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Srinagar:  How many people lost life in forces action during the unrest in Kashmir Valley following the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Muzaffar Wani in 2016?

While newspaper reports put the toll at 97, the ruling government dished out conflicting reports in separate assembly sessions one year apart.

While Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, who is the Minister in-charge Home, according to news agency GNS said 78 persons including two policemen were killed in the summer unrest in Kashmir post Burhan’s killing on July 8 2016, on Friday said 51 people were killed.

Interesting, the government last year informed State Human Rights Commission (SHRC)  that the kin of the 76 civilians killed by the government forces during the uprising will be provided with compensation.

Mehbooba also revealed in ongoing Budget session in Jammu that 9042 were injured due to use of bullets, pellets and other force. In a written reply to the question of a National Conference MLA, Shamima Firdous, in the ongoing budget session of the Legislative Assembly, Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti said 51 people were killed in Kashmir division from July 8, 2016 to February 27, 2017 in the unrest.

Mehbooba said 9,042 people were injured in firing of bullets, pellets, pava-shells and others during the period. Of them, while 6221 were injured due to pellets, 368 due to bullets, four in PAVA shells 2,449 suffered other injuries. Whether other injured meant ruthless beating did not emerge from the details.

She said at least 782 suffered eye injuries of which 510 were hospitalised while 5,197 cases of pellet injuries were treated at district hospitals and the rest were referred to super speciality hospitals.

Among the 51 deaths as per latest information by the state, the highest number of deaths, sixteen took place in Anantnag district followed by thirteen in Kulgam district, seven in Pulwama of south Kashmir and 5 in Kupwara, four in Baramulla in north Kashmir, she added.

She aid in pursuance of Government order (no. 61-Home of 2017 dated 27/01/2017), a committee has been constituted under the chairmanship of Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir to identify such persons who have been permanently or partially disabled during the unrest.

The committee, she said, in the first phase recommended 54 persons for grant of compensation which has been sanctioned by the Government on 5 January this year.

In 2nd phase, she said, the committee has recommended 10 more cases for grant of ex-gratia relief. “The recommendations have been received few days back and a decision would be taken very early”.

Besides, she said, the Government has appointed 13 persons which include 12 pellet victims and one NOK of the pellet in various departments on extreme compassionate grounds and as an exceptional relaxation of rules.  (GNS)

Srinagar: Doctors Association Kashmir (DAK) on Friday welcomed the appointment of Dr Omar Javed Shah as director SK Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS).

President DAK Dr Nisar ul Hassan in a communique said we are hopeful he will revive the pristine glory of the institute which is in a sorry state of affairs.

He said a graduate from government medical college Srinagar, Dr Shah after completing his post-graduation in surgery joined SKIMS as a faculty member. He established the department of surgical gastroenterology at SKIMS and described new surgical techniques that have been adopted across the globe. Recently, he was appointed as dean faculty of medicine.

“A man of impeccable integrity, Dr Shah has excellent managerial skills and is the right person to head the prestigious health institution of the state,” DAK President said.

He said we anticipate that his new role as director will bring accountability in the system and will end sufferings of patients.

Dr Nisar said SKIMS which was known for its high standards is in complete mess due to “mismanagement”.

He said there is lobbyism and infighting among doctors that has eaten away SKIMS and patients suffer the consequences. Patients face immense hardships and they leave the hospital dissatisfied with the care they receive. They are made to wait for months for procedures and surgeries so that they are forced to see doctors in their private clinics. It is painful to see patients waiting in long serpentine queues and they end up being seen by students as senior doctors, more often than not are unseen in the hospital. Absence of senior doctors during emergency hours is responsible for high mortality among critically-ill patients.

Dr Nisar said there is gross indiscipline in the institute and some elements with vested interests are promoting it.

“Some days back, when government suspended three senior doctors and removed director for violating the norms, these elements opposed the move which was aimed to restore discipline and streamline the functioning of the institute for public good,” he said.

In a place like Kashmir where there are no means of entertainment for the youth, the trendy Downtown Cafe is helping people come together and share memories.

In 2016, when Kashmir was simmering with unrest, brothers Suhail and Nadeem Bhat from Pampore, which is some 13 km from Srinagar, were researching for possible startup ideas. After a lot of thinking and hard work, they opened the Downtown Café — one of the largest restaurants of downtown Srinagar.

Located in Gojwara, Downtown Cafe can cater to around 90 people at a time. With an investment of Rs 60 lakh, the furnishing of its three-storied building started in April last year. It took eight months to complete and was inaugurated on November 4, 2017, by Mirvaiz Umar Farooq.

