News Analysis India

Tag: Kashmir

  • Coonoor crash grim reminder of similar accident in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch in 1963

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: The Mi-17V5 helicopter crash near Coonoor in Tamil Nadu that killed Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Bipin Rawat, his wife Madhulika and 11 others brought back memories of a 1963 chopper accident in which six officers were killed in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch.

    The crash in Poonch is considered as one of the major air accidents in the country’s military aviation history.

    The military officers killed in the chopper crash on November 22, 1963 were Lieutenant General Daulat Singh, Lieutenant General Bikram Singh, Air Vice Marshal EW Pinto, Major General KND Nanavati, Brigadier SR Oberoi and Flight Lieutenant SS Sodhi.

    The crash in Coonoor is also a grim reminder of the 1952 Devon crash near Lucknow, in which the Indian Army’s top leadership could have been lost.

    Lieutenant General SM Shrinagesh, the then General Officer Commanding in-Chief (GOC-in-C) of the Western Command, and Major General KS Thimayya, the QuarterMaster General, had miraculously survived the crash.

    Both of them went on to become Army chiefs.

    Other officials on board the chopper were Major General SPP Thorat, Major General Mohinder Singh Chopra, Major General Sardanand Singh and Brigadier Ajaib Singh.

    Major General Thorat later became the Eastern Army commander.

    The pilot of the Devon aircraft, Flight Lieutenant Suhas Biswas, was conferred with the Ashoka Chakra, the highest peacetime gallantry award, for his presence of mind in averting any loss of lives.

    In 2019, former Northern Army commander Lieutenant General Ranbir Singh and eight other armed forces personnel were injured in a chopper crash in the Poonch sector.

    The lone survivor in the Coonor crash, Group Captain Varun Singh, is currently under treatment at a military hospital in Wellington.

    Rawat had survived a helicopter crash in 2015, when he was a lieutenant general.

    The CDS was scheduled to deliver a lecture at the Defence Services Staff College in Wellington.

    Those killed in the crash included Brigadier LS Lidder, the military adviser to the CDS, and staff officer Lieutenant Colonel Harjinder Singh.

  • 96 civilians, 366 terrorists killed in Kashmir post Article 370 repeal: Government

    'These families are of govt. employees, many of whom, move to Jammu in winter as part of movement of officials and the winter vacation in educational institutions,' the minister stated.

  • 1,678 Kashmiri migrants returned to J-K post Article 370 abrogation, Parliament told

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: As many as 1,678 Kashmiri migrants have returned to their native state after the abrogation of Article 370 for taking up jobs under the Prime Minister’s Development Package-2015, the government told Parliament on Tuesday.

    Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai also said that as per information provided by the government of Jammu and Kashmir, the land of 150 applicants has been restored.

    “As per the information provided by the government of Jammu and Kashmir, after the abrogation of Article 370, a total of 1,678 migrants have returned to Kashmir for taking up the jobs under the Prime Minister’s Development Package-2015,” he said in a written reply to a question.

    Article 370, which gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir, was abrogated by the central government on August 5, 2019.

    The state was also divided into two Union Territories. The minister said the government has taken various measures to restore ancestral properties to migrant Hindus.

    Under the Jammu and Kashmir Migrant Immovable Property (Preservation, Protection & Restraint on Distress Sales) Act, 1997, District Magistrates (DMs) of concerned Districts in Jammu and Kashmir are the legal custodians of the immovable properties of migrants, who take suo motto action on eviction proceedings in cases of encroachment.

    He said the migrants can also request DMs in such cases. The DMs are further empowered to take all steps for the preservation and protection of such properties.

    The government of Jammu and Kashmir has launched a portal on September 7, 2021, to address the grievances of Kashmiri migrants in this regard, he said.

  • Home Secretary tells agencies to strengthen intelligence gathering in Jammu and Kashmir

    By Express News Service

    NEW DELHI:  Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla on Wednesday directed security agencies to strengthen intelligence gathering as he reviewed the security situation in Jammu and Kashmir in the wake of rise in civilian killings and violence in the Valley.

    The meeting happened on a day when security forces in Jammu and Kashmir killed five militants in operations in two separate gunfights in Kulgam district on Wednesday. Further, two active associates of proscribed outfit LeT were apprehended in Pulwama on Wednesday.

