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 The Economic Times Sep 24, 2020 India on Thursday hit out at Pakistan for raising the Kashmir issues at a virtual meeting of multilateral grouping CICA, and advised Islamabad to cease its "overt and covert" support to cross-border terrorism. In a sharp reaction, the Ministry of External Affairs said Pakistan has misused another forum by continuing its "spurious narrative" about India. Pakistan raised the Kashmir issue at the ministerial meeting of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence  Building Measures in Asia (CICA), an intergovernmental forum of 27 countries. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar represented India at the meeting. The MEA said Pakistan has no locus standi to comment on internal affairs of India, asserting that the Union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh have been and will remain an integral part of the country. "Pakistan's remarks today constitute gross interference in India's internal affairs, sovereignty and  terr...

 Daily Sabah September 23, 2020 The people of Jammu and Kashmir have no words to express their heartfelt thanks to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for reiterating once more his country’s support for the just cause of Kashmir, said Ghulam Nabi Fai, secretary-general of the U.S.-based World Kashmir Awareness Forum, on Wednesday. Fai said Erdoğan's words on Tuesday at the 75th session of the U.N. General Assembly have become a source of inspiration and gave hope to the millions of hopeless people in the region. Erdoğan's statement at the General Assembly was the true reflection of the aspirations of the people of Kashmir, he added in an opinion piece published by Anadolu Agency (AA). Erdoğan had said: "The Kashmir conflict, which is also key to the stability and peace of South Asia, is still a burning issue. Steps that were taken following the abolition of the special status of Jammu-Kashmir further complicated the problem. We are in favor of solving this issue through...

The Hindu Sep 22, 2020 Sriram Lakshman ‘We reject the malicious reference made to the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir’ Exercising its right of reply, India countered on Monday, references that Pakistan had made to Jammu and Kashmir during remarks delivered via video by Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi at the U.N.’s 75th Anniversary Commemoration. “Our delegation had hoped that during this solemn commemoration of a shared global milestone, the General Assembly would be spared another repetition of the baseless falsehoods that have now become a trademark of Pakistan’s interventions on such platforms,” First Secretary at India’s Permanent Mission to the U.N. Vidisha Maitra said. India had, via Ms. Maitra, responded to Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s general debate remarks last September as well. On Monday, Mr. Qureshi had said that the Jammu & Kashmir and Palestine disputes were the U.N.’s “most glaring and longstanding” disputes. The Minister said the people o...

The Indian Express  Date: Aug 07, 2020 Haseeb A Drabu,  Exactly a year back, the  BJP  did what no one in Kashmir ever thought anybody would do — let alone, anyone could do. Constitutional propriety be damned, the fact is it has been done. That was the approach then, and has been the attitude ever since. After pursuing it with single minded devotion for the last 70 years — BJP’s progenitor, Jana Sangh, started the “Ek Vidhan, Ek Pradhan, Ek Nishaan” agitation in Jammu in 1951 — the BJP finally made it the policy of the Government of India on August 5, 2019. A year later, it has become the nation’s policy on Kashmir, cutting across ideologically diverse political parties, autonomous institutions of judiciary and regulators, sub-national governments, and of course, the national media and the country’s civil society. It would appear that, for the first time in history, domestically there is complete consensus on Kashmir. Small optical irritants — the modality of the abr...

FirstPost Date: Aug 03, 2020 Nayeem Ahmed Majhoor,  On 5 August, 2019, hours before the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced its decision to revoke Jammu and Kashmir's special status and bifurcate it into two Union Territories, a number of the Valley's mainstream leaders were taken into preventative custody. Later, some were detained under the the Public Safety Act (PSA). But despite many mainstream politicos recently being released  (with the notable exception of Mehbooba Mufti)  and doing the media rounds, none of them has publicly called for restoring Article 370. Their silence has not gone unnoticed. "The Indian government has resumed the process of putting messages across through its followers whose ideology and conviction will never change despite humiliating them in public circles," one journalist, who did not wish to be named, stated. "India has kept its trump cards ready to quell resistance and reduce the pressure from the ...

The Quint May 30, 2020 In a joint operation by the Mumbai Police crime branch and Jammu and Kashmir police, a massive spy network from Pakistan was busted in Mumbai, sources from the Mumbai Police told  The Quint  on Saturday, 30 May.   This was   an attempt to gather information about the Indian defence in Ladakh, using illegal Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), reported news agency IANS. The transmission of voice and multimedia content over Internet Protocol (IP) networks is called VolP. There was a tip-off from the military intelligence unit that there were two numbers from which several calls were made to some numbers in J&K and conversations about Indian defence establishments were made on a regular basis, the police sources said. The location for these numbers was in Mumbai’s Govandi area. Mumbai Police’s crime branch and the J&K police in a joint operation raided the location of these numbers. One person was arrested and amo...

Hindustan Times April 04,2020 The Union home ministry on Friday evening  amended the new domicile rule   for Jammu and Kashmir issued this week that had triggered howls of protest in the Kashmir valley. In its final form, only domiciled residents of J&K will be eligible to apply for recruitment in the union territory. In the earlier version notified on Tuesday evening, the home ministry had reserved only subordinate posts for the domiciled residents. For other jobs under the union territory, people from any part of the country could apply. The new order issued a little before midnight makes jobs in the UT administration out of bounds for non-residents. There has, however, not been any change to the rule that will treat people from outside the union territory, who have been residents of the UT for 15 years, as domicile residents. The notification also extended domicile rights to central government employees who shall have served in the state for 10 yea...