The multi-cuisine restaurant, during its inaugural event, started a promotional offer where free food was served for two consecutive days. The restaurant served seven dishes to around 700 people in two days, following which it got an overwhelming response and became an instant hit.

Nadeem and Suhail initially employed seven people including chefs, waiters and other support staff, but owing to the restaurant’s success, they now employ around 15 people.

Located in a very congested residential part of the old city with hardly any commercial establishments, Downtown Cafe offers various delicacies including the authentic Kashmiri wazwan — the trendiest serving among others on the menu.

Nadeem says that the area where the restaurant is located has witnessed the history of civilisations and has been one of the biggest markets in Kashmir since the time of the Maharajas.

The research the brothers did before starting their venture made them realise that the younger generation in Srinagar wanted a place to hang out; but, there was no such restaurant in the city with enough space for people to go to especially with their families. Downtown Café was started as an attempt to fill this void.

Nadeem says that while many startups in Kashmir focus on setting up western-style cafés, he wanted the theme of the Downtown Café to be rooted in the indigenous culture and cuisine of Kashmir.

“We are getting a positive feedback and our primary focus is to provide best possible food and service to our customers,” said Nadeem.

For the two brothers, their father, who is a contractor by profession, served as the source of inspiration. The restaurant functions on two storeys while the third floor is yet to be opened.

The brothers are planning something unique for the third story which, as per them, will focus on the cultural and traditional aspects of the valley.

Challenges

With frequent curfews in the region, there are many days in a year when downtown Srinagar remains shut down, and this ultimately hurts the economy. Research told Nadeem and Suhail that despite shops remaining closed due to the unrest, the shopkeepers still made some profit.

The bothers acknowledge that curfews are a part of life in Kashmir.

“There are many challenges in every business; we have this one and if we just keep thinking in terms of shutdown or curfew, we will have to sit at home and do nothing,” said Nadeem

Success

According to Suhail and Nadeem, the restaurant has already served 1,200 tables in a short span of two months. It is not just visited by the natives, but tourists also come and enjoy the local delicacies which include the traditional sweet tea kehwa, with sheermaal (a flat bread), tandoori chicken, soup, etc.

“We hope that the restaurant will also help boost tourism in the downtown area of Srinagar and in Kashmir on the whole.”

The two-month-old restaurant is already witnessing a rush of people; it currently caters 70-90 tables per day.

“Initially we used to close at 7pm, but now despite the cold we close at 9pm,” said Suhail

This is one of the many stories of young Kashmiri entrepreneurs who have opened cafes in Kashmir where there are no means of entertainment for the youth. With this new trendy cafe culture blossoming in Srinagar, people now get to come together and share memories.

The Story was first published on yourstory.com

Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister, Mehbooba Mufti, on Wednesday said that the people of the restive state will “gain” only from India and not from anywhere else, an obvious reference to Pakistan.

“If we are not agreeing with the J&K Constitution and Indian Constitution, then what do we believe in? What would you gain from such a stance?”, she asked while speaking in the state Assembly currently in its budget session in winter capital Jammu. 

She said, “Today, I would like to bring on record that the people of the state would gain from only India and not from anywhere else.”

She urged the youth of Kashmir to shun the path of violence and respect the Indian Constitution and that of the state. She also said that the state Assembly is the most empowered one in the country.

“Ours is the most empowered assembly in the country. Goods and Services Tax (GST) was implemented in entire country at once except Jammu and Kashmir where it was implemented only after proper debate in this Assembly,” she said. She said that utmost care has to be taken so that Kashmir issue is not highlighted as a religious one more particularly because the religious diversity is the strength of the people of the State. 

She, once again, appealed to India and Pakistan to resume dialogue so that the ongoing bloodshed in Jammu and Kashmir comes to an end.

“Resumption of dialogue between India and Pakistan is the only way forward to end the bloodshed in Kashmir,” she said.

Referring to the growing trend among the Kashmiri youth to join the militants’ ranks, she said the same was the offshoot of previous government’s policies and actions and said that care has to be taken so that the youth taking violent path does not become a challenge for the governments in future.

Mufti said Kashmiri for which Kashmir is known is visible in Kashmir and missing in Jammu and alleged that opposition parties are talking different languages in Srinagar and Jammu.

She hoped that Mannan Bashir Wani, the AMU scholar who has joined Hizb-ul-Mujahedin, will pay heed to the calls of return being made by his family, friends and fellow students.

Religious leader forbids building of anti-Islamic idols that might resemble human beings, after winter storm in north of country

A prominent Saudi Arabian cleric has whipped up controversy by issuing a religious edict forbidding the building of snowmen, describing them as anti-Islamic.

Asked on a religious website if it was permissible for fathers to build snowmen for their children after a snowstorm in the country’s north, Sheikh Mohammed Saleh al-Munajjid replied: “It is not permitted to make a statue out of snow, even by way of play and fun.”

Quoting from Muslim scholars, Munajjid argued that to build a snowman was to create an image of a human being, an action considered sinful under the kingdom’s strict interpretation of Sunni Islam.

“God has given people space to make whatever they want which does not have a soul, including trees, ships, fruits, buildings and so on,” he wrote in his ruling.

That provoked swift responses from Twitter users writing in Arabic and identifying themselves with Arab names.

“They are afraid for their faith of everything … sick minds,” one Twitter user wrote.

Another posted a photo of a man in formal Arab garb holding the arm of a “snow bride” wearing a bra and lipstick. “The reason for the ban is fear of sedition,” he wrote.

A third said the country was plagued by two types of people: “A people looking for a fatwa [religious ruling] for everything in their lives, and a cleric who wants to interfere in everything in the lives of others through a fatwa.”

Munajjid had some supporters however. “It (building snowmen) is imitating the infidels, it promotes lustiness and eroticism,” one wrote. “May God preserve the scholars, for they enjoy sharp vision and recognise matters that even Satan does not think about.”

Srinagar: Sharmeen Mushtaq Nizami, a doctor by profession, is all set to become Jammu and Kashmir’s first female snow racer.

She would be participating in ‘Frozen Rush 2’, the only snow autocross in the country. “I want to come up as an inspiration to many other aspiring women of Kashmir who desire to make a difference and break the barriers”, she said.

The two-day event is scheduled to take place at Kashmir’s premier ski resort at Gulmarg from January 20.

Gulmarg, situated at a height of 2,650 m (8,690 ft) above the sea level and about 54 km from summer capital Srinagar, has been chosen for several ski and other winter sports events to be held in January-March. These include the annual 3-day Gulmarg Winter Festival, tourism officials in Srinagar said.

Dr Sharmeen is the very first female participant of Frozen Rush 2. “While it is still a male-dominated sport, this season, for the first time ever, the Kashmir motorsport scene will witness its very first Kashmiri female snow race driver as a participant in the second edition of Frozen Rush,” said Farah Zaidi, the PR-Director of ‘Kashmir Off Road (KOR)’ which is organizing the event.

Sharmeen, 40, is a full-time practising doctor and a mother of two. A resident of Srinagar, she works in the government-run Ghusia Hospital in the City’s Khanyar area. She said, “Wow, I am finally going to race. It’s going to be a long cherished dream coming true; the feeling still needs to sink in”

She said that she has been driving for over two decades and just getting behind the wheel thrills her. “However, it is for the first time that I would be racing too. This is what I have been wanting to do”, she said.

She also said that she has been following the activities of KOR for quite some time because many of her relatives are already associated with it.

“So now, here I’m, excited and have already registered myself for the upcoming Frozen Rush 2 in Gulmarg”.

Asked if her profession is in conflict with her passion for motor sporting and what she is planning to do, Sharmeen said, “No, that’s not there. If you have it (passion) in you and you are provided with a well-structured platform to show your skills then you must give it a try, at least”. She said that she wants to come up as an inspiration to many other aspiring women of Kashmir who want to make a difference and break the barriers, continue to push boundaries to live their dream. “Perhaps in the future we will have a team of Kashmiri female racers too”, he added.

Ali Sajid, the founder and owner of KOR while speaking on Sharmeen’s joining the race said, “This is exactly what I have been talking about and working towards since the inception of KOR. I always had a strong feeling that we have ardent motor sporting enthusiasts in the region and see now we have people like Dr Sharmeen on board now”.

He said that motorsports in Kashmir is still going through its developing phase but is already seeing steady growth with a large number of new drivers participating in our activities, which is promising. “I wholeheartedly welcome her and extend my best wishes to her and advise her not to get distracted, stay focused in the pursuit of victory. She looks prepared.”

KOR is the first and only off-road, adventure and motorsport outfit based in Srinagar. “Our aim is to build a local motor-sporting and off-road community in the region, by organizing and promoting off-road and motor-sporting events in Kashmir and creating opportunity for local talent for participation in national motor-sporting events,” Zaidi said.

Jammu: The first fortnight of 2018 will pass off without rain and snowfall in the Jammu region. No rain is expected till January 14.

As per the weather advisory by the Agromet division of the SKUAST-Jammu, the minimum and maximum temperatures will fall, but the sky will remain clear.

