Category: Union Territory

Srinagar: Army Chief General Bipin Rawat on Thursday has said the situation in Kashmir will improve soon and the country’s armed forces are fully prepared to thwart any threat to India’s sovereignty.
“’India is fully ready for two and a half front war with China, Pakistan and elements posing threat to the internal security,” media reports quoting Rawat as said, adding, “The situation in Kashmir will be normal soon.”
As per reports the Army chief said social media is an important tool being used by Pakistan to create unrest in Kashmir.
“Pakistan generated social media propaganda is spreading disinformation among youth of Kashmir. However, it will not succeed,” he said.
Talking about Army’s military preparedness, Rawat said, “We keep raising our modernisation issues with the Government of India and have got positive responses.”
General Rawat had visited Jammu and Kashmir last week to review the security and also met state Governor NN Vohra.

Srinagar: In yet another instance of the official apathy, ‘Babul Iqbal’, the entry gate to old city is awaiting its completion for past six years.

In 2011, the then administration took an initiative to construct city entry gate for Shahr-e-Khas named after Allama Iqbal and had sanctioned Rs 1.20 crore for its constriction.

However, six years have passed since the initiative was taken; the authorities have miserably failed to complete the project on time.

Babul Iqbal, which is currently being constructed at Baba Demb was supposed to be completed in one year (2012).

Nonetheless, it has missed multiple deadlines so far while the authorities seem reluctant to complete its construction since last six years.

The project involves major departments including Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC), Lakes and Waterways Development Authorities (LAWDA), Tourism and Roads and Building (R&B) department.

Once completed, the gate will serve as an entry point to the 2000 year old ‘Shehr-e-Khaas’ and will be the welcoming remark for the visiting tourists.

Ali Muhammad, a local resident of the area said that despite sanctioning 1.20 crore over its construction, the authorities seems reluctant to complete the project, adding, “The gate has an array of residential colonies on one side and a swamp like lagoon on the other side. Thus, the location of the gate is not correct for its construction and is creating chaos among the vehicular movement.”

He said that now, if the government started working on the project at this place then it should stop dillydallying in completing it.

Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) Commissioner, Shafat Khan said that the work is currently ongoing. “There were several plans over the project, which caused delay in completing the gate,” he said.

He said that the work has now been started again and hopefully the gate will be completed at earliest.

The Tourism officials said that they can only come into picture when the gate will be constructed.

“We had requested all the departments to complete it at earliest,” the Tourism officials said. KNS

Barkha Dutt

India’s Kashmir problem is probably the worst it has been in more than two decades. Pakistan-backed militancy and a spate of terrorist attacks have been matched with unrelenting civilian protests. The latest unrest escalated after Indian forces killed Burhan Wani, a commander of the terrorist group Hizb ul-Mujahideen, last year. Protesters have pelted Indian security agents with bricks and stones; schoolgirls in headscarves have joined male agitators on the street. In this new phase of militancy, educated young men are now picking up guns. The situation has caught the eye of the international media — the Economist recently urged India to start talks in Kashmir.

But Kashmiris who think other countries might step in to help are wrong. The world has never cared as little about Kashmir as it does today.

The Kashmir dispute has been at the center of conflict between India and Pakistan, who have fought three wars over it. There was a time when the 28-year-old insurgency attracted the world’s gaze to a region Bill Clinton once called a “nuclear flashpoint.” India’s human rights record in the landlocked valley was subjected to constant international scrutiny; Indian diplomats had to contend with uncomfortable questions on Kashmir. But today, there has been little to no noise in the global community about the turmoil in India’s only majority-Muslim state, including from Islamic nations such as Saudi Arabia or United Arab Emirates.

This is despite recent controversies such as the Indian Army’s use of a local civilian, Farooq Ahmad Dar, as a human shield on a military jeep. The Army says it was a response that helped save lives without resorting to firing and has given an award to the major who made the decision. Dar says he was an innocent bystander who was out to vote in a local election. Within India, popular opinion endorses a tougher approach to dealing with the Kashmir unrest. And the world has pretty much looked away.

So what has changed?

