Kashmir
The identity of the attackers was also not immediately known. Miscreants on Wednesday night set a local BJP leader’s house on fire in Jammu and Kashmir’s Sopore in Baramulla district but there was no immediate report of casualty, a media report said. The incident took place in Sopore’s Dangarpora area, the ANI reported. However, it was not immediately clear whether BJP leader Farooq Ahmad Rathers was in the house at the time of the attack.
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The Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL) on Wednesday said that the “Operation All-Out” launched by the government forces in May this year to wipe out militancy was also aimed at forcing the pro-freedom leadership into submission. The JRL, comprising Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik, also said that there has been no shift in New Delhi’s Kashmir policy. Instead, they said, New Delhi has unleashed a “reign of terror” in Kashmir, terming the recent assault on Kashmiri prisoners at Tihar Jail “part of a game plan aimed…
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Forces on alert to foil infiltration bids Known for its war-time exposure in Afghanistan, the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HuM), considered “dead on the Kashmir front” since its split in 1999, “is being revived to start operations” in the Valley. A note generated by intelligence agencies on the basis of communication intercepts suggests that HuM commander Masood Shaheen alias Masood Talibani has started operating from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir’s (PoK) Palandari area. “Talibani is commanding the (armed) groups and trying to push them into this side of Kashmir,” reads the note. Multiple intelligence agencies on…
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The Central government’s special representative for Jammu and Kashmir, Dineshwar Sharma, today told students in south Kashmir’s Anantnag town that gun was never going to be a solution to anything. “Gun is never a solution to anything. It is my personal belief and I am telling you this because some among you sometimes think that it is a solution. It is not,” a student quoted Sharma as saying after meeting him. As per reports, locals, a majority of them students, met the interlocutor at Dak Bungalow in Anantnag today. This…
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Violence has ebbed and flowed in Indian-administered Kashmir since 1989 but the region has seen a fresh wave of unrest following popular militant leader Burhan Wani’s killing by Indian forces in July 2016. Gowhar Geelani reports on a small market town in the Muslim-dominated valley that has become a new flashpoint. To reach Hajin, one must drive through picturesque roads lined with poplar and Kashmir’s distinctive chinar trees. But fear seems to have settled on this town in the state’s northern Bandipore district, which is no stranger to violence. Situated…
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Meets 14 delegations amid tight security The Government of India’s (GoI) Interlocutor, Dineshwar Sharma, Sunday reached out to the people of the Pulwama-the district which remained epicentre of protests after killing of HM militant commander, Burhan Muzafar Wani, last year and subsequently during anti-militancy operations this year. Sharma paid his maiden visit to Pulwama district in South Kashmir after being appointed as special representative by GoI last month. The visit was seen important as the area was the epicentre in last year’s unrest in the Valley which was triggered after…
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Hurriyat (M) chairman, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Friday said the government’s move to provide amnesty to first-time stone- pelters is “a cosmetic effort”. Addressing a Friday congregation here at Jamia Masjid, Mirwaiz said if the present government was serious “ there was a change of heart then it should release all the political prisoners without any further delay.” Mirwaiz said revoking the FIRs against “so called first-time stone-pelters” is a “good looking good cosmetic effort”. “Peace would return to Kashmir the day government of India decides to address the Kashmir dispute…
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Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti has announced amnesty for the first-time stone-throwers of the Kashmir valley by initiating the process of withdrawal of FIRs against them. The PDP-BJP government’s announcement comes after recommendations of the Centre’s special representative on Jammu and Kashmir Dineshwar Sharma. Sharma is set to start his second visit to J&K from tomorrow (November 24). “It gives me immense satisfaction to restart the process of withdrawing FIRs against first-time offenders of stone-throwing. My government had initiated the process in May 2016, but it was unfortunately stalled due to…
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‘Through interlocutor, we intend to engage with all to resolve K-issue’ The Government of India (GoI) is taking all steps to ensure a return of normalcy to Jammu and Kashmir, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Wednesday. “There was a situation in the Valley when civil disobedience was at its peak. There were thousands of stone-pelters. Militants were picking their targets as they liked. Hurriyat would give a call whenever they liked and paralyse everything,” Jaitley said. He said today the situation has changed and forces have an upper hand.…
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The United Jihad Council, an amalgam of various militant outfits, alleged on Tuesday that New Delhi is working on a plan to “create Ikhwan-type organisations” in Kashmir. Quoting a statement by UJC chief Syed Salahuddin, a local news agency CNS said: “New Delhi is fighting a losing battle in Kashmir and has always dreamt of crushing the Kashmir movement but has failed miserably. In future too, it will only taste defeat.” “There is a clear reading on the wall. Kashmir freedom struggle can’t be crushed and the sun of freedom…
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