Category: Community

Kashmiri Pandit returns home after 29 years, Gets rousing welcome

Editor

On Wednesday 65 year old Roshan Lal a Kashmiri Pandit received a rousing welcome from locals in Srinagar’s downtown. Locals of the area as a mark of respect wore him a turban, as others expressed their joy by distributing sweets. Lal a trader was returning to Kashmir after a span of 29 years, he had left the valley after being attacked by suspected gunmen when the armed insurgency in valley erupted. “Four bullets penetrated my belly and then I woke up in the army hospital,” recalled Lal whose grey hair…

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No one can separate Kashmir from India irrespective of who comes to power: Amit Shah

Editor

While addressing a public meeting in Bihar’s Sitamarhi Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah said, “Omar Abdullah of the ‘Mahagathbandhan’ says that there should be another Prime Minster in Kashmir. They want Kashmir to be separated from India. Even if BJP is not in power then also as long as the BJP workers live, no one can separate Kashmir from India.” BJP president Amit Shah asserted that Kashmir can never be separated from India irrespective of whether Narendra Modi will be Prime Minister or whether BJP is in power…

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Kashmir’s Empty Voting Machines

Editor

Masses stayed away from the polling booths Turnout in the first phase of voting in Anantnag LS seat was 12 percent. It was 39 percent in 2014. Mehbooba Mufti won the seat in 2014, but the meager turnout in PDP bastions might dent her prospects. It is the only constituency in the country that is going to polls in three phases. And yet, Anantnag, which comprises south Kashmir’s four districts, shows no signs that elections are on. In the first phase, on April 23, a few people cast votes at…

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Valley’s wedding season badly hit by Highway Crisis

Editor

With hundreds of sheep-laden trucks stuck along the Jammu-Srinagar national highway for the past several days, mutton shortage has badly spoiled the ongoing wedding season. Mutton dealers, who haven’t been able to deliver orders to customers, have threatened to suspend business activity from the next week if the traffic is not restored on the highway. The dealers said more than 250 trucks laden with sheep are stuck at Udhampur. Several families have cancelled or rescheduled weddings. “At the last moment we were informed by the mutton dealer that he cannot…

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Review highway ban: HC to Govt

Editor

The J&K High Court today granted one week more to the state government to file its response to petitions challenging the highway ban order. The court observed that the government would have to defend its ban after it was pointed out by a senior lawyer that the state Home Secretary has no power to pass such an order directing restrictions on the movement of civilian traffic on the national highway for two days a week. The directions were issued by a Division Bench, headed by Justice Ali Mohammed Magrey, in…

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Highway Ban: No civilian traffic on highway today

Editor

Jammu and Kashmir Traffic police department on Tuesday said that no civilian traffic would be allowed to ply on Srinagar-Jammu national highway on Wednesday. They issued an advisory and said that Wednesday is convoy and no civilian traffic will be allowed on highway. “No movement of any kind of public vehicle shall be allowed from Udhampur towards Srinagar and vice versa,” said the advisory. In April the government has banned the movement of civilian traffic on highway for two days. It has said keeping in view the large movement of…

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After zero turnout in Anantnag, Omar Abdullah appeals ‘Give anger a Voice’

Editor

In the first two hours of voting in phase three of Lok Sabha polls, not a single vote was cast in Jammu and Kashmir’s Ananatnag Lok Sabha constituency, a hotbed of militant activities, while former chief minister Omar Abdullah urged people to ‘vote to give anger a voice’. “To the voters of Anantnag, please don’t reward the death, destruction & deceit of the last 4 years by staying home & boycotting the election. Come out & vote to give your anger a voice. Vote for the best candidate in the…

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90 Polling booths draw Zero Votes in Srinagar

Editor

As many as 90 polling booths, mostly in downtown city, saw no voting in Thursday’s elections to the Srinagar Parliamentary seat, sources said. Srinagar recorded zero turnout in as many as 50 polling booths. The majority of these booths were located in Eidgah, Khanyar, Habba Kadal and Batmaloo, sources said. Barring the Sonawar assembly segment, where former chief ministers Farooq Abdullah and Omar cast their votes, all other seven assembly seats recorded a single digit voting percentage with Eidgah at 3.3 per cent by the end of the polling. Sonawar…

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Militancy contained to two-and-a-half districts in Kashmir: PM Narendra Modi

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said his government managed to contain “terrorism” to only “two and a half” districts in Jammu and Kashmir and that no bomb blast took place elsewhere in the country in last five years. Addressing a poll rally at Amreli in Gujarat, Modi said that what he learnt in Gujarat helped him during the long Doklam standoff with China in 2017. Referring to various incidents of bomb blasts in the country previously, he said, “In the last five years no bomb blast took place in…

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As long as BJP exists, Kashmir will be ours: Amit Shah

Editor

Kashmir is an integral part of India and it would continue to remain so as long as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) exists, party president Amit Shah said in Tasgaon rally on Wednesday. Shah’s remarks came at a poll rally, in response to National Conference (NC) leader Omar Abdullah’s recent suggestion of having a separate prime minister for Kashmir. “No one can take away Kashmir from us. As long as the BJP exists, Kashmir will continue to be an integral part of India,” Shah told the rally in western Maharashtra.…

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