Hard-line Hurriyat Conference chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani on Monday rejected the Truth and Reconciliation Commission proposed by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and demanded a United Nations-appointed factfinding mission to probe the unmarked graves in Jammu and Kashmir. "We vehemently reject the Truth and Reconciliation Commission as we do not expect justice from the system which is perpetuating human rights violations in the state," Geelani said.
Akhtar criticised vested interest groups in Pakistan, particularly the army, the political establishment and the extreme right wing, for blocking peace efforts between the two nations.
Supreme Court judge Sanjay Kishan Kaul on Monday recommended setting up of an 'impartial truth and reconciliation commission' to probe and report on human rights violations by both state and non-state actors in Jammu and Kashmir since the 1980s, saying the 'wounds need healing'.
A five-judge bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud considered the pleas in chambers and dismissed applications for listing of the review petition in open Court.
A Kashmiri Pandit himself, Kaul feels, it is time now for the people to move forward, after more than 30 years of unbridled violence.
Highlights of the judgment pronounced by a five-judge Constitution bench of the Supreme Court that on Monday unanimously upheld the Centre's decision to abrogate provisions of Article 370 of the Constitution bestowing special status on the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir.
'When the Executive can do whatever they want, why bother having an election?'
The minister further said the Sri Lankan government is holding continuous interactions with the Tamil diaspora and people and leaders living in different parts of the world.
People must have tolerance for each other's opinion at a time when the tolerance level has gone down internationally, Supreme Court judge Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul said on Friday.
If Saudi Arabia, with just two Muslim holy sites of Mecca and Medina, can create a huge tourism-based ecosystem beyond oil, Ayodhya is sure to become the world's hottest religious tourism site in less than a decade, predicts R Jagannathan.
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.
In an emphatic victory for the Modi government, the Supreme Court on Monday unanimously upheld its decision to abrogate Article 370 of the Constitution that bestowed special status upon the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, ordered restoration of statehood "at the earliest" and set a September 30, 2024, deadline for holding the assembly elections.
We must heed what the CJI has said. Challenging every judgment of the central government is inviting chaos, asserts Shreekant Sambrani.
Omar Abdullah said that if The Kashmir Files was a commercial movie, no one has an issue, but if the film makers claim that it is based on reality, then the facts are the other way round.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, South Africa's anti-apartheid icon who won the Nobel Peace Prize for fighting racial discrimination in the country, died on Sunday. He was 90.
As it prepares to face a US-backed resolution on Lankan Tamils at the UNHRC, Sri Lanka claimed that it has implemented 99 per cent of some recommendations of the reconciliation commission already.
'The Khalistanis get bulk of the money from abroad.' 'Where did Amritpal's Mercedes come from, which costs well over Rs 60 lakhs?' 'Where does his fleet of vehicles come from?' 'Local Punjabis can certainly not contribute this kind of money.'
President Mahinda Rajapaksa's secretary Lalith Weeratunga, who heads the task force, said out of the 135 main recommendations of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission, there are 33 that need to be implemented at the national level. While some will be implemented within this year the others may take as long as next year, he said
The reconciliation commission studying Sri Lanka's ethnic war and its aftermath is ready with its final report and may present it to President Mahinda Rajapaksa over the next 15 days. Officials said on Monday that the report of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission is being readied for presentation to the President who will then decide on making it public. LLRC spokesman Lakshman Wickremasinghe said the report could be presented to Rajapaksa before the November 15
In the wake of the State Human Rights Commission's findings -- that over 2,000 unidentified bodies are buried in 38 sites in north Kashmir -- Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has said there was a need for a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to find out the truth about what has happened in the Valley in the last 21 years. "There is a need for a Truth and Reconciliation Commission. That commission should be assigned to find answers to the incidents of the last 21 years," he said.
Discover some of the winners of 2022 World Press Photo Contest.
The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance released its manifesto for the February 20 Punjab polls on Saturday, promising a slew of sops for various sections, including 75 per cent reservation in all government jobs for youngsters from the state, an unemployment allowance, 35 per cent reservation for women in government jobs and massive infrastructure development.
Cycling's world governing body has disbanding the Independent Commission which investigated the Lance Armstrong doping scandal in favour of a 'truth and reconciliation process', the UCI said on Monday.
Sri Lanka's main Tamil party Tamil National Alliance has backed a United States-sponsored resolution to censure Colombo at the ongoing session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva.
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Tuesday asked the Tamil National Alliance, country's main Tamil political party, to shed the 'LTTE mentality' and join hands with the government to deal with various contentious issues.
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Saturday said that his country has a rich and proud record of safeguarding human rights. Addressing a public gathering in the central town of Balangoda, Rajapaksa said Sri Lanka's human rights protection was inspired by the influence of Buddhism over a period of over 2,500 years.
A joint commission can be the biggest Jammu and Kashmir centric confidence building measure by the two countries for the people of the state, says J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah. Mukhtar Ahmad reports.
S M Krishna's praise for the Sri Lankan government-appointed Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission will diminish our credibility as an honest broker in the eyes of the Sri Lankan Tamils who are becoming increasingly bitter towards India, feels Satish Chandra.
Sri Lanka has often cited the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission as its own mechanism when faced by international calls to establish an independent investigation into alleged war crimes for which a UN special panel had held both the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam responsible
Amid speculation that the crucial Sri Lankan probe into the three-decade ethnic conflict may be kept under wraps, President Mahinda Rajapaksa has decided to make the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission findings public.
In this exclusive interview with rediff.com, Geelani outlines why he rejected Abdullah's move. Geelani terms the relative calm in the valley this year as 'the silence of the graves', saying that the sentiments of the Kashmiri people are being suppressed with force.
Sri Lanka on Sunday said it will release information on those detained by the country's forces since the end of the war with the Liberation Tiger of Tamil Eelam, ahead of External Affairs Minister G L Peiris' visit to the US.
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Monday reiterated his idea of setting up of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to probe all the killings in Jammu and Kashmir in the past 21-years.
Pakistan and Afghanistan agreed to form a Joint Reconciliation Commission comprising the Foreign Ministers and military and intelligence officials as part of enhanced bilateral consultations in the run-up to the reduction US troops in the war-torn country.
A high-level commission appointed by Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa to look into the last seven years of conflict with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam opened public hearings on Wednesday, amid global apprehensions over its credibility and mandate to probe war crimes.The eight-member 'Lesson Learnt and Reconciliation Commission' recorded the testimony of its first witness, former top diplomat Bernard Goonatilake.
The Sri Lankan commission looking into the civil strife with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam will examine the documentary aired by Britain's Channel 4 that showed gruesome pictures of alleged war crimes during the last weeks of the war.
Sri Lanka's Minister for Economic Development, Basil Rajapakse's visit to New Delhi on Thursday for what is described as "regular high level consultations" comes shortly before a scheduled meeting of a Parliamentary Select Committee for Constitutional Amendments on July 9.
Disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong, who cheated his way to seven Tour de France victories from 1999-2005, claims it would have been impossible to win the world's greatest race without doping.
A recent inquiry report by the Geneva-headquartered Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has cast serious aspersions on the claims of the Sri Lankan government over alleged war crimes duirng the conflict with the LTTE. Vicky Nanjappa reports.
One shocking finding of the investigation was the extent to which sexual violence was committed against detainees, often extremely brutally, by the Sri Lankan security forces, with men as likely to be victims as women.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Investor Information - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances