Hardline Hurriyat Conference has elected incarcerated leader Masarat Alam as its chairman following the death of Syed Ali Shah Geelani last week.
'They are both very individualistic and have similar personalities.'
'Burhan Wani's killing served as a spark for the anti-establishment fire that has been raging in the minds of Kashmiris ever since the Centre stopped engaging them for their political future,' says Air Vice Marshal (retd) Kapil Kak in an interview with Rediff.com
4 civilians were also killed and dozens of others injured in clashes that broke out between protestors and security forces following three separate encounters.
An indefinite curfew was imposed in Srinagar on Monday and restrictions were put in place in other towns to thwart a march called by separatists.To protest the killing of three teenagers allegedly by the police, the hard-line separatist All Parties Hurriyat Conference headed by Syed Ali Shah Geelani has asked people to march to south Kashmir's Anantnag town on Monday.The forces beefed up security arrangements in the old city area of Srinagar.
The entry to the graveyard inside Naqshband sahib Shrine in Khawaja Bazaar near Nowhatta was sealed and security forces were deployed around the area to prevent anyone going inside, officials said.
Former Research and Analysis Wing chief AS Dulat has claimed that everybody in Kashmir makes money off the unstable situation in the region, alleging that it is 'in their DNA'.
Malik, who is in jail following his conviction and life sentence in a terror funding case, was brought to the high-security apex court premises in a prison van escorted by armed security personnel without the court's permission.
Leaders from 26 opposition parties, in power individually or in alliance in Delhi and 10 states, are meeting in Bengaluru to discuss strategy to take on the Narendra Modi-led NDA in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
With his swearing-in, the five-decade-long practice of retired bureaucrats being appointed to the post has ended.
All Parties Hurriyat Conference chairman Mirwaiz Omar Farooq has reacted sharply to recommendations made by a high-level committee favouring autonomy for the state. "The agenda of Hurriyat has never been autonomy, our agenda is freedom, so we didn't want to give any comment on it," he added."We accept only that solution in which Pakistan, India and the people of Kashmir are involved. Any solution between two parties is not acceptable," he said.
The Centre is acting tough with Kashmir's separatist leaders by taking on their foreigner wives, refusing them to stay with their husbands in Jammu and Kashmir.
'The performance of any government is benchmarked on five parameters -- India's external security, the state of the economy, social cohesion, internal security, and India's relations with the world or its foreign policy. On each of the benchmarks in the past nine years, the NDA-BJP government has come up completely short'
National Conference leader and former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah has rejected the notion that the threat of a nuclear war would solve the Kashmir issue, asserting that the region would never be a part of Pakistan and dialogue is the best way to "move forward".
The government said it is hopeful of finding a "starting point" in the next few days to reach out to protestors in the Kashmir Valley and resume the dialogue process for a solution. Addressing the two-day conference of chief of police forces, Home Minister P Chidambaram said the central government has acknowledged that a political solution must be found to the problems of J&K.
With the Bharatiya Janata Party emerging as potential kingmaker in Jammu and Kashmir, party chief Amit Shah on Tuesday did not rule out joining hands with either the People's Democratic Party or the National Conference saying "all options are open".
An engineering student was hit by a tear smoke shell fired by the police to disperse a stone-pelting mob near his residence.
The announcement came after PAGD leaders met at Abdullah's Gupkar Road residence in Srinagar to discuss the Centre's invitation.
Kashmiri Pandit employees on Monday threatened to appeal to international human rights organisations for asylum if the central government failed to relocate them from the Valley in the wake of attacks on minorities.
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.
Kejriwal said that it has been alleged that a bribe of Rs 100 crore was taken, but he asked where was the money.
'We were advocating Indian democracy and Indian Constitution. The other side (separatists) questioned Indian Constitution, democracy and accession. This action of scrapping Article 370 has vindicated their point.'
'The Election Commission is in the process of updating electoral rolls.' 'Once that is done, the dates for elections will be announced by the ECI at an appropriate time.' 'What can be more democratic than this?'
The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a plea challenging the government's decision to constitute the delimitation commission for redrawing the legislative assembly and Lok Sabha constituencies in the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
The Congress had last month written to Home Minister Amit Shah, alleging "security breaches" during the Yatra in the national capital and demanded immediate steps to ensure the security of Gandhi and others taking part in the yatra.
'The first clear cut call for 'engagement with all stake holders including separatists' came, not from the political class but the men in uniform,' points out Mohammad Sayeed Malik, the distinguished observer on Kashmir.
Posters printed in Urdu, seen pasted in several villages of Anantnag and Pulwama districts of South Kashmir, have asked people to boycott the polls.
The National Conference suffered a major setback in Jammu as two prominent leaders Devender Rana and Surjit Singh Slathia resigned from the party on Sunday.
Heading a PDP-BJP government formed with an alliance between two ideological extremes, Mehbooba faces a challenging task ahead as she will strive to carry forward her father's 'healing touch' legacy.
This is likely to be the last extension of the central rule in the state as the Election Commission had issued a statement recently stating that elections in Jammu and Kashmir would be announced after the annual Amarnath Yatra beginning on July 1.
"We cannot take people on board who believe in confrontation and who think that only militancy solves the problem. They cannot be taken on board, they will remain opposed to whatever we do.
Kashmir is a flashpoint that can trigger a fourth war between Pakistan and India any time, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has said, seeking an early settlement of the issue.
Normal life has been paralysed due to curfew-like restrictions and separatists-sponsored strike since Saturday.
Jammu and Kashmir has been without an assembly since November 2018 when the then legislative assembly was dissolved by then Governor Satya Pal Malik after the People's Democratic Party-Bharatiya Janata Party coalition government fell apart earlier that year.
The 56-year-old leader, daughter of PDP founder Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, will take oath of office at Raj Bhawan in Jammu on Monday at 11.00 am.
"India cannot be run on the basis of one religion. And there is more threat from the enemy within. We know about the enemy which is outside," Abdullah said.
The curbs on assembly of people were put in place in the police station areas of Nowhatta, Khanyar, Rainawari, Safakadal and Maharaj Gunj in downtown (interior) areas and in Maisuma in Srinagar, as well as in Shopian town.
Former governor of Jammu and Kashmir Girish Chandra Saxena has dealt with Hurriyat leaders for many years. Here he paints Hurriyat's profile exclusively for rediff.com.
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