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  • Farooq Abdullah among the leader attending all-party meets in Delhi

    SRINAGAR, FEB 16: The all-party meeting convened by the government in view of the Pulwama militant attack is underway in New Delhi. The meeting has been convened by Home Minister Rajnath Singh.

    The Minister is expected to brief the parties about the attack and the steps being taken by the government in this regard. Invitations were extended to all major political parties.

    Sources confirmed News agency Press Trust of Kashmir that the all-party meeting was attended by Farooq Abdullah of the National Conference, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma and Jyotiraditya Scindia of the Congress, Sudip Bandyopadhyay and Derek O’Brien of the Trinamool Congress, Sanjay Raut of the Shiv Sena, Jithendra Reddy of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi, D Raja of the CPI, Ram Vilas Paswan of the Lok Janshakti Party, Naresh Gujral of the Akali Dal, Upendra Kushwaha of the Rashtriya Lok Samta Party and Jai Prakash Narayan Yadav. (PTK)

  • Security of Hurriyat leaders will be removed: Home Ministry

    SRINAGAR, FEB 16: On Thursday, there was a major militant attack on the convoy of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) in Pulwama area of South Kashmir, Jammu and Kashmir.

    In which 49 CRPF men were killed in the attack. The responsibility of the attack was taken by the militant group Jaish-e-Mohammed. At the same time the government says that the militants involved in the attack will be taught a lesson In this direction the government has taken a big decision.

    However Top Sources from Home ministry confirmed News agency Press Trust of Kashmir that the government has instructed separatists living in the valley to remove the security given by the government. These instructions have come from the Ministry of Defense. The directive states that the security of the Hurriyat leaders living in Kashmir and Jammu should be removed.

    Sources added “Let us say that there are many such separatist Hurriyat leaders in Kashmir who are living in India and still openly protest against India. They poison the minds of young people in the valleys. Surprisingly, many of these facilities are given to the separatists by the government.

    On Friday evening, Home Minister Rajnath Singh had said that the safety given to the people funded by Pakistan and its spy agency ISI should be reviewed. After this statement, speculation started that the government was considering the removal of separatist security. At the same time, sources have rightly speculated these speculations and have said that the government has issued instructions for this. (PTK)

  • Forces launch search operation in Tral village

    Tral, February 16: Government forces on Saturday morning launched cordon and search operation in Khangund village in Tral area of South kashmir’s Pulwama district.

    Official sources told that on specific information abouts the militant movement in the area, forces including 42 RR, CRPF and Special operation group (SOG) of jammu and kashmir police jointly launched search operation in the area.

    Local told KNO that large number of forces have been deployed in the area and door to door search operation is going on in the area.(KNO)

  • Engg Students Hope Project Will Help PDD Overcome Power Crisis

    SRINAGAR — Three girls from this summer capital city have conceived an idea of developing ‘Smart Electric Metering System’ to overcome power crisis in the state of Jammu and Kashmir.

    Sameena from Kathidarwaza, Shaista Hasan Mir from Bemina and Sehreen Ashraf from Habakadal who are the students of SSM College of Engineering and Technology Department of Computer Engineering are sure that their innovative idea will help Power Development Department to overcome the power crisis in Kashmir Valley.

    “Project was undertaken considering the growing situation of the power crisis in the Valley with the mishandling at the ground level as the major cause. This has led to the replacement of electric meters every now and then to meet the demand of the customers and service providers. Moreover, growing use of smart phones will make the working of the smart metering easy and affordable. The introduction of the smart meters will eliminate the role of middle man thus reducing the human interference to negligibly low levels,” Sameena, Shaista and Sehreen told a local news agency CNS.

    They said their idea about the Smart Electric Metering System’ project received great appreciation from Power Development Department (PDD). “We shared the details of the project with the Chief Engineer PDD Hashmat Qazi and he truly liked it and appreciated us for our job.”

    Office of the Electric Maintenance and R.E Wing Kashmir while reviewing the project of these 3 budding Engineers stated that: “this project has introduced a number of new features to already existing Smart Meters like IOT/cloud based data analysis, tariff based monitoring, meter theft and relay based control. The production cost is lower and the system can be designed from the already available analog meters. This system is more general in terms of GSM based communication between user and meter.”