    The chiefs of the Central Reserve Police Force, Border Security Force, Intelligence Bureau and senior officials of the home ministry attended the meeting. “Agencies were asked to keep a close watch on social media updates by suspicious elements and directed to strengthen intelligence-gathering networks,” officials said. 

    According to official statistics, a total of 28 civilians were killed by militants till last month this year. Out of this, five people belonged to local Hindu or Sikh communities and two were non-local Hindu labourers. Most of the targeted killings have been committed by newly recruited militants or those who are about to join the militant ranks.

    Till the end of October this year, 97 militant attacks have been reported in the UT, of which 71 were on security forces and 26 on civilians. In 2020, a total of 105 targeted attacks were reported – 80 on security forces and 25 on civilians.

  • BJP trampling on democracy, human rights in Jammu and Kashmir: PDP president Mehbooba Mufti

    By PTI

    JAMMU: Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti on Sunday accused the BJP of trampling on democracy and human rights in Jammu and Kashmir.

    The BJP-led government is at “war with its own people,” the former chief minister alleged.

    “The BJP government lectures Afghanistan on inclusive government and human rights, and in Kashmir, people are jailed and booked for treason for demanding constitutional rights. Inclusiveness for the BJP in Kashmir changes to mean only people who toe its lines and propagate its agenda,” Mufti said here.

    The PDP chief is on a five-day visit to Jammu.

    She held a series of meetings with party workers and various delegations over the past two days at the party headquarters besides welcoming several prominent social activists into the party fold on Sunday.

    “The country and the world should take note of how the BJP is implementing majoritarianism in the once largest democracy of the world, how the party is lecturing the world on democracy, human rights, and human values, and how it is trampling on democracy and human values in Jammu and Kashmir,” Mehbooba said.

    A PDP spokesperson said Mehbooba Mufti visited the Peer Baba shrine in Satwari on Saturday evening.

  • BJP weaponising the pain of Kashmiri Pandits to garner votes: PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti

    By PTI

    JAMMU: Accusing the BJP of weaponising the pain of Kashmiri Pandits to garner votes and further its “divisive politics”, PDP president Mehbooba Mufti on Sunday said Kashmiri Muslims have to work harder on seeing the return of their Hindu brethren in a dignified manner.

    She said some BJP-linked persons, who are sitting in the studios in Delhi and claim to represent the community, are spitting venom and are sabotaging any meeting point between the Pandits and Muslims of the valley.

    “They (Kashmiri migrant Pandits) are out of their homes for such a long time and want to be back but the question is how to go about it. The way the BJP has adopted the issue is to further create a division between the two communities (Pandits and Muslims) rather than bring them together,” Mufti told PTI at her party’s headquarters here.

    Five delegations including that of Kashmiri Pandits met the former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir and briefed her about their issues and concerns in the backdrop of the recent targeted killings in the valley.

    She said Kashmiri Muslims are the “losers” in the migration of the Pandits but to see their return to the valley, it ultimately rests on the people, especially the new generation, to reach out to each other and work for building an atmosphere of brotherhood prevalent prior to the eruption of militancy in 1990.

    “Kashmiri Pandits need to speak in unison and reject the vested interests who are speaking venom to further the divide May be we (the Muslims of Kashmir) have to work harder on seeing their return in a dignified manner,” the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) president said.

    Mufti said the targeted killings took place in the valley despite prior information with the government that the Pandits will be attacked.

    “The killings triggered a sense of insecurity among the Pandit employees working in the valley forcing them to flee in panic. The height of things is that the government is very much confused which is evident from the fact that sometimes they ask the employees to report back to their duties and sometimes they ask them to stay back (in Jammu),” she said.

    Mufti said PDP patron and former chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed chalked out a programme for their return with the then central government headed by former prime minister Manmohan Singh that worked satisfactorily.

    “We started building accommodations and transit camps, whether it was in Vessu, Sheikhpora, Mattan or Ganderbal, for the Pandit youth employed under the PM Employment Package. Unfortunately, the process lost its pace under the current dispensation which failed to provide two bedrooms with a kitchen to such employees despite so many years,” she said.

    Asking the Pandit community to isolate the vested interests toeing the BJP agenda, Mufti said some people from Delhi attempting to represent the entire community are spitting so much venom all the time that there does not seem to be a meeting ground.

