Category: Union Territory

Srinagar, Jun 11: Kashmir Rights Monitoring Center (KMRC) has filed a petition in State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) regarding unhygienic open food items in market especially mutton/meat, chicken etc and non use of steel knives and steel hooks for chopping and hanging purposes in violations of the Food Safety Act. The petition filed by the members of KRMC Bilal Bashir Bhat, Rameeza Allaqband and Umer Sameer has been listed under file no 177-Sgr-2017 under which Chairman SHRC, Justice Bilal Nazki issued notice under no 1796 seeking objections from Srinagar Municipal Corporation. In the petitioners in the petition have submitted that there is eminent threat to the lives of the human beings if they are being provided unhygienic food items in the market especially wet food items like mutton/meat, chicken etc. So it is the violation of the rights of the humans which are at all costs to be protected either through law implementing agencies or through the medium of civil society. “What circumstances the poison in terms of food wet food items like mutton/meat, chicken etc is being sold that too at the cost of the precious lives of the human beings. As a matter of fact and as per medical science, there is a procedure for chopping of live stocks viz steel knives are to be used and the mutton/meat is to be covered, otherwise there is every likelihood of erupting of diseases like hepatitis etc. Hence the killers in the market have been in the broad day light selling unhygienic food items as a consequence of which the human beings are suffering from various serious ailments which is to be taken into account by this Hon’ble Commission for the protection of the lives of the human beings which would automatically protect the human and civil rights.” the petition reads. 

Umar Manzoor was recognized for his story on Children living near LOC

Srinagar, June 10: Freelance Kashmiri journalist Umar Manzoor Shah has won a Europe’s top most Journalism award-Lorenzo Natali Media Prize 2017- awarded by European Commission on June 7 at Brussels.

Shah, who won the prize in the Asia Pacific amateur category, was recognized for his story on Children living along the Line of Control and how they are maimed by the ongoing conflict between India and Pakistan.

The European Commission this year awarded Lorenzo Natali Media Prize to ten  best amateur and professional journalists across the world for outstanding reporting on development, poverty eradication and freedom of religion. The Award Ceremony took place in Brussels during the European Development Days (EDD) on 7 June. The winners were been selected by an independent jury who are experts in the fields of development, journalism and human rights. Umar was awarded by Nazila Ghanea, Associate Professor at University of Oxford.

Shah, who was born in  Srinagar, the state capital, graduated in Journalism and Mass Communication in 2009 at the University of Kashmir and has since been pursuing a career as a freelance journalist. 

Writing for several press outlets such as ucanews.com, Inter Press Service and the Doha Centre for Media Freedom, his stories cover mostly social issues in war-conflicted areas, giving a voice to affected populations.

Srinagar: Bollywood actress Zaira Wasim had a narrow escape after the car she was travelling in skidded off the road and fell into the Dal Lake on Thursday evening.Zaira, 16, who starred in Aamir Khan’s blockbuster ‘Dangal’, was travelling along with her friend Arif Ahmad. They were rescued from the lake by locals, eyewitnesses said. “Both of them survived but her friend suffered several injuries,” said a local, who identified himself as Mudasir Bashir.The incident happened around 9 pm on Boulevard Road in Srinagar.Officials said the vehicle in which she was travelling belongs to a politician. At the time of the incident, the politician was not in the city, the officials said. They said she was rescued by the timely action of locals. Locals said the vehicle was moving at a high speed and the driver lost control over it. — TNS

Srinagar: With a will of bringing a massive change to the society and breaking the stereotypes, I Manjot Kohli Of age 21 belonging to a small District called Udhampur in J&K Is trying to work real hard from past one year in order to spread the idea of empowering women of the country. Manjot is working with an NGO namely “Guard of Justice and Human Rights” as the District president. So far she have solved over 30 cases regarding domestic violence in a very successful manner with the help of the Administration, which has always been very cooperative in every aspect. Manjot Is even working on the poor aspect of unemployment by running a Consultancy with one of my friends. She is the former district president and current state president of an NGO and soon would be promoted to the National Level. She Is running own institute as well. She Is the Director of speak well institute, HM of Rahool skill development training center and consultancy. Fighting against corruption She also fought against the corrupt staff of CPF department of the district, and got rid of all of them. Another fight that She have been fighting till now is regarding the consumer court of the district which still hasn’t been formed and people are suffering since over many years. She have been indulged in Directing nukkad nataks  regarding the different ongoing social evil issues like Beti bachao beti padhao. To add She is also working on the wave brought by our honorable Prime Minister sir regarding the preservation of Indian Heritage. She have been fighting in order to beautify and consider the preservation of one of the only two Jagganatha Temple. One is in Orrisa and the other one is here in Udhampur.  An admirer of our Prime Minister Modi, Her aim is to one day become the prime minister of country to serve the society in the best way possible.

