by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Vijaypur (Samba) : Terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir is now being fought effectively, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Sunday.
“Our security forces including the Jammu and Kashmir Police have been battling terrorism,” Modi told a public rally in Vijaypur town in Samba district on his arrival here after visiting the Ladakh region.
“I salute martyrs like Naik Nazir Ahmed Wani, Aurangzeb Khan and others,” he added. “Terrorism is now being effectively dealt with in the state.”
Modi said the government was building 14,000 bunkers for the safety of people living along the border with Pakistan to escape frequent firing and shelling by Pakistani forces.
The border residents, he said, led “a tough life”.
Modi also spoke about the displaced Kashmiri Pandit community.
“The Central government is committed to protect the honour and dignity of our Kashmiri Pandit brothers. They have suffered due to terrorism.
“This pain has always been in my heart. The promised 3,000 jobs for the Kashmiri Pandits have been rolled out.
“We are committed to democracy. The 70 per cent voter turnout in the recently held Panchayat elections is a victory for the people and the state administration.”
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Muslim World
Islamabad : Pakistan’s Foreign Office has rejected objection raised by India over Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi’s telephone call to Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq.
The row started after Qureshi called Farooq on Tuesday and spoke about Islamabad’s efforts to “highlight” the human rights situation in Jammu and Kashmir internationally.
In reaction, India told Pakistan on Wednesday to lay off on the issue of Jammu and Kashmir and Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale summoned Pakistan High Commissioner Sohail Mahmood.
Gokhale condemned in “the strongest terms this latest brazen attempt by Pakistan to subvert India’s unity and to violate our sovereignty and territorial integrity, by none other than the Pakistan Foreign Minister”.
Pakistan’s Foreign Office, however, dismissed India’s objection in a statement, saying: “Kashmir is an unresolved issue between Pakistan and India and acknowledged as such through UN Security Council resolutions, including the Simla Agreement and the Lahore Declaration.
“We also categorically reject any insinuation that seeks to project as ‘terrorism’ the legitimate struggle of the Kashmiri people for self-determination. This is an outright travesty.
“Pakistan will maintain its support and solidarity till the time the Kashmir dispute is resolved peacefully, in accordance with the UN Security Council resolutions and the wishes of the people of the occupied valley,” it added.
Mirwaiz Umar Farooq has also justified the telephone call, asking why was New Delhi so upset.
New Delhi-Islamabad ties are frosted after repeated cross-border terror attacks from Pakistan-based terror outfits.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Srinagar : Kashmiri Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Shah Faesal on Wednesday said he had quit the coveted service to protest against unabated killings in Jammu and Kashmir and against the marginalization of Indian Muslims by Hindutva forces, “reducing them to second class citizens”.
Faesal made the announcement on his Twitter page as news of his decision spread.
“To protest unabated killings in Kashmir and the absence of any credible political initiative from Union government, I have decided to resign from IAS. Kashmiri lives matter,” he said.
He said he would address a press conference on Friday.
After topping the civil service exam in 2010, Faesal was allotted the home cadre of Jammu and Kashmir. He served as District Magistrate, Director of School Education and Managing Director of the state-owned Power Development Corporation.
He recently returned from the US where he had gone on a Fulbright fellowship from Harvard Kennedy School.
Former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah confirmed Faesal’s decision to join politics. Abdullah tweeted: “Bureaucracy’s loss is politics’ gain. Welcome to the fold.”
Informed sources said Faesal was likely to join the National Conference and fight the Lok Sabha election from Baramulla in the Kashmir Valley.
Faesal also issued a detailed statement outlining the reasons for his decision.
“To protest against the unabated killings in Kashmir, and lack of any sincere reach-out from the Union government;
“The marginalization and invisiblization of around 200 million Indian Muslims at the hands of Hindutva forces, reducing them to second class citizens;
“Insidious attacks on the special identity of Jammu and Kashmir and growing culture of intolerance and hate in mainland India in the name of hyper nationalism, I have decided to resign from the Indian Administrative Service.
“I wish to remind the regime of the day that subversion of public institutions like RBI, CBI and NIA has the potential to decimate the Constitutional edifice of this country and it needs to be stopped.
“I wish to reiterate that voices of reason in this country cannot be muzzled for long and the environment of siege will need to end if we wish to usher in true democracy.
“I am thankful to my family, friends and well-wishers for supporting me in this amazing journey in IAS. One of my important tasks hereafter will be to train and guide aspiring civil servants to help them in achieving this dream.”
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
By Sheikh Qayoom,
Jammu/Srinagar : It’s been a fairly turbulent year in the state, both security-wise and politically. It saw more violence compared to last year, even though the security forces killed many militants, including some top commanders of militant outfits.
There were 587 incidents of violence during 2018 compared to 329 last year. Official figures say 240 militants were killed during the year against 200 last year.
Casualties among civilians and the security forces have also been comparatively higher. Thirty-seven civilians and 86 security men were killed in 2018 against 36 civilians and 74 security personnel killed last year.
Permanent peace eluded the state in 2018 as it has during more than 30-years of strife.
