News Kashmir Magazine

In response to URI attack which killed 19 soldiers, India has claimed that it carried surgical strikes across what it called Terror Camps causing enormous causalities. As a matter of fact,  a surgical strike is a military attack which results in, was intended to result in, or is claimed to have resulted in only damage to the intended legitimate military target, and no or minimal collateral damage to surrounding structures, vehicles, buildings, or the general public infrastructure and utilities.

 

Precision bombing is another example of a surgical strike carried out by aircraft – it can be contrasted against carpet bombing, the latter which results in high collateral damage and a wide range of destruction over an affected area which may or may not include high civilian casualties.

“Significant casualties have been caused to terrorists and those trying to shield them. We don’t have a plan to further conduct such strikes. India has spoken to Pakistan,” DGMO Lt Gen Ranbir Singh said.

On its part, The Pakistani military confirmed the deaths of its soldiers yet dismissed the Indian claim of ‘surgical strikes.’

“There had been cross border fire initiated and conducted by India which is [an] existential phenomenon,” said an ISPR statement released shortly after the Indian Director General of Military Operations held a press conference making claims about surgical strikes.

What will be the ramifications of these surgical strikes on regional situation remains to be seen. But, we are heading for tense and volatile times.

Kashmir is currently witnessing quiet painful situation. More than 75 protesters have been shot dead by security forces and about 10000 are injured and hundreds have been blinded by the pellets. Shutdown has crossed 65 days with most of the days having been marked by crippling curfew. Just few days back a high powered All Party Delegation lead by Home Minister Rajnath Singh visited the trouble hit Kashmir valley. It was painful to observe that even this visit by All Party Delegation failed to achieve anything that can be termed optimistic or concrete.

Coercion and oppressive measures can no longer be an answer to quell the political sentiment of Kashmir and time has come to recognize Kashmir as political problem and offer political solution. The painful situation in Kashmir has also been termed by many intellectual voices of India as a blot to “Indian democracy “.

All those who have caused this bloodshed should be punished but unfortunately State has never shown a will in past three decades to act tough against security forces responsible for innocent killings as a result anger, rage and alienation has been increased.The need of the hour is to stop bloodshed in Kashmir and initiate a meaningful , result oriented dialogue process with all stakeholders.

Off late, we have witnessed much hue and cry being  raised over rising incidents of crime against women, it seems little has changed on the ground.

In a dastardly and heart wrenching report we have learnt that in the North Indian state of Uttar Pradesh Rape Videos are being sold .

 

According to a Times of India report, rape videos are being sold in hundreds in these markets, right under the nose of the district administration. The report further added that In view of the huge demand for exclusive rape videos, video clips, which are 30 seconds to even 5 minutes long, are being sold in these markets, priced anywhere between Rs 50 to 150.

 

All this shows how much backward, unjust, tyrannical and ugly we are as a society and this report is enough to shiver the best souls .It is high time that a revolution is ushered that makes our society free from such evils and crushed such demonic tendencies and punishes all the elements of brutality .

If we fail to give our women equal rights as humans and do not stop such dastardly crimes we are doomed as a society.

Kashmir unrest, protests and agitation has completed more than three weeks. Agitation was stoked after killing of HM Commander Burhan Wani in an encounter at Kokernag, South Kashmir .The situation seems to be getting from bad to worse, pellet injuries are growing, number of blinded people is rising and above all the death count is also increasing with every passing day. Thousands have been injured.

The government reaction has been crippling curfew and restrictions. Curfew continues  in Southern Kasmir areas of Anantnag, Kulgam and Pulwama districts. Restrictions are been imposed in Shopian, Srinagar, Budgam Kupwara and Sopore towns etc.

Resistance leadership is being caged. To foil the resistance camp’s Chalo calls the  government responds with detentions and strict curfew while on the day of these calls the  senior resistance leaders Syed Ali Geelani and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq are  detained after they try to defy the curbs and lead a march towards the  respective  towns and districts . TWhileas, he JKLF chief Muhammad Yasin Malik, who was also supposed to lead the march to Kulgam, however continues to remain lodged in police station Kothibagh since July 9.

The internet gag on mobile phones continue which has resulted in more than 99 percent of internet users without internet facility.

Sane voices are calling for the government at state and central level to start taking pragmatic steps to end Kashmir crisis and start a political process. Otherwise, Kashmir scenario is heading from bad to worse.

Pain in Kashmir has crossed all limits owing to violence occurred on account of lingering political conflict. Kashmir continues to burn in flames. For more than seven decades Kashmir, or Paradise on Earth as it is called, has suffered at length due to the extremely brutal  violence used  to quell the sentiment of masses for seeking a just solution to their centuries old conflict.

 

India  has time and again stated that it is the World’ biggest Democracy. But this assertion goes on much beyond mere size to a direct claim to be also the most moral democracy. How correct is this claim Of course, this unbelievable claim rests entirely upon the gross lack of knowledge and false pride of the Indian masses, who have been indoctrinated to make only an adoration of democracy and not seek its practical application on ground zero. Certainly, Kashmir nullifies this towering claim from every angle .Now, even sane Indian voices state that Kashmir is a “big blot on India’s democracy”.

 

Since 1988 over one lace civilians including women and children have died and many are opining that steps should be taken to address this bloodshed.

Democracy implies respecting the human rights of masses and allowing them to democratically vote to seek solution to their conflict, which in case of Kashmir is the democratically implied solution. Kashmir needs true democracy to mitigate its sufferings and pain

 

Pellet Gun has symbolized new face of oppression in Kashmir over the past few years. Loss of Vision, terrible injuries and often fatalities have been aftermath of deadly pellets fired from  pellet guns on humans of Kashmir.As a matter of fact, a pellet is a non-spherical projectile designed to be fired from an air gun. Air gun pellets differ from bullets and shot used in firearmsbecause of the pressures encountered: airguns operate at pressures as low as 50 atmospheres, while firearms operate at thousands of atmospheres.