    The features of the proposed Smart Energy meter are tariff based metering, accurate interface of already existing analog meters using LDR sensors, interrupt enabled meter theft control, IOT based data collection of meter data, monthly bill and tariff range messaging using GSM, power cut-off for LOW balance, prepaid based metering, Wi-Fi integration to Smart home and application and website-based data visualization on cloud Project Management.

    While divulging information about the project, Sameena, Shaista and Sehreen said that Arduino and GSM based smart pre-paid energy meter for advanced metering and billing system was designed and its prototype was built to check its applicability.

    “The main objective of our proposed system is to implement and develop very low-cost Wi-Fi-based single phase digital energy meter with IoTs concepts. The system provides data communication between digital energy meters and web server gateway, so that it can monitor the energy management system.”

    “The meter is able to read and send data via wireless protocol using GSM technology through GSM modem managing both the meter as well as the line connection. For GSM module the network coverage of the SIM is used. The Energy Meter can use SMS or/and Wi-Fi to send the power/unit data to cloud, so that user can access the data including the recharge done and the units consumed through Apps and websites.”

    “By using this system, the billing of the power users can be based on actual consumption rather than estimate based from the previous consumption.”

    “Our proposed system uses energy meter with microcontroller system to monitor energy usage using a meter. The meter is used to monitor units consumed and transmit the units as well as cost charged over the internet using Net connection. This allows user to easily check the energy usage along with the cost charged online using a simple cloud-based webpage. Thus, the energy meter monitoring system allows user to effectively monitor electricity meter readings and check the billing online with ease. The meter is enabled with anti-theft mechanism. Any theft in the power consumption would to monitored through the App or website. The system sends warning on the low balance to the customers and then automatically cuts the power supply off. As there is no human involvement in the entire process, there is no chance of manual errors. These put more control into the hands of customers by giving them more detailed information about power consumption.”

    “The proposed Smart energy meter is an advanced version of the currently available Smart meters. They fit well in the concept of smart homes with the addition of IOT and several other features.”

    According to trio, the project was done under the guidance of the Mrs Yaseem (Project guide) and was co-ordinated by Khalid Makhdoomi (Project co-ordinator). (CNS)

  • Supreme Court unlikely to hear Article 35A case on Thursday

    Srinagar, February 13: Even as the Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL) called for two-day shutdown in Kashmir, the hearing of Article 35A case unlikely on Thursday.

    Awami National Conference (ANC) Senior Vice President, Muzaffar Shah while talking to Kashmir News Observer (KNO) said the Supreme Court (SC) is unlikely to hear the case of Article 35A on Thursday.

    Earlier, the case was listed between Feb 12-14 at Supreme Court (SC), the state government yesterday sought the adjournment of the hearing into the case.

    Standing Counsel for the state of Jammu and Kashmir, Advocate on record M Shoeb Alam had submitted the application for adjournment before Registrar General of Supreme of India.

    A delegation of Kashmir High Court Bar Association (KHCBA), Srinagar left for New Delhi on Tuesday to appear before the Supreme Court (SC), for seeking the dismissal of all the petitions challenging the Article 35 A.

    Shah told KNO that case would not be heard on tomorrow.(KNO)

  • Didn’t want Afzal Guru to be hanged, says Mehbooba Mufti

    SRINAGAR, FEB 13: Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti has justified her demand of getting the mortal remains of Afzal Guru back to Kashmir.

    During the press conference in Srinagar Mehbooba Mufti said “We made an appeal to President of India that Afzal Guru should be forgiven”.

    She added that they didn’t want Afzal Guru to be hanged. She was addressing a press conference at her home in Srinagar.

    This statement comes exactly six years after the 2001 Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru was hanged on February 9, 2013. “This is a demand that has been made by PDP since Afzal Guru was hanged.

    Mehbooba Mufti said that her father Mufti saheb had also appealed to the then President that the man should be forgiven. We also requested that his body be given to his family, our stand on it has not changed.” His body was buried within the precincts of Delhi’s Tihar Jail.

