News Analysis India

Tag: Jammu and Kashmir

  • Nine killed as rain triggers flash flood in Himachal, seven missing

    Express News Service
    CHANDIGARH/SRINAGAR:  At least nine people were killed and seven are missing after flash floods struck parts of Himachal Pradesh on Wednesday. The Leh-Manali and Gramphu-Kaza highways are blocked at several places due to flash floods. Also, a landslide in Mandi district of the state has blocked Chandigarh-Manali highway near Hanogi Mata Temple.  

    Himachal Pradesh State Disaster Management director Sudesh Kumar Mokhta said seven people died in flash floods triggered by a cloudburst over Tozing Nullah in the tribal district of Lahaul-Spiti.  Twelve labourers were swept away by flood waters. Seven bodies have been recovered. Two were rescued and three people are still missing. While four of the dead are from Mandi in Himachal Pradesh, one is from Reasi in Jammu and Kashmir. 

    Two more are dead in Chamba district, sources said. One of them was washed away by flood waters. Another fell from a cliff. Four more people missing in the Kullu district are feared dead. 

    Meanwhile, in Jammu and Kashmir, at least seven people were killed and 17 others were injured after a cloudburst triggered flash floods on Wednesday. Five of the injured are critical. As many as 19 people are still missing. There was heavy rain and flooding near Amarnath Cave Temple in south Kashmir. In a remote village in Kishtwar district, heavy rain damaged 21 houses.  

  • Statehood to Jammu and Kashmir would be granted after normalcy is restored: Rajya Sabha told

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Jammu and Kashmir would be granted statehood at an “appropriate” time after normalcy is restored there, the government told Parliament on Wednesday.

    Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai stated this in a written reply to Rajya Sabha.

    He was replying to a question on whether the government had any proposal to “reinstate” the statehood of Jammu and Kashmir and whether some efforts have been made to end the year-long ban on different means of communication.

    “Statehood to Jammu and Kashmir would be granted at an appropriate time after normalcy is restored in Jammu and Kashmir,” he said.

    “In view of the constitutional changes and bifurcation of the erstwhile state of the Jammu and Kashmir into Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir and Union territory of Ladakh, in national interest and also in the interest of security of J&K, temporary restrictions on various communication channels like internet and mobile services were resorted to in Jammu and Kashmir,” the minister stated.

    Subsequently, the matter “was reviewed from time to time and restrictions imposed were gradually eased out in a phased manner and 4G internet data services were restored in the entire Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir from February 5, he said.

    The Centre had revoked the special status of the erstwhile state that was provided to it under Article 370 and bifurcated it into union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh in 2019.

  • President Kovind interacts with soldiers, lauds their courage, professionalism 

    By PTI
    SRINAGAR: President Ram Nath Kovind on Tuesday interacted with soldiers at the headquarters of the army’s 15 Corps here and lauded them for fighting terrorism and maintaining peace in Jammu and Kashmir.

    He also appreciated the high morale of the troops and their exceptional courage and professionalism.

    “President Kovind visited HQ of 15 Corps in Srinagar. The President interacted with the troops and complimented them for maintaining peace, fighting terrorists and safeguarding borders,” the President’s office tweeted.

    He appreciated women officers for serving the nation in various capacities in the armed forces, it said.

    In a message in the visitor’s book, Kovind said that he was pleased to know about the tradition of the 15 Corps in effectively fighting against anti-national and anti-social elements while safeguarding country’s borders.

    They have maintained high morale amid sustained challenges and have demonstrated exceptional courage and professionalism while discharging their national duties, the president wrote.

    “I express my best compliments to all the soldiers and officers for their extraordinary service to the nation,” he wrote in the visitor’s book.

  • Militant killed in encounter with security forces in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kulgam district

    By PTI
    SRINAGAR: An unidentified militant was killed in an encounter with security forces in Kulgam district of Jammu and Kashmir on Monday, police said. Security forces launched a cordon and search operation in the Aharbal area of the south Kashmir district following inputs about the presence of militants there, a police official said.

