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  • Pulwama encounter : Two Militants killed, three army men injured

    Pulwama: Two unidentified militants has been killed while as two army men have got injured in an ongoing encounter in Ratnipora village of Pulwama District.

    A police official told KNO that the two unidentified militants have been killed in ongoing encounter.

    Three army men, two of them critical were also injured during encounter who have been shifted to hospital, he said. As per local sources to KNO that heavy clashes are also going on in the area.

    Earlier encounter started after government forces including 50 RR cordoned off area on specific inputs about the presence of militants in the area.

    On intensifying search operation, hiding militants fired upon forces which was retaliated by forces triggered encounter. (KNO)

  • Restrictions, rallies, arrests mark Maqbool Bhat’s execution anniversary

    Srinagar, February 11: Authorities imposed restrictions in Srinagar parts on Monday while rest of the Valley observed a complete shutdown on the 35th hanging anniversary of Muhammad Maqbool Bhat even as rallies and arrests of separatist leaders were also witnessed.

    Bhat was hanged and buried in New Delhi’s Tihar Jail on this day in the year 1984.

    The shutdown call was given by the joint resistance leadership including Hurriyat (G) Chairman Syed Ali Geelani, Hurriyat (M) chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Chairman of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) Muhammad Yasin Malik.

    In response to the shutdown call, all the shops, businesses establishments remained closed in Srinagar and other major towns of Kashmir.

    Public transport also remained affected but private vehicles were seen plying on most of the roads. The strike also affected work in government offices, banks and post offices.

    However, authorities had imposed restrictions to thwart any possible protest today. Witnesses told KNO that authorities had sealed roads in Srinagar today including at business Hub Lal Chowk, Maisuma and others.

    Police and paramilitary were deployed on the roads to prevent protests. They were fanned out in the old city areas of Srinagar who had blocked all the roads with barricades and concertina wire to curtail pedestrian and vehicular movement in these areas.

    Meanwhile, scores of people this afternoon carried out a protest rally from the native place of Maqbool Bhat towards main market Trehgam.

    Reports reaching KNO said that, scores of people including relatives, locals and people from different parts of the District took out a protest march in Trehgam this afternoon. Men, women, children were part of the protest march, raising pro-freèdom and pro-Maqbool Bhat slogans.

    The march started from the vicinity of Maqbool Bhat, holding placards, which read as, “Father of Nation Maqbool Bhat”. The protesters marched while raising pro-freedom slogans towards main market Trehgam.

    It’s pertinent to mention here that, the protest march is held on every hanging anniversary of Maqbool Bhat from his native village to main market Trehgam. Meanwhile, reports said that minor clashes erupted between youth and forces at few places.(KNO)

  • In view of no elected Govt, JK Govt seeks adjournment of Art 35A hearing

    Srinagar, February 11: As the Article 35-A case is listed between Feb 12-14 at Supreme Court (SC), the state government on Monday sought the adjournment of the hearing into the case.

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

    Alam in a letter said that “the state will be seeking adjournment in the matters on account that since there is presently no elected government in the state of Jammu and Kashmir and the State is under President’s Rule.”

    “The present matter involves a sensitive issue regarding a challenge to Article 35A of the Constitution of India. A short reply has been filed by the State of Jammu and Kashmir in the lead matter (We The Citizens) and notices have not been issued in the other petitions. It will therefore be requested that the matter may kindly be heard when an elected government is in place,” it reads.

    “The letter may Kindly be circulated to the Hon’ble judges so as to avoid inconvenience to them, “it adds. Earlier in August, the SC had adjourned the hearing on a bunch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of Article 35A till January 2019.

    The Jammu and Kashmir government had sought adjournment of the hearing Article 35A in the view of upcoming local body elections in the state.

    The matter was listed before a Bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud. The state government had written a letter to the Registrar of the Supreme Court on August 29. Jammu and Kashmir government’s standing counsel M Shoeb Alam had argued in the letter a hearing on Article 35A may impact holding of upcoming local body elections in the state.(KNO)

  • No military solution to Kashmir issue, only talks: PDP Leader

    SRINAGAR, FEB 11: The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) senior leader and former MLA of Noorabad constituency of Kulgam Abdul Majeed Padder said that India, Pakistan and Hurriyat should talk to each other and solve Kashmir Issue.

    While Speaking to News agency Press Trust of Kashmir Padder said, “Security forces should not threaten locals. They should spend love and peace”.

    He added PDP will talk to militants if come to power in coming election”. He further added that there is no military solution to Kashmir problem instead India-Pakistan must talk to each other.

