Category: Union Territory

‘BSF Troops Also Burnt Down 400 Shops And 75 Residential Houses’.  

On Saturday, Sopore will observe the anniversary of one of the worst massacres in Kashmir when Border Security Force soldiers massacre 57 civilians and set the main town on fire. The survivors still recall how many injured civilians who took shelter inside shops were burnt alive.

Locals said the massacre took place after militants attacked BSF men of 94 battalion at Baba Yousuf Gali near women’s college main chowk and snatched gun of a BSF personnel. After the incident BSF went berserk, opening indiscriminate fire on unarmed civilians and setting ablaze the markets.Ghulam Rasool Ganai, who witnessed the massacre and arson, said the marauding troopers dragged out the driver of an SRTC bus (JKY-1901) from the vehicle and fired into the passengers, killing 20 of them.

“The troopers then set shops and buildings on fire after sprinkling gun powder. About 400 shops and buildings including 75 residential houses were gutted in Shalpora, Shahabad, Muslimpeer, Kraltang and Arampora areas of the town.”

Among the gutted buildings were Women’s Degree College and Samad Talkies. 

The family which suffered the highest number of casualties was the Shalla family of Shalpora. Four of its men were killed.

Mohammad Shafi Shalla, a member of the family, said, “We had fruit business. A day before the massacre one of our fruit-laden trucks had got stuck in a drain. Four members of our family who were retrieving the truck on the day of the massacre had taken shelter in a shop when the BSF started firing at people. The BSF men entered the shop and killed them all.”

The deceased Shallas were Mohammad Ashraf Shalla (a class 8 student aged 14), Ghulam Rasool Shalla, Sajad Ahmad Shalla and Bashir Ahmad Shalla. 

Tariq Ahmad Kanjawal, 25, a survivor and eyewitness of the massacre, was 20 then.

“The image of a burning shopkeeper emerging out of his shop and shouting hysterically has stayed with me all these years. His head was in flames. I remember a BSF officer telling his colleagues not to shoot him as he will be dead soon,” said Tariq.

Tariq also remembers how Shaheen, the owner of Shaheen Studio, a photo shop, and his assistant, were burnt alive in the shop. The charred bodies of the duo were found hugging each other and they were buried in a single grave, hugging.

Human rights organizations like Amnesty International had condemned the killings and demanded justice for the victims. The Sopore massacre also got published in the Time magazine under the heading ‘BLOOD TIDE RISING.’ According to the magazine 55 persons were killed in the massacre.

Social media erupted as Indian-origin customers learnt about ‘Made in China’ globes being sold at leading Canadian stores which depicted Jammu and Kashmir as a ‘disputed area’ and Arunachal Pradesh as a part of China. 

Toronto: The 2015 controversy over China’s state-owned television CCTV showing India’s map without Jammu and Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh while Prime Minister Modi was visiting the country has found a new facet.

Social media erupted as Indian-origin customers learnt about ‘Made in China’ globes being sold at leading Canadian stores which depicted Jammu and Kashmir as a ‘disputed area’ and Arunachal Pradesh as a part of China.

Pictures of the globe being sold at the multinational retail chain, Costco stores in Canada have gone viral as Twitter users expressed shock and anger, Times Now reported.

According to reports, the globes depict Kashmir as a separate territory and a complaint had been filed with Costco management, as Indian customers demanded the withdrawal of the globe from sale immediately.

A professor at University of Toronto who encountered a similar globe at another outlet in Canada called Homesense told the Hindustan Times, “I think it’s very important that we don’t let our country be divided into pieces. Action must be taken and these must be withdrawn everywhere.”

Sandeep Deswal an Indian-origin Canadian purchased a globe as a present for his 6-year-old daughter and noticed a similar discrepancy. Upon closer inspection he realised that “Jammu and Kashmir had been shown as separate from India,” he told the Hindustan Times.

These erroneous globes have racked up concerns amid Indo-Canadians who worry about their impact on Indian-origin children born abroad.

“If we don’t tell her Kashmir is an integral part of the country, she will get a different image of India. The next generation will believe something else,” Deswal said.

