Category: Union Territory

Srinagar: NC leader Omar Abdullah Wednesday asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ensure that Assembly polls were held in Jammu and Kashmir within the stipulated six months following the dissolution of the house.
“Sir, please also commit your government to assembly elections in J&K. Vested interests, including some occupying positions of authority in J&K, are trying to engineer a delay,” the National Conference leader said in a tweet.
“Your government’s handling of J&K will be judged by whether assembly elections are on time or not sir,” he said, responding to a tweet from Modi lauding the high voter turnout in the state during the panchayat and urban local bodies polls.
“The high voter turnout in the polls clearly displays immense faith that people of J&K have put in grass root democratic institutions of the country. Essence of democracy lies in empowerment of the common citizen, to which our government is totally committed,” Modi had tweeted.
Omar said he was looking forward to a commitment from the Prime Minister that an elected government will be in place by May next year.
“Six months from the date of dissolution means a return to elected government before the end of May 2019. We look forward to your personal commitment to keeping to that schedule jenab PM sahib,” Omar said.
The state was placed under President’s rule on Wednesday, six months after imposition of Governor’s rule on June 19 in the wake of People’s Democratic Party-Bharatiya Janata Party (PDP-BJP) coalition government falling apart.
The assembly was kept in suspended animation to look at the possibility of fresh government formation in the state but Governor Satya Pal Malik decided to dissolve the assembly on November 21 as PDP with the support of National Conference and Congress staked claim to for, government.
People’s Conference chairman Sajad Gani Lone, considered to be close to Modi, had also staked claim with support of BJP and 18 other unnamed MLAs. PTI

‘Party will go before people with a promise of resolution of Kashmir issue’

Party will go before people with a promise of resolution of Kashmir issue’

Srinagar: Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Thursday admitted that the winds of change that has resulted in the leaders resigning or expelled from the party has affected the party at the grass root levels.

The party makes a candid admission that despite receiving severe jolts, they would “go before the people with a promise of resolution of Kashmir issue.”

PDP spokesman, Rafi Ahmad Mir while talking to KNO said that the party has suffered at the grass root levels after the leaders either resigned or were expelled from the party.

“There is no doubt that every leader is important in the party. Naturally when he resigns or is being expelled, the party naturally suffers at the grass root level,” he said, adding that the resignations from leaders of being expelled are unfortunate for any party and that should not have been happened.

“Such things usually happen in any party and we will also try to fill the gaps due to these developments,” he added. Asked about the possibility of new faces in the upcoming assembly elections, Mir said, “Yes there would be new faces as well in the assembly elections as the positions of leaders who have resigned or have been expelled are lying vacant. So, there are possibilities of new faces in the next polls.”

About the party’s arrangements for the next polls, Mir said that the zone level meeting were convened which were presided over the by the party president in which the party’s position at grass root level was discussed falling the fall of PDP-BJP bonhomie in the State.

“Now, we will be moving to district headquarters in which the workers will be geared up for the elections till the elections are announced in Jammu and Kashmir,” he added.

He said every party in Jammu and Kashmir is in tight spot when it comes to the elections as the atmosphere here is not conducive and the party’s can’t gear up for the polls amidst such situation.

Asked about the party’s prime agenda in the next polls, Mir said, “The two parties that forged an alliance in the State including PDP and BJP put its agendas at the back burner and now we will go before the people on our own and will promise the people for the resolution of Kashmir issue.”(KNO)

SRINAGAR: The Kashmir Economic Alliance Chairman Muhammad Yasin Khan has condemned the police charges of attempt to murder against senior Resistance leader Muhammad Yasin Malik and his associates.

In a statement Yasin Khan said it was unfortunate that the ailing leader who heads JKLF has been booked for attempt to murder for merely having staged peaceful protests against right violations in Kashmir.

Khan said such pressure by the Raj Bhawan was only pushing the soft separatism towards the wall. “Is protesting against the killing of seven innocent civilians a crime?”

Seeking intervention of the lawyers’ fraternity, Khan said when people are booked for murder for merely holding peaceful protests the state of policing can only be imagined.

Khan said the development of booking innocents for such frivolous charges would only set a bad precedence.