    Padder said miseries and hardships of the people could only be removed through an amicable political solution to the Kashmir problem adding that it was expected that Prime Minister would announce some kind of a pragmatic roadmap to carry forward the mission of Late Prime Minister Atal Ji for resumption of talks on Kashmir issue.

    He further added that all the political and non-political originations should come forward beyond the political lines to seek the resolution of the disputed Kashmir issue. He said Pakistan and India have to find the time when they want to start the talks.

    He added Kashmir issue is an internationally-recognized dispute that demands fair resolution from India, Pakistan and Hurriyat to end the long last conflict which has adverse impacts on all mostly youth. (PTK)

  • Swine flu brings more heart attacks, strokes: DAK

    “If you catch swine flu, you are at an increased risk of having a heart attack or stroke,”

    Srinagar, Feb 11: Doctors Association Kashmir (DAK) on Monday said swine flu infection significantly increases the risk of heart attack and stroke.
    “If you catch swine flu, you are at an increased risk of having a heart attack or stroke,” said DAK President Dr Nisar ul Hassan.
    Quoting a Canadian study published in The New England Journal of Medicine, Dr Nisar said people who get flu are six times more likely to have a heart attack in the first week of the illness.
    “The risk is particularly high among elderly and those with underlying heart conditions,” he said.
    “In another study at Columbia University in United States flu increased the odds of having a stroke by nearly 40 percent,” Dr Nisar said.

    “The most significant risk occurred in the 15 days following the illness, but patients with flu continued to have elevated risk of stroke for an entire year,” he said.
    Dr Nisar said flu causes acute and severe inflammation that builds up fat deposits in the inner walls of blood vessels. These fat deposits dislodge and get stuck in heart or brain, where they block the blood flow.
    He added flu activates blood cells and clotting system leading to increased risk of blood clots.
    “The number of heart attacks and stroke patients in Kashmir doubles in winter and flu is a major factor,” he informed
    He said the risk is similar to the risk seen for other known risk factors, such as high blood pressure, diabetes or smoking.
    Dr Nisar said you can prevent many heart attacks and strokes by getting vaccinated against flu.
    “Studies have shown people who receive flu shots are 55% less likely to suffer a heart attack or stroke,” he said.
    “Ideally, people should get vaccine by the end of October. However, getting vaccinated later can still be beneficial and vaccination should continue to be offered throughout the flu season,” Dr Nisar advised.

  • I heard on radio that my son would be hanged following day: Maqbool Bhat’s mother

    Srinagar: Kashmir will observe a shutdown on Monday to mark the 35th death anniversary of a Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) founder Muhammad MaqboolBhat, who was hanged in New Delhi’s Tihar jail on this day in 1984.

    Shahmali Begum, mother of MaqboolBhat, says at her Kupwara residence that this day (Maqbool’s hanging anniversary) has again come in her life.

    Asserting that hundreds of youth in Kashmir who laid down their lives in the past 30 years of armed struggle were “also my sons”, the aged woman said: “Age-wise, I am advancing towards the grave, where my sons are waiting to welcome me. But I wish to see the dawn of freedom in Kashmir”.

    Shahmali said she heard through radio a day earlier that her son would to be hanged at 7am the next day.

    “It was Saturday,” she recalls.

    “A pall of gloom descended on our family. I wished to see him once before his hanging, but I was helpless,” she said, reiterating that “there are hundreds of Maqbools in Kashmir, like my son”.

    “His hanging anniversary always gives me same emotions and reminds me of the night before he was hanged,” she said.

    She said her eldest son, GhulamNabiBhat, was on way to Delhi to see Maqbool in Tihar but wasn’t allowed to leave Kashmir.

    The state police arrested him at Srinagar, she said.

    “My another son Manzoor Ahmad was also arrested the same night. All the three brothers were in custody, but two of them were released after Maqbool was hanged,” Shahmali said, lamenting that the government did not even gave the family Maqbool’s body for the last rites. “When my another son was killed in a gunfight, the then commanding officer of task force ‘Gulbadan Singh’ came here (to our house) and interrogated us. My two teeth were broken during the interrogation, which always reminds me of the cruelty of forces on us,” Shahmali said, showing the broken teeth.

    No one was allowed to see Maqbool before his execution and he was buried inside the jail premises. MaqboolBhat’s sister Mehmooda recalls: “We went to Srinagar airport to catch a flight to Delhi to see Maqbool, but the police did not let us proceed”.

