Poet Madhosh loses home and life’s work during Balhama gunfight

Curls of smoke still rose up from the debris of what was once the home of Ghulam Muhammad Bhat also known as Madhosh Balhami. Now all that is left of the two-storey house built by his father in 1967 are a few standing walls pockmarked with bullet holes and soot, piles of broken bricks and concrete. Glancing around with an expression of deep hurt and agony, Bhat sobs not for the home he lost but for the poetry he had written over the course of the last three decades, which…

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Pulwama lensman Kamran Yousuf reaches home, Visitors pour in

Hundreds of people, including journalists from across the Valley, visited photojournalist Kamran Yousuf’s house in the Tahab area of Pulwama district today. Kamran reached home on Thursday evening after being granted bail by a Delhi court on Tuesday. The photojournalist remained in detention for more than six months in Delhi’s Tihar Jail. Kamran was arrested by the National Investigation Agency on September 5 last year (NIA) for allegedly indulging in stone-throwing. A Sessions Judge in a Delhi court on Tuesday remarked: “The NIA has not placed on record any single photo/video…

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Kashmir to Kerala, BJP allies Unhappy

TDP MP Shiv Prasad says “BJP is trying to destroy its own allies. It wants that only it should rule, and rest should be rendered powerless.” Moves by NDA allies suggest they are wary of this danger Back in 2014, the Chanakya of the BJP, Amit Shah would not have imagined that such a loud bugle of rebellion would be blown from Andhra Pradesh. Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, who was performing ‘yagya’ with Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the new capital of Andhra, Amarawati, just a few years…

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Geelani rejects talks offer with India, calls for resolution of Kashmir Issue

Hurriyat (G) chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani has rejected an offer of dialogue by India, a spokesman said today. In a statement, Hurriyat (G) chief spokesperson G A Gulzar, in a statement, said that an Intelligence Bureau (IB) official proposed a dialogue between New Delhi and Syed Ali Geelani. He said that Geelani refused to talk, saying “unless and until the Kashmir dispute is addressed in its historical perspective, all these attempts are futile.” He asked India to acknowledge the disputed status of the Kashmir and begin demilitarization to hold…

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Kishanganga Hydroelectric Project’s first unit synchronized with grid

First unit (110 MW) of the Kishanganga Hydroelectric Project of NHPC at Bandipora, Jammu & Kashmir has been successfully test synchronized with the grid on 01.03.2018. On this occasion, Shri Balraj Joshi, Chairman and Managing Director, NHPC, Shri Ratish Kumar, Director (Projects), Shri N. K. Jain, Director (Personnel), Shri S. Kalgaonkar, Executive Director (RO-Jammu), Shri Arvind Bhat, Executive Director (Design-E&M), Shri A. K. Singh, Executive Director (Kishanganga), Shri Amresh Kumar, General Manager (Kishanganga) and other senior officers of NHPC were present. Deputy Commisioner, Bandipora, Shri Sajad Hussain Ganie, also graced…

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Avalanche alert in Bhaderwah belt of Doda, Schools closed

Authorities ordered closure of all schools up to 8th standard and appealed to general public not to venture in slide prone areas and near streams. Authorities on Thursday ordered closure of all schools up to 8th standard and sounded a high alert in the entire Bhaderwah belt of Doda district in Jammu and Kashmir due to apprehension of avalanches after heavy rains since early morning, an official said. In the wake of inclement weather predictions by the meteorological department, additional deputy commissioner (ADC) Bhadarwah Imam Din Kitchlo ordered closure of…

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Setback to BJP as Andhra Pradesh’s Telugu Desam Party quits the NDA

Andhra Pradesh’s Telugu Desam Party (TDP) – which has 16 MPs – today quit the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) at the Centre a week after two of its representatives left the Narendra Modi government and a day after the YSR Congress moved a no-trust motion against the Modi government. The N Chandrababu Naidu-led TDP and the YSR Congress are extremely unhappy that the Centre has not given special status to Andhra Pradesh. The TDP pulling out of the NDA coalition hasn’t come as a complete surprise, considering two TDP…

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Militants escape after exchanging fire with forces in Hajin, CASO launched

Militants escaped after exchanging gun fire with government forces after the latter cordoned off Khos Mohalla of Hajin town in north Kashmir’s Bandipora district early Friday. A police official said that Special Operations Group of Jammu and Kashmir Police, 45 BN Central Reserve Police Force and Army’s 13 RR unit cordoned off Khos Mohalla of Hajin town after “specific” inputs about the presence of 2-3 LeT militants in a residential house around 3am. However, the militants escaped after brief exchange of gunfire with the forces during the searches. As the…

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Media blamed for painting negative image of Kashmir

“Media is largely responsible for painting a negative picture of Jammu and Kashmir by spreading wrong and incomplete information as it believes that only adverse news is news,” said Abha Khanna, director of the media department of J&K Study Centre, on Thursday. Participating in a discussion on ‘Jammu and Kashmir: Myth and reality’, organized by Nagpur Union of Working Journalists, Tilak Patrakar Bhavan, Tilak Patrakar Bhavan Trust, Press Club, and Jammu and Kashmir Study Centre, Khanna claimed, “Those responsible for giving news on Kashmir blindly believe in their correspondents and…

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J&K, Gilgit-Baltistan integral parts of India: Mohan Bhagwat

Mohan Bhagwat, RSS chief, said today that Jammu, Kashmir, Ladakh and Gilgit-Baltistan were an integral part of India. He stated this while inaugurating the Jammu Kashmir Ladakh Maha Utsav organised by Jammu Kashmir Study Centre (JKSC) in Nagpur. Nirbhay Sharma, Mizoram Governor, was the chief guest on the occasion. “Jammu and Kashmir is not a ‘problem’. The actual ‘problem’ lies within us because we have accepted the definitions given by outsiders who have worked on the agenda of weakening India by creating divisions and differences,” he said in his inaugural…

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