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Srinagar: A 10 year’s old boy was killed when a Leopard attacked him at Lalpora area of Kupwara District last evening, a police statement said. “A Leopard attacked a 10 year old boy Ashif Lohar son of Mohammad Ayoub resident of Deewar, Kakerpati, Lalpora. The boy died in the attack. The body of deceased boy was handed over to his relatives for last rites,” a wildlife official told KNS.

Srinagar: Calling upon the daughters of the faith to follow the life of Hazrat Fatima (RA), Hurriyat Conference (M) Chairman and Ameer of Mutehda Majlis-e-Ulema, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq has paid glowing tributes to the daughter of Prophet Mohammad (SAW) (PBUH) for her services and sacrifices for the religion of Islam.

In connection with the death anniversary of Hazrat Fatima (RA), Mirwaiz addressed a large gathering at the shrine of Hazrat Khwaja Naqashbandh following the Zuhar prayers during which he stated that the role of Fatima (RA) as a daughter, mother and as a wife should be emulated by our daughters to live honorable life. He said our daughters, mothers and sisters should follow the path of Fatima (RA) to bring reforms in the society in the light of Islam.

Mirwaiz stated that the main issues faced by our society were related to the tearing apart of the family fabric and a rat race for materialistic pursuits. He stated that blindly following the European culture has strayed us away from our social, cultural and religious values.

APHC Chairman stated that until, our families don’t become an example of Islamic culture and tradition; the ongoing social reforms movement is not going to bear fruit.

Detailing out the benefits of holy month of Ramadan, Mirwaiz stated that the basic aim of this month is to spiritually introspect at individual and collective level to create a society based on religious principles.

As Kashmir is a Muslim majority state, Mirwaiz stated that it was the duty of people to protect the Islamic character, culture and identity of this place.  He stated that every individual in the society has to play a role to bring social reform in the society. He said that youth being educated have to shoulder major responsibility of rooting out social evils from the society. Mirwaiz also stressed upon the women to play their role in reforming the society. He said that women have frontline responsibility to inculcate values in their families to build a health society. 

Says Omar Abdullah’s Govt has lot to answer on corruption

‘Reported opening of new shooting range in Shopian no solution to problem’

Srinagar: Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president, Mehbooba Mufti, has said National Conference is the fountainhead of corruption in the state and it will only need an honest investigation of allegations against its top leadership to bring them to justice.

According to  a statement issued to KNS, while addressing a number of meetings in Pahalgam constituency of Anantnag district Mehbooba referred to the chief minster’s insinuation  against the PDP on corruption issue, and said it was amusing that chief minister (CM) is asking the people to invoke Right to Information (RTI) for ‘exposing the corrupt practices’ by some entrants into the PDP. “The CM is in control of entire investigation setup and he should be the last person to advise use of RTI because he can have the exposure and prosecution of any guilty person conducted whenever he likes,” she said. Mehbooba said the Omar Abdullah government has a lot to answer on corruption issue and if he had not deactivated the institutions like State Information Commission (SIC) and State Accountability Commission (SAC) most of the skeletons would by now have tumbled out and some leading lights of the government could have met the fate of A Raja and Suresh Kalmadi.

She said the Cricket Scam against Dr Farooq Abdullah is an open and shut case and going by the documents in public domain the main characters should have been in jail as it would not need even a lengthy investigation. “The case, in fact, is reportedly awaiting prosecution and it is blocked only because Dr Abdullah’s son is the CM, and in the meanwhile he got himself re-elected as the president of Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association in questionable circumstances,” Mehbooba said.

The PDP chief said the CM would serve the state better by empowering institutions and encouraging people to use their right of information. She said: “Omar Abdullah evaded the first complaint against him in the SAC by running to the High Court in a typical expression of lack of faith in the SAC that the government itself constituted. He should have presented himself for the scrutiny by the SAC to provide dignity and respect to this institution rather than getting its proceedings stayed.”

Mehbooba said there is, of course, need and scope for using RTI Act for seeking information on how the first family of National Conference and most of the coalition ministers amassed assets beyond their known income. “It should be invoked to know the truth of Haji Yousuf’s death; the drug scandal; PHE scam; forest land grab; kickbacks in various projects; Toshkhana properties; construction of palatial residences and acquisition of vehicles of royal standards for the elected representatives. And the process involved in granting repeated extensions to characters like Mushtaq Peer who subverted the most credible process of Entrance Examination,” she said.