An Indo-Canadian organisation, National Alliance of Indo-Canadians (NAIC) has taken the matter into their own hands appealing to stores to pull out the globes. NAIC President Azad Kaushik told Hindustan Times, “A country can now freely engage in a veiled war through business and trade practices by influencing young minds with long-term consequences. The manipulation of a map on an educational globe is but an example of a new kind of war through business in a globalised world.”

Costco which is the second largest retailer after Walmart and which operates more than 700 warehouses has been quick to respond to the complaints by withdrawing the product, however NAIC’s complaint to Homesense is under review in the company’s product compliance department.

Srinagar: To reduce deaths by heart attacks, doctors posted in rural and urban areas of Kashmir have come together and created an online network to treat patients.

Disturbed by the increasing number of heart attack deaths mainly contributed by delay in treatment, two well-known cardiologists have started an online ‘Save Heart Initiative’ group on WhatsApp to stay connected with doctors posted across the peripheries of Kashmir.

“By the time a heart attack patient from the peripheries reaches a tertiary care hospital in Srinagar, he or she has suffered 70 per cent damage to the heart muscles. Then, it is very difficult to save the patient’s life,” said well-known cardiologist Dr Imran Hafeez of SMHS Hospital.

To minimise the damage to the heart, the cardiologists are guiding doctors in the peripheries on the treatment to be provided to the patients, Hafeez said.

Ghulam Rasool Wani, 55, of Taingan, Pampore, in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district, suffered a heart attack during late night on December 17. Wani was rushed to Sub-District Hospital, Pampore, where doctors led by Dr Firdous Masoodi shared electrocardiogram and other diagnoses with the experts in the ‘Save Heart Initiative’ group. Doctors found two dangerous clots in his vessels, which had blocked blood flowand oxygen. Cardiologists advised immediate thrombolysis which dissolved dangerous clots in Wani’s blood vessels and prevented damage to tissues and organs.

After facilitating the proper flow of oxygen to the heart muscles, Wani was referred to the Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences, Srinagar, for advanced cardiological treatment. Wani’s family last week issued public gratitude through newspapers to the doctors for saving his life.

Like Wani, several other heart attack patients from the north and south Kashmir have been saved through online sharing of their diagnosis and line of treatment.

Hafeez, along with Dr Muzaffar Zargar, created the online group in the second week of December and brought together doctors posted in far-flung areas to prepare immediate treatment for heart attack patients.

“In past five days, we have managed 25 heart attack cases. We are surprised by the effectiveness of the treatment and success rate,” said Dr Nasir Shams, who is a part of the initiative.

Online group

Doctors posted in rural and urban areas of Kashmir have come together and created an online network to treat patients. 

Tribune News

A Kashmiri father of three children who is suffering from spinal tumour needs immediate help to fund his treatment costing approximately Rs 30 lakhs.

48-year-old Sofi Nazir Ahmed, currently undergoing treatment at Fortis Hospital Gurgaon (UID number: 000805306), was diagnosed with Metastatic Paraganglioma (Spinal Tumour) in 2012.

He was operated for the tumour in 2012, 2014 and in November last year.

According to Dr Priya Tiwari, Ahmed is a known case of recurrent metastatic paragangioma of spine. “He has been planned for Lutetium based PRRT therapy. He will require at least three more cycles of PRRT. Also, he would require chemotherapy indefinitely with PRRT and also after PRRT. Total cost of his treatment would be around Rs 30 lakh,” says Dr Tiwar.

According to his family, Ahmed was admitted at Fortis Hospital and underwent the PRRT as planned on December 28.

“Next morning, around 5:45 am, he developed severe shortness of breath followed by hypotension and was immediately shifted to ICU  and put on ventilator,” they said.

Ahmed, a businessman, is a father of three children and has exhausted all his savings on the treatment.

Anybody who wants to fund his treatment can deposit the money in his bank account number, details of which are mentioned below.

