News Kvartha

Srinagar, July 28 (IANS) Life was adversely affected here and in other major towns of the valley Saturday following a shutdown called by the separatists to protest the killing of a youth by the army four days ago. Markets, public transport, other businesses, colleges and universities remained closed in Srinagar city following a protest shutdown called by hardline separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani. The shutdown was called to protest the killing of 19-year-old Hilal Ahmad Dar in Aloosa village of north Kashmir Bandipora district by the army Tuesday. Some private transport and three-wheelers, however, moved on the city roads where government offices, post offices and banks functioned normally. Dar had left the village mosque after the Ramadan evening prayers when he was killed by the army in a firing incident Tuesday. The army stated the slain youth was an armed militant. But, according to the victim's father and villagers, he was not involved in any militant activity. Defence Minis...

By Sheikh Qayoom  Srinagar, July 25 (IANS) With 10 more pilgrims dying since Saturday, the death toll from natural causes during this year's Amarnath Yatra has risen to 98. Lack of acclimatization, high-altitude sickness, bogus health certificates and systemic failure could be among the causes, doctors say. A crucial factor that could contribute to the deaths of pilgrims is the lack of acclimatization which is an absolute must before undertaking high-altitude expeditions, said Parvaiz Koul, head of medicine at the Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS), Jammu and Kashmir's only super-specialty hospital. "Pilgrims just get up from Baltal and Pahalgam (the two base camps for the Yatra) and start the uphill trek without any proper acclimatization. To safely negotiate the high pressure gradient, one must acclimatize for at least three to four days," Koul told IANS. "Acclimatization must be made compulsory for the pilgrims to avoid high altitude sic...

Srinagar, July 23 (IANS) A mosque in a Jammu and Kashmir village was torched, leading to a shutdown in the area Monday and street protests as locals demanded that the arsonists be brought to justice. According to witnesses, scores of slogan shouting villagers took to the streets in Badgam's Wohangam village, about 25 km from here. Markets and business establishments shut down and traffic was suspended in the adjacent Magam town on the Srinagar-Gulmarg highway as news about the mosque desecration spread. The mosque had been torched Sunday night. "The wooden frames, doors and windows on the second floor of the mosque was torched by miscreants. This has resulted in tension," Abdul Rashid, a villager, told IANS over telephone. Senior police officers rushed to the area and assured the people that the guilty would be punished. The government has advised all shrine committees in the valley to depute 'watch and ward' staff at religious places. It has also directed police...

Srinagar, July 16 (IANS) Around 500,000 pilgrims have so far performed this year's Amarnath Yatra that began June 25, an official said Monday. Eighty-six pilgrims have died during this period. "With 17,174 pilgrims having 'Darshan' at the holy Amarnath cave yesterday, the total number of pilgrims who performed the Yatra so far has gone up to 482,598. The Yatra started here June 25 and 86 pilgrims died due to natural causes till today," said a senior official of the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) which manages the affairs of the Hindu pilgrimage. Officially, only 350,000 pilgrims had registered for this year's Yatra from different places of the country. The pilgrims use both the north Kashmir Baltal and the south Kashmir Pahalgam route to reach the Himalayan Cave shrine at 13,000 feet which houses an ice stalagmite structure believed by devotees to symbolize the mythological powers of Lord Shiva. While the uphill trek from the Baltal base camp to the cave i...

Srinagar, July 7 (IANS) Five separatist guerrillas have been killed in a three-day long gun battle in Kashmir, an official said here Saturday. "Five terrorists have been killed in the (Zachaldara) Handwara gun battle that ended late yesterday night," J.S. Brar, spokesman for the army's Srinagar based 15th corps said. "Three houses were destroyed in the gunfight between the security forces and the terrorists. "The houses were used by the hiding terrorists as fortified bunkers from where they engaged the security forces in sustained automatic gunfire," the spokesman said. Four soldiers and a police constable were injured in the exchange of gunfire.

Srinagar, July 4 (IANS) A recruitment module of the terror group Laskhar-e-Taiba (LeT) has been busted in Jammu and Kashmir's Baramulla district and seven peoplehave been arrested, police said Wednesday, adding that a "major terror and subversion plan" has been averted. Locals were being recruited into the LeT to "execute various terrorist actions" in Sopore, about 50 km from here, a police statement said. A Pakistani terrorist called Fahadullah was also operating in the area, it added. "Police in Sopore town have busted a recruitment module of terrorist outfit LeT, thus averting a major terror and subversion plan of the terrorists. Seven members of the terror module were arrested from different areas of Sopore town and adjoining areas," the statement said. It added that "local boys were recruited into the outfit, building a network of LeT operatives who were bent upon executing various terrorist actions in and around Sopore in criminal conspirac...

