Kishtwar, Sept 11: Police have arrested husband, mother-in-law and brother-in-law of a woman who was murder in July this year and passed off as a case of suicide in Kishtwar district, officials said. The accused had killed the woman— Neetu Devi— so that second marriage of her husband, Lokesh Kumar, resident of Horna Tehsil Mughal Maidan District Kishtwar, could be solemnized, police said.

A police spokesman in a statement told GNS that on July 11, an inquest proceedings under Section 174 Cr.PC into the suspicious death of one Smt. Neetu Devi was initiated at Police Station Chatroo. The inquest proceeding was initiated when it came to know from the paternal side that the in-laws of the deceased lady were performing last rites of the deceased without informing her parents.

Initially, they said, in-laws of the deceased lady stated that the deceased lady had committed suicide by hanging herself. “During the course of enquiry, some foul play into the matter was substantiated by the enquiry officer and accordingly the inquest proceedings was converted into FIR No. 51/2021 U/Sec. 302/IPC of Police Station Chatroo.”

Keeping in view the sensitivity of the case, SSP Kishtwar Shafqat Hussain Batt (JKPS) constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) under the supervision of Addl. SP Kishtwar Rajinder Singh (JKPS) headed by Dheeraj Singh Katoch, Dy. SP DAR, supervisory officer of police station Chatroo alongwith SHO Inspector Sandeep Parihar. The SIT collected evidences, lifted some suspects for questioning and during the course of investigation and sustained questioning of the suspects it was established that the deceased waomn was murdered by her husband namely Lokesh Kumar son of Isher Dass, Gowash Lal (Brother in-law) and Devki Devi (mother-in-law) by strangulating her with a duppata and hands, the spokesman said.

Accordingly, he said, on the basis of investigation viz-a-viz statement of witnesses and other evidences, the SIT established the role of the trio. “The accused persons after committing the heinous crime shifted the dead body of the deceased to a nearby Committee Hall and hanged it with a hook using Dupatta to pretend that the deceased had committed suicide,” he said.

During investigation, he said, it came to fore that the in-laws of the deceased wanted to get another marriage of Lokesh Kumar (husband of deceased) solemnized somewhere else for which they carried out such a heinous crime in a planned manner. “All the accused persons were taken into custody and presently are lodged in District Jail Kishtwar,” the statement added.(GNS)

Mehbooba Mufti ‘advising’ the Taliban to follow “real Sharia law” and set an example for the world. Her comments followed Farooq Abdullah’s who ‘hoped’ that the Taliban would “deliver good governance in accordance with Islamic principles”.

– First Post

173 New Infections, One Death Reported In 24 Hours

Srinagar: The spike in the covid-19 cases continued for the third consecutive day on Friday as the Jammu & Kashmir reported 173 new novel coronavirus infections even as there was one death due to the virus in the last 24 hours, officials said.

23 of the fresh cases were reported from Jammu Division and 150 from Kashmir Valley, taking the overall case tally to 326653.

There was one death, from Jammu division, reported due to the pathogen during the time, they said. So far 4412—2167 in Jammu and 2245 in Kashmir have succumbed to the virus as per official data.

Providing the district-wise details, the officials told GNS that Srinagar reported 80 cases, Baramulla 12, Budgam 21, Pulwama 7, Kupwara 9, Anantnag 6, Bandipora 2, Ganderbal 8, Kulgam 5, Shopian 0, Jammu 2, Udhampur 0, Rajouri 4, Doda 10, Kathua 0, Samba 0, Kishtwar 0, Poonch 3, Ramban 2 and Reasi 2.

A number of these cases were confirmed at CD hospital and include male (70) and female (63) from Nowpora, male (69) and female (36) from Alamgiri Bazar, female (44) from Nowpora, female (28) from Zadibal, female (30) from Nowshera, two males (80, 55) and female (70) from Lal Bazar, male (75) from Narbal, male (34) from RS Awantipora, female (NA) from Pattan, male (21) from Bemina, female (51) from Rawalpora, male (14) from Khonmoh Srg, male (40) and two females (35, 87) from NA, female (NA) from Khonmoh, male (45) from Wuran, male (31) from Amda Kadal, female (27) from Wantpora, two females (30, 34) and two males (7, 25) from Lal Bazar, male (45) and female (60) from Nowpora.