The joint resistance leadership has called for peaceful protests after Friday prayers against the killing of the Shopian youth.

Sringar: Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chief Yasin Malik was detained on Friday in Sarai Bala area of Srinagar where he was leading a protest rally after congregational prayers.

Witnesses said that a police party detained Malik after he tried to march towards Lal Chowk along with his supporters from Iqra Masjid to protest the killing of Adil Farooq Magrey in firing by forces in Ganowpora village of Shopian earlier this week.

Jammu: A BJP legislator in Jammu and Kashmir has called for a ban on Momos alleging that the dish is more dangerous than alcohol and psychotropic drugs.

Ramesh Arora, member of the legislative council, believes that Ajinomoto (monosodium glutamate) used in momos’ recipe is harmful to health and can even cause cancer. Arora thinks momos are the “The root cause of several life-threatening diseases, including cancer of the intestine.”

“Ajinomoto, a kind of salt, causes serious diseases, including cancer. It is responsible for converting a minor headache into migraine. Besides memory loss, regular consumption for two to three years causes cancer of the stomach. They are found to be more harmful than alcohol and psychotropic drugs,” Ramesh Arora said.

Ramesh Arora has been campaigning for imposing ban on street foods including momos in Jammu and Kashmir. The BJP MLC also met state health minister Bali Bhagat, seeking prohibition on sale of momos and Chinese street food.

Baramulla: In a greatest display of brotherhood and humanity, large number of Muslims in North Kashmir participated in the last rites of an elderly Sikh man on Wednesday.

Manohar Singh alias Lala, a resident of Pattan town in Baramulla district breathed his last after brief illness. Lala being the popular figure in the town was admired by all. Large number of Muslims visited his house after the news about his death spread in the town.

Muslims also visited his Srinagar residence and participated in Antim Sanskar (Last Rites).

A mourner from Muslim community said that the deceased was very affectionate. “We always live in harmony in the town. We are really grieved over his death,” said Muhammad Saleem.

“We are overwhelmed by love and affection showered by Muslims. We are really grateful to them. Nowhere, in the world we have seen people from different faiths living in such harmony,” said a relative of deceased who hails from Punjab.

My simple question to my people is this: Should we let biased Indian media decide the fate of a leader here?

Let me first tell you something about myself, the person whose reputation a biased Indian channel tried to besmirch to project a  false image of Kashmir’s struggle for Azadi.

 The target of the attack was someone whose immediate and extended family has been suffering at the hands of Indian authorities since 1947. They attacked a son whose father, late Ghulam Mohammad Khan, was tortured and jailed for seeking the rights of his people. And when Shaheed Maqbool Bhat came to Kashmir from Azad Kashmir, it was my father who supported and guided him. The biased Indian media victimized a son whose aged mother was arrested in 1991 by CRPF camp Barzulla and detained her at a camp for fourteen days. They attacked a brother whose younger sibling Gull Mohammad Khan was killed in 1997. They attacked a nephew whose uncle Tariq Ahmad Lone was subjected to enforced disappearance in early 90s, and whose other uncle and aunt were killed in cold-blood.

They assaulted Nayeem Khan, one of the loyal servants of the Kashmir cause. It was a conspiracy to tarnish the image and role of a person who has an unblemished record. Who has played a vital role in organizing student movement in mid eighties and in the formation of Muslim United Front and All Parties Hurriyat Conference.

Delhi is using its media to suppress a born revolutionary like they used its judiciary to hang Afzal Guru.

It was to explain the same thing that I held a presser in Srinagar on May 20. I explained  how Delhi and its dubious media are desperate to show our struggle for rights to self determination in a poor light. But they have never succeeded in their Machiavellian ploys in past, and never will.

For someone who has been engaging with Indian State in Kashmir through seminars, debates and peaceful rallies since 1980, these shameful stings are but the costs we pay for our conviction. Having been tortured, sent to dark dungeons and booked under draconian ordinances, I have already seen their worst.

I meet hundreds of people every day from J&K and from India including my party workers. You can hardly know who is who and what are their motivations and designs.  I have always candidly talked about issues about Kashmir, India and Pakistan. But it was  a shock to me when I found that this scattered  conversation was  so deftly put together and doctored and used against me. I was shocked to see the doctored footage being aired by a particular news channel—behaving like an arm of intelligence agencies—as an exclusive sting operation. Even voice and lip syncing was out of place. Even a commoner having no knowledge of video editing can spot the glaring alteration. By running the video in bits and pieces, the so called ‘sting operation’ presented everything out of context. It was clearly aimed to defame our struggle.