Khan appealed the Indian civil society to rise to the occasion when even raising voice against human rights abuse is being seen as crime in Kashmir.

A court here Wednesday sent chairman of Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front, Yasin Malik to four days remand after police brought charges of attempt to murder against him and his associates.

Any attempt to tinker with this sense of identity is bound to have a severe backlash

Many took to Twitter to express their love for Pheran

Kashmiris love their ‘pherans’. These loose, warm outer garments are typically worn during winters. They are comfortable, practical and as Kashmiri as lungi is to a Malayali or kilt to the Scottish. Given the valley’s surcharged political atmosphere, and an ongoing insurgency that has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives in the recent decades, the last thing Kashmiris expected is a ban on their beloved ‘pheran’.

Yesterday (December 18), the social media was abuzz after the state’s school education department banned people from wearing the traditional ‘pheran’ in its offices. A local English daily said the development came in the backdrop of a similar ban on the pheran in Srinagar’s civil secretariat, the seat of power in the state, where people visiting the administrative departments have to take off their pherans at the main gate.

The report triggered an outrage. Everyone from Omar Abdullah, the former Chief Minister of J&K, to ordinary Kashmiris were aghast. Soon hashtags like #Pheranlove and #PheranIsMyIdentity began to trend on Twitter. Many directed their ire at the governor, Satya Pal Malik, who has recently recommended President’s rule in the volatile state after the governor’s rule expired (six months after Mehbooba Mufti’s government fell). Although the orders for a pheran ban didn’t originate from the governor’s office, many Kashmiris, deeply sceptical of the ruling dispensation in Delhi, felt that it was a ploy to trample upon their culture.

‘Pheran’ has a long, storied history in Kashmir, and is believed to have a tradition of at least 660 years. Worn over centuries by the inhabitants to brave the harsh winter chill, the garment has worked as a great leveller of the Kashmiri society. It has traditionally dissolved the class difference, being the preferred dress for both the rich and the poor during the cold season. Even when modernity permeated the lives of Kashmiris over the years, the pheran continued to remain a badge of its culture.

Though the etymology is a little unclear, some believe the name pheran is derived from the Greek word ‘apron’. Many contend that the tunic owes its origin to the Persian word for shirt,‘perahan’. The Tajik word ‘peraband’ is also closely associated with the Kashmiri pheran. Since Kashmir has a distinct central Asian cultural link, that may well be the case. A totem of Kashmir’s simple, egalitarian past when the garment united people, pheran has undergone changes during recent times. Modern pherans have several variants with tailors and designers shaping it in distinct styles.

Not only Kashmir’s own political class (mainstream as well as separatists), celebrities and leaders have adorned pheran from time to time. Sonia Gandhi, whose husband Rajiv Gandhi’s family has Kashmiri roots, can be often spotted in social gatherings in the Kashmiri attire. World leaders like Hillary Clinton too have worn the pheran on several occasions. Various Bollywood film stars and celebs have turned out in pherans while shooting in the hills of Kashmir.

In the valley, both Muslims and Pandits (Kashmiri Hindus) have historically worn the garment. Therefore a ban on pheran is not only seen as parochial but also somewhat scandalous, given the Indian right-wing’s obsession with cultural appropriation and dietary habits of minorities in the country. While there may not be a larger game plan at play to target the much-beloved pheran, any attempt to tinker with Kashmir’s much-vaunted sense of identity is bound to have a severe backlash. Having lost thousands to a wretched conflict, Kashmiris are unwilling to part with a distinct feature their collective identity.

Courtesy: Gulf News

SRINAGAR: Reacting over the statement of National Conference President Farooq Abdullah, Senior BJP leader and former Jammu and Kashmir deputy chief minister Kavinder Gupta said, “Farooq Abdullah should not dreaming adding that there is nothing like autonomy.

While speaking to News agency Press Trust of Kashmir Gupta said that Kashmir is internal part of India and “autonomy like statement are anti-national”. On assembly elections, he said BJP also demand early elections in Jammu and Kashmir. He added, “Until BJP is in center, there is nothing like Autonomy. People in Kashmir are free. They don’t need any kind of freedom”.