The maximum temperature will remain around 20 degrees C, while the minimum temperature will fall to 5 degrees C. “Ground frost is likely at a few places in the next 72 hours, but there is no expectation of rain between January 10 and 14,” says the advisory. For the past three months, the region has been facing dry weather conditions. — TNS

Barkha Dutt

How seriously should one take President Trump’s tweets? His first tweet of 2018, calling out of the “lies and deceit” of Pakistan, had pretty much all of India whooping in approval. Trump’s remarks on Pakistan’s failure to act against the terrorist groups it has cultivated, and his administration’s subsequent announcement that it would be freezing nearly all of its millions of dollars in security assistance to Pakistan, was a “gotcha” moment for New Delhi.

For years, Pakistan’s deep state (controlled by its all-powerful military and covert agencies) has used terrorism as an instrument of asymmetric warfare both in India and Afghanistan. For Indians, Trump’s tweet and the suspension of funds was a moment of vindication. But the unfortunate reality is that publicly shaming Pakistan, as Trump has done, and even the cuts in security aid have very little real impact on a country whose skin has grown comfortably thick from rhetorical battering. Pakistan survives in the smug belief that after the United States’ grandstanding is done and over, Washington will eventually turn to it for mopping up its half-finished mess in Afghanistan. Holding back the dollars every few years is just a nip and tuck, when what’s really needed is a surgical uprooting of terrorist support systems inside Pakistan.

The former Pakistani ambassador to the United States, Husain Haqqani, agrees. “Pakistan’s military has convinced itself that it is acting in Pakistan’s national interest and that pursuing that interest is more important than U.S. aid. An aid cutoff may not be the huge price that would force Pakistan to change a policy of terrorism that is now three decades old. President Trump would have to go farther than an aid cutoff to force Pakistan’s hand,” he told me, arguing that any “limp U.S. response would simply say to Pakistan that it does not have to change.”

It is telling that (notwithstanding the temptation to gloat) India’s foreign ministry avoided any hasty comment on Trump’s Twitter rant. A high-ranking Indian official who works on Afghanistan told me, “India has itself always highlighted the deceit and duplicity with which Pakistan has actually nurtured and protected various terrorist groups while pretending to be an ally in the war on terror. It is good to see that the international community is no longer being taken in by Pakistan’s lies, false narratives and propaganda. Putting an end to terrorist sanctuaries and safe havens in Pakistan is essential to bringing peace to Afghanistan and the region.”

But Indian officials are aware that while Trump’s bombastic outburst gives the impression of a dramatic first-time tectonic shift in policy, American military aid has been scaled back from Pakistan several times in the past, including most recently during the Obama years. In 2011, the Obama administration suspended $800 million of military aid two months after U.S. Navy SEALs took out Osama bin Laden in a residential compound just three hours away from Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad. In 2015, $300 million of the Pentagon’s Coalition Support Funds were made conditional on Pakistan acting against the Haqqani network terrorist group in Afghanistan — Pakistan’s main spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence, has long been accused of patronizing and protecting the group.

Frankly, none of it has worked.

Last year, Husain Haqqani co-wrote a paper with Lisa Curtis (who today serves as part of the Trump administration) asserting that Americans need to stop viewing Pakistan as an ally. “The new U.S. administration should recognize that Pakistan is not an American ally. It has engaged in supporting the Afghan Taliban, who have killed American troops and their allies in Afghanistan,” they wrote in the Hudson Institute paper, going on to say that the United States must “keep the option of using unilateral action (including drones) to target Taliban targets in Pakistan. The Afghan Taliban safe havens in Quetta and elsewhere should no longer be safe.” This unambiguous reference to the possible use of U.S. force and hot pursuit of terrorist havens inside Pakistan is the most direct clue to what Haqqani and others mean when they say that aid cuts by themselves will be mostly ineffectual.

Trump’s stance on Pakistan could also have implications for the U.S.-China proxy war in Asia, as Pakistan moves closer into China’s embrace. This week, right after Trump’s tweet, Pakistan’s central bank gave the green light for using the yuan, instead of the dollar, as a currency for bilateral trade with China. Beijing brings more than $60 billion in investment and infrastructure, prompting the question of whether Pakistan is now effectively a Chinese vassal. More critically, will the slashing of U.S. dollars to Pakistan’s military change anything substantively?

How Pakistan responds to Trump’s threats will come down to whether the United States is willing to stay the course in Afghanistan and fundamentally change its policy. The United States would have to end its dependence on Pakistan as the main supply route for NATO troops to landlocked Afghanistan. It would have to commit to using the more expensive and complicated northern route via Central Asia or spending much more flying in supplies. It would also have to work harder at getting the Afghan Taliban to the negotiating table. A failing, inconclusive war in Afghanistan or any U.S. abandonment of the country will only result in a brazen Pakistan, indifferent to Trump’s threats.

