LANNED: After official hiccups and hurdles Srinagar may soon get a super-speciality cardiac centre of international standards planned by renowned US-based interventional cardiologist Dr Fayaz Shawl. Kashmir Cardiovascular Institute and Wellness Center is to come up near Nishat where Dr Shawl has already purchased land for the project and for which he is raising funds through his charity Shawl Foundation (www.shawlfoundation.org).
MISSED: Kashmiri photojournalist Rafiq Maqbool missed the coveted Pulitzer prize after being one of the five finalists for 2010. Maqbool’s image of a doctor attending to a trooper injured in a roadside bombing in Afghanistan took him to the final round. The “conflict-photographer” has been with AP since 2001 and has covered Afghanistan war since 2003. He took the Pulitzer nominee photo on June 1, 2009.
DIED: Renowned Islamic scholar based in Pakistan Dr Israr Ahmed passed away Wednesday morning in Lahore. The scholar was widely mourned in the subcontinent. Funeral prayers in absentia were offered for him in Kashmir also, at Lal Chowk, as well in Central Jail Srinagar, where inmate Qasim Faktoo, the husband of woman separatist leader Asiya Andrabi lead the prayers. Born in Hissar, Haryana in 1926 Dr Israr migrated to Pakistan after partition.
KILLED: Teenager Zubair Ahmad drowned in River Jehlum in Sopore after allegedly being hit by stones from cops chasing away the children during shutdown on Tuesday. Witnesses said Zubair was among a group of children who were chased away by police by stones and forced to jump into the river. Policemen kept throwing stones at them in the water too, witnesses said. It was a return of tragedy for the family of Ghulam Hassan after he lost his elder son four years ago to the bullets of unknown gunmen. His house had also been set ablaze. The killing stirred the apple town where clashes between youth and police continued till Friday.
KILLED: Army claimed to have killed a 60 -year old militant (70 by some reports) in Magam. Army spokesman said it killed the man in an encounter in Rainawari forest near Pahaldaji village and handed the body over to police post Magam, Handwara. However, the deceased was identified by his son Raj Muhammed Khan as Habibullah Khan, a begger of Lolab Kupwara.
SWORN IN: Governor, N N Vohra, administered oath of office to Dr Justice Aftab Hussain Saikia as Chief Justice of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court this week. Chief Justice Justice Saikia replaces Chief Justice Barin Ghosh who replaced the former in Sikkim High Court. Justice Saikia was appointed as a permanent Judge of the Guwahati High Court on November 15, 2000 and as Chief Justice of Sikkim High Court on March 7, 2009.
INSTALLED: Authorities have installed three telephones with facility to call to Pakistan administered Kashmir in Poonch to facilitate the businessmen involved in cross-LoC trade through the Poonch-Rawalkote opening. Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had announced in the Legislative Assembly earlier that three telephone lines each on Poonch-Rawlakote and Uri-Muzaffarabad routes will be installed.
RECOVERED: Police has recovered body of a new-born from a stream in Ganderbal district, a fourth of its kind incident in the valley in a fortnight. The body was recovered from Nallah Sindh near Fraw Gund. Earlier a new-born was found dead in river Jhelum at Budshah Chowk on March 24. The body of a baby girl was found on boulevard along the banks of Dal Lake three days later while another new-born baby was found dead under a seat of a passenger bus in Budgam district on March 30.
WITHDRAWN: Zahoor Ahmad Mir, who has filed a case against notorious government gunman Papa Kishtwari for allegedly killing his father Ali Mohammad Mir has complained to the court that security provided to him on court orders has been withdrawn. He told the court that two trained police constables deployed for his security have been replaced by an under trained PSO.