    MaqboolBhat’s niece Midhat, 16, said: “They did not return any of his belongings from Tihar. I wish they had allowed us to take some soil from his grave, returned his personal diaries and facilitated us to visit the grave.” The eldest of Shahmali’s sons, GhulamNabiBhat, was a part of JKLF. He was killed in mid-nineties in an accident and is survived by an ailing wife and four children. Her another son, HabibullahBhat, went missing after his class 12 examination, Mehmooda says. Despite frantic searches by the family, he couldn’t be traced and it was much later that the family got to know about his involvement with armed groups, she recalls. After the death of his brothers, ZahoorBhat, the youngest of all siblings, too “crossed the border.”

    “He followed in his brothers’ footsteps. He was in class 10 when he went to Azad Kashmir and got married there.” He later returned to Jammu and Kashmir. Zahoor, who was arrested a year ago while addressing a rally on Maqbool’s anniversary, is still under detention at Jammu’s Kotbalwal jail. “He was brought two days back to police station Trehgam (Kupwara) where we urged the authorities to let our mother to meet him as she is suffering from a heart disease, but they denied,” said Mehmooda. “At least on the occasion of Maqbool’s 35th death anniversary, the police should have allowed our mother to meet Zahoor. No one helps us to plead his case in court, but I am enough to fight for his release,” Mehmooda said.

    “Today, when I walk through these streets, people say that my sons have made me proud. I want Azadi. It will be the ultimate tribute for my sons,” Maqbool’s mother says. Maqbool was hanged on February 11, 1984, more than 16 years after a court in Srinagar sentenced him to death on charges of murdering an Indian intelligence official Amar Chand way back in 1966.

    Pertinently, the Joint Resistance Leadership has called for complete protest shutdown in Kashmir on Monday to mark the 35th death anniversary of Bhat and to press for return of his mortal remains.

    POLICE TO IMPOSE SECTION 144 IN DOWNTOWN, MAISUMA

    Meanwhile, an official said restrictions under section 144 which bars assembly of four or more persons at a particular place, shall remain in place in Downtown and Maisuma on Monday.

    A police source said that section 144 will strictly remain in force in downtown areas that include MahrajGunj, SafaKadal, Nowhatta, Rainawari and Khanyar while as similar restrictions will remain place in Maisuma area of civil lines.

    This Story Was Published On Greater Kashmir, One of the Largest circulated Regional Dailies in India

  • The Umar Mukhtar of Kashmir

    Muhammad Maqbool Butt was the man with a mind of his own.

    MH Altaf Khan

    There is a wrong perception that resistance movement of Kashmir always lacked dedication, valour and intellect. That learned people have never been a part of this movement. Although during present days our educated youth are proving this notion as absurd but long ago Maqbool Butt’s life, struggle and sacrifice had invalidated this misinformation completely. I am privileged to have met some of Maqbool Butt’s friends and listen to what they had to say about Maqbool. Master Sikander Malik studied with Maqbool from class 1st to 10th at Trehgam High School. During a chat he revealed many hidden aspects of his life. According to him unparallelled wisdom and intellect were present in Maqbool as God’s gift. Maqbool’s father Ghulam Qadir Butt and Mother Raja Begum were miles ahead of their times. Qadir was a tailor but his intellect and style were so famous in whole Trehgam and surroundings that no big social function in Trehgam and surroundings was held without his presence. Maqbool was a blend of his father’s intellect and style and his mother’s wisdom and humbleness. Sikander Malik further said that it was Maqbool Butt who stood first in whole area in class 8th. He stunned his teachers and fellow students by delivering a fiery speech in English on “urban life” and compelled school headmaster Farooqi cheer for him. Maqbool was a born leader, an attractive and good-looking man, a God gifted brain, a prolific speaker, an athlete and a brave soul.
    After passing out his Matric from Trehgam high school, a school that was upgraded after an agitation led by young Maqbool himself, he went to Saint Jospeh College Baramullah and Graduated from there. His adolescence day friend Khaliq Pervaiz who himself is a shining chapter of our history and has written a book, ’’Jila-I- Watan”, recalls his first meeting with Maqbool Butt. “While playing football, I saw a new boy who was not from our village; he was wearing nicely stitched neat and clean clothes. After exchanging initial greetings we became friends. Soon he joined Saint Joseph Baramullah. He was different from all other students; he would play less and instead read books. He would deliver speeches and narrate many things others didn’t know”. Maqbool’s rebellious mind, love for learning and habit of reading literature gave him a distinction over others. These qualities made him travel to Peshawar Pakistan where his uncle was already living. He got admission at Peshawar University and completed Masters Degree with honours in Urdu Literature. He went on with his journey of learning and mastered in English literature and Law.

