ZIMBABWE
First Kashmiri cricketer in Team India Parvez Rasool was kept busy on benches as the team won the five one-day series. It triggered a barrage of criticism. It was seen as grave injustice. J&K Chief Minister was aggressive in his response: “Did you really have to take him all the way to Zimbabwe to demoralise him? Wouldn’t it have been cheaper to just do it at home?” he wrote on twitter. It was Shashi Tahroor following: “Greatly disappointed that Parvez Rasool not playing today. Bizarre selection…” Nobody asked these politicians why they did not ponder over the fact BCCI in its history never tried to have somebody from Kashmir? If the selection was done purely on merit, then wait for Parvez to get his game. Or otherwise it would seem the selection was political that could ruin his career. Every time we need not to judge history in the backdrop of late Nerad Choudhary’s analysis that Moulana Azad had ornamental status in Nehru’s cabinet!
JAMMU
A migrant Kashmiri Pandit Tej Krishan Talashi was murdered by a gang in Jagti (Nagrota). Four gangsters had come in a Bolero and tried to kidnap his son Ankush. As the young boy fled, the locals chased the gang that eventually led to the killing of Talshi. Police was quick in identifying the gangsters and they were finally arrested in Ludhiana. The killer trio were identified as Naresh Singh, Sumit Kumar and Shanky, all residents of Nagrota. They have told police that they needed Ankush’s service to identify their target Rohit and it went off the script!
PALHALAN
Authorities imposed curfew restrictions in restive Palhalan village of Srinagar-North Kashmir highway as the residents protested over the arrest of Imam, Nazir Ahmad Tantray. They were also observing the anniversary of four youth killed at the peak of 2010 unrest. More than a dozen persons were injured in the village excluding the cops whose number was around 10. The ‘model village’ is now peaceful and hope is the Eid would be incident free.
SRINAGAR
J&K Bank, state’s only listed company paid J&K government Rs 128.88 crore as Platinum Jubilee dividend for fiscal 2012-13. J&K government owns over 53% of bank’s stocks. Bank has already approved special dividend of 500% to its shareholders for the last fiscal. So far, the state government has received Rs 584.31 crore as dividend since the inception of bank and over Rs 282 crore of this was received during last three years. Banks netted a profit of Rs 1055 crore last fiscal as it earned Rs 512 crore in the Q1 of the current fiscal.
NEELUM
The skirmishes at LoC are getting nasty, these days. In one sector, the relations between the rival sides is so cordial that Rangers returned a buffalo in R S Pora to BSF. But that seems an exception. In Machil area, Indian army is accused of kidnapping four hunters – Zafran Ghulam Sarwar, Shah Zaman, Muhammad Faisal and Wajid Akbar, and killing them as infiltrators. Police that buried the bodies also said they carried a hunting gun and were not dressed the way militants are. Soon after five soldiers were killed and one injured by their Pakistani rivals in Poonch. Though the two countries seem to be preventing its impact on possible talks, a major rivalry can trigger a larger, unstoppable cycle of revenge killings.
DELHI
Sonali Kumar, the 1979 batch IAS officer shifted unceremoniously as the Resident Kashmir has launched a campaign against J&K government in the Delhi newspapers. She thinks that she was punished for being honest and professional. The state government sees the transfer as routine. The officer along with her husband Arun Kumar was instrumental in setting afire Kashmir in 2008 by managing transfer of some land to SASB. Nobody is talking about what she did while heading the agriculture department. The latest is what happened to officers in Delhi whom she hosted as the Resident Kashmir and a delegation of lawmakers who had gone visiting the state properties.
As many as 27 border roads are being set up along the Sino-Indian Line of actual Control (LoAC) totalling 805 kms
Under SKEWPY’s Seed Capital Scheme, State’s Entrepreneurship Development Institute has set up 302 units in 2009-10, 1307 in 2012-13 and is targeting 3000 units for the current fiscal.
