BEERWA
The brief video showing a paramilitary man killing a teenage boy from a very close range on April 9, the day of elections was painful. The boy was part of a few teenagers who were throwing stones on a polling station. His name was Akeel Wani, 17, a resident of Attino in Budgam. In May, his family is yet to get the luxury of registering an FIR. The family said they approached the Beerwa police station who refused to register the case against ITBP. That police station has already registered a case against the stone pelters but has reportedly ignored the evidence that exists publicly. Now the family has moved to SSP Budgam for intervention. But isn’t FIR the first basic right that was upheld by all the guarantees, constitutional and otherwise?
JAMMU
After various Leh girls returned from the Mount Everest, it is the turn of Sangeeta Bahl from Jammu. She is 52 and already at the 18K ft base camp. She is part of the 10 climbers group that is on way to the highest peak. She had aimed at scaling seven summits of which this is the sixth one. A former student of Jammu’s Presentation Convent Senior Secondary School, Sangeeta’s is a successful entrepreneur whose son is currently studying in Doon School. She has already scaled Mt. Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa at the age of 46 along with her husband, Ankur Bahl, who was her partner in the 5th summit last year also. She started her career as a model and had a brief stint in TV serials before becoming an image consultant.
SRINAGAR
His name is Binyamin Gulzar. He is commercial pilot who has flown aircrafts in Africa for many years. Now he is Kashmir’s first wedding planner. In between his jobs, reports suggest, was his homesickness. The change took place in 2010 when his father passed away and he had no option but to “fly” home and take charge of the inheritance. His father was into tents and catering. To give a further push to the business profile, he added wedding planning and event management service. In 2010, Gulzar Camping Agency became Gulzar Hospitality Ventures. He mobilised his service through social media and it helped. He hosted dinner for the Zubin Mehta concert held in Srinagar in 2013.
SHOPIAN
The town remained on protest for three days after Zubair Ahmad Turray fled from police custody. Though police talked about his escape, nobody trusted them till Turray released his video in battle fatigues announcing his rebel status. Now the debate has shifted to why Turray became a militant and the credit goes to police. Since the age of 12, Turray, now 24, has been going and coming out of jail. In 12 years, he has 23 FIR registered against him. In jail since 2008 perpetually, he has given up his studies. He was in class XI when army arrested him. Every time, courts would release him, cops would pick him up and push him back to jail. In 2010, he was hit by pellets and soon arrested under PSA. His last PSA was quashed by court in February and within two days he was re-arrested and handed over to police. Then he escaped and joined militants.
ISLAMABAD
Kashmir’s Gen Next is different. Within weeks after the government blocked 22 social websites, a school boy came with his Facebook-like KashBook to fill the void. Developed by 16-year-old Zeyan Shafiq in 2013, he improved and re-launched it with his friend, 19-year-old Uzair Jan. One worked on the website, and the other developed the Android app. Hackers, the two were Facebook friends, who working round the clock for a week, for the re-launch. Response was instant. It has been downloaded by Google Play Store by around 1500 people. The application by 16+ years old boys, may not succeed Facebook, bit the initiative has fetched them highly encouraging reviews across the world.
SKICC
Having a premier of a Bollywood film in Srinagar sans cinema halls, can be done by one organisation – the J&K bank. It converted the SKICC main hall into a talkie for a few hours and the experiment was successful. The only difference was that the ‘least important’ in the audience got the balcony as the VIPs were in ‘stall’ category – the portion that is closer to screen. That, however, did not disturb Dr Farooq Abdullah and Altaf Bukhari from watching Sargoshiyan till end. The situation was such that many thought Dr Abdullah may break down. He later vents it out in a brief speech. The Imran Khan film has a story line involving two Mumbai residents on job assignments, a research scholar and a foreign photographer who rediscover Kashmir.
