SRINAGAR

Invoking UAPA, the Jammu and Kashmir Police have attached five more properties in Srinagar. These include two properties – mostly houses – in Lawaypora, and one each in Maloora, Batmaloo and Harwan. Police said the houses were used by “active terrorists as hideouts to conspire, plan and execute terror acts in Srinagar district.” Earlier, on June 22, police in Srinagar had attached five residential properties on charges of “wilful harbouring of militants”. Now ten properties in Srinagar stand attached under various provisions of the UAPA. Being done “to counter-terror operations”, these properties cannot be transferred, leased or sold in any manner, “except with the prior permission of the DGP of J&K police.” The police have said that many such houses have been identified for similar action.

Since May 2019, cases of violence against women were received at the helpline number service operating from Women’s Police Station Rambagh.

ZANSKAR

A July 2012 photograph showing Dalai Lama with a group of Kashmir origin Tibetan Muslim women in Srinagar who left Tibet forever in 1959, along with him when China occupied the territory.

Currently, on a month-long tour to Ladakh, Dalai Lama is spending three days in Zanskar, the remotest address for the undiluted Tibetan culture. Before driving to Zankar – which falls in the Kargil district, the Buddhist spiritual leader, who usually operates from Dharmshala, visited Chowkhang Vihara, Moravian Church, Imam Bargah and Jama Masjid. In all his interactions, Dalai Lama emphasised communal harmony and co-existence.  “We begin in the same way and at the end die in the same manner,” Dalai Lama said. “So while we are alive, we should live with the spirit of oneness of seven billion human beings.” The spiritual leader landed in Leh on July 16.

Jammu Police seized heroin worth Rs 24 crore from a car (PB02CQ-7749)

JAMMU

Droupadi Murmu, India’s 15th President, is the second woman and first Adivasi President f India.

Apparently, the first order that India’s 15th President, Droupadi Murmu signed was a warrant of appointment that she signed for Rajesh Sekhri as an additional judge of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court. The first Adivasi to ever get into the Rashtrapati Bhawan and the second woman president, Murmu took over on July 25. Sekhri was serving as a judicial officer. Now, High Court has 16 judges against a sanctioned strength of 17. Commenting on the outgoing President, Ram Nath Kovind, PDP president and former Chief Minister wrote on Twitter: “The outgoing President leaves behind a legacy where the Indian Constitution was trampled upon umpteenth times. Be it scrapping of Article 370, CAA or the unabashed targeting of minorities & Dalits, he fulfilled BJPs political agenda all at the cost of the Indian Constitution.”

Crimes against women have increased by more than 10% in Jammu and Kashmir on a year-on-year basis. Against 3517 cases registered in 2020 3873 were registered in 2021.

PUNJAB

State Investigation Agency

The State Investigation Agency (SIA) of Jammu and Kashmir has unearthed a “nexus” between the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) militants and Punjab-based gangsters. The probing agency has filed a charge sheet against five accused in a terror-funding case registered in November 16, 2021, involving the recovery of Rs 43 lakh from a Kashmir-bound vehicle. Now the accused in the UAPA case are a Pakistan-based JeM commander – Ashiq Nengroo alias Ashiq Molvi, a resident of Hanjan Bala village of Rajpora, a local Muzammil Ahmad Malik of Pulwama, and three Punjab gangsters – Ravi Kumar alias Nona, Jaideep Dhawan alias Deep and Amarbir Singh alias Gopi Mahal. The original charge sheet was filed on May 14 against two accused – Mouzzam Parvez and Umar Farooq, both residents of Pulwama’s Dalipora village – who had collected the cash from Amritsar in Punjab.

Under PMDP 53 projects worth Rs 58,477 Cr are being implemented in Jammu and Kashmir. Besides, 1193 projects worth Rs 1984 Cr were completed.

KARGIL

People carry the bodies of two persons who were buried alive as a mud hut collapses in Reasi on Saturday, July 30, 2022

Freak weather continues to create disruptions in routine life. The highway is frequently closed and the Amarnath yatra is suspended quite often. However, last week, Kargil suffered the worst as the massive rain triggered massive landslides and flash floods. So severe was the crisis that the administration in Ramban closed schools in wake of huge floods. Various culverts in Chenab valley were washed away by the floods. A number of vehicles were caught in the floods in Reasi, Ramban and Kargil. A dozen odd houses were damaged in Srinagar as well. Two persons were injured after a branch of a Chinar tree fell on a vehicle they were travelling in near Bemina Degree College. While the shooting stones continue on the Jammu and Srinagar highway, a shooting stone spot on Mughal Road seriously damaged three trucks. Six persons travelling in a vehicle on the Jammu-Srinagar highway were killed when the automobile fell into a deep gorge.

What is central to the freak weather is the frequent occurrence of cloudbursts across Jammu and Kashmir. One such cloudburst triggered a massive flash flood in Rangar Nallah and caused extensive damage to the Indian Trade Facilitation Centre at Chakan-Da-Bagh near the Line of Control in Poonch. It took a serious effort to rescue the seven cops from the rooftop of one of the buildings at the trade facilitation centre.

In Jammu and Kashmir, only 4.8 per cent of female workers hold senior management positions. The national average is 18 per cent.

BUDGAM

More than a millennium old (almost 1200) sculpture of the three-headed lord Vishnu with four arms having a lotus on the upper right hand was found in Gudsathoo village in Budgam. Its recovery was during the routine ploughing of the land. Police immediately information that headed it over to the Jammu and Kashmir Department of Archives and Archaeology. The sculpture is said to be a blend of Gandhara and Mathura School of Art. A similar sculpture was recovered from Khag (Budgam) which was established as a fragment of Punch Mukh.

