Community Archives | Page 55 of 183

GoI allowing Amarnath Yatra despite a huge spike in coronavirus cases across J&K

July 16, 2020July 16, 2020 Editor

Analysts say the resumption of annual Hindu pilgrimage shows the government’s ‘double standard’ as other gatherings prohibited. Authorities in Kashmir have decided to allow Hindu pilgrims to visit the Himalayan cave shrine of Amarnath – a decision Kashmiri analysts say contradicts the government’s coronavirus lockdown policy. The annual Amarnath Yatra (journey), which receives hundreds of thousands of pilgrims from across India, will likely begin on July 21, but this year it has been shortened to two weeks due to the coronavirus pandemic. The Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board (SASB), which manages…

Officially first time in history no martyr’s day observed in Kashmir, Martyr Day’s historical perspective

July 13, 2020July 13, 2020 Editor

Media reported it was the first time since the Partition that no holiday and official functions were held to commemorate the Kashmir Martyrs’ Day on July 13, today. Following the revocation of Article 370 on August 5, last year, India had issued a list of gazette holidays for the occupied territory, omitting July 13 from the list. “In December last year, the list of gazetted holidays had no mention of martyrs’ day on July 13. Therefore, the question doesn’t arise of holding any official function or declaring a holiday on…

Why GoI is planning Amarnath Yatra in the middle of the Pandemic?

July 6, 2020July 6, 2020 Editor

Amarnath Yatra 2020: The annual pilgrimage will begin on July 21 and end on August 3, thus making it the shortest ever Yatra till date. According to some reports, the yatra might be carried out by helicopters. Will the Indian government go-ahead with Amarnath Yatra (pilgrimage) 2020 despite the global pandemic? The annual Amarnath Yatra draws more than 600,000 people to the Kashmir Valley but critics have questioned why is India going ahead with annual pilgrimage? Due to the recent surge in COVID-19, an increasing number of health experts have…

Why a growing number of Kashmiri youth are picking up guns

July 3, 2020July 3, 2020 Editor

Sajad Ahmad Beigh, a 23-year-old herder from south Kashmir’s Shopian district, left his home with a flock of sheep into the nearby woods on a summer afternoon early last month. He never returned. A week later, his brother Khurshed Ahmad was informed by the Indian army officers that Sajad was shot dead in a gunfight in Sugg village, 4km (2.5 miles) away from his home. “He was very young. We had no idea what happened to him,” Khursheed, Sajad’s brother, told Al Jazeera. “It was not a thing he would discuss. We had…

Don’t sell Property to outsiders: APHC (M)

July 2, 2020July 2, 2020 Editor

All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) has advised people to be very vigilant and not sell their land or any property to outsiders at any cost adding that government should stop issuing domicile certificates to outsiders “with the view to change the demographic character of Jammu and Kashmir, which is causing great concern among people and could have serious consequences for the region.” In a statement issued here, the APHC said executive members Prof. Abdul Ghani Bhat and Bilal Ghani lone called on ailing executive member and former APHC chairman Maulana…

After 23 years in captivity, Three Kashmiri men found innocent in Lajpat Nagar blast case

July 1, 2020July 1, 2020 Editor

All three men were first arrested from Nepal for their alleged roles in Lajpat Nagar market bomb blast in 1996 They were also charged by the Rajasthan police with bombing of a state roadways bus soon after The men have been finally acquitted after 23 years in captivity Three Kashmiri youths, Mohammad Ali Bhat, Lateef Ahmad Waza and Mirza Nissar Hussain, arrested in 1996 in prime of their youths as “terrorists” but finally acquitted as “innocents” after 23 years of incarceration have been left coming to the terms of their…

Caught between Virus and Violence

July 1, 2020July 1, 2020 Editor

By -Muheet Ul Islam & Sheikh Uzair As 12-year-old Basim lay on a hospital bed, his father Aijaz Ahmad asked him to recite some verses from the Quran. “Papa, am I going to die?” Basim inquired innocently. The only child of his parents had suffered ninety-percent burn injuries in an explosion. Doctors had told Ahmed his son would not survive. Basim was one of hundreds of people who had visited Nawakadal, a densely populated area of Srinagar in Indian administered Kashmir to see the destruction suffered by locals in a…

For raising voice against Domicile Law, Mubeen Shah booked on sedition charges

June 29, 2020June 29, 2020 Editor

Prominent Kashmir born businessman Mubeen Shah has reportedly been booked for sedition. Reliable sources told News Agency KNT that Mubeen Shah has been booked on charges of sedition after he asked people of Kashmir to put a collective fight against what he called settler-colonialism. After the abrogation of special status of Jammu and Kashmir, authorities started issuing domicile certificates to non-locals while an IAS officer from Bihar became the permanent resident of Jammu and Kashmir. Sources added that Mubeen Shah’s Facebook post against issuance of Domicile Certificates didn’t go down…

ASEAN coalition supports OIC communique on Kashmir Situation

June 25, 2020June 25, 2020 Editor

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has expressed full support to the communique of the recent OIC Contact Group Virtual Emergency meeting on the situation of Indian occupied Kashmir. In a letter to OIC, ASEAN coalition pointed out that the situation on the ground in Jammu Kashmir is dire and needs immediate attention to alleviate the sufferings of the Kashmiri civilians. It stated that since the August 2019 lockdown, there is no breathing space for the Kashmiris as the BJP Indian government has escalated its grip on the disputed…

OIC rejects GoI’s decision to scrap the special status of J&K, asks member states to raise Kashmir Issue with India

June 23, 2020June 23, 2020 Editor

The Organisation of Islamic Conference Contact Group on Jammu and Kashmir has called upon the OIC member states to raise the Jammu and Kashmir dispute in their bilateral engagements with India with a view to safeguarding the fundamental human rights of the Kashmiri people in the occupied territory, and ensuring expeditious implementation of the relevant UN Security Council Resolutions. The Group also affirmed that Indian actions of August 5, 2019 and new domicile rules are in complete violation of the UNSC resolutions, international laws including the 4th Geneva Conventions, and…