VERINAG
The actress playing the role of ISI agent in the American TV series Homeland has strong Kashmir connection. Nimrat Kour is the daughter of Major Bhupinder Singh who was shot dead by Harkat-ul-Ansar on January 23, 1994, almost a week after his kidnapping. Kaur, a resident of Punjab, has lived in Verinag along with her parents and flew home with his divorced mother, younger sister Rubina and father’s coffin. After finishing her studies, she started as print media model and later joined films. Her acting in Peddlers and Lunchbox fetched her role of ISI agent Tasneem Qureshi in American TV serial. But this has not forced her give up her love hate relationship with Kashmir. She flew to Verinag in 2013 and spent a lot of time with the people she knew. Kaur loves Kashmir for its beauty and hates it for taking away her father.
PAHALGAM
As the trial in a hit and run case is going on, Bollywood actor Salman Khan has promised helping a family of the destitute. An octogenarian Zaina Begum petitioned the actor about her family’s poverty. The actor spent a good time with her and heard him and also her widowed daughter-in-law Dilshad who is raising four orphans. After listening to them on the sidelines of Bajrangi Baijaan, the actor has given some work to all her grand children and promised Gowhar Bhat, the eldest of four that he will be coming to Mumbai to work with him. The family lives in Diyaroo village, not far away from Pahalgam.
HYDERABAD
Back home there may not be roads for the citizens but that will not prevent lawmakers from inviting people to Kashmir. Currently a delegation of all party lawmakers comprising Dr Shehnaz Ganai, Javid Baig, Ishfaq Sheikh, and Shakti Parihar are in Telangana. They met Deputy Chief Minister of the new state, Mohammad Mahmud Ali and requested him to help promote tourism in J&K. They highlighted the breathtaking beauty of splendid Kashmir and offered Ali a Pashmina shawl. While Kashmir will otherwise get its share of tourists regardless of the efforts the government will put in, as has been happening in the past, tourism promotion is helping lawmakers tour other places!
MUMBAI
Yet again, Mufti has kept his date with Bollywood. He threw a gala party in Taj Banquet at Bandra for the Bollywood biggies last week and requested them to restore Bollywood’s age-old relationship with Kashmir. He suggested Gulmarg could be new Davos for India. In his earlier term he used to go to Mumbai once a year. But the results were nowhere around. However, Bollywood has restored its ties with Kashmir well before Mufti took over. All the major Bollywood actors are shooting in Kashmir, the recent being Salman Khan. Farhan Akhter is also on his way to shoot Wazir in Kashmir. Bollywood is no better connected with Kashmir that Mufti’s over-emphasis could prove slightly unbalancing.
KATHMANDU
Delhi has started flying willing Kashmiri citizens back home to help them heal, physically and psychologically. Two residents of Jammu and a Kashmir born Australian women were killed in the devastating earthquake that might touch a toll of 10,000 people. Though most of the Kashmiri citizens living in the mountain kingdom are all right, a few of them have survived with injuries. A few hundred Kashmiris are engaged in business in Nepal, a major tourist spot, and the Vale’s age old connections has naturalized early migrants who live as Nepal citizens. In two groups so far, Delhi has flown 36 and 44 state subjects to Srinagar and Delhi. There are number of Kashmiris who are unwilling to fly home and leave Nepal at a time when it needs them most.
BANDIPORE
In Jammu, teachers would engage unemployed to replace them in schools so that they could continue their business. In Kashmir, teachers manufactured enrolments to retain the schools they ran in their houses. Yes, authorities sealed the state run primary school at Buthoo Mohallah having 11 students on its rolls but not a single one in reality. The schools that two relatives operated from their home, rented to the government, lacked even a sign board. With their space rented and their services hired by the government, the two teachers had claimed midday meals, uniform and text books too. But when officials visited the school they found no school like situation. Even their neighbours did not know there was a school!
Rs 50,000/- Interim relief ordered by High Court to the Kulgam sixth-grader gang raped by three men on March 6, 2015. The main accused is still at large.
139 trucks and 62 buses of the SRTC brought Mufti’s Durbar to Srinagar.