18 schools were renamed after eminent persons and soldiers who fell in the line of duty in Jammu and Kashmir.

DELHI

Two Nigerian fraudsters held for duping Kashmir man

Two Nigerian nationals were arrested in Delhi in an online fraud case in which they devoured Rs 36.35 lakh from a Baramulla resident. Identified as Isioma Steven and Collins of Delta Agbor, Nigeria, they were arrested from Vashisht Park in Sagarpur. Police recovered 14 mobile phones of different makes and models, a laptop, 14 SIM cards, a wi-fi router, and a dongle from them. Police said six more arrests are expected in the case. The Baramulla resident had alleged that he came in contact with a Facebook person T Jessica, a purchase manager at the pharmaceutical company Abbott. She convinced the complainant to start a business of kandu nuts or palm seeds by showing fake offers, and orders and promising high returns. The complainant then came in contact with a person posing as Jyoti T Kandu, a businessperson who assured him that the product was of high quality and was valued in the pharmaceutical market owing to its medicinal benefits. “The complainant without knowing the plot behind the fraud invested a hefty amount of Rs 36.35 lakh by transferring the said amount in different bank accounts of fraudsters for purchasing 50 packets of kandu nuts,” a police spokesperson said. As he got the consignment, the Baramulla resident received another call claiming to be from the Mumbai customs office that advised him to deposit more money in order to be able to sell the nuts to pharmaceutical companies. It was at this stage that the case came to Cyber Police that finally solved it.

Since 2015, Jammu and Kashmir witnessed 184 major landslides.

DELHI

Aakash Hassan

Kashmiri journalist Akash Hassan was supposed to report from crisis-ridden Sri Lanka for a British newspaper when he was stopped for five hours at the Delhi Airport, questioned and prevented from flying to Colombo. “The immigration officials took my passport, and boarding pass and made me sit in a room for the last four hours. The officials are not giving me any reason for why I am not allowed,” he said in a tweet. “I was questioned by two officials about my background, and travel purpose. After making me wait for five hours, without even providing water to drink. I have been handed over my passport and boarding pass with a red rejection stamp: ‘Cancelled without Prejudice’.” Hassan is the second Kashmiri journalist barred from travelling abroad. Earlier on July 2, Pulitzer-winning Kashmiri photojournalist Sanna Irshad Mattoo was stopped when she was on her way to Paris to attend a book launch event and participate in a photography exhibition. Meanwhile, MoS Home Nityanand Rai revealed that two “persons associated with media organisations” stand detained under the Public Safety Act in Jammu and Kashmir.

TIHAR

National Investigation Agency (NIA) on February 26, 2019, Tuesday raided the Maisuma residence of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chief Yasin Malik.

Finally, Yasin Malik, the Kashmir separatist leader convicted for life twice, is on a hunger strike. After he was put on IV fluids, the Tihar managers had to shift him to Delhi’s Ram Manohar Lohia hospital. His hospital transfer was the outcome of his fluctuating blood pressure. Malik, 56, was sentenced to life in a terror-funding case on May 25, 2022. He is facing trial in the 1989 Rubiaya Sayeed kidnapping case in which the latter has identified him. Malik is seeking a fair trial, a personal appearance before the court in Jammu and also wishes to cross-examine Ms Sayeed, daughter of former Home Minister, Mufti Sayeed. To press for his demands, Malik stopped eating food on July 22.

SRINAGAR

On the eve of Vijay Divas, the anniversary of the Kargil war, the BJP got its cadres to a closed Lal Chowk for unfurling the tricolour. Its leaders saw off almost 300 bikers to Drass for attending the event, a day later. Party’s general secretary Tarun Chug and Ravinder Raina were the seniors who attended the meeting. Chug attacked the Muftis’ and Abdullahs’ accusing them of looting Jammu and Kashmir. “Mehbooba Mufti had claimed that after the abrogation of Article 370, no one will raise tricolour in J&K, let she visit Lal Chowk and see how everyone has been carrying the tricolour in their hands,” Chug said. “The families have joined hands and come up with a Gupkar gang. Abdullah and sons, Mufti and sons and Nehru and sons have been rejected by the people now. The youth have come forward for the progress of J&K. The youth from many parts of different J&K participated in the bike rally.” The markets resumed routine after the BJP function was over.

BUDGAM

A couple walks on the fallen leaves of the chinar tree at Nishat Bagh in Srinagar during the Autumn season on Monday, November 12, 2018.

Kashmir’s oldest Chinar is not in Chadoora, it is in Budgam. The Chetturgul Chadoora Chinar with a girth of 48 ft is merely 700 years old and the Budgam Chinar with 52.6 ft girth is thought to be a millennium elder. The forest department is planning to geo-tagging all Chinars across Kashmir.

BHADERWAH

Sagar Sehrai

Renowned Urdu Poet, TV and Bollywood actor Abdul Qayoom, aka Sagar Sehrai, has passed away. He was 70. The teacher-turned-poet lived in Bhaderwah and has also worked in Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s Shikara beside innumerable serials of DD Kashmir and web series. Unwell for a long time, Sagar is survived by his wife and three children. He retired as Zonal Education Officer.

JAMMU

Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh with army officials in Kashmir on June 17, 2022

In a speech at Jammu, Defence Minister, Rajnath Singh said Kashmir on the other side of the divide, belongs to India. “A resolution was passed in Parliament on Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK),” Singh said. “PoK is a part of Indian territory and will continue to do so. How is it possible that Baba Amarnath (Lord Shiva’s form) is in India and Maa Sharda Shakti (Sharda Peeth) is across the Line of Control?”

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