HONORED: Dr Syed Basharat Ahmed Shah from Bijbehra, now settled in Bonn, Germany, has been honoured with the membership/diplomatship of Royal College of Veterinary surgeons, United Kingdom. Shah, a scientific consultant working for an Austria company has presented his work at different conference in Canada, Germany, Belgium, Luxemburg, Netherland and Austria.
REQUESTED: Ali Mohammed Mir’s lawyer has requested a district court to disarm the members of Papa Kishtawar’s Ikhwani group. Ali’s kin have complained that they are under constant threat from the Kishtwari’s gang and have requested the state to provide them proper protection. Ali, a contractor from Nishat, was allegedly killed by Kishtawari and his men in 1996.
AWARDED: Mohammed Yousuf alias Mithu, son of Abdul Rashid of Basantbagh, Ramnagar, a close associate of Lasker-e-Toiba (LeT) commander, Qari, has been awarded 10 years imprisonment and a fine of Rs 20,000 is imposed on him for ¬being involved in some militant activities and for having a grenade in this possession. He has been convicted under section 7/25 Arms Act.
INTRODUCED: Visitor’s Management System (VMS), a latest security system, has been introduced in Civil Secretariat to ensure better security management. The new system is working on computers placed at check points in the security area of the Civil Secretariat and a computerized entry pass is generated along with the visitor’s photograph. For this, a Mumbai based company, Info Tech Private Ltd., was hired. The proper system will be in place in second week of October this year. For now, just demonstrations and training is going on.
DIRECTED: Miffed at the delay by the state government, the State Human Rights Commission has directed its separate investigative wing to conduct impartial probe in the case of ‘custodial killing’ of Umar Qayoom Bhat, a teenager of Soura. A separate investigative cell has been provided by the virtue of J&K Protection of HR Act-1997.
DEVELOPED: Muzaffar Aazim, a literature scholar from Tangmarg, now settled in US, has developed Kashmiri language in Microsoft Office. The technique was demonstrated at a seminar entitled “Role of Languages in understanding Knowledge” organized by Professional Students Guild (PSG) Tangmarg at Kunzar wherein Aazim was the chief guest. Aazim’s other works include a translation of Leo Tolstoy’s book, “War and Peace” into Kashmiri as “Jang te Aman”.
SIGNED: A MoU has been signed between Power Development Department and Power Grid Corporation of India Limited to reduce the Aggregated Technical and Commercial (AT&C) losses and outages, besides ensuring customer satisfaction, the officials say. Initially, four towns, Katra, Pahalgam, Gulmarg and Leh under a pilot study have been taken into consideration. The project may cost about Rs 112 crore approximately.
PROTESTED: Lance Naik D D Pathak of Signal Regiment who was hospitalized due to some ailment in protest against the refusal of his leave application climbed to the top of a mobile tower. He came back after more than five hours after his senior officer assured him to sanction his leave. Pathak was under stress due to some domestic problem and wanted to visit his family, officials say.
WON: State government has won a protracted legal battle over 30 kanals of its owned land in Amritsar that had been encroached by three families for over 40 years. The land had been given on lease to three families for six years which was not extended. The real lessees expired but their siblings continued to occupy the land which, according to prevailing rates, would cost around Rs 60 crores. Despite giving notices to encroachers, they did not vacate the same.
DIED: Sakeena, wife of Mohammed Ismail Theekrey of Kangan died of rabies. She was bitten by a dog near her residence some 40 days back. However, her relative says after being bitten by a dog, she was given anti rabies injection in their nearby hospital. Clearly that didn’t help!
DIRECTED: A local court has directed the IGP (Crime) to produce a document from Selma police station in California authenticating the death of Major Avtar Singh accused of kidnapping and killing Jaleel Andrabi, a human rights activist and a lawyer in 1996. Major Singh reportedly killed himself along with his family in California on June 9 this year.
RESERVED: State High Court reserved its judgment on petition of Dr Muhammed Qasim Faktoo, Chairman Muslim League, seeking direction for his release. Mian Abdul Qayoom, defending his petitioner, argued that Dr Faktoo has earned remission for his good behavior in the jail and his cumulative period of detention comes out to be 20 years which amounts to life imprisonment.
ANNOUNCED: George Galloway, a British Member of Parliament and Respect Party leader has announced to lead a relief caravan from Britain to Kashmir by road. He said this while addressing a dinner hosted in his honor by Tehreek-e-Kashmir and Islamic Mission (UK) in Bradford. The MP has also called upon India to stop the human rights abuses in Kashmir. In the past, Galloway has lead several caravans to Palestine as well.
