Prof Sahaf is KU’s New Registrar LATEST NEWS Posted on: Wednesday, June 24th, 2015 Advertisement KL NEWS NETWORK SRINAGAR Prof Sahaf Former Director of The Business School, Kashmir University (KU), Prof Musadiq A Sahaf has been appointed as the new Registrar KU. Prof Sahaf succeeded Prof Zafar Reshi from Botany Department, who has been relieved from the additional charge. Prof Sahaf has his doctorate in Marketing Management and Management Accounting. He has four books and 54 Research Papers under his belt. Sharing Share On Facebook Email this article Print this article

The Jammu and Kashmir Panthers Party on Tuesday opposed any move to allow 'so-called' surrendered militants to return home from Pakistan via Nepal or recruit them in security forces or police.

"The so-called surrendered militants should not be brought to J&K from Pakistan via Nepal as NC-Congress government had been doing. This practice is followed by PDP-BJP government in spite of the show cause notices by the Supreme Court," Panthers Party chief Bhim Singh told reporters here.

He also said the government should stop recruiting surrendered militants into the security forces and police immediately. Singh said he had told the MLAs of BJP, which is a partner in the Mufti Sayeed-led coalition government, that they should understand that national interest is always supreme and above party politics which they should not forget.

The BJP MLAs should revolt against the "corrupt, criminal, communal and anti-national government and come out with clean mind and nationalist outlook", he said.

All educational institutions and business establishments remained closed while a thin attendance was witnessed in government institutions.
By: Khalid Gul.

Complete shutdown was observed in Kulgam district of South Kashmir on Tuesday against the killing of a civilian and two militants a day before.

Clashes between protesters and police were also witnessed in several areas of the district.

In Kulgam town, Kaimoh, Frisal and Yaripora shops remained shut while transport was off the roads.

All educational institutions and business establishments remained closed while a thin attendance was witnessed in government institutions.

Police and paramilitary forces wearing riot gears and armed with sophisticated weapons were deployed in strength to thwart any attempts of protests in Khudwani and Redwani areas of Kaimoh. “Curfew-like situation prevailed in Kaimoh areas,” locals said.

Eyewitnesses said youth in Khudwani came out and pelted stones on CRPF and police camped in Sher-i-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences (SKUAST) research institute. The government forces retaliated by lobbing tear gas canisters.

Asif Ahmad Tantray of Redwani village was killed allegedly by security personnel on Monday. While the police claimed that he was killed due to a stray bullet, family members and locals said it was a targeted killing.

Two local militants Javed Ahmad Bhat and Idrees Ahmad Negroo were killed in a 15-hour gunfight with forces in Redwani Bala village of Kaimoh yesterday.

People in large numbers thronged the houses of two slain militants and the civilian in Redwani-Khudwani and Budroo-Yaripora to offer condolences to the bereaved families.

Almost all separatist leaders were detained or placed under house arrest to prevent them from leading protest rallies in the area.

Late in the evening, protesters from Khudwani area marched towards Srinagar-Jammu Highway near Wanpoh and torched a Beacon vehicle. Police and CRPF reached the spot, lobbed tear gas shells and resorted to aerial firing to disperse the protesters. The protesters did not relent and clashes continued. Reports said that several other vehicles were also damaged during the clashes and traffic movement was disrupted for some time on the highway.

With partner PDP unhappy over the "paltry" flood relief amount, BJP today said the Central government will provide all help to Jammu and Kashmir and a delegation of officials from the Centre will soon visit the state to discuss the requirement.

BJP general secretary Ram Madhav insisted that there were no differences with PDP and the coalition government in Jammu and Kashmir will complete its full term.
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"There is always pressure of the people on the governments everywhere and not just in Jammu and Kashmir and it is good for them. This government will work with more seriousness and responsibility and I am sure that this government will last for the full term," he told reporters here.

About unhappiness in PDP over the relief announced by the Centre for last year's flood, Madhav said, "A delegation of officials from the Centre will soon visit here to take a full assessment and then hold discussions. The state is slated to get funds under the 14 Finance Commission in good numbers. And so far, the flood relief is concerned, the officials in the central government will discuss whatever expectations the state government has and provide all help to the state."

