Category: Articles

By: Shadab Bashir 

For a normal Muslim, fasting in the month of Ramadan whether for 16 hours or 20 hours of a day under a scorching heat can be difficult but should be manageable because Allah does not burden any human being more than his capacity.

Allah says (interpretation of the meaning):

“And We do not lay on any soul a burden except to the extent of its ability, and with Us is a book which speaks the truth, and they shall not be dealt with unjustly.” (23:62)

And as far as Kashmir is concerned, we have tremendously beautiful climate in summer, but only when we compare it with other parts of the world, where mercury touches 45-50 degree celsius mark and humidity exhaust people even in normal days.

It is a bonus, boon and blessing for those who welcome it wholeheartedly and repent with complete sincerity in front of their lord. And with Allah’s will, no blazing sun or blistering heat waves can deviate a Muslim, whose heart is engulfed with fire of faith, from fasting in long duration days of Ramadaan.

In Ramadan, lots of people can be seen doing good deeds but are we ready to endorse them apart from Ramadan also. We can see people coming in hordes towards masjids, giving money in charity, refrain from music, in this blessed month, but where goes that enthusiasm after sighting the crescent of Eid. When will we realize praying five times a day is obligatory not only in Ramadaan but throughout the life.

Ramadaan is a wonderful period for a person to change his or her inner nature and transform it for the betterment of his or her here and hereafter. There are few Hadiths according to which in the month of Ramadaan, the devils are put in chains, and a caller cries out each night, O seeker of good, proceed, O seeker of evil, desist.

So let us all take this opportunity to introspect, recognize and rebuild our Imaan with strong foundation.

Peerzada Ashiq

Srinagar: Prolonged use of loud speakers in hundreds of Valley mosques during Ramzan has triggered a major debate this year with a senior politician of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) feeling intimidated and mulling selling his house for its proximity to such a speaker.
“Followers of a deaf God have led me to this passive action. Stop paying the monthly donation to mosque whose loud speaker is making life of the locality miserable. If that does not work, I seriously contemplate selling my house even at a discount that proximity to the mosque with a microphone entails,” wrote PDP MLC and the party spokesman Naeem Akhtar on his Facebook (FB) wall.

The FB post elicited a barrage of responses claiming support to an end to the use of speakers besides Azaan, a call for prayers, performed five times a day.

“People need to turn their loudspeakers off and lighten up a bit. Surely God means for us to sleep and laugh, even as He means for us to pray and reflect,” wrote Aliya Nazki, a netizen.

Every year, Ramzan, the Islamic month of fasting, witnesses prolonged prayers in evenings and mornings in the Valley, which is house to several thousand mosques.

A number of mosques prefer to keep loud speakers on even after reciting Azaan for recitation of Quranic verses and praises towards Allah.

The society is, however, divided among traditionalists who are for use of speakers. “We have been using speakers for decades now for reciting Durood (praises for Allah and the Prophet) that has a rejuvenating effect on soul,” said Maulana Azhar Shah, a preacher.

In contrast, there are several Muftis (religious leaders) who oppose the idea of turning mosque speakers into a source of noise pollution and discomfort to others.

“Mosque speakers should restrict its use to Azaan only. It should not become a source of discomfort for others,” said Syed Hamidullah Haqani, Valley’s well-known preacher.

Haqani argues that it has been a source of distraction for devotees too. “When we say collective prayers of Tarawhi in the evening, the devotees get to hear verses from all sides from other mosques too. One has to concentrate on the verses being recited by an Imaam (one leading the prayers) of the mosque,” said Haqani.

Many argue that the prolonged use of speakers takes a toll on the patients living in that particular area.

“I am really feeling helpless and miserable. A cardiac patient like me deserves all the sympathy for losing sleep, so essential,” said PDP leader Akhtar.

‘I lost two sons in three years’: Father of Adil Mir

Tral, June 20: The mother of one among the three militants killed in Buchoo Tral encounter Friday alleged that her son Tariq Ahmed Parrey resident of Laribal Tral was forced by police to pick up the gun and join militant ranks.