Gupta said, “Governor Administration is doing good work but elected government is important. BJP also demand early elections in Jammu and Kashmir”. (PTK)

By Sameer Yasir / The NewYork Times

BALSOO, Kashmir — It was well past midnight in the village of Balsoo when Numan Ashraf Bhat’s phone lit up with an urgent WhatsApp message: “Umar surrounded by forces.”

Umar Majid Ganai, one of the area’s most wanted militants, had built a loyal youth following in Kashmir, a Himalayan region disputed between India and Pakistan where violence has claimed tens of thousands of lives. Numan, a gangly 16-year-old, was one of his most enthusiastic supporters — all of the photos downloaded on his phone were of Mr. Ganai.

So when Numan learned last month that Mr. Ganai was holed up in a tiny hamlet, Indian security forces closing in, he jumped on his motorbike and sped through the biting cold to reach the house where several militants were trapped.

Hundreds of Kashmiri civilians had already gathered. They were forming a protective ring to block Indian officers from advancing, part of a new and often fatal development in the decades-long struggle over Kashmir.

Violence is rising again in the region, where India has presided over a bloody campaign to hunt down those fighting a quixotic battle for independence. This year, according to police officials in Kashmir, Indian security forces have killed over 240 militants, the highest annual toll in more than a decade.

But along with the combatants’ deaths has come a new set of casualties: those of civilians who try to defend them. Gone are the days when the sight of an armored vehicle was enough to send entire villages into hiding. Now, civilians are rushing in front of the heavily armed trucks, using stones and their own bodies to try to block security forces.

Last week, seven civilians were killed after inserting themselves between militants and advancing officers.

“This is a new phenomenon,” said Sheikh Showkat Hussain, an international law professor at the Central University of Kashmir. “Civilians have always supported militants, but never with such conviction.”

This year, rights groups say, at least 148 civilians have been killed. Many were teenagers.

For decades, Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan have fought for control of Kashmir, sending millions of troops to square off along a disputed border hundreds of miles long.
In June, the United Nations released its first report on atrocities committed in Kashmir, calling for an international investigation into reports of sexual violence and torture. Indian security forces were sharply criticized for using excessive force on protesters, and particularly for firing shotguns into crowds, with hundreds of people struck in the eyes by pellets, leaving many of them blind.

India has pushed back against criticism of its methods. After the release of the United Nations report, the government called its contents “fallacious, tendentious and motivated.” Last year, Bipin Rawat, the Indian Army chief, said that people who “obstruct our operations” would be “treated as over-ground workers” — in other words, collaborators.

In 2016, the nature of civilian protests took a turn when Burhan Muzaffar Wani, a charismatic militant leader with a vast following on social media, was fatally shot in the Indian-administered part of Kashmir.

Kashmiris poured into homegrown militant groups like Hizbul Mujahideen. A network of locals who fed information to Indian intelligence officers temporarily broke down, allowing the number of militants to swell.

Pakistan’s role in supplying arms and recruits also receded, according to Kashmiri police officials, though Western intelligence officers say Pakistan is still actively supporting several militant groups.

Yasin Malik, a separatist leader who led an armed struggle against Indian security forces in the late 1980s and early 1990s, said the ranks of militant groups would continue to grow. A peaceful resolution in Kashmir became impossible, he said, when locals who tried demonstrating against the police continued to meet “brute force.”

“There is no space for a nonviolent political movement,” he said. “They are fighting because everyone has failed them.”

Of the approximately 250 known militants today, Kashmiri police say only 50 or so are from Pakistan. Most of the rest are poorly trained and have never left the Kashmir Valley. Though Indian security forces stationed in the valley have cracked down on armed insurgents, outnumbering the militants 1,000 to one, they are struggling to stem fresh recruitment.

Numan Ashraf, a high school student, knew the risks of traveling those 15 miles to the village of Batgund, where Mr. Ganai was holed up in a house with other militants. His friendship with a wanted militant is a window into the growing civilian support for the homegrown fighters — and the deadly risks of such a relationship.

Numan, the oldest of three sons of a woodcutter, was born into a tense security situation and seemed acutely aware of it. Every summer, his family said, Numan and his friends dressed up as militants or Indian army officers, hid behind apple trees and fired fake wooden guns at each other.

