Category: Community

A Tale of ‘Cabbage’ and (W)Rath from Kashmir

Editor

Never has leafy green vegetable cabbage and its health benefits evoked so much interest in the Valley as it did recently. Immediate trigger for the “cabbage talk” is the much talked about transfer of Inspector General of Police, Traffic, Basant Rath. Rath would be credited for popularising cabbage in the Valley. Doctors are writing its health benefits and prodding the population, which is addicted to meat, to have  more of it. Others are making memes of cabbage and more adept internet users are making memes of new mayor of the…

Read More

A Twitter fued, transfer earn unorthodox cop admirers

Editor

An online spat with a mayor followed by the transfer of Basant Rath, an unorthodox IPS officer who preferred to wear civilian clothes over khaki and walked into crowds with ease, has created a storm on internet with local social media users throwing their support for him. Basant Rath, a 2000-batch IPS officer, who served as the Inspector General of Police, Traffic, had become a social media celebrity in the Valley where a lot of people had developed a liking for his unorthodox style of working. While Rath had a…

Read More

After tiff with Mattu and other spate of controversies Basant Rath removed as IGP

Editor

The government on Tuesday transferred outspoken Inspector General of Police (IGP), Traffic, Basant Kumar Rath after his tiff with newly elected Srinagar Mayor Junaid Mattu, who was backed by BJP and its ally Peoples Conference. An order issued by Home Department read, “Basant Kumar Rath, IGP Traffic J&K is transferred and attached in the office of Commandant General, Home Guards/Civil Defence/SDRF till further orders.” As per the order, Alok Kumar IGP Security J&K has replaced Rath. Rath’s tenure comes after his last week’s verbal duel with Mattu on Twitter. Terming…

Read More

MeT predicts Rains, Snow from today, Caught off guard, Valley braces up for harsh winter

Editor

The weatherman has predicted light to moderate rainfall in plains and snowfall in upper reaches of Kashmir on Tuesday and Wednesday. Director Meteorological (MeT) department, Sonum Lotus said that there is possibility of light to moderate rainfall in the plains including Srinagar on Tuesday and Wednesday. “The plains will not experience snowfall,” he said adding there is a forecast of light snowfall in higher reaches. Lotus said weather would remain wet till November 14 and weather conditions would improve from November 15 morning. He said the snowfall in upper reaches…

Read More

Overpricing of essentials continues to burden consumers as CAPD fails to fix rates

Editor

With the failure of the CAPD to enforce the rates of essential commodities, the overpricing of food items like vegetables, pulses, mutton and chicken has became a order of the day in the valley. Under the pretext of Srinagar-Jammu Highway closure due to ongoing inclement weather, traders and hawkers are over charging in absence of a rate list, consumers say. Food, civil supplies and consumer affairs department or CAPD is supposed to revise the list of essential commodities but the consumers say the department has failed to fix the rates…

Read More

A forgotten story of how over 2 lakh Muslims were killed in Jammu which led to Kashmir Issue

Editor

After the Partition of India, during October–November 1947 in the Jammu region of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, a large number of Muslims were massacred and others driven away to West Punjab. The killings were carried out by extremist Hindus and Sikhs, aided and abetted by the forces of the Dogra State headed by the Maharaja Hari Singh. The activists of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) played a key role in planning and executing the riots. In November 1947, thousands of Muslims were massacred in Jammu region by…

Read More

Rs 125 cr recovery notice from J&K Bank to Sheikh Imran Srinagar’s Dy Mayor

Editor

The recently elected Srinagar’s Deputy Mayor, Sheikh Imran, is a major defaulter of Jammu and Kashmir Bank as he owes over Rs 125 crore to the bank. He has been issued a recovery notice and threatened of being declared as willful defaulter. The Jammu and Kashmir Bank issued recovery notice (Ref: No. JKB/ ZOKC/ IAPM/ SRFS/ 2018-1929 dated 31-10-2018) to Chairman of Kehwah Group of Industries, Sheikh Imran son of Sheikh Mushtaq of Ishber Nishat after he failed to honour full and final settlement of 23 accounts of the group…

Read More

Joint Resistance Leadership may end its hartal politics

Editor

The Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL) comprising Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik are mulling to shun the two-decade practice of calling strikes after every untoward incident. Sources said the JRL is thinking about replacing the shutdowns with protests similar to ones carried against the proposal to repeal Article 35-A of the constitution. They said during the ongoing consultation with all sections of the society that include religious organisations, lawyers, traders, transporters, employees, academicians, civil society members, it was agreed that continuous hartals were not serving any…

Read More

Rebel transgender Javaid Ahmad who coined Ragda in 2008

Editor

In 2008, when the first of a hat-trick of summer uprisings broke out leaving more than 60 dead and over a 100 injured, the resistance vocabulary of Kashmiris got richer by one more word: ragda. Ragda went on to become the Kashmiri equivalent to the Palestinian intifada and has made its way into many news stories, articles and opinion pieces on Kashmir carried by various newspapers and periodicals ever since.  A rebel transgender behind the epic coinage and a series of slogans has been the mascot of resistance in and…

Read More

1947 Jammu Genocide Unfolded

Editor

On the 70th anniversary of the organised and officially patronised Jammu massacre, almost nothing has been written by India’s mainstream media, keeping alive the tradition of sweeping this enormous human tragedy under the carpet. We pieces together a series of events that turned various areas of Jammu into killing fields. At a time when trainloads of Hindus and Sikhs were coming to Hindustan, leaving the newly-formed nation state of Pakistan behind, and tens of thousands of Muslims were boarding the trains to Pakistan from Delhi, something terrible was happening in…

Read More