifurcated the state into two Union Territories. In the written petition, Tarigami has prayed before the Supreme Court to…

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Is Social Media Journalism in Kashmir a Pernicious Progress?

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Is Social Media Journalism in Kashmir a Pernicious Progress?

By Ummar Jamal On Saturday soon after police arrested Ashiq Mir, one of the associates of Shahid Imran, running a social media page –Kashmir Crown—in connection with a case of exhortation under section 383 of IPC, social media journalism became the recent talk of the street. Social media journalism was targeted for inauthenticity and unreliability. Journalists associated with print and television media voiced that social media journalism had degraded the prestige of journalism. They exclaimed that nowadays every Tom, Dick, and Harry buy a mic and put on an identity…

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‘Film-City’ in Kashmir on cards, Govt mulling to encourage owners to re-open existing cinema halls

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‘Film-City’ in Kashmir on cards, Govt mulling to encourage owners to re-open existing cinema halls

The government of Jammu and Kashmir is mulling to encourage and incentivize owners to reopen closed cinema halls in Kashmir Valley. Pertinently, cinema halls in Valley were closed after the eruption of militancy back in the 1990s. Some of the cinema halls of Valley have been converted into medical facilities, malls or have been occupied by government forces. Film Policy-2021 which has been implemented in Jammu and Kashmir states that besides encourages cinema hall owners to re-open their cinema houses, incentives will be offered to them. The government is also…

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India & Pakistan should sit together to resolve outstanding issues: Taliban

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India & Pakistan should sit together to resolve outstanding issues - Taliban

In his first comments on Kashmir, Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid has said that Pakistan and India should sit together to resolve all their outstanding issues because both are neighbors and their interests are linked to each other. Mujahid made the remarks during a wide-ranging interview with Pakistani TV channel ARY News. On Jammu and Kashmir, Zabihullah said New Delhi needs to have a “positive attitude towards the disputed territory”, ARY News reported. About ties with countries, particularly India, Mujahid said the Taliban desires good ties with all nations, including India…

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‘Only unity can take people out from Suppression, Repression and Oppression’, somebody’s ideology can’t be changed on gunpoint: Mehbooba Mufti

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‘Only unity can take people out from Suppression, Repression and Oppression’, somebody’s ideology can’t be changed on gunpoint: Mehbooba Mufti

While laying emphasis on the need for unity, former Jammu Kashmir Chief Minister and Peoples Democratic Party President Mehbooba Mufti Tuesday said that ‘only unity can take people out from suppression, repression, and oppression.’ She was addressing workers at the People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) meeting in Srinagar. “There is so much suppression,” she said adding that this suppression can be tackled and get rid of by the unity which is the need of the hour. “We are facing a lot of suppression. Let us see when elections are…

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PAGD seeks restoration of Article 370, 35-A & Full Statehood

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PAGD seeks restoration of Article 370, 35-A & Full Statehood

J&K people being humiliated, its consequences can be dangerous for the entire nation, have renewed pledge to fight till pre-Aug 4, 2019 position is restored: Tarigami People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) on Tuesday passed a resolution, demanding restoration of Article 370, 35A and the full Statehood to Jammu, Kashmir, and Ladakh. The conglomerate also stated that the people of the Union Territory are being humiliated and thus must be stopped as its consequences can be dangerous for the entire nation. Addressing a press conference after holding a meeting, PAGD…

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Notion of normality is far from reality, ‘Further alienating Kashmiri’s by its actions’: Yashwant Sinha

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Notion of normality is far from reality, ‘Further alienating Kashmiri's by its actions' - Yashwant Sinha

Contesting the central government’s belief that everything is normal in Kashmir, former Union finance minister and Trinamool leader Yashwant Sinha says this notion “is completely wrong and far from the reality”. The former BJP leader said that people in Kashmir still have a strong resentment in their minds against what the Modi government did on August 05, 2019. “It is good to see that Kashmiris are not offering themselves to get killed on roads and they have resumed the normal activities (post-August 05, 2019), but that does not mean that…

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Hurriyat Conference likely to be banned under UAPA, TeH removes sign board from its office in Hyderpora

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Hurriyat Conference likely to be banned under UAPA, TeH removes sign board from its office in Hyderpora

A ban under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act may be imposed on both factions of the secessionist conglomerate Hurriyat Conference which has been spearheading the separatist movement in Jammu and Kashmir for over two decades, officials said. They said a recent probe into the granting of MBBS seats to Kashmiri students by institutions in Pakistan indicates that the money collected from aspirants by some organisations which were part of the Hurriyat Conference conglomerate was being used for funding terror organisations in the union territory. The officials said both the…

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Kashmiri’s accuse Indian forces of Arbitrary Arrests, Intimidation

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Kashmiri's accuse Indian forces of Arbitrary Arrests, Intimidation

Arbitrary arrests and intimidation by security forces wielding batons and snatching phones leave many too scared to voice dissent. Public protests in Indian-administered Kashmir were once an almost weekly occurrence. But two years after New Delhi imposed direct rule on the region, locals say arbitrary arrests and intimidation by security forces wielding batons and snatching phones have left many too scared to voice dissent. A week before the region’s partial autonomy was abolished, and as a massive troop deployment fanned out to help forestall a local backlash, Rafiq (name changed)…

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