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  • Delimitation Commission: I can’t be part of anything which we opposed before SC: Hasnian Masoodi

    Srinagar: National Conference Member Parliament retired justice Hasnian Masoodi Friday said he won’t be part of delimitation commission set-up by the Government of India for fixing boundaries of assembly segments in Jammu and Kashmir.

    LS Speaker Om Birla Thursday nominated three NC MPs- Dr. Farooq Abdullah, Justice (retd.) Hasnain Masoodi and Muhammad Akbar Lone- as associate members of delimitation commission.

    NC MP Hasnian Masoodi said, “Law says MPs of those states and union territories have to be associated members of the commission where delimitation is taking place. There was no consultation with us,” Masoodi told news agency KINS.
    “They nominated us as per the law and now it is for us to decide how we should react. Individually I can’t be part of anything which is questioned and opposed by us before SC,” he added.

    Another NC MP Mohammad Akbar Lone said they have been nominated without their consultation. “We have to now decide whether to be part of the commission. So far NC is concerned, our clear is stand that we won’t be part of any political activity till all political leaders are released,” Lone said.

    The government had on 6 March constituted the commission, to be headed by former Supreme Court judge Ranjana Prakash Desai, to redraw Lok Sabha and assembly constituencies of Jammu and Kashmir and the northeastern states of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Nagaland.

    The National Conference has against the exercise and the reorganisation Act since it is a consequence of the scrapping of Article 370, carried out last year by the Centre. (KINS)

  • Panpompar | A Short Film on Kashmir You Need to Watch

    The Quint

    Watch Video:

    Panpompar is a short film by #ArchanaPhadke and #AvaniRai, which was initially set in Maharashtra.
    However, it eventually found its context when the story was moved to #Kashmir.

    Panpompar:

    A film by Archana Phadke and Avani Rai

    Director: Archana Phadke

    Director of Photography: Avani Rai

    Creative Director: Avani Rai

    Story: Archana Phadke

    Screenplay: Archana Phadke, Avani Rai, Rahul Desai

    Music: Shane Mendonsa

    Sound Design: Piyush Shah

    Editor: Archana Phadke

    Additional Editor: Shefai Jamwal

    Associate Producer: Shahnawaz Bhat

    Dialogue Translations: Shahnawaz

    Bhat Cast: Nowsheen Bakshi, Ahsaan Zahoor Wani, Nusrat Shafi Bakshi

    A Avani Rai and Archana Phadke Production

    Disclaimer: This video is not a work by Kashmir Today Staff.

    No copyright infringement intended.

  • SMC allowing illegal constructions to come up amid COVID lockdown

    Srinagar: Even as the adminstration and people are struggling to come to terms with COVID outbreak, authorties in SMC seem to have given a free hand to some people to raise constructions in violation of norms and rules. According to RNA, Former Deputy Mayor and corporator Sheikh Imran has come up with a startling revelations that “money has changed hands” in SMC which has emboldened the violators to raise illegal constructions during the pendemic lockdown. In a tweet Sheikh Imran alleged,

    “Illegal construction going on even in COVID at Mir mohalla malaratta padan opp. Al munawar plaza. Allegedly ward officer involved &have paid their bosses in smc. Why is chief enforcement silent? “

    while demanding an end to illegal constructions forthwith and an impratial probe , Imran said,

    ” Illegal construction needs to be stopped as people have taken huge money. Needs demolition and probe.” – RNA

  • Zaira Wasim, who had left acting for Islam, quotes the Quran to insinuate that locust infestation in Rajasthan is ‘Allah’s wrath’

    Gets trolled, Leaves Twitter and Instagram

    Srinagar: Zaira Wasim, who rose to fame with her spectacular performances in films like Dangal and Secret Superstar, exited the world of showbiz long back.

    She, however, manages to remain in the headlines for some of the other reasons, most of which are controversial. Recently, the former actress took to her Twitter and quoted a verse from the holy book of Quran, which, as per the netizens, justified the ongoing locust attacks in India and she was bashed left, right and centre.

