BISWAK
Mehbooba Mufti, who is participating in the non-BJP opposition conclave at Patna, visited the grave of Yusuf Shah Chak in Bihar’s Nalanda district at Biswak. He was the last sovereign king in Kashmir’s history who was imprisoned by the Mughals. At Biswak village, the caretakers – said to be the descendants of the Chak icon – accompanied her to the grave where she offered a chaadarposhi and prayed for his eternal peace.
Yusuf Shah Chak succeeded his father, Ali Shah, in 1579. After Akbar annexed Kashmir in 1586, Chak was exiled to Nalanda where he was given land in the Islampur block and permitted to maintain a cavalry of 500 soldiers. The place where he settled was known as Kashmir Chak. Though he died in Odisha in 1592, his body was brought back to Islampur and buried at Biswak. The Chak cemetery is spread over 8 bigha (nearly 5 acres) of land, and Kashmir’s most famed poetess and his queen, Habba Khatoon, is also believed to be buried there. The basic protection wall around the spot was raised in 2016 by the then-motawallia (custodian), the late Abdul Rashid. His grandson Yasir Rashid is the current motawallia of the burial ground, which is in shambles and has become a safe haven for land-grabbers. There are 10 large and small graves within the boundary wall.
Given the fact that Nalanda is Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s hometown, Mehbooba appealed to him for the repair of the ruins.
With this visit, Mehbooba became the second top leader from Kashmir to visit the spot. Earlier, in 1977, then-Chief Minister Sheikh Abdullah visited the grave of the last Kashmiri king and returned after promising to develop and preserve the site. This led to the renaming of the local link road in his name.
Kashmir’s veteran journalist, Yusuf Jameel, wrote on Twitter that Sheikh Abdullah not only laid a new tombstone over Yusuf Shah’s grave, but the village also got a potable water supply after the locals made a plea before him, and he, in turn, spoke to his Bihar counterpart.
The former caretaker of the grave, Abdul Rashid, told The Hindu that in 2015, the Jammu and Kashmir government was “contemplating reclaiming the mortal remains of Yusuf Shah Chak, but nothing happened, and land-grabbers continued to have their field day.” He claimed to have written 200 letters to the governments of Bihar, Central, and Jammu and Kashmir for the development of the place that “holds significance not only for tourists but also for academics and historians.”
Interestingly, quite a few Muslim families now live in Biswak, once a bustling village of 100 households. Now, quite a few Kurmi, Yadav, and Other Backward and Extremely Backward Caste communities are living there. The mazaar is still threatened by land grabbers, even though it has been registered with the Bihar Rajya Sunni Wakf Board since 1963.
Between 2019 and 2022, Jammu and Kashmir reported 51,577 cases of cancer. Between 2018 and 2022, 35,623 people died from cancer.
CHRAR-E-SHARIEF
The International Yoga Day landed Kashmir in controversy as a yoga session was organised within the sprawling lawns of the shrine of Kashmir’s standard bearer saint, Sheikh Nooruddin Noorani. “The burial place of one of our most revered saints is used as a venue for a yoga day photo op!” Omar Abdullah said in a tweet. Srinagar Mayor Junaid Mattu also reacted to the “inconsiderate” idea. “An absolutely hare-brained, inconsiderate idea to organize a demonstration at the shrine of Sheikh Noor-ud-Din Noorani, Sheikh-Ul-Alam (RA),” Mattu said. “I’m all for Yoga, but this is immensely problematic. Places of religious importance should be treated with utmost sensitivity.” While local shrine managers and officials avoided responding to the event, the reaction came from a suspended IPS officer, Basant Rath, who is seeking entry into the BJP. “I have 13 questions for Omar. BJP is in power, and they organized Yoga (at the shrine). If you are so offended, please provide it in writing that your party will never form a coalition with BJP. I can provide it in writing that your hands are stained with the blood of innocent Kashmiri Muslims and Pandits,” Rath said. “During Omar’s tenure as CM, 180 children were killed within a year. Many people were unjustly imprisoned under the Public Safety Act (PSA), which was later overturned by the courts, indicating that they were fabricated. Will he answer these questions?”
Kashmir reported over 3,376 TB cases in 2022, 3,442 in 2021, and 2,840 in 2020.
JAMMU
Speaking at a special convocation of Jammu University, Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar described the abrogation of Article 370 as good riddance, insisting it was a temporary provision that lasted for seven decades. Insisting that the repeal of Articles 370 and 35-A paved the way for peace, development, and economic growth and helped realize the “dream” of Syama Prasad Mookerjee. “It (Article 370) was an aberration. These were temporary provisions in our constitution but lasted for 70 years. We are happy it’s not there now,” Dhankar said. “Dr B R Ambedkar, who had drafted other Articles of the Constitution, had refused to draft Article 370. Personally, for twenty years, I too had been advocating the abrogation of Articles 35A and 370. It was an aberration… We are happy that now it is not there.” He said the abrogation was the greatest homage to the life and mission of Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee, who laid down his life for building a strong and united India. Post-abrogation, Dhankar said 890 Central laws were extended to Jammu and Kashmir, 200 laws were repealed, and hundreds were modified. The Vice President showered praise on Lt. Governor: “I was Manoj Sinha’s admirer, but today I became his follower. He has qualities that help society to grow. He is an example for the country.”