Over the years, Numan also met Mr. Ganai, 27, several times, his friends said. They played cricket and went swimming in a pond together. During a chaotic funeral for another militant, Numan spotted Mr. Ganai and hugged him.

It is unclear who told the Indian authorities where to find Mr. Ganai, a senior member of Hizbul Mujahideen who had avoided detection for several years. The authorities said the list of charges against him was long. Last year, he was implicated in killing several police officers guarding a bank’s cash van.

In the early morning of Nov. 25, hundreds of Indian army and police officers blocked roads leading into Batgund with barbed wire. A crowd of civilians gathered, hurling stones from narrow alleys and screaming anti-India slogans from their balconies. The authorities fired tear gas canisters, creating a choking, eye-stinging pall of gray smoke.
Indian security forces had the house where Mr. Ganai was hiding out completely surrounded. By the time Numan reached Batgund at 7:30 a.m., the security officers had already killed several insurgents. Mr. Ganai was one of the last holdouts.

Young protesters, desperate to save the fighters, tried to drive the Indian forces back or create enough chaos to distract them to give the last militants a chance to slip away. It had happened before that insurgents melted into a sea of civilians and vanished right in front of security officers.

Mr. Ashraf and several friends moved closer. They entered a small, relatively unguarded lane in the house’s courtyard, looking for a way to help Mr. Ganai escape. The scene was quiet for a moment.

Numan shouted, “Umar, come out!”

Gunfire rang out. Numan clutched his chest. “I am hit! It is burning inside,” he told his friends as they carried his bleeding body to a motorbike.

Numan died on the way to the hospital. Later that morning, Mr. Ganai was shot dead.

When asked about the shooting, Indian officials said it had been an accident; Numan had been too close to the militants.

“Who wants to kill a young boy?” asked Swayam Prakash Pani, the area’s police chief, who was not present for the shooting but had been briefed about it.

Several witnesses contested that claim, saying they had seen a soldier pointing a gun at Numan from a balcony and that the shooting had been deliberate.

Over the next couple of days, thousands of mourners gathered for a marathon of funerals, one after the other, spreading the grief. In Balsoo, the streets were so clogged with people that prayers for Numan were divided into four sessions.
Mohammad Ashraf Bhat, tall and broad-shouldered, said he could not fault his son for trying to protect Mr. Ganai.

“The mind says if you jump into fire, you will burn,” he said. “But love doesn’t understand that. If he would not have died like this, he would have died as a militant.”

Two days after Numan’s death, his younger brother, Nadeem, 14, took his place. He traveled to a village near Balsoo where more militants were trapped. He picked up stones and threw them at police officers, who shot a pellet into his leg.

That night, he did not eat or tell his parents what had happened. A single emotion consumed him: passion.

“The sentiment of freedom is in our blood,” he said. “It will outlive us.”

The Article Was First Published on The NewYork Times.

Nazir Masoodi

During the 2010 civilian unrest in Kashmir, an all-party delegation led by then Home Minister P Chidambaram visited the Valley to reach out to people and find a way to resolve the crisis. During an interaction in Tangmarg, a young man asked the team members why they didn’t feel pain when a part of their body was bleeding – “How is it possible that my arm is being amputated and my body doesn’t feel the pain?” The delegation, which included parliamentarians like Arun Jaitley — now Finance Minister – was stunned by the young Kashmiri man’s words.
In the middle of the unrest in which more than 100 civilians were killed by the forces and slogans of “Azadi” were heard across the Valley, the man was trying to ask a group of national leaders whether they considered him a citizen of India. If yes, why didn’t the laws that protect every citizen’s rights in the country apply to Kashmiris?

On Saturday, seven civilians, among them four teenage students — the youngest just 14 — were killed in firing by security forces in Pulwama. Videos showing the troops firing at running youth are in circulation. There is little to guess on what happened that morning, shortly after three militants and a soldier were killed in an encounter.

The teens had bullet wounds above the waist – in their chest, neck and head. Scores received bullet and pellet injuries.

Months before a national election, such a tragedy would have become a huge political issue, had it taken place in any other part of the country. Heads would have rolled; political leaders would have rushed to console the victims’ families.