Even during the current wave of unrest, the indiscriminate use of pellet gun is giving nightmare to people of Kashmir with analysis emerging that-“Pellet Guns Are Giving Kashmir’s Young & Restless A Dark Future”.

 

On the otherhand,Indian state proudly states  that it is the biggest democracy of  the world . But in Kashmir the behavior of state seems brutally unexplainable and this has turned Kashmir into a painful Concentration camp. We all know that Eyesight is the most precious gift bestowed to mankind from God but for people who have no sight or limited sight because of a birth defect, disease, or an accident, all of life’s experiences are dimmed and virtually meaningless. But in Kashmir the new method of torture invented has been shattering and destroying  eyesight via pellet guns thus ruining their entire world.

It is high time that voices of conscience in India wake up from the slumber and force their government to stop the use of brutal pellet gun in Kashmir.

World renowned and Popular qawwal Amjad Sabri was shot dead by unidentified gunmen in Karachi’s Liaquatabad area on Wednesday, people belonging to all walks of life condemned the incident and mourned his death. The nation of Pakistan and his fans throughout the world are in shock over his killing by terrorists.

Pakistan Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif has strongly condemned terrorist attack in which famous Qawwal Amjad Sabri lost his life. The Prime Minister prayed for eternal peace for the departed soul and strength to the bereaved family to bear this irreparabe loss. The Prime Minister directed the concerned to find the culprits behind this attack and bring them to task. Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif paid tributes to the services of Mr. Amjad Sabri for promotion of Qawwali in the country and said he will be immensely missed in times ahead.Others too expressed their grief .

It is worth mentioning here that Amjad Sabri was the nephew of qawwali icon Maqbool Sabri who passed away in 2011.

Maqbool Sabri along with his brother, the late Ghulam Farid Sabri, formed a formidable qawwali group in the mid-50s and became known for their soul-stirring renditions of arifana kalam (mystic poetry).

One hopes Pakistan will wake up from slumber to fight extremism.

The vacation of army land has always been a burning issue in Kashmir now with  Prime Minister Narendra Modi approving a Jammu and Kashmir government’s proposal for vacating nearly 458 Kanal of land in army’s possession for expansion of Kashmir University campus in Anantnag is seen as a historic step.

In this regard, Highly-placed sources said the prime minister, after his return from the five-nation tour, had called a meeting on Kashmir during which he asked the Defence Ministry to hand over the ‘high ground’ in Anantnag to the state at the earliest so that the expansion plan of south campus of Kashmir University can be carried out.

It is worth mentioning out here that during the meeting, the prime minister said the Centre is committed to all-round improvement of education in the state, official sources said.

One cannot miss out the fact that the army had in-principle been agreeable to vacating the land for quite some time but a decision by its headquarters got delayed.

Pertinently, the land that  is vacated s adjacent to south campus in Fatehgarh area near an army camp. It was being used by the army for landing helicopters despite the force having a similar facility at Khanabal, a few kilometres from there.

346.7 Kanals of land, which was earlier in the army’s possession, was transferred to the university in 2004.

Political watchers see this step of vacating army land for campus as historic.

Kashmir valley is known as paradise of earth on account of its unmatchable natural beauty .The lush green meadows, gorgeous mountains, streams, rivers in full flow and beautiful gardens define the great beauty of Kashmir. But, Kashmir is also a disaster- prone zone owing to its tough geographical terrain and unique topography.

What is worrying is that considering the ground level preparedness we do not seem to have desired level of efficiency in dealing with natural disasters both in terms of infrastructure and trained human resource.

Recently, Scientists have found that the Reasi fault near Jammu has been building up pressure for some time, suggesting that when it does release or “slip”, the resulting earthquake may be large — as much as magnitude 8.0 or greater.

 

Scientists started looking at this fault more closely following the 7.6-magnitude earthquake in 2005 on the nearby Balakot-Bagh fault in the Pakistan side of Kashmir, which was not considered particularly dangerous because it wasn’t on the plate boundary. The 2005 Kashmir earthquake killed about 80,000 people in Pakistan and India.

On the otherhand, our disaster management preparedness was also taken off guard in the 2014 floods and we were just saved by matter of luck.

The onus is on new government to look into this all important aspect and give full thrust on capacity building with reference to effective disaster management.

In what can be described  as a major shift in its Kashmir policy, the Narendra Modi government has said that the Hurriyat Conference (separatist) leaders are free to meet the representatives of any country in India.

Pertinently, the  Indian government had earlier cancelled the Foreign Secretary-level talks with Pakistan when the Pakistan’s High Commissioner, Abdul Basit, met Kashmiri separatist leaders.

At national level, Narendra Modi government’s approach towards Pakistan in ensuring better ties has invited sharp criticism from opposition parties in the country but praise from the world leaders.

Experts are it as a major  shift in its ‘Pakistan Policy’, of the government which has now decided to ‘compromise’ on its ‘most controversial’ point on Islamabad holding meetings with Hurriyat leaders.

In kashmir it has been widely welcomed, PDP Senior Leader and Spokesperson Rafi Ahmad Mir has said that PDP warmly welcomes the initiative taken by union government to allow Hurriyat to hold talks with Pakistan. Mir said that “we laud this confidence building measure by the government after sincere efforts of PDP President Mehbooba Mufti, this step will be a defining moment in the Indo-Pak relations.

Former Chief Minister and Senior Leader of National Conference Omer Abdullah has welcomed the government decision to allow Hurriyat leaders to meet Pakistani leadership.