Gurez valley

Pitfallsw of a Thucydides Trap a war? Amjed Jaaved A host of Indian generals, politicians and China-centered media  gurus  claimed that China was out to alter  status quo ante . Planet-Lab-imagery `corroborated’ exhibited pre-incursion and post-incursion positions. India’s Maj Gen (Dr) G G Dwivedi, who commanded a  Jat  battalion in this sector in 1992, said, `It is part of China’s “nibble and negotiates policy”. Their grand aim is to ensure that India does not build infrastructure along the LAC, change the status of Ladakh, cozy up to the US and join the anti-China chorus caused by Covid-19. It is their way of attaining a political goal with military might while gaining more territory in the process.’ He added. “We used to patrol up till Hot Springs and so did they. The Ladakh Scouts controlled the Galwan Valley and did not encounter any problems either’. His troops learned of Chinese patrols from graffiti on the rocks that read ‘Chung ko (This is China)’. In...

ISLAMABAD, Jul 29 (APP): UK based Mayors, Deputy Mayors and Councilors had condemned the inhuman treatment and atrocious attitude towards the Kashmiri people living under Indian military siege during the worst pandemic coronavirus. They stressed for ending the human rights violations by Indian forces in occupied Kashmir and bringing the perpetrators of crimes against humanity to justice. They were addressing a Virtual Conference organized to deliberate on COVID-19 and the ongoing year-long Humanitarian Crisis in Jammu & Kashmir said a press release received here from London on Tuesday. The event was attended by as many as 60 Mayors, Deputy Mayors, Councilors and community leaders from across the length and breadth of the UK.  The conference was organized in the lead up to unilateral and illegal measures taken by India in occupied Kashmir a year ago on 5 August 2019 with the purpose to apprise the international community of the devastating effects of COVID-19 on the lives...

Jahangeer Ganaie reports from Indian occupied Kashmir   Srinagar, July 30:  Jammu and Kashmir Wednesday recorded 450 fresh cases of COVID-19 pandemic including 67 travelers taking the total number of positive cases to 19869. With 450 new cases, the tally of positive cases in J&K has reached 19869 including 15568 from Kashmir and 4301 from Jammu division. Officials told news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), among 450 new cases, 367 belong to Kashmir division while as 83 are from Jammu division, officials said, adding that the total number of positive cases in Kashmir division has reached to 15568 including 9417 recoveries while as a total number of positive cases in Jammu division has reached to 4301 including 2425 recoveries and 26 deaths. They said that the total number of active cases in Jammu and Kashmir is 7662 including 5812 from the Kashmir division and 1850 from the Jammu division. With 520 more recoveries, the tally of total recoveries in Jammu and Kas...

ALI SUKHANVER A few days back when a renowned Pakistani journalist was allegedly kidnapped from a very busy road of Pakistan’s federal capital Islamabad, some media-men from national and international media groups started pointing their fingers towards the security agencies of Pakistan without any proof and without any investigation. Whosoever was behind this heinous act must be taken to task but after thorough investigation. Blaming abruptly simply mars the facts; moreover, such type of ‘blame-game’ defames and discredits not only the working of our security agencies but the whole country and the whole nation. Today countless Indians are sarcastically asking on social media ‘What were the security agencies of Pakistan doing when that journalist was being kidnapped from that busy road of the federal capital.’  It is the professional responsibility of all media-men to file their stories after complete investigation and certainly, they must provide proofs in support of their invest...

In 1868, people of J&K spent Eid festival by staying indoors due to pandemic, say historians Owais Gul reports from Indian occupied Kashmir Srinagar, July 29:  As the Covid-19 pandemic shows no signs of getting away, the deadly virus has thrown open the gory memory lane of 1868 pandemic when people of the entire J&K spent Eid-ul-Azha (festival of sacrifices) by sitting in their homes. History has got repeated after almost the passing of a century. As per the historians, it was in 1868, when the people of Kashmir were reeling under similar circumstances due to the prevalence of pandemic, they spent Eid indoors. Since then, to date, no such calamity ever struck the Valley when people observed the festival of sacrifices by remaining confined to homes. This year, people already celebrated Eid-ul-Fitr amid pandemic—no extravaganza was seen anywhere and markets, restaurants remained shut. A prominent historian from Kashmir, Zareef Ahmad Zareef while talking to the news a...

Amjed Jaaved Even prestigious Indian newspapers sometimes publish reports or articles that smack of being pieces of state-sponsored disinformation.  Harvard’s criteria for detecting fake news could be applied to disinformation bloomers. Harvard suggests `everyone should vet a publisher’s credibility first and then check all the sources and citations’. James Carson’s offers tips in his article ` Fake news: What exactly is it – and how can you spot it ‘? ( Telegraph  January 31, 2019) Disinformation camouflaged in Op-Eds is hard to detect as they do not usually quote their sources of information. A case in point is Shishir Gupta’s article ` In Imran Khan’s 18-point Kashmir plan for Aug 5, outreach to Turkey, Malaysia and China’ , published in  Hindustan Times  dated July 28, 2020. Shishir writes, `With Pakistan Army expected to take the back seat, Imran Khan may go to occupied Kashmir [Azad Kashmir] to rake up anti-India sentiment in his assembly address to mark one...