Such videos however are no surprise to us. If they can run similar doctored videos to malign their own dissenting students of JNU, then we are clearly marked rivals in their definition of things.

Indian national corporate media is involved in falsifying and distorting Kashmir narrative to suit its role as an extended arm of the state. This role makes it complicit in carnage in Kashmir and in the  denial of rights of the people’s rights. The theatrical rhetoric is well known to us. It is devoid of  any  substance. It leaves no stone unturned to malign, bully and intimidate Kashmiris. The latest doctored video falls in this category. It is part of a declared war on Kashmir.

A movement against a huge oppressor needs funds to sustain and continue the struggle and not to make mansions. In Kashmir, there is a sanctity to Pakistani funds and not the Indian funds. We are helped by local and expatriate Kashmiris. That’s why we have built Bait-ul-maals besides getting support from our diaspora. Pakistan supports us politically and diplomatically.

I challenge Indian biased media and its agencies to prove that I have assets beyond my limited means of income. Or I created assets out of the sacred blood of our martyrs. 

For someone who quit an engineering job for the movement, these things don’t matter. Such smear campaigns in fact are in a way an endorsement of our cause. It tells us that the enemy and its allies will never shy away from intruding in our ranks to expose only their desperation. It tells us that we are on the right track.

After knowing and facing Indian State all these years, falling in their trap was out of question. The way they are telling this whole story is but a media-peddled lie, reinforcing a regime of Hindutva narrative about Kashmir. They mainly played it up to emphasise how Pakistan is funding our struggle.

Let me tell you, when I returned to Kashmir from Madhya Pradesh Jail in 1993, I witnessed how Indian forces had committed several massacres and burnt property worth billions of rupees. Such circumstances made me join the Hurriyat Conference after my release from the jail. I pledged to strengthen the resistance movement, which I believe is the only effective way to achieve freedom.

But Delhi always continued to pursue its vile agenda. After failing to contain Kashmir through its military arm, it is now using its media to suppress our voices. It is bound to backfire akin to the military occupation.

As for me, I have been facing the Indian state for the past 35 years. Now facing NIA sleuths who are in the town to probe is only continuation of it. I am open to any investigation, provided it is open and transparent. Rest we all know, how Indian agencies function in Kashmir.

I am accountable to my people, not to biased Indian media and India. I challenge Press Council of India to get these so called sting videos in their unedited form and play them in Lal Chowk. Let people judge themselves who is telling the truth and who is plying a dire and dubious  agenda.

I will continue to say I am a victim of aggressive and concocted Indian media trial. But having said that, unfortunately I am also the victim of selective, biased, authoritarian approach at home. We should learn team spirit from the enemy who stood behind their soldier who took a Kashmiri as a human shield in defiance of all the international and Indian laws. 

Today I miss the great and courageous leader of APHC Shaheed Abdul Gani Lone who always stood by his colleagues and workers. I have chosen the path of my father consciously and the other unsung leaders who have been the silent soldiers of this blood soaked movement. I don’t believe in mere publicity or self praise which is short-lived. I don’t believe in creating narratives for self-praise. This  way we bury the big achievements made possible by a collective effort.

My unflinching ideology, sacrifice, contribution and faith in Allah and in my people are my strengths. Nayeem Khan is not a media tiger. I know my people have and will always trust me. Indian channel’s vicious and motivated campaign hasn’t impressed them. And on my part, I promise I will never let my people down, nor betray their faith in me.

I believe in the truthfulness and ideological conviction.  There should be no competition among the leaders. I have never seen myself in the competition for leadership.

Neither I nor my family has ever taken any favour or concession from either India or from the state government. I challenge anyone to prove otherwise.  I am not a leader of controversies.

I believe in promoting message, not the messenger because the message is the only thing which is important. 

I stand strong on my moral strength. Let suppressed people of Kashmir dig deep into the history and decide themselves. I throw my role in this blood-soaked movement, my belongings and my property open to public scrutiny. My simple question to my people is this: Should we let biased Indian media decide the fate of a leader here. 

I also believe APHC should be open to suggestions and interact with student community, academia and intelligentsia. Just playing to the gallery will take us nowhere. 

I believe in transparency and accountability. Movement is sacred, not the personal likes and dislikes. Even Britishers used media to defame genuine leaders of Indian freedom struggle. Same is being repeated by India in Kashmir.

India is trying to create confusion, mistrust among our people and the leadership. But I believe in unified leadership and cohesive approach. Ownership of the struggle lies with the people.

Our cause is noble. Resistance is sacred. And I will never betray either of them. Our leadership should not become a compulsion for its practitioners but our strength. It should guide us not follow.  

As for my role in the movement is concerned, it is no secret. Let people decide who is right and who is wrong. 

Courtesy: Kashmir Ink (A Greater Kashmir Publication)