    As the forces were conducting searches in the area, militants fired upon them, he said. The forces retaliated, ensuing an encounter in which one militant was killed, the official added. The identity and group affiliation of the slain ultra are being ascertained, he said, adding that the operation is in progress.

  • Nation salutes soldiers who laid down their lives for country’s safety: President Ram Nath Kovind

    By PTI
    SRINAGAR: President Ram Nath Kovind, who visited the Dagger War Memorial in Jammu and Kashmir’s Baramulla district on Monday, said it evokes profound respect for the brave fighters who laid down their lives for the safety and security of the country.

    Kovind was scheduled to visit the War Memorial at Drass in Ladakh to pay homage to personnel of the armed forces killed in the 1999 Kargil war, but bad weather forced cancellation of plans and he instead paid tributes to martyrs on the 22nd anniversary of Kargil Vijay Diwas at Baramulla.

    On Kargil Vijay Diwas, President Kovind laid a wreath at the Dagger War Memorial, Baramulla, Jammu & Kashmir, to pay tributes to all soldiers who sacrificed their lives in defending the nation. pic.twitter.com/0ZheR8KIZr
    — President of India (@rashtrapatibhvn) July 26, 2021

    The president, in a message in the visitor’s book at the Dagger War Memorial, wrote: “The nation salutes the soldiers and officers of the 19th Infantry Division, who have been safeguarding our borders in the most hostile terrains under adverse weather conditions as our frontline troops.”

    They have scripted exceptional stories of indomitable courage, bravery and sacrifice, he said in his message. “The Dagger War Memorial evokes profound respect for the brave fighters who laid down their lives for the safety and security of our country. I am sure that this memorial will educate the people of India about the highest values of the Indian army and inspire them. Jai Hind!” he wrote.

    The president, who was accompanied by Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, also visited the High Altitude Warfare School at Gulmarg and interacted with troops there. “It has been a pleasure to visit the High Altitude Warfare School at Gulmarg. Established by the great General Thimayya, it has emerged as one of the most premier institutions in the field of warfare,” Kovind wrote in the visitor’s book of training school.

    The president said that he was also happy to interact with the soldiers. “I wish them success in their endeavours to provide safety and security to our country. Jai Hind!” he wrote.

  • Senior leader Farooq Abdullah pitches for India-Pakistan dialogues leading to Jammu and Kashmir-specific CBMs

    Express News Service
    SRINAGAR: As the President Ram Nath Kovind arrived in Srinagar on 4-day visit to Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) and Ladakh, National Conference president and Lok Sabha MP Farooq Abdullah on Sunday pitched for sustained and result oriented dialogue between India and Pakistan and stressed that dialogue should result in J&K-specific Confidence Building Measures (CBMs).

    “Both India and Pakistan should be consistent, coherent and serious in their nascent engagement and ensure people of J&K and Ladakh live a life free from unending miseries,” Abdullah said while addressing party functionaries at two separate meetings in south Kashmir’s Kulgam district.

    Asserting that there is no substitute to dialogue, he said the moves and the messages indicating a thaw in relations between both the neighboring countries has put brakes on the escalating tensions.

    “For the entire chest thumping, both countries cannot win a war against each other. India and Pakistan must realize the ground reality, The more serious and consistent both nations are in settling all outstanding areas of disagreements, the better it would be for early return of lasting peace and stability to J&K and the entire region,” Abdullah said.

    “But the dialogue should result in J&K centric CBMs including resumption of cross-LoC trade through a proper banking mechanism and doing away with the present barter system. Such J&K centric CBMs will indeed help two countries solve their disagreements amicably and in an objective manner for the greater good of the people of J&K, Ladakh and the entire region,” he asserted.

    The NC president said if ties between two nations are to improve than both the nations have to come out of their shells and narrow down the space of their differences to get together on the table to work towards an environment that recognizes the concept of JK’s historical individuality, uniqueness of its socio-political complexes and restoration of its political dignity and historical selfhood.