    “They are sabotaging any meeting between the two communities because it suits the BJP that has weaponised Kashmiri Pandits’ pain to garner votes and further their agenda of divisive politics,” she said.

    Mufti said their venomous statements generate a reaction in Kashmir and there is also a backlash in Jammu as well.

    “The problem is that the voices that are trying to represent Kashmiri Pandits are doing a great disservice to them by vitiating the whole atmosphere.”

    She said all such people are linked to BJP by not only the ideology but even otherwise as well.

    “Their interest is connected with BJP in many ways including political and financial. So, they are trying to run the narrative of the BJP.”

    PDP State Secretary R K Pardesi, who was part of the Pandit delegation, said, “We have lost many generations but the dream to return to the valley remained unfulfilled.”

    “Under the leadership of Mufti (Mohammad Sayeed), a hope rekindled for our return when the former chief minister set up accommodation at ‘Dharam Shallas’ at famous temples in Mattan and Ganderbal in 2002. The move also facilitated interactions between the two communities but his death snatched a true well-wisher of the community,” Pardesi said.

    He said PDP under the leadership of Mehbooba Mufti is the only party with a vision and roadmap to ensure the dignified return and rehabilitation of the Pandits in the valley.

    “The BJP has done only lip service over the past seven years. I challenge them to single out even one concrete step which has been taken by the party for our return,” he said.

    The alleged failure of the government led to the innocent civilian killings by militants in the valley, Pardesi added.

  • As Pakistan pumps drugs, experts warn of losing a generation to narcotics in Kashmir

    By PTI

    SRINAGAR: The narcotics menace, especially heroin, is scaling new heights in Kashmir with experts warning that a majority of the young people may fall prey to drug abuse and Jammu and Kashmir Police chief Dilbag Singh blaming Pakistan for targeting youngsters by making them habitual to drugs.

    Taking a holistic view of the strife-torn Kashmir valley, police as well as social workers and medical doctors are of the opinion that while the violence caused by three decades of terrorism has consumed a generation, the drug menace will negatively effect the present generation.

    Singh pins the blame on Pakistan, saying “they are repeating the same dirty game that they played in Punjab” — first giving arms training and later spoiling the youth with drugs.

    Asked about the observations made by experts that Kashmir has lost a generation to conflict and may lose the next to drug abuse, Singh replied, “Definitely, yes and I have no two opinions about it”.

    Talking to PTI, Singh said the drug menace has shown a considerable increase in the last two years and the narcotics are smuggled from Punjab and Jammu borders.

    “We had some good seizures too. We know that sale proceeds of the drugs are pumped into funding terrorism and, therefore, we have been extra vigilant about it and taking efforts to curb it,” he said.

    The main areas affected by the drug menace are Karnah in North Kashmir, Anantnag in South Kashmir and some areas of Jammu, the police chief said.

    Police have taken a leading role in setting up drug de-addiction centres in Srinagar and Jammu while some more are coming up in North Kashmir, he added.

    “I guess it is time for socio-religious leaders to step in on an urgent basis to wean away youth from the menace. Today, we have time and tomorrow we may not have it. So, it is better to act now and act fast,” the police chief said in his appeal.

    Echoing similar views, Dr Mohammed Muzzafar Khan, who heads the de-addiction centre of police in Srinagar, feels that the number of such centres in the valley is minuscule compared to the magnitude of people affected by narcotics.

    Khan said the situation on the ground is worse as more and more young boys are getting addicted to narcotics.

    “Earlier, we used to see boys aged 18 and above (addicted to drugs) but now there are cases of 12 and 13-year-olds and the nature of drug abuse has changed as well. Earlier, it was charas or medicinal opioids but now heroin is replacing them,” Khan told PTI.

    He said youths get addicted to heroin quickly and within days become dependent on injections to inject drugs intravenously and the menace is spread across Kashmir in its urban and rural areas and among the rich and poor population.

    Khan said the Youth Development and Rehabilitation Centre headed by him is a 50-bed hospital.

    “It is a minuscule facility compared to the number of people affected. I would go on to say that the facility is non-existent…Around 10 years ago, we required de-addiction centres, but today we require a medical emergency facility because sometimes, an addict requires a ventilator immediately due to the overdose of heroine,” he said.