The Front March 03, 2020 Azaan Javaid The Jammu & Kashmir administration has engaged US-based multinational software firm Cisco Systems to prevent fixed-line internet users from accessing social media websites. The step is seen as a precursor to the removal of restrictions on fixed-line broadband connections in the Valley, but indicates that social media will continue to stay off-limits for local residents even when internet connectivity is restored. Internet services in the Valley have been restricted since last August, when Jammu & Kashmir was stripped of its special status and divided into two union territories. In January, the restrictions were partially eased, with users allowed 2G mobile internet and broadband for 1,500 entities, including those providing essential services such as hospitals.  However, users are only allowed to access 1,600 websites. Social media remains prohibited owing to law and order concerns, but local residents have int...

Kashmir March  March 02, 2020 Geneva (KW): Indian delegation faced major embarrassment at its event in Geneva when a Kashmiri activist sought comment from pro-Modi politician MJ Akbar on remarks that it was safer to be a cow than a Muslim in India. A well known Kashmiri activist Hasan Bana asked MJ Akbar: “ One of your colleagues Mr. Shashi Tharoor has said that it is safer to be a cow than a Muslim in India.” Condoning Modi backed terror attacks on Indian Muslims in Delhi pro-Modi politician MJ Akbar called Tharoor’s statement irresponsible rhetoric. “ I don’t agree with Shashi Tharoor. Whatever has been said by him is far away from reality. He was in opposition and his comments were just irresponsible rhetoric,” he said. Claiming that Indian Muslims were enjoying equal rights and equal opportunities Akbar said “They have made huge progress in every field. Mahatma Gandhi has said Hindus and Muslims are one. God created them and no one can separate them,” ...

NDTV Published By: Anonymous United Nations:  In a significant development, Jammu and Kashmir has been removed from the United Nations(UN) list of unresolved disputes, giving a setback to Pakistan which has been asking the world body to intervene on the issue. The omission of Jammu and Kashmir from a list of disputes under the observation of the UN Security Council was noticed by Pakistan whose envoy has lodged a protest. "Jammu and Kashmir dispute was not mentioned in the context of unresolved long-running situations," said Amjad Hussain B Sial, Pakistan' acting envoy to the UN. "We understand this was an inadvertent omission, as Jammu and Kashmir is one of the oldest disputes on agenda of the Security Council," he added. Sial was speaking at the UN General Assembly session, which was discussing the functioning and reform of the Security Council. It was organised by the UK that holds the presidency of the Security Council this mont...

The Hindu Published by : Suhasini Haidar The External Affairs Ministry has refused to comment on the U.S. House resolution on Jammu and Kashmir introduced by  Indian-American lawmaker Pramila Jayapal , even as the government stepped up efforts to ensure that the resolution is not passed, with officials reaching out to Congressmen and women as well as the Indian diaspora to mobilise support. Sources said India is also hopeful that U.S. House members of the India caucus will move the process in their favour, while former diplomats said the larger fallout of the resolution was in the optics, not in its substance. “I think [the resolution] has a lot of sensation value, because while a motion on human rights in the U.S. House or Senate is not uncommon, but one tabled by a person of Indian origin is rare, and countries like Pakistan will use this for their propaganda purposes,” said former Ambassador to the U.S. Lalit Mansingh I think we have enough support on Capit...

The Economic Times PTI The economy of Kashmir has suffered losses of Rs 15,000 crore since August 5, when the government abrogated Article 370 provisions, a commerce body has claimed, saying that this is just a "conservative estimate". The Centre had repealed provisions of the article that gave special status to the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, and bifurcated it into union territories of Ladakh, and Jammu and Kashmir. "Our conservative estimates put the losses to the Kashmir economy due to the situation after August 5 at Rs 15,000 crore. We will be coming up with comprehensive data about the losses within a week," Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) president Sheikh Ashiq Hussain told PTI. More than the losses to the economy, job loss due to clampdown on internet services, protests and strikes was more worrying, he said. The handicraft, tourism and e-commerce sectors were the worst hit by the situation post the Centre's decision, Hus...

The Wire Mudasir Ahmad Srinagar:  The government has started identifying land in Jammu and Kashmir for companies from outside the erstwhile state who have shown willingness to invest in the region since the reading down of Article 370 of the Constitution. A senior government official said so far around 17,000 kanals  of state land has been earmarked in regions of Jammu and Kashmir. Ravinder Kumar, managing director of the State Industrial Development Corporation (SIDCO) said at least 10,000 kanals of land has been identified in Kathua and Samba districts of Jammu and another 5,000 to 7,000 kanals have been earmarked in Ganderbal, Kupwara and some other districts of Kashmir. “There is some land in Vessu (in Anantnag) also,” Kumar told  the Wire , adding that the process for identifying land has been ongoing for some time now. According to Kumar, the government has issued directions to all district commissioners, both in Jammu and Kashmir, to submit details ...