Category: Kashmir

Kashmir

A postcard from Kashmir on the eve of India’s Independence Day

Editor

As India and Indians prepare to celebrate Independence day and the freedoms we gained, let us pause for a moment to think of the lack of any ‘azadi’ in Kashmir, which is often called the crown on India’s head. The crown is bereft of sheen, of jewels, of ‘Indian-ness’. Every Kashmiri is locked up at home because of the government’s fear that Pakistani flags might flutter atop buildings, that black flags might mar the celebrations of the nation’s birth. The Valley is draped in a blanket of security. Thousands of…

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Govt stops ‘Tiranga Yatra’ from entering Kashmir

Editor

The PDP-BJP coalition government has stopped the ‘Tiranga yatra’, being undertaken by a group of youths who want to hoist the Tricolour at Lal Chowk in Srinagar. The five youths, who belong to the Varanasi Lok Sabha constituency of the Prime Minister, are undertaking the rally to inculcate “patriotism” in the younger generation. Interestingly, on the directions of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the BJP has taken out ‘Tiranga yatras’ all over the country to reach out to the electorate with a message of national unity and amity but in J&K,…

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Preparations underway in valley to celebrate Pakistan’s Independence Day: Intel agencies inform MHA

Editor

Incidents of Pakistan’s national flag being waved in Kashmir are not new. However, it is for the first time in almost three decades that preparations are on to celebrate Pakistan’s Independence Day on August 14, intelligence agencies have alerted the Ministry of Home Affairs. According to a report in The Indian Express, a pro-Pakistani faction in the Valley that has been under strict curfew from the last one month is in plans to celebrate Pakistan’s Independence Day in a big way. They have prepared makeshift platforms in all major towns to…

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Army flex muscles on peaceful protesters in Bandipora; Five booked under PSA

Editor

Army on Saturday allegedly beat up residents of Saderkote Bala in north Kashmir’s Bandipora district. Witnesses said that residents had gathered near SK Bala chowk and were protesting peacefully when the army men went berserk. “In the meantime, army men armed with lathis started beating up locals without any provocation,” they said. They alleged that the men from 13th RR stationed at Manasbal beat up the residents ruthlessly. An army spokesman in Srinagar, however, said their men were not active in the area. “Our men are not active in the area. We…

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BJP leader threatens to quit if ‘Tiranga Rally’ disallowed in Valley

Editor

BJP leader Eshfaq-ur-Rehman Poswal today threatened to quit the party if the high command disallows his proposed ‘Tiranga rally’ in the Kashmir valley. The BJP leader from Kupwara district had earlier urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to allow him to conduct the rally from the Line of Control (LoC) to Lal Chowk in Srinagar, ahead of Independence Day. “I will be forced to to quit the BJP if it fails to organise ‘Tiranga rally’. I am surprised the party has not held any programme in Kashmir in the run-up to…

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People irked over ‘Ban’ on night movement on Highway

Editor

The decision of security forces to “disallow” night traffic on the Srinagar-Baramulla national highway for the past three days has triggered anger among people, especially fruit growers. While District Magistrate, Baramulla, Naseer Ahmed Naqash said no night curfew order was issued by him, commuters travelling on the highway and other routes accuse the Army and the police of not allowing them to travel during the night, saying the forces take the excuse of night curfew. “The Army does not allow any movement on the highway after 9 pm,” said Suhail…

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Ongoing unrest has roots in militant hotbed Tral

Editor

On the Jammu-Srinagar national highway that snakes through the Valley, a curve near Awantipora town in south Kashmir leads to picturesque and mountainous Tral sub-district, home to many militants of the region’s new-age insurgency. It is in Tral, 35 km south-east of Srinagar, that Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani’s body arrived home in the dead of a stormy night last month, setting the stage for the largest funeral in the region in decades and the most overt expression of pro-militant sentiment. Burhan’s killing on July 8 triggered an unprecedented pro-militant…

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80 Additional paramilitary companies for violence Hit Kashmir Valley

Editor

More forces for violence-hit Valley, 80 additional paramilitary companies to fan out across Kashmir The security grid engaged in maintaining law and order situation in Kashmir will get a boost in coming days. Over 80 companies of the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) will fan out across the Valley to contain the protests. This includes nearly 40 companies of additional CAPF, which are being rushed to Kashmir and also the 40 companies of the CRPF engaged in securing the Amarnath yatra route, which would be redeployed in parts of Kashmir…

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Seeing the new normal in Kashmir

Editor

From all assessments, the protests in the Valley are frighteningly spontaneous. Mehbooba Mufti, the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, faces a terrible identity crisis. She has begun blaming Pakistan for encouraging young Kashmiris to take up arms and accused the country of pushing infiltration. Her lexicon of blame now echoes that of New Delhi, where it is fashionable to reflexively drag all blame to Islamabad. Home Minister Rajnath Singh has done it; Minister of Information and Broadcasting Venkaiah Naidu has done it; so also has Minister for External Affairs…

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Acknowledge Kashmir as political problem, Dialogue can follow later: Mirwaiz

Editor

The government is not even acknowledging the sentiment, saying it’s a sponsored sentiment. It’s time India told the truth about Kashmir to its own people, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq said   Moderate separatist leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq said on Thursday that the first step towards peace in the strife-torn state will be to acknowledge the political nature of the Kashmir problem, a day after the Centre’s committed to hold talks with all stakeholders. The Centre agreed to an all-party meeting on Thursday to discuss how to end weeks of violent unrest…

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