    Pointing out to a survey by the National Drug Dependence Treatment Centre of the AIIMS, New Delhi on the “Magnitude of Substance Use in India” in which Jammu and Kashmir was placed at the fifth spot with over 6 lakh people affected by drug abuse, Khan said, “I would now say that this is again a conservative estimate.

    “People do not confess to use of narcotics because of social stigma. Seeing the number of patients coming in every month, which ranges anywhere between 10 and 15 per day, I think more people are affected by it,” he added.

    Mir Zubair Rashid, co-founder of Concerned About Universal Social Empowerment (CAUSE), an NGO working for providing medical assistance and rehabilitation to drug addicts, said, “We lost one generation in conflict and next we will lose to drug abuse”.

    Rashid and his team have been working round-the-clock to take drug addicts to government hospitals for treatment and following up to ensure there is no relapse and that they remain sober.

    “See, post treatment counselling is very important. We are trying to do our bit, but I guess the entire society has to wake up,” he said.

    Mantasha Binti Rashid, a 2011-batch Kashmir Administrative Services officer, says, “Having actively worked on the issue since my university days, I am aware how stigmatised it is to have a family member or a child indulge in abuse. People hide it, attach shame to it and as a result, the treatment suffers along with the health, confidence, self-respect, and quality of life of the abuser”.

    “To treat narcotics abuse, a robust support structure, accepting family environment and a positive societal set-up is required. And our place does not have much to offer to youth who are already engulfed by this disease. It may be a choice to begin with but as it progresses, it becomes a disease a disease at an individual level and at a collective level too, if left unchecked,” she said.

  • I am not leaving Kashmir, says Kashmiri Pandit bizman whose salesman was shot dead by militants

    By PTI

    SRINAGAR: Kashmiri Pandit businessman Sandeep Mawa, whose salesman was killed here in a militant attack believed to be aimed at him, on Wednesday said he will not leave Kashmir and remain here despite opposition from his family.

    Mawa also claimed that he escaped the attack as he left his shop early due to a prior intelligence input, but his salesman Mohammad Ibrahim Khan was shot dead near his shop in Bohri Kadal area of the city on Monday.

    He said he was not deterred and will continue to stay in Kashmir Valley.

    “No, I am not leaving Kashmir. There is no question (of leaving the valley),” Mawa said when asked if he was thinking of leaving Kashmir in the wake of Monday’s attack and a series of such attacks against the members of the minority communities recently.

    Mawa, who is related to Kashmiri Pandit chemist M L Bindroo who was shot dead near his shop last month, said he believes Monday’s attack was a case of mistaken identity and a part of the series of attacks on the minority community members.

    “What I think is it is (part of) attack on minority (community members),” he said, adding the attackers mistook his salesman for him and shot Khan who worked for the family for about 14 years from a close range when he went inside Mawa’s car.

    Mawa whose family returned to Kashmir in 2018 said he will not leave again and is determined to stay in Kashmir despite opposition to the idea from his family.

    “I am staying here and I am not going to run away,” he added.

    He said the people of Kashmir — Muslims, Hindus, Christians and Sikhs — have to collectively fight it.

    “We cannot run away and leave this field open for them,” Mawa said.

    The Kashmiri Pandit businessman said he was alerted by the police in the afternoon on Monday about a possible attack on his life, hours before the militants shot dead his Kashmiri Muslim salesman.

    “I was told by the police that there was an input (about a possible attack on his life). The police advised me to leave the shop and so, I left around 3:15 pm,” Mawa said.

    He had filed a petition before the high court seeking constitution of a special investigation team into the Shopian fake encounter in which three labourers from Rajouri were killed last year.

    Mawa also demanded the constitution of the State Human Rights Commission in the UT of JK.

    The businessman said he left his car near the shop and left in some other vehicle in a hurry.

    “Around 8 pm, when my brother (Khan) was trying to get into my car, he was shot at,” he added.

  • 67-year-old from Maharashtra cycles Kashmir-Kanyakumari in record time in ‘Race Against Age’

    By PTI

    MUMBAI: Mohinder Singh Bharaj has refused to join any senior citizens’ club at his hometown Nashik, despite being 67.

    “I find old people to be very negative and I am the person who always likes to be amid positive people. So, all my friends are aged between 18-45 years,” Bharaj tells PTI over the phone, as he travels back from Kanyakumari.

