Category: Community

Supreme Court agrees to examine plea of Pathribal fake encounter Victim’s Kin

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Issues notices to GoI, Army and CBI; lists case for final disposal after 6 weeks The Supreme Court Friday said it would examine a plea filed by the family members of five civilians killed in a fake encounter in Pathribal area of south Kashmir in 2000, seeking CBI trial against the army personnel purportedly involved. The matter reached the apex court after the Jammu and Kashmir High Court had dismissed the plea of family members last year. “Issue notice. Let the matter be listed for final disposal after six weeks,”…

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Book challenging Kashmir’s fictional Hindu histories released

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Ahmad’s book debunks works of Kalhana, Jonaraja and Srivara ‘It’s about the oppressive ruling class and the oppressed ones’ ‘Kashmir: Exposing the Myth Behind the Narrative’, a book by author, poet and former bureaucrat, Khalid Bashir Ahmad that challenges Rajatarangini and Kashmir’s fictional and mythological Hindu histories by historians like Kalhana, Jonaraja and Srivara and lays bare how they had blacked out militant Hinduism that wiped out Buddhism form Kashmir from their histories was released here Thursday. The 387-page book published by Sage was released at a function organised by…

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Civil Society warns against tampering with Article 35A

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To protest against the onslaught on Article 35-A that provides special privileges for people in J&K, Kashmiri civil society members held a sit-in protest at Pratap Park on Thursday. Holding placards that read “India, learn to keep promises” and “assault on Article 35-A is an attack on our existence”, civil society members said they will resist the efforts aimed at tampering of special status of Jammu and Kashmir “tooth and nail”. While addressing the media at the sit-in, chairperson Kashmir Center for Social and Development Studies (KCSDS) Hameedah Nayeem said…

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Declaring employee deadwood must withstand judicial scrutiny: High Court

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The High Court on Thursday ruled that a government action declaring an employee as deadwood should be “fair enough to withstand the test of judicial scrutiny.” Upholding a single bench judgment directing the government to reinstate an officer Shamim Ahmad Laharwal, a division bench of justices Muhammad Yaqoob Mir and MK Hanjura observed that the concerned authorities entrusted with the job of weeding out the deadwood have to be more serious and cautious. In 2015, the Jammu and Kashmir government had ordered premature retirement of Laharwal for being “deadwood”. The…

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NIA conducts searches at 12 locations in J&K: Terror Funding Case

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The National Investigation Agency teams are carrying out raids at 12 places in Jammu and Kashmir’s Baramulla, Handwara and Srinagar in connection with its terror funding and civil unrest probe involving Hurriyat leaders. Sources say that fresh raids have been carried out on those people who have financial links with the pro-Pakistani Hurriyat leaders including Syed Ali Shah Geelani. The names of these persons have been disclosed by seven separatists, who were arrested by the agency last month for allegedly organising the funds and civil unrest in the valley. NIA…

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Most remained seated when national anthem was played on Independence Day function

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The main Independence Day function at the Bakshi stadium here saw most of the people in the general stands remain seated when the national anthem was played soon after Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti unfurled the Tricolour. However, people sitting in the VIP enclosure, including high court judges, MLAs, MLCs, bureaucrats and office-bearers of political parties, stood up to pay their respect to the national anthem. Mufti was then given a guard of honour. Around 3,000 people were present in the stadium, which has a capacity of over…

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Mehbooba Mufti hopes plea against Article 35A will be dismissed by Supreme Court

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Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Tuesday expressed confidence in the Supreme Court, saying that a plea challenging Article 35A of the Constitution will be dismissed by the apex court. Addressing the people at Independence Day celebrations in Srinagar, Mehbooba Mufti said, “I have full confidence that our Supreme Court will again dismiss this plea challenging Article 35A of the Constitution in the same way as the apex court had done in these 70 years.” Mufti further hailed National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah for his advice on Artice…

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Forces intensify frisking ahead of Aug 15 across J&K

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Government forces have intensified ‘Frisking Operations’ across Kashmir including Srinagar-Jammu highway to thwart any possible militant attacks on August 15. A witness said police and CRPF men have erected makeshift naka points at various places in Srinagar and started intense frisking in run up to August 15. “I was travelling from Dalgate to Jehangir Chowk on my motorbike and was stopped first at Dalgate and then on Maulana Azad Road near Pratap Park,” said Aijaz Rasool, of Batamaloo, Srinagar. He said police checked his identity card and also papers of…

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Read the larger message behind saving Article 35A

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The debate over Article 35A, which bestows special privileges to permanent residents of Jammu and Kashmir, is not over yet. And, it would not be over even after the Supreme Court delivers its judgment on the petition that has challenged its validity on the grounds that the Article proclaimed through Presidential Order of May 14, 1954, was issued without the mandatory approval of Parliament. Now the matter is with the court but no one is waiting for that. On the face of it, the Opposition’s defence of Article 35A has…

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Center drops special road package for J&K

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Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has dropped the special package for building road infrastructure in Jammu and Kashmir. According to 252nd report of Rajya Sabha’s Department-related parliamentary standing committee on transport, tourism and culture which was tabled in the Parliament on Thursday, Chairman of the committee Mukul Roy during a meeting with the officials of Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways expressed serious concern over the ministry’s decision ‘to drop the special package for Jammu and Kashmir’. Roy was referring to the decision to scrap Prime Minister’s…

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