According to senior intelligence officers, there are still around 240 militants, including foreigners, who are active in the state.
“The number keeps on varying depending upon infiltration of new militants from across the line of control (LoC) and recruitment of local youth into militant ranks”, said a senior intelligence officer.
Summing up the security scenario, Lieutenant General A.K. Bhatt, who commands the Srinagar-headquartered 15 corps of the Indian Army and is the senior-most army officer in the Valley, said: “The security forces have a limited role in controlling the ground situation in the state. The final solution has to be political.”
On the political front, there was a dramatic turn in June when the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) suddenly announced in New Delhi that it was withdrawing from the ruling coalition in the state, headed by the Peoples Democratic Party.
The announcement was not unexpected as the two ideologically opposed parties were ruling the state for four years through an uneasy arrangement that appeared brittle from day one since the late Mufti Muhammad Sayeed announced it in 2015.
With the withdrawal of BJP support, the Mehbooba Mufti-led coalition fell and Governor N.N.Vohra dismissed the government, even though the state assembly was kept in suspended animation for any future alliance to stake claim to power.
Vohra was subsequently replaced by Satya Pal Malik who became the first politician to be made the state governor. As compared to his predecessor, Malik chose to speak to media as often as he could to put forth his view point, sometimes to the embarrassment of both New Delhi and Malik himself.
The fist thing the new governor did was to announce local urban bodies and panchayat elections in the state. Both these democratic processes were concluded peacefully throughout the state and their conduct is considered a feather in the administration’s cap as the elected government had been shying away from conducting the elections.
With the imposition of governor’s rule, the PDP started suffering desertions as some of its dissident legislators launched an open rebellion against the party leadership. In the forefront of the dissidents was senior Shia leader and former state minister Imran Ansari who finally joined the Peoples Conference (PC) headed by Sajad Lone, himself a former minister in the PDP-BJP coalition government.
Sajad’s PC started emerging as the possible Third Front that could, in future, pose a challenge to both the PDP and the regional National Conference (NC) headed by Farooq Abdullah.
Ever since the elected government fell, rumours started doing the rounds in the state that dissidents in the PDP, the NC and even the Congress party were waiting in wings to join the Third Front. The visit of BJP general secretary Ram Madhav to the state and his meetings with Sajad Lone and dissidents kept fuelling these rumours even when Madhav said there was no immediate move to form a government in the state.
The fear of their flock being poached pushed the arch rivals, the NC and the PDP, come close to each other. In a surprise move, Altaf Bukhari, senior PDP leader and former minister emerged as the contender for the Chief Minister’s post with outside support by the NC. With the NC’s 15 and the PDP’s 29 seats, the two parties hold a simple majority in the 87-member state assembly.
The NC and the PDP said they had decided to sink their differences to protect the special status of the state as article 35-A and other constitutional provisions were being challenged to dilute this.
There were also reports that the Congress was in the loop to shoot down horse-trading in the state. The PDP president, Mehbooba Mufti, sent a fax to the Raj Bhawan seeking an appointment with the Governor to stake claim to power. The fax was never received as the Governor said later the fax operator at the Raj Bhawan was off duty due to a holiday.
Amid claims and counter-claims, Governor Malik, in a dramatic move, dissolved the state assembly on November 21, justifying this by saying that he wanted to “prevent horse-trading”.
The possibility of any dialogue between the centre and the separatist leadership remained a distant possibility during the year. In all likelihood, this will have to wait till a new government takes office at the centre after the 2019 general elections in the country.
Elections to the state assembly are also likely to be held simultaneously with the 2019 Lok Sabha elections around April-May next year.
(Sheikh Qayoom can be contacted at sheikh.abdul@ians.in)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News
Srinagar : Clashes broke out in Anantnag on Wednesday after reports of a Ph.D scholar being killed in a shootout even as the authorities continued to face separatist protests against Sunday’s civilian deaths in Kulgam for the second consecutive day.
Sabzar Sofi, the Ph.D scholar, was killed along with his associate Asif Ahmed in Nowgam earlier in the day.
Skirmishes broke out immediately in the city outskirts as stone pelting youths attacked the security forces forcing schools and colleges to shut down in the Srinagar district.
In New Delhi, Jamia Milia Islamia refuted news reports that Sabzar Sofi had ever registered as a student with the university. It also said that there was no Botany department in the university as was reported by the media.
Clashes also broke out in Sangam area of Anantnag district where Sofi is from. People were outraged at the killing of the militant who was seen preparing for the civil service exams before joining militancy in October 2016.
People in Kulgam town saw heavy deployment of security personnel as the authorities continued restrictions in the Jammu and Kashmir town to prevent separatist-called protest march against seven civilian deaths in an explosion on Sunday.
All roads leading to Kulgam town were sealed. The march was called by the Joint Resistance Leadership on Tuesday in solidarity with the families of the seven killed in an explosion at the gunfight site in Laroo village.
Senior separatist leaders Syed Ali Geelani and Mirwaiz Umer Farooq have been under house arrest since Monday while Yasin Malik was taken into preventive custody.
—IANS
