Category: Community

Kashmir completes 300 days of lockdown amid military siege

Editor

In Kashmir, the inhumane lockdown imposed by RSS-backed Narendra Modi-led fascist government on August 05, last year, when it revoked the special status of the territory, has completed 300 days. An analytical report prepared, today, by Senior Editor of Kashmir Media Service, Muhammad Raza Malik, on the completion of 300 days of unrelenting military siege and lockdown in the occupied territory, revealed that Indian troops martyred 134 Kashmiris including 4 women during the period. It said that at least 1,299 people were critically injured due to the use of brute…

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KSCAN writes letter to UN Security Council for immediate intervention to prevent forced demographic change in J&K

Editor

Open letter to the UN Secretary General, the UN Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect and the UN Security Council: Requesting an immediate intervention to prevent forced demographic change in Jammu and Kashmir May 23, 2020 To: His Excellency, António Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations His Excellency, Adama Dieng, Special Adviser of the Secretary-General on the Prevention of Genocide, United Nations Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect Her Excellency, Karen Smith, Special Adviser of the Secretary-General on the Responsibility to Protect, United Nations Office on Genocide…

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India is using the pandemic to intensify its crackdown in Kashmir

Editor

As the world remains consumed with containing the coronavirus pandemic and the severe economic fallout, India has spotted an opportunity for another round of repression against the population of Kashmir, which had already been reeling from the harsh aftereffects of last year’s six-month-long military lockdown. By initiating gunfights with guerrilla fighters, jailing people for going to buy food and medicine, bringing charges against journalists, and beating doctors, paramedics and municipal workers, India is tightening its grip on Kashmir, seizing on pandemic measures to prevent a surge of resistance to its…

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Imagine the Indian lockdown without the internet and phones, Now think Kashmir

Editor

At 8 pm local time, on March 24, prime minister Narendra Modi gave 1.3 billion Indians a four-hour notice to confine themselves to their homes for the next 21 days. The national health emergency, to contain the spread of the coronavirus, suddenly plunged the country into uncharted waters, with most people having no experience in navigating them. In these dark times, one place that most Indians can look up to for guidance is Kashmir, with its three decades of experience with such crises. In the restive northern region, drawn closures…

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#VIPCulture: VIP Passengers walk out of Srinagar Airport without Covid-19 Screening

Editor

Two Kashmiri students returning from Bangladesh walked out of the Srinagar International Airport on Thursday morning without undergoing the mandatory screening for the Covid-19 infection, courtesy their ‘influential parents’. According to reports, two female MBBS students enrolled at Dhaka Medical College arrived with 30 other students at the Srinagar International Airport in an early morning Indigo flight from Kolkata. All the students were kept at the arrival lounge with 250 other travelers who had flown in from different parts of the country. “While we were speculating administration’s next move, an…

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Why is there panic across Kashmir Valley?

Editor

Panic has gripped Jammu and Kashmir amid rumours of imminent abrogation of Article 35A of the Constitution and after the deployment of thousands of extra troops to the Valley. Officials said that security has been withdrawn from some isolated shrines because of intelligence inputs that foreign terrorists are planning to target police guard there. Some langars for the Amarnath Yatra have also been closed. Summer vacations were preponed and educational institutions have been closed for 10 days starting Thursday. Local residents have started panic-buying essentials as they are linking the…

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What are Articles 370 and 35A? Why they are important for J&K

Editor

Rumours are afloat that the Modi-led government is set to scrap Article 370 and Article 35A of the Constitution, which prevents anyone who is not a state subject of Jammu & Kashmir from purchasing property and settling in the state. The rumours were triggered by reports of Centre deploying additional 10,000 paramilitary troops to address the likely fallout from the removal of the controversial Article 35A in J&K. The government has, however, said that these are precautionary measures in view of terrorist threats. The rumours reflect apprehensions in the Valley following Home Minister Amit Shah’s pointed statement in…

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As a sign of peace, India promotes Hindu pilgrimage (Amarnath Yatra) in Kashmir

Editor

India is pitching a Hindu pilgrimage to a snowy cave shrine in disputed, Muslim-majority Kashmir as evidence of peace in a state marred by decades of armed conflict amid popular resistance to Indian rule. The annual yatra, or spiritual journey, to the Amarnath shrine, the hallowed mountain cave where devotees revere an icy stalagmite as an image of Lord Shiva, presents an opportunity for the state of Jammu and Kashmir to show something beyond the frequent skirmishes between armed separatists and Indian soldiers that have cost tens of thousands of…

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A dangerous experiment is in the works in Kashmir

Editor

A dangerous experiment seems to be in the works in Jammu and Kashmir. It started innocuously enough and in the best traditions of a vibrant democracy. In the November 2014 state elections, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) won 28 seats in the Muslim-majority Kashmir Valley. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which a few months prior to that had decisively won the general elections, cruised to a comfortable majority of 25 seats in the Jammu region, which has a near equal mix of Muslims and Hindus. While the PDP did not…

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Kashmiri accused in blast cases return home, ‘We are acquitted but who will bring back our 23 years’

Editor

While acquitting them on Monday, the High Court said the prosecution had failed to provide evidence of conspiracy. It said the prosecution could not establish any link between them and the main accused, Dr Abdul Hameed, whose death sentence was upheld. The sky was overcast, but, for the first time in over two decades, they were no longer under cloud, as they stepped out of the Jaipur Central Jail Tuesday, a day after the Rajasthan High Court acquitted them in the 1996 Samleti blast case. At 5:19 pm Tuesday, Latif…

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