    Soon after receiving backlash, Zaira deleted her tweet that read, “So We sent upon them the flood and locusts and lice and frogs and blood: Signs openly self explained: but they were steeped in arrogance- a people given to sin – Qur’an 7:133.” This didn’t go down well with the netizens, who accused Zaira of being insensitive at a time when several parts of India are facing locust attacks and are under high alert.

    A lot of them called Zaira anti-India.
    A user wrote, “Well She just used a Quran’s verse to Justify Locusts attack on a country which offered her an opportunity in cosmopolitan city.

    I will again say, The Source of Hate & bigotry is something else, Education and Secularism can never become the answer to radical Islamism,” while another wrote, “If one wonders how does a millenial who was offered an opportunity in uber cosmopolitanism, end up with so much bigotry and hate, she is mentioning the source also.” (Agencies)

  • Govt officials deny Trump’s claim of talk with Modi on LAC situation

    They say they were taken by surprise by the U.S. President’s remarks

    The government on Friday forcefully rejected U.S. President Donald Trump’s claim that he had spoken to Prime Minister Narendra Modi about the situation on the Line of Actual Control with China, or that the two leaders spoke at all.

    “There has been no recent contact between PM Modi and President Trump. The last conversation between them was on 4 April 2020 on the subject of Hydroxychloroquine,” said government sources, who did not wish to be identified.

    Government officials told The Hindu they were taken by surprise by the U.S. President’s comments, particularly his reference to PM Modi’s “mood” when Mr. Trump claimed to have spoken to him.

    “I can tell you, I did speak to Prime Minister Modi. He’s not – he’s not in a good mood about what’s going on with China,” Mr. Trump told reporters at the White House on Thursday (Friday morning India time).

    The sources also dismissed Mr. Trump’s repeated offer of mediation, saying that India and China were in touch directly. Earlier on Thursday, Mr. Trump said on Twitter that he was willing to “mediate or arbitrate” over what he called the “raging border dispute” between India and China.

    In response to questions about Mr. Trump’s tweet, MEA spokesperson Anurag Srivastava had said that India and China were “engaged with the Chinese side to peacefully resolve the issue”, referring to the month-long standoff between the two armies along the LAC at points in Ladakh and Sikkim.

    “MEA had also made it clear that we are directly in touch with the Chinese through established mechanisms and diplomatic contacts,” the government sources added on Friday.

    When asked by reporters, Mr. Trump said that he would indeed be willing to broker talks between India and China if “it would help”.

    “I would do that. You know, I would do that. If they – if they thought it would help if I were the mediator or the arbiter, I would do that. So, we’ll see,” Mr. Trump told a correspondent who asked him about his tweet.

    In a series of responses to the correspondent of the PTI news agency, Mr. Trump said that he had returned from India just prior to the Coronavirus outbreak and that he “just beat COVID”. When asked about his “rockstar popularity” in India, Mr. Trump added, “I got back – I know. And they like me in India. I think they like me in India certainly more than the media likes me in this country.”

    This is not the first time Mr. Trump has spoken publicly about a conversation between him and Mr. Modi, including the most recent conversation on India’s ban on HCQ exports, a ban which was reversed after the two leaders spoke.

    While government officials have in the past questioned Mr. Trump’s version of the conversations, this is the first time that they have said that there was no conversation at all, as Mr. Trump claimed, creating a diplomatic precedent of sorts.

    With inputs from The Hindu

  • Pakistani villager urges India to return ‘spy’ pigeon

    A Pakistani villager has urged Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to return his pigeon, currently being held in India on charges of spying.

    The man, who lives just 4km (2.5 miles) from the border, said he flew his pigeons to celebrate Eid festival.

    Police said the pigeon had a ring on one of its legs, inscribed with a code that they were trying to decipher.