    The India-Pakistan dialogue process, according to Abdullah, would benefit people of J&K the most.

  • ‘No follow-up results’ after meeting with PM Modi: Farooq Abdullah

    By PTI
    SRINAGAR: A month after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s outreach to mainstream leaders of Jammu and Kashmir, National Conference president Farooq Abdullah said on Sunday that there has been “no follow-up results” on the ground.

    Abdullah said this in reference to the prime minister’s remarks at the June 24 meeting in New Delhi that he wanted to win the hearts of the people of Jammu and Kashmir and remove “Dilli ki doori” (the distance from Delhi) and “dil ki doori” (distance between hearts).

    “That was a welcome statement but there is no effort on the ground to win the hearts of the people.

    People continue to be locked up and dissent is not tolerated. We want to see the change on the ground, a visible effort to win back the people who went through the trauma of their state being dismembered, its special status removed in one sudden blow,” the three-time former chief minister told PTI here.

    “We are yet to see any follow-up results even after a month,” he said.

    “Trust is something that has been missing from both sides (Delhi and Srinagar). Successive prime ministers — Jawaharlal Nehru, Narasimha Rao, Atal Bihari Vajpayee — made promises but the trust deficit has persisted,” he added.

    ALSO READ | Back from Delhi, Farooq Abdullah says ‘level of mistrust’ in J&K; Omar demands statehood before polls

    The 83-year-old veteran politician said that he and his party had attended the Delhi meeting because it was an invitation from the prime minister although he had no expectations from it.

    Yet, he had hoped for steps to win the hearts and minds of people but nothing had happened.

    Abdullah insisted that restoration of “full, undiluted” statehood to Jammu and Kashmir should precede the elections to its Assembly.

    All major parties have demanded that and the Centre should prove its bona fide by agreeing to that.

    Asked if his party would take part in the elections if the statehood was not granted before that, the NC president said, “We will decide at that time when the bugle is blown. We will then sit down and decide what we should do.”

    In reply to a question about the fate of the People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD), a conglomerate of six mainstream political parties including the NC and its arch-rival PDP, Abdullah said the alliance stands and “we are together. We all are there. We haven’t left.”

    ALSO READ | PPP leader Bilawal slams Imran’s PoK referendum proposal, says Pak PM ‘always manages to say wrong things about Kashmir’

    He said the alliance was cobbled up together in a hurry when the special status of Jammu and Kashmir was abrogated on August 5, 2019.

    “We all are like-minded people who joined together to work for restoration, knowing fully well that under this government it will not be restored.”

    “But we will continue to fight democratically and legally. People after us will also stand and try and work for the restoration of this,” he said.

    Abdullah also pointed out that earlier this month the Delimitation Commission came to Jammu and Kashmir and no members of Parliament, who are its associate members, were invited to sit and watch the proceedings.

    Abdullah, who currently represents Srinagar in Parliament, urged the opposition national political parties to “forget” their plans and standings and get together to put the pillar of democracy far more strongly because the “time is running out”.

    “The tragedy with India is that the opposition is divided and unless they unite for restoration of democracy and forget their own party plans and party standings, we will never be able to get our democratic structure back.

    “And I think efforts are being made, I see they are trying to get together and I hope it does happen soon because time is running out,” he said.

    The National Conference was part of a gathering at the residence of Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar on June 22, two days before Prime Minister Modi chaired the meeting with leaders from Jammu and Kashmir.

    The meeting at Pawar’s residence was called “non-political” but an interaction of like-minded people by CPI(M) leader Nilotpal Basu who was among the participants.

    To a question whether he would be playing a role in binding the opposition parties across the country together, Abdullah said, “All, whether you are in south, east, west or north, we all have to get together, aim to strengthen democracy, to put the pillar of democracy far more strongly. This will happen because it is the need of the hour.”

    Abdullah, who was detained under the stringent Public Safety Act after the Centre abrogated special status of the erstwhile state and bifurcated it into two union territories, said the biggest problem today was the COVID-19 pandemic which shut everything down, bringing the political process “really to a naught”.

