Month: December 2023

Mirwaiz Umar Farooq today strongly denounced his repeated house detention, especially on Fridays, aimed at preventing him from delivering the Friday sermon at central Jamia Masjid Srinagar and participating in obligatory Friday prayers. Mirwaiz in a statement mentioned that after his release from four years of continued house detention since August 2019, on September 22nd he was only permitted to go to Jamia Masjid on three Fridays. Since then, every Friday, he has been put under house arrest without any reason provided by the authorities. “Since October 13, Jamia Masjid itself was locked to people for ten consecutive Fridays, and it was only last week that people were allowed to offer Friday prayers there. However, the duration of this permission remains uncertain while the ban on m...

Achieving a milestone in flourishing the nursery business, a Kulgam man quit his government job to become a successful entrepreneur in nursery business. Today, Mushtaq Ahmed Bhat annually produces over two lakh fruit plants and creates jobs for scores of youth. Bhat, a resident of Qaimoh belt in South Kashmir's Kulgam district cultivates almost 150 diverse fruit plant varieties in his nurseries and strategically markets to customers across Kashmir. Talking to news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), he said, this nursery spans over 17 kanal with around 50 people working there every day who earn their livelihood. “We have many plant nurseries in the area which produce around two lakh plants every season, including root stock, budding – the grafted plants,” he said. He said he has b...

Dense fog continued to blanket most parts of the Kashmir Valley on Friday while three places including Ganderbal has recorded the coldest night of the season as the night chill has further intensified across the region. According to the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), the mercury continued to settle below freezing point across the Valley today while Ganderbal, Budgam in Central Kashmir and Bandipora in north Kashmir recorded the coldest night of the season at minus 6.7 degree Celsius. Pahalgam in South Kashmir recorded a low of minus 5.4 degree Celsius. Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu & Kashmir shivered at minus 3.3 degree Celsius while Qazigund in South Kashmir has recorded a low of minus 4.2 degree Celsius. Gulmarg, a famous ski-resort, has recorded a low o...

In a harrowing incident, a 45-year-old man was successfully rescued on Thursday evening after remaining trapped for 9 hours in a 35ft deep well in north Kashmir's Tangmarg village in Baramulla district. The incident unfolded when the individual slipped into the well, with the authorities responding swiftly to the distress call, employing specialized equipment and skilled personnel to rescue the individual from the perilous situation. Officials told the news agency — Kashmir News Observer (KNO), that after hours of intense efforts, the rescue team including SDRF, J&K Police, locals in particular managed to rescue the individual identified as Bashir Ahmed Rather from the well. Rather (45), a father of six children from Karhama Kunzer reportedly fell into the well in a nearby Dho...

Senior CPI (M) leader Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami on Thursday said that the erstwhile state of Jammu Kashmir did not receive justice after the court upheld the Article 370 abrogation ruling. “I am an independent thinker and I strongly believe that justice was not served. As a result, we are still debating possibilities with the petitioners and stakeholders to obtain justice. We may even file an appeal with the Supreme Court of India, arguing that we should currently revisit the ruling that they just made a few weeks ago. We are currently in consultation and might try to prepare some applications and file an appeal with the Indian Supreme Court shortly,” Tarigami said. Tarigami said that misleading narratives are persistently being propagated to make the people of Jammu and Kashmir reali...

As the wetlands in Kashmir valley are witnessing the arrival of Migratory Birds, a renowned birdwatcher on Wednesday said eight new species graced the valley this year. Speaking to the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), Reyan Sofi said this year, the valley welcomed eight new bird species. He listed the eight new bird species observed in Kashmir this year: Falcated Duck at Hokersar Wetland, Smew Duck at Wular Lake, Horned Grebe at Wular Lake, Northern Wheatear at Pahalgam, Western Reef-Heron at Wular Lake, Long-tailed Duck at Wular Lake, and the Broad-billed Sandpiper, also sighted at Wular Lake. "Most of the new bird species were spotted at Wular Lake, the second-largest freshwater lake in Asia," Sofi added. Parvaiz Yousuf, Director of the Wetland Research Centre at the ...