LAL MANDI
On World Heritage Day, Srinagar’s SPS museum put on display some of the rare post-medieval crafts including Shah Passand Kani shawls, Jamavers, embroidered Romals and Amlikiar shawls. The highlights of the exhibition include shawls from late 17th century Afghan period to 20th century. But the major attraction was a rare shawl depicting map of Srinagar city, made by the famous artist Ghulam Ahmad Kaloo of Amda Kaddal, Srinagar. Kaloo had weaved this shawl during Maharaja’s rule.
SRINAGAR
Bollywood actor Abhishek Bachchan turned nostalgic as he recalled his childhood memories of spending holidays in Kashmir with his father. Abhishek is in Kashmir to shoot sequences of his upcoming film Manmarziyaan. The film is directed by Anurag Kashyap. On his previous visit Jr Bachchan had visited Leh. But this time around Jr Bachchan shot in Srinagar and Sonmarg.
KATHUA
The campaign to seek justice for eight-year-old Kathua girl, who was raped and then murdered inside a temple, has garnered over one-and-a-half million signatures on Change.org, an online platform. The officials of the online petition website said this is the biggest petition ever on Change.org from India. Meanwhile, some audio and video clips are doing rounds on social networking sites seeking money for the victim’s family. This has made deputy chief minister to seek a probe in these efforts.
CALIFORNIA
Former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, who was invited to give a talk in University of Berkeley, was stopped by protestors outside the venue. The protestors called Omar and his father Farooq Abdullah a war criminal. A group of Kashmiris living in America shouted pro-freedom slogans as Omar walked towards the venue. An online campaign was also started against University of Berkeley for inviting Omar. The petition called Omar a client politician who according to petitioners has no moral authority to speak over Kashmir.
JAMMU
The storm surrounding eight-year-old Kathua girl’s rape and murder case refused to die down. Recently Jammu based advocate, Ankur Sharma, who is appearing for five out of the eight accused in the Kathua case, raised question over the intelligence of female investigating officer, Shwetambri Sharma. He said, “Shwetambri kya hai, ladki hai. Uska kitna hi dimaag hoga (What is Shwetambri, she is a girl, how intelligent can she be?).
KOLKATA
It is an open secret that women from Bengali are sold and married in Kashmir. But the case of a 15-year-old girl from Bengal, who was married to a 50-year-old man in Kashmir, revealed the darker side of the human trafficking. Somehow, the girl managed to flee and went straight to her home in West Bengal. But to her shock, her father, who had brought her to Kashmir on the pretext of tour, forced her to go back to her “in-laws” in Kashmir. The girl then approached local police with the help of her former school headmaster and filed a formal complaint against her family.
