WRITE-UPS

Hashim Zakir Ghulam Rasool in his late 40s has been cultivating walnuts in his ancestral land for the last 20 years. His whole family depends on walnut production. "When I started, the rates and demand for the crop were high but in the last two decades a lot of people shifted towards this crop and then the lack of an international market and a Walnut Mandi led to the downfall of the walnut industry," Ghulam Rasool stated. As walnut covers over 85.05% of the total land used for dry fruit cultivation in Kashmir, A study conducted in 2004 stated that over 40000 people are directly dependent on the crop. The number of families dependent on the crop increased over the last two decades as the area over cultivation also expanded. While as, in recent years walnut cultivation has seen a drast...

Massive preparations are underway for the upcoming assembly elections in Jammu Kashmir due in 2018 when the last elected government collapsed after Bhartiya Janta Party parted ways with their then coalition partner, the People's Democratic Party. Sources privy to the information said that revenue officials along with other government officials are working tiresome schedules towards the preparation of electoral roles in Jammu Kashmir. A draft electoral roll will be published on September 15. Post which, camps will be organized during the summary revision across Jammu Kashmir from September 15 to 25 October, where people can register themselves as voters. The publication of the finalized electoral rolls in J-K, as per officials, will be released by November 25. The Kashmiriyat learned ...

A day ahead of Umar Quyoom’s death anniversary, a young woman walking in a hijab tries to convey her grief for a boy who is buried in the grave beside her. She tells the resting boy, “I’ll fight for justice till we get it.” The boy in the grave was her best friend. Urzeeba (26) says she has had no friends after her brother Umar Quyoom was killed during the civilian protests in 2010. Summer had just arrived in Kashmir; tourists were flocking in droves to India’s ‘Paradise’. One day — June 11— was all it took to shatter that picture postcard. Angered over the fake encounter in Machil, hundreds of Kashmiris took to the streets in the month of June that year. During one such protest on June 11 in the capital city of Srinagar, a 16-year-old boy, Tufail Ahmed Mattoo was shot dead. Tufail’s ki...

Syed Muskan "With profound regards and venerations, we the residents of the historic town of Achabal (through Achabal Development Committee) put forth the demand of inclusion of Sahibabad (Achabal) in 44-Anantnag constituency instead of 43-Anantnag West owing to the following facts that: 1 Achabal Town (Sahibabad) is intimately connected to Anantnag town having easy access and trade links. 2. Achabal Town (Sahibabad) is having Anantnag as Tehsil headquarters. 3. Anantnag town is an integral part of Achabal C.D Block. 4. Qazigund (43-Anantnag West) is wayward for Achabal having connectivity issues. On the above-mentioned grounds, it is requested that Achabal town may kindly be annexed to 44-Anantnag instead of 43-Anantnag West for the convenience of the public at large. Now, we dare to v...

Mehr-u-Nisa Zargar By early May, Shoby Jan, a resident of the Kachdoora area in south Kashmir's Shopian allegedly showed an immense transformation in her behaviour. It was not normal. After days of struggle, her husband Muzaffar Ahmed Sheikh got in touch with a faith healer from Qazigund in the Kulgam district. The "faith healer" came to her house in Kachdoora and right away said, Shoby was possessed by a Djinn. After the "revelation" Shoby started facing a social boycott. Nobody visited her or went close to talk to her. She faced isolation for days after being confined to a secluded space in the house. Zakir Ahmed Naik, a conman in the guise of a faith healer decided 24 May as the date for exorcism and landed in the house of Shoby in Kachdoora. The process of exorcism started ...

Bhat Yasir/ Syed Muskan A Kashmiri youth from Ganderbal's Dodurhama, who's also pursuing a master's degree in Kashmiri literature, recently rose to the limelight after his novel 'Khaban Khayalan Manz' got published last month. We talked to him about the dwindling readership of Kashmiri literature. The youth Asif Tariq Bhat, who's a student at the Central University of Kashmir told The Kashmiriyat that he began writing the novel in October 2021. It was months later towards the end of May 2022 that the novel was published. Kashmiri writers, authors, poets, and other artists have gained global recognition and hold worldwide records in their composition of literature. The age of the literature in the valley can be traced back to the texts of Sanskrit and to the mystic medieval pioneer...

Sheikh Nadeem Bisma Ayoub is a 24-year-old woman from Srinagar, Kashmir who is also an award-winning author. She has, previously with her mesmerising words and poetry, received huge appreciation and name in the valley. With her first book, Ayoub made an entry in India Book Of Records, India’s World Record, Profile of International Talents and Intellectuals and India’s Top 100 Authors etc. Bisma Ayoub started her writing journey in the year 2013 and never looked back. She explored herself and says that she believes in learning. Her books 'The Creative Minds' and 'Mukhtasar (A short journey of pain)' received much love and appreciation. She is also the founder of an NGO, Sha’Ma (from darkness to light), where she worked for the welfare of needy families, mostly during the times o...

Mehran Bhat As Anti-muslim sentiments in India gain pace, Rohingya Muslims and their children not only fear detentions but are living in fear of attacks by right-wing groups. The Human Rights Watch (HRW) estimates that there are 40,000 Rohingya refugees in India, the majority of whom live in makeshift camps in Jammu, Hyderabad and New Delhi. Nearly 10,000 of these refugees live in makeshift shanties in the Hindu-dominated city of Jammu. Photo: Mehran Bhat     These families said that they had come here to live peacefully and wanted their children to be safe from what they faced back in Myanmar, but "we are unlucky. Even living far from the place didn’t help us or our children." Photo: Mehran Bhat        ...

Mehr-u-Nisa On 2 April 2021, the news made it to certain news portals in Kashmir, however, was avoided by the majority of the media houses across Kashmir. On the day, Old- aged parents were thrown out of their home by their son in Kupwara. Ghulam Mohiuddin Sheikh and his better half Aisha Begum raised their son with too much love and care and also made him independent so that he can earn bread and butter for his family, but later their son, when he grew up, forced his parents into homelessness and made them roam like Vagabonds. According to the parents, “We married our son so that he can become a family man and can live a new life, but little did we know that this would change him into something we never expected of him. It has been 8 years since he got married. Since then, he has...

Toibah Kirmani Recently, the result of the Police's Sub Inspector’s written examination conducted by the Jammu Kashmir Service Selection Board (JKSBB) on March 27, 2022, sparked a massive controversy, which forced the officials to order a probe into the "irregularities" in the selection list. Several Aspirants claimed there were discrepancies in the result and have sought an investigation shortly after the result was announced by the Jammu and Kashmir Service Selection Board (JKSBB) on 6 June. Vikas Sharma (name changed), a resident of the Kathua district of J&K who scored 99.20 percentile in the examination told The Kashmiriyat that there were irregularities in the list. "It is doubtful," he remarked, "that 57 of the top 200 students on the list are siblings." In the previ...