Month: March 2023

On a day, when Ramadan started in Kashmir, Protests hit the Rainawari locality of Srinagar district in central Kashmir against the installation of smart meters in Kashmir. Locals told The Kashmiriyat that scores of local residents on Thursday hit the streets of Rainawari for the second consecutive day to demand a rollback of the smart meter installation across Kashmir. They said that smart meters have hiked electricity bills by a huge margin, which has made it tough for the poorer sections of society to pay the electricity tariffs. Notably, hundreds of protests have been held across the valley to condemn the admin's decision of installation of smart meters, however, the admin has said that the order will not be rolled back.

A 24-year-old youth allegedly hanged himself to death in the Keegam area of south Kashmir’s Shopian district. Sources told The Kashmiriyat that a youth (name withheld) who was a resident of Keegan Shopian was found hanging at his home by his family members on Thursday morning. The 24-year-old was rushed to the hospital, however, he was declared brought dead at the hospital. Police have registered a case in this regard for further investigations

Amid the forecast for mainly dry weather in the next 24 hours, the minimum temperatures recorded an increase but stayed below normal at most places on Thursday. A meteorological department official here told GNS mainly clear to cloudy weather towards evening and night was expected during the next 24 hours. On March 24-25, he said, rain and thunderstorm with snowfall over higher reaches at scattered places as possible. Mainly dry weather is expected thereafter till March 28, he said. Regarding temperature, he said, Srinagar recorded a low of 5.2°C against 4.0°C on the previous night and it was 0.2°C above normal for the summer capital. Qazigund, he said, recorded a low of 3.2°C against 2.2°C on the previous night and it was 0.5°C below normal for the gateway town of Kashmir. ...

Mosques throughout Kashmir valley on Wednesday made an announcement that Ramadhan, the holy month of fasting, would commence tomorrow. The Taraweeh prayers would be offered tonight. The announcements came after central Ruet-e-Hilal Committee of Pakistan announced that the Ramadan moon was sighted and the first of the holy month will fall on Thursday (tomorrow). The announcement was made by Central Ruet-e-Hilal Committee chairman Maulana Abdul Khabir Azad at a press conference in Peshawar on Wednesday evening. According to reports, the Ramadan moon was also not sighted in India and Bangladesh. However, Saudi Arabia and most other Gulf states will start the fasting month on Thursday.

A massive search operation was launched on Wednesday after the Border Security Force (BSF) fired at a Pakistani drone along the International Border in Samba district of Jammu Kashmir, official sources said. The BSF troops manning the Chamliyal border post in Ramgarh sub-sector picked up a blinking red light in the air, believed to be a drone, from Pakistan around 2.30 am and fired over two dozen rounds to bring it down, they said. They said the suspected drone returned to the Pakistani side, the officials said, adding a massive search operation was launched in the forward villages adjoining Chamliyal, Sapwal and Narayanpur border outposts to ensure that there was no dropping of any weapons or narcotics. The open fields in Dug, Channi-Sapwal and Asampur villages are also being sea...

Srinagar city particularly the city centre will continue to witness traffic jams for at least two months, owing to the work going on under Smart City Project. It will at least take over 2 months to get the work done on roads and if insiders are to be believed, the chock-o-block-like situation of traffic will persist beyond May. Under Smart City Project, work had been started simultaneously on both sides of Lal Chowk (Residency road and MA Road), which has turned messy. “Nobody is against development but planning is important. It was better to get the work completed from one side first and take the other side then, but here authorities dug up roads everywhere not giving breathing space to anyone,” a shopkeeper told news agency Kashmir News Trust adding that those who are at the helm o...

National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Wednesday arrested Khurram Parvez the program coordinator of Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Societies (JKCCS) in NGO militancy funding case. “Following the first arrest made in the NGO Terror Funding Case on 20.03.2023, the National Investigation Agency arrested Khurram Parvez, the Program Coordinator of Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Societies (JKCCS) and Chairperson of Philippines based NGO Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD) today (Wednesday),” a statement read. “Investigations revealed that Khurram Parvez has been collecting funds under the garb of fighting for Human Rights, from various international entities/ persons based abroad and channelizing those funds for funding terror activities in the Kashmir va...