Shams Irfan
A journalist with seven years of working experience in Kashmir.
Growing (im)balance
Cross LoC trade may die a slow death in absence of exchange currency to clear balance of payment. Hamidullah Dar reports. Cross LoC trade...
‘Why should I mourn?’
Muhammad Shafi Bazaaz would spend time decorating his son’s grave at Martyr’s Graveyard, until one day he saw eight unattended graves there. Shazia Yousuf...
FAULTLINE LADAKH
For centuries, Muslims and Buddhists in Leh have shared ties of kinship and culture. That is history. Larger political goals are now splitting communities...
Cultivating a ‘high’
Farmers cultivate poppy as a cash crop. Tradition requires its use in bakery. But its bumper produce is challenging the administration’s efficiency and strength...
Sham of a decision
Political bosses are taking the state bureaucracy for granted while making decisions that are of vital public importance. Kashmir life brings an inside view...
KU intake chokes students
Muhammad Ibrahim Wani
Joy knew no bounds for Aasif when he was selected for the postgraduate programme in Mass Communication in the University of Kashmir this year. But since then, life has not been easy.
“My village is 107 Kms from Srinagar, and everyday is a new struggle for me to just reach the university,” said Aasif, who shuttles daily from his village Lammar to the university. Life is similar for hundreds of other students hailing from far off places, who, like Aasif, have been unable to secure hostel facility at the university. More than a thousand students applied for the hostel accommodation this year, but only 197 were allotted hostel rooms.
Joy knew no bounds for Aasif when he was selected for the postgraduate programme in Mass Communication in the University of Kashmir this year. But since then, life has not been easy.
“My village is 107 Kms from Srinagar, and everyday is a new struggle for me to just reach the university,” said Aasif, who shuttles daily from his village Lammar to the university. Life is similar for hundreds of other students hailing from far off places, who, like Aasif, have been unable to secure hostel facility at the university. More than a thousand students applied for the hostel accommodation this year, but only 197 were allotted hostel rooms.
SC snubs state on Shopian arrests
The rapes and murder case of two young women that forced closure of Shopian for 47 days have taken a dramatic turn. The Supreme Court that heard the case of two of the four police officers, suspended and detained by the state government, has found nothing against them on record.
Strictures were passed against the high court as well as the state government. High court was critisized for ordering arrest of SP Javed Iqbal Mattoo and his Deputy Rohit Baskotra in the absence of reliable evidence. The two had gone to the apex court to get stayed the high court order asking for their DNA mapping, narco-analysis and arrest. Their blood samples had been collected well before they got the apex court breather.
Strictures were passed against the high court as well as the state government. High court was critisized for ordering arrest of SP Javed Iqbal Mattoo and his Deputy Rohit Baskotra in the absence of reliable evidence. The two had gone to the apex court to get stayed the high court order asking for their DNA mapping, narco-analysis and arrest. Their blood samples had been collected well before they got the apex court breather.
“Whose line is this anyway”
Arshid Malik Even though it has been proposed and propagated all along that Kashmir is a patriarchal society, I do not subscribe to the view...
Basharat Peer
Kashmiri journalist and writer, Basharat Peer, bagged the Vodafone-Crossword Book Award 2008 for his book Curfewed Night in the English non-fiction category. The awards were announced at a function in New Delhi..
Arid intolerance
Irrespective of their faiths, cultures and ethnicities, people living in length and breadth of J&K have a right to a dignified life. They must have equal access to all the resources in knowledge and prosperity; freedom of speech and right to protest and complain.
Refocusing Peace Process
Prof Gull Muhammad Wani
One of the architects of Kashmir accord of 1975, G Parthasarthi, used to describe India Pakistan relations as sibling rivalry and constant allergy of one to the other. It is a known fact that Indo-Pak relationship has been accident prone and largely influenced by geo-strategic forces.
It was after lot of soul searching and some indirect US facilitation that the peace process between India and Pakistan started with eight point composite dialogue process as the accepted framework. The external dimension of the peace process between Delhi and Islamabad did yield certain positive results. Though the internal dimension of the peace process remained connected to the external track, it was equally driven by fair amount of optimism and expectations of the people of J&K. After 2004, the internal track of the peace process saw certain important developments like opening of roads, people to people contact and also slow and mild trans-LoC trade.
Newsmakers
LAUNCHED: Kashmir Times, Jammu based newspaper launched its Srinagar edition with senior journalist Mohammad Sayeed Malik as its Consulting Editor. The launch coincided with...
Career in Energy Audit and Energy Management
Audit means a methodical examination and review. Energy audit therefore means an examination of a system or utility for best practices in energy utilization....
Our future, who decides it?
Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habits.
Bumpy bandwidth
For the fledgling IT sector in Kashmir, the road to development is no different from the roads in its city. Zubair A Dar reports.In...