Srinagar, July 4 (IANS) A Kashmiri religious group Jamaat-e-Islami has asked tourists visiting the valley to follow a "proper dress code" and told the tourism department to enforce it. "Some tourists, mostly foreigners, are seen wandering in short mini-skirts and other objectionable dresses here openly, which is quite against the local ethos and culture and is not acceptable to the civil society at all," Jamaat-e-Islami said in a statement Tuesday evening. The group said it was the duty of the tourism department to tell tourists to honour local ethos. "Kashmiris cannot for the sake of their economy give up their divine values at any cost," it said. "We need no such guests who can become a cause of derailing the society from the right track and spread immorality and immodesty in the name of tourism." Zahid Ali, an advocate associated with the group, said: "Jamaat-e-Islami J&K (Jammu and Kashmir) cautions people against the well designed ...

Srinagar, July 3 (IANS) Another participant of the Mughal Road Car Rally injured in an accident Sunday died in a hospital here Tuesday. "Ashish Mahajan, the injured navigator of the car rally who was admitted to Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences Soura yesterday (Monday), died today," Aamir Ali, disaster management cell in-charge at the provincial headquarters, told IANS. "Earlier, the driver, Jitender Singh, died after the car fell into a gorge in Sinthan," Ali said. The prize distribution ceremony for the winners of the 600-km rally scheduled for Monday was cancelled following Singh's death. Sixty-seven people took part in the rally which was flagged off Saturday from the edge of the famed Dal Lake in Srinagar by Minister of State for Tourism Nasir Aslam Wani. Indian automobile giants-- Tata Motors, Maruti Suzuki and Mahindra-- participated in the event.

Srinagar, June 25 (IANS) The Peer Dastgeer Sahib shrine here was gutted Monday but the holy relic of the 11th century Muslim saint is safe, an official said. "The holy relic (a hair of the saint's beard) was kept in a fire/burglary proof vault inside the shrine. The holy relic is safe and has been retrieved," a senior official of the state government told IANS. Tension, however, continued in Srinagar city in the wake of the devastating fire that destroyed the over 300-year-old wooden shrine in the Khanyar area. Groups of youths stone pelted and clashed with the police in Khanyar, where a mob attacked a police station. Police used batons and tear smoke canisters to disperse the protesters, three of whom have been shifted to hospital following symptoms of choking due to smoke. "The youth are out of danger," a police officer said. A spontaneous shutdown crippled life in the old city areas, where traffic was diverted to uptown areas by the police. Dozens of fire te...

Srinagar, June 16 (IANS) Indian Army chief, General Bikram Singh Saturday called on Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah in Srinagar. An official statement issued here said, "Various matters relating to the prevailing security situation in the state were discussed during the meeting. The GoC-in-C (Northern Command) Lieutenant General K.T. Parnaik and GoC 15 Corps Lieutenant General Om Prakash were also present in the meeting." General Bikram Singh is visiting some forward areas along the Line of Control (LoC) in the Kashmir Valley Saturday. He arrived here Friday on his two-day maiden visit to Jammu and Kashmir after he took over the reins of the country's over 1.2 million strong army.

Srinagar, June 15 (IANS) Militants Friday afternoon shot at and killed a prominent ruling National Conference (NC) worker here. A senior police officer said militants fired pistol shots from a close range at Abdul Rahman Ganai, an NC worker who was returning home after offering Friday prayers in a local mosque at Natipora in uptown Srinagar. "Ganai received two critical bullet injuries and succumbed while being shifted to hospital for treatment," the officer said. His body was shifted to police hospital later. Senior police officers rushed to the spot. Police parties searched the area. No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack. -

Srinagar, June 11 (IANS) Two tremors of moderate intensity rocked the Kashmir Valley Monday morning. No loss of life or damage to property has been reported so far, according to Met office here.

By Nikhil Walia  Srinagar, June 11 (IANS) The natural beauty of the Kashmir Valley is an overpowering sight after traversing the 2.5-km bleakly-lit Jawahar Tunnel. Cradled in the midst of towering mountains, Kashmir is a rich canvas of all shades of green, with wild flowers sprinkled liberally everywhere. All along the way to Srinagar, the roadside is a riot of colours with even the smallest households having a beautiful garden, with roses and pansies in full bloom. The natural beauty of the land comes as a great contrast to the bunkers of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), fortified with sandbags, manned by gunmen and surrounded by rolls of razor wire. Once inside Srinagar, the state capital, the presence of security personnel increases substantially, with bunkers and riot control vehicles on almost every street and crossing. "Some sort of unrest happens here almost every day but you don't have to worry. You are from outside and they don't hurt tourists," ...

Srinagar, April 23 ( IANS) After hailstorms and gusty winds at some places Sunday, the weather office here forecast improvement in the weather across the Kashmir Valley Monday. "We had forecast well in advance that some places would be lashed with gusty winds and hailstorms. But, from Monday onwards, there would be improvement in the weather and increase in day temperatures," Sonam Lotus, director of the local weather office told IANS. Due to the inclement weather, the minimum temperature at Gulmarg, a ski resort in north Kashmir, dropped below the freezing point Sunday night. "The minimum temperature fell to minus 0.2 degree in Gulmarg today. The minimum was 9.4 in Srinagar, 6.2 in Pahalgam, 1.6 in Leh and 2.6 in Kargil town. There was 15.8 mm of rainfall in Gulmarg during the past 24 hours," said another official at the Met Office. As the paddy sowing season is on across the valley these days, inclement weather is worrying the local farmers. "It is...

