PULWAMA
Police have booked three youngsters under the Public Safety Act (PSA) for ‘stone-pelting.’ Identified as Sameer Mushtaq Lone, Mudsir Ahmad Lone (Kakapora), and Sameer Ahmed Lone (Lelhar) Pulwama, the trio was already in police custody. They have been shifted to Kot Bhalwal Jail. In Bumhama, Kupwara, last week, the police arrested three young men and booked them under UAPA. They were accused of chanting separatist slogans at the funeral of a person who died in a road accident. Interestingly, two of the three were not part of the funeral and the remaining one is a minor. Reports appearing in media said UAPA is being used big time now. In 2019, 255 cases were registered under UAPA. In the UAPA designated court in Srinagar catering to four districts – Srinagar, Ganderbal, Budgam, and Pulwama –157 UAPA cases are pending. In one of the UAPA cases, Additional Sessions Judge Jammu, Sunit Gupta has ordered a departmental inquiry against Sunny Singh, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DySP) for conducting the investigation in a “very perfunctory and unprofessional manner” in a case related to ten alleged underground workers of Hizbul Mujahideen in Kishtwar district. He should be asked as to “why and under what circumstances, he had not collected the real evidence” against the accused and “left out important aspects” of the case, the judge observed. “I am quite surprised how Sunny Gupta has qualified the administrative examination of the state and become DySP in the police department, as I have not been able to find him suitable in the basic intellect of the person.”
Meanwhile, the authorities have set free the south Kashmir cleric, Sarjan Barkati. He had been arrested for speaking on Eid in support of Palestine.
SRINAGAR
Wild rumours remained flying in real and virtual Kashmir after the massive paramilitary movement was reported in the north Kashmir and Chenab Valley region. The gossip on social media triggered sort of a crisis to the extent that the political class started asking questions – the same way they did in anticipation of August 5, 2019. The response was cold and incomplete. Top cops told reporters that the paramilitary units which were pulled out for election duty earlier are returning, Nobody is answering the question if the 300 battalions had moved out, why should they return to Jammu and Kashmir. In Delhi, the government class has conveyed that they have only two priorities right now, the Amarnath Yatra and elections to Jammu and Kashmir assembly.
The IFFCO manufactured Liquid Nano Urea that was introduced in Jammu and Kashmir by importing 15000 bottles is equal to 675 metric tonnes of solid urea.
LOLAB
It was a tragedy that shook Kashmir. An orphan in Wavoora who struggled to live a decent life and constructed a cluster of shops finally decided to raise a family. A twelfth standard student, Javeed married Khalida, a walnut trader’s matriculated daughter and brought her home on June 6, 2021. Khalida’s father had raised a hefty bank loan to ensure the marriage is decent. Local traditions give the new member of the family to understand her new home and know the extended family. Two days later, she accompanies her husband to a local shrine where they pray for a long prosperous life. That day the brides make the afternoon tea for the family and it marks the beginning of a new life. On that very day, after the couple returned from the shrine, he was found unconscious at home. He was driven to the hospital where he died later. Police have registered a case. Initially, it was seen as suicide but now police say they need more time to investigate and come to the conclusion.
JAMMU
On June 2, 2015, a gangster Sushil Srivastava and his two aides were killed in a shootout within the premises of Hazaribagh court premises. Six years later, the Jammu and Kashmir Police have detained an Army commando, Avtar Singh. He had quit the army voluntarily, a year after the shootout. A resident of Udhampur, he was living in a rented accommodation in Jammu’s Sainik Colony. Though police had initially apprehended him on suspicion in a recent incident of looting of a local shopkeeper, during questioning, he confessed to his involvement in the murder of Shrivastava and company. He had taken the supari from his rival, Vikas Tiwari. Interestingly, he has also identified a serving soldier who accompanied him in executing the mission.
Of 7500 registered dental surgeons in Jammu and Kashmir, 7000 are unemployed, DSA claimed.
RAJOURI
The Gujjar leader and writer, Choudhary Gulzar Ahmed Khatana who has witnessed the 1947 mayhem, has breathed his last at his native Dhanor village on June 10. He was 90. He has been a member of Jammu and Kashmir’s erstwhile legislative council in the 1961-66 session. He was a chronic heart patient. Born in 1931, at Akhnor Jammu, his father Choudhary Dewan Ali was a Zaildar and founder member of Gujjar Jat Conference, a primer organization of Gujjars founded in 1932. In his life, Choudhary has authored 12 books in Gojri and Urdu. A well-travelled person, he was well versed with Persian, Urdu, Arabic, and Sanskrit besides regional languages Gojri, Dogri, and Punjabi. He had travelled to UAE, Iraq, Iran, and Turkey.
KULGAM
It is a comedy and a tragedy. Tehsildar Damhal Hanjipora, Niyaz Ahmad Bhat was on a mission of destroying poppy cultivation and was thirsty. He went to a local general store and bought a bottle of water to quench his thirst. The shopkeeper gave him a bottle and he drank it quite fast. Within minutes, the officer had pain in his stomach. He was rushed to hospital and later driven to Srinagar. He has survived. Investigations led to the revelation that the shopkeeper had given him a bottle of battery acid. It is concentrated water. Police have registered a case and arrested the shopkeeper.
BANDIPORE
Dr Javid Iqbal, a resident of Quil village has bagged the Northeastern University fellowship in the USA where he will use Big Data to help design a more efficient drug-development model. The fellowship will get him access to Moderna, the biotechnology company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts that created a global vaccine.
Iqbal would be a fellow of the Northeastern University but would be working at the Moderna Pharmaceutical University. A state-run school student, Iqbal graduated in Pharmacy from Al-Amin College in Bangalore, Masters, and PhD from the University of Kashmir. For the last three years, he is teaching at the King Khalid University in Saudi Arabia as an assistant professor.
In 14 months, Jammu and Kashmir lost 14 doctors to Covid19.
SONAWAR
The Badami Bagh Cantonment Board (BBCB) has sent property tax bills to a host of the population falling under the board territory in Sonwar, Indra Nagar, Batwara, and Shivoprra. The tax is levied under Section 66(a) Cantonment Act 2006, for a year ending March 31, 2022, and usually, t is not less than Rs 10,000 a house.
BEERWA
Budgam continues to be in news for all the wrong reasons. A day after the minor was mauled to death by a leopard in Humhama, another minor was killed by the dogs. Identified as Mariya Aijaz, the 4-year-old girl was a resident of Meeripora. She was seriously injured in the canine attack and eventually died in GB Panth Children Hospital in Srinagar, many days later. The wildlife department continues to be on tenterhooks and they have captured at least two leopards so far. At one place, two cubs, too, were located and taken to Dachigam. The interesting part is that one leopard was seen in the premises of the Deputy Commissioner’s office.