    Now that things have started to improve and Covid is under control, “you will see political activity on a much bigger scale. I am sure as the things improve the political parties will meet and draw strategies for the future.”

    He referred to the demand made by all leaders at the June 24 meeting for making a level-playing field allowing the political parties to perform their duties and ensuring security.

    “Forget about reviewing the security. I can tell you that some more leaders have lost their security after the meeting. Whereas their people, who don’t have any standing with the people, have all the security, all the vehicles and then they say we are just.

    “Where is justice? “We have shown them even when we were locked up in the local body elections without getting to the people, still people voted for us in huge numbers which has shaken them,” he added.

    Abdullah, his son Omar Abdullah, Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad and PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti — all former chief ministers — were part of the 14-member delegation from Jammu and Kashmir to attend the meeting with the prime minister.

  • Arms licence case: CBI searches 40 locations in Jammu & Kashmir, Delhi

    By PTI
    SRINAGAR/NEW DELHI: The CBI on Saturday conducted searches at 40 locations in Jammu and Kashmir, and in the national capital in connection with cases related to alleged irregularities in the issuance of over 2.78 lakh arms licences to non-residents on forged documents during 2012-16, officials said.

    The search operation was spread across Jammu, Srinagar, Udhampur, Rajouri, Anantnag, Baramulla and Delhi at the official and residential premises of public servants, including IAS officers, around 20 gun houses among others in an ongoing investigation of a case related to arms licence racket, a CBI spokesperson said in a statement.

    Premises of two IAS officers — Shahid Iqbal Choudhary, posted as Secretary of Tribal Affairs in the Jammu and Kashmir government, and Niraj Kumar, Additional Resident Commissioner of UT in the national capital — were searched, the officials said.

    “With reference to media reports, I have to confirm that CBI did search my residence and found nothing incriminating in ongoing arms license probe. Media friends may note the probe covers 4 years across all districts. I am fully answerable to CBI for my tenure,” Choudhary tweeted.

    He said oversight or procedural indiscretion in a few cases cannot be completely ruled out as these pass through several clerical stages.

    “Of the 36,000 licences issued in Udhampur between 2012-16, only 1,500 odd (less than 4 per cent) issued under my tenure,” Choudhary said, adding that this number was the lowest among licences issued by all DMs.

    He said he has complied with agency queries, and was committed to do so in the future as well.

    He added that out of 4.49 lakh arms licences issued in Jammu and Kashmir during 2012-16, only 56,000 were issued in the three districts of Reasi, Kathua and Udhampur where he served as the DM.

    “This is not disproportionate.Of the 56,000 licences issued in three districts -Reasi, Kathua and Udhampur – between 2012-16, only 1,720 were issued in my tenure which is three per cent of all licences issued in three districts in four years or during the period under investigation and 0.

    38 per cent of all such licences issued in Jammu and Kashmir,” he said.

    The residence of retired officer of Kashmir Administrative Service, Shabir Ahmad Bhat, who has served as DM of Rajouri, was also searched, the officials said.

    Besides this, premises of six additional DMs who had served in Poonch, Kupwara, Bandipora, Baramulla and Ramban during 2012-16 were also searched by the CBI, they said.

    The agency had registered two separate FIRs into the alleged irregularities on October 16, 2018.

    The CBI had in December 2019 carried out searches at over a dozen locations in Srinagar, Jammu, Gurgaon and Noida on the premises of the then district collectors and magistrates of Kupwara, Baramulla, Udhampur, Kishtwar, Shopian, Rajouri, Doda, Pulwama, and several other places.

    The searches were carried out in connection with a probe into two cases pertaining to alleged issuance of around two lakh arms licences from different districts of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir by their collectors and magistrates.

    It was also alleged that the persons who got these licences were not residents of the places from where the said arms licenses were issued,” CBI spokesperson R C Joshi said in a statement.