Srinagar, April 11 (IANS) A Kashmiri working as a reporter for Hindi daily Amar Ujala was found dead under mysterious circumstances in Srinagar Wednesday, police said. Ashok Razdan, 45, was found dead at his Indira Nagar residence. Razdan, a Kashmiri Pandit, lived along with a servant in the rented house in the high security Indira Nagar locality, three kilometres away from city centre Lal Chowk. Razdan's family had shifted out of the valley in 1987 to Udhampur district of Jammu region before the outbreak of insurgency in the valley. Police said a case has been registered and an inquiry was being ordered. The servant and two others living on rent in the building where Razdan's body was found are being questioned by police.

By Sheikh Qayoom  Srinagar, April 11 (IANS) Every dog seems to be having his day in the Jammu and Kashmir summer capital. The stray population of the canines in Srinagar is over 100,000 and the daily incidents of dog bite are assuming alarming proportions. "If the government still shies away from its responsibility to bring the canine population under control, we will poison dogs in our locality. It is better to be in jail for killing dogs than be bitten and mauled by them," said Zaffar Ahmad, 42, a resident of the Batmaloo area. Doctors at the SMHS Hospital say the number of people reporting with dog bites is already over 100 a day. "The number of patients reporting with dog bites at the hospital has reached over a hundred per day," Mudasir, a doctor who treats dog bite cases at SMHS Hospital, told IANS. Mudasir also said the majority of patients reporting dog bites are children and they have been turning up at the hospital with serious injuries. "I was carr...

By Rajat Ghai and Sheikh Qayoom New Delhi/Srinagar, April 9 (IANS) Shahtoosh, the very very name signifies royalty and kingship, a Farsi word meaning 'King of Wools'. And each shawl, delicate and ethereal, costs hundreds of thousands of rupees in the illegal market. But can the shahtoosh industry, banned in India, be revived again by rearing the delicate Chiru antelopes in farms and obtaining their prized fur without killing the animals? While the artisans from Jammu and Kashmir, who are in danger of forgetting the age-old weaving craft for the shahtoosh, say that the ban should be lifted, the state government does not seem to have done much to revive an art form that could fetch it good money. Earlier, the wool for Shahtoosh was obtained non-violently. The Chiru antelope would shed its hairs, which were procured by locals, who then sold it to weavers. Shahtoosh products were an important cottage industry in the Kashmir Valley. But, pushed by the lure of modern consum...

Srinagar, April 7 (IANS) Life across Srinagar and other towns of Kashmir Valley were affected Saturday by a shutdown called by hardline senior separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani against the conviction of Kashmiri separatist Ghulam Nabi Fai by a US court last month, police said. Shops, businesses, public transport and classes in the educational institutions remained suspended because of the shutdown in the city. Banks, post offices, government offices, however, functioned here even though the attendance was thin because of non-availability of public transport. Private transport and some three-wheelers plied normally on the city roads. Reports from other district headquarters of Baramulla, Kupwara, Anantnag, Pulwama, Shopian, Kulgam, Ganderbal, Badgam and Bandipora also indicated the shutdown had affected normal life there as well. No untoward incident has so far been reported from anywhere, police said. The authorities have made deployments of riot control squads at vulnerable places ...

Srinagar, April 4 (IANS) History flowed down the Jhelum River in this Jammu and Kashmir summer capital WEdnesday as the authorities started dismantling the six-decade-old Zero Bridge - said to be so named because it was constructed by a contractor who was deaf! "The bridge was constructed by a local contractor who was deaf. 'Zorr' means deaf in Kashmiri and the bridge was initially known as the 'Zorr Bridge' which later changed to Zero Bridge," said an elder living across the Jhelum River in Rajbagh residential area. Since its caved in wooden planks and piers could no longer support vehicular traffic, the Zero Bridge, located two kilometres from city centre Lal Chowk, was closed for vehicular traffic two decades ago. Only pedestrian movement was allowed on this historic bridge after its closure, as paramilitary bunkers were constructed on both sides of the bridge with the beginning of the separatist violence in Kashmir in the late 1980s. The bridge is close t...

Srinagar, April 3 (IANS) Wholesale and retail gold traders of the Kashmir Valley continued their strike for the 16th day Tuesday against the excise duty hike on branded and unbranded gold in 2012-2013 union budget. "We are not against the hike in the customs duty on the sale of gold, but our agitation is against the proposed imposition of excise duty on the sale of gold," Muhammad Iqbal, spokesman of the Valley's wholesale and retail gold traders, said here. Local gold sellers have shut their business establishments across the Valley for the last 16 days and have threatened to continue their agitation till the proposed imposition of excise on sale of gold is rolled back. "We will continue our agitation till the union finance minister, Pranab Mukherjee withdraws the proposal," the spokesman said. The traders maintain that the prices of gold are already touching the sky and any further burden by way of imposition of excise duty would deal a serious blow to their...