    Bharaj and his team are returning home after finishing the ‘race against age’, which will in all probability go down as a record-setting cycle ride, that saw the 67-year-old youngster (as he likes himself to be identified) cycle 3,600 km from Srinagar to Kanyakumari in 12 days, 18 hrs and 57 minutes, reaching the southern tip of India at 2 AM on Sunday.

    Starting from Srinagar on a cold morning, Bharaj took on formidable challenges like sleep depravity (the clock was ticking continuously), hot weather from Jhansi to Bengaluru, saddle sores for the last seven days which occurred as a result of spending up to 18 hours cutting an average of 275 km a day.

    “I could not sit on an otherwise comfortable sofa last night,” Bharaj quips, as he speaks of one of the worst nightmares for an endurance cyclist.

    Diet was also important and he had to push 10,000 calories a day to continue with the ride, where his team of six crew member friends were of immense help.

    “I had prepared well for the ride and was not in any fatigue when I reached,” he says, stressing that the team saw the sunrise at Kanyakumari and set off for Nashik in the vehicle immediately without waiting for the magical sunset.

    Preparations involved cycling every alternate day for about two hours, having a long ride of over 6 hrs on Saturdays, and pumping weight at a gym on the remainder of days, Bharaj, who has always been agile and fit, says.

    Athletics was a favourite since school days for Bharaj, and the 100 metres sprint was a favourite.

    But after hitting 40s, running slowed down over fears of damaging the knee.

    There was a break of about five years when he did no activity, till the long-distance cycling bug caught up.

    Being in Nashik, which has produced a slew of endurance cyclists, bigger and more audacious plans was the natural way of being for Bharaj.

    Bharaj said he will continue cycling and executing bigger plans in the future as well, and stressed that a lot is remaining to be achieved.

    The ‘race against age’ clearly does not stop with the successful completion of an inspiring cycle ride.

  • Search for terrorists in J-K forest belt enters 21st day, highway reopens for traffic after 2 weeks

    By PTI

    JAMMU: The authorities reopened a stretch of the Jammu-Rajouri national highway for traffic on Sunday morning, more than two weeks after it was shut in view of an ongoing counter-insurgency operation in an adjoining dense forest belt, officials said.

    The operation to track down a group of hiding terrorists, who are responsible for the killing of nine soldiers, in Bhatti Durrian forest in Mendhar along with Surankote forest in Poonch and nearby Thanamandi in Rajouri district entered the 21st day on Sunday, the officials said.

    While the operation is underway, the authorities allowed traffic on the main highway between Bhimber Gali in Mendhar and Jera Wali Gali in Surankote in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch district, much to the relief of residents, especially taxi operators who have been demanding its reopening.

    The road stretch, which passes along the cordoned-off forest belt, was closed as a precautionary measure on October 15, a day after four army personnel, including a JCO, were killed in an exchange of fire with the hiding terrorists in Bhatti Durrian forest, the officials said.

    The operation started in Surankote forest on October 11 following the killing of five soldiers, including a JCO, and was subsequently extended to Mendhar to neutralize the fleeing terrorists.

    A Pakistani terrorist, who was moved from the Kot Bhalwal Central Jail in Jammu to Mendhar on police remand for questioning in connection with the ongoing operation, was killed when the security forces accompanying him to identify a hideout came under fire from hiding terrorists on October 24.

    The contact with the hiding terrorists was only established twice on October 11 at Surankote and Thanamandi and again at Bhatti Durrian on October 14, the officials said.

    After the firing on October 24 in Bhatti Durrian which left the Pakistani terrorist killed, there was no contact with the hiding terrorists.

    A major part of the forest belt was cleared to allow the authorities to reopen the highway and villagers to resume normal activities, the officials said.

    They said there was no breakthrough against the holed up terrorists who are avoiding direct contact with the search parties and are on the run taking advantage of thick foliage, natural caves and difficult terrain.

    “The operation is now going on deep inside the forest with a number of natural caves. The search parties are clearing the caves and moving cautiously to neutralize the suspected terrorists,” an official said.

    Over a dozen persons, including two women, were detained so far for questioning after it came to light that they allegedly provided logistic support, including food and shelter, to the terrorists, the officials said.

    Rajouri and Poonch in Jammu region have witnessed a rise in infiltration attempts since June this year, resulting in the killing of nine terrorists in separate encounters.