REGIONAL

Two residential houses of three brothers in north Kashmir's Handwara village were gutted in a fire mishap on Monday, officials said. An official told Srinagar-based news gathering agency Kashmir Scroll (KS) that a massive fire broke out in Patwari Qalamabad Mawer area in the residential house in which three families were living, including Farooq, Shabir, and Altaf sons of Haider Khan. In the mishap, the house was completely gutted, and a team of the fire service department, police, and locals put the fire under control and saved other nearby houses. Meanwhile, police took cognizance of this fire mishap. (KS)

In Jammu Kashmir, up to August 2023, a total of 4,165 accidents were reported, resulting in 499 fatal incidents and 3,666 non-fatal ones, tragically causing the loss of 580 lives and injuring 5,565 individuals. In the previous year, 2022, the region saw 6,092 road accidents, leading to 805 fatalities and 8,372 injuries. The latest data from The Excelsior reveals that Jammu District had the highest number of fatalities up to August 2023, with 134 deaths and 900 injuries, followed by Kathua District with 58 deaths and 476 injuries. Other districts, such as Anantnag, Udhampur, Rajouri, Samba, Reasi, and Poonch Town, also witnessed significant casualties and injuries. Doda District saw 23 fatalities and 220 injuries, Kishtwar District reported 24 casualties and 96 injuries, and Ramban Di...

Election Commission of India (ECI) Monday said it will inform about holding Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir at the right time keeping in view the security and other elections that are also due. Replying to a query about J&K polls during the presser about elections in five states of India, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar, as per news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), said: “We will inform about holding Assembly polls in J&K at the right time keeping in view the security and other elections that also due in the (UT).” ECI announced dates of polls for five states—Chattisgrah, Mizoram, Madhaya Pradesh, Telangana and Rajasthan. Elections will start on November 7 and counting will be done on December 5. Pertinently, J & K has been under president’s ru...

Residents of Nai Sadak locality of Habba Kadal in Srinagar on Monday held protest demonstration over water scarcity in their area. Witnesses told the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO) that residents including women and children blocked road, thereby disrupting traffic movement. They said that there is no water supply in their area for the past one week, making them suffer immensely. “We have been facing severe water shortage even as we informed the authorities several times, but to no avail,” they said. The resident appealed to the authorities to redress their grievance at an earliest—(KNO)

Questions are being raised on the engagement of senior stipendiary residents in Sher-E-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) at Soura Srinagar, with candidates claiming that neither merit nor entrance exam was used as a yardstick for the selection of candidates. As per news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), on 21/09/2023, under order number SIMS/ACAD/538, SKIMS put out a selection list for the engagement of 53 stipendiary senior resident doctors, and when the aspirants saw the list of selected candidates many raised this query that only blue-eyed candidates had been selected, especially in the department of surgery. Among those selected in the surgery department, was the son of GMC principal Dr. Masood Tanvir Bhat and many other blue-eyed candidates. According to both th...

Two days after banning Jammu & Kashmir Democratic Freedom Party led by jailed separatist leader Shabir Shah, the Ministry of Home Affairs on Saturday delegated powers to the Union Territory administration to order seizure of its funds, properties and assets under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act-1967. The MHA today issued a notification empowering State Governments and J&K UT administration to order seizure of funds, properties and assets of the separatist group. The notification accessed by news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO) states that, in exercise of the powers conferred by section 42 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, the Central government directs that all powers exercisable by it under section 7 and section 8 of the Unlawful Activities (Prev...

Five district hospitals in Kashmir are lagging behind in medical technology as they do not have CT-Scan facilities available, causing significant challenges for the local populace. According to information obtained by the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), the districts lacking CT-Scan facilities include Srinagar, Budgam, Bandipora, Ganderbal and Shopian. Health officials revealed to KNO that JLNM Hospital in Srinagar currently does not have CT-Scan facilities. However, residents of Srinagar have alternative hospitals available, mitigating their difficulties. An official mentioned District Hospital Bandipora where a CT-Scan machine was approved three years ago, but it has not been installed yet, leaving patients in the district to suffer immensely. The absence of this crucia...

Crime Branch of Kashmir on Saturday produced a chargesheet before Court of Anti-corruption in Anantnag, against three persons accused of involvement in cheating and other relevant offences. "Special Crime Wing (Crime Branch) Srinagar produced charge sheet of case FIR number 25/2012 before the Hon’ble Court of Anti Corruption Court Anantnag on 05.10.2023 against three accused persons for their involvement in commission of offences punishable under sections 420, 467, 468, 471, 201, 120-B RPC, 5(2) PC Act", reads a statement issued to GNS. The said case, the statement reads, was registered in Crime Branch Kashmir on a complaint from then Zonal Education Officer Kulgam, wherein, it was alleged that one Rashid-Ul-Hassan Gojjar son of Gh. Hassan, resident of Arigatnoo Tehsil Kulgam has bee...

Palestinian fighters have launched the largest attack on Israel in years, infiltrating areas of southern Israel amid a barrage of rockets fired from the Gaza Strip that killed at least one woman and injured 15 others, Israeli medical workers said according to Al Jazeera. The rocket fire began from multiple locations in Gaza starting at 06:30am local time (03:30 GMT) on Saturday and continued for nearly half an hour, the Agence France-Presse news agency reported. Military commander, later announced the start of a military operation in a broadcast on Hamas media, calling on Palestinians everywhere to fight. Deif said the rockets fired marked the start of “Operation Al-Aqsa Storm”, according to reports. “We’ve decided to say enough is enough,” Deif said as he urged all Palestinian...