    The December 13, 2001 attack was conducted by the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JEM) gunmen, who sneaked into Parliament in a car withfake stickers. They drove into the then Vice President Krishna Kant’s car parked in the premises and began firing. (PTK)

  • We are ready to die for Art. 35A: Akbar Lone

    SRINAGAR, FEB 13: Senior National conference leader and former member of legislative assembly (MLA) Mohammad Akbar Lone today said that “we are ready to die for article 35A”.

    While Speaking to News agency Press Trust of Kashmir Akbar Lone said “Art. 35-A is a Constitutional guarantee for safety of people of Jammu and Kashmir”. He cautioned that no one should touch article 35A as doing so is against the overall national and state interests.

    He further added that Art. 35A is important issue; National conference can do anything for the safeguard of art. 35A. If anything can happen with Art 35A the situation of Kashmir valley make turn new way.

    Lone added, “We are ready to die for Art. 35A and New do our best to save it”. “Fiddling with Article 35-A will have serious repercussions and could add fuel to the fire as situation is already volatile in the state and particularly in Kashmir Valley”. Lone added.

    Article 35A of the Indian Constitution is an article that empowers the Jammu and Kashmir state’s legislature to define “permanent residents” of the state and provide special rights and privileges to those permanent residents. The Constitution (Application to Jammu and Kashmir) Order, 1954 issued by the President of India on 14 May 1954, exercising the powers conferred by the clause (1) of the Article 370 of the Indian Constitution, and with the concurrence of the Government of the State of Jammu and Kashmir.

    Following the accession of Jammu and Kashmir to the Indian Union on 26 October 1947, The Maharaja ceded control over defence, external affairs and communications (the ‘ceded subjects’) to the Government of India.

    The Article 370 of the Constitution of India and the concomitant Constitutional Order of 1950 formalised this relationship. Discussions for furthering the relationship between the State and the Union continued, culminating in the 1952 Delhi Agreement, whereby the governments of the State and the Union agreed that Indian citizenship would be extended to all the residents of the state but the state would be empowered to legislate over the rights and privileges of the state subjects, who would now be called permanent residents.

    Article 35A provides permanent residents to people of Jammu and Kashmir “No person who is not a Permanent Resident of Jammu and Kashmir can own property in Jammu and Kashmir. No person who is not a Permanent Resident of Jammu and Kashmir can obtain job within Jammu and Kashmir Government. No person who is not a Permanent Resident of Jammu and Kashmir can join any professional college run by government of Jammu and Kashmir or get any form of government aid out of government funds. (PTK)

  • Fiddling with Article 35A will trigger catastrophe in Kashmir: Traders body

    Srinagar: In a statement, Kashmir Economic Alliance (KEA) chairman Yasin Khan said the hearing on the case on the sensitive as 35A has heightened tensions in the trouble-torn region as the people are apprehensive of their fate.

    A traders’ body in Kashmir on Wednesday said that fiddling with Article 35A will trigger a catastrophe not just in Kashmir but entire South Asia.
    In a statement, Kashmir Economic Alliance (KEA) chairman Yasin Khan said the hearing on the case on the sensitive as 35A has heightened tensions in the trouble-torn region as the people are apprehensive of their fate.

    Khan said any fiddling with the Article 35 A could trigger a catastrophe not just in Kashmir but in the entire south Asian region.
    He said the revocation of Article 35 A will mean that people of all the three regions will lose their share of all resources in the state including jobs and land.
    “People of this state will end up as being another Palestinians whose land will be taken away by outsiders. We will all lose our identity, collective and individual,” he said, in the statement.
    “When New Delhi should have been serious to take measures to improve situation through initiation of efforts for final settlement Kashmir in accordance with the aspirations of the people of the state, some hidden forces are hell bent to keep Kashmir on the boil through such sinister petitions, while people are being pushed towards a decisive battle,” Khan who also heads the Kashmir Traders and Federation (KTMF) said.
    He also questioned as to why all such petitions that aim to “weaken the special status of Kashmir or to bring demographic changes in the Muslim dominated state in accordance with the Hindutva agenda were taking place largely for the last four years.”
    The timing of such cases, he said, looks equally conspiring. “Instead of saying when to have a hearing on such a sensitive case, we appeal the honorable Court to dismiss the petition so that the wild fears in the minds of already victimized people of Jammu and Kashmir come to an end once for all,” Khan said.
    He maintained that the Kashmir Inc was not only speaking on behalf of the business community of the Valley alone but was making public the popular sentiment of the people of state in general. “Like other Kashmiris we have always scarified for the cause of Kashmir and we won’t mind to sacrifice everything if our existence is at stake,” he said.
    He said it was faulty policies of the government which force the business community to speak on such issues when actually the businessmen should have been provided with a conducive environment to work.
    The KEA chairman said that New Delhi should show maturity and initiate measures to resolve Kashmir and also reciprocate to Imran Khan’s offer of dialogue on the core issue so that sustainable peace and prosperity in restored.
    Supporting the stand of the JRL and the Kashmir civil society on the issue, the Kashmir Inc said it was a collective responsibility of every sane individual to be extra cautious.

