Authorities deployed troops and shut down the internet as a precautionary measure, police said
Indian Kashmir politician Syed Ali Shah Geelani, a veteran separatist, has died in Srinagar. He was 91 years old.
In response to the news, authorities deployed troops around the city.
Continue reading...The ‘blood man’ of conflict-racked Kashmir has donated 174 pints of blood since 1980 but feels ‘crushed’ by his poverty
Shabir Hussain Khan was taking an afternoon nap when he heard a commotion outside his house. A friend had been injured in a football match and had lost a lot of blood. Khan, who did not have any transport, rushed to the hospital by foot to donate some. It was 4 July 1980. Yesterday the man known locally as the “blood man of Kashmir” donated his 174th pint of his blood to strangers at the public hospital close to his Srinagar home.
“Blood is not something you can buy in the market,” says Khan, who has an O-negative blood group. “In those days blood donation was not common, nor were blood banks. The way blood is available readily now, it was not like that before. Also there was no connectivity at that time. We only had radios and two or three landline phones in the entire locality.”
Continue reading...Building and repair ban had turned Dal Lake into graveyard for sinking boats even before coronavirus and Delhi crackdown
Ghulam Nabi Butt may be 90 years old, but he has never forgotten the three days that George Harrison came to stay on his houseboat in October 1966.
It was here, on one of Butt’s first historic Clermont houseboats moored on the northern bank of Dal Lake in Srinagar, Kashmir, that the Beatles lead guitarist met the Indian musician and composer Ravi Shankar and was taught to play the sitar – marking the beginning of an musical collaboration that would last decades.
Continue reading...Hundreds married to men who travelled to Pakistan for militant training now find themselves stateless
Under dark skies in Kashmir’s heavily militarised town of Kupwara, Saira Javed mournfully recalled her happy childhood.
Recounting her early life in Karachi, a bustling metropolis over the border in Pakistan, she spoke vividly of her father, Abdul Latif, who would take their large family on weekend picnics and of the moonlit nights she spent dying her hands with henna.
Continue reading...Highly unusual independent inquiry accuses officer of staging their deaths as a fake gunfight
In a highly unusual move, Indian police have indicted an Indian army officer, accusing him of killing three civilians in Kashmir in July and staging their deaths as a fake gunfight.
The rare independent police inquiry into extrajudicial killings in the troubled region found that the Indian military officer Capt Bhoopendra Singh, who used the alias Maj Basheer Khan, had conspired with two of his informers to abduct three local labourers. It said they killed the men, planted illegal weapons on the bodies and branded them “hardcore terrorists”.
Continue reading...Women are slowly gaining rights and finding the strength to shake off the social taboos around ending a bad relationship
Parveena Jabeen was all set to get married, but in Kashmir weddings are extravagant affairs.
Traditionally, brides in the valley of Kashmir would take a trousseau with them to the groom’s house, including clothes, jewellery, makeup, gifts for the in-laws and even furniture.
Continue reading...Educators in the disputed region are fighting to keep pupils on track amid repeated lockdowns, curfews and internet blackouts
Asmat Jan, 15, practises her singing in a meadow, against a backdrop of Kashmir’s towering mountains. In front of her, around 50 other children squat in perfect, straight lines. A couple of adults hover nearby.
Education has gone open-air across the valley in Indian-administered Kashmir and this is one of the many makeshift community classes that have sprung up in response to the repeated closure of schools under two separate lockdowns, alongside a communication blackout in this hotly disputed territory imposed in August last year. While political restrictions have eased a little in Kashmir since India revoked the region’s special status and degree of autonomy, a brief reopening of education in February lasted only until April’s Covid-19 lockdown brought classes to yet another grinding halt.
Continue reading...Soldiers patrol Indian-controlled areas as protesters plan ‘black day’ to mark 5 August
Authorities have brought in a curfew in many parts of Indian-controlled Kashmir, one day ahead of the first anniversary of India’s controversial decision to revoke the disputed region’s special status.
Shahid Iqbal Choudhary, a civil administrator, said the security lockdown was put in place in the region’s main city of Srinagar in view of information about protests planned by anti-India groups to mark 5 August as “black day.”
Continue reading...Riyaz Naikoo was member of region’s largest indigenous militant group, Hizbul Mujahideen
Indian government forces have killed a top rebel commander and his aide in disputed Kashmir, and shut down mobile phone and mobile internet services during subsequent anti-India protests.
Riyaz Naikoo, 35, was the chief of operations of the region’s largest indigenous rebel group, Hizbul Mujahideen, which has spearheaded an armed rebellion against Indian rule.