    It is alleged in the FIR that then public servants in cahoots with other accused issued arms licences to non-residents of state in violation of rules and received illegal gratification.

    The CBI spokesperson said it is alleged that more than 2.

    78 lakh arms licences were issued to the non-entitled persons during 2012-16.

    “The CBI also collected documents pertaining to the issuance of said armed licences allegedly spread over 22 districts of J-K,” Joshi said.

    The Rajasthan ATS had unearthed the scandal in 2017 and had arrested over 50 people for their alleged involvement in the illegal issuance of arms licences.

    According to the ATS, over 3,000 permits were granted allegedly in the name of Army personnel.

    Based on ATS findings, then Jammu and Kashmir Governor N N Vohra had handed over the matter to the CBI.

  • Two militants gunned down by security forces in J&K’s Bandipora, jawan injured

    By PTI
    SRINAGAR: Two unidentified militants were killed while an Army jawan was injured in an encounter in Bandipora district of Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday, officials said.

    Security forces launched a cordon and search operation in Shokbaba forest in the Sumblar area of Bandipora in north Kashmir following inputs about the presence of militants there, they said.

    The officials said as the forces were conducting searches in the area, the militants fired upon them.

    The forces retaliated and two militants were killed in the ensuing encounter, the officials said.

    While the officials had earlier said three soldiers were also injured in the gunfight, Srinagar-based PRO Defence Col Emron Musavi said only one Army personnel sustained injuries.

    He said the injured jawan was evacuated.

    The officials said the identity and group affiliation of the slain ultras are being ascertained.

    The operation is in progress and further details were awaited, they said.

  • J&K Police seeks cooperation from public in terror website case

    By PTI
    SRINAGAR: Police on Friday issued a public notice in connection with a case related to a blog site, seeking cooperation from the public to voluntarily provide their accounts of interactions with the accused and arrested persons.

    Police have received inputs from several quarters that a number of rumours and apprehensions are floating around centering the arrest and investigation of several accused persons in connection with an enquiry into the HYPERLINK “http://kashmirfight.wordpress.com” kashmirfight.wordpress.com” related matters, a police spokesman said.

    On Saturday last, police claimed a major breakthrough by arresting culprits behind the “terror and intimidation machinery” — HYPERLINK “http://kashmirfight.wordpress.com”  “kashmirfight.wordpress.com”, which, they said, led to the killings of a prominent journalist, an advocate and a businessman in Jammu and Kashmir.

    The spokesman said the examination of individuals, records, documents and verification of facts and circumstances suggests that a sizeable number of persons have variously transacted with one or more of the arrested accused persons.

    “It is understandable that some of these interactions are on account of genuine professional or allied requirements. To segregate the genuine from the fraudulent, cooperation from the members of the general public is solicited,” he said.

    The individuals could volunteer and provide their accounts of the interaction and transactions they have had with the accused persons, the spokesman said.

    This way both sides — the investigating authority and the persons requiring to be further investigated — would come to be decided speedily, efficiently and with minimum hassles, he added.

    The spokesman asked such persons to seek an appointment with the chief investigating officer, SP East Srinagar, Tanushree, and email their information and request letters to HYPERLINK “mailto:[email protected]”[email protected].

    Police has said that HYPERLINK “http://kashmirfight.wordpress.com”kashmirfight.wordpress.com” was being run by “a white collar terrorist syndicate whose task was to prepare a strategic hit list of government officers, journalists, social activists, lawyers and political functionaries”.

    “They were assessed by the syndicate to be responsible for harming the overarching objectives of furthering and sustaining the Pakistani-supported terrorist programme with the eventual aim of secession of Jammu and Kashmir from the Indian union and its eventual annexation with Pakistan,” the police said last week.

    With the arrest of the kingpins and the discovery of a huge number of digital devices and the analysis of the data therein, it is expected that the ultimate plans behind the murder of journalist Shujat Bukhari, advocate Babar Qadri and businessman Satpal Nischal would come to the fore, they had said.