Mehbooba said the RTI should be used to know the reasons and background of the 400 blue-eyed officials who were granted extensions in Omar Abdullah’s tenure and payment of salary from the government exchequer to political appointees whose services have only been utilized for abusing the opposition while occupying plum positions in the secretariat.

Referring to the reported opening of a new shooting range in Shopian, Mehbooba said if this has been done in lieu of Tosmaidan, it would be no solution to the problem. She said the Prime Minister must address this issue very seriously and considering the ecological fragility of Kashmir, its dependence on tourism and the land crunch here such operations should be reduced to the minimum.

Mehbooba reminded the chief minister that after the Shopian episode in 2009 Omar Abdullah was allowed to hold the public meeting in the area only on his promise that the existing camp would be shifted from there. While that never happened insult has been added to the injury with the starting of shooting exercise there as per the news reports, she added. The senior party leader, Rafi Ahmad Mir, MLA, was also present on the occasion.

Said separate homeland to Pandits will be opposed

Srinagar: Asking the separatist leadership here to show coordination while countering the ‘anti-movement’ strategies, UJC Supremo and Hizb chief Syed Sallahudin Wednesday supported the strike all issued earlier by the freedom camp against Narendra Modi’s Kashmir visit.

In a statement issued to KNS by UJC spokesman Syed Sadaqat Hussain, Sallahudin has asked the pro-freedom camp here to unanimously counter what he termed ‘nefarious’ designs of the ‘oppressor’. He stated that the leadership in Kashmir must unite for the common cause so that any attempt aimed at damaging the ongoing resistance movement could be countered.

Sallaudin has also slammed the move wherein separate homeland is being given to the pundits in Kashmir valley. The UJC chief has stated that the pundits are welcome in Kashmir and that they must live at their ancestral pleas as they used to since centuries. “Separate homeland will widen the gaps and in no way could be termed a step for promoting harmony between the two communities in valley.”

“It was the governor Jagmohan who through the well planned strategy planned exodus of pundits and now their return is also a deep rooted conspiracy to make the Muslim majority insecure here,” statement quoting Sallahudin stated.

He stated that it is among the priorities of the Modi government to issue permanent resident certificates to the 1947 refugees and to erode the Muslim majority status of Jammu and Kashmir. Sallahudin maintained that such tactics must be opposed in a unanimous approach so that no one is allowed to fiddle with JK’s identity and to give the same a communal color. “We will not allow settlement of 1947 refugees and also the settlement of pundits on Israeli style shall be opposed.”

Srinagar: With the Prime Minister Narendra Modi scheduled to visit valley on July 4, the security agencies here have made adequate security arrangements to divert any threat during the stay of the prime minister in the region.

According to the KNS correspondent, heavy deployment of police and other security agencies was made in various areas of Srinagar with the frisking and checking being done in various areas here.

Reports have also informed that the senior police officials were themselves monitoring the situation with the vehicles at check points being thoroughly monitored before being allowed to proceed. A senior police official while pleading anonymity stated that the clear directions have been given to them for the arrangement of the adequate security measures ahead of the scheduled visit of prime minister. Also the reports maintained that police has been directed to check vehicles in such a way that commoners don’t feel inconvenience while traveling o the roads of the summer capital.

The reports also maintained that extra security measures have been taken in view of all major separatist outfits calling for a general strike on the occasion of the Prime Minister’s visit. On July 4 Prime Minister Narendra Modi will pay a one-day visit to Jammu and Kashmir- his first after assuming office of the prime minister. The prime minister will arrive in Jammu and then proceed to nearby Katra town to inaugurate the Katra-Udhampur train that would cover a 25-km distance between the two places, sources said. Katra is the base town of the Mata Vaishno Devi shrine that is visited by millions of devotees every year. After the commissioning of the Katra railway station, pilgrims would be able to reach the town directly without having to engage other modes of transport as they now do.

