Srinagar, October 21:A Gunfight is underway between militants and security forces in Chanapora area of Central Kashmir’s Srinagar district on Thrusday evening.
Official sources told GNS that a joint team of Police and CRPF launched a cordon and search operation in the area.
As the joint team advanced towards the suspected spot, the hiding militants fired upon the party leading to a gunfight.
Till this report is being filed intermittent exchange of firing was going on.(GNS)
The central government has decided to move extra forces to Jammu and Kashmir amid targetted killings and encounters between security forces and militants.
Quoting sources News18 reported, the official announcement of sending soldiers will be made soon to send about 25 companies of troops to Jammu and Kashmir to give security to civilians and help other forces to eliminate militants.
They said that the additional companies CRPF will be arranged mannerly. They will be sent in phases. 10 companies will be sent to J&K, while in the next two phases, the remaining 15 will be dispatched.
In a high-level meeting, the decision was taken in view of the current situation. ‘Almost two dozen CRPF companies will be moving to Jammu and Kashmir from different parts of the country in view of the current situation. Soon, an official communication will be released to move these troops,’ News18 reported quoting sources in the government.
Arrangements for the accommodation, transportation etc have already begun. The process of informing companies who will be going to J&K has also started.
‘The step was decided in a high-level meeting. Arrangements will be made soon and after that, an official communication will be released in a few days,’ the official claimed as per News18.
DG CRPF Kuldiep Singh is already in Jammu and Kashmir monitoring operations and the situation along with other top officials of the biggest paramilitary force.
It is expected that the DG would remain there till Home Minister Amit Shah reaches J&K for his visit from October 23-25.
On Wednesday, four unidentified militants were killed in separate encounters with security forces in the Shopian and Kulgam district of Jammu and Kashmir, police said.
Meanwhile, the Indian Army’s longest operation in the last 10 years is going on in Mandher sector.
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Srinagar, 21 Oct: Particularly, in Kashmir girls are shining more than boys whether in competitive, board exams or any art and skill. With the same pace, a-22-year-old girl from north Kashmir’s Baramulla district has penned her first book on the cause of late marriages in the valley.
A 22-year-old, Razia Farooq, hailing from Khargam, Pattan village of district, pursuing masters degree in Gender studies in University of Kashmir, has penned a book with title ” The fire of Joy” in which she has focuses on the ritual customs which has become root cause of late marriages.
Talking to Good Morning Kashmir, Razia said that since childhood she had flair for writing she used to write on different social customs.
“With the passage of time, I started writing randomly in my notebook. At last I started putting my thoughts about curses which we are performing nowadays, which has caused the rise of late marriages and domestic violence in our society,” Razia said.
“The trend of the dowry system has become a leading cause of late marriage, if any family will not follow such a curse, their daughter will become a victim of criticism or domestic violence by her in-laws till death,” she said. Adding that we should avoid these rituals otherwise, we will be liable for those families, whose daughters have crossed marriageable age, but still unmarried due to this dowry system.
“I was always encouraged by my parents, teachers, other family members, relatives and friends. And today I wish to thank them for letting me realize that I can do it,” she adds.
She credits her success to her parents who she said have helped her in shaping her life irrespective of difficult situations.
Razia said that it took her three months to complete her social issue book. The book will be available in all the bookstores in the market as well as on Amazon, flipkart and Kindle.
Razia urges parents of girls to give wholly support to the dreams of their daughters. “Let them make their own choices, develop autonomy,” she said.(GMK)
New Delhi, Oct 21: Three persons were arrested on Wednesday for allegedly raising ‘pro-Pakistan’ slogans during a religious procession taken out in Noida.
Arrests were made after a video of the incident went viral on social media and the Noida police in its investigation found the video as authentic.
According to the information, based on the video clipping, three people were identified and arrested by the Noida Police.
The procession was taken out in Sector 20 police station area on Tuesday to mark Eid Milad-un-Nabi.
According to the information, the police were also present on the spot in view of the security at the time when these slogans were raised.