The absence of global criticism of the situation in Kashmir is partly a success of effective Indian diplomacy, as well as India’s growing international financial influence. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi embarked on personal outreach to countries in the Gulf; he has also leveraged the commercial interests of Western nations. Modi is aware of the need for the West to use India as a countervailing force to China. And, of course, one can’t forget the domestic distractions in the West, with Trump’s antics in the United States and a Brexit-preoccupied European Union.

The bottom line:

Kashmir is no longer an issue that Pakistan can get the world to take notice of.  In the pre-9/11 era, Pakistan was able to garner some sympathy for its Kashmir agenda. But in today’s world, where terrorism is viewed through the lens of the 9/11 strikes in the past and the Islamic State in the present, there is no patience for armed uprisings associated with Islamist terror. The links between Kashmir’s militant secessionism and Pakistani terrorist groups such as the Lashkar-e-Taiba have taken away the moral compass of what may have otherwise been seen as genuine political demands. Pakistan’s patronage in the form of cash and guerrilla training may have spurred Kashmiri separatism in the early stages; but today it’s exactly that link that diminishes the legitimacy of Kashmir as an issue in the world’s eyes.

Washington is locked into a dysfunctional relationship with Pakistan because of U.S. interests in Afghanistan. But there is rising U.S anger with Pakistan’s doublespeak on terrorism. In 2012, the United States announced a $10 million bounty on Hafiz Saeed, the head of the Lashkar, after the Mumbai terrorist strikes in which several Americans were killed. The Trump administration’s proposed budget includes cuts in military aid to Pakistan. Indeed, last week Afghanistan blamed Pakistani intelligence agencies and their fostering of the Haqqani network for a deadly truck bomb that killed 90 in Kabul.

The creeping radicalization of many young men agitating on Kashmir’s streets has also kept the world at bay. In a September 2016 speech to the United Nations, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif spoke of the slain militant Wani as if he were a Che Guevara-like folk hero. But Wani’s online videos show him calling for jihad and a caliphate in Kashmir. His successor, Zakir Musa, went further, warning anti-India separatists that they would be “beheaded” for calling Kashmir a political issue; the fight, he said, was for Islam. Musa’s statements were publicly disowned, but these videos marked a shift from an ethno-nationalist emphasis in Kashmir to an overtly religious one. Again, none of this will find takers in a world suspicious of political Islam and terrified of the next jihadist attack. The more the next generation of Kashmir’s protesters become part of a global Internet “ummah,” invoking religion ahead of rights, the less the world is likely to engage with them.

Of course, none of this lightens India’s moral burden to be accountable to our own standards of democracy and human rights in Kashmir. India must wade into the troubled waters that Pakistan has been fishing in with a lifeboat of its own. There is no military solution, and India will have to develop a dialogue mechanism to talk to rage-filled, disenchanted Kashmiris. But unless India and Pakistan go right to the brink of war over Kashmir, the world will just watch, from a safe and detached distance. And refuse to get involved.

Follow @bdutt

Courtesy: The Washington Post

Also Read: Narendra Modi must begin talks in Kashmir before it is too late

Srinagar: Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti today visited Tullamulla in Ganderbal district to greet members of the Pandit community, who had come to attend the Kheer Bhawani Mela.Interacting with devotees, Mehbooba Mufti said people in Kashmir were eagerly awaiting the return of their Kashmiri brethren. She said the socio-cultural milieu of the Valley was incomplete without Kashmiri Pandits. “This day is very revered for our Kashmiri Pandit brethren and they have come here in thousands today. We pray to God for their dignified return to the Valley so that they live in their own homes,” she addedEven as several devotees, especially the younger ones, were excited to see Mehbooba and took photographs with her, a small group of other devotees raised slogans shouting “we want justice”. The protesters were apparently protesting against the government’s failure to address the issues of the Kashmiri Pandits. An official statement said the Chief Minister took stock of the arrangements made by the administration for the devotees, many of whom had come from outside the state. She visited the stalls put up by the health department, district administration, fire and emergency services unit and the police for the convenience of the devotees.

