INJURED: Nazakat Ali, 10 and Gulnaz Kousar, 7, were critically injured when a mine exploded near the Line of Control (LoC) in Rajouri. Nazakat lost his foot while Gulnaz received multiple splinter injuries when a mine exploded. Police says the children while grazing in the field found a mine when they fiddled with it.
DIED: Ten students were killed and eight other injured when a school bus met with an accident in Kokernag, Islamabad, among them where five girls all residents of Kandiwara. Reportedly, the driver of the bus lost control and bus fell in a deep gorge of 300 feet near Kandiwara. All the mainstream and separatists parties have expressed grief over the loss of young lives.
GRANTED: State High Court has granted two weeks to the state government to file their compliance report, and explain the rationale behind referring only 17 killings in summer, 2010 to the Commission of Inquiry. The PIL was filed by Yasin Malik, Chairman JKLF. The state was asked to file the compliance report on October 8, 2012 and since then has been receiving extensions.
TERMED: SHRC in its latest annual report has termed Kunan-poshpora mass rape as “horror night for the victims” and has slammed the successive governments for ignoring the victims. The commission has blamed the government for keeping their eyes “closed” towards the pain and gory of the victims. Mir Saifullah, the Law Minister, had tabled the annual report, 2011-12 in the Legislative Council this week.
DAMAGED: G H Mir, the agricultural minister, has shared in the legislative Assembly that the financial losses suffered in crops and fruit production by monkeys has been huge in past one year. Various types of crops including vegetables covering over 15,000 hectares of land in Jammu has been damaged by monkeys in past one year causing financial losses worth Rs 32.93 crore. He added that monkeys have caused substantial losses to the fruit crops as well. The estimate damage is of 9,426 metric tonnes costing Rs 472 lakh.
RECOMMANDED: SHRC has recommended that the unmarked graves “should be identified by all means”. It in its annual report has called for appointment of an independent structured body which will be empowered to go in all questions and aspects regarding unmarked graves, disappeared persons, identification of buried and dead bodies. The commission has directed the police to provide all the help to this independent structured body.
ARRESTED: Ajaz Ahmad, Waseem Mukhtar and Abdul Qayoom, all employees of state consumer affair and public distribution department have been arrested by the police for allegedly harassing a woman colleague in their office. A case has been registered in P/S Shaheed Gunj under section 294 RPC. The lady has filed a complaint against five; three among them have been arrested and hunt for the other two is on.
LAUNCHED: The state government has launched vigorous tourism promotional campaign in various states of the country to attract more tourists to J&K. As per the official statements the event has received overwhelming response of prominent citizens, tour and travel operators besides foreign delegates. The department states that they have not only developed new tourism spots but upgraded world class infrastructure facilities for tourists as well.
APPOINTED: State government has appointed a Liaison Officer (LO) to look into the incidents of harassment of students from J&K studying in different states of India. The LO is supposed to coordinate with all the agencies and department of the concerned state government with a view of ensuring safety and security of the state. The step is taken keeping in view the recent harassment cases which took place in India and the concern of parents whose children are studying outside the state, the Chief Minister has said.
HITS: A moderate intensity earthquake measuring 5.8 on the Richter scale hit Kashmir and lasted for about 10 seconds, an official of the meteorological department said. There was no report of any damage or injury to any person but the tremors created panic in the region. The epicenter of the tremor was in Hindukush Mountain in Afghanistan, an official report said.
PRODUCED: Shahyan Nabi aka Shyn9, a Kashmiri rapper is all set to release an album on Afzal who was hanged and buried in New Delhi’s Tihar Jail. Shahyan has produced five track album titled ‘EP- the dark February’ which will debut this summer. The album will also feature songs on Kunan-poshpora mass rape and the hanging of Maqbool Bhat. Shahyan is presently pursuing B.Tech from Islamic University, Awantipora.
DIRECTED: The state high court directed police to produce records of its investigation into the 2003 disappearance of a Srinagar youth allegedly in Army custody. The decision is taken seeing the media reports that the youth was planning to carry out a fidayeen attack in Srinagar along with three other militants. The petition is filed by Mst Fareeda, mother of Showkat Ahmed Paul of Lawaypora. The case is filed next week.