    The Pakistani villager, who claims the arrested pigeon is his, says the code is actually his mobile phone number.

    Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper has identified the man as Habibullah and reports that he owns a dozen pigeons.

    Habibullah told the paper that his pigeon was a “symbol of peace” and India should “refrain from victimising innocent birds”.

    Villagers captured the bird on Monday along the international border in Indian-administered Kashmir and handed it over to the police.

    The Kashmir region is claimed by both India and Pakistan, and is the scene of regular military exchanges between the nuclear-armed neighbours.

    This is not the first time a pigeon flying from Pakistan has landed in trouble with Indian officials.

    In May 2015, a white pigeon was arrested after it was spotted by a 14-year-old boy in a village close to the border.

    And in October 2016, another pigeon was taken into custody after it was found with a note threatening the Indian prime minister.

    The two nations have been rivals for a long time, with the last full war between them taking place in 1971.

    With inputs from BBC World News

  • Pulwama averted Car Bomb Blast: Police Identifies Vehicle Owner

    Srinagar: A day after averting a major militant attack on parallel lines with the fatal Lethopora blast last year, Police on Friday said it has identified the owner of the vehicle who happens to be an active militant of Hizb-ul-Mujahideen from Shopian district.

    “The Santro car which was used for IED belongs to Hidayatullah Malik, an active Hizbul Mujahideen militant who is a resident of Sharatpora Shopian. He had joined militant ranks in July last year,” a senior police officer told GNS but wished not to be named.

    Addressing reporters here on Thursday, Inspector General of Police Vijay Kumar said that a major incident of a “vehicle-borne IED blast”, akin to 2019-Lethpora type explosion, was averted by timely detection of the car fitted with “40-45 kilograms of explosives” in Rajpora area of southern Pulwama district.
    He said the security agencies were getting inputs about a possible attack by the militants for some time.

    “The police were receiving inputs since a week that HM and JeM militants were planning to launch a big suicidal strike against security forces using car bomb. When the input matured on Wednesday, we developed it and nakas were placed in Pulwama,” he said

    In the evening on Wednesday last, he said, when the suspected car reached a naka, the joint team of forces fired some warning shots and the militant turned the car away and fled.

    “At another naka, the forces again fired some warning shots and the militant fled from the spot, taking advantage of darkness, and left the car behind (near Ayengund). The forces used lights to check the vehicle from a distance after finding something suspicious.

    We tightened the cordon and waited for the first light of the day,” he said, adding, “This (Thursday) morning, a bomb disposal squad reached the spot and saw the vehicle was laden with explosives.” The IED was later diffused in a technical way, he said.

    Responding to a question whether the bid was like Lethopra attack in which at least 40 CRPF personnel were killed on February 14 last year, the top police officer of Kashmir responded in affirmative. “Definitely. He would have targeted any police or security forces vehicle.” (GNS)

  • Masjid Al-Aqsa to reopen on Sunday after 2 Months

    Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque compound will reopen after remaining closed for two months due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As per reports, all doors of the mosque compound will be reopened for worshippers on Sunday at dawn, the mosque’s Director Omar al-Kiswani informed.

    The Waqf, the body that looks after the mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem, said that they will reopen the site for public after the Eid al-Fitr holiday, which continued from May 24 to 26.

    All details regarding how to open the mosque, whether the compound will be accessible by worshippers, or if visitors will be allowed into the courtyard has not been decided yet.

    Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque to reopen on Sunday for public
    Credit: iStock

    The site referred to as the Islam’s third holiest site closed its doors to the public for the first time in late March in more than half a century, to contain the spread of Coronavirus, which has infected more than 5.5 million people around the world.

    With the number of Coronavirus positive cases declining in the recent days, Palestine and Israel have started to ease certain restrictions, and reportedly, some religious sites in Jerusalem have started to reopen. However, all this while, the Al-Aqsa Mosque remained shut, even during the Eid al-Fitr festival. Now, the authorities are gearing up to reopen it this Sunday.