Contact No. of Patient: 09911418356

Bank Details:

Nazir Ahmed

J&K Bank Alamgari Bazar

Account No: 0100040100003006

IFSC code: JAKA0ALMGRI

Baramulla: Two girls belonging to two neighbouring families of Pattan tehsil who had gone missing for the last 4 day have been traced from Banihal, police said on Friday.

A spokesman of police said that  after receiving the missing report of two neighbouring girls from Nehalpora village in Pattan, police immediately swung in action and launched manhunt.

“The girls were finally traced from Banihal after strenuous efforts by police. A police party accompanied by family members have been sent to Banihal to handover the missing girls to their families” the official said.

Pertinently, Shaishta Bano daughter of Abdul Razak Shah resident of Nehalpora Pattan and Masrat Bano daughter of Ali Mohammad resident of Mirya Mohalla had gone missing in north Kashmir’s Pattan on Tuesday.

Srinagar: Chairman Hurriyat Conference (G) Syed Ali Geelani could not attend the Friday congregational prayers due to his continuous house arrest, a spokesperson said. 

He said in 2017 Syed Ali Geelani was stopped 48 times from offering Friday prayers, an important religious obligation. 

Meanwhile Tehreek-e-Huriyat General secretary Mohd Ashraf Sehrai continued to remain under the house detention today for the third consecutive day and they too were not allowed to offer the Friday prayers, the spokesperson added in a statement, saying that Hurriyat spokesman Gh Ahmad Gulzar, Mohd Yusuf Naqash, Mohd Yasin Ataie and Syed Imtiyaz Hyder are continuously lodged in different police stations.

Strongly condemning the house imprisonment of Syed Ali Geelani and other resistance leaders, Hurriyat Conference said the imprisonment of its leaders has ‘no constitutional and moral justification and police is suppressing their peaceful voices just with the barrel of gun.’ 

Hurriyat (G) said police ‘invented a new process of house arrests and banning of political activities of Geelani Sahib and other leaders during 2010 mass uprising in Jammu & Kashmir.’

Since then police never produced any legal justification for this illegal house arrest process and they never explained that under which act or section of the law is Geelani being imprisoned in his house. This lawlessness continued in the period of Omar Abdullah and now PDP government is following the suite in its rule,”,

Hurriyat while strongly denouncing PDP led coalition said that their rhetoric about “battle of idea” proved hoax and they proved most opportunistic, saying that despite their tall claims about freedom of expression, they are chasing political leaders, strangulating genuine voices, curbing peaceful political activities and implicating and caging youth on fake allegations.

Hurriyat conference slammed PDP regime for misusing PSA and said that Public Safety Act was introduced by late Sheikh Mohd Abdullah saying it would be used against timber smugglers only but later it was misused and used against political opponents.

Referring to Amnesty International, a global movement against human rights violations, Huriyat said that international organisations for human rights and Amnesty international has declared this law as draconian and lawless law as authorities in Jammu and Kashmir are using the PSA to detain its political opponents on fabricated charges ,saying that even ordinary police man and DC is authorised to slap PSA against anyone without taking into consideration the ethics ,law and basic values of moral values .

Demanding immediate release of all detainees, Huriyat said that unnecessary caging and curbing people and detaining resistance leaders and youth is the root cause of uncertainty in state and while cautioning the New Delhi and their henchmen for dire consequences, Huriyat said that they have to share the responsibility for the negative results of their haughty approach against peaceful civilians and leadership. 

‘He had to appear in the examination on Saturday’

Srinagar: A Kashmiri Student has accused an airline of “cheating” and refusing to issue boarding pass to him at Amritsar Airport this afternoon leaving him depresses and helpless in the city. 

Amir Hassan Sheikh from Handwara in North Kashmir told KNS on phone that he was scheduled to fly to Srinagar from Amritsar through a private airline Indigo 6E-477 ID 4181969960 at 01.35 PM. 

He said that he reached airport at 12 noon and approached to boarding counter where he was told to wait as the flight was delayed. Amir claimed that he again approached to boarding desk where he was told to wait.

Amir however, claimed that he was shocked to learn that the boarding had closed at 1 PM when he approached them for the third time. 

