Community Archives | Page 46 of 183

Sikh body admits missing girl from Kashmir who converted to Islam does not want to return

June 29, 2021June 29, 2021 Editor

Jagir Kaur informed that the girl’s family and relatives had approached SGPC, requesting them to try and convince their daughter to revert to Sikhism and come back home. Speaking to the media about the reported abduction and religious conversion of two Sikh girls in Kashmir, Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) president Bibi Jagir Kaur informed that one of the two, who was married off to a Muslim man, does not want to reconvert and neither does she want to come back to her family. According to a report by The…

Twitter shows the different map; J&K, Ladakh demarcated from India

June 28, 2021June 28, 2021 Editor

This is not the first time that a different map of India has been shown by Twitter. In November 2020, the microblogging website showed Leh as part of Jammu and Kashmir instead of the Union Territory of Ladakh. Amidst the tussle between Twitter and the Central Government, Twitter’s career website, Tweep Life, shows a demarcation between the map of India and Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh are represented as separate countries. This is not the first time that a different map of India has been…

PM Modi engagement with mainstream Kashmiri leadership, but why now?

June 26, 2021June 26, 2021 Editor

PM Modi engages with mainstream Kashmiri leaders, but why now

Almost two years after New Delhi abrogated Kashmir’s semi-autonomous status, PM Narendra Modi has reached out to the region’s politicians to address their concerns. On Thursday, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a three-hour meeting with 14 handpicked Kashmiri politicians, including three former chief ministers. Experts say it signals a change in New Delhi’s approach toward the conflict-marred region. But apart from its symbolic value, the meeting failed to achieve anything substantial. The major bone of contention remains the scrapping of Kashmir’s special status by the Indian government in 2019.…

J&K amends Service Rules, New recruits to provide mobile numbers used in 5 Years, Information of In-Laws

June 23, 2021June 23, 2021 Editor

Providing educational details from age of 15 years, mobile numbers used in last five years, furnishing information of in-laws and details of loans have been made mandatory for any fresh appointments in Jammu and Kashmir, and they will be verified by the CID Department of Police within two months.The amendment to the Jammu and Kashmir Civil Services (Verification of Character and Antecedents) Instructions, 1997, under which appointment orders are issued, was issued on Monday after a panel set up under the chief secretary last year recommended proper character and antecedents…

Suspicion about vaccination videos fuels attacks on health workers in Kashmir

June 19, 2021June 19, 2021 Editor

As the Indian government struggles to expand a Covid-19 vaccination program dogged by shortages and bureaucratic missteps, its health workers in Kashmir are facing another challenge: attacks by residents. In recent weeks, health workers in the Indian-controlled part of the region have reportedly been attacked multiple times for taking videos of vaccinations, including inside people’s homes. Many Kashmiris said that they did not want to be filmed because appearing in videos could indicate support for the Indian government and its policies. Kashmir, a largely Muslim region of about eight million…

Blood Brother: Shabir Hussain Khan, the Kashmiri man who is India’s biggest donor

June 15, 2021June 15, 2021 Editor

Shabir Hussain Khan was taking an afternoon nap when he heard a commotion outside his house. A friend had been injured in a football match and had lost a lot of blood. Khan, who did not have any transport, rushed to the hospital by foot to donate some. It was 4 July 1980. Yesterday the man known locally as the “blood man of Kashmir” donated his 174th pint of his blood to strangers at the public hospital close to his Srinagar home. “Blood is not something you can buy in…

In a unique way of protest, villagers in Chadoora plant paddy saplings on the road

June 15, 2021June 15, 2021 Editor

Residents of Check Mohalla in Qazipora village of Chadoora in central Kashmir’s Budgam district Monday chose a unique way to protest against the government’s failure of repairing the important road link by planting paddy saplings on a muddy road stretch to attract the attention of authorities. Quoting locals, news agency KNO reported that villagers planted the paddy saplings as a mark of protest on the Chadoora-Check Mohalla Qazipora road to highlight its poor condition. Residents alleged that authorities had consistently failed to repair the road barely six km away from…

Fear and ‘Safe Zones’ in Kashmir

June 12, 2021June 12, 2021 Editor

By – Moazum Mohammad The dramatic and hostile reordering of Jammu and Kashmir’s political status vis-a-vis the Indian state on August 5, 2019, was followed by a systematic emasculation of the old political order and its replacement by a new set of elected leaders. The BJP-led central government felt that taking control of local governance institutions (panchayat and municipal committees) was the best way to neutralize the traditional political parties and their legislators in the absence of a functioning assembly. But nearly two years down the line, grassroots democracy has…

2000 – 20,000 Badami Bagh Cantonment Board begins levying Property Tax

June 10, 2021June 10, 2021 Editor

People living within the jurisdiction of Badami Bagh Cantonment Board (BBCB), an autonomous body under the Ministry of Defense, have begun receiving property tax bills from the board for their commercial and residential structures in Srinagar. Residents of several localities including Sonwar, Indra Nagar, Batwara, and Shivopora said that they have received property tax bills from the Board for the ongoing year. The bills have been charged as per the value of the property and range from Rs 2000-20,000. The authorities, according to locals, have unilaterally valued their properties and…