REGIONAL

Social media in Kashmir is abuzz with what users called a false claim made by the LG's office in Jammu Kashmir. The press release published on its Front page by Greater Kashmir on September 7 was titled, "LG Manoj Sinha breaks record, becomes first head of the state to visit Downtown Srinagar in 75 years." The claim was also carried by The Print in an article written by senior journalist Ananya Bhardwaj’s tweet. Several journalists and social media users responded to Ananya Bhardwaj’s tweet, pointing out that the claim was false. The Kashmiriyat verified if any heads of the state had visited the downtown in the past. We found that other than Chief Ministers, Governors have also visited Srinagar's downtown. Reports dating back to 28 June 2012 said that the then Governor N N Vohr...

In a commendable feat, son of a barbeque seller from Baramulla district of Jammu and Kashmir has cracked the prestigious NEET-UG 2022 examination. Mehraj-ud-din Khan, who secured 591 points in the examination, credited hard work and support of his family and friends for his success. “My family has been a pillar of support for me. They used to tell me to just focus on my studies. But, sometimes, I used to help my father at the shop where he sells barbeque,” Khan, a resident of the Guiwa area of Pattan in Baramulla in north Kashmir, said in videos that appeared on social media. Khan did his basic education from Hanfia Model School in the Warpora area and studied till Class 8 at Army Goodwill School Zeran. He enrolled at MMK school in Nihalpora for Class 10 and then at government boy...

The administration of Jammu Kashmir has directed all the departments to identify and recommend transfer of employees having tenure of more than five years. Official documents in possession of local news agency, Kashmir News Observer (KNO), reveal that J-K’s chief secretary Arun Kumar Mehta has directed the authorities to identify and transfer all employees having tenure of more than five years. The directions for rationalization of staff were passed by him during a meeting of committee of secretaries (CoS) held under his chairmanship on 16 August 2022. “CS observed that some of the officials who have tenure of more than five years need to be relocated immediately. All departments were asked to identify and recommend transfer of employees having tenure of more than five years, with...

Srinagar based journalist Hirra Azmat has won the Project Siren Award for the year 2022. Hirra has bagged the award for her story titled, "Life is beautiful’: IMHANS, SRO set up `Zindagi’ to prevent suicides, promote positive behavior in Kashmir”. According to news reports, the story was published in the Kashmir Monitor which is a Srinagar based newspaper on May 22 last year. The story highlighted the depression-related suicides and new initiatives to promote positivity in the Kashmir valley. https://twitter.com/CMHLPIndia/status/1568459812077199360 The award was formally announced on September 10. "Hirra Azmat is the winner of this year’s #ProjectSIREN Award for Journalists, for her article ‘Life is beautiful’: IMHANS, SRO set up `Zindagi’ to prevent suicides, promote positive...

"Offering of funeral prayers of a killed militant by the public at large, even at the instance of the respondents herein, who are stated to be elderly people of their village, cannot be construed to be an anti-national activity of that magnitude so as to deprive them of their personal liberty as guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution of India," a bench of Jammu Kashmir High court said in a ruling on Friday. The Jammu Kashmir & Ladakh High Court ruled that offering of funeral prayers of a killed militant by the public at large cannot be construed to be anti-national activity of that magnitude to deprive them of their personal liberty as guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution. The High Court was hearing a challenge filed by Jammu Kashmir admin against the bail ord...

Suhail Dar A 14-year-old girl was allegedly raped by a 28-year-old married man in Lidroo area of Pahalgam in south Kashmir's Anantnag district. Speaking to The Kashmiriyat, the brother of the teenager said that the man belonged to the same village and wooed the teenager a year ago, and had been raping her for several weeks. "A few days ago, my sister complained of pain suddenly and I took her to the hospital for a check-up where the doctors told us that the teenager was pregnant. I spoke to my sister who said that she had been raped by the man," he told The Kashmiriyat. We initially tried to speak to the accused, who refused involvement in anything of this sort, he said. The doctors referred the girl to Anantnag's Maternity and Child care hospital, where she delivered a chil...

The Pakistani Foreign Office, on Thursday, asked the Indian authorities to allow Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) Chairman, Muhammad Yasin Malik to meet his family in the Indian prison like Pakistan has allowed Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav, arrested in Pakistan, to meet his family. As per reports, during a weekly briefing, the Pakistani Foreign Office Spokesperson Asim Iftikhar Ahmad said Pakistan has allowed Kulbhushan Jadhav to meet his family. “Yasin Malik is being illegally detained by the Indian authorities and they should also allow his family to meet him as per international norms,” he said. He also demanded that the international community takes notice of such "inhumane act."

The Supreme Court on Friday imposed a cost of Rs 50,000 on a petitioner who sought implementation of Manmohan-Musharraf 4-point formula for resolving the Kashmir issue, PTI reported. A bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and Hima Kohli said it is not inclined to entertain the plea filed by Prabhakar Venkatesh Deshpande, an IIT-Bombay graduate, who underlined there cannot be a military solution to the problem. Mr Deshpande pitched for the formula devised by the former Indian prime minister and ex-president of Pakistan involving "autonomy, joint control, demilitarisation and porous borders" details of which can be further negotiated. The bench said the court cannot enter into the domain of policy and the petition appears to be more of a "Publicity Interest litigation". At the outset...

Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha Friday inaugurated a Farmers awareness conference on the use of ‘Nano Urea', here at SKICC. The conference was organized by Indian Farmers Fertilizer Cooperative Ltd (IFFCO) to generate awareness about benefits of ‘Nano Urea’. The Lt Governor highlighted the farmer's efforts in fulfilling the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to reduce the use of chemical fertilizers and transition to sustainable alternatives to protect soil health, plants and environment. The Lt Governor Congratulated the entire team of IFFCO for developing the world's first Liquid Nano Urea. Sustainable farming is the only way forward to ensure food security and growth. Farmers are ultimate entrepreneurs and our effort is to provide them with better infrastructure, easy ac...

The residents of Checkpora Wussan area of Kangan in Central Kashmir’s Ganderbal district here are up in arms against Roads and Building (R&B) department for ‘failing’ to macadamize the road in the area and repair the drainage system. Local residents told the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO) that one kilometre long link road, which connects several villages, is completely dilapidated and the concern authorities have been turning a blind eye towards it and have not taken any development works or resurfacing of the road in the area, resulting in severe hardships to the people. Local Panch said that despite being just 6 kilometres away from the Sub Division Kangan, the area has been ignored. “The pedestrians and commuters in our area are facing huge inconvenience. During ra...