Mandsaur in Madhya Pradesh, the epicenter of farmer protests in June last year during which five farmers were killed in police firing, became a major reason for the exit of the BJP and its formidable chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan “Mamaji (uncle)” after 15 straight years in power. The media also highlighted the victims. No one asked why the protesters were throwing stones and attacking the forces in Mandsaur.

In the last three years, more than 300 civilians have been killed in Kashmir. Not a single incident was probed and not a single accused faced trial. More than 16,000 people were injured. The pellet horror has partially or fully blinded hundreds of people. But scarcely has one heard any national leader raising his voice against these civilian killings and mass blindings or seeking a judicial probe and telling countrymen that our citizens are being killed with impunity.

Even pellet firing at 19-month-old baby girl Hiba was not enough to shake the nation’s conscience. The youngest pellet victim has already gone through two surgeries in her eye and doctors are still doubtful they can fully restore her eyesight.

Mercifully, no one has accused her of stone-throwing.

When Congress’ leader Ghulam Nabi Azad talked about security forces killing more civilians than militants, he was roasted for the comments. There was hope that things may change for the better when Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke about not bullets but hugs for Kashmiris in his Independence Day speech last year – “Na goli se na gaali se, Kashmir ki samasya suljegi galay lagane se. (Kashmir’s problems can be solved only by embracing its people, not with bullets or abuses).”

Sadly, the words did not translate into reality.

After each killing, the victims have been held responsible for their death.

What they were doing at the site of an encounter is the most predictable question. Why they were killed is never asked. Much of the media describes firing on civilians as “clashes”, giving the impression that it is an even match and in a way, justifying it. Government and police handouts are structured on the same lines.

After the Pulwama killings, Governor Satya Pal Malik, instead of taking action against accused, asked people not to rush to encounter sites. In other words, a hint that they were responsible for their own deaths. He didn’t condemn the massacre. No probe was ordered to fix responsibility. The state police have literally abdicated their duties.

After the Supreme Court order putting on hold the FIR against Army officer Major Aditya, who was accused of killing of three civilians in firing in January, there is an unwritten rule that every police station is following – not to file any FIR against security forces.

Don’t people of the country deserve to know why 8,000 citizens are missing in Kashmir? According to an organization that deals with missing people in Kashmir, the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons, these people were picked up by security forces and no one knows whether they are dead or alive. There are hundreds of unmarked graves and no one knows who is buried there. People were subjected to unspeakable torture and there were allegations of rape that have never been investigated. Long-pending cases of fake encounters and extra-judicial killings always beg the question – why is the law of the land not working in Kashmir?

Recently, the Supreme Court dismissed a bunch of petitions filed by 750 army men challenging cases registered against alleged excesses in Manipur and Jammu and Kashmir. The top court said: “When there is loss of life, even in an encounter, shouldn’t the human life demand that it should be looked into and an investigation should be done?”

In Kashmir, First Information Reports have largely been about recording deaths, ever since the Armed Forces (J&K) Special Power Act was enforced in the state in 1990. Yet, registration of FIRs was acting as a deterrent and helping calm tempers every time civilians were killed by the security forces.

The people of Kashmir became citizens of India in 1954 through a presidential order. As the constitution says, they enjoy rights and privileges like any other Indian citizen. Their rights are also protected by Jammu and Kashmir’s own constitution and a separate Ranbir Penal Code. But in reality, it’s all confined to the law books and on the ground, constitution and civil rights have literally been kept in suspended animation. By the way, is there any lawyer in the Supreme Court who ever filed a petition or PIL on why laws in India are not being enforced in Kashmir to protect citizen rights?

To begin with, New Delhi’s biggest confidence building measure in Kashmir would be to implement the constitution and the law, and to treat the people of Kashmir as equal citizens.

Or is that too much to ask?

(Nazir Masoodi is NDTV’s Srinagar Bureau Chief)

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within this article are the personal opinions of the author.

SRINAGAR — Dismissing the criticism by a section of doctors and traders that he was overstepping his domain by cheking healthcare facilities in the city hospitals, Deputy Mayor, Shiekh Imran Wednesday said Srinagar Muncipality was the licencing authority of the hospitals and health centres and he was only performing his duty.

