Category: Community

Cops look for way out as militant funerals turn into recruitment hubs

Editor

Amid fresh worries that large funerals of militants are turning out to be fertile grounds to “lure and motivate” local youth to take up arms, the J&K Police is devising a mechanism to prevent such occurrences. Security and intelligence officials in Kashmir have been deliberating upon large militant funerals since 2017, but have not been able to do much on the issue. In many funerals, militants also turn up and give ‘gun salute’ to their slain companions. With these funerals becoming the new recruitment hubs, the police authorities have sought…

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NC, Cong, PDP, BJP and 3 Guv-rule spells couldn’t build a 2.5 km flyover

Editor

The governments of all four major political parties of the State – National Conference (NC) and Congress, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) – and the three spells of Governor’s rule have together failed to build a 2.5 km Ram Bagh-Jehangir Chowk flyover. Despite the added emphasis of the subsequent State governments as well as New Delhi on development and good governance, even after five years of its inauguration, more than 60 percent of the work on the flyover is pending. The project started in…

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Muzzaffar Baig may be given bigger role in party overhaul

Editor

Peoples Democratic Party party’s founding member and Member of Parliament Muzzaffar Baig is likely to be given more responsibility as the party is all set for a major revamp after its foundation day on July 28. All six officer-bearers of the party had resigned on Monday to facilitate the reorganisation. Sources said that after the fall of the coalition government, PDP president Mehbooba Mufti during her interactions with lawmakers, MPs and district and zonal presidents had got a fair feedback on the brewing rebellion within the party and the need…

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Eight girls went missing in two months from across Kashmir Valley

Editor

In a disturbing trend, at least eight girls have gone missing in Kashmir in past two months. On May 14, two girls went missing from two locations in Kashmir. They were identified by the police as 18 years old Reenaz Jan from Kheribal Mattan while the other was identified as Rubina Akhter (19), daughter of Chaand Bajad resident of Rajouri, who at present lives at Wangund Teilbal Srinagar. The police issued missing report of the duo to the media after their families recorded a statement with their respective police stations.…

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SHRC takes note of hunger strike by jail inmates, Panel to inspect conditions inside Central Jail Srinagar

Editor

Taking note of the ongoing hunger strike by inmates of the Srinagar Central Jail, the State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) has called for an inspection of the jail premises on July 24 to know the facts behind the strike and to ascertain the condition of the prisoners lodged there. In its orders passed on Monday, the commission has deputed its member Abdul Hamid Wani along with the SSP, SHRC, to visit the jail on July 25 and submit an inspection report. The prisoners in the high-security Srinagar Central Jail are…

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Pilgrims upset as Shiv ling at Amarnath cave melts completely

Editor

The Shiv ling at the Amarnath cave in Jammu and Kashmir has melted completely, leaving pilgrims upset. This year’s Amarnath Yatra, the annual pilgrimage to the shrine, began on June 28. It will end on August 21. So there’s still a month to go. In mid-July, as many as 1.51 lakh pilgrims had already visited the shrine, located north-east of Srinagar. READ | 5 killed, 3 injured in landslide on Amarnath Yatra route A official spokesperson said in June that well over 2 lakh pilgrims had registered for the yatra.…

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Violence dipped accoss Kashmir Valley: Home Ministry

Editor

Terror violence has come down in Jammu and Kashmir substantially ever since the state has been placed under Governor’s rule but incidents of stone pelting have increased marginally, official data has shown. According to the data compiled by the Home Ministry, there has been a decrease in attacks carried out by terrorists between June 16 to July 15 in comparison to the month of Ramadan when the suspension of operations was in force. While the suspension of operations was announced for a month with the beginning of Ramadan on May…

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To anchor Kashmir solution, Geelani must rise to the part

Editor

Of late a number of experts have been suggesting new solutions to Kashmir. Most of them are sitting outside J&K. They think that their telescopic view offers them a clearer picture of the conflict than the people living with the day-to-day brutalities of violence. The distance, they argue, enables them to disseminate a dispassionate and balanced view of the trouble. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this view, but the problem is that they live on borrowed strategies and formulas that have no connection whatsoever with the reality in J&K.…

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Basant Rath, Kashmir’s real-life ‘Singam’ in trouble

Editor

Some call him Singam, some call him Dabang, senior IPS officer Basant Rath has been caught on the wrong side of the law. Rath, inspector general of police, traffic, was caught on camera, slapping a young man in Srinagar, sparking anger across Kashmir. The 44-second video shows Rath, in civvies, arguing with a youth at Partap Park in Srinagar’s nerve-center of Lal Chowk and then slapping him repeatedly. Later, another version of the same video with 1.50 minute duration surfaced on social media, in which the youth is appreciating his…

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Fear of poaching gives sleepless nights to Kashmir’s Politicians

Editor

Beware of predators and poachers, take care of your flock. This is the classic warning for shepherds while they graze their flock in the Himalayan meadows. In Kashmir’s political meadow of expedient opportunities, the same warning is now visiting mainstream politicians. After the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) withdrew from the ruling alliance in Jammu and Kashmir, the politics of make and break is back with a vengeance. Dissident MLAs of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), including the influential Shia leader and former minister Imran Ansari and his uncle, Abid Ansari,…

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