Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s relief trust has completed six years of its existence. Sustaining on the charity that some of its members including its chairman M Ibrahim Shahdad are making, the Trust has been a helping hand for some of the most underprivileged lot of the society though on a limited scale.
“It was the devastating earthquake of 2005 that led us to set up the Trust and in all these years we have been going from universities to schools to identify the poorest of the poor and trying to help in their education,” Shahdad told reporters when Trust’s beautifully printed souvenir was released last week.
Interestingly, it was relesed by Hameeda, a young widow who is surviving along with her three orphans on Rs 3000, a monthly support that the Trust has been extending to her. She is the widow of the truck driver Mohammad Lateef Wani who was killed by right-wing protestors at Samba in September 2008 while enforcing an economic blockade of Kashmir.
ASSEMBLY
Chief Minister tendered an unconditional apology for his ministry’s goof up in identifying all the 1336 women who were raped in J&K in last five years. The names came in a 90 page document that was placed in house last week. Publication of rape victims’ names is a punishable offence and is in contravention of Section 228 (A) of the RPC.
The statistics revealed Jammu tops the list with 150 incidents followed by Rajouri with 130. Srinagar has 120 registered cases in last four years. Kargil had only four rape cases. Kulgam has reported 119 cases, Awantipora 37, Pulwama 19, Shopian seven, Baramulla 49, Sopore 21, Bandipora eight, Kupwara 27, and Handwara 58. In Jammu region, it is 33 in Samba, 53 in Kathua, 83 in Poonch, 62 in Udhampur, 34 in Reasi 34, 85 in Doda, 45 in Ramban and 10 in Kishtwar. Leh had 15 rapes in the five years.
