Kashmir Archives | Page 58 of 230

Recruitment announcements & Punishment videos: Hizb changes its public messaging in Kashmir

July 23, 2018 Editor

On July 8, a WhatsApp message went viral in Kashmir. It seemed to console the unsuccessful “applicants” in a recruitment drive. But this was no ordinary job. “We have got thousands of applications and requests from Islam and Freedom loving youth of J&K, but we have chosen a selected group of brothers and have kept the rest of brothers in waiting,” the message read. The message was believed to have been sent out by the Hizbul Mujahideen, Kashmir’s largest indigenous militant group. It spoke of “extensive recruitment of mujahideen all…

Minor boys dismembered body sends shockwaves across Valley, Kupwara shuts in protest

July 21, 2018 Editor

The body of a 10-year-old boy with a chopped arm was recovered from a nullah at Gushi village in Kupwara district on Thursday evening. Umar Farooq Malik, a class III student of Gulgam, Kupwara, had gone missing on July 16. The J&K Police have formed a special investigation team (SIT) to be headed by the Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP), Kupwara, to probe the murder. “It is a brutal murder and we will reach the bottom of it,” Ambarkar Shriram Dinkar, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Kupwara, told Kashmir Post.…

Shopian villagers accuse Army of thrashing civilians, vandalizing houses

July 19, 2018 Editor

Residents stage protest against ‘Army’s highhandedness’ Army went on a rampage in Mochwara village on south Kashmir’s Shopian district Tuesday night during which around 11 people including two sons of a retired police official and a 10th standard student were mercilessly thrashed, and five houses and some vehicles vandalized, locals said. Aged Ghulam Mohuiddin Shah, a retired police official, informed Kashmir Post that Tuesday evening at around 11:15 pm when they were already asleep, they were awakened by sudden smashing of window panes. “We noticed shreds of window glasses falling…

Violence sees new high across Kashmir Valley in last three years: MHA

July 18, 2018 Editor

A total of 256 incidents of violence — a steep hike from 2017 and 2016 — have taken place in Jammu and Kashmir in just six months of 2018, Home Ministry data presented in Parliament on Wednesday revealed. Minister of State for Home Hansraj Gangaram Ahir told the Rajya Sabha that 100 militants, 43 security personnel and 16 civilians have been killed in the 256 incidents in the strife-torn state between January 1 and July 8. The data mentioned that 342 and 322 incidents of violence were reported in 2017…

From Stones to Guns — Kashmir’s vicious cycle of violence

July 17, 2018 Editor

The road to Tral in a remote sub-district in south Kashmir crisscrosses wet rice fields and icy streams as the Himalayan Mountains arch high on the horizon. An insurgency against Indian rule has been resurrected here in recent years. On July 7, hundreds of people descended upon this picturesque and rural landscape to visit the home of the late insurgent commander Burhan Wani, who has become the area’s most well-known descendant. The second anniversary of Wani’s death on July 8 was a pressure point for regional officials, who feared thousands…

Teachers detained in Baramulla for allegedly glorifying militancy

July 16, 2018 Editor

Thirteen teachers of a private school in north Kashmir’s Baramulla town were detained last week for allegedly ‘glorifying militancy’ and motivating students to become militants. Videos doing the rounds on social media showed 13–14-year-old boys being encouraged to act as militants somewhere in the forests of Zandafaran, where they had gone for a school excursion in the first week of July. As some boys played songs eulogising death, some students act as militants, ready to carry out an attack. The school management refused to talk on the matter. Chief education…

Rebels release another group photo 2 months after last of ‘Burhan’s Boys’ killed

July 16, 2018 Editor

The new group photo came just a week after Hizbul flooded the social media with individual pictures of around 18 young men holding guns on the second death anniversary of Burhan Wani on July 8. Jammu and Kashmir police are trying to identify 14 young men in a group photograph that militants released earlier this week and which a senior police officer described a ‘leaderless troupe’. Two months after last of the active militants who posed in a famous photograph with Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani was killed militants have…

United Nations report on human rights violation in Kashmir baseless: Nirmala Sitharaman

July 14, 2018 Editor

The United Nations (UN) report on the human rights situation in Kashmir is baseless and without seeing the ground realities, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said here on Friday. On Thursday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had backed the report, and called for investigating the rights situation. “I don’t expect the UNSG to say anything different. But the fact is it was a report prepared sitting somewhere else. Assessment by UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) is without basis on the ground and without seeing the situation on the ground,” Ms. Sitharaman told…

July 13, a day of Ironies and Sacrifice

July 13, 2018 Editor

Barring the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Jammu-based National Panthers Party, the entire spectrum of political ideologies in Jammu and Kashmir, including separatists observe July 13 as Martyr’s Day. Though J&K Chief Ministers make it a point to attend the function, Governor N N Vohra will skip it. On this day in 1931, twenty two common Kashmiris were killed in firing by the forces of Dogra ruler Hari Singh outside the central jail in Srinagar. The day, observed as a government holiday in J&K, marked a turning point in the…

Youth killed, another hurt in army firing in Kupwara, Mysterious blast leaves minor dead, four injured in Pulwama

July 12, 2018 Editor

Admin closes all educational institutes in district today Traumatized mother says Salik died in her lap on way to hospital A 20-year-old youth was killed and another injured in army firing at Trehgam in north Kashmir’s Kupwara district on Wednesday evening. Sources said a group of youth pelted stones on army patrol party in Trehgam village in the evening. They said the army men fired directly on the youth, causing injuries to two youngsters. The injured were shifted to District Hospital Kupwara, where 20-year-old Khalid Gafar son of Abdul Gafar…