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  • Ladakh | No progress in Brigadier-level talks between India and China

    There is no change in the ground situation, says a defence source

    Brigadier-level talks between India and China on Sunday at Chushul ended without any breakthrough for de-escalation on the South Bank of Pangong Tso, a defence source said.

    The talks are continuing to keep the engagement going and prevent any escalation, the source said. These ground conversations keep happening, the source said.

    Amid a fresh spike in tensions on the South Bank, the talks at Chushul have been going on the entire week but have remained inconclusive. There is no change in the ground situation, the source said.

    Last Monday, the Army said the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) troops had carried out aggressive moves on the night of August 29 to change the status quo on the South Bank and the attempts had been thwarted. Since then tensions have remained high in the area with additional deployments by both sides.

    With inputs from The Hindu

    (Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Kashmir Today staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

  • COVID-19 Claims 15 More Lives In J&K, Toll 788

    Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir reported 15 more covid-19 related deaths in last 24 hours, taking the fatality count to 788.

    Official sources told GNS that eight deaths were reported from Kashmir valley and seven from Jammu region.

    Among those who died in Valley, four were from Srinagar, one each from Pulwama, Kulgam, Anantnag and Baramulla district.

    The victims, they said, include a 60-year-old man from Nehru Park, a 55-year-old man from Hawal, a 38-year-old man from Chattabal, a 50-year-old man from Umar Colony Lal Bazar, a 65-year-old from Barsoo Awantipora, a 62-year-old Sangran area of Kulgam and a 62-year-old man from Khwaja Bagh Baramulla

    The victims from Jammu include a 78-year-old from Shakti Nagar Jammu died at GMC Jammu, three days after he was admitted after being diagnosed with bilateral community acquired pneumonia and respiratory distress; a 73-year-old from Gujjar Nagar who died two days after being admitted with underlying ailments including Type-2 diabetes mellitus, hypothyroidism and parkinsonism and a 35-year-old man (approximately), who was admitted in ward no 1 psychiatry ward of GMCH Jammu.

    “He was admitted on the directions of Tehsildar Ramgarh and shifted from quarantine centre of Thandi Khuie in Samba,” they said.

    They said a 42-year-old woman from Jawala Mukhi in Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh, presently putting up at Railways West Colony in Jammu district, died last night in GMC Jammu
    They said a 62-year-old male from Chowki Nowshera in Rajouri district who had tested positive for the virus on September 3, and died on way to the GMC Rajouri.

    They said a 40-year-old man from Puneja Thathri in Doda district, who was under treatment at PGI Chandigarh for brain hemorrhage and tested positive for the virus, died there.

    With these deaths, officials said, 788 people have succumbed to the virus in Jammu and Kashmir so far. Among them, they said, 690 were from the Valley while 98 others from Jammu division.

    Srinagar district with 237 deaths tops the list followed by Baramulla (105), Budgam (65), Pulwama (57), Anantnag (53), Kupwara (54), Jammu (63), Kulgam (38), Shopian (28), Bandipora (26), Ganderbal (25), Kathua (9), Rajouri (6), Doda (5), Poonch (5), Udhampur (4), Samba (4) and Ramban (1). (GNS)

  • Hazrat Nizamuddin Dargah reopens for devotees

    PTI

    New Delhi: The famous Hazrat Nizamuddin Dargah, which was closed over five months ago after the outbreak of the coronavirus, opened for devotees on Sunday, with a “moderate” number of people visting the shrine to pay obeisance to the Sufi saint.

    Union Minister for Minority Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi was among the people who paid obeisance to Sufi saint Hazrat Nizamuddin Aulia on the first of the reopening of the shrine, caretakers of the dargah said.

    The minister appreciated measures taken by the shrine to protect devotee from the coronavirus disease, they said.

    The graves of Hazrat Nizamuddin Aulia and Amir Khusro in the dargah complex have been covered from all sides with plastic sheets “so that people do not touch them while paying obeisance, as it could lead to people getting infected with the virus,” Nazim Nizami, one of the caretakers of the shrine, said.

    Qawwali evenings devoted to the Sufi saint have been suspended for the time being to avoid gatherings in the shrine’s courtyard.

