WRITE-UPS

Bhat Yasir Farmers across the Kashmir valley are facing a shortage of water especially for their paddy fields due to the ongoing dry spell in the valley. Moreover, the water level in Jhelum and its tributaries has dropped to a 65-year low, triggering panic. In most parts down in south Kashmir, the farmers usually start the process of transplantation now, however, the dry farmlands in most parts of south Kashmir have made the farmers wait. Abdul Ahad Khan who is a sixty-four-year-old farmer from Anantnag's batengoo area says that there is no water in the fields. "Our paddy fields have run dry. Most of us have never confronted such an issue. The irrigation channels have run dry and there is no water coming down the skies," he told The Kashmiriyat. He says hundreds of families in the...

The struggle of Abdul Lateef Magray- the father of Amir Magray began on November 15 and has finally bore results after more than six months when the High Court on Thursday ordered the exhumation of his body and asked the administration to ensure that Amir's body reached his home in Gool area of Ramban district in Jammu Kashmir. On November 15, Amir Ahmed Magray was shot dead in Hyderpora by the Government Forces along with three others. The Government Forces claimed Amir was a militant, a claim contested by his family. "We have rested our case in the court of Allah, but all we seek is his dead body," Amir's father had told The Kashmiriyat, a few days after the incident. In June 2005, a gunman barged inside Lateef Magray’s house at Thatharka in Ramban’s Gool area and shot his cousin d...

Rayees Shah Around evening time, Two men came inside the house of Amreen Bhat, 35, in Hushroo area of Budgam's Chadoora belt. The men asked a young nephew of the TV artist, Amreen to call her out. As soon as she came out, the two men fired bullets at her injuring the TV artist and her 10-year-old nephew. As soon as the family members heard the gunshots they ran out to find the duo lying in a pool of blood, Amreen's relative told The Kashmiriyat. They said that the family members rushed the duo to Chadoora hospital, from where they were referred to Srinagar, however, Amreen succumbed to her injuries on the way to the hospital. The incident left the entire area in a deep shock. Amreen is survived by an old father and a sister. Amreen had been acting in various television programs to...

As the valley gears for the festival of Eid ul Fitr which marks the end of month-long fasting, Kashmiris are seen flooding markets to shop for the festival, however, the mood here at the home of Bhat's is grim. Three children, the eldest aged 14, do not know how to spend Eid without their father. There has not been a single day since 15 November 2021 when the Bhat family of Barzulla Srinagar has not lamented, and tears rolled their eyes. "There has not been a day when the impact of grief or shock has gone down since that tragic day," Saima Bhat- the niece of Altaf Ahmed Bhat, said, trying to put on a brave face, but she could not stop her tears from rolling down her eyes. On 15 November 2021, the Government forces claimed they killed four "militants during an encounter" in the Hyderp...

Bhat Yasir Of recent, the conflict-ridden Kashmir valley has seen a massive rise in online content from creators in the valley. One of these trends is that of comic videos. It was almost half a year ago that Kaiser Khan got the idea of starting a YouTube channel and Facebook page with the aim to make "people laugh and rid them of stress." Khan discussed the idea with his friends from the neighborhood, but they rejected it. The idea turned out to be a success, however, after Khan's family shifted to a new home in another 'Mohalla,' where he discussed the idea with the new neighbours, now group members, who agreed and encouraged him. “They agreed and said that we must begin tomorrow, and we started making comic videos," said Khan, While narrating the story. Khan said that during ...

Suhail Dar Aijaz Ahmed Dar runs an ice cream factory in the Batengoo area of south Kashmir along the old highway that connects Jammu with Srinagar. After facing losses for nearly three consecutive years, Aijaz was hopeful that this summer, he will make good money. However, Aijaz now wants to shut down RH Dairy Foods, his business unit. "The power crisis has hit the business severely," Aijaz said. One of the worst power crises that the valley has seen in recent times has left the residents aghast and businesses in the valley are suffering immensely. In the ongoing month of Ramadan, the urban areas are seeing cuts as long as 8-10 hours. While, in the rural areas, people say the cuts last as long as 15-17 hours. From the north of Kashmir to down south, residents are aghast and many h...

Safoora Hilal Czrar-i-Shareef, a Sufi Khanqah and a mosque situated in the town of the same name in Budgam district, is one of the oldest Khanqahs of the Kashmir valley dedicated to the Kashmiri Sufi Saint Sheikh Noor u Din Noorani, popular as  'Alamdar e Kasmir' or 'Sheikh ul Alam' or 'Nund Reshi.' Before Sheikh Ul Alam (RA) came to this place, it was called 'chear wan.' Wan is a Kashmiri word that means forest. When the Sufi saint came here, he enquired from the locals the name of the village, to which they said, " Czaar.” Nund Reshi (RA) replied to them, "Walsa Paani Yeti Pyaarr" (Oh dear self! let me rest here). Post this, Nund Reshi (RA) stayed here and traveled across the place to worship Allah. After his burial, this piece of land is now named Charar-e- Sharief. Alamdar...

Days after being granted bail by the court of Additional Secessions Judge in Srinagar, Peerzada Mohammed Waseem, one of the twenty-one accused in the DySP Lynching case of 2017 has been booked under the Public Safety Act. A DySP named Mohammed Ayub Pandit was lynched outside the Jamia Masjid of Srinagar during the holy night of Shab-e-Qadr on 22 June 2017. After completing investigations, Police filed a charge sheet in the Srinagar court against 17 accused persons on 7 October 2017. It also filed a separate challan against four juveniles in the case and the prosecution has listed 84 witnesses in the case. On the 07th day of April 2022, the Additional Secessions court of Srinagar granted bail to the accused person on furnishing bail bonds with two sureties to the tune of Rs. 2 lakh...

Jaskamal Bains Mughla Bano's years-old desire of applying Mehendi to her eldest son's hands on his engagement went unfulfilled this Wednesday as her 27-year-old son Mohammed Yaseen Rather got engaged, within the premises of the jail he's been detained at, in the presence of a couple of male members from the family. For the past three decades, given the onset of armed conflict in the valley of Kashmir, the processions carried out during the month of Muharram by the Shia community to pay tributes to the martyrs of Karbala, remain banned. However in the month of Muharram, last year i.e., 2021, in a rather surprising turn of events, the Jammu Kashmir administration lifted the three-decade-old ban on the procession only to impose a ban on it again, in several areas of Srinagar city. Th...