Moreover, they said, 142 more COVID-19 patients have recovered—19 from Jammu Division and 123 from the valley. So far, 320948 people have recovered, leaving active cases at 1293— 231 in Jammu and 1062 in Kashmir.

Meanwhile, there was no fresh confirmed case of mucormycosis (black fungus) reported today, they said. So far 45 black fungus cases have been confirmed in J&K, the officials added.

Jammu, Sep 10: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday accused the RSS-BJP combine of trying to break the composite culture of Jammu and Kashmir.
“The feeling of love, brotherhood and composite culture exists among you all. I feel sad that the RSS and BJP are trying to break this culture,” Gandhi said in his address to Congress office-bearers and workers at a party function here on the second day of his two-day visit to Jammu.
“They (RSS, BJP) attack love and brotherhood… You got weakened and as result, they took away your statehood,” he added.
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is the ideological fount of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government at the Centre.
The Congress leader exhorted the gathering to chant ”Jai Mata Di”, a day after he paid obeisance at the Mata Vaishno Devi shrine in Katra.
“I went to Mata Vaishno Devi shrine yesterday. There are three symbols of mata (pindis) there – Mata Durga, Mata Lakshmi and Mata Saraswati,” Gandhi said.
Goddess Durga protects us, Lakshmi is a symbol of power, and Saraswati symbolises education and knowledge, he said.
“When these three shaktis are in your home and country, your home and country will make progress,” he said.
However, the BJP government”s policies like demonetisation and GST have weakened their powers, he said.
Whereas, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Gurantee Act (MGNREGA) and the GDP with a growth rate of 9 per cent under the Congress had increased their powers, he added.
Pointing towards his hand, Gandhi co-related the Congress election symbol with Lord Shiva and Guru Nanak Dev, and said it was the symbol of being fearless.
“This hand is the symbol that you should not be afraid of anything,” Gandhi said, adding that the “BJP is afraid of everything”

Srinagar, September 10: A Paramilitary trooper of Central Reserve Police Force and a lady were injured after militants lobbed a grenade on security forces in Chanapora area of Central Kashmir’s Srinagar district on Friday.

A senior Police officer while confirming to GNS said that militants lobbed a grenade towards CRPF BN 29 in Chanapora. In this incident a CRPF trooper and a civilian(Lady) received minor splinter injuries.

Meanwhile whole area has been cordoned off to nab the attackers. Details still emerging. (GNS)

Four journalists quizzed, questioning to continue tomorrow also: Police

Scrutiny of their gadgets shows numbers of Pak, Turkey, Saudi; credible evidence shows four scribes were linked with mastermind of kashmirfight blog IGP Kashmir Vijay Kumar, says it’s not harassment of journalists, medimen shouldnt spread false news

Srinagar, Sep 09 Jammu and Kashmir police Thursday said that four journalists were quizzed in connection with the investigations related to a blog—Kashmirfightwordpress.com case and they will again be questioned tomorrow while as scrutiny of their gadgets have showed they had numbers of Pakistan, Turkey and Saudi Arabia.

The police also said that the four journalists, whose residences were raided on Wednesday, were in touch with many virtual numbers as well.

Inspector General of Police Kashmir range, Vijay Kumar told news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO) that during investigation of FIR 82/2020 Police Station Kothibagh, “credible evidence was found which links the following persons with the mastermind who is behind the blog [email protected].”

“Based on this evidence, search was conducted at four places with search warrant from Special Designated court under NIA Act, Srinagar and some mobiles, laptops and other gadgets were seized on 8th August,2021,” he said, adding the four journalists are: Mir Hilal S/O Ghulam Ahmed Mir, R/O- Bemina, Journalist- TRTworld.com, Md Shah Abbas S/O Abdul Khaliq Shah, R/O- Yaripora, Anantnag presently at- Rajbagh, freelance journalist Azhar Qadri S/O Farooq Ahmed, R/O Bemina, Journalist- The Tribune and Showkat Motta S/O Abdul Samad Motta R/O- Lalbazar, who was editor-in-chief of The Narrator. Currently working at a wholesale shop.

