Student Protests continues across Kashmir, scores injured

Students clashed with police and paramilitary forces in south Kashmir’s Anantnag, north Kashmir’s Baramulla and Kupwara district and central Kashmir’s Budgam district Thursday. Students of Government Higher Secondary School Magam clashed with the forces when they allegedly tried to enter the Government Degree College Magam and Government Higher Secondary School Magam premises. As protesting students pelted stones at the forces, they fired dozens of tear smoke canisters and charged students with batons to disperse them. Six students were detained during the clashes, locals said. In north Kashmir’s Sopore town, 13…

Read More

UN calls Social Media ban in Kashmir a ‘Collective Punishment’

Urges India to restore internet services immediately to allow free speech Terming the ban on social media networks in Jammu and Kashmir as “collective punishment”, two United Nations human rights experts on Thursday demanded that it be immediately lifted. In a press release on the official website of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), David Kaye and Michel Forst asserted that “the scope of these restrictions has a significantly disproportionate impact on the fundamental rights of everyone in Kashmir, undermining the government’s stated aim of preventing dissemination…

Read More

Opposition pushes plan for conclave on Kashmir, all-party meeting likely soon

Kashmir Conclave: Sharad Yadav meets Manmohan Shah; Omar Abdullah reaches out to CPI. A series of meetings between Opposition leaders to plan a conclave on Kashmir, as also to look for a political solution, has picked up pace in Delhi. On Wednesday, JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav met former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for the second time in recent days to discuss the proposed conclave. A date for the conclave is likely to be decided after a meeting between Singh and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi. In the half-hour meeting, Yadav is…

Read More

Governor N N Vohra steps in to defuse Student Unrest in Valley

Seeks to insulate educational system from recurring disruption Asks CM to take steps to ‘immunize’ students against law and order situations Conveys concerns to Chief Secy, DGP, Edu Minister, KU VC Governor N N Vohra has stepped in to defuse the escalating tensions in the wake of unrelenting protests by students across valley. On Wednesday, the Governor had extensive discussions with Minister for Education, Syed Mohammad Altaf Bukhari at Raj Bhavan based on the inputs received from the various quarters to find a way out of the current unrest involving…

Read More

PDP hits back at ally BJP over isolation remarks on Hurriyat leaders

Day after J&K president of Bharatiya Janata Party Sat Sharma asserted that the decision to “isolate” Hurriyat leaders has been taken at the highest level in New Delhi, the Peoples Democratic Party on Wednesday hit back at its ally BJP, saying holding a dialogue with separatists and Pakistan is envisaged in the Agenda of Alliance and “no one can afford a volte-face on this.” In a statement here, PDP’s Vice-President Sartaj Madni said dialogue without Hurriyat is meaningless and repeated utterances of local and national BJP leaders discounting dialogue with…

Read More

Is killing youth, looting banks solution to Kashmir problems: Mehbooba Mufti

Is killing of youth, looting banks and weapons a way forward on Kashmir resolution, the J&K Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti asked on Wednesday and urged people to “introspect and answer.” “It is a tragedy. On the one hand, they (militants) propagate Kashmir issue and on the other, kill our youth who come from poor backgrounds and achieve something like the ‘martyr’ Fayaz did,” said Mehbooba while talking to media on the sidelines of the 2nd J&K Medical Science Congress 2017 and the first annual conference of MPPCOS Society here. The…

Read More

BJP wants Durbar shift exercise scrapped

The BJP has put the coalition partner, PDP, in a tight spot as the former has demanded “abandoning” of the 145-year-old Durbar move practice. The Durbar move is the relocation of the capital and secretariat from Jammu to Srinagar and vice-versa every six months. The demand, made by BJP spokesperson Virender Gupta in statement on Monday, may trigger a new debate as voices demanding that the practice be scrapped have started getting shriller in Jammu, where the government has gone missing after the Durbar offices shifted to Srinagar. “The practice…

Read More

All about the Darbar Move in Jammu & Kashmir

Darbar Move is a century-old practice in which the government functions for six months each in the two capitals of the State, Srinagar and Jammu. As summer sets in, the Jammu and Kashmir government is all set to start functioning from Srinagar for the next six months. For the last six months, however, the government was working from its winter capital Jammu, as part of the pre-independence bi-annual ‘Darbar Move’ practice. Darbar Move is a century-old practice in which the government functions for six months each in the two capitals…

Read More

Not all students pelt stones in Valley : Mehbooba Mufti

As school students clashed with security forces in Pulwama district on Monday, Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti stressed that not every young Kashmiri was a stone-pelter. Kashmir once again stood at the crossroads, she said, but added peace would return to the troubled valley which has been seeing protests, mostly by students, over the last two months. “There are some who pelt stones, but not all the youth from Kashmir do so,” she said, urging the national media not to highlight discussions that “developed hatred” against the people…

Read More

Violent Start to Summer 2017: 12 killed in first week of May

Summer has started on a violent note in Kashmir. In the first week of May, at least 12 persons, including six policemen, two bank guards and four civilians, have been killed in various incidents. At the end of April, the casualty figure of security forces in Kashmir was 12. With the killing of six policemen last week, the toll has jumped to 18. This is much higher when compared to corresponding period last year which was incidentally one of bloodiest year for the security forces. In 2016, the forces lost…

Read More