The United States also needs to use its leverage to strengthen Pakistan’s civilian leadership instead of its army’s remote-control rulers. This week, ousted former prime minister Nawaz Sharif called on his country to reflect on its lack of credibility on the world stage, reminding people that he had asked military commanders to isolate militants. But democratically elected civilians have never been able to take control of Pakistan’s security policies.

From an Indian perspective, while Trump’s actions score well for Indian diplomacy, no one doubts that U.S. self-interest, not principled concerns about Pakistan’s patronage of terrorist groups in Kashmir, triggered this outburst. In November, American lawmakers dropped a provision that conditionally linked aid to Pakistan to a crackdown on the Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Pakistani terrorist group responsible for a spate of attacks inside India (including the November 2008 attacks in Mumbai). The bill voted into law retained the clause on linking U.S. aid only to Pakistan’s curbing of the Haqqani network in Afghanistan.

This free pass to Pakistan on some terrorist groups, while expecting it to act against others, is part of the schizophrenia that has defined U.S. policy. Trump’s tweet exposes Pakistan’s double standards on terrorism. But the United States needs to examine its own.

Barkha Dutt is an award-winning TV journalist and anchor with more than two decades of reporting experience. She is the author of “This Unquiet Land: Stories from India’s Fault Lines.” Dutt is based in New Delhi.

The Article was First Published on Washington Post

A fan of Virat Kohli from India, who had attempted self- immolation on Friday after the skipper was dismissed cheaply in the first innings of the Test against South Africa, died today.

63-year-old Babulal Bairva from Madhya Pradesh, a retired railway employee, had set himself on fire after Kohli got out for five runs during the first innings of the first Test against South Africa at Newlands in Cape Town.

A local police official told Hindustan Times that Babulal succumbed to his injures on Tuesday morning.

The man was watching the India vs South Africa match on Friday when Kohli was dismissed. He told us that “when Kohli got out [he became very upset). He took a bottle of kerosene nearby and poured it on his head and set himself ablaze,” the police official said.

Babulal was rushed to the hospital for treatment by his family members after they heard his cries. He had received burn injuries on his face, head and hands, the official added. 

The match was effectively over in three days with Sunday washed out as 18 wickets fell in 64 overs on day four on a seamer-friendly Cape Town wicket and South Africa won the match by 72 runs.

Set 208 for victory, India were bowled out for 135 in under 43 overs.

Insha Mushtaq was peering out of the window of her home in Shopian’s Sedow village in July 2016 when pellets fired by soldiers hit her, plunging her world into darkness.

Srinagar: A Jammu and Kashmir teenager blinded by a hail of pellets during the 2016 summer unrest cleared her Class 10 board examination on Tuesday, though a clerical error brought down her aggregate marks.

Insha Mushtaq’s mark-sheet says her result is “qualified but to improve”, but it does not give a cumulative grade point average because in mathematics her score reflects a zero.

The irony, her parents and teachers explain, is that she never took the mathematics elective exam. She opted for music instead because it’s difficult to study mathematics after she lost her eyesight completely.

The 15-year-old girl was peering out of the window of her home in Shopian’s Sedow village in July 2016 when pellets fired by soldiers hit her, plunging her world into darkness.

“We are very, very happy that Insha has passed the boards but the problem is that her mark-sheet is not reflecting the accurate subjects. She never took the mathematics exam. Why is it showing mathematics in the scorecard? Her subject was music,” father Mushtaq Ahmed said.

Insha secured grade points of eight each in Urdu and science, seven in social science and six in English.

The Jammu and Kashmir Board of School Education (JKBOSE) announced the results of Class 10 school finals on Tuesday and around 62% students passed.

Muzaffar Bhat and Naveed Mir — Insha’s tuition teachers — were overjoyed with her success.

“We have to visit the board officials and get it corrected. Her marks in music have to reflect on the scorecard. We have every document to prove she was a music student and took the exam,” said Bhat, an employee with the National Association for the Blind, an NGO.

A state school education board spokesperson clarified that any clerical error could be rectified easily.

Former chief minister Omar Abdullah congratulated Insha in tweet: “A special shout out to young Insha who was blinded by pellets during the 2016 protests & has cleared her 10th exams today. May Allah keep rewarding your hard work & efforts.”

Insha was writing her music theory paper when Hindustan Times visited Insha at her exam centre last November. She had said being blind it’s tough to solve arithmetic problems.

Insha always wanted to be a doctor and used to harbour that hope in the initial days after the tragedy.

Reported Hindustan Times