    For anyone else, this great journey of years should have been enough reason to take a leave but Maqbool was not here to left what he had started. He was elected president of Mahaz-I-Rai-Shumari but along political movement he kept his armed opposition intact and after the disgraceful Indra-Abdullah Accord in 1975, he once again crossed over the LoC to challenge it. His friend and fellow cohort late Aman Ullah Khan writes that when Maqbool decided to cross over to valley again, he along with many others tried to stop him. “I met him at Karachi Railway platform and asked him to shun his idea as he had been sentenced to death in valley and had young children to look after, but his reply made me shut up”. Maqbool replied, “Look at the train coming towards this platform, visualize if I just fell down from this platform by chance and train crushes me, what will my children do then. Who knows the fate and time of death my friend?
    Leave all this to Allah and let me go as Kashmiris need a soldier and martyr not a leader this time’’. Soon he was in valley working hard to revive his struggle, got arrested, spent 12 years in Tihar jail, kissed gallows on 11th February 1984 and got buried inside Tihar jail premises where he still sleeps with calm and charm. It is a common idea that literature, music and culture knows no boundaries, for me even revolutionaries know no boundaries. Revolutionaries are an admiration for all, even for their adversaries. Maqbool Butt was a revolutionary like Umar Mukhtar of Libya, Che Guevara of Argentina and Subash Chander Bose of India, who never cared about his self but of the revolution and freedom. Umar Mukhtar of Libya said “we will not surrender, we win or we die”. Che said “we cannot be sure of having something to live for unless we are willing to die for it’’. Bose left his career and said “Give me blood and I will give you freedom’’, and in the same way Maqbool of Kashmir said “this is our war and we will have to fight it by ourselves and that when you can make yourself believe that you are free, you are free”. Aren’t these ideas identical and doesn’t the lives of all these rebels look similar in many ways. Answer is yes. My Purpose to narrate the story of Maqbool in these few lines is to convey it to every house hold in Jammu Kashmir, to every youth, to every student and even to every collaborator of forcible occupation , as story of Maqbool Butt ‘The Tiger from Trehgam’ contains it all. Our national resolve to resist, our national intellect and wisdom, our national valour and courage, our national character and above all our national pride and respect….let us all try to discover, research, read, listen and convey this story, cherish it, and feel some gratification and admiration for our Nation – Kashmir.

    [email protected]

  • Kashmiri girl’s ‘weather report’ wins hearts

    Srinagar: A mock report by a girl on the heavy snowfall in south Kashmir’s Shopian district has won hearts on the social media where she has been dubbed as the “cutest journalist”.

    The short video of the girl’s mock piece to camera has gone viral on the social media and attracted attention of journalists as well as celebrities.

    “This is so adorable and so beautiful. Made me miss my childhood so much! God bless you,” IAS officer Athar Aamir Khan wrote while commenting about the girl’s report. — TNS

  • Job Opportunity At Greater Kashmir Medical Trust

  • 11 including three civilian injured in Lal Chowk grenade blast

    Srinagar: Eleven persons including four civilians were injured after suspected militants lobbed a grenade towards Paladium Cinema in Lal chowk area of Srinagar district in Sunday evening.

    Reports reached that some unknown persons hurled a grenade at around 6:40 PM towards Paladium Cinema in which ten persons were injured and identified as Ashiq Ahmad CT 672 IR3, Abid CT 508 / IR 3nd, Nassar Ahmed 1773 /s and Mohd Shafi 2809/s PS Maisuma of JK Police, ASI R. Muniswami 132bn, CT Vishal 132 bn and CT Davindar 132Bn CRPF and also three civilians

    Humaira of Hairwan, Abdul Qayoom of Mandibal Nowshehra, Taliba Gulshan of Dalgate and Shadab Shah resident of Nishat.

    Ab Qayoom S/o Mohd Ismail Shah r/o Mandibal nowshara, Humaira age 35 w/o Sajad Ahmad Baba R/o Harwan Srinagar, Taliba Gulshan age 35 W/o Iftikhar Ahmad Jan R/o Dalgate Srinagar and Shadab Shah resident of Nishat.

    The injured have been shifted to the hospitals for the treatment of their injuries. They are stated to be stable, police spokesman said VMS.

    Meanwhile, Police and CRPF cordoned the area to nab the attacker.