“All the above four persons were called for questioning and were allowed to go in the evening and have been called again tomorrow,” the IGP said, adding that “Currently scrutiny of electronic gazettes is going on. Various Numbers of Pakistan, Turkey, Saudi have been found. They are also in contact of many virtual numbers.”

He said that it wasn’t an issue of harassing journalists. The IGP advised all media persons & bodies not to spread false news and don’t interfere unnecessarily in investigation of case by spreading false narrative. “It is an investigation of an extremely sensitive case. After collection of solid evidences they would be arrested in this case,” the IGP Kashmir said—(KNO)

Can’t be complacent, new variants could emerge, follow SOPs, go for vaccination: Dr Salim Khan

Srinagar, Sep 09: As per the population based Seroprevalence of Covid-19 in Kashmir valley, over 84 percent people have antibodies against the Covid-19 infection.

An official told news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO) that a pan-Kashmir cross-sectional sero-study was conducted among general population and various subsets of population which include police personnel, healthcare workers, pregnant women by government medical college Srinagar in collaboration with Community Medicine departments of SKIMS, SKIMS Medical College Srinagar, Government Medical College Anantnag and Government Medical College Baramulla with full support and cooperation from directorate of health sciences Kashmir and supported by National Health Mission.

He said that the Department of Community Medicine GMC Srinagar was the nodal center while all testing procedures were conducted by department of Biochemistry, GMC Srinagar. The study was approved by institutional ethics committee of GMC Srinagar.

“In the general population of seven years and above, the study was conducted in all 10 districts of Kashmir. The data was collected in the month of July 2021 with each medical college mentoring two districts. Within each district, 10 clusters were randomly selected and within each cluster 40 samples were collected from individuals more than 7 years of age after obtaining proper informed consent for the study,” an official said.

“The household and individual data was collected on customised Epicollect5 software,” he added.

Official said that all the blood samples were sent to BSL-2 lab at Biochemistry Department of GMC Srinagar for analysis on high end Abbott Architect i1000 & i2000 automatic analysers.

Total samples processed and reported include 3586 samples from general population with mean age of 35.33 ±18 years.

“Further, 2077 samples have been processed and reported from among the police personals, HCW and antenatal women,” he said.

“Our study among general population in 10 districts of Kashmir shows 84.3 percent anti-bodies of our study population which was positive for IgG-II (or the anti spike protein) antibody, produced after infection with SARS CoV -2 as well as after vaccination, he said.

“The IgM antibody which is usually produced by recent infection with SARS Cov-2 (can rarely also be produced in recent vaccination) .This antibody was positive in about 20.75 percent of participants,” he said.

District wise anti spike antibodies status show that in Anantnag 87.23 percent population has antibodies against the Covid-19, Bandipora has 84.42 percent, Baramulla -84.91percent, Budgam – 83.68 percent, Ganderbal – 82.8 percent, Kulgam – 82.95 percent, Kupwara- 81.05 percent, Pulwama – 78.24 percent, Shopian – 86.89 percent, and Srinagar 89.77 percent.

Srinagar and Anantnag have the highest seroprevalance in terms of IgG II (antispike protein IgG antibody), official added.

During the time of study in July 2021 a total of 20.3 percent participants had received 2 doses of vaccination and majority (79.25) had received none. “However, since then the vaccination has scaled up and the sero positivity due to vaccination would have gone up also,” an official said.

“We encourage people to follow COVID appropriate behaviour by using face masks, maintain social distancing, hand hygiene and more importantly go for full vaccination,” said Dr. S. Muhammad Salim Khan, Professor and HOD Community Medicine Government College Srinagar and principal investigator of the study.

“While analysing the data from various subsets, we would definitely request every eligible person to go for vaccination against COVID as over these months we have seen a significant drop in number of death cases who have been admitted in hospitals with moderate to severe diseases,” he said.

“Further, scaling up vaccination would reduce chances of any possible severe third wave, Khan asserted.

