Articles Archives | Page 48 of 51

‘It was like doomsday’

September 7, 2015 Editor

Hamidullah Dar As I finished my day’s job at the desk on September 6 evening last year, I headed for waiting vehicle to rush to my rented accommodation at Rajbagh. As we drove on Zero Bridge, Jhelum waters were kissing the upper brims of the river banks. It was a frightful sight, made more menacing by the night hours and the flurry of emergent activities going on all around. The level of water was at its devastating high as any breach could prove disastrous for almost half of Srinagar city.…

Resilience shown in the face of pain, loss

September 7, 2015 Editor

Floods: A Year Later For a moment, Ahmad (40) from the Chattabal locality of Srinagar thought everything was lost. He saw his two children and wife crying, struggling in the water and drowning when the boat, in which they were being rescued during the floods last year, hit something and capsized. The fate, however, had something else in store for them. Another boat which was rowing nearby rushed and saved the family. Ahmad (last name used) is haunted by the memory of the floods and has not returned home at…

Package or no package, Kashmir will rise again

September 7, 2015 Editor

Two tragedies that I witnessed in my recent past are stuck to my memories- the disastrous earthquake that hit on Oct. 8, 2005 and the floods of September 7, 2015. The earthquake hit the Pakistan-administered Kashmir region and the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan; it also affected adjacent parts of India and Afghanistan too badly. At least 79,000 people were killed and more than 32,000 buildings collapsed in Kashmir, with additional fatalities and destruction, making it one of the most destructive earthquakes of contemporary times. Morning 8:50 AM; I was…

Who will ostracise ghosts of the Sept 6, 2014 Kashmir floods

September 7, 2015 Editor

Few Kashmiris can forget the night of September 6, 2014 and the horror that continued for nearly a month after unprecedented floods hit Jammu and Kashmir this day last year. Summer capital Srinagar bore the brunt of nature’s fury on that day. As scores of houses collapsed in Srinagar’s posh residential areas, so did the state government and the capacity of the administration to organise timely rescue and relief operations. Thousands of people in Rajbagh, Jawahar Nagar, Wazir Bagh, Gogjibagh, Rambagh, Solina, Barzalla, Chanapora, Bemina, Natipora, Nowpora, Karan Nagar, Shetrashshi…

Afzal Guru, Yakub Memon hangings send signals of weak Govt: Justice Ajit Prakash Shah

September 5, 2015 Editor

Less than a week after after he demitted office as Chairman of the Law Commission of India after submitting a landmark report recommending abolition of death penalty except in cases of terror attacks, former Delhi High Court Chief Justice Ajit Prakash Shah Friday said the sudden and “secretive” hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru was a mistake by the government. “I don’t understand why it had to be done so secretly and so suddenly. In my opinion, it was a sign of weakness and caused great setback to attempts…

Peer-ing Into The ABYSS

September 3, 2015 Editor

Mufti Sayeed’s whirling dervish act sparks a heated conversation about privilege. Muhammad Tahir Last month, we learnt from highly placed sources that the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Mufti Sayeed was undergoing hallucinatory experiences; his advanced age of 79 summers taking a toll on his old mind and bladder made him see ghosts of the bygone era called 2002-2005. Now just last week, our sources told us that Mufti was feeling dizzy and then, in the next few moments, whirling like a (very slow) dervish. He was almost going…

India can’t afford to ignore the growing Burhan’s of Kashmir

September 2, 2015 Editor

New Delhi must start a dialogue with moderates like the Mirwaiz and Yasin Malik before more youth turn to armed uprising. 21-year old Burhan Muzaffar Wani — a local militant commander of the largest indigenous guerrilla outfit Hizb-ul-Mujahideen — is fast emerging as the new face of armed rebellion in the Kashmir Valley. He is the poster boy of new militancy and carries a cash reward of Rs 1 million on his head. Last Friday, a group of young boys were seen holding pictures and posters of Hizb commander, dressed in…

Can Mehbooba Mufti keep PDP together?

September 2, 2015 Editor

She, however, has no previous record of running a government and is considered temperamental. Naseer Ganai News of Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s failing health came from none other than People’s Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti. Two weeks ago, after coming out of a six-month-long hibernation, Mehbooba addressed her party workers in south Kashmir, known as the PDP bastion. She broke down at the mention of her father, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, at the workers’ convention. During her speech, the PDP president mentioned her father, but could…

Identity Card Obsession

September 1, 2015 Editor

Murtaza Raheem From the last few decades identity card has occupied a central importance in Kashmir. Our first reaction on noticing a cop is to confirm about the availability of our identity card. If we are going out without identity card we are committing a severe crime. Absence of identity cards can lead us to fateful results. And if you are carrying your identity card with you than you are liable to further questions, if you aren’t you are liable to stern punishments. Few months before in the blazing heat,…

The Million-Man-March” on Kashmir announced in Washington, D.C.

August 28, 2015 Editor

Springfield, Virginia. August 27, 2015. “The Million-Man-March (MMM) will focus on the political climate of the region of South Asia and the role of the United Nations & the United States in facilitating a lasting peace and stability in the region and will provide an opportunity for a peaceful settlement of the Kashmir dispute,” said Barrister Sultan Mehmood Chaudhary, former Prime Minister of Azad Kashmir. MMM will take place on Sunday, October 25th, 2015 at 12.00 p.m. in front of the United Nations in New York. It will be a…