FRANCE
During his recent Paris visit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi gifted a hand-knitted Kashmiri silk carpet to Yaël Braun-Pivet, President of the French National Assembly. Kashmir’s silk carpets are famous across the world. Newspaper reports said this has led the local stakeholders to heap praises on the prime minister hoping it will improve carpet sales across the world. “You have seen him donning shawl and Kani specimens,” Mehmood Shah, Director of Handicrafts Kashmir was quoted as having said. “During his last visit to Sweden, he gifted a GI-certified shawl in a papier mache box to the President of Sweden. In his recent visit to the US too, he gifted papier mache boxes. And this time he gifted the silk carpet from Kashmir.” These acts, he said, are a great encouragement for the artisans.
Of 19 ambulances in Mendhar block, 15 vehicles do not have a driver.
RAJOURI
Authorities are contemplating investigating the service records of the employees, especially those who lack a formal appointment order. In anticipation of this, the Jammu and Kashmir Police Crimes Branch, now called the Economic Offences Wing, has filed charge sheets in two cases in which the “employees” had managed their appointments through fake documents. In Rajouri, a 489-page charge sheet was filed against nine individuals including eight Physical Education Teachers (PETs) – three of them women – and their agent. They had secured jobs on the basis of a fake certificate issued from the Global Open University Nagaland. Earlier, the Wing filed a charge sheet against 19 persons who got police jobs on fake and forged appointment letters.
In nearly 75 days, Kaman Post (Uri) recorded a footfall of more than 16,000 visitors.
SRINAGAR
Kashmir’s globally known English poet, Agha Shahid Ali has moved out of the recommended books from the MA English curriculum of the University of Kashmir and Central University of Kashmir. Agha is the poet who introduced Ghazal to English literature and translated Faiz Ahmad Faiz. His poetic collection was part of the MA English course. Reports appearing in the media said the administration directed the two varsities to immediately delete two books – Basharat Peer’s memoir The Curfewed Night and Agha’s poetic collection from the MA English curriculum. KU VC has confirmed the decision saying it was done under the new education policy. Agha, who eventually became a US citizen and died there, earlier failed to get a teaching job at the University of Kashmir.
A meeting was told that Jammu and Kashmir has 4000 persons of the third gender.
CHRAR-E-SHARIEF
Suspected militants fired upon two young forest officials when they were on a routine patrol in the Sangerwani forests. He had received a thigh injury but by the time he reached the hospital, he had lost a lot of blood. A day later, one of them died. Identified as Imran Yusuf, 25, a resident of Moonu (Chrari Sharief), he was the lone bread earner of his BPL family. He was not a regular employee but a casual worker. The 1999-born man was hired by Forest Department in 2014 against a paltry sum of Rs 8000. His paltry earnings were the source of income to his ailing parents – his father is bedridden because of a spine injury, and his sister, who is unmarried. His father told reporters his son went to the forests during late hours after he got reports of timber smugglers getting into the woods. “We don’t know who killed him or why but his death has robbed us of our only support in old age,” Mohammad Yusuf, his father has told reporters. The attack took place near the Bangender Bridge.
Recent days, witnessed multiple attacks. Prior to the forest firing, two migrant workers were shot at. Akshay, 20, and Saurav, 20, are from Maharashtra’s Sangli area. Earlier on July 13, three migrant workers from Bihar were shot and injured at Gagren (Shopian). After the Gagren attack, the Station House Officer of Shopian police station, Ghulam Jeelani Bhat was shifted and an inquiry was ordered.
The process has been initiated to implement Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL)’s 175-km Bathinda-Jammu Tawi Gas Pipeline Project by the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB).
DELHI
Allegedly kidnapped on June 30, a 19-year-old Kashmir girl was recovered by Jammu and Kashmir Police from New Delhi. They have arrested two persons. A case was formally registered at Palhalan police station. Police said they tracked their digital footprints and traced the trio in Delhi. The accused were identified as Ashiq Ali Mangral, a resident of Reasi and Deepak Kumar of Kathua (Jammu). The girl has now been handed over to her family.
Jammu and Kashmir government has said the land bank of nearly 25,000 kanals for industrial investments has nearly exhausted.
JAMMU KASHMIR
Jammu and Kashmir’s power sector is running a vacancy of more than 721 engineers, which is slightly less than half of the total engineers required by four corporations – JPDCL, KPDCL, JKPTCL and JKSPTCL. Interestingly, most of the top positions are held by senior most engineers who are yet to be confirmed against the positions they are holding. This has impact ted the career prospects of engineers at various levels. Some of the senior engineers are still working as junior engineers or AEEs. Now the Jammu and Kashmir Electrical Engineering Graduates Association (JKEEGA) has written a letter to Lt Governor Manoj Sinha seeking an earlier implementation of the decisions he has already taken. The vacant positions include two Managing Directors, four Executive Directors, five Chief Engineers, 14 Superintending Engineers, 62 Executive Engineers, 134 Assistant Executive Engineers, 167 Assistant Engineers and 333 Junior Engineers. Interestingly at least three top engineers will retire as JEs or AEEs within the next few months.