Shahzada Banoo mother of slain militant told CNS that her son Tariq Ahmed (23) was doing post graduation in Kashmiri subject but police frequently used to call him in police station on the pretext of one or the other. “My son was neither a stone-pelter nor he was having affiliation with any militant group. Police harassed him off and on and even seized his lap top, that he loved the most,” Shahzada said

“His frequent visits to police station depressed him so much and he was left with no option but to join militancy. I tried to stop him but could not succeed. Last year he formally joined militant ranks and was active since then,” she said.

The father of another slain militant Adil Ahmed Shah aka Haroon told CNS that he ever since his son joined militancy in April 2012, he met him thrice. “I had three meetings with my son. I don’t blame anyone. He was happy to be a militant,” Abdul Ahad Shah said.

Expressing same views, Bashir Ahmed Mir the father of another slain militant Adil Mir resident of Dadsara Tral said that he was fond of militants and joined militant ranks at his will.

“I lost my two sons in three years. My elder son Nayeem Ahmed Mir alias Gaznavi was a B.Tech student who lost his life in Dudhkalan encounter with Indian Army on March 3, 2010. His death instigated Adil to join militancy,” he said. (CNS)

By Dhaar Mehak 

While sitting at the last bench of the class and listening to monotony, all of a sudden a ray of electric current emerges from the cages of the rib and with the speed of light touches the whole aspect of the being, fumes the spirit and ignites chaos. The soul questions the end of the monotonous breathing. Nature has created us dynamic, then why on the planet are we behaving static?. Going to classrooms, reading the achievements of the men of past and the formulation of battle fields and the victorious parties, high up in our minds. What is our scene in the role? Of mute spectators, visualizing the victories, defeats, revolutions and changes from a distance, for a regular periods of 40 minutes and closing the imaginative auditorium for the next 24 hours and repeating the same, day after day, week after week and eventually year after year.
Lets take a panoramic view at natures creation, at human existence and at the regular featured ‘we’. Versatility is nature and nature is versatile. Calm is the usual appearance and serene its manifestation. Then somewhere erupts a volcano and the whole topography and geography of the area witnesses complete novelty. Nothing remains in the previous stage of stat-ism and the hot lava emancipates the change. Nature rebels! The scene shifts and the manifestations change. Why would the mountains hide the molds in anger inside? For how long? It vomited! Vanished the old, leaving a way open for the new. Scope emerged for change to up-come. Such spectacular is the history of earth and its geological evolution. A rebellion from within the elements of the earth.
The matter of fact now is that such lava(s) are present within the beings of (all) the humans. This however is a latent energy. It lies hidden within us. Much similar to the story of the eagles egg that somehow fell into the nest of the hen. The baby eagle thinking of himself as a chick merely wished and envied to be like the falcon in the sky but never gave a try. With the potential of flight but un-known he died a death of land while he was deemed to die flying. We work in monotony, merely reading the stories of great (wo)men. We envy, we yearn, aspire yet only give it a spectating 40 minutes in the whole course of 24 hours. What are we taught? To earn ourselves a descent living! Grow up, study, get a degree, earn, marry, have children, help them grow up, retire, die; finish, end of your story! Is that what for we were born? Fine then, lets now make a differentiation between the race of humans living in the rural and urban areas with the race of zebras living in the forest. The former live in self made states, while the latter in the state of nature. Rest is the same, in basic building blocks, eating, mating, having children, rearing them, growing old and dying of course.
Various creative springs with but no vent lie within us. We are taught that the earth is round and are made to believe the same. Why on the planet will we agree to the contention that the earth is round? We never saw its roundness. We are taught that democracy is the best form of government. Really? Why then it failed in Athens, centuries ago? Why will we in monotony trust of it as being the best of the forms of government? May be anarchy will turn out to be the best in form that may suite us, our tastes and our times. Who knows! Laws of motion and thermodynamics! Why don’t they co-exist with those of metaphysics? Why are we forced to accept, read, recite and believe Physics when no solid proof we are acquainted with? Above all, why are we taught of the great men of the pages of past with the pragmatic reality of monotony and no vibrant exposure and freedom? A great irony that surrounds our ordinary existence that could have been an extraordinary one, had we been left free.
Let me develop the writer in me to give a vent to my thoughts, be they radical or classical. Let me decide my will at free. Let no constrains prevail. Let liberty be replaced with freedom and government by self-rule. Human race is supreme and each being of the said race is supreme in itself. Let the artist visualize at length a utopia or anarchy. Let the spirits of his soul fly high and high and high to elevation. Let a poet carve out his words to the generations at length and a  sculptor reach his finest perfections of detailing. The case is of no absolute authority that grips our hands, it but is of psychological bars, we have let ourselves surround. A beast of burden was tied by his master to a mere plastic chair as he went to take his lunch. The animal wished to free himself and run to freedom and took a look at the chair and wondered to itself the high levels of strength the chair must be possessing, for, his owner is not a foolish man that he will tie him to a mere object. Similarly, we have let ourselves be the same fools. Illusionary bars of society and selves grip us in the caged prisons; we are free, yet not knowing. The world is open but seldom we realize. The laboratory is open yet approaches we bar. Unless we will call our inner gut, to rescue nothing good can grip our backs and our parachutes can never open to give us wings. The wings are latent, so are talents and so is the gut. We need to call all at once. Shed the land of monotony from our shoulders and with gut, run to our creative domains. No human is ordinary and no bars are in existence, the slumber needs a hard push to rebel the times and rebel the lives!