“We have arrested three people in this case as well as got the video investigated, prima facie it appears that someone spoke Pakistan in the middle of the Hindustan Zindabad slogans, due to which the crowd also spoke Zindabad,” Noida DCP Rajesh S. told IANS.
Noida Additional DCP Ran Vijay Singh told IANS, “We got the video examined by experts and after investigation it was found that there was no tampering with the video. We have also registered a case against the accused under relevant sections.”—(IANS)
Srinagar: The administration of Jammu and Kashmir has adopted Kalij Pheasant as UT bird.
Talking to news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), commissioner secretary, Forests, Environment and Ecology, Sanjeev Verma confirmed that Kalij Pheasant (Lophura leucomelanos) has been adopted as UT bird. “J&K had to adopt new bird as UT bird because black-necked cranes are only found in Ladakh,” he said.
Erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir state had the black-necked crane and Kashmir stag (Hangul) as its state bird and animal respectively.
After reorganization of J&K, Ladakh adopted black-necked crane as its UT bird.
Verma said Hangul would continue to remain as UT animal of Jammu & Kashmir—(KNO)
80% of semi-skilled and skilled work forces in Kashmir are non-locals
Srinagar October 20: There is shortage of manpower following leaving of non-local labourers in the wake of recent civilian killings in Kashmir.
Since October 2, at least 11 civilians including five non-local labourers have been killed in Kashmir which has created a fear across the valley. Many Kashmiri Pandits and non-local labourers have left Kashmir.
Vadav Kumar, a resident of Rajasthan, said Kashmir was second home. But he is preparing to leave early for his native place Rajasthan where his family is worried about his safety and has asked him to come home.
Suresh Kumar, a carpenter from Bihar said he was working in Kashmir for the last 15 years.
“We never feel insecure in Kashmir. But the situation is worrisome after recent killings of non-local labourers. My family is worried so I decided to go home. I will come if there is improvement in the situation,” Kumar told news agency Kashmir Indepth News Service (KINS).
The leaving of non-local labourers would badly hit Kashmir’s economy.
Farmers are also worried about the leaving of non-local labourers. This is apple and rice harvesting season in Kashmir. Generally, non-local labourers work in the agriculture and horticulture fields and in their absence the agriculturists and horticulturists are facing immense difficulties in getting their routine works done.
“This is peak apple harvesting season. We have to pluck apples and send them to various Mandis. We don’t have a labour force available here to pluck fruit. Everything has been halted in Kashmir. I would earn Rs 7 lakh annually through apple production but I fear heavy losses as we don’t have labourers available,” said Ghulam Mohammad, a resident of South Kashmir’s Shopian district.
Horticulture is the mainstay of Kashmir’s economy with seven lakh families directly and indirectly associated with the sector. Horticulture contributes seven percent to the Gross State Domestic Product of Jammu and Kashmir.
More than 3.38 lakh hectares of land is under the fruit cultivation in the valley. Of which 1.62 lakh hectares is under the apple cultivation.
As non-local labourers have left Kashmir, the developmental works have also been halted in the valley.
The non-local workforce has helped in fulfilling Kashmir’s labour demands in view of minimal local labour class and their exodus under the prevailing situation has dealt severe blows to the developmental works in each and every district of the Kashmir province.
An official of Roads and Buildings Department said at least 80 percent of semi skilled and skilled work forces in Kashmir are non-locals mostly from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, and few other states.
“The works have been stopped on developmental projects. Construction works will be restarted only when skilled labourers are available here,” the official said.
As per rough estimates, almost five lakh labourers from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, West Bengal come to Kashmir every year to make their bread and butter.
The official said most of the works of PMGSY, Economic Reconstruction Agency, Roads and Buildings Department, cement factories, brick kilns, are largely dependent on non-local skilled labourers.
“We can’t do anything as outside labourers are reluctant to work on developmental projects under the present circumstances,” he added. (KINS)
SRINAGAR, OCT 20: The Administrative Council headed by Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha on Wednesday authorized the Electricity Distribution Corporations of Jammu and Kashmir divisions to install 8 lakh prepaid electricity meters to check theft of more than 50% of electricity.