NITI Aayog’s Multidimensional Poverty Index has fallen from 12.56 per cent (NFHS4) to 4.80 per cent (NFHS5). The government said it means 1044860 people were brought out of poverty between the two surveys.
SIACHEN GLACIER
A blaze that damaged a high-altitude bunker over the Siachen Glacier has killed a Captain rank officer. Siachen in Ladakh is the world’s coldest and highest battlefield where troops from India and Pakistan are stationed since 1984. Army’s Regimental Medical Officer, Captain Anshuman Singh went into a bunker to help the four soldiers who were injured. They were flown out and survived but Singh lost his life. There was no loss of ammunition. Interestingly, neither of the two armies have used a bullet against each other for years.
JAMMU
Massive rains that lashed Jammu triggered flash bloods, and landslides and subsided after killing eight people, including five children. Five of them were killed when two homes were buried under a landslide, annihilating the family of Bani’s SurjanMorah hamlet. The dead included Zareena Begum, 40, her two sons Shahbaz, 14, and Arbaz 2, Nazia Tabassum, 14 and her brother Asif, 12.
At Sitti village, 13-year-old Ajay Singh came under a landslide near his house, while the body of Naseema Begum, 55, was died under a landslide near her house at Drangal-Mandote. Sham Lal, 50, died after coming under the debris of a landslide at Bhuldi Nallah near Daggar. Various areas in the region were inundated as the rivers started overflowing for some time. Katra witnessed record rains forcing officials to close the yatra to Vaishno Devi.
KATHUA
Myanmar refugees lodged at the Holding Centre within Hiranagar jail for the last two years have clashed with the police and many injuries were reported. Police sources said a clash broke out when they had gone to rescue the centre in-charge and two other staff members who were allegedly held captive by the detainees. Almost half a dozen cops and a dozen refuges were injured in stone pelting, according to police. Later police and CROF reinforcements went in, burst tear smoke shells and resorted to cane-charge and brought the situation under control. As many as 271 Rohingya, including 74 women and 70 children (some of whom were born inside the jail) are lodged in the centre since March 6, 2021. The detainees have been demanding their immediate release so that they can rejoin their family members, including children, who have been staying at Rohingya settlements outside the centre. Hiranagar police have registered a case and the investigations in the incident are going on. The inmates were on hunger strike in May for many days.
SRINAGAR
At Kashmir Art Emporium, last week, Kashmir’s only bone carving artist, Aziz-ul-Rehman, 22, displayed his talent and work. Using animal bones, he crafts jewellery, decorative items and artworks. A Fisheries student at SKUAST-K, Aziz developed an interest in bone carving as a child. Given the widespread consumption of mutton, he found a lot of bone waste and decided to repurpose some of it for his artworks. He has designed bone earrings, pendants, candles, jewellery stands, pen holders, brush holders, key chains, ornate flower vases, and even decorative paper machie works on skulls. At his Gulabbagh home in Srinagar, Aziz has established a gallery of bone creations. “I have started an account on Instagram and am getting orders from people both from within J&K and outside the state. The response from people has been good and is increasing,” he told reporters.
SHAHR-E-KHAS
Not in so distant past, three friends – Irfan Shahmiri, Mushtaq Bashir and Kaiser Bhat, decided to have a football club so that youth stay away from drugs. In 2023, Downtown Heroes FC is leading the Jammu and Kashmir Football Association (JKFA) Professional League after it finished second in I-League 2. In August, they will be participating in the Durand Cup in Guwahati. The community-driven club has three engineers, seven undergraduate students and 10 school-goers as its players. After Real Kashmir FC and Lonestar Kashmir FC, Downtown Heroes FC is the third football club to emerge from Kashmir. Unlike Real Kashmir FC, however, most of its players are natives and not rented. For the Durand Cup, 9 out of the 11 players in the starting line-up are from Downtown. Interestingly, its coach, Ishfaq Ahmad was appointed as the Head Coach of the Indian Football Under 16 Men’s Team.
SRINAGAR
Jammu and Kashmir administration has sacked three more employees under Article 311 of the Constitution of India taking the overall dismissals to 52. The trio include erstwhile reporter Faheem Aslam, a Public Relations Officer at the University of Kashmir, Arshid Ahmad Thoker, a cop from Shopian and Murawath Hussain Mir, a native of Pulwama who worked as Wasil Baqi Navees in the Revenue Department. The dismissals are taking place “in the interest of the security of the State”. All but six employees dismissed so far are from Kashmir. The government is firing employees by invoking Article 311 (2) (c) of the constitution, which allows the termination of employees in the interest of the security of the state without any proper inquiry and without giving them a chance to be heard.