    “We were able to manage well the devotees who turned up in moderate numbers on the first day of the opening of the dargah. The number of devotees was more in the morning hours and it reduced in the afternoon, and again increased in the evening,” Nizami said.

    People adhered to various safety measures like use of sanitisers and face covers as well as social distancing, he said.

    There were separate entry and exit gates for devotees, and markings were made on the floor to ensure social distancing by them, Nizami said.

    “The Qawwali evenings, which are hugely famous among followers of the Sufi saint, have been suspended for the time being. We are not allowing people to sit in the courtyard of the dargah, as they used to do before, and (asking them to) leave after paying obeisance,” he said.

    Nizami said that crowd management at the shrine will be further improved after assessing footfall in the coming days.

    The dargah located in the Hazarat Nizamuddin area of south Delhi was closed with the announcement of the lockdown due to the coronavirus outbreak in March.

    Under the ‘Unlock’ process, religious places in Delhi started opening after June 8, but the dargah remained closed due to increase in COVID-19 cases, caretakers of the shrine said.

  • Seven houses damaged in landslide in Udhampur

    PTI

    Jammu: At least nine families were rendered homeless after seven houses got damaged in a landslide in Udhampur district of Jammu and Kashmir, a senior government official said on Sunday.

    However, no one was hurt in the incident. The landslide, triggered by rains, struck Gandtop in the hilly Basantgarh sub-division late on Saturday, damaging seven residential houses so far, District Development Commissioner,Udhampur, Piyush Singla said. Singla, who mobilised quick response teams from various departments immediately after getting the information about the incident, said the landslide is still active and as a precautionary measure seven more houses have been vacated due to the lurking threat.

    “All the affected families have been shifted to safer places and provided necessary aid. Senior officers of various departments are on the spot to supervise the relief and rehabilitation measures,” he said.

    Meanwhile, the Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party (JKNPP) expressed grief over the large scale devastation caused by landslides in various villages of Ramnagar constituency in the recent past and demanded immediate relief and rehabilitation of the affected families.

    “There is a need for immediate evaluation of the damages and early payment of compensation to all those affected by the tragic incidents,” JKNPP chairman and former minister Harsh Dev Singh said.

    He said dozens of houses had been razed to ground in the villages of Rasli Gaderan, Garh-Samnabhanj, Sundla, Babey, Jansal and Chigla Balota, besides loss of livestock, cattle and damage to other property, and lands of poor farmers.

  • GST second major attack on India’s unorganised economy: Rahul Gandhi

    PTI

    New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday said the NDA’s Goods and Services Tax (GST) is not a tax system but an “attack” on India’s poor and on its small and medium businesses, and urged all to stand against it.

    Dubbing the GST as “Gabbar Singh Tax”, he said it is the second major attack on India’s unorganised economy, and is an “absolute failure”.

    He had earlier said demonetisation was the first attack on the informal sector in the economy.

    As part of his video series on the economy, the former Congress president alleged that the NDA government has kept four different tax slabs to help those big industrialists with means and contacts to change the taxes under the GST regime.

    “This GST is an absolute failure. Not only is it unsuccessful, it is an attack on the poor and on the small and medium businesses,” he said in the video series shared on his social media platforms.

    “GST is not a tax system, it is an attack on India’s poor. It is an attack on small shopkeepers, small and medium businesses, farmers and labourers.

    “We have to recognise this attack and stand against it together,” he said.

    Gandhi shared the under 3-minute video on Twitter and said, “Another major reason for the historic decline in GDP is the Gabbar Singh Tax (GST) of the Modi government. It has destroyed a lot – lakhs of small businesses, crores of jobs and the future of youth and the financial health of states. GST means economic devastation.”

    This is the third of the four-part series by him on the economy.

    Gandhi and the Congress have stepped up their attack on the Modi government over the state of the economy after India’s economic growth suffered its worst fall on record in the April-June quarter, with the gross domestic product (GDP) contracting 23.9 percent.

    He claimed that the GST was UPA’s idea, which meant “One tax, minimal tax, standard and simple tax”.

    “NDA’s GST is completely different. Four different tax slabs, up to 28 percent, complicated and difficult to understand,” he alleged.

    The Congress leader said the small and medium businesses cannot pay this tax, whereas the big companies can easily pay it by employing a few accountants to do the job.