Under the smart metering project, 6 lakh prepaid meters will be installed in J&K through RECPDCL, a wholly owned subsidiary of Rural Electrification Corporation under the Ministry of Power. At present, 2 lakh smart meters are being installed in Jammu and Srinagar under the Prime Minister’s Development Program (PMDP).
The ‘Reconstructed Distribution Sector Scheme’ primarily focuses on reforms in the power sector to improve the quality and reliability of power supply to the consumers through financially and operationally efficient distribution sector.
Prepaid meters will bring transparency in metering, billing and collection which will ultimately reduce power loss and ensure quality and reliable power supply to the consumers. The meter will be read remotely through communication channels at the data center in Srinagar and the data recovery center in Jammu, which will also facilitate the distribution corporations to know the power supply status at the consumer level and take prompt action.
Relevantly, the electricity distribution sector of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir has a total consumer base of about 21 lakh, of which metered consumers constitute only about 50%. Poor consumer metering is the main reason for huge AT&C losses which goes up to 50% in J&K against the national average of 22%. (PTK)
Srinagar: Founding Chairman All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) Mirwaiz Umar Farooq has once again been chosen to the list of 500 most influential Muslim personalities across the globe by the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre, Jordan for 2022 .
Mirwaiz has been listed among the world’s 500 most influential Muslims and is categorized in the political group for the eighth consecutive year by RISSC, Jordon. Pertinently, Mirwaiz continues to be under house arrest by the state authorities for the last 26 months , for his political views.
On Mirwaiz, RISSC Jordan said, “He has been advocating dialogue with both India and Pakistan so that the aspirations of the Kashmiri people may be realised.” Specifically mentioning Mirwaiz’s arrest, it stated that he has been under house arrest since August 2019.
The Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre is an independent research entity affiliated with the Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic thought, an international Islamic non-governmental, institute headquartered in Amman, the capital of Jordan.
Topping the list, this year is immunologist Ugur Sahin CEO of BionTech for developing Covid vaccine with Pfizer, he has been declared ” Man of the Year” while Samia Suluhu Hassan the current president of Tanzania has been declared ‘Woman of the Year” other personalities include King Salman of Saudi Arabia, Ayatollah Khamenei of Iran, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan and King Abdullah of Jordan.
Almost all non-Kashmiri labourers took Kashmir apple boxes with them before leaving Valley; many got boxes free from their owners
Jammu, Oct 19: Fear may have pushed them to flee Kashmir, but it didn’t stop them to take Kashmiri apples along to give the same as a gift to their family members back home.
Hundreds of non-local labourers who left Kashmir out of fear in the wake of killing of their non-Kashmiri labourers, were seen carrying apple boxes with them at Tawi-Jammu. Witnesses told news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), that the rush at Jammu Tawi Railway station was unprecedented since morning where the non-local workers arrived from various parts of Kashmir.
People mainly from Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and West Bengal, who were involved in construction and other menial jobs, started leaving from Kashmir on Sunday.
Sharing his experience, Natha Ram, a resident of Bihar said that he along with other Bihar residents were street vendors near Lal Chowk, where they sell masks and socks etc. “We are leaving out of fear otherwise, we could have stayed in Kashmir for one more month. But we are taking a gift from Kashmir—apples for our family members,” he beamed.
Another Bihar resident Zia Ul- Haq, who has worked in the construction industry in South Kashmir for some time, said that Kashmir is a nice place and people are also honest but some elements don’t want to see non-locals in the Valley. “We have taken along some apple boxes. Kashmiri apples are the best gift that we could give to our family members,” he said amid a smile. “This will depict the love and hospitality of Kashmir, once we will reach home.” Many non-local labourers said they were working in apple-orchards of Kashmir’s southern Shopian districts and the owners of orchards gave them five apple-boxes free of cost. “This indeed is something we will remember. Apple boxes are gift packs we are taking from Kashmir to Bihar and Uttar Pradesh,” they said—(KNO)