Category: Union Territory

Srinagar: The University of Kashmir and the Islamic University of Science and Technology (IUST), who had earlied announced cancellation of winter vacation this year, have now called off classes for a week due to bad weather.After losing five months of classes during the summer unrest last year, the universities across Kashmir decided to call off the winter break this year. However, after fresh snowfall since the last two days the classes have been called off for a week and the exams have also been postponed.The Kashmir varsity exams scheduled to be held on January 18 and 19 have been postponed due to fresh snowfall. The classes in all departments of the university have also been suspended till January 29, a varsity officialsaid.Earlier, the university postponed all examinations that were scheduled to be held on January 16 and 17.IUST Vice Chancellor Mushtaq Ahmad Sidiqui said the decision to resume classes would be taken only after the weather improves.“For now, we have called off classes till January 22. We will take the final call on Friday after the weather forecast becomes certain. If the weather continues to be like this then we might suspend classes till January 29,” the official said, adding that the exams were scheduled to take place in the university from the second week of March.Meanwhile, the bad weather has lead to slippery roads hampering the normal movement of traffic. — TNS

Srinagar: Kashmir’s Star footballer Ashfaq Ahmad has reportedly quit his job as a physical education Teacher in Jammu and Kashmir government after, according to media reports, he was asked to teach dancing, singing to the students for which he felt humiliated.

Ashfaq Ahmad is among the few footballers from Kashmir to have played internationally.

Ashfaq Ahmad, 33, hails from Srinagar city. He has also led India’s premier Football Club Mohan Bagan.

As a mark of appreciation, the state government had provided him a Job in education department as physical education teacher and posted at government higher secondary school teacher Rajbagh in Srinagar. According to media reports, “Ahmad was asked by school authorities to teach children how to sing and dance”.

When Ashfaq raised the issue before the School authorities, they told him that they are following the directives, the reports added. Ishfaq termed such directives as “humiliating” and quit his job as physical education teacher.

Srinagar: Doing away with the past practice and despite their health concerns, senior resistance leaders have decided to spend winter this year in Kashmir “to remain with the oppressed people.”

Senior pro-freedom leaders Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Muhammad Yasin Malik and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq are presently in Kashmir.

The trio has been jointly spearheading agitation against civilian killings following the death of Hizb Commander Burhan Muzaffar Wani on July 8 last year.

“It has been the desire of Geelani sahib to stay in Kashmir with his people, but due to his health complications he had to move outside the state for treatment in past several years. Despite suffering from various ailments and advise by doctors to shift to some warm place, he has decided to stay in Kashmir this winter,” Geelani’s younger son Naseem Geelani told.

Naseem said Geelani’s continuous house arrest is taking heavy toll on his health as he is not allowed out of his house or allowed to meet visitors.

The Hurriyat (G) Chairman is on pacemaker since 1997. In 2003, his left kidney was removed at Tata Memorial Hospital in Mumbai as it had developed carcinoma. In 2004, his gall bladder was removed at Ganga Ram Hospital in Delhi. He was again operated upon in 2007 and half of his right kidney was removed. In 2010, his eyes were operated upon at Apollo Hospital in Delhi.

Geelani’s elder son Dr Naeem Geelani said doctors have increased his father’s medication.

“We have improved heating facilities at home to prevent his exposure to cold during winter,” he said.

“Though Geelani’s sahib faces health problems due to intense cold, but he has preferred to stay in Kashmir this winter to remain with oppressed people who faced brunt of forces during summer unrest,” a leader of Hurriyat (G) said.

Chairman of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) Muhammad Yasin Malik has also preferred to stay in Kashmir this winter.

Malik is also suffering with heart and kidney ailments and was admitted in Fortis Hospital in May last year after suffering breathlessness.

“Malik sahib preferred to stay in Kashmir despite his ailing health. He had to undertake medical checkups in a Delhi hospital, but he decided to stay in Kashmir given the situation people of Kashmir are facing,” said Altaf Ahmad, JKLF spokesperson.

“In August last year, so-called authorities had tried to shift Yasin sahib to All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS) Delhi for some necessary medical tests, but JKLF chief had refused to accept this dubious offer of the rulers. Malik sahib loves his homeland and people than his health,” Altaf said.

Chairman of Hurriyat Conference (M) Mirwaiz Umar Farooq said, “It is not that I would leave the valley every winter but my passport was impounded five years back.”

“Sometimes on doctors’ advice I would take my mother, who is an arthritis patient, to warmer places for a month or so during severe winters. But it is not some routine that I have followed,” he said.

“Kashmir is my motherland and I have lived here all my life be it winter or any other time. And it is my first calling for the last 26 years of my life when fate decided that I carry forward the mission of my family and play my role in the people’s sacred struggle,” Mirwaiz said.

Srinagar: Terming Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti’s assertions in the J&K assembly as contradictory, the joint resistance leadership Tuesday questioned her as to ‘how much blood she further needed to secure her chair.’