In the last six months, Kashmir was visited by 15,161 foreigners.
SHOPIAN
Almost 14 years later, the Jammu and Kashmir administration sacked two doctors for allegedly conniving with militants and fabricating evidence to make the drowning of two women, Asiya Jan and Neelofar of Shopian, appear as a rape-cum-murder case. Seven deaths took place and 103 were injured in the unrest triggered by the Shopian incident on May 30, 2009. Details now suggest that the 42-day unrest triggered 600 law and order incidents, 251 FIRs, and a business loss of Rs 6000 crore. CBI has charge-sheeted six doctors, five lawyers, and two civilians, including the brother of one of the deceased women, for fabricating evidence. When the commission appointed by the Omar Abdullah government, headed by a former judge, submitted its report, five policemen were arrested. They were later absolved of all charges after a CBI investigation.
Fifteen government-run and four private educational institutions recorded a zero per cent pass rate in matriculation. Budgam will have a 125-bed hospital at Reshipora.
WASHINGTON
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during his 3-day US visit, gifted an eco-friendly lab-grown 7.5-carat diamond packaged in Kashmir’s exquisite Papier mâché box to the US First Lady Jill Biden. Made using solar and wind power, the green diamond was sculpted with precision and care using cutting-edge technology. Lab-grown diamonds are produced through two technologies – High-Pressure High Temperature (HPHT) and Chemical Vapour Deposition (CVD). India is one of the leading producers (holding a 25 per cent share) using CVD technology.
Over 1,100 female students from various Jammu and Kashmir universities will embark on a free train college on wheels to various locations across India later this year. As many as 265 gold medal holders and 211 PhD degree holders will be part of the ‘knowledge’ trip.
KASHMIR
With the weather behaving like a rollercoaster, Kashmir’s apple growers are facing a serious leaf miner infestation in orchards. It is a novel invasive pest that was detected for the first time in 2021 and has spread around. The Apple Leaf Blotch Miner (ALBM) pest destroys leaves after forming a circular blotch on them. This is a new problem for Kashmir’s key economy. The growers were already facing issues with aphids, San Jose scale, European red mites, and a set of scabs, which cumulatively make up a basket of 50 diseases. Although the growers are using recommended pesticides, the pest is still out of control.
The Blue Pansy butterfly has been declared the Butterfly of Jammu and Kashmir. How this status will help the butterfly or Jammu and Kashmir is yet unknown.
UDHAMPUR
Inspired by her father, who serves in the BSF, Akriti Sharma, 23, is joining the Indian Air Force as a flying officer next month. A resident of hilly Magani village, she is joining the IAF Hyderabad Academy as an under-trainee flying officer. Sharma completed her schooling at Kendriya Vidyalaya and graduated from the Government College for Women in Udhampur, where she was an NCC cadet. Earlier, she represented India in Vietnam under a youth exchange program.
KOLKATA
It has been an interesting reunion between a mother and daughter that was underreported in Kashmir. They met for the first time after 12 years, and many people made efforts for this reunion. The young lady, now 26, is married and settled in Baramulla. Credit goes to her husband’s nephew, who was desperate to locate her aunt’s roots. She had been brought by her own uncle to Kashmir and “married” her off, telling her in-laws she is 19 and her family lived in Madhavpur (West Bengal).
In 2017, the young man zeroed in on two people from West Bengal and asked Kolkata police to interrogate them so that they could get her aunt’s parents’ address. It failed. Then he started befriending people on Facebook and asking about Madhavpur. It also failed.
Then there was a revelation – one day while talking, his aunt said she was enrolled in a school and named it. Based on this, he used the internet and located Sunderbans School. He talked to the principal and shared the girl’s details. He discovered that the school had shut down in 2009 and was replaced by a school for boys. He again contacted the principal, who shared the data of the girl’s last five years in school.
Then he approached National Commission for Women (NCW) which put him in contact with a community HAM Radio. They put him in touch with the police station and the contact was established. Once the mother and daughter had a virtual reunion, she travelled to her birthplace on June 14, accompanied by four of her relatives including her husband. There were a couple of interesting things that came out. First, she had forgotten her mother tongue. Second, she had lost her home address. Third, she was actually taken by her own uncle and sold without telling anything to her parents.
