In the Kashmir Valley, we need to begin to make a distinction between an insurgent who fights the security forces and a terrorist who murders unarmed civilians, suggests Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
Ahead of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to the state of Jammu and Kashmir, Kashmiri pandits on Wednesday said his purpose to resolve the Kashmir issue will be meaningless if talks with separatists were not followed up by similar parleys with them.
The Hurriyat leader has initiated some steps for return of displaced Kashmiri Pandits to the Valley and held talks with their representatives in this regard.
Displaced Kashmiri Pandits on Tuesday staged a sit-in in Srinagar to protest the all-party delegation's visit to Jammu and Kashmir and raised anti-government slogans, prompting police to cane-charge and take into custody 114 people, including 15 girls.
Rejecting the ideas of demilitarisation and self-rule, Panun Convenor Agnishekhar said such concepts had alarming connotations for the sovereignty of India.
Facing flak from opposition parties and separatists, Jammu and Kashmir government on Wednesday made a U-turn on the controversial plans for composite townships in the valley for displaced Kashmiri Pandits, saying they are "part and parcel of the Kashmiri fabric of life" and would be settled at their native places and "not as an isolated community".
Nine migrant Pandit families returned to their south Kashmir native village after 18 long years. Thousands of local Hindus migrated out of the Kashmir valley with the beginning of the ongoing militancy in Kashmir in 1990. The Prime Minister in March announced a relief and rehabilitation package of Rs 7.5 lakhs and a government job for each family returning to the valley.
The cops fired tear smoke shells to chase away the protestors but clashes were still on.
'We didn't realise what a tsunami The Kashmir Files was going to be.'
Delhi Lt Governor V K Saxena has accorded sanction for the prosecution of author Arundhati Roy and a former Kashmiri professor in a 2010 case related to alleged provocative speeches, Raj Niwas officials said on Tuesday.
"The Congress in a way is in the grip of urban Naxals. That is why its thought has become negative," Modi alleged in his 90-minute speech.
In a significant move, separatists have decided to hold talks with Kashmiri Pandit migrants to discuss their return to the Valley.
Thousands of Pandits arrived in Kashmir Valley on Tuesday to keep their date with their holy annual festival at Khir Bhawani temple at Tullamulla, 26 kilometre from Srinagar in north Kashmir Ganderbal district.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said he wants the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance to win 400 seats in the ongoing Lok Sabha polls to ensure the Congress does not bring back Article 370 in Kashmir and put a 'Babri lock' on the Ram temple in Ayodhya.
The resolution, moved by Bharatiya Janata Party's Nishikant Dubey, as well as an amendment to include people who have migrated from Pakistan Occupied Kashmir for rehabilitation, was adopted by a voice vote.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday blamed India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru's "two major blunders" -- declaring a ceasefire without winning the entire Kashmir and taking the issue to the United Nations -- for the sufferings of the people of Jammu and Kashmir.
'The decision of August will have to be taken back. This is our resolve. When it will happen, how it will happen, the judge of our case are the people of this country.'
Many of the young Kashmiri Pandits argue that it is quite difficult to go back to the Valley, but for different reasons from their parents': there aren't enough opportunities there. Priyanka finds out what the community thinks in the aftermath of the interlocutors reports on the troubled state
Rai said as per the information provided by the government of Jammu and Kashmir, after the abrogation of Article 370, a total of 520 migrants have returned to Kashmir for taking up the jobs under the Prime Minister's Development Package-2015.
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.
The statement was made by the Kashmiri Hindu conference chairperson.
The Supreme Court on Monday asked National Conference leader Mohammed Akbar Lone to file an affidavit swearing allegiance to the Constitution of India and accepting the country's sovereignty, after the 'Pakistan zindabad' slogan that he allegedly raised in the Jammu and Kashmir assembly in 2018 kicked up a massive row.
An international body of Kashmiri Pandits has sought the help of US Government and its lawmakers in the rehabilitation of the community by creation of a separate homeland for them in Jammu and Kashmir.
The spokesperson said the identity of all such persons shall be kept secret and protected, besides all useful and relevant information shall be suitably rewarded.
Pandits are missing Kashmir more than ever, and KashmirOneStop.com is their window to Kashmir.
Hurriyat softliners to meet Pandit leaders in Jan
The government of India has a moral responsibility for working towards a consensus for the return of Kashmiri Pandits to their homeland, says B Raman
'If the Holocaust was right, then the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits is also right.'
As many as 3,655 displaced Kashmiri pandits would exercise their right of franchise in four assembly segments of Kupwara district which go to polls in the third leg of the seven-phase elections in Jammu and Kashmir on November 30.
In a searing attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Union government, Sena leader and MP Sanjay Raut also said that in view of Kashmiri Pandits once again fleeing from the Valley, 'Kashmir Files 2' should be made to show who is responsible for their current plight.
'...One of the biggest human tragedies and still not acknowledged the atrocities this community had to go through!'
After spending 20 years in squalid camps in Jammu, the Kashmiri Pandits, who fled their native Kashmir valley to escape ethnic cleansing, will finally move into a new township. But they are not home yet. Archana Masih reports from Jammu on the torment of the Pandits in exile, which remains one of contemporary India's worst tragedies.
In Hindu mythology, the 'Raghu clan', to which Lord Ram belonged, believed in the principle that you must never break your promise even if you have to lose your life keeping it.
However, the usual rush of the devotees was missing due to the recent targeted killings in the valley.
'What matters to me is that the film is reaching out and touching hearts.' 'An 85-year old man and his 75-year wife, who had never stepped into a cinema, went to see The Kashmir Files.' 'That is my real achievement.'
After hearing the news of his death, hundreds of Muslims gathered at his residence to perform his last rites.
In a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Shaukat Aziz Khan, the Durga Nag Trust has asked them to allow a delegation to visit the temple, located on the banks of Krishan Ganga in Neelam valley in PoK.
The deceased were identified as Abdul Majeed Ganaie, Mehraj-ud-din Dar, Anees Ahmad Mir and Hameed-ul-lah Ganaie.
Jammu and Kashmir government on Thursday ruled out exclusive colonies for Kashmiri migrant Pandits but said it would consider any alternative plan, even from separatist groups, to rehabilitate the minority community in the Valley.
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