Dhaar Mehak (Is a FreeLance Writer And An Under Graduate Economics Student Can Be Reached At [email protected])

‘Government approached me two years ago to withdraw the case’

Srinagar: On the eve of fourth death anniversary of slain Old City teenager, Tufail Ashraf Matto, his father on Tuesday accused Chief Minister Omar Abdullah of  ‘shielding killers’ of his son and claimed he was approached by government to withdraw the case couple of years ago.

Talking to GNS, Muhammad Ashraf Matto said: “Chief Minister, his ministers and police knew who killed Tufail Matto but they are shielding them. From the day one, they tried to cover up the case and they are shielding some police officers.”

Seventeen year old Tufail Matto, who hailed from Saida Kadal locality, was killed after a teargas shell, which was allegedly fired by police, hit his head on 11 June 2010 at Gani Memorial Stadium in Rajouri Kadal. The killing of Tufail followed deadly mass uprising in Kashmir for four months in which 120 people mostly teenagers were killed in government forces action.

The father of slain Tufail, while questioning state government, said: “What was the crime of Tufail. He had gone to seek knowledge and was that his crime?”

Ashraf, who is a business man by profession, claimed that he was approached by state government via his uncle to withdraw the case. “They came in touch with my uncle two years back who was residing in Barazulla, My Uncle was contacted by chief minister. He was taken to his office and was asked to convey to me to withdraw the case and be silent,” he claimed.

“They asked him to convey me to remain silent. They told him that nothing would happen and whatever he (I) need including money would be provided but one thing is he (I) would not get anything in return. So withdraw the case,” the slain teenager’s father told GNS.

“In return,” he said, “I told by uncle that I can’t do it. You know what they have done to me. I rejected right away. Then they did not contact me.”

Ashraf said he wants justice and he would continue his fight for it. “The moment I received my martyred son’s body I took oath that I will never stop,” he said.

Blaming Chief Minister Omar Abdullah for the killings of 2010, he said: “In 2010, they watched like mute spectators and sponsored killings. They closed their eyes, their ears and their tongues. But once they got humiliating defeat in elections, they started to crumble. It proves this government and CM has nothing to do with humanity. Now that his rival gave him humiliated defeat, he started to dance and admitted that the hanging of marty Afzal Guru was wrong, the killings of June 2010.”

“He is once again trying to befool people and is playing political and election gimmicks,” Ashraf said.

“Omar is raising voice that I will do this and that but what happened to the enquiry commissions? Omar Qayoom’s father and his sister recently went to meet him but what happened there is disgraceful on CM’s part. He is not a human,” he remarked.

“Which place they left. They spilled blood of innocents in grounds, on roads and everywhere,” the father of slain teenager alleged.

His children have never seen him at home, grown up in mother’s shadow

Junaid Kathju
Srinagar: Separatist leader Dr Mohammad Qasim Faktoo, who has earned the distinction of being longest serving detainee in J&K, is completing 22 years in prison on Saturday.
Faktoo was arrested over three years after eruption of armed struggle in Kashmir in 1989.
He was jailed under TADA in 1993, a year after he married to Dukhtaran-e-Millat chairperson Asiya Andrabi.
A Delhi court quashed his detention in 2002 but Crime Branch of J&K police challenged the decision in the Supreme Court. The year long trial concluded in 2003 with the apex court awarding life imprisonment to Faktoo on charges of his alleged involvement in murder of noted Kashmiri Pandit human rights activist Hriday Nath Wanchoo in 1992.
Faktoo has denied the charge and accuses the government of persecution for his political views.
“When H N Wanchoo was killed on December 5,1992, I was outside the State. I returned on December 8 and condemned his killing. I had never imagined that I would ever be charged for his killing,” Faktoo told Rising Kashmir in Central jail, Srinagar in 2012.
He said two months after Wachoo’s killing, he was arrested and lodged in infamous Papa-2 interrogation centre. “CBI implicated me in his killing and produced a challan against me in the TADA court. I was severely tortured and forced to sign some papers, which were later presented as my con¬fession statements before the TADA court,” he had said.
“How could have I schemed to liquidate a friend of the freedom movement,” Faktoo had said.
Wanchoo was abducted and his bullet-ridden body was recovered from a locality in the vicinity of the then Jammu and Kashmir Police headquarters in December 1992.
In 24 years of marriage with Faktoo, Asiya lived with him for less than three years and that too underground.
“We have been married for 24 years and haven’t spent more than 3 years together. Only a woman can understand pain of living without her husband and I am used to it now. My only hope is Allah. The government has only given us the hope to wait for his dead body to come out of the Jail,” Asiya Andrabi told Rising Kashmir.
She said her husband is suffering from multiple ailments due to his prolonged detention.
“He had glaucoma seven years ago.  His left eye is at an advanced-stage of glaucoma with an alarming decrease of vision. The doctors are saying that because of his confined vision into the cell, he has developed the disease,” Asiya said.
Today (May 31),  Fakoo is completing 22 years in jail.
After he completed 14 years in jail in 2008, a government panel had recommended his release but the government approached High Court for his prolonged detention.
The single bench of HC ordered that Faktoo being a TADA convict be released after 20 years which he completed in 2012. But government did not release him and instead it approached division bench of High Court, which observed that “life sentence is meant for life”.
His lawyer Mian Abdul Qayoom said they have filed a writ petition against the verdict.
“We have filed a writ petition against the verdict, which is still being heard in the court.  As per state law, Faktoo has completed his life term and we are hopeful that he will be released. As per the law of the land he is free to go and we will prove it in court. Life imprisonment in the State means 20 years and Faktoo has already completed it,” he said.
On completion of his 20 years in jail, Faktoo had sought High Court’s intervention on the basis of Jammu and Kashmir manual rule 21.2. However, the same Judge who had asked government to consider his release on completion of his 14 years in jail declared that life sentence means life term and the prisoner has to spend his whole life in prison.
“I usually went to see him twice a month. I hate frisking in the jail. There is no privacy in the jail,” Asiya said.
Faktoo’s children Mohammed and Ahmad have never seen their father at home and have grown up under the shadow of their mother.
“My sons have never seen their father at home. Last time when the news came about Faktoo sahib’s release one of my son broke down when a journalist asked him about it,” Asiya said.
Faktoo has done PhD in Islamic studies in jail in 2006 and is going to pursue D-lit. The family claims more than 125 students completed their graduation, post-graduation under his guidance.
“He (Faktoo) is going to pursue doctorate in literature. He is also helping many detainees to complete their degrees,” said her wife.
Hurriyat (G) spokesperson, Ayaz Akbar demanded that Faktoo should be released with immediate effect.
“He should be released forthwith. State government has deliberately kept him in the jail because of his freedom ideology. His detention is illegal,” he said.

