Political parties, cutting across affiliations and ideologies, Friday welcomed the Kashmir rail link inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, hoping for a boost in trade and tourism in the valley.
A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Jammu and Kashmir, Hurriyat Conference Chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq was released from house arrest on March 8, 2024.
'People on both sides of Line of Control should observe a complete shutdown on January 26 to impress upon the world community that unless India fulfills the promises made to people of Kashmir, they will continue their struggle'.
Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani will meet its representatives on March 27.
Earlier this week, the Centre cleared the decks for people from across the country to buy land in the union territory by amending several laws. Most shops, petrol pumps and other business establishments were shut in Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir, the officials said.
Expressing grief over the Uttarakhand tragedy, the moderate Hurriyat Conference on Friday demanded restricting Amarnath Yatra to an earlier schedule to safeguard the fragile environment of Himalayas.
The 45-year-old separatist leader, arrested last week on charges of waging war against the country and sedition, was booked under Public Safety Act on Thursday and shifted to Kotbhalwal Jail in Jammu.
In an interview to Kashmir daily The Rehmat the outfit's spokesman Junaid-ul-Islam claimed the Hizb was not carrying out suicide attacks.
This is the first result of talks between the PM and Hurriyat.
None of its candidates won. Most of them lost badly.
Hurriyat Conference chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq was released from house arrest on Friday, September 22, 2023, four years after he was taken into detention.
Rajnath came down heavily on the National Conference-Congress alliance over its poll promise of restoring Article 370 and said it is impossible as long as the BJP is there.
'We want to ensure that no government in J&K will be formed without our support.'
Bharatiya Janata Party leader Yashwant Sinha on Tuesday created ripples as he led a five-member delegation of civil society members to meet separatist leaders Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq in a bid to break the three-month impasse in Kashmir triggered by the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen militant Burhan Wani.
Hurriyat said Dulat's "primary goal was to defame the Kashmir freedom movement and spread lies about it".
Pakistan's ruler Pervez Musharraf and his top diplomats made a U-turn on talks with India after the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee released Hurriyat leaders in early 2000 as part of his peace initiatives on Kashmir, according to a declassified US cable.
Justice Muzaffar Hussain Attar, while allowing Bhat's plea challenging the latest of the detention orders under Public Safety Act, held his detention illegal on several grounds.
Mehbooba Mufti said she will not contest the assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir, pointing out that she would not be able to fulfil her party's agenda in the union territory set up even if she were to become the chief minister.
In its third summons, issued last week, the NIA promised him security.
All opposition members of the parliamentary panel on the Waqf Amendment Bill were suspended for a day on Friday amid continuous protests and accusations against Chairman Jagdambika Pal of steam-rolling through the proceedings.
Former separatist leader Bilal Gani Lone has entered mainstream politics, aiming to represent his father's legacy and address the issues facing Kashmiri youth.
With his claim that some ministers in Jammu and Kashmir were paid to buy stability, former Army chief V K Singh has opened a "can of worms" and has undermined the legitimacy of successive governments in the state since 1947, moderate Hurriyat Conference chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq said.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has accused Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi of raising questions on sensitive defence matters in Parliament after his marriage to a British citizen. Sarma alleged that Gogoi's wife, Elizabeth Colburn, has links with the Pakistani establishment, including working for an organisation allegedly a front for the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). Gogoi has rejected the allegations as "baseless" and said the BJP is trying to divert attention from its own failures.
The ruling National Conference-Congress coalition in Jammu and Kashmir received a severe drubbing in the Lok Sabha elections as the coalition could not win even a single seat of the 6 in the state.
Hardline Hurriyat Conference leader Masarat Alam Bhat, who had been in custody under the Public Safety Act since April 2015, was released from Kathua district jail but subsequently re-arrested in another case.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday accused the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government of encouraging Hurriyat Conference leaders to hobnob with anti-India elements abroad by allowing them to visit Pakistan. BJP was referring to the purported meetings held in Pakistan by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq-led Hurriyat delegation with Lashkar-e-Tayiba chief Hafiz Saeed, Hizbul chief Sayed Salah-ud-Din and senior functionaries of the Inter Services Intelligence.
The panel had first visited the Valley in October after which it had recommended an immediate ban on use of pellet guns by security forces.
The moderate All Parties Hurriyat Conference has urged the Narendra Modi government to adopt the path of Bharatiya Janata Party veteran Atal Behari Vajpayee with regard to Kashmir.
Today, you give away Kashmir, tomorrow you will have to give away Hyderabad and then Coimbatore and then Moradabad and so on.
It said a "sudden rise" in terrorist-financing investigations was seen in 2023 and this was attributed to events arising out of incidents in Manipur that led to such probes in more than 50 cases.
The chargesheet, filed by the State Investigation Agency, has highlighted several instances where parents were taken across the border using valid travel documents but were later compelled to pay extra money for their wards' admission to universities and colleges there.
Geelani, who was a member of banned Jamaat-e-Islami and chairman of hardline Hurriyat Conference, had been suffering from various ailments for nearly last two decades.
The Centre will extend invitation to all shades of opinion in Jammu and Kashmir, including Hurriyat Conference, to find ways for resolution of Kashmir issue and restore peace in the state, which has witnessed separatist-sponsored agitation for last three weeks.
Authorities were gearing up to question Geelani following claims made by his aide G M Bhat that the money was meant for Geelani and his Tehreek-e-Hurriyat, an amalgam created as a parallel to Hurriyat Conference led by Mirwaiz Umer Farooq.
Moderate All Parties Hurriyat Conference Chairman Mirwaiz Moulvi Umar Farooq on Friday confirmed that Dileep Padgaonkar, veteran journalist and one of the interlocutors appointed by the Centre for Kashmir, had called him for a meeting. "Dileep Padgaonkar called me on Thursday and requested a meeting, which I declined. I told Padgaonkar that it was our stand not to meet them as long as our demands are not met," the Mirwaiz said.
Hurriyat Conference leader Bilal Lone and his brother Sajjad broke their silence on the assassination of their father and separatist leader Abdul Gani Loni, 11 years after his death in 2002. The Lone brothers response comes almost a week after former Hurriyat Conference Chairman Abdul Gani Bhat created flutter by saying that Abdul Gani Lone was killed by their own men.
The meeting is seen as a rebuff to Jamaat leader and chairman of the breakaway Hurriyat Conference faction Syed Ali Shah Geelani, who has been asking Pakistan to stay away from the Hurriyat's moderate leadership.
In a communication to the Jamaat-e-Islami leader, OIC functionary Abdul Ahad-al-Aziz addressed Geelani as the chairman of the Hurriyat Conference, sources close to Geelani told PTI.
