An analysis of performance of Kashmiri MPs in the Parliament shows they were far behind their counterparts from other states in highlighting issues of the state. The review of their performance, based on key parameters like attendance, questions asked, participation in debates, shows they lagged even behind the BJP MPs from Jammu. Sample this: BJP lawmaker Jugal Kishore, who represents Jammu- Poonch parliamentary segment, has raised 217 state and constituency specific questions during the past four years. The number of queries brought into the notice of the Parliament by Kishore…
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Brace for dry April and Water Scarce summer
The weather department has made a grim prediction. Like March, April would be nearly dry. By then natural springs and streams, thirsting for adequate rains since last June, would turn dry. Groundwater level, which has been depleted, won’t be recharged. “ From September last year there has been no significant precipitation like it used to be in Kashmir. There was no significant snowfall or rain this winter. When there is no snowfall in the mountains it is naturally going to affect water level in the plains. It causes both qualitative…
Read MoreT-Shirts glorifying use of human shield in Kashmir spark row
Delhi BJP spokesperson Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga has sparked national controversy six months after his online shopping company Tshirtbhaiya.com started selling T-shirts glorifying the use of a human shield in Kashmir last year by an Indian Army major. The T-shirt in question has a representational image of a man tied to the front of a jeep. It’s an obvious reference to the incident when an alleged stone-pelter from central Kashmir was tied in front of an Army jeep last year. Major Nitin Leetul Gogoi, the officer who had done it,…
Read MorePortrayal of Kashmir Human shield incident in ‘Baaghi 2’ is a new low for Bollywood
In 2018, the industry still uses Pakistan-bashing and vein-popping bursts of patriotism as crutches. Tone-deaf, problematic, ignorant and insensitive are all epithets that can describe the garden variety Bollywood potboiler. Tiger Shroff’s latest “action movie” Baaghi 2 manages to tick all the boxes with just one scene. In an exceptional display of callousness, this new Sajid Nadiadwala film decided to address an issue that has continued to be contentious since April 2017, when Farooq Ahmad Dar, an innocent Kashmiri voter, was forcibly used as a human shield by Major Nitin…
Read MoreDead cop’s wife, Injured militant battling for life in same ICU
A woman who tried to save her husband—she couldn’t—from suspected militants and a militant who sustained a serious bullet injury last evening are critical at the ICU of SKIMS, Soura. Fareeda Bano’s husband Mushtaq Ahmad Sheikh, a special police officer, was killed by suspected militants at his home in Bijbehara. In her attempt to save him, 45-year-old Fareeda sustained critical injuries to her lung and spinal cord. “Her lower limbs are paralysed due to spine injury,” said a doctor attending to her. The militant, Asif Ashraf Malik, 20, who was…
Read More318 Children killed since 2003, most shot dead: Report
Eight children were killed due to pellet shotguns, seven were killed due to injuries by tear smoke shelling and one child reportedly died due to asphyxiation caused by Pelargonic Acid Vanillylamide (PAVA) shell, which are chilly-based munitions. Every year since 2003, at least 26 children were killed on an average in Jammu and Kashmir, either by government forces, militants, unidentified gunmen, explosions caused by littered shells or because of the shelling between Indian and Pakistani forces at the Line of Control (LOC), a report issued by the Valley’s top human…
Read MoreResistance leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani offers prayers in Srinagar after 8 years
Tehreek-e-Hurriyat chief Ashraf Sehrai and others accompanied him to Jamia Masjid in Hyderpora Hurriyat Conference Chairperson Syed Ali Shah Geelani offered congregational prayers at the Jamia Masjid in Srinagar’s Hyderpora locality on Friday for the first time since 2010, the Kashmir News Service reported. Ashraf Sehrai, who succeeded Geelani at the helm of the Tehreek-e-Hurriyat, and other leaders of the party accompanied him. Geelani has been under house arrest for the past eight years and has not been allowed to offer Friday prayers at the mosque. Jammu and Kashmir Director…
Read MoreSeparatist leaders are free to go anywhere as long as they don’t indulge in any anti-national activities: DGP Vaid
For close to two years, they have been forbidden to come out of their homes, and on occasions been put behind bars, but the police now say they are free to go anywhere they like. This freedom though will come for a price: they can’t make an “anti-national” speech or create “a law and order problem.” S. P. Vaid, the head of the state police, on Thursday told the Kashmir Post that Syed Ali Geelani, Mohammad Yasin Malik, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, the three leaders of Joint Resistance Leadership, are “free…
Read More40 Percent youth in 15-30 age-group jobless across J&K
Nearly 40 percent youth, in the age group of 15 to 30 years, are unemployed in Jammu and Kashmir, the government of India has revealed in reply to a question Lok Sabha, the number of unemployed youth in the state much higher than the national level. In Jammu and Kashmir, out of 1000 persons in the age group of 15-17 years, 555 persons are unemployed, while in the age group of 18-30 years, 228 persons are jobless out of 1000 persons, revealed the union minister of Labour and employment, Santosh…
Read MoreWhich CRPF battalion was posted at Gaw Kadal on the day, asks SHRC after 28 years of massacre
The State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) has asked its investigation wing to determine which battalion of Central Reserve Police Force was posted at Gaw Kadal here on 21st January 1990 when they fired on civilians, killing more than 50 people and injuring 250. In April 2012, a petition was filed before the SHRC by human rights activist and chairperson International Forum for Justice and Human Rights, Ahsan Untoo, seeking proper probe in the massacre. Paramilitary CRPF fired on a procession of people at Gaw Kadal, Srinagar, on 21st January 1990…
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