Shadab Bashir 

The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining, but as far as Senior Abdullah is concerned his son is no more shining in the mountain valley. Recent elections have shown that the dusk has arrived for the National Conference leadership. The son of Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah and the patron-saint of NC Dr. Farooq Abdullah has been dethroned by the foot-soldiers of PDP.

Dr. Farooq Abdullah was living in a world of his own, divorced from reality. Perhaps, he knows the trick how to crack the jokes and make people laugh, but this time his “laughter show” could not convince people because agony and sufferings have increased manifold in Kashmir during his son’s regime. He was knocked down along with his other colleagues in the political arena like never before.

It is a great embarrassment for the party, and certainly demolished the courage and hope among other party workers. Perhaps, according to some political pundits, this defeat is a trailer, and they must get ready for vanquish in the upcoming assembly elections.

Now Omar Abdullah is counting his own faults and regretting what he did during the past more than five years, but will it give any benefit to his party National Conference, obviously not because that time has gone. There is no sympathy among most of the people toward him for unconcealed reasons.

From Afzal Guru’s hanging to 2010 killings and from Shopian rape and murder case to non-revocation of AFSPA, Omar Abdullah spun so many webs, which eventually trapped nobody except him.

However, it could be seen that those people who boycotted elections as they have no faith in process, and they believe NC and PDP are two faces of same coin, but still it was observed that few among them are happy to see NC people, including their patron to hide their faces in shame.

By Abdul Majid Zargar

Speaking in a seminar at the UN in Geneva, titled, “Defending the Democratic Processes” the British parliamentarian, George Galloway once said that India is using rape as a weapon of occupation in occupied Kashmir. It has made rape as an instrument of State Policy to subjugate & coerce People of Kashmir into submission. If any proof was needed to Gallowaly’s charge it was provided by New-Delhi in ample measure when it refused to implement Justice Vema Panel’s recommendation to take out crime of rape out of the protective shield provided by the ambit of AFPSA law.

Thousands of rapes have been committed by security forces in Kashmir since 1990 and one such rape of a young bride, Mubina Ghani of Muhripora, District Islamabad, Kashmir is & will be remembered for long because it changed the whole tradition of celebrating the marriages & transporting “Barats”during night time.

It was Just before the fateful midnight on 18 May 1990 that a bus carrying 27 members of a family wedding party approached a roadblock manned by soldiers of the Border Security Forces (BSF) near Badasgam village in Kashmir, India. As the bus rolled to a halt, the soldiers opened fire, killing the bridegroom’s brother and wounding at least nine others, including the bride – 18-year-old Mubina Gani – and her husband. “We lay down under the seats and pretended to be dead,” she said. “After the shooting they came inside and started to beat everyone.” Some of the soldiers dragged me and my pregnant aunt into a nearby field. We were crying bitterly. I told them that I had not yet seen my husband. But they didn’t listen. They took off our clothes…and then we were raped. Four to six men raped me, I think.” Suffering from shock and gunshot wounds, Mubina Gani was taken away and held in military custody for 48 hours. Indian officials initially claimed that the bus had accidentally been caught in a cross-fire. However, the Superintendent of the Anantnag police later confirmed that the BSF had fired on the bus indiscriminately and that the two women had been gang-raped.
Recalling the horrific event, Mubeena’s sister, Shaheen, who was nine then said, “I cannot forget that fateful night and those images continue to haunt me. From that day onwards, my heart beats fast as soon I see any one in the khakis and even I don’t pass by the place where the incident occurred.”

There are two unusual thing about this rape. First is the fact that it has been publicly reported and the second is that the bridegroom, Mr. Abdul Rashid did not desert his bride but showed exemplary courage & valor in owning her as his better-half

Our salutes to the brave Couple!

(The author is a practicing chartered Accountant. E mail: [email protected])