The joint resistance leaders – Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik – in a statement here said that people of Kashmir out-rightly reject the statement made by Mehbooba in the legislature.

“Whatever she stated are brazen lies and senseless arguments to justify her inhuman role against the people of Kashmir during the current uprising and to please her masters in New Delhi for staying in power,” the trio said. “Her words and deeds are same as that of her predecessors who played deceitful and manipulative politics, creating fissures and confusing people thereby projecting and diluted and muddied view of Kashmir issue to serve his purpose of remaining in power.”

The statement said that holding the reigns of India as its home minister, it was none other than former Chief Minister Muhammad Sayeedi who was “instrumental in several massacres perpetrated through Jagmohan.”

“Most barbaric amongst them were massacres of Gaw Kadal, Alamgiri Bazaar, 

The resistance leaders said that as Chief Minister, Mehbooba parroted “healing touch” but ruthless killings, custodial disappearances, countless graveyards and unparalleled human rights violations continued unabated throughout her tenure. Joint leadership said that efforts to thrust Sainik Colonies, discriminating industrial policy, state subject rights to West Pakistan refugees, townships in the name of Kashmiri Pandits with the aim of settling non-state subjects, extension of SARFAESI Act to J&K and other such policies are not figments of people’s imagination but clearly articulated plans of RSS.

“Their aim is to change the demography of the state for its complete integration in Indian domain. The opportunity provided by PDP to BJP for petty benefits is part of the treacherous legacy since 1947 of a group of shameless and selfish people who have repeatedly bargained our blood and honour for their lust of power,” the statement said.  Resistance leadership said that since 1990 over one lakh Kashmiris have been killed by the forces and then in a show of ‘concern’ cosmetic measures of setting up inquiry commissions are announced with no results. “In a recent RTI filed, CRPF did not even accept that they have committed any violation against people, so such rhetorical utterances of setting up commissions have lost every bit of credibility for the people but state continues to hoodwink with such deceptions, only to repeat these heinous crimes again and again.”

The leadership asked the chief minister, “that how much blood, honour and chastity, she needs to keep herself in power as her lust seems to have no end.”

“Selfish character of collaborators has offered only death and destruction to us, as their masters want to settle the Kashmir issue once for all as per their long-cherished agenda,” the statement said.

Meanwhile, condemning the attack on Muslims of Kathua, Hurriyat Conference (M) said, “Communal forces in Delhi and their partners in the state have legalised and legitimised the slaughter of Muslims and the establishment encourages them to do so.”

SRINAGAR: Special prayers were organised on the annual Urs of Gous-ul-Aazam commonly known as Dastageer Sahib (RA) at Srinagar’s Khanyar shrine.
After eleven daylong prayers, scores of devotees participated in night prayers in the shrine to commemorate birth anniversary of the Sheikh Syed Abdul Qadir Gilani.  Relics of the saint were displayed on this special day.
After offering Zuhr prayers, thousands gathered for the glimpse of Holy Relic here. Similar gatherings were witnessed in Saraibala and other areas of Kashmir.
Similarly, people also gathered to have a glimpse of Holy Relic in Bandipora’s Plan area amid cold.

Jammu: “Getting back power projects, revoking of AFSPA, and resolving the Kashmir issue in a peaceful manner through dialogue is in the agenda of alliance and we are working on it,” Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti said on Tuesday. She said that her party had entered into an alliance with the BJP because her father, the late Mufti Muhammad Sayeed, “was a visionary person who always believed in the institutions of democracy and he was impressed by Indian democracy.”
“Mufti sahab left the Congress as he believed that it was a national party. To work particularly for the people of state he created his own party. I believe that we all should speak in one tone for the betterment of the state rather than blaming each other,” she said.
“Technically we are connected with India but we want to integrate with it emotionally,” she said.
Over revoking of AFSPA, she said, “When conditions in the Valley will get normal, it will be revoked.”
Replying to charges of the opposition that she sought votes from the people of Kashmir in the name of stopping Modi from turning Kashmir into Gujarat, she said that she sought votes to stop the BJP from gaining a foothold in Kashmir, but when her party (the PDP) secured the mandate in Kashmir and the BJP secured the mandate from Jammu, she had to make an alliance and accept the people’s mandate.
“In 1953 the Congress betrayed NC, but still they made alliance with them. It is only to bring Kashmir out of daldal (quagmire) that we joined hands with BJP. We have an agenda of alliance on which our government is working, but these problems will be solved gradually, not abruptly. Article 370 stands; it will not be revoked. AFSPA will be revoked, but it will take time,” she said.
She thanked BJP MLAs for stopping communal tension in Jammu, Rajouri, Poonch and Chenab valley when Kashmir was burning.
Reacting to the opposition’s charges that her government had made the lives of Jammu Muslims hell, she said that when students in Kashmir were not allowed to attend their schools, thousands of Kashmiri students shifted to Jammu for education and studied without any fear.
She urged all the political leaders of the country to help in solving the lingering issues of Kashmir.
She also presented her salute to the security officers who were working on the ground for bringing normalcy to the state.