    “Why are there four different rates? This is because the government wants those who have the means to be able to easily change GST, and those who don’t have means, cannot do anything about GST.

    “Who has the means? India’s biggest 15-20 industrialists. So, whatever tax law they want to change can easily be done in this GST regime,” he alleged.

    Gandhi said the result of the NDA’s GST is that today, the Government of India is unable to provide the GST compensation money to the states.

    The states are unable to give money to state employees and teachers, he said.

    Gandhi has earlier brought out a similar video series on the situation on the border with China.


  • Bhubaneswar | Minor girl raped by mother’s colleagues during lockdown

    PTI

    Bhubaneswar: A 13-year-old was raped at her residence here by her mother’s colleagues and a policeman among others during the March-April lockdown and the police have launched a manhunt for the accused, police said.

    At least seven persons were involved in this heinous act and the mother’s colleagues are absconding, Bhubaneswar deputy commissioner of police U S Dash said on Sunday.

    The complaint on the sordid incident was filed by the girl’s mother, who is an employee of a leading private TV channel here, at the Info-city police station here, he said adding the case was shifted to Mahila police station on August 30.

    Two of girl’s tormentors were colleagues of her mother. They were emboldened by the woman’s engagement in the office for long hours due to the lockdown, the complaint said.

    While the girl stays with her mother in a rented house at the Info-city, her father and other members of the family stay at their native place at Kendrapara, over 85 km from here, it said.

    The two employees of the TV channel came to the house when the woman was in office and raped her daughter. They also threatened to kill her if she divulged the incident to anyone, the complaint said.

    The girl maintained her silence for some days and finally spoke to her mother about the incident in April. When the woman confronted the two men in the office, she too was threatened that the girl would be killed.

    Fearing for their lives, the mother and the daughter fled to their Kendrapara home. They returned to the city in August and filed the complaint with the police, it said.

    The police have recorded the victim’s statement under Section 161 and Section 164 of CrPC and conducted the medical examination of the girl on Friday.

    In her statement, the girl, a student of an English medium school, has said that her tormentors were two employees of the TV channel, two private security guards, a policeman and two others.

    The DCP said a special team has been formed to identify the accused persons and the case is being probed by the inspector in-charge of Mahila police station.

    A case has been registered under various sections of IPC and POCSO Act, he said.

    Dash said the police have formed a special team for investigation and handed it over to Investigating Integrative Units for Crime Against Women (IUCAW).

    Several raids have been conducted, but the accused are yet to be apprehended, the police said.

  • Govt’s promises limited upto papers only

    Spine of trade, economy broken: Kashmir Trade Alliance

    Srinagar: On the sixth anniversary of the catastrophic floods in the Valley in 2014, the Kashmir Trade Alliance (KTA) on Sunday said that the decline in trade activities in Kashmir and the deterioration in the economy which started at that time has not stopped in 2020.

    According to statement issued to KNS, President KTA Ajaz Shahdhar said that the catastrophic floods of 2014 had caused a loss of nearly Rs 1,000 crore to the valley’s economy, and that the floods had dealt a major blow to business and commerce.

    Shahdhar said “after 2014, trade and the economy were hit hard again and again, due to which Kashmiri traders, businessmen, industrialists, transporters and contractors as well as tourism affected”. He said that the hopes of the then state and central government for reviving trade were dashed, and even after six years, it was not enough to revive traders and business.

    “No comprehensive package was announced and no other relief was given”, he said and added the relief claims were limited to paperwork, and if given, it was like cumin in a camel’s mouth. Shahdhar said that not only this but also the situation of the following years and then the situation after 5th August 2019 and now as a result of covid 19 the lockdown for the last 6 months has broken the backs of Kashmiri traders, shopkeepers and businessmen.

    Shahdhar expressed disappointment and said “No serious steps are being taken to get the traders out of this whirlpool”. He hoped that the administration headed by the Lieutenant Governor and the Central Government would make a solid and serious effort to revive business in Kashmir. (KNS)

  • Soldier killed, two injured in Pakistan firing in Kupwara

    Two bodies recovered from a river in Gurez sector

    An Army soldier was killed and two others were injured in Pakistani firing in Kupwara. An official said Pakistan resorted to “unprovoked firing and mortar shelling” along the Line of Control (LoC) in Kupwara’s Nowgam Sector on Saturday.

