Category: General News

General News

SC orders protection to Kathua rape victim’s family, lawyer; issues notice to JK Govt

Editor

The father of the Kathua rape and murder victim had moved the Supreme Court seeking to shift the trial to Chandigarh, saying he would not get a fair hearing in Jammu The Supreme Court on Monday issued a notice to the Jammu and Kashmir government on a petition to shift the trial of the eight accused in the Kathua gang rape and murder case out of the state and ordered protection for the victim’s family and their lawyer. Even as the trial got underway on Monday in a Kathua court,…

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End of road likely for BJP-PDP govt in J&K as cracks in alliance widen

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Has the PDP-BJP alliance in Jammu and Kashmir reached a tipping point from where there is no point of return? That is the question on the minds of political observers in the state who have been watching the alliance drift apart after coming together in 2014, in what was described as an ‘unholy marriage’ of two ideas lying at the opposite ends of the political spectrum. “We are tired of their (BJP’s) deception,” a senior PDP leader and member of Jammu and Kashmir’s legislative council, told Firstpost, adding, “We were…

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#JusticeForAsifa, From Silence to a rush of empathy for the victim, Humanity Lost and Found

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As soon as the bone-chilling details about rape and murder of a child in Kathua came to fore this week, the gruesome incident hogged the headlines in media. From TV studios in New Delhi to reputed newspaper like New York Times, the cries of justice for the victim, eight-year-old Asifa, have grown louder since. In its report headlined“an 8-Year-Old’s Rape and Killing Fuels Religious Tensions in India,” the New York Times wrote that the incident “seemed another isolated, horrific episode of sexual violence in India, perpetrated against a powerless girl…

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Pro-rapist rallies allowed in Jammu, bullets and curfews ‘Order of the day’ in Kashmir: Mirwaiz Umar Farooq

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Hurriyat (M) chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq on Thursday slammed Jammu and Kashmir government for its “duplicity”, saying in Jammu pro-rapist rallies were being allowed while in Kashmir bullets and pellets have become “order of the day.” “Goons of #JammuBar &Political opportunists given a free run to enforce the despicable pro-rapist bandh in #Jammu while in #Kashmir bullets,pellets,curfews,arrests,gags,closing of Edu.Institutions order of the day “to maintain law&order”&“prevent untoward incidents”!What duplicity!” (sic) Mirwaiz wrote on Twitter. On Wednesday, four civilians were killed in forces action in Khudwani area of south Kashmir’s Kulgam…

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Mehbooba Mufti is at a loss over the shifting public mood in Kashmir

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A wave of anger has gripped the Valley anew following an aggressive and bloody counterinsurgency campaign. On March 30, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti told delegates at a convention of the Travel Agents Association of India in Srinagar: “We’ve invited you here for handholding us. Something happens in Kashmir, some encounter [gunbattle between militants and government forces] at a far off place, it appears on TV as if entire Kashmir was burning. Your coming here is like a whiff of spring, a good omen. Our situation is not…

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Pre-1953 status demand obnoxious: Chaman Lal Gupta

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Chaman Lal Gupta, former Union Minister, on Wednesday termed the demand for the restoration of the pre-1953 autonomy of J&K “obnoxious”. In a statement, Gupta said, “No right-thinking person can even think of having those black days back. Prior to 1953, there was no jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, the Election Commission and even the Comptroller and Auditor General of India.” He said the extent of intolerance could be gauged from the fact that in the 1950s, Pandit Prem Nath Dogra, who founded the All-J&K Praja Parishad, was arrested for…

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J&K excluded from India in map distributed at health ministry event

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In a faux pas, Jammu and Kashmir was excluded from the Indian map at an event organised by the Health Ministry on Wednesday. The map showed Jammu and Kashmir as distinct from other parts of India and Aksai Chin as part of China. The erroneous map was circulated by an organisation supported by the World Health Organization (WHO). Aksai Chin is a disputed border area between China and India. It is administered by China as part of Hotan County but is also claimed by India as a part of the…

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UN Secretary General says ready to talk to Pakistan, India officials on Kashmir Issue

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After UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres indicated that he was ready to talk to senior officials from India and Pakistan on the situation in Kashmir and see how things can be improved on the ground, voices were raised in New Delhi addressing all stakeholders that the solution to the present crisis in Jammu and Kashmir lies in dialogue at the appropriate political level. “Only by winning the hearts and minds of the people can their faith in the political process be restored,” former Indian External Affairs and Finance Minister, former Secretary,…

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Kashmir violence being stoked by talk of revenge: Concerned Citizens Group

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The Concerned Citizens Group, including former Union minister Yashwant Sinha and former National Commission for Minorities chairperson Wajahat Habibullah, expressed deep anguish over the escalation in violence and said the solution to the present crisis lies in political dialogue. Violence in the Kashmir Valley shows no signs of abating and is, in fact, being stoked by “talk of revenge” and “unrestrained public statements” from various actors, a citizen’s group said in a statement on Tuesday. The Concerned Citizens Group, including former Union minister Yashwant Sinha and former National Commission for…

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Farooq Abdullah bats for Internal Autonomy, calls for converting LoC into line of Peace & Goodwill

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Strongly pitching for Indo-Pak dialogue, National Conference president Farooq Abdullah on Sunday said internal autonomy to J&K within the framework of the Indian Constitution and the conversion of Line of Control (LoC) into ‘line of peace and goodwill’ were a pragmatic way forward to herald peace in the region. “India and Pakistan should resume the dialogue process and engage people of J&K in an acceptable solution,” Farooq said while addressing party workers at Balakote in the Mendhar constituency of Poonch district. He said sagacity lay in acknowledging the realities and…

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