DHARWAD: First female religious leader Jagadguru Mate Mahadevi finds fault with women over increasing sexual assaults in India.
According to Coastal Digest reports, the Lingayat spiritual head was reacting to the mass molestation in Bengaluru during the New Year’s Eve celebrations urged the girls not to wear provocative clothes and do not roam late at night freely.
“There has been an increase in sexual assaults against women as they roam in the night freely.”
“It is not right on the part of girls to behave provocatively wearing skimpy dresses on the pretext of New Year’s Eve celebrations. Such conduct is an invitation to sexual perverts,” she added.
The President of Basava Dharma opined that girls should cover themselves up and ‘Dress code like in Arab countries should be introduced.’
“Women are partly responsible for rapes against them and so is society. Porn movies too play a role.
Therefore, a dress code on the lines of one in Arab countries should be introduced for women in India,” she said.
—Agencies

Rs 5 lakh for those killed and ‘good schooling’ for the pellet blinded victims; Blames Pak, resistance leadership for ‘sponsored and staged ‘uprising’

Jammu: A government job for those blinded by pellets and Rs 5 lakh compensation to families of those killed in firing or shelling by government forces during the 2016 uprising, were among the announcements made by Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti in the state assembly on Monday.

An inquiry will be conducted into the killing of a lecturer in Khrew and into the killing of an ATM guard in Srinagar, Mehbooba announced, and “special investigation teams will be constituted in every district to investigate the killings and blindings. Anybody found guilty will have action taken against them,” she assured.

Speaking during a debate on the killings and blindings at the hands of government forces since Burhan Wani was killed on July 8, Mehbooba told the legislative assembly that her government will rehabilitate those injured by government forces and all those who were blinded or disabled during the agitation will be provided facilities to enable them to have a good education.

Mehbooba said those who lost their eyesights would be given free education in top schools such as Doon International.

Mehbooba said she had regrets and felt sorrow for the killings and the blindings, as ‘’People were not expecting this from me.”

“I am shocked this upheaval happened in my government,’’ she said and reiterated that the agitation of 2016 was instigated and sponsored by Pakistan and the resistance leadership “in a planned, coordinated manner.”

“The 2016 uprising was pre-planned. The killing of Burhan was the trigger, and only the trigger, as the platform for this was prepared before. Conditions were created by raising the issues of separate townships to rehabilitate Kashmiri Pandits and for setting up of Sainik colonies,” Mehbooba said.

‘’As CM it was my responsibility to stop casualties and save life and property. We had the means of curfew and we imposed it. But on the one side we were trying to stop killings and casualties, on the other side chalo calls were being given, people were being provoked to violence. I again repeat that conditions were created, preparations were made earlier. The agitation was sponsored and staged,” Mehbooba said.

The youth leading the uprising, Mehbooba said, had much to answer for. She said that children were stopped and not allowed to attend their schools; banks were looted and weapons were snatched from security personnel of political leaders.  She said it was not security personnel but agitating youth who were harassing patients.

“It is a shame for them that they stopped a pregnant lady and asked her to show whether she was really pregnant or staging a drama. It is shame for them who stopped an aged dialysis patient from having his dialysis done,” she said.

“Curfew was imposed with the aim to stop people from coming out of their homes. But people came out in thousands from areas where we had no anticipation,” she said and added that 50 police stations and army installations were damaged. “When people stormed security camps, the troops had to fire in retaliation. It is not easy to exercise maximum restraint when people with petrol bombs attack a police station,” she said.

Mehbooba said the situation in 2016 was far more turbulent than in 2010. She said that Omar Abdullah had the support of his father but she was handling the situation all by herself. She asked Omar why was he silent when a deaf-and-dumb civilian was killed by security forces near Gupkar Road during his stint.

She told the legislative assembly that in the 2016 uprising, the eyesight of six children had been fully damaged; 20 children had lost eyesight in one eye; and 100 people had both eyes partially damaged.

Appreciating the role of the health department, the food and supplies department, and the education department, she said they helped people survive through the difficult conditions.

Criticising the Hurriyat leaders without naming them, she said that they did not open their doors when a delegation from Delhi came to visit them.  “The whole country was looking at them but they did not open their doors. Had they done so, a dialogue would have started,” she said.

On the detention of persons under the Public Safety Act, Mehbooba informed that 370 persons had been detained under PSA of whom 138 were in jail. She said those who do not have a “criminal background” will be soon released. “Earlier we started the FIR withdrawal process but it was disrupted due to the uprising,” she said.

Reasserting that she had no information of Burhan Wani’s killing, she said, “I received the information regarding the killing of Burhan in late hours. When a police official informed me that three militants were killed in an encounter in south Kashmir and Burhan Wani was one among them, I knew that people in thousands will participate in his funeral. I directed police to exercise maximum restrain to avoid casualties,” she said.

She also condemned the attack on GREF personnel at Akhnoor in which three personnel were killed.