Heat wave to continue across Kashmir Valley: MeT

The heat wave continues to hold its tight grip on Kashmir as weatherman predicts no immediate response for next one week. MeT spokesman informed that Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir recorded 34.7 degrees Celsius temperature today. He added that the season’s highest temperature at 35.4 degree Celsius was recorded on August 7. Meanwhile, Director MeT, Sonum Lotus said that there is no prediction of any major rainfall activity in the next one week. He added that the weather conditions across Kashmir would remain hot and humid, adding…

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4G Services will be provided on Trial Basis in two districts after August 15: GoI

The relaxation will not be in any area adjoining the International Border or the Line of Control, the centre told the top court. The areas which will get the 4G internet will be those which have a low intensity of terrorist activities, the centre said. 4G internet services will be allowed on a trial basis in one district each in Jammu and one in the Kashmir valley after August 15, the centre told the Supreme Court today, adding that a special committee has made this decision. The relaxation will not…

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Kashmiri’s in Limbo and Lockdown since past 12 months

On 5 August 2019, the Indian government stripped Kashmir of its constitutionally guaranteed special status and split the region into two federally-run territories. A stringent curfew was imposed and thousands detained along with a communications black-out. The lockdown began to be eased in March, but was then re-imposed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. It has been a year of shutdowns, anger and fear. The BBC spoke to 12 different Kashmiris, to find out what their lives have been like during this year. Sanna Irshad Mattoo, 26“In our line of work,…

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Three missing labourers killed in alleged staged encounter in Shopian

Family of three missing labourers from Rajouri district of Jammu and Kashmir have alleged that the missing trio were killed in a staged encounter in south Kashmir’s Shopian district on July 18. Saleem Ahmad, cousin of one of the missing civilians Ibrar Ahmad, told that he identified his cousin and two other relatives through circulated photographs of militants killed in an encounter on July 18 in Amshipora village of south Kashmir’s Shopian district. “They are my relatives. The one in the centre of the photograph (of the alleged militants) is…

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After criticizing its position on “Muslim Kashmir” Saudi Arabia ends loan and oil supply to Pakistan

A report by the “Middle East Monitor” website said that Saudi Arabia has stopped oil supplies to Pakistan and asked it to return loans after Islamabad criticized the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, based in Saudi Arabia, over the Kashmir issue. The site stated that Pakistan was forced last week to repay a Saudi loan worth one billion dollars, after Riyadh requested it in response to Islamabad’s threat to break the mantle of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation with regard to dealing with the issue of the disputed Kashmir region with…

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After August 5, It’s hard for India’s Muslims to not feel Orphaned in their Motherland

Arfa Khanum Sherwani August 5 was a difficult day for anyone who still believes in the idea of a secular and democratic India. The spectacle of a prime minister performing the ‘bhumi pujan’ for his political parivar’s temple in Ayodhya did no credit of the world’s largest democracy, one that incidentally is also home to more than 200 million Muslims. In November 2019, the Supreme Court gave the disputed site where the Babri Masjid stood – till it was forcibly demolished in 1992 – to the Hindu litigants and said…

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From Kashmir to Ayodhya, the BJP’s total domination of politics

Barkha Dutt You had to be in Ayodhya this week, as I was, to understand the enormous political vindication the bhoomi pujan ceremony for the Ram Mandir affords the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The decision to build a temple and provide an alternative site for the Babri masjid may have been one delivered by the court, but for the party and its followers, the labour was entirely that of the Narendra Modi government. While the streets were dressed up in hues of saffron — balloons, festoons, flags — the dominant…

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India’s new domicile law in Kashmir amplifies demographic fears

For almost a century, no outsider was allowed to buy land and property in Indian-controlled Kashmir. That changed Aug. 5 last year when India’s Hindu nationalist government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi stripped the Himalayan state’s semi-autonomous powers and downgraded it to a federally governed territory. It also annulled the long-held hereditary special rights its natives had over the disputed region’s land ownership and jobs. Since then, India has brought in a slew of changes through new laws. They are often drafted by bureaucrats without any democratic bearings and…

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Conditions in Kashmir Not Normal: US Foreign Affairs Committee raises concern with GoI

The foreign affairs committee of the United States Congress has expressed concern over conditions in Kashmir in a bipartisan letter issued on the day that marked the first year of abrogation of special status of Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370. “We note with concern that conditions in Jammu and Kashmir have not normalised one year after India’s repeal of Article 370 and the establishment of Jammu and Kashmir as Union Territory,” Chairman of the Committee Eliot L. Engel and ranking member Michael T. McCaul wrote in a letter. Last…

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Turkey says Article 370 abrogation did not bring peace to Kashmir, India calls remark ‘Biased & Incorrect’

The Ministry of External Affairs on Thursday criticised Turkey’s remarks against India’s decisions related to Jammu and Kashmir, and described them as “factually incorrect, biased and unwarranted”. Turkey had on Monday claimed that India’s move to rescind the region’s special status had not “contributed to the peace and stability in the region”. “We would urge the government of Turkey to get a proper understanding of the ground situation in India and refrain from interfering in its internal matters,” foreign ministry Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said during a press briefing on Thursday.…

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