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The Kashmiri journalist Asif Sultan has completed 1000 days in jail today. He has been detained since 27 August 2018, under the Unlawful Activity Prevention Act (UAPA) for allegedly 'harnessing known militants.' His family has again refuted these claims. Asif who has completed roughly three years in Jail has been denied bail several times. Asif Sultan is a Srinagar-based journalist who covers politics and human rights for the 'Kashmir Narrator. "Asif had done a story titled 'The Rise of Burhan Wani', after which he received a lot of calls from the police to meet them. Asif told the police that he would meet them after Eid. But the police came to his house on the intervening night of 27 and 28 August and detained him." Asif got married in the year 2016, and at the time of his de...

Fahad Shah, the chief editor of Srinagar based The Kashmir Walla, has been awarded the prestigious 25th Human Rights Press Awards (2021) in explanatory feature writing for his coverage of Delhi pogrom in February 2020. His two articles, published by US-based The Nation and VICE News, were a “showcase [of] courage and originality of journalistic storytelling about human rights in Asia”, the panel noted for winners. Two other Kashmiri journalists — including Jalees Andrabi and Sajjad Hussain, both correspondents of Agence France Presse — were listed in the Merit of the awards for their work on Delhi pogrom and India’s Covid-19 lockdown, respectively. The Human Rights Press Awards recognise top rights-related reporting from around Asia, with the goal of increasing respect for people’...

A purported audio clip of Karnataka Food and Civil Supplies Minister, Umesh Katti, telling a farmer activist that it is a “good time for farmers to die”, went viral on Wednesday, creating a major controversy for the BJP government in the state. As soon the audio clip in Kannada went viral on social media, opposition parties and farmers leaders demanded Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa sack Katti. In the audio clip, an activist rings up Katti and demands why his department has chosen to reduce the quantity of 5 kg free rice announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently prior to the surge of Covid cases in the country. Katti responds that the state government had not reduced the quantity, but will instead provide two kg rice and three kg ‘ragi’ (finger millet) in the southern re...

The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) issued a statement dating 8th of April, 2021, inviting "Expression of Interest (EOI) from Indian consulting agencies/firm/joint venture consortium for preparing draft of amendment of Indian Forest Act, 1927." The objective of this exercise as claimed by the statement is "to prepare a draft of the comprehensive amendment of Indian Forest Act, 1927 in consultation with State Governments/UT Administrations, Central Government ministries and other stakeholders." The proposal of the IFA 1927's revision isn't new. The proposal had been on the current government's card since it came to power in 2014. It was in that very year that, a committee headed by then cabinet secretary T.S.R Subramaniam had submitted a report in November,...

Meher Qadri   The recent incident involving a prank by a Srinagar-based radio host Rayees Mohiuddin, working for Red FM has come under severe backlash for its humiliating and discriminatory nature against a specially abled person. The video of the prank went viral on the social media sites and has drawn a lot of flak from different sections of the society demanding a legal action against the host and the station. Few days ago, the RJ who works with Red FM began one of his pranks with a line mocking the nasal tone of a disabled person. “Are you speaking through the pipe?” The RJ kept asking the person persistently in an utterly disrespectful way. Social Media sites were filled with outrage and condemnation of the said act. Some people spoke of how social media influencers a...

The Bajrang Dal has demanded a ban on phiran in Kashmir Valley. The Right-wing Hindu groups alleged that Pheran was being misused by militants to carry out attacks on security forces. Led by Rakesh Bajrangi, the Hindu group staged a protest against Pakistan accusing them of militant attacks in Kashmir on security forces and promoting attempts to revive militancy in Jammu. According to a report by Times now, the Bhartiya Janta Party has supported the demand of pheran being banned in public places. “The militants carry out most of the attacks in the Kashmir valley while wearing Pheran, so it needs to be banned in public places and government functions,” the BJP leader alleged while speaking to Times now. The Bhartiya Janta Party has said that no tradition is bigger than the li...

The Editor, Al Safah, Srinagar(kmr) 22.9.1990. Respected Sir, we, the undersigned, on our behalf and on the behalf of other members of our community wish to convey our profound gratitude to you for having published the letter of Shri K.L.Roul in the columns of your esteemed daily. We fully share and endorse the views and sentiments expressed by Shri Koul. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRD4BjpGKHo&feature=youtu.be There can be no dispute about the fact the Kashmiri Pandit community was made a scapegoat by Jagmohan, some self-styled leaders of our community and other vested interests. This drama was staged by Hindu communal organizations like the B.J.P, R.S.S., and the Shiv Sena in connivance with the state administration. In this drama, the main characters were playe...

The Bhartiya Janta party, as per stats, has failed to contain homegrown Militancy in Jammu Kashmir since it rose to power in 2014. Data available to The Kashmiriyat reveals that the Congress-led UPA Government saw as many as 154 local youths taking up arms to join Militant groups, however, the number has drastically risen to 857 during the Modi Led NDA Government till December 2020. In 2014, the number of Locals joining Militancy was 53, in 2015, it reached 66 before touching the highest mark of 88 in 2016, in 2017, the number rose further to 126 and in 2018, 218 Local youth joined Militancy, the highest number in a decade, while in 2019 the number dropped to 139 and in 2020 the number rose again to 167 local youth joining various Militant outfits in Kashmir. Following the killing...