Category: Kashmir

Kashmir

Amarnath Yatra attack shows system has failed Kashmir, its youth: Situation is the worst in nearly a decade

Editor

Monday’s attack on pilgrims of the Amarnath yatra is one more indicator of just how badly the situation in Kashmir has deteriorated. This did not snap out of the blue the moment militant commander Burhan Wani was killed a year ago. The process has progressed over the last nine years. It is easy to lose sight of the dimensions of the current threat to national security. Youth rage is very real. So is radicalisation, in both political and religious terms, among militants and teenagers. Pakistan’s involvement has increased. The Jamaat-e-Islami…

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Kashmiris vow strike won’t smear Valley’s famed hospitality: Amarnath Yatra terror attack

Editor

It was 11 am on Tuesday at the Batangoo area in Khanabal of south Kashmir where an attack on the Amarnath yatris had occurred a night before. The area was buzzing with security forces. Online broadcasting vans of news channels were parked on the roadside. Many shops were shut in the area and journalists were sitting on the shop fronts, possibly waiting for their editors’ directions from newsrooms. Amid all this, traffic movement was normal. Everybody was aware of what had happened on Monday night. The local passengers were seen…

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Anantnag residents turn Good Samaritans, Rush to hospital to help injured

Editor

Soon after the news of the terror attack on Amarnath pilgrims in Anantnag started doing rounds, dozens of locals, including young and the elderly, thronged the Anantnag district hospital, volunteering to help and donate blood. Seven pilgrims, including five women, were killed while 32 others were injured after suspected militants attacked a bus carrying them in the Batengoo area of Anantnag. Doctors at the Anantnag district hospital described the scenes as overwhelming. “The injured were yet to reach the hospital and a cache of local men, young and old, already…

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Kashmir Freedom struggle is not terrorism: OIC tells India

Editor

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on Tuesday condemned state terrorism in the Indian held Kashmir and called upon India to implement the UN Security Council resolutions to resolve the Kashmir dispute.This condemnation came during 44th session of OIC Council of Foreign Ministers held in Cote d’Ivoire, a West African country. The council also called upon the United Nations and the international community to play their due role in stopping the continuing bloodshed in the Indian Occupied Kashmir. The resolution, adopted unanimously by the 56 member Council, noted that Jammu…

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Joint Resistance leaders to lead rallies on July 13 to pay homage to martyrs

Editor

Reiterating the shutdown call on July 13, the Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL) on Tuesday said that a rally would be held at the martyrs’ graveyard in Naqshband Sahab after ‘Zuhr’ prayers. “The day (July 13) will be commemorated as ‘Youm Tajdeed Ahad’ (renewal of pledge ),” said the JRL, in statement today. “Syed Ali Geelani would lead a rally from Hyder Pora, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq from Jama Masjid Srinagar and Mohd Yasin Malik from Maisuma,” said the statement. The leadership asked the Kashmiri diaspora world over to associate with the…

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Three Hizbul Mujahideen militants killed in Budgam

Editor

Three Hizbul Mujahideen militants were killed in overnight encounter with security forces in Budgam district of Jammu and Kashmir. The terrorists were eliminaed in a joint operation conducted by the Rashtriya Rifles, Special Operation Group (SOG) of Jammu and Kashmir Police and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF). After receiving intelligence inputs the forces cordoned off the area last night, following which an encounter took pl;ace. The security forces recovered arms and ammunition and war like stores from the gunbattle area. Terrorists on Monday killed seven Amarnath pilgrims from Gujarat, including…

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‘Kashmiri Islamist terrorists killed Hindu Pilgrims’ narrative is flawed: Amarnath terror attack

Editor

The narrative is wrong because the police have said a bus carrying pilgrims was caught in the crossfire when militants attacked a police post About an hour after the killing of seven Amarnath yatris in south Kashmir on Monday, a childhood friend, now a management professional in Hyderabad, wrote on Facebook: “Do not shoot them. Kick them. Belch them. Cut them. Slice them. Desecrate them. Destroy them. Piece by piece. Hit them where it hurts the most. Kill them all.” It is unclear who he means by “them” in the…

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Anger and defiance on Kashmir militant death anniversary

Editor

Violent clashes have taken place in Indian-administered Kashmir between security forces and protesters marking the anniversary of the death of a popular militant commander. Burhan Wani was killed by Indian security forces a year ago and separatist militants had announced massive public protests. Thousands of extra troops were deployed to prevent rallies from taking place. Burhan Wani’s village is in Tral, which is surrounded by thickly forested mountains. On the first anniversary of his death, it was in virtual lock-down. Heavily armed soldiers sealed all roads leading to the village,…

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Nocturnal raids in Pulwama, Youth beaten to pulp, Nightlong protests rock Tral

Editor

A youth was critically injured after army allegedly tortured him in custody in Tral area of Pulwama district on Sunday. Sheikh Murtaza Bashir, 29, according to his family members, was called to 42RR camp in Nader village of Tral to collect his identity card taken by army following stone-pelting protest yesterday. A witness said the incident had occurred in village Batagund, where soldiers allegedly snatched the identity proofs of many youth. “The youth were asked to collect the IDs from the 42 RR camp,” he said. “After Murtaza went there…

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How Kashmir lived through the 365 days since Burhan Wani’s death

Editor

To try and understand this free fall that Kashmir has been in for the last one year, we have tried to sketch a timeline of a few significant dates beginning from July 8 last year. The past 365 days were unlike anything that Kashmir has lived through, in a very long time. Since the day Hizbul militant Burhan Wani was killed by security forces, on July 8, the valley has practically been on the edge. It has been witness to some very grotesque violence – the abduction and murder of…

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