He said natural disasters have hit other states as well and if any state feels it had not got what it needed, the Centre would look into it.

"The central government is trying to provide necessary help to all the states. And if any state feels that it needed more, but has not got that much, then obviously the Government of India will have a look and do whatever needs to be done," he added.

PDP leader and Member of Parliament Tariq Hameed Karra had recently termed the flood relief package as a "joke" and advised his party to break away from the coalition in the state. Trade organisations, tourism bodies and members of civil society have also termed the package as "paltry" and called upon the PDP to part ways with the BJP.

The government of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), along with the central government, has been intensifying its mass-surveillance architecture in the state for over a decade. Although surveillance has always been a vital constituent of the ruling apparatus in J&K, electronic snooping underwent a marked increase from 2008 to 2010.MIR SUHAIL
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On 6 November 2014, two teenagers were killed by the armed forces while they were on their way to see a Muharram procession in central Kashmir’s Budgam district. The killings, that the military later stated were a “mistake” led to a  series of clashes between the armed forces and civilians in the area. Among those who were protesting, was a 22-year-old student who is pursuing a Bachelor's degree in Science in Kashmir. When I met him in Srinagar in February this year, the twenty-two-year-old science student recalled finding out about the killings and spending his entire day on the streets to participate in the agitations that took place. At around midnight, exhausted but restless after the events that transpired, he called a childhood friend—a student from Kashmir who was pursuing his higher studies in New Delhi—and began an eager narration of his triumphs and tribulations from the day. However, the exchange struck him as a little odd as his friend kept disconnecting the phone repeatedly. Once his initial confusion dissipated, the student realised that his friend was trying to avoid the omnipresent third entity in the conversation. The student felt increasingly exasperated with this presence once he registered the strange beeps and echoes during the phone call. In the next call he made, he defiantly mocked and swore at the “third person,” a covert listener. The two friends laughed.

The panopticon that has been encircling Kashmir is a construction of the Indian state, which has been intensifying its mass-surveillance architecture in the region for over a decade. Although surveillance has always been a vital constituent of the ruling apparatus in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), electronic snooping underwent a marked increase from 2008 to 2010, with a surge in mass civil uprisings in the state.

Apart from the presence of more than 600,000 Indian troops and other visible markers of a military occupation, various surveillance units dot Kashmir’s landscape. A 29-year-old businessman from south Kashmir, told me, over the phone, of four cameras that were positioned on specially erected towers in the main marketplaces of Lalchowk, Khanabal, Janglat Mandi and Reshi bazaar. He told me that he commutes through these routes every day: “It (the cameras) makes me nervous. Sometimes, I avoid these routes. Mostly, there is no choice,” he said.

The businessman told me that he has had a history of cyclic detentions, including a detention under the Public Safety Act (PSA). According to his estimate, at least 42 First Investigation Reports (FIRs) have been filed against him over the past eight years. “In June 2009, police showed me footage of a protest that I had led over the Shopian double rape and murder of 2009. They record HD [high definition] videos, filming protests even from half-a-kilometre’s range with clarity,” he told me, sounding anxious.

The businessman’s PSA dossier reads: “You threatened shopkeepers to replace word Anantnag with Islamabad on their sign boards and that too written with green colour.” Laws such as the PSA and what Amnesty International refers to as “vague” grounds of detention, when combined with intense surveillance, catalyse the social exclusion of people such as this businessman, thereby keeping them “out of circulation.”

The business man also told me that his phone is regularly monitored. “It is difficult to evade the police dragnet after one falls into it. I changed my number multiple times and each time police would track my new number and call me to show off their power,” he said. As his account seemed to underline, surveillance is a measure of socio-political control and the equation of disproportionally distributed power between the watcher and those being watched, aids this process.

In November 2014, Vasundhara Sirnate, the chief coordinator of research at The Hindu Centre for Politics and Public Policy wrote in an article in The Hindu: “An Intelligence Bureau official stationed in Kashmir told me that they were tapping 10 lakh phones in Kashmir alone by 2014.” Mobile telephony was introduced in India in 1995 and, owing to security concerns, was permitted in Jammu and Kashmir only in 2003. For the state, the arrival of cellular phones proved to be beneficial in tracking down militants. However, since 2008, a surge in