The Supreme Court on Friday cautioned a counsel who in the course of his arguments said Kashmir became a part of the country after abrogation of Articles 370 and 35A of the Constitution in August 2019 to be careful about his language. “No. It has remained a part of the country for long time. These are certain special provisions. Careful in what language you use,” Justice S K Kaul, presiding a two-judge bench, told Ravi Shankar Jandhyala, while hearing a plea that challenged the delimitation exercise, which recommended increasing the…
Read MoreCategory: Community
Drive continue to weed out employees with terror links, KU Professor among three employees terminated for Terror Links
Jammu and Kashmir administration on Friday invoked Article 311 of the Constitution of India yet again to dismiss its three more employees, including a professor of Kashmir University, Police Constables and a teacher from service for their alleged “militancy links and secessionist activities”. Official sources said that Altaf Hussain Pandit, chemistry Professor of Kashmir University is among three government employees, who have been sacked by the JK administration for “actively supporting militancy”. The two others are Mohd Maqbool Hajam, a teacher in the school education department and Ghulam Rasool, a…
Read MoreOver 350 Kashmiri Pandit employees resign post killing of Rahul Bhat
The killing of the 35-year-old Rahul Bhat has attracted strong condemnation from political parties and employees’ association Mass resignation by more than 350 Kashmiri Pandit Prime Minister Package Employees in Kashmir has been sent to Lt. Governor Manoj Sinha today. Two Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists had entered a crowded government office and shot dead a Kashmiri Pandit employee in Budgam district in central Kashmir on Thursday, in a targeted killing that drew strong condemnation from political parties and employees’ association. Later, Kashmir Tigers claimed responsibility for the killing. Rahul Bhat (35), who…
Read MoreWe still believe Supreme Court can restore Article 370: Mehbooba Mufti
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) President Mehbooba Mufti Monday said that even as it took Supreme Court over three years to listen to the petition but she still believes that it can restore Article 370. She said that the Jahangir Puri demolition drive in New Delhi was carried even after the Supreme Court passed order against it. “Several apprehensions have developed but we have faith in the judiciary,” PDP President said. “Supreme Court should act against those officials who did not obey the orders and were involved in contempt of court,”…
Read MoreDelimitation gives BJP hope in Jammu but Kashmir still out of its grasp
The Delimitation Commission has notified all the new assembly and five parliamentary constituencies of Jammu and Kashmir, recommending for the first time the reservation of seats in the J&K assembly for Kashmiri migrants, including those displaced from Pakistan-occupied JK. The commission, headed by Supreme Court Justice (retd) Ranjana Prakash Desai, has increased the number of assembly seats in J&K from 83 to 90, with the BJP’s stronghold of Jammu walking away with a lion’s share of six new seats, even though the region has a smaller population (53 lakh) as…
Read MoreDespite ban, beggars swarm Srinagar
Failure of authorities to enforce ban on begging in the summer capital is taking toll on people. Organised begging mafia brings beggars in private vehicles and drops them at various places across the city. So lucrative is the begging business for this mafia that they are hiring non-locals for begging in streets, malls, petrol stations, outside masjids, shrines, temples and traffic signals. “Kingpins of these gangs drop beggars in cars to their designated begging spot and in turn, they have to share their day’s earnings with them. In some cases,…
Read MoreExperiment with alternative politics: Does Shah Faesal’s political exit mark end of process?
In March 2019, when Faesal launched his political party, Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Movement, the bureaucrat had compared himself to the likes of Sheikh Abdullah. In April 2022, however, he called his eight months of political activism ‘chasing a chimaera’. Former Jammu and Kashmir bureaucrat Shah Faesal is all set to leave behind the ‘shadows of the past’ and return to the civil services after quitting in 2019. The move is seen by many as a last-ditch effort by Faesal to return to his former life after failing to make…
Read MoreDog Menace: Kashmir witnessed 5629 dog bite cases in last one year
A whopping 5,629 bite victims, mostly of dog bites, were reported to the Anti-Rabies Clinic at Srinagar’s Shri Maharaja Hari Singh (SMHS) hospital in the last one year. The presence of dogs on every nook and corner has led to man-dog confrontation due to which the number of cases of dog bites has increased in the region, doctors say. An official from ARC SMHS told news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), that from 1st April 2021 to 31st March 2022, as many as 5,629 bite cases were reported to ARC SMHS…
Read MoreProtests in Kashmir against prolonged power cuts during Ramadan
Several areas witness 12-hour cut Brace for more outages say, officials Protests erupted in many parts of Kashmir over a major power breakdown that has created a huge inconvenience for people during the month of Ramadan. Scores of women today staged a protest in the Gawkadal locality of Srinagar against the administration for failing to provide the scheduled power supply. Similar protests have been witnessed in other parts of Kashmir over the past one week as villages and towns are facing more than 12 hours of the power outage and…
Read MoreJ&K Police arrest PhD student under UAPA for article published 11 years ago
The Jammu and Kashmir State Investigation Agency on Sunday arrested a Ph.D. scholar from Budgam district for a “highly provocative and seditious” article in the online magazine The Kashmir Walla. The article was published in 2011, according to The Indian Express. “Abdul Aala Fazili’s article, ‘The shackles of slavery will break’, is intended to create unrest in Jammu and Kashmir, and written with the purpose of abetting the youth to take the path of violence by glorifying terrorism,” the police said in a statement. The article promoted a false narrative to…
Read More