What almond is to Kashmir, apricot is to Kargil. Right now it is snow-white in a vast belt as apricot is in bloom. Hardass is the main belt that grows apricots and it could be a major tourist attraction if tapped. By all means, it is the apricot that can make the difference in the cancer cure.
Within next few years this fruit is going to be in demand from Kashmir where it is gradually becoming part of the routine food. However, the farmers suggest that they lack irrigation in peak season that hits the produce. Kargil grows more than 150 varieties of apricot and it is the region’s principal fruit.
SRINAGAR
Kashmir Journalists Corps (KJC) has constituted an annual award in memory of Izhar Wani, former Srinagar Bureau Chief of the AFP in recognition of his contribution to the field of journalism in J&K and inspiring young talent. Wani lost his year long battle against cancer last month. The award comprises cash and citation which would be given to the reporter of the year, the upcoming talent of the year and the photographer of the year.
JAMMU
State’s winter capital is keen to become Jollywood. At the launch of a music CD of Dogri forthcoming film Reet, local DD Kendra Director Shabir Mujahid put his weight behind the idea of helping Jammu to become a filmmaking destination. He suggested the government should follow the policy of other states that incentivise the initiative. Reet is a story of love and betrayal that Pankaj Khjauria is making. It follows films Maa Ni Mildi, Lakeer and Kuggi Maar Duari. But the larger issue is can Jammu sustain film sector when it has already promoted Jollywood by consuming individuals who could be its celluloid identities.
NEPAL
It has been 12 years since Ghulam Muhammad Sofi was arrested in Kathmandu on August 12, 2000 and handed over to an intelligence agency. The family searched him in every jail and finally Sofi’s tired father died of a stroke. Now his mother Zubeida, 65, is seeking his whereabouts. She had met every ruler from Dr Farooq to Mufti Sayeed to Omar Abdullah but nobody is offering an answer. Sofis’ of Safakadal are in handicraft business and two of the missing man’s brothers are still in Nepal and their third brother is employed in Boston. The aged woman lives with her son’s ‘half widow’ and a domestic help.
THAILAND
Kashmiris being tortured in mainland India is common. The crisis is apparently outsourced as businessmen operating from Thailand say they are being treated shabbily. Newspapers quoted businessmen saying that the Indian Consulate in Bangkok has changed it attitude towards the Kashmiri businessmen after a new officer took over. Traders in Thailand are planning a protest if the Consulate staff did not do away with the discrimination they are doing with the Kashmiris.
DELHI
Had anybody committed this “mistake” in J&K, he or she might have been somewhere in some interrogation centre. But the army managed the crisis by withdrawing the text book that identified Pakistan Administered Kashmir (officially PoK) as ‘Azad Jammu & Kashmir’. The book that was being taught in Army’s Srinagar school also showed Gilgit-Baltistan as Northern Areas and part of Pakistan which goes against New Delhi’s official stand that it is part of J&K. All the parties have expressed concern over the goof-up that eventually led to the withdrawal of the text book. The CBSE approved book was published by a Delhi book house.