    The Al-Aqsa Mosque has long been a major reason for conflict between Israel and Palestine. Recently, the Israeli police and Palestinians got into a scuffle on the first day of Eid as worshippers tried to break in and enter the compound.

    With inputs from TOI

  • Violent protests rock U.S. city for second night

    Clashes broke out between police and protesters over the death of a black man in custody

    AFP

    Demonstrators clashed with police, looted stores and set fires as a man was fatally shot during a second night of protests in the US city of Minneapolis Wednesday over the killing of a black man by a police officer.

    Police fired tear gas and formed a human barricade to keep protesters from climbing a fence surrounding the Third Precinct, where the officers accused of killing George Floyd worked before they were fired on Tuesday.

    They pushed protesters back as the crowd grew, a day after firing rubber bullets and more tear gas on thousands of demonstrators angered by the latest death of an African-American at the hands of US law enforcement.

    Minnesota state Governor Tim Walz urged people to leave the area around the precinct where several fires were burning, warning of the “extremely dangerous situation” in a tweet late Wednesday.

    Country-wide outrage
    Outrage has grown across the country at Floyd’s death on Monday, fuelled in part by bystander cellphone video which shows him, handcuffed and in the custody of four white police officers, on the ground while one presses his knee into the victim’s neck.

    President Donald Trump in a tweet called Floyd’s death “sad and tragic”, and all four officers have been fired, as prosecutors said they had called in the FBI to help investigate the case.

    Minneapolis police chief Medaria Arradondo cautioned protestors Wednesday to remain peaceful.

    An auto parts store across from the precinct had been set alight and a nearby Target was being looted, according to U.S. media.

    Police continued to hold the crowds back from scaling a fence into the precinct’s parking lot, where their cruisers contain guns.

    As the violence escalated, with more businesses looted, a man was shot near the protests and later died, police said. A person has been arrested.

    Protesters remained peaceful at two other locations in the city.

    At the place where Floyd was first taken into custody, people chanted and carried placards and sent out bouquets were set out as tributes to Floyd.

    Calls for justice came from around the country.

    “I would like those officers to be charged with murder, because that’s exactly what they did,” Bridgett Floyd, the victim’s sister, said on NBC television. “They murdered my brother… They should be in jail for murder.”

    Protesters marched on downtown Los Angeles and briefly blocked the 101 Freeway.

    Some demonstrators smashed the windows of two police highway patrol cruisers, clambering on the hood of one of the vehicles. One of the protesters was injured when they fell off the vehicle as it sped away.

    “Why is the man who killed George Floyd not in jail? If you had done it, or I had done it, we would be behind bars right now,” said Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey.

  • Pakistan uses militant-tracking tech to locate virus patients

    Under PM’s plan, ISI is using geo-fencing, listening in on calls.

    AFP

    Pakistan’s intelligence services are deploying secretive surveillance technology normally used to locate militants to instead track coronavirus (COVID-19) patients and the people they come into contact with.

    In a programme publicly touted by Prime Minister Imran Khan, the government has turned to the powerful Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI) for help in tackling the virus, which still is spreading at an accelerating rate across Pakistan.

    Details about the project have not been released, but two officials told AFP that intelligence services are using geo-fencing and phone-monitoring systems that ordinarily are employed to hunt high-value targets including homegrown and foreign militants.

    A lack of awareness, stigma and fear have contributed to some people with symptoms not seeking treatment or even fleeing hospitals, while others who’ve had contact with virus patients have flouted self-isolation rules.

    Speaking on condition of anonymity, a senior security official said that agencies are “quite effectively” using the technology to track patients.

    Geo-fencing, a discreet tracking system that alerts authorities when someone leaves a specific geographic area, has helped officials monitor neighbourhoods on lockdown.

    Authorities are also listening in to the calls of coronavirus (COVID-19) patients to monitor whether their contacts are talking about having symptoms.