Imran had earlier given a dressing down to doc­tors at Chest Disease Hispital Srinagar asking them to improve the healthcare following death of a patient allegedly due to their negligence. “Negligence of doc­tors at the hospital has led to the death of an elderly woman whose beloved were crying for the help in the premises of the hospital, when I reached there,” Imran told reporters.

However eve as a faction of the doctors have reacted sharply to his directive ask­ing doctors to improve the healthcare, Imran said that he was supported on the is­sue by majority of the doctors.

Imran said that he did’nt misbehave with the doctors, but rather asked them to im­prove the healthcare. He said that he visited the Chest Dis­ease hospital to “improve the situation there.”

“I want to seek forgiveness in case I have used any abu­sive language but I want to urge the doctors not to go for strike as it will only add to the miseries of the patients”, Imran said.

He added he has not fired any public servant but has sought that the matter of negligence of the doctors that left an ailing woman dead should be taken up with the Chief Secretary.

“In case I have used any un-parliamentary language, then I am very sorry for that but don’t make the people suffer,” he said.

“I understand there are shortcomings so far as infrastructure is concerned and I want concerned to bring it in our notice”.

“The change has begun and we will not tolerate suffering of people any more”, he claimed.

In a video that had earlier gone viral, Deputy Mayor had during his visit to the hospital asked that doctor that instead of sitting in his room, he should have attended the duties. The video shows a patient also complaining about the lack of healthcare in the hospital.

Imran had also asked the doctors that it was their duty to attend to the patients and said that there was “no way they could have justified the lack of patient care” at the hospital. In the video, he is seen to have been seeking an explanation from the doctor.

DAK Protests Measures To Improve Health Care

Doctors Association Kashmir (DAK) on Wednesday reacted sharply to the direc­tive of Deputy Mayor, Sheikh Imran, to improve healthcare at CD hospital. In a statement it as Imran to, “stick to his domain while deploring his misbehav­iour with the doctors.”

DAK president, Dr Suhail Naik said that such interference is a common phenomenon and “we warn him to mind his own work. The hospitals are working round the clock in every situation.”

“He (Deputy Mayor) should have learned morals before talk­ing to a doctor. It does not seem that he has taken education from a foreign country. We want to tell him to learn from Rural educational institute so that he can get some manners to behave with doctors, ” he said while condemning Imran’s behaviour.

“It is not SMC that is paying us; we are being paid through the taxes of people. He should return the money that he owes the bank, rather than telling doctors that

EJAC Sees Dy Mayor’s Directive To Improve Healthcare ‘Shameful’

President Employees Joint Action Committee (EJAC), Abdul Qayoom Wani, came to the rescue of negligent doc­tors of CD hospital saying it strongly condemns the “abu­sive language”and misbehav­iour of Deputy Mayor Srinagar with doctors and paramedical staff on duty at chest disease hospital Dalgate. In a state­ment, Wani termed the inci­dent “shameful and unaccept­able to the employee fraternity because employees of the state are serving the people of J&K.” He said, “ the employees of the Health department including doctors and paramedical staff are discharging their duties in difficult situations and are put­ting their sweat and blood for patient care.”

Srinagar: The four member Kashmir-based team would be taking part in the World SnowShoe Championship-2019 scheduled to be held in Val Di Non, Trentino, Italy from January 4 to 6, 2019. The team would be travelling to Italy from New Delhi on January 1 to join athletes from more than 30 countries in Val Di Non for the annual event.
Lead by sports promoter Arif Laigroo who has been appointed as team manager by SnowShoe Federation of India, the team includes Gulzar Ahmad Khan, Mushtaq Bashir and Abid Hussain.

“I am thankful to SnowShoe Federation of India for giving me chance to serve the sport of SnowShoe and also Italian Embassy in New Delhi for granting team visa,” Laigroo said.
“Recently, Federation conducted SnowShoe event in Gulmarg and I saw how much potential Kashmir has got in this sport. It is way easier than traditional sport of skiing and other related sports. We don’t need to build a high-end infrastructure for hosting its international events and just need SnowShoe equipment and invite the athletes to Kashmir. In Italy I will try my best to promote Kashmir and invite athletes to our beautiful land,” he added.