According to him despite his repeated pleas the airline authorities did not listen to him leaving him wandering . Amir told KNS that he had to appear in the examination on Saturday and does not have enough money to even stay back in a hotel for a night. (KNS)

Deoband: Muslims should avoid marrying in families employed in banking sector, as the whole banking system works on ‘interest,’ which is illegitimate (haram) in Islam, said a fatwa issued by the Islamic seminary Darul Uloom Deoband. 

Head of the Darul Ifta department Mufti Habiburrahman Khairabadi, who releases fatwas, here on Thursday talked about a person, who was getting marriage proposal from a family, where the father earned money from a banking job. ‘Is it preferable to marry in such families,’ the man wanted to know, said Mufti Khairabadi. 

Srinagar: The twin resorts of Gulmarg and Pahalgam received light snowfall during the night, even as the minimum temperature marked an improvement at most places in Kashmir Valley and Ladakh region.

An official of the MET department said there was a possibility of light rains or snowfall at isolated places, especially in the higher reaches, in the state over the next 24 hours.

The official said while the night temperature marked an improvement at most places across Kashmir division last night, the mercury in Gulmarg and Kokernag decreased from the previous night.

Gulmarg – the famous ski-resort in north Kashmir – recorded a low of minus 9 degrees Celsius, three degrees colder from the previous night.

He said Kokernag town in south Kashmir registered a low of minus 3.4 degrees Celsius compared to minus 2.5 degrees Celsius on the previous night.

Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir, recorded the minimum temperature of minus 3.2 degrees Celsius, a slight increase from minus 3.9 degrees Celsius yesterday, the official said.

He said the mercury in Qazigund in south Kashmir settled at a low of minus 4 degrees Celsius, up from the previous night’s minus 4.4 degrees Celsius, while Kupwara in north Kashmir recorded a low of minus 2 degrees Celsius.

The night temperature in Pahalgam – the famous health resort which also serves as one of the base camps for the annual Amarnath Yatra recorded a low of minus 4 degrees Celsius, up from minus 4.5 degrees Celsius the previous night.

Kargil town in Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir continued to shiver as the minimum temperature there settled at minus 20 degrees Celsius same as the previous night, the official said.

He said the town was the coldest recorded place in the state.

Nearby Leh town recorded a minimum temperature of minus 10.3 degrees Celsius last night up from minus 14.2 degrees the previous night.

Kashmir is currently under the grip of Chillai-Kalan, a 40-day harshest period of winter when the chances of snowfall are most frequent and maximum and the temperature drops considerably.

It ends on January 31 next year, but the cold wave continues even after that in the valley.

The 40-day period is followed by a 20-day long Chillai- Khurd (small cold) and a 10-day long Chillai-Bachha (baby cold).

(PTI)

WASHINGTON: The United States on Thursday suspended an undisclosed amount of security aid to Pakistan until Islamabad takes “decisive” action against all the terrorist groups.

State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert told a news briefing that the suspension is not a permanent cutoff at this time and did not affect civilian aid to Pakistan.

She said security assistance will be frozen, but not canceled, as America continued to hope Pakistan will take the decisive action against terrorist and militant groups that it seek.

The US official said the suspension includes foreign military financing (FMF), which funds purchases of U.S. military hardware, training and services, and coalition support funds (CSF), which reimburse Pakistan for counter-terrorism operations.

The department declined to say exactly how much aid would be suspended, saying the numbers were still being calculated and included funding from both the State and Defense departments.

“Our hope is that they will see this as a further indication of this administration’s immense frustration with the trajectory of our relationship and that they need to be serious about taking the steps we have asked in order to put it on more solid footing,” a senior State Department official told reporters.

Two other officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the amount suspended would total more than $255 million. Earlier this year Washington suspended $255 million in FMF.

“It’s north of $255 million,” said one U.S. official.

The Trump administration briefed Congress on its decision on Wednesday.

Tense ties between the uneasy allies nosedived on Jan. 1 when U.S. President Donald Trump lashed out on Twitter against Islamabad’s “lies and deceit” despite $33 billion in aid and the White House warned of “specific actions” to pressure Pakistan.