Category: Community

Killing of civilians continues during clashes with security forces in Kashmir

Editor

A man was killed while 20 others were injured on Tuesday in clashes between stone-pelters and security forces near an encounter site in Shopian district of Jammu and Kashmir where two militants were killed. Tamsheel Ahmad Khan of Vehil in Shopian died after suffering head injuries during the clashes near Kundullan, a police official said. He said 20 other people were injured of which eight were referred to hospitals here for specialised treatment. Some people had assembled near the encounter site and indulged in stone-pelting on security forces, who were…

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Ending ceasefire, coalition break-up linked to 2019 poll: CCG Report

Editor

Concerned Citizens’ Group (CCG), a civil society group led by former union finance minister Yashwant Sinha which recently visited J&K, in its report released on Friday said that the local perception in the Valley was that centre’s decision to not extend the Ramadhan ceasefire followed by withdrawal of BJP’s support to its former ally PDP was “part of a grand strategy of the BJP with an eye on the 2019 general election”. The report expressed concern over the recent developments in the Valley including the assassination of journalist Shujaat Bukhari.…

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Character assassination of Hurriyat leaders plot to prolong detentions: Hurriyat (G)

Editor

Rejecting any possibility of submission or surrender before the “imperialism and military might”, Hurriyat (G) chairman, Syed Ali Geelani Friday termed “the fresh spurt in the character assassination campaign launched by the NIA, against the resistance leadership as a brazen plot to prolong the illegal and unjustified detention of the leadership”. Hailing the “exemplary and praiseworthy” role played by DeM chairperson Syeda Asiya Andrabi and her family, Geelani condemned the “sinister designs” of NIA to lodge “baseless” case against her. “It is the well-thought out ploy to defame leadership on…

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Shujaat Bukhari’s killers identified, one of them is a Pakistani: J&K Police

Editor

Two men from Kashmir and a Pakistani killed senior journalist Shujaat Bukhari in Srinagar on June 14, said Jammu and Kashmir Police on Wednesday. “The case has been solved and all the attackers identified,” said a senior police officer. He identified the Pakistani as Naveed Jutt, who had escaped from the police custody. Bukhari, 48, the editor-in-chief of Rising Kashmir, was attacked by three gunmen on a motorcycle while he was in his car. His two security guards were also killed as multiple bullets were sprayed at them A special…

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High alert ahead of Yatra, Defence minister visits Valley to take stock of security arrangments

Editor

The Nunwan Base Camp here has been converted into a fortress ahead of the commencement of the annual Amarnath Yatra, which will begin on Thursday, as security for this year’s pilgrimage was heightened to thwart any rerun of last year’s militant attack that left eight pilgrims dead and several injured. Police and CRPF and other forces have been deployed in large numbers around the Nunwan Base Camp located at the entry of this buzzing tourist town. The first security checkpoint was established and activated near the Langanbal bridge where police…

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Cops seek to ensure low-key funeral of militants in Kashmir Valley

Editor

While there is no change in policy under governor’s rule in Jammu and Kashmir on handing over bodies of local terrorists killed in anti-terror operations to their families, J&K police are ensuring that their funerals remain uneventful with only close relatives and limited number of people from the village in attendance. “The bodies of all four Islamic State-influenced terrorists killed in Anantnag on Friday were handed over to their respective families. Mobile internet services in the home village/town of the slain terrorists as well as adjoining areas were suspended to…

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A referendum in the Indian part of J&K should ask the people a simple question: Do you wish to stay in India or not?

Editor

Nothing is ever new in Kashmir and nothing ever changes. Every party, whether local to J&K or from the Rest of India (ROI), has failed to either win the support of the people or to contain the dissidents of one colour or another. J&K remains the only state where ROI needs to send delegations of MPs (obviously they never visit the state on their own) or interlocutors ( whose reports are invariably ignored). In no other state in ROI, mobile phones are jammed if the PM is visiting. J&K (or…

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Shujaat Bukhari gunned down by militants on orders from Pakistan: J&K Police

Editor

The Jammu & Kashmir police department has got some concrete clues on the killing of Shujaat Bukhari and expects to crack the case soon, even by the end of June, senior police officers said on condition of anonymity. The officers, who are directly involved in investigations, added that Bukhari was gunned down by terrorists on instructions from across the border, most probably for trying to promote peace in the Valley. According to them, this was seen unfavourably by separatists and the Jamait-e-Islami leaders on both sides of the Line of…

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21 Top militants on ‘Hit List’ of security forces in Kashmir Valley

Editor

Twenty-one top terrorists are now on the “hit list” of security forces after Islamic State of Jammu and Kashmir (ISJK) chief Dawood Ahmed Salafi and three of his aides were gunned down in a shootout at Nowshera village in south Kashmir on Friday. The bodies of Dawood Ahmad Sofi (known also as Salafi and Burhan), the chief of ISIS in J&K and involved in several terror attacks on policemen, snatching of weapons, stone-pelting cases, and three others were retrieved from the site on Friday. The encounter, considered as a major…

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Kashmir-Jammu an old dilemma

Editor

The BJP was well placed to manage it, but it chose short-term political gains The Bharatiya Janata Party’s decision to break its alliance with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and plunge Jammu and Kashmir into political chaos comes as a climax to a dilemma that the party’s government at the Centre had been facing since the State elections in 2014. On the one hand, it needed political stability and a friendly government in J&K to find a political solution to the growing insurgency and unrest in the Valley. On the…

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