Islamabad: The Pakistan Senate on Monday unanimously passed a resolution lauding the selfless and relentless struggle and sacrifices of Syed Ali Shah Gilani for the right of self-determination of the people of Occupied Jammu and Kashmir. The house lauded his unwavering commitment, dedication, preservance and leadership and his role in exposing Indian atrocities, suppressive measures and human rights violations in occupied Kashmir. The Senate also expressed concern over Syed Ali Shah Gilani’s continued unjustified house arrest in frail health at the age of 90 years. The resolution called upon the government to name the proposed ‘Pakistan University of Engineering and Emerging Technologies’ near Prime Minister House in Islamabad as ‘ Syed Ali Shah Gilani University of Engineering and Emerging Technologies. It also called upon to confer the highest Civil Award ‘ Nishan-e-Pakistan’ to Syed Ali Shah Gilani for his life-long services and sacrifices for the just and fair settlement of Kas...

Dr. Zeeshan Khan   From the very beginning, COVID-19 is affecting people in the worst way around the globe. The witch was when out of box, it actually engulfed more lives than any other calamity in the entire history of recent pandemics. Ranging from welfare states to developed countries and even developing and under-developed countries, all are affected badly to their cores. However, it was not only the virus which hit hard people as a disease but the resulted lockdown and shutdown of economies made all financially weak or more precisely landed them into quagmire of economic instability.  The poor and especially the daily wagers underwent complete condition of unemployment. Meanwhile, Oxfam International has warned that the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic could push half a billion more people into poverty unless urgent action is taken to bail out developing countries. The agency called on world leaders to agree an ‘Economic Rescue Package for All’ to keep p...

Faizaan Bashir See someone mentioning oxford university, and a great many intellects come to our mind, making us question the failures in producing one here in this part of the world. It’s a question worth meditating; however, it seems we have never given it a serious thought- where have we failed? All problems spring from the blunder done in the first place, that’s exactly what happens the day a teacher directs his/her students to learn by means of root learning. No learning of how things work needed. All a child is supposed to do is to read aloud, jot down a few dozen words, close the copy; and the next day he/she should be able to memorise everything ‘on tip of the tongue’. Bombarded by demands, on part of teachers, of memorizing topics for years on end, unfortunate students fail to discern the essence of education. Ask a student a few questions like where are they moving toward, why are they studying certain subjects, why are they becoming a certain person, you will witness the...

Jahangeer Ganaie reports from Indian occupied Kashmir Srinagar, July 28:  Jammu and Kashmir Tuesday recorded 489 fresh cases of COVID-19 pandemic including 79 travelers, taking the total number of positive cases in the UT to near 18879. With 489 new cases, the tally of positive cases in J&K has reached 18879 including 14812 from Kashmir and 4067 from Jammu division. Officials told news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), among 470 new cases, 355 belong to Kashmir division while as 134 are from Jammu division, officials said, adding that the total number of positive cases in Kashmir division has reached to 14812 including 8719 recoveries while as a total number of positive cases in Jammu division has reached to 4067 including 2166 recoveries and 24 deaths. The officials said that the total number of active cases in Jammu and Kashmir is 7661 including 5784 from the Kashmir division and 1877 from the Jammu division. With 483 more recoveries, the tally of total recoveries ...

47-year-old left home on July 16 to irrigate orchards, didn’t return, says family Jahangeer Ganaie reports from Indian occupied Kashmir Pulwama, July 27:  In Sough Kashmir’s Pulwama district, father of a slain Hizbul Mujahideen commander has gone missing forcing the family to lodge a missing complaint after failing to trace him for over two weeks. Abdul Hameed Chopan (47), the father of slain Hizb commander Adil Hizbi, left his home on July 16 and didn’t return. His wife Gulshana Bano said: “He left home and told us that he is going to irrigate the land. But he didn’t return back and we searched for him everywhere but couldn’t find anything about him forcing us to lodge a missing report at Police station Tral,” she told news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO). “We are now just three members left in our family—me, my daughter and my son who is pursuing a Bachelor’s Degree at Govt Degree College Tral. We have no one to feed us now.” She said that they don’t have any info on wheth...

  Jahangeer Ganaie reports from Indian occupied Kashmir   Srinagar, July 27:  Jammu and Kashmir Monday recorded 470 fresh cases of COVID-19 pandemic including 79 travelers taking the total number of positive cases 18390 in the UT. With 470 new cases, the tally of positive cases in J&K has reached to 18490 including 14457 from Kashmir and 3933 from Jammu division. Officials told news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), among 470 new cases, 309 belong to Kashmir division while as 161 are from Jammu division, officials said, adding that the total number of positive cases in Kashmir division has reached to 14457 including 8282 recoveries while as a total number of positive cases in Jammu division has reached to 3933 including 2120 recoveries and 23 deaths. They added that the total number of active cases in Jammu and Kashmir is 7667 including 5877 from the Kashmir division and 1790 from Jammu division. With 474 more recoveries, the tally of total recoveries in Jamm...