Srinagar: Be it Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti’s office or former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, the ruling party or the opposition parties, police officials or militants, students or protesters, everyone is defying the government’s ban on social media in Kashmir.The ban, which came into effect last month, has been defied daily with the aid of the virtual private network (VPN) technology that allows users to access banned social media sites and instant messaging application by setting up proxy Internet connections.The attempts to block the use of VPNs have failed even as the government had sought the assistance of high-level technical teams.The state government had ordered the monthlong ban on 22 social media sites and instant messaging application on April 26. The ban had come at a time when the state government was grappling with recurring bouts of protests, which have continued despite the ban.The use of easy-to-install VPN applications, however, rendered the ban ineffective as all sides, including the government machinery, protesting students and even the militants, had access to the social media sites even though telecom companies had blocked access to them.CM Mehbooba Mufti’s official page on the banned social media site Facebook and those of the ministers in her Cabinet have remained active throughout the ban period.The ban has also been defied by government ministers, who share the details of their tours on Facebook and Twitter — both of which are banned — and upload videos on YouTube, a facility which is also banned.The police acknowledged that the ban had proven “ineffective”. “We will review it in the coming days,” a senior police officer said. The use of VPNs is now widespread across of the Kashmir valley.In remote villages of south Kashmir, where security agencies are facing a tough challenge from a tech-savvy generation of militants and protesters, young men take pride in showcasing the number of VPNs which they have downloaded on their phones.“We use VPNs to access the social media because it is important to know what is happening around,” a 19-year-old science student said in Trenz village of Shopian.The ban has also been circumvented by militants, whose pictures and videos continue to emerge on social media sites.A senior government official said that it was irrelevant whether the ban on the social media continued or got revoked. “On the ground, there is already no ban.”

Islamism is on the rise in the Valley and the separatists are fast losing control of the street

Barkha Dutt

If you watched the captions that scream out at you from your TV screens every night, their flaming orange hues designed to add to the heat, you would think that complex truths of the turmoil in Kashmir can be squeezed into 140 characters – just perfect for the Twitter age. But, like Akira Kuroswa’s Rashomon (Four people give different accounts of a rape and a murder) taught us, there can be multiple truths. Here are eight truths about Kashmir, seemingly paradoxical; simultaneously truthful.

Things in the Valley have not been this bad in two decades. I don’t measure this by violence, terrorism, and fatalities – we have seen much worse years on that count. I say this because battling Pakistan’s armed proxies is much more straightforward than taking on your own people on the street. And cloaking militancy with a protective sheet of civilian agitations, women, and teenagers among them, means many of the old conflict zone formulas won’t work.

Pakistan’s presence as instigator is at once more visible and more covert. Travel through villages of south Kashmir and you will see many more Pakistani flags than ever before. Quiz Kashmiris about why and some will laugh and say, “It’s just to irritate you people; it’s the one thing that always works.” But, if earlier Pakistan’s role was easier to track, through infiltration, exfiltration and training camps across the border – now it is insidious, engineered through sophisticated social media videos and hawala transactions. Terrorism has not stopped targeting security personnel but propaganda has become a more critical weapon than earlier.

Unlike the hashtag nationalism of venom-spewing anchors, the Army definitely wants political outreach. Soldiers do not want to be used as a substitute for either politicians or policemen. In fact, the Army is not in favor of being deployed in situations that pit it against the locals. In the past several high ranking officers have refused to be drawn into managing violent street protests. Lt General DS Hooda, the erudite and never-frazzled officer who oversaw the surgical strikes across the Line of Control told me that it was a ‘missed opportunity’ to not build on the strikes with a simultaneous domestic effort in the Valley. He points out that in addition to putting pressure on Pakistan it was as important to “address the internal situation in Kashmir which had started calming down by this time.”

Elections in the state have been absolutely free and fair since 2002 but while poll participation signals an institutional improvement it does not mitigate the separatist sentiment. The fatal flaw in conflating voter-turnout with ‘normalcy’ has returned to haunt us with the dismal showing in the Srinagar by polls. We are trapped by the obvious corollary; if high voter numbers mean a rejection of secessionism what does the lowest voting statistic in 30 years (down to 2% in some parts of Srinagar, under 7% overall) tell us about how Kashmiris feel?

