Category: Community

How Kashmir’s women view the youth taking to guns

Editor

In times of war, they say, truth becomes the first casualty. To say that women become the second-biggest casualty in a conflict zone like Kashmir will be an understatement. Catch looks at the many ways in which the conflict is impacting the lives of women in the restive Valley since 1989 on a daily basis. More often than not, the narrative of victimhood remains the main contention in restive regions. The sufferings of women cannot be underestimated by any stretch of the imagination. In Kashmir, though, many women have also stood up…

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Govt evicts 25 ex-MPs, MLAs, others from ‘illegally’ occupied quarters

Editor

The State government has evicted 25 former legislators and parliamentarians from the official quarters “illegally” occupied by them, while the eviction notices have been sent to 32 other political persons mostly former MLAs and ministers. The official documents accessed by the Kashmir Post reveal that the “eviction was not restrictive in nature but was initiated against all those occupants who have ceased to be entitled to retain the same”. The J&K Estates department has started the eviction process of vacating official quarters “illegally” occupied by the former ministers, legislators, Members…

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Expedite sanction for prosecution of accused CRPF personnel in Khanyar Massacre: SHRC to Govt

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The State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) has asked the government to expedite sanction for prosecution of the accused CRPF personnel for opening fire on a procession in Khanyar area in Downtown on 8 May 1991, killing 28 people. The accused CRPF personnel had opened fire on a procession at Khanyar carrying bodies of civilians killed in Dachigam and SaidaKadal, killing 28 civilians and injuring 52 people. Despite passing of 27 years, police is yet to translate the case file into English, causing delay in according sanction for prosecution of the…

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Hope Beats Hate:Kathua rape-murder case petition biggest-ever Indian petition on Change.org

Editor

A Change.org petition started by a group of women from Jammu and Kashmir on the Kathua rape case has mobilised the support of over 15 lakh Indian citizens and has become the biggest ever Change.org petition in India. The petition started by a collective called Women’s Initiative for Justice for Kathua is addressed to Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti and asks for fair and fast tracked investigations by the Crime Branch to ensure justice for the victim. The petition, which has been widely tweeted by film and television celebrities like Hansal…

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Kashmir’s indifference bigger threat to Gujjar Bakarwals than Jammu’s Xenophobia

Editor

Masud Choudhary, founding VC of Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah University, describes the irony of how Bakarwals, whose people have repeatedly made great sacrifices for India, are now conveniently being branded as ‘anti-nationals’. In January, when local police began investigations into the abduction, torture, gang-rape and murder of eight-year-old girl in Kathua, it found her to be a victim of another brutality. In the earlier days of investigation some police officers, who did not want to be named, said they were also probing the angle of hate crime. Subsequent protests in…

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Amid rising demand for alcohol ban in J&K, sales grow 13%

Editor

Raising alarm bells in Kashmir society, liquor sales in J&K have increased by 13 percent in last five years to 5.65 crore bottles in 2016-17. While the people in general are dismayed over the rising consumption of alcohol, as it is ‘causing social distraught’, civil society members, social activists and business community has called for immediate ban on the sales of alcohol in the state like Gujarat, Bihar and Lakshadweep. Pro-alcohol ban groups in the state, particularly in Kashmir, argue that it will ruin the social fabric of the Muslim…

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Had State acted on Kunan-Poshpora, Kathua wouldn’t have happened

Editor

The rape and murder of an 8-year old nomadic girl in Kathua has reopened the wounds of the survivors of the Kunan-Poshpora mass rape of 1991, who came all the way down from their small hamlet to show solidarity with the minor victim. “If the State would have acted in case of Kunan-Poshpora, Kathua would have never happened,” they said. As many as 27 years have passed, but the survivors of the mass rape are still longing for the guilty army personnel to be punished, as the probe has been…

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Bar Council to probe lawyer’s ‘Misconduct’ in Kathua rape & Murder case

Editor

The Bar Council of India (BCI) on Sunday decided to probe the “misconduct” on part of lawyers in connection with the Kathua rape and murder case on a day Jammu and Kashmir CM Mehbooba Mufti accepted the resignations of two BJP ministers who had participated in a rally in support of the accused. The resignations of Lal Singh and Chander Prakash Ganga, received from BJP state chief Sat Sharma, were immediately accepted and sent to Governor NN Vohra. The BCI decision came after its general body met in the backdrop…

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Kathua Rape & Murder triggers political row, BJP asks Cong to sack its JK chief

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The BJP on Sunday demanded the sacking of state Congress chief Ghulam Ahmad Mir, claiming that he was seen in a video terming the police probe in the Kathua rape-and-murder case motivated and defending the public protests against it. Citing the BJP’s decision to remove two of its Jammu and Kashmir ministers, who had joined the public protests against the probe, Union minister Prakash Javadekar wondered if Congress president Rahul Gandhi would only point fingers at others but maintain silence on the comments of his party’s Jammu and Kashmir unit…

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Must sit down together to bring peace: Army Chief General Bipin Rawat

Editor

Army Chief General Bipin Rawat on Sunday said the radicalised youth of the Valley would soon realise that the gun was not the solution to their problem as neither security forces nor terrorists would achieve their goals through it. Peace, he said, was the only way to improve the situation in Kashmir that had been witnessing militancy for about three decades now. “There is hope that the situation in Kashmir will improve…. There are some youths in Kashmir who have strayed and have been radicalised. They think they can achieve…

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