Altaf Hussain Wani  Colonization of Kashmir has since long been a holy grail dream for the Indian establishment, mainstream political parties especially the radical right-wing parties’ leaders, who derive legitimacy and strength from the Hiduvata ideology propounded by Vinayak Damodar Savarkar the founding leader of Hindu Mahasabha who in response to Islamic and European nationalism constructed and conceptualized the idea of Akhand Bharat (‘Hindu Nation’). From Nehru to Modi every Indian ruler had played a villainous role to rob Kashmiris of whatever they were promised in the name of ‘so-called internal autonomy’, guaranteed to Kashmir under the article 370 of the Indian constitution. A case study of the Kashmir conflict substantiates this widely held view that ever since India gained its control over the territory of Jammu and Kashmir in 1947 the successive Indian governments had religiously pursued and practiced neo-colonial politics, which interestingly, goes in synch with th...

Jahangeer Ganaie reports from Indian occupied Kashmir   Srinagar, July 26:  Jammu and Kashmir Sunday recorded 615 fresh cases of COVID-19 pandemic including 145 travelers taking the total number of positive cases 17920 With 615 new cases, the tally of positive cases in J&K has reached to 17920 including 14148 from Kashmir and 3772 from Jammu division. Officials told news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), among 615 new cases, 479  belong to Kashmir division while as 136 are from Jammu division, officials said, adding that the total number of positive cases in Kashmir division has reached to 14148 including 7920 recoveries while as a total number of positive cases in Jammu division have reached to 3372 including 2008 recoveries and 23 deaths. They added that the total number of active cases in Jammu and Kashmir is 7680 including 5939 from the Kashmir division and 1741 from Jammu division. With 411 more recoveries, the tally of total recoveries in Jammu and Kashm...

Srinagar / London / Washington / Toronto / Islamabad, July 26: The Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) President Sardar Masood Khan has said that the latest happenings in the Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IOJK) should be an eye-opener for the international community. “The people around the globe will have to feel Kashmir through their hearts because what is happening in Kashmir is heart rendering. A big population in a big area is imprisoned and there is no international intervention at all,’ the President said. Addressing a webinar on Saturday 25th July 2020 organized by an international organization “Justice for All”, President Masood said that the entire held territory has been a big prison and the entire population had been imprisoned for the last one year, but the UN Security Council and the Western nations which claimed to be the custodians of humanitarian laws and the human rights have been adopting a mysterious silence. The Indian actions in the held territory, he mai...

New Delhi (PR): “India probably has up to 30 million undetected cases and could have a total of 100 million cases of COVID-19 in 6 weeks….it needs to do 40 million tests as of today… I’m very proud of Delhi, I’ve been monitoring it every day and fairly confident it’s gone through its peak… India’s death rate is reassuringly low even if underreported by a factor of 10…but I’m concerned about the spread of COVID to villages and we must not let too many fall sick at the same time”: Bhramar Mukherjee, Professor of Epidemiology and Head of Department of Biostatistics at the University of Michigan. ……………….. One of the United States’ most highly regarded epidemiologists, who has been working on mathematical models of the trajectory of COVID-19 in India, says India probably already has up to 30 million cases and in the next six weeks the total is likely to jump to 100 million. Prof Brahmar Mukherjee says the tally of 30 million includes the present official figure of 1.3 million and further...

KNO reports from Indian occupied Kashmir Srinagar, July 25:  A Kashmiri youth, Ayaan Khan, from the Old City area of Srinagar is touching heights for his tremendous work and was featured   in   World’s prominent Magazine Forbes India. After getting featured in leading newspapers and Magazines like America Daily Post, The Respect Magazine, Hindustan Times,  Yahoo, The Statesman, Midday, Latestly, Your Story, NNL & IWMBUZZ and getting awarded with the ‘The Youngest Philanthropist’ title, the youth have made it to World’s Most Powerful Magazine Forbes India, a statement issued to the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO) reads. “In a first of its kind in the history of Kashmir, any young Kashmiri Lad has been featured in Forbes India. When most of the people only dream about it Ayaan Khan achieved it,” Khan’s manager, Danish Ahmad said. “Ayaan Khan comes from a society, which radicalizes and obstructs youth from joining the Entertainment Industry. But, Khan wa...

Nasir Azam reports from Indian occupied Kashmir   Srinagar, July 25:  The Government of India is likely to make modifications in almost 30 state laws to facilitate their application to Jammu & Kashmir Union Territory. Highly placed sources told news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO) that Centre would soon come up with modifications in nearly 30 laws which were retained under the J&K Re-Organisation Act. “These modifications have become necessary to ensure administrative effectiveness and remove ambiguity in implementation of these laws due to conversion of J&K into a Union Territory,” they said, adding that Ministry of Home Affairs has already made adaptations and modifications, either by way of repeal or amendment, in 138 state laws. On March 31, the Centre unveiled Jammu & Kashmir Re-Organisation (Adaptation of State Law) Order 2020, to facilitate the application of laws enacted by J&K’s erstwhile state legislature to the UT. Under section 96 of J...