The Delhi High Court has ordered Jammu and Kashmir MP Abdul Rashid Sheikh, alias Engineer Rashid, to deposit Rs 4 lakh with the prison authorities as travel expenses for attending Parliament. The court allowed Rashid to attend the ongoing Parliament session "in-custody" till April 4, but the NIA had raised concerns about him being a flight risk. Rashid has been lodged in Delhi's Tihar Jail since 2019 after the NIA arrested him in a 2017 terror-funding case.
Every trick in the trade is being tried unabashedly.
In simple arithmetical terms every possible 'arrangement' is being made to deny a majority to its rivals. A split verdict would hand a vital advantage to the BJP which is adept at extracting the best out of such a situation, notes Mohammad Sayeed Malik, the distinguished commentator on Kashmir affairs.
A prominent separatist leader, Shabir Shah, was on Tuesday evening released after months of detention after the Jammu and Kashmir government revoked his detention under the stringent Public Safety Act. Shah was arrested in June this year during protests against the rape and murder of two women in south Kashmir's Shopian town.
Additional sessions judge Chander Jit Singh granted the relief to Rashid, who had moved the court seeking interim bail to campaign in the upcoming Jammu and Kashmir assembly elections.
The first phase of polling, held on September 18, saw an estimated 61.38 per cent voter turnout, while the final phase is set to take place on October 1 in the crucial elections being held after 10 years.
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.
While Jamaat cannot take part in the elections due to the ban imposed on it by the Union home ministry, it had shown interest in participating in the polls during the Lok Sabha elections if the ban were removed.
The Sena alleged that the meeting between Pakistan envoy Abdul Basit and separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani at a time when secretary-level talks between India and Pakistan have just resumed, has been "inspired" by Sayeed.
In his first public appearance following his release from four-year house arrest on Friday, Hurriyat Conference chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq reiterated the stand of his separatist amalgam that the issue of Jammu and Kashmir has to be resolved through dialogue and peaceful means.
Giving a clean chit to the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), the Centre said "unruly mobs" were behind the violence in the Kashmir Valley and asserted that the government would not cow down to the separatists' tactics.
In a crackdown on separatists, the Jammu and Kashmir police on Thursday arrested over 70 people, for allegedly funding and fomenting trouble in the state.With a near curfew-like situation prevailing in the Valley after the death of a boy on Sunday, a major crackdown began in the wee hours of today morning when separatist leaders Shabir Shah and Nayeem Khan were arrested. Additional police forces were deployed outside the residence of Mirwaiz Umar Farooq.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah announced on Friday that another constituent of the separatist amalgam Hurriyat Conference, the Jammu and Kashmir Mass Movement, has rejected secessionism and declared complete commitment to the unity of the country. This marks the 12th Hurriyat-linked organization to break off from separatism and reaffirm their trust in the Indian Constitution. Shah attributed this trend to the unifying policies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government, which he believes has "tossed" separatism out of Jammu and Kashmir.
The arrest came minutes before Geelani was scheduled to address a press conference regarding the ongoing protests against the alleged rape and murder of two young women in south Kashmir Shopian town on Saturday last.
After People's League chief Sheikh Abdul Aziz last week, Shabir Shah has joined the moderate separatist All Parties Hurriyat Conference headed by Mirwaiz Moulvi Umar Farooq.
Shah said stringent actions would be taken against any individual who jeopardises the nation's security.
More than 40 per cent of the 908 candidates contesting the assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir are Independents, leading to claims that a large number of them have been propped up by the Bharatiya Janata Party to divide votes.
Markets, banks, semi-government institutions were closed and transport remained off the roads in Srinagar and other major towns in the state in response to the call given by hardline faction of Hurriyat Conference to protest against booking of its chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani under Public Safety Act (PSA) and continued detention of other separatist leaders.
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.
Not everyone in Jammu and Kashmir is optimistic about the alliance between the Peoples Democratic Party and Bhartaiya Janata Party. Upasna Pandey/Rediff.com spoke to Kashmiri pandit organisations to find out how they view the new coalition politics in the valley.
With Shah's arrest, the authorities have detained almost the entire top brass of the two groups of separatist conglomerate, All Parties Hurriyat Conference, some of whom including Dukhtarani Milaat chief Asiya Andrabi have been detained under harsh Public Safety Act. A senior police officer said Shabir Shah was arrested from a house in the uptown Rawalpora locality on Friday morning. He was immediately taken to an undisclosed destination.
Malik and Jamiat-e-Ahli Hadees president Moulvi Showkat Shah were arrested in the wee hours on Thursday from their respective residences in Maisuma and Lal Bazaar areas of the city.
Even Ajmal Kasab was given a fair trial in our country, the Supreme Court on Thursday remarked and indicated it may set up a courtroom inside Tihar Jail for the trial of J-K separatist leader Yasin Malik in a kidnapping case.
The home minister, however, said the government will make an exception in case someone from a family comes forward and informs the authorities that his or her close relative has joined a terror outfit.
Sajjad is the younger son of Hurriyat leader Abdul Gani Lone who was assassinated on May 21, 2002, by militants
Hardline separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani and dozens of Shia mourners were on Thursday detained as police scuttled separatist plan to mark the fourth day ceremony of slain trucker Zahid Bhat and stage a Muharram procession in violation of prohibitory orders.
Kashmiri separatist leader Masarat Alam was freed from Baramulla district jail.
A massive manhunt is underway for three foreign terrorists, possibly of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, responsible for the deadly attack on pilgrims in Jammu and Kashmir's Reasi that resulted in the loss of nine lives, including a two-year-old, officials involved in the investigation said on Monday.
Saddam, a businessman, is the eldest among the two siblings. He has studied in England. Sofiya Nabi Azad, his sister, has studied journalism.
Sayeed said he was disappointed over the abrupt cancellation of talks but hoped that break would be "temporary".
Several politicians, including the former J-K chief ministers Mehbooba Mufti and Omar Abdullah, have condemned the action by police, alleging that it will disaffect the youths with such an extreme punishment.
Unidentified persons attacked the house of a senior religious and separatist leader in Srinagar late Tuesday evening. Suspected militants tossed a powerful hand grenade at the residence of Moulvi Showkat Ahmad Shah, chairman of the Jamiat Ahle-hadees at Lal Bazaar in downtown Srinagar.
He said the state had suffered heavily on all fronts due to militancy.
The opposition Peoples Democratic Party Monday described the meeting between the foreign policy adviser to Pakistani Prime Minister Sartaj Aziz and the separatist All Parties Hurriyat Conference leaders as a 'welcome revival of the process initiated by the National Democratic Alliance government' and said that 'it should be carried forward in all its dimensions'.
Rashid was arrested on August 9 last year, since he was unable to give any convincing answers to the questions, the NIA said.
For the last four years since abrogation of Article 370, Kashmir-based political parties have been struggling to forge an alternate narrative to the one forcibly snatched from them. The BJP is bound to go hammer and tongs at them now that their armoury is reinforced with the Supreme Court judgment, notes Mohammad Sayeed Malik, the veteran commentator on Kashmir affairs.
Six senior separatist leaders, including hardline Hurriyat Conference leader Syed Ali Geelani and Shabir Ahmad Shah, were on Friday put under house arrest.
The probe into the killing of Jammu and Kashmir Police inspector Masroor Ahmad Wani has been handed over to the National Investigation Agency (NIA), a senior police officer said in Srinagar on Friday.
Attacking Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh for opposing its proposed flag hoisting at Lal Chowk in Sringar, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday accused the Centre and the state government of "surrendering" to separatists who have declared that they will not let the tricolour be unfurled.
Sama Shabir Shah says she used to study outside Tihar Jail while waiting for hours to be allowed to meet her father.
Defending the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution, the Centre on Monday told the Supreme Court that the entire region of Jammu and Kashmir has witnessed an "unprecedented" era of peace, progress and prosperity, with street violence, orchestrated by terrorists and secessionist networks, becoming "a thing of the past."