  • Militant recruitment: Rural militancy more challenging than Urban one

    Official records show since 2016, militancy saw steep increase in Rural areas

    Srinagar, February 12: The militant recruitment in Kashmir has shown a steep increase with official figures suggesting that the rural areas have emerged as a challenge against the urban areas as far as “local militancy was concerned.”

    Official figures suggest that since past 2016, after the killing of young Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Muzaffar Wani, militant recruitment has shown as steep increase in rural areas as compared to urban areas.

    Sources revealed KNO that in 2016, 80 youth joined militants in south Kashmir’s districts of Pulwama, Shopian, Anantnag and Kulgam. “In 2017, 120 youth joined various militant ranks majority of them from South Kashmir districts while as in 2018, 126 youth joined militancy and again majority of them were from Pulwama, Shopian and Kulgam,” a top security officer told KNO.

    He said three youth joined militancy in January and one of them from Srinagar. Sources said that the urban districts that include Budgam, Srinagar, and Ganderbal remained relatively calm on the “local recruitment front as not more than 20 youth joined militants from the Central districts since 2016.”

    In Rural areas especially southern districts, the reasons for the youth to join militancy includes “mass funerals, peer pressure, family background and radicalization through neighbourhood involvement.”

    The year 2018 proved to be successful ever since past one decade for the forces in Kashmir as 255 militants were killed including 20 top commanders of Hizbul Mujahideen, Lashkar-e-Toiba, Jaish-e-Muhammad and Ansaar-Gazwatul Hind.

    The northern army commander lieutenant general Ranbir Singh recently stated that 450 militants were active in J&K of which 400 were active in Kashmir and 50 in Jammu region. This indicates sharp increase in the local militant recruitment that signifies at even after killing of 250 militants in 2018, 450 were still active.(KNO)

  • Article 35A: JRL Calls for complete shutdown on Feb 13, 14 in Valley

    Says people of JK will forcefully resist every challenge by New Delhi to change the demography of State

    Srinagar, Feb 12: Joint Resistance Leadership comprising Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik Tuesday said that people of Jammu and Kashmir will forcefully resist every challenge by New Delhi to change the demography of the State by rolling back hereditary state subject laws of 1927, being contested in the Supreme Court of India through their agents.

    In a statement issued to GNS said, JRL said that the late announcement and ambiguity over the dates of hearing of 35A and 370 by Supreme Court on 13 or 14 of February is worrisome, and indicates of mischief. Leadership said that people and leadership are fully aware of the developments and are cautiously observing them and these tactics cannot deceive them or take them for a ride. It is an extremely critical issue of the our very existence as a people and of our disputed status. Leadership warned the authorities that if anything adverse to the interests of the people of J&K and its disputed status is announced through the courts a mass people’s agitation will be started instantly across the state and the responsibility of the consequences of that will be entirely on those forcing us to react, the statement said.

    Leadership said people of Kashmir are facing tremendous repression tyranny and hardships by virtue of being under forcible control but it should be clear by now to those arrogant in power, that they cannot break our back and make us cow down before their might. Kashmiri’s have proved their mettle and resilience to India and the world over the last three decades by standing firm on their principled demand against a mighty military power, the statement said.

    JRL said that to protest and resist this viscous move a complete strike will be observed on February 13 and 14 and if any adverse order is announced leadership will announce a mass agitation there on, the statement said.

    Leadership said that they understand that frequent shutdowns add to the hardship already experienced by people as a result of occupation, but it is imperative to register our strong protest in the wake of such threatening measures by the Indian state, the statement said. (GNS)