The mass exodus of the Kashmiri Pandit community changed the very cultural ethos of Kashmir and there has been little turnback despite three decades having gone by since it got triggered by growing fundamentalism fuelled from across the border, Supreme Court judge Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul said on Monday.
On the controversial AFSPA, the home minister said, "We will also think of revoking AFSPA."
The National Investigation Agency has charge sheeted Dilawar Iqbal -- a right-hand man of Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) chief Maulana Masood Azhar Alvi -- and Kupwara-resident Mohammed Ubaid Malik for allegedly conspiring to disturb the peace and communal harmony of Jammu and Kashmir by attacking security forces, officials said on Wednesday.
The kind of freedom Kashmir is enjoying today is not there even in Islamic countries like Afghanistan, Syria, Turkey and Pakistanis, Mufti said.
Businesses have resumed but it's not business as usual in the capital city of Bangladesh.
The Taliban government in Afghanistan is not going anywhere. That being the case, why is the hesitation to establish formal diplomatic relations with the Taliban? asks Lieutenant General Prakash Katoch (Retd).
Why has the BJP taken such great interest in the film? Not to put too fine a point on it, a possible reason is its propaganda value. Since the film shows the plight of the Kashmiri Pandits during their exodus from the Valley, Muslims are depicted in a poor light, observes Amulya Ganguli.
Author and former Bollywood actor Twinkle Khanna is being criticised on social media for making a tongue-in-cheek remark about the film The Kashmir Files in her Sunday column for a leading daily.
National Security Advisor Ajit Doval on Friday called Mahatma Gandhi 'a great strategist' and said that the revered Indian leader knew the importance of utilising soft power against the brute forces during the freedom struggle.
The fatwa was issued against the Jamaat-ud-Dawah chief by Mufti Mohammed Saleem Barelvi, an Islamic seminary in Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh.
The action, announced by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, is a response to the group's involvement in fomenting terrorism and spreading anti-India sentiment within the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
The Islamabad Declaration was issued at the conclusion of the 48th session of the foreign minister of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation which was attended by the ministers and delegates from 57 Muslim states and international organisations.
The encounter took place at Malbagh, a locality near Hazratbal shrine, when security forces, acting on an intelligence input, started a cordon and search operation, they said.
As many as 54 supporters IS have been arrested in the country, Lok Sabha was informed.
A total of 10 members of Hizbul Mujahideen, Lashkar-e-Tayiba and other proscribed outfits were on Tuesday designated as terrorists by the Union ministry of home affairs under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
A change in the name of the Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) magazine 'suggests a refocusing' of the terror group from Afghanistan to Kashmir, a United Nations report has said.
'.. if the cost is its own survival,' says Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
'If Islamic extremists regain power in Afghanistan, Pakistan will lead them to Kashmir as a fighting arena again. India needs to fortify Kashmir and prepare against these Islamic extremists before they come again.'
'The undiminished threat, therefore, has the potency of sustaining itself in multiple ways in the near and medium term.' 'The state agencies need to utilize innovative methods in countering radicalization and violent extremism to address this growing threat'.
Rushdie, whose latest book Shalimar the Clown is set against the backdrop of Kashmir, said terrorists have brought 'an intolerant Islam into the Kashmir valley'.
'It was always anticipated that the return of the Taliban would embolden armed Islamists including anti-India groups like the Lashkar and Jaish.'
At a time when the Kashmir valley has been shut down, it is perhaps appropriate that we remember Lal Ded, Kashmir's best known spiritual and literary figure, someone remembered with divine adoration both by Hindus and Muslims in Kashmir. A fascinating excerpt from Sandhya Mulchandani's For The Love Of God: Women Poet Saints Of The Bhakti Movement.
Amid India's concerns that Afghanistan's territory might be used for anti-India activities under the Taliban regime, the terror group has said that it has the right to raise its voice for Muslims anywhere, including in Kashmir. However, it added that the group does not have a policy of raising arms against any country.
French journalist Nicolas Henin was captured by the terrorist organisation, the Islamic State, and spent 10 months in captivity explains how the growth of the Islamic State is result of the West's limitation in seeing the IS merely as a terrorist organisation while ignoring its political message and goals.
The police attached the residential house of Sanaullah Mir at Turigam in Kulgam after obtaining legal sanction from the competent authorities (divisional commissioner, Kashmir), a spokesman said.
'We should give azaadi to Jammu and Ladakh from the domination of Kashmir valley politics,' suggests Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
'Quiet back channel advice will probably be rendered by Saudi Arabia to India that international perception on both issues does not favour India and that it should be prudent to look inwards and introspect on where the failing has been,' notes Lieutenant General Syed Ata Hasnain (retd).
The Bharatiya Janata Party's Muslim outreach programme, which will kick off on Friday, has received mixed response from the people in Muslim-majority Kashmir, but there is a consensus that there is a need to bridge the gap between the Valley and the rest of the country.
"We reaffirm that Jammu & Kashmir is an integral part of India and is a matter strictly internal to India," spokesperson in the Ministry of External Affairs Raveesh Kumar said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said the Agnipath scheme is an example of necessary reforms undertaken by the Army and accused the opposition of playing politics over the recruitment process aimed at keeping the average age in armed forces young.
Pakistan's nuclear arsenal is 'simply a deterrent' to protect the country and there will no longer be any need for it once the Kashmir issue is resolved, Prime Minister Imran Khan has said as he asserted that if the Americans have the resolve and the will, the issue can be sorted out.
Warren urged India to respect the rights of the people of Kashmir.
The divide within separatists in Kashmir has come to the fore again -- on the controversial issuance of a fatwa against stone pelting as a form of protest."Stone pelting cannot be justified. Islam is about discipline and if the leaders are asking people to refrain from stone pelting then they should adhere to these directions. Prophet Muhammad too has asked us to refrain from it," Jamiat-e-Ahli-Hadees president Maulana Showkat Ahmed Shah said on Sunday.
The best, wisest, and fairest next step in strengthening our own cause is to restore statehood to Jammu & Kashmir and allow the resumption of robust political activity. That's a box that remains unchecked on the Modi government's report card as we approach the fourth anniversary of Kashmir's Constitutional shift, notes Shekhar Gupta.
Any curious mind, the court observed, can access and download such content from the internet, which, by itself, is not a crime.
The battle to manage the international environment over Kashmir has just begun, but what is expected to help is the lifting of internal controls. All eyes are now on that exercise. Aditi Phadnis reports.
India on Wednesday hit out at Pakistan and the OIC for raising the Kashmir issue at the UN Human Rights Commission and said the grouping has 'helplessly' allowed itself to be held 'hostage' by Islamabad.
'The world is silent because your rhetoric is dishonest and rings hollow,' says former RAW officer Tilak Devasher.
Giving economic aid to Kashmir is like giving TB medicine to a patient suffering from cancer and expecting it to work, says Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
It was also revealed that Bashir motivated two youngsters and made them to join the terrorist ranks.
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