Riyaz Wani
The Supreme Court’s intervention was expected to depoliticise the pilgrimage to Amarnath cave shrine but it appears that the court’s role may also snowball into a political controversy, with separatists and civil society groups in Kashmir opposing the court’s ruling on the upgradation of the infrastructure along the route.
All eyes are now on a report being submitted by Special High Powered Committee set up by the court to examine the issues...
Posted 273 days ago.
Sahar-ul-Nisa Haroon
Kashmir, world’s living heaven and a valley of gushing rivers and lakes nestled in the heart of the majestic Himalayas is whirling now to be a nightmare for those parents who lost their children in the battle of continued existence and self-determination. Enforced disappearances those were; abduction at the hands of those in authority, a very common practice in Kashmir, to which at least 8000-10,000 people, mostly youth, have been subjected to...
Posted 274 days ago.
Firdous Syed
India is celebrating its Independence Day with profound reverence; obviously, even after 65 years have passed, a sense of huge achievement still lingers.
It is wished that India continues to make great strides in all spheres of life, enabling its people to finally realise the dream of an equitable development that will actually add to the real sense of achievement.
And on August 14, Pakistan also observed its day of independence. The entire Indian...
Posted 277 days ago.
Sheikh Saleem
I remember once during my childhood I insisted my father to take me to the parade ground on August 15. I was eight years old; I wanted to see the flag being hoisted. I had seen the celebrations of Independence day on television – smiling people, distribution of sweets and the excited children. That day, I too was excited. So much so that I wore chappals of two different colours – something that I realized only at the end of the ceremony.
For...
Posted 279 days ago.
Anznoo Wasim
“Truth is bitter”, somebody has rightly said; hence unpalatable truth is. But since it is 'truth' one needs to digest it willfully or unwillingly.
Hold on, I’m talking about the government’s recent decision of recruiting more than 1400 Kashmiri Pandits in the valley in order to motivate them to return to their homeland. First, it is perplexing to know that one needs ‘motivation’ to return to their homeland. Second if at all they are so...
Posted 280 days ago.
Aamir Bashir
NEW DELHI, Aug 10: On a rainy Sunday morning in May 2010, a bulldozer drove into the mammoth Kashmir University campus on the banks of the Dal Lake in Srinagar. It drove straight into the beautiful Naseem Bagh.
Wall by wall, the bulldozer demolished a small hut that was the office of the Kashmir University Students’ Union (KUSU).
As the bricks fell and the dust settled, a massive crackdown on KUSU members followed. The organization was banned...
Posted 284 days ago.
During the summer uprising of 2010, more than 110 people, many among them children, died in police and paramilitary firing on anti-India protesters. New Delhi said the youth were motivated by Pakistan in fomenting trouble and security forces alleged that they were fired upon at times, forcing them to 'retaliate'.
Among the dead was Sameer Rah, 7, who was allegedly beaten to death by security forces. On August 2, two years ago, he had his last conversation with his father. And...
Posted 292 days ago.
Sahar-ul-Nisa Haroon
In Kashmir a large number of great Sufis have lived and now we have shrines dedicated to them thronged by hundreds of thousands; Kashmir is Peer Waer, a land of saints. This paradise on earth is bestowed not only with the beauty of nature but also with religious wealth.
The Sufi tradition has played a great role in the lives of people living in this region ringed by lofty snow-clad mountains. The earliest known Sufi in Kashmir was a...
Posted 297 days ago.
Hilal Mir
The only outsiders who have been included in the repertory of Kashmiri wedding songs are Rajesh Khanna, Vinod Khanna and an anonymous ghazi, a religious fighter, from Pakistan.
In weddings, you would find women lined in rows, arms locked around each other's back, swaying forward and backward, singing wanwun, a love song, over the fast clapping of hands or the rhythmic beating of tombhak naer, the Kashmiri clay goblet drum.
On the arrival of the...
Posted 299 days ago.
Saeed Naqvi
I have stopped reading columns in the International Herald Tribune because I get most of them pushed through my door as op-ed articles in our mainstream English language newspapers. But last weekend, browsing through the edit page quite randomly, I spotted an article I had not seen in my New Delhi newspapers.
"Awaiting Justice In Kashmir" is an eight-inch deep bottom spread, written by Mirza Waheed, whose novel, "The Collaborator", was shortlisted for...
Posted 305 days ago.
