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The long incarcerated journalist Asif Sultan, on Saturday, completed four years in jail. He is currently booked under the Public Safety Act (PSA). In April, One of his family members confirmed to The Kashmiriyat that Asif had been booked under the draconian PSA and shifted to the Kot Bhalwal jail of Jammu, but he was later shifted to Agra Central Jail in Uttar Pradesh. It is pertinent to mention that Asif, who has been incarcerated since 27 August 2018 was granted bail by a court in Srinagar on April 05, 2022. However, he was immediately taken in for questioning by the CIK, after which he was again detained under the PSA. Asif had been languishing in Central Jail, Srinagar for almost four years. Several international organizations including the Committee to Protect Journalists ...

Kashmir Artists are up in arms against the government for failing to provide them with work opportunities. The Artists say they are jobless due to the indifferent policies of the government. The Association of Light Music Artists of Kashmir has been expressing its resentment. The Association includes the Senior and Junior Artists, Singers and Musicians who have been for decades affiliated with the Kashmiri Light Music industry. For these local artists, the DD Kashir and All India Radio Srinagar were the only sources of sustenance but the continuing long termination of production work in these stations has pushed them into despair. Besides these artists used to meet their ends by performing in the programs/events organized by various organizations like JK Academy of Art, Culture and L...

Targeted killings in the Kashmir valley have witnessed a spike. In the latest attacks on Friday, a non-local laborer was killed by militants in the Bandipora district. As per figures available to The Kashmiriyat, Twenty-three civilians have died during targetted attacks in Kashmir in the first nine months of 2022 against a total of 15 killings during this period in the previous year. A non-local labourer identified as Muhammad Amrej, 19, was shot dead in Sadnara village of Bandipora’s Hajin area, an official said. Earlier, Jammu Kashmir Police said that "Law and order" incidents in Kashmir had dropped by over 88 percent in three years since the abrogation of the special status compared to the preceding three years. From August 5, 2016, to August 4, 2019, the Valley witnessed 3,...

Unemployment in Jammu Kashmir has reached another high as it has mounted to 20.2 which is the second highest after Haryana with an unemployment rate of 26.9 per cent. Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) has pegged India’s unemployment rate at 7.1 per cent, while Jammu Kashmir has an unemployment rate of 20.2 per cent for the month of July against 17.2 per cent in the month of June. The CMIE data reveals that the unemployment rate has been steadily rising in the reion. In November 2016 the unemployment rate was 29.9 percent while in March the unemployment was recorded at 25 per cent. With the rising rate of unemployment rate in Jammu Kashmir, several scholars have taken to alternative forms of employment. Recently The Kashmiriyat reported  that two scholars, one Ph.D and on...

Danishwar Hameed Khul Noorabad is a far-flung village in south Kashmir's Kulgam district. The remote area is often in the news for the pathetic condition of the roads or the non-availability of drinking water. However, the area is in news this time after a youth from this village brought laurels to the entire area by participating in an international ceremony on World Poetry Day in Malaysia. The 19-year-old has co-authored over 100 poems on a global level in Germany, Saudi, and several other nations and has published two books and published a paper on the subject 'Theory of relativity and Natural philosophy.' In March, Suhail Ibn Shahnawaz participated in a global ceremony on the occasion of World Poetry Day. Shahnawaz comes from a middle-class family. His father is a government e...

Danishwar Hameed Aayat al Qursi- the longest verse and believed to be one of the most powerful verses of the Quran by Muslims, has been inscribed by a Kulgam woman on her hand-made shawl. A white colour cotton shawl which is about five feet wide and three feet tall has the Quranic verse at the face of it with neat and polished handicraft work. Shaheena Banoo(42), who is a resident of Gopalpora Kulgam has worked on the completion of this Shawl for several days and nights. "The Arabic words are not easy to write and then the symbols also require a lot of patience and pure art. This is not overnight work," Shaheena told The Kashmiriyat. The Shawl is precious to Shaheena and she could not fix a cost for it. "I have also crafted nature, flowers and some words on the shawls. But this...

Rayees Shah 50 kilometers away from Srinagar, at the foothills of the magnificent Haramukh, Gangbal –an alpine fresh water lake stands still. The lake is surrounded by mountains like a precious jewel. Situated at an elevation of about 3600 meters, this high-altitude lake is about 2.5 km long and a kilometer wide. Water from rain, springs and melting glaciers feeds this lake, which is the origin of Wangath – a tributary of the Sindh River. The river serves as a habitat for different varieties of freshwater fish, especially brown trout.      

The drug trade has been on the rise in Kashmir in the first six months of 2022. According to official statistics, heroin is the substance that security personnel has recently seized in the largest quantity in Kashmir. 16.23746 kg of heroin worth over Rs 32 crore was seized from drug dealers in Kashmir in the first half of 2022, as per the data. A total of 2.017 kg of heroin was found in January, while 5.805 kg was found in February. In March, when 82.5 grams of heroin were recovered, the recovery rate fell. The most heroin was found in the month of April, where 7.355 kilograms of it was found, followed by 903.96 grams in May, and 35 and 39 grams from drug traffickers in the months of June and July, respectively. The Jammu Kashmir Police stated that it is taking multiple s...

Authorities have tightened security across the Lal chowk area of Srinagar in view of the Bhartiya Janta Party's (BJP) Tiranga Yatra on the occasion of Vijay Divas- celebrated in memory of the Kargil war victims. The Bhartiya Janta Party said that at least 300 bikers from different parts of India participated in the rally which was flagged off by BJP General Secretary Tarun Chug. Targeting Abdullahs and Muftis, Chug said the twin families have failed to serve the people in the last 70 years, and “the two families have made J&K terrorism capital while the Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made it tourism and progress capital.” “Mehbooba Mufti had claimed that after the abrogation of Article 370, no one will raise tricolor in J&K, let she visit Lal Chowk and see how ev...

The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation has revealed, in its latest survey, that Jammu Kashmir has the highest number of unmarried youth. According to the survey "Youth in India 2022," Jammu Kashmir has the highest percentage of young people (aged up to 29 years) who are not married than the national average at 29.1%. In 2019, 25% of young people nationwide were not married. The percentage was 18 percent in 2011. In Jammu Kashmir, 25.3% of youth between the ages of 15 and 29 were single in 2011. There were 27.1 percent of men and 23.5 percent of women who were single either by choice or necessity. In 2015, the percentage rose to 25.9% and then to 29.1% in 2019. The report also showed that in and Kashmir, more men than women between the ages of 15 and 29 are sing...