PROBE: The state government has ordered a magisterial probe into alleged fake encounter killing three youth from Nadihal Rafiabad near the Loc on April 30. The bodies of the three, claimed to be militants by army, will be exhumed. Family sources allege the youthg were abducted by a police officer and taken to LoC for the fake encounter.
HARASSED: People held protest demonstrations against alleged atrocities on a widow of a militant by government gunmen Showkat Ikhwani. Khalida wife of slain militant Muhammad Yusuf Wani of Habba Kadal Srinagar accused Ikhwani, who she says, calls himself SP Rana, of making her life miserable. Khalida, a mother of a daughter and a son, said Showkat Ikhwani tried to abduct her outside Iqbal Park.
RAIDED: Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI) raided the office and residence of Kausar Parveen, a producer of Dooradrshan Kendra (DDK) Srinagar, seized records and sealed both the places, media reports said. With this, CBI has launched its second consecutive investigation into fraudulent payments made by some DDK Srinagar producers on account of in-house music programmes.
SURVEYED: More than 75 percent of people in Kashmir Valley, want an Independent Jammu and Kashmir, an opinion poll conducted by a UK based research house suggested. The first ever poll on the issue conducted across both sides of the divided state concluded that nearly half of those interviewed said they wanted independence. It revealed that 44 percent of people in Pakistan-administered Kashmir favoured independence, compared with 43 percent in Indian-administered Kashmir.
The results, however, have been found to be highly polarised along religious lines. In the Kashmir Valley, support for independence runs at between 74 and 95 percent. In contrast, across Jammu Division it is under one percent. In Leh it is thirty percent and Kargil twenty percent.
CHARGED: The state government has charged the team of doctors who carried out autopsies on two women in Shopian town last May with fudging evidence to defame the police and the security forces. Seventeen year old Asiya Jan and her sister-in-law Nilofar, 22 were found dead by the side of a stream in Shopian town on May 29 last year. The state government based its chargesheet on the CBI findings.
PLANNED: The government has announced to launch 3G services in J&K shortly besides installing towers along both tracks (Baltal and Pahalgam) of Amarnath pilgrimage.
CONCLUDED: After initial controversy, the 6-days rare visit of a two-member Amnesty International (AI) team passed off smoothly. Contrary to the expectations that they will be taking note of the entire crisis that Kashmir has faced on civil liberty front, AI team said they were actually working on certain laws that authorities have used against the civilians.
EXPLODED: Several landmines laid along Line of Control (LoC) in Keri Rajouri exploded due to a fire in the forest area. Fire erupted on the Pakistan side of forest along LoC and spread to Indian side, official sources said. Several mines exploded as a result of the fire, the sources added. No casualties were reported.
ASSASSINATED: Unidentified gunmen shot dead president of Sopore Traders Federation and NC leader, Ghulam Nabi Khan. Khan was hit in the forehead. Locals rushed him to hospital where doctors declared him ‘brought dead’. Both factions of the Hurriyat Conference besides main stream political parties condemned the killing. The town observed a protest shutdown against the killing making it the first major shutdown against the killing of a mainstream political leader.
MISSING: The family of Syed Zubair Rizvi, a Kashmiri medical student, who is missing since May 14 from Mansar-Jammu, has sought the intervention of chief minister Omar Abdullah in tracing him. In the plea they have urged the chief minister to instruct the police and other investigating agencies to speed up investigations. Initially the police in Jammu had said that the medical student had committed suicide by jumping into Mansar lake but later changed the statement.
BOOKED: The CBI has booked three top officers of National Hydro-electric Power Corporation (NHPC) and a noted construction company–M/s Larsen and Toubro Limited for using sub-standard material in the Rs 38.6 crore contract for execution of rural electrification works.
RELEASED: A book by columnist Arjimand Hussian Talib, “Omar Abdullah, The Burdens of Inheritance” was released here by J&K Bank chairman Haseeb Drabu . The book has been published by Apple Books, an imprint of Wattan Publications.
RETURNED: Zubair Kirmani, a successful fashion designer has returned to Kashmir to set a division in Srinagar. Kirmani owns a well known brand called Bounipun. After Rohit Bal, Kirmani is only second from the state to join the elite fashion club of India.
RELEASED: A senior leader of moderate Hurriyat conference, Nayeem Ahmad Khan has been released after nearly four months of incarceration following the Jammu and Kashmir High Court’s order quashing his detention.
ARRESTED: Police arrested three persons including a former Councillor and two government employees of Town Planning and MES and recovered a large quantity of fake Permanent Resident Certificates (PRCs), stamps from their possession in Bishnah town.
CONDUCTED: Kashmir train will chug with more speed besides making four trips each on Qazigund- Budgam and Budgam-Baramulla routes, officials said. At present, the train makes three trips between Qazigund and Budgam and two trips between Bugdam and Baramulla.