Yes, the Hurriyat gets money and other support from Pakistan to instigate trouble in the state. But several of its members have also been courted on the back-channel by our intelligence agencies for years, obviously with different intents than Islamabad. Former R&AW chief AS Dulat outed the worst-kept secret when he revealed that not just separatists, but even militants had been engaged by Indian sleuths, both politically and financially. “So what’s wrong; it’s done the world over,” Dulat told me. “Corrupting someone with money is more ethical and smarter than killing him.”

Every separatist or militant who has attempted dialogue with New Delhi has been assassinated by Pakistan. The Vajpayee government succeeded in bringing a faction of the Hizbul Mujahideen, led by Abdul Majid Dar, to the table for talks. He was killed soon after. As was Hurriyat representative, Abdul Gani Lone, whose son Sajad is a minister in the present government. A mechanism that provides security and relevance to men willing to give up the gun has not yet taken root in Kashmir even 28 years after the insurgency began.

The problem remains political but radicalisation and a growing Islamism is real. I met a teenage boy strapped to a hospital bed who marched for slain militant Burhan Wani because he “protects Islam.” The Internet has made many angry young Kashmiris part of a global ‘ummah,’ exposing them to more fundamental strains of Islam. Both Wani and his successor Zakir Bhat released videos calling for a Caliphate. One officer argues, “Earlier Islam was a subset of Azadi; now Azadi is a subset of Islam.”

If New Delhi does not start a dialogue process soon, there will be no one to talk to. Separatists have only pocket boroughs of influence and they are fast losing control of the street.

Barkha Dutt is an award-winning journalist and author

The views expressed are personal

Courtesy: Hindustan Times

https://www.kashmir.watch/no-talks-people-not-loyal-india-ram-madhav/

Srinagar: Noted gynaecologist of the Valley Dr.Tahira Khanam passed away on Wednesday morning at 10.10 A.M.

She was laid to rest after Dhur prayers. Her chahrum will be held on Saturday (20.05.2017) at 9.30 A.M in the family graveyard in Magarmal.

Kupwara: A single teacher is teaching around 45 students in a government primary school in a Kupwara village as another teacher appointed through Prime Minister’s Special Package for Kashmiri migrants has not attended to her duties from the last 10 months, despite drawing regular monthly salary.
The Primary School Khabanrad Zangli area in Kupwara has on its rolls more than 45 students and two teachers have been posted in it. Hussaina Akhtar posted as teacher under SSA and Goldy Dhar appointed few years ago as a teacher in the department under PMSP for Kashmiri pandits, are the only two teachers in the school. However, the officials and the teacher said that Dhar has been absent from her duties after she joined last year.
“The non-availability of teachers is jeopardising our career. A single teacher cannot teach us well,” a group of students told KNS.
The parents said that due to shortage of teaching staff in the school, their children have suffered. “It is unfortunate the education department is not providing adequate staff to our children,” the aggrieved parents told KNS.
Officials said that Dhar has been appointed in 2016 as a teacher in the department and is posted at Primary School Khabanrad Zangli
“But she is absent from her duty from that day when she was appointed. Her salary account has been credited by time to time, as per official records,” the officials said.
While talking to the Headmistress of the SSA primary school Hussaina told Kashmir News Service (KNS), that Dhar’s absence is a loss to the students.
“Goldy Dhar is an efficient teacher and would teach English and Mathematics in the school. She is a good motivational teacher but her absence is a big loss for the students,” she said.
“How can I teach all the subjects to more than 45 students studying here. I have also informed about the absence of the teacher to higher authorities,” she said.
Zonal Education Officer (ZEO) Kupwara, Fareed Ahmad Khan, told KNS that they have sent a notice to Dhar about her absence.
“We have told her to come and resume her duty. But she hasn’t responded yet. We have informed higher authorities about the matter and to look into it because students are also facing problems and teaching also suffers due to her absence,” Khan told KNS.
The officials said that they have been ordered by higher authorities “not stop salary of any teacher appointed under the PM’s package.
CEO Kupwara Farooq Ahmad was not available for the comments. (KNS)