Continue reading...Judges say blackout infringes on freedom of speech and expression
India’s supreme court has ordered the government to review all restrictions in Indian-controlled Kashmir within a week, saying the indefinite suspension of people’s rights amounted to an abuse of power.
In a blow to the Hindu nationalist government of the prime minister, Narendra Modi, the country’s highest court said the expression of opposition to state policy could not justify the crackdown.
Continue reading...Curbs on internet services remain five months after India revoked semi-autonomous status
Authorities in Indian-controlled Kashmir are to restore text messaging services in the disputed region, almost five months after India’s government downgraded its semi-autonomy and imposed a strict security and communications lockdown.
A local government spokesman, Rohit Kansal, said the decision was made after a review of the situation.
Continue reading...Relatives tell of 1,000km bus journeys to Agra where prisoners are held after Modi crackdown
The last time he saw her, Mehraj-ud-din Wani assured his wife that he would soon be a free man.
Wani was speaking to his wife, Gulshan, from behind bars in Srinagar jail in Kashmir. “He was certain that he would be released,” she said. “He said that he will be home in a matter of days.”
Continue reading...Pakistan PM says he has tried to tell world leaders of growing risk of conflict with India over disputed region
Pakistan’s prime minister, Imran Khan, has said he has been trying to raise the alarm at the United Nations this week about the danger of a nuclear war breaking out over Kashmir.
India and Pakistan came close to a conflict in February when India bombed Pakistani territory for the first time in a half century and warplanes from both countries fought a dogfight over the divided region.
Continue reading...A shallow earthquake near Mirpur has struck north-eastern Pakistan, tearing huge cracks in roads
At least 19 people have been killed and 300 injured after a shallow earthquake struck north-eastern Pakistan, tearing car-sized cracks into roads and heavily damaging infrastructure.
The quake sent people in Lahore and Islamabad running into the streets. With rescue operations expected to continue overnight, residents in the worst-hit areas described their horror as walls collapsed and houses fell.
Continue reading...Narendra Modi defends actions in Kashmir and accuses Pakistan of ‘hatred towards India’
Narendra Modi defended his government’s actions in Kashmir and, in thinly-veiled remarks, accused Pakistan of harbouring terrorists during a packed rally in Texas attended by the US president Donald Trump.
Trump sat in the front row as the Indian prime minister told cheering crowds his decision to remove all autonomy from Indian-administered Kashmir would bring progress and better rights for its people.
Continue reading...Determined to prevent security forces from entering their community, people in the suburb of Anchar, in the disputed region of Kashmir, stand united in their desire to achieve freedom from India. Defying teargas and pellets, they are the last remaining pocket of resistance in the country's only Muslim-majority state
Imran Khan will use UN address to highlight alleged atrocities carried out by Indian army
Pakistan’s prime minister, Imran Khan, is to follow a speech by his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, at the United Nations general assembly by accusing him of being complicit in the torture and mass detention of protesters in India-administered Kashmir.
Khan will use his address in New York next week to highlight alleged atrocities being carried out by the Indian army in the Jammu and Kashmir state since Modi’s government revoked the region’s autonomy by abrogating article 370 of the constitution.
Continue reading...Death of Asrar Ahmad Khan in Indian-administered Kashmir has intensified scrutiny of authorities
The father of a teenager killed in Kashmir has demanded justice for his son, after witnesses said he was fired at with pellets and teargas in an unprovoked attack by Indian security forces.
Asrar Ahmad Khan, described as a shy and studious teenager, died last week 11 days before his 18th birthday. He had spent almost a month in hospital, where he was being treated for injuries sustained during the incident on 6 August.
Continue reading...Deaths over past 30 days follow Indian government’s decision to strip region of autonomy
Five civilians have died in Indian Kashmir, including an 18-year-old man, officials confirmed, one month after Delhi’s decision to revoke the region’s special status.
Residents across Kashmir faced a 31st day living under a heightened military presence, without phone or internet access. A communications blackout was imposed when the Indian government stripped the region of any autonomy on 5 August.
Continue reading...Vivek Oberoi movie will tell ‘true story’ of reprisals after February attack in which 40 Indian troops were killed
Bollywood is to make a movie based on the “true story” of Indian air strikes on Pakistan this year, its producer said, the latest patriotic film to hit the silver screen.
The 26 February attack took place after a suicide bombing claimed by a militant group based in Pakistan killed 40 Indian troops on 14 February in Indian-controlled Kashmir.
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