“We need not to be complacent with the results as new variants could emerge and apprehend immune escape. So we need to follow CAB SOPs and all those who haven’t gone for vaccination yet shall do it urgently,” he said—(KNO)

Srinagar has over 500 active cases, Jammu 250 only

Srinagar, Sep 09: The Kashmir division has four times more active positive cases of Covid-19 as compared to the cases in Jammu division.

As per the data available with news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO) till 08 September, Kashmir has around 1000 active cases while as Jammu has just around 250 active cases.

Data also reveals that more than 50 percent of the active cases in Kashmir are from Srinagar which has over 500 active cases.

In Jammu division, Doda has highest active cases of 80 while as Kathua has no active case. In Shopian, Udhampur and Samba there are just five active cases in each district.

Apart from Srinagar in Kashmir division, Budgam and Baramulla have active cases of over 100, however, rest seven districts of the valley have below 50 active cases.

Total active cases in Kashmir division are 999 which includes 558 from Srinagar, 156 Baramulla, 131 Budgam, 32 Pulwama, 31 Bandipora, 24 Kupwara, 21 each from Anantnag and Kulgam, 20 from Ganderbal and five from Shopian.

In Jammu division, only Jammu and Doda districts have active cases above 50 while as rest eight district have below 40 active cases.

In Jammu division there are 252 active cases, which includes 80 from Doda, 59 Jammu, 31 Reasi, 26 Rajouri, 20 Kishtwar, 14 Ramban, 12 Poonch, 5 each from Udhampur and Samba and none from Kathua—(KNO)

Srinagar, Sep 09: Continuing its march towards academic excellence, the University of Kashmir has figured among top 50 universities in the all-India ranking of varsities conducted by the Union Ministry of Education under the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF)-2021.

The University has ranked at 48th position among universities assessed under NIRF-2021, with an overall point score of 46.97, in key parameters including Teaching, Learning and Resources (60.49 points), Research and Professional Practices (19.51 points), Graduation Outcome (77.03 points), Outreach and Inclusivity (50.12 points) and Peer Perception (25.52 points).

Notably, the University of Kashmir has also bagged an overall rank of 76 (from 78 in 2020) from amongst all universities, IITs and other institutions assessed by the Ministry of Education under NIRF-2021.

According to a statement issued to the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), Union Minister for Education Dharmendra Pradhan, who e-released the NIRF rankings today, said in all, 6272 applications for ranking were made by 4030 unique applicant institutions under various categories/domains, marking a noticeable increase in institutional participation in the rankings exercise this year.

“Number of unique applicants to India Rankings have increased from 2426 in 2016 to 4030 in 2021 whereas total number of applications for ranking in various categories have increased from 3565 in 2016, to 6272 in 2021 i.e. total increase of 1604 (66% increase) in unique institutions and 2707 (76% increase) in total applicants,” Pradhan said.

KU Vice-Chancellor Prof Talat Ahmad said the university’s ranking at 48th position is a testimony to the fact that the varsity is making remarkable progress in its continuing march towards academic excellence.

“It is also an endorsement of the great commitment of our teachers, officers, students, scholars and non-teaching staff to take this institution to newer heights vis-à-vis academics, research and extension education,” he said, asserting that the varsity has dedicated its plans and policies to set new academic benchmarks and standards and make every effort to figure among top 20 universities in the country in near future.

Prof Talat appreciated the efforts of the Directorate of Internal Quality Assurance (DIQA) of the University for its sustained focus on rankings and parameters governing the same.

KU Registrar Dr Nisar A Mir also congratulated all stakeholders for achieving the new milestone which will go a long way in shaping the university’s policies for its continuing growth, progress and excellence.

Pertinently, the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) was approved by the Ministry of Human Resources Development and launched by the Minister of Human Resource Development on 29th September 2015. It outlines a methodology to rank institutions across the country. The methodology draws from the overall recommendations broad understanding arrived at by a Core Committee set up by MHRD, to identify the broad parameters for ranking various universities and institutions.

Srinagar, Sep 08: Former chief minister and National Conference president Farooq Abdullah on Wednesday said that his party will participate in assembly elections, but the central government must first restore statehood in Jammu and Kashmir.