Railways Minister Sadananda Gowda and Minister of State in the PMO Jitendera Singh will accompany Mr Modi during his visit. The prime minister will then leave for Srinagar where he will chair a security review meeting at the Badami Bagh headquarters of the army’s 15 Corps. The meeting will be attended by Governor N.N. Vohra, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, general officer commanding-in-chief (GOC-in-C) Northern Command, Lt. Ge. D.S. Hooda and the three corps commanders of the 14th, 15th and the 16th Corps. The governor will later host lunch for the prime minister at the Raj Bhavan in Srinagar. Mr Modi is also scheduled to visit Uri town in Baramulla district to inaugurate the 240 MW Uri-II hydroelectric power project.

Martyrdom anniversary of Ishfaq Majeed Wani

Srinagar: “The history of Jammu Kashmir right from 1947, bears a witness that many people (Conscience sellers) used resistance movement as a launching pad and after assuming importance landed in the lap of India for achieving their pity selfish interests. Time has come when Kashmiri nation has to identity and negate those who by becoming political renegades (Kuka Parray’s) are hell bent upon damaging the resistance movement of Kashmiris,” this was stated by the chairman JKLF Mohammad Yasin Malik while remembering Shaheed I Kashmir Ishfaq Majeed Wani on his martyrdom day.

According to a statement issued to KNS, Malik said: “It is worth to know that Ishfaq Majeed Wani was martyred on third day of Ramazan when he was himself on fast. Recalling the sacrifice of Ishfaq Majeed Wani, Yasin Malik said that Shaheed Mohammad Maqbool Butt, Ishfaq Majeed Wani, Dr Abdul Ahad Guru, professor Abdul Ahad Wani, doctor Farooq Asahai, Pilot Nadeem Khateeb, doctor Turabi, Shamsul Haq and intellectuals like them sacrificed their lives for a just cause, they could have led a wealthy luxurious lives but for the freedom of this nation they chose the path of thorns.”

Malik while commenting upon the recent news of Dr Haseeb Drabu joining PDP said that Drabu has chosen the path of betrayal and has joined the group of those Conscience selling people who used resistance movement as a launching pad to satisfy and achieve their selfish goals.

Malik said that in 1996 he met an old man at airport who introduced his son Sideeq Wahid to him and said that he has dedicated his son for freedom movement. After few days Sideeq Wahid who during those days was running a travel guide agency in Delhi came with another person doctor Haseeb Drabu. They came to Hurriyat office in Delhi in an auto rickshaw to meet me. Dr Drabu talked to me for hours and during his conversation said that whenever he is in Bombay he visits the ancestral house of Quid I Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah and bows his head in respect for his wisdom about Hindu mind set.

Dr Drabu insisted that separation from this mentality and mindset and resistance against this was necessary. Drabu joined JKLF and both these worked with us for months. Yasin said that after few years Sideeq Wahid sold his conscience for an army chair at Jammu University and was rewarded the vice chancellor ship of Islamic university Awantipoora. Dr Drabu was awarded with the chairmanship of JK bank and hence both these renounced the resistance movement for their pity selfish gains.

Malik said that the history of Jammu Kashmir right from 1947 bears a witness to this fact that many people (Conscience sellers) used resistance movement as a launching pad and after assuming importance landed in the lap of India for achieving their pity selfish interests. Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, Bakhshi Ghulam Mohammad, Ghulam Mohammad Sadiq, Mir Qasim, mufti Mohammad Saeed, Farooq Abdullah, Gul shah and many more are a glaring example of this betrayal. In 1988 after the peoples revolution started, selfish people changed their colors and joined the rows of freedom movement but finally fall in the lap of India using the resistance movement as a launching pad.

“Among these Abdul Majeed Mir ( ex MLA Shangus),Gani Naseem (ex MLA Khansahib), Ishtiyaaq Qadri, Junaid Matoo, Abdul Majeed Matoo(joined national conference), Mohammad Yaqoob Wakil ( joined congress), Altaf Ahmad Bukhari, Raof Bhat ( Hizb ul Mujahideen) ,Syed Mohammad Husain, Pir Mansoor, advocate Abdul Haq, Nizam ud Din Bhat, Saif ud Din Shutroo, Muntazir Mohi uddin, Khurshid Aalam, Mohi ud din Sofi, Yasir Reshi, Mushtaq Ahmad ( MLA tral) (joined PDP )and Imran Rahi and hundreds others who names cannot be written in this small press release, are few who traveled through the lanes of resistance to reach their selfish goals in pro-Indian politics.”

He said that time has come when Kashmiri nation should to identity and learn about the real faces of these double faced people, who by becoming political renegades (Kuka Parray’s) have and are hell bent upon damaging the resistance movement of Kashmiris. Malik said that on one hand these people have betrayed this nation openly and on other hand these people using their pens and speeches are trying to undermine the freedom movement and prove resistance movement nourished by Lakhs of Kashmiris as incompetent and Useless.

Malik said that in 1995 Indian state used renegade Kuka Parray and his brigade of terrorists to finish the resistance movement. They killed thousands but failed to achieve the goal .Now India is using these people to get the job done. To finish and weaken our sacred freedom struggle, these people are acting like refined Kuka Parray’s (Political Renegades) added Yasin Malik. He said that the nation of Kashmir is slowly and steadily coming to know the originality of these chameleons and need of the hour is to negate these people on social front so that these people are remembered only as political renegades and Kuka Paraya’s.

SRINAGAR

Eminent economist and J&K Bank former chairman, Dr Haseeb A Drabu, Tuesday joined PDP. According to a party spokesman, Drabu wrote a letter to party president Mehbooba Mufti about his desire for joining the PDP. Following is the full text of the letter:

Haseeb A Drabu

30th June, 2014

Dear Ms Mufti,

ASAK!

The stunning victory of the PDP apart, the just concluded Parliamentary elections will be remembered for bringing to fore the extent of political polarization in the state.

This, along with the existing alienation and fragmentation, sets the stage for a political structure wherein the demographic majority could well become a political minority.

Indeed, the forthcoming assembly elections can potentially throw up results which marginalize the demographic majority bringing the state, yet again, to political cross roads.

In such a situation, the greatest political challenge is to find a new ideological consensus that lies somewhere between the invasiveness of the integrationists and the imperviousness of the separatists.

Between the two, what we have is a Kashmir where young boys get wrapped in coffins of symbols; a Kashmir where a tragic death gives life to vendors of alien ideologies and peddlers of surreal solutions; and a Kashmir that paralyzes itself in the process of seeking to immobilize the other.

To get out of this political “double bind”,where the only unifying force today is the opposition to the oppressor and its oppression, it is imperative that positive, proactive and assertive actions complement the reactive defensive politics. For the emancipation from domination is not tantamount to achievement of freedom.

For the last 60 years life in Kashmir has been a battlefield, not only physically but intellectually, emotionally and morally. An ordinary life has been a constant witness to pain, anguish, despair, and humiliation. This can’t be allowed to continue.

The Kashmir issue is indeed a Gordian knot, but like the fabled one, it can’t be cut through; it has to be untied with political wisdom, economic vision and social emancipation; all within the framework of ethno-nationalism. This is what, I believe, PDP has articulated in its document: Self Rule: A Framework for Resolution.

Through political participation and legislative interventions, the idea should be to alleviate the status ofthe state legislative assembly: from beingseen as a sinecure for the compromised to being a forum for the creative political thinking, empowered legislative action and inclusive governance initiatives.

It is this that will create the enabling environment for resolution of conflict; first within individuals, then within our own civil society, and then between nation states. Each will complement the other.

It is not only about politics and political leadership. Even as we see want to see a change in the political arena, a similar change has to straddle business, gender, culture, environment, bureaucracy and the fourth estate. This change will be informed by a well-founded understanding of the context in which new generation politics is going to operate. The change that is needed has to be about thought leadership.

It is this agenda that will help banish apathy of the youth towards political parties and the cynicism toward the prospect of a resolution of the issue.

It is this agenda that will inspire the younger generation which has been shaped by unprecedented civil strife, political disruption, and social chaos and lies at the heart of their radicalization.

And eventually, from this will emerge a new age concept of ideology and political participation which make political struggles contests of will.

For inspiring the new generation into action, this new age political process has to culminate in one value: integrity. This must be all pervasive; personal, moral and ideological integrity.

It is in this context and, with this agenda that I want to leave the perch of punditry and slug it out in noise and chaos of politics.

I have earlier had the occasion to work with and for the people of J&K. Not only was it professionally an absolute privilege but also personally it was by a long way the most satisfying.

I want to participate and, to the extent that I can, contribute, to this overall change by working within aegis of the PDP. I do hope you will provide me the opportunity to do so.

Let us aspire! We will see change being inspired!

Sincerely.