Category: Community

Gaw Kadal Massacre: 21 Jan 1990, Kashmir’s Doomsday

Editor

On 21 January 1990, Gulle Kak was returning home after delivering newspapers in the vicinity when CRPF troops deployed on Gaw Kadal (bridge) stopped him to move further. Unaware of what was to unfold, Kak took a detour to reach his family. “I parked my bicycle outside my house and started walking towards the bridge. I saw a large procession coming towards the bridge from the civil area side. As the protesters reached the bridge, the CRPF troops opened fire on the procession,” Kak said. “Before I could understand what…

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Empty grave waiting for the body of the teenager killed by Indian forces

Editor

Since 2020, Indian authorities began burying suspected rebels in unmarked graves, denying families proper funerals and adding to anti-India anger. On a recent chilly winter day in Indian-administered Kashmir, Mushtaq Ahmed Wani shovelled the earth, laboriously digging a grave for his teenage son. There was, however, no body to be lowered inside. Stunned, a group of onlookers watched in silence. But Ahmed kept digging, now knee-deep inside the half-dug grave. Then he rose, straightening his back, and faced the crowd, enraged. “I want my son’s body,” he howled. “I ask…

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Valley Vignette: For the love of Wazwan

Editor

Wazwan is a cuisine denoting cultural pride of Kashmir, which people proudly identify with Last week, Bollywood director Vivek Agnihotri, who was in Kashmir for the shooting of his film, took to micro-blogging site Twitter “to bring about a change” in a traditional Kashmiri cuisine “Wazwan” from non-vegetarian to vegetarian food. “Nobody knows how to make a vegetarian Wazwan in Kashmir. But I am here to bring about change. #TheKashmirFiles.(sic),” Aghnihotri tweeted while sharing a picture of having a vegetarian thali at a Srinagar hotel with a lookalike “mutton kebab”…

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Bird Flu scare stopping masses from buying poultry across the Valley

Editor

After the COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc on the poultry industry in Jammu and Kashmir, the industry is now reeling under the threat of the bird flu infection. People associated with the industry said that despite banning the entry of any poultry product into Jammu and Kashmir not a single case has been reported here, while most people have left consumption of chicken and other poultry products. Bano Pratap, owner of Prem poultry in Jammu city told a local news agency, Kashmir News Observer (KNO) that the unrest created by the…

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Collapsing of bridge retaining wall at Ramban forces highway closer

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Authorities today evening suspended movement of heavy vehicles on the Jammu-Srinagar national highway after a portion of the road caved in near a construction site at Kelamorh, Ramban. Sources said the portion of the road that caved in, falls between Ramban-Ramsu stretch where tunnelling work is going on. Meanwhile, hundreds of vehicles have got stranded at various places along the highway. Officials concerned while taking to Kashmir Post said that it will take some time to restore the traffic. “We have pressed our men and machinery into service to do…

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Snowfall brings cheer to the tourism industry in Kashmir

Editor

The tourism industry in Kashmir received major boost as thousands of people from different parts of the country visited the valley to witness snowfall. The tourism industry in Kashmir received a major boost as thousands of people from different parts of the country visited the valley. The tourism sector in Kashmir witnessed major setbacks for the last two years due to the lockdown in the valley after the removal of Article 370 in 2019 and in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. However, the beginning of this year looks promising…

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Empty grave waits for teenager killed by Indian forces in Kashmir

Editor

Indian forces who killed a 16-year-old and two other young men in Indian-controlled Kashmir last month described them as associates of terrorists On a recent chilly winter day in Indian-controlled Kashmir, Mushtaq Ahmed shoveled the earth, laboriously digging a grave for his teenage son. There was, however, no body to be lowered inside. Stunned, a group of onlookers watched in silence. But Ahmed kept digging, now knee-deep inside the half-dug grave. Then he rose, straightening his back, and faced the crowd, enraged. “I want my son’s body,” he howled. “I…

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‘Want tourists to enjoy snowfall, carry only good memories from here’; Hotels, Houseboats, Homes open doors for stranded tourists

Editor

Living up to their age-old tradition of being very hospitable towards their guests, the people in Kashmir have yet again depicted the gesture by opening their doors to accommodate the guests stranded here due to closure of the Srinagar – Jammu highway and cancellation of flights at Srinagar airport after the Valley received heavy snowfall from last two days. From offering accommodation in homes to houseboats to hotels, Valley people are going all out to ensure that the tourists stuck here carry only good memories with them. Valley’s travel and…

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Outrage after Indian Army accused of ‘Staged Kashmir Killing’

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Indian army says it killed rebels but victims’ families say the three young men were innocent and murdered in another case of ‘staged gunfight’. On Tuesday, Indian forces killed three young Kashmiri men claiming they were supporters of armed groups and likely planning an attack, but their families saying they were innocent and were murdered in another case of a staged gunfight. The families of the three victims – Zubair Ahmad Lone, 25, Ather Mushtaq Wani,16, and Aijaz Maqbool Ganai, 22 – from Shopian and Pulwama districts, on Wednesday protested…

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100 Year old woman made to attends BJP rally “Promised to release jailed son in return”

Editor

On Monday, a 100-year-old woman attended a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) rally in Baniyari village of Hajin in north Kashmir’s Bandipora district to, she said, get her son released from jail. Fazi Begum was accompanied by her two neighbours, who helped her to walk and reach the venue. She told a local news agency, Kashmir News Observer (KNO), that she was attending the rally after “Jan Sahab of BJP” promised her that her son, who is in jail for the past ten years, “would be released if she attends the…

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