    “Pakistan initiated an unprovoked ceasefire violation in Nowgam Sector by firing mortars and other weapons … One soldier laid down his life in the line of duty. Two soldiers sustained injuries and have been evacuated to 92 Base Hospital. Their condition is stable,” the Srinagar-based Army spokesman said. The deceased soldier was identified as gunner Bupinder Singh.

    This is the third such encounter in the past two days. Three militants were killed in Baramulla on Friday.

    In a separate incident in Bandipora, two bodies were recovered from a river in the Gurez sector. “Arms and ammunition was recovered from them,” police said. Police suspect they may be missing youth from south Kashmir and may have gone to Pakistan Occupied Kashmir for arms training.

    With inputs from The Hindu

  • Covid-19: Cases Surge as authorities ease lockdown in J&K

    Non seriousness of people, increased testing capacity reason behind surge: Officials

    Srinagar: Covid-19 cases have started showing a spurt once again after government eased lock down in J&K, figures reveal.

    The officials, however, authorities attributed the surge to the non-seriousness of people towards Covid protocol and increased testing capacity.

    As, per the official data available with the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), from 28 July to 16 August(20 days) which was a lockdown period, 10,080 case were reported positive in J&K. However, since August 17 to 05 September (20 days) after lock down was eased 13771 cases were reported in J&K.

    In Srinagar district alone 2792 cases were reported in 20 days of lock down period from July 28, to 16 August. However, 3060 cases were reported after lock down was eased from August 17 to September 05.

    However, after restrictions were eased, the rate death rate has declined in J&K and officials also claim that the numbers of severe patients that were being admitted has also declared almost in all hospitals.

    In Srinagar in lock down period from 27 July to 16 August, 79 deaths were reported and after restrictions were eased from 17 August to 05 September 60 deaths were reported.

    A senior official said that cases have surge only due to non-seriousness of people towards covid protocol and the increased testing capacity.

    A senior doctor at CD hospital Srinagar who wished not to be named said that it is obvious that cases will surge if people won’t take care of Covid protocol besides that testing capacity has also increased.

    He said that we are able to conduct tests even at PHC through rapid antigent tests which has increased our testing capacity which has decreased the pressure on our main testing laboratories.

    He further added that as we were receiving more and more critical patients in last month but now their percentage has also decreased.

    He once again requested people to follow covid guidelines in letter and spirit and help us in beating Covid-19—(KNO)

  • 92 % cancer cases reported from Kashmir out of total 11,281 in over two years at SKIMS

    ‘Kashmir recorded 10,447 cases, 708 from Jammu, 126 from Ladakh’

    Srinagar: Kashmir Valley has recorded the highest number of cancer cases compared to Jammu and Ladakh Union Territory in the last over two years with officials at SKIMS saying that 92 per cent of cancer cases registered with them belong to Kashmir division only.

    The official figures reveal that in Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh UTs, at least 11,281 cancer cases were registered at Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) from January 2018 to July 2020.

    Official figures available with the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO) revealed that out of total 11,281 cancer cases, 10,447 cases were registered from Kashmir division only.

    However, from Jammu division only 708 such cases were registered in SKIMS and 126 cases were registered from Leh and Kargil areas of Ladakh Union Territory.

    This information was revealed by the Public Information Officer (PIO) of SKIMS in a reply to the Right to Information (RTI) application filed by the rights activist M M Shuja.

    The PIO in a reply said that the most number of cancer cases registered at SKIMS were from district Srinagar with 2601 cases.

    The documents reveal that from Kashmir division, Anantnag district recorded a total of 1488 cases followed by Baramulla district with 1422 cases, Budgam with 1032, Pulwama with 1007, Kupwara with 728, Kulgam with 672, Ganderbal with 532, Bandipora with 49 and Shopian district also recorded a total of 472 cases.

    Similarly from the Jammu division that recorded a total 708 cases in SKIMS includes 165 cases from Doda district, Ramban 165 cases, Poonch 118, Rajouri 101, Kishtwar 93, Jammu 26, Resai 20, Udhampur 10 and five each cases from Kathua and Samba districts.

    Likewise, Kargil and Leh districts of the Ladakh UT recorded a total of 126 cases of cancer patients in SKIMS Soura—(KNO)