BOSTON
Kashmiri sc
ientist Khalid Shah has successfully established using herpes virus into a weapon against cancerous brain tumours in the brain. Very recently he has demonstrated how cancer-killing herpes viruses could be loaded onto stem cells, immersed in a gel be applied directly to the most common human brain tumours. Right now, he is heading Harvard Medical School’s Molecular Neurotherapy and Imaging Lab and Stem Cell Therapeutics and Imaging program in Massachusetts General Hospital. He had left Kashmir at the peak of crisis in 1995 and completed his masters and PhD in genetic engineering in Germany. Shah is keen to transfer his talent and medical advances to India.
JAMMU
Vinod Sawhney, who was ‘Agent Vinod’ in his heydays when he was deployed as a spy in Pakistan, was arrested and had spent 11 years in jail. Back home, he faced the prospects of a bleak future. It eventually led him to start a larger fight with the system. He was finally given a kiosk that was demolished in a drive. Then Agent Vinod opted for fast unto death. Well before he could die, the government restored him his property. Interestingly, the agent, now 63 in so frail that he cannot take its possession. He is admitted in an ICU and may take some time to recover fully.
MUMBAI
Bollywood is getting omnipresent in Kashmir. Last week a crew was seen shooting in Kishtwar. This week, Javed Jaffrey was seen filming in Shopian for Malayalam movie, Picket 43. This film is the story of two soldiers from India and Pakistan, guarding their respective borders, who end up becoming friends. The other news linking Mumbai’s reel world with Kashmir’s real life is that Nimrat Kaur has signed Saurabh Shukla’s psychological drama opposite Raj Kumar Rao that Nikhil Advani will produce. The film is being shot in Kashmir because film’s “terrifying and mysterious” content suits the location. In yet another development Amazing Dreams is shooting his Dildariyan in Kashmir with a local Sahil Khan in the lead.
POONCH
In an interesting development that offers the quantum of restriction in the visa granted for cross LoC travellers, the police have arrested six PaK citizens including two women for trying to visit Srinagar using the Mughal Road. They were told their permit is limited for Poonch visit only and for visiting Kashmir they should have sought a formal permission from police and respective deputy commissioner. They were arrested near Peer Ki Gali as they were part of a cavalcade that was on way to Wangat in Kangan that houses the largest religious gathering of the Muslim Gujjars.
DELHI
Well before Prime Minister Narendra Modi could start implementing his Kashmir plan, animal activist and minister Mrs Manika Gandhi has made a ‘good’ start: an NGO allegedly supported by her has stopped interrupting the smooth movement of mutton supplies to Kashmir. Various truckloads have been seized for “cruelty”. In some cases, the supplies have been returned after the traders were penalized heavily in the name of “treatment and feeding.” In some cases, they have been asked to keep water facility and fodder in the truck. If implemented, they said, it will jack up costs phenomenally.
BUDGAM
Gul Peer must be happy in the Central Jail. A Budgam court has granted bail to two out of his four female accomplices. They were arrested in May 2013 soon after the fake godman was arrested for sexploitation. Those bailed out are Khalida (Uri) and Naseema (Khan Sahib) after they furnished one lakh rupees bail bond each. They are facing trial for abetment in committing rape. Court has made scathing observations about the quality of the police investigation in the shameful acts of the ‘faith-healer’.
In Kalakote mines, 13000 tonnes of coal valuing Rs 7 crore is available for sale.
J&K Bank’s 1:10 stock split will pave the way for more liquidity in the lender’s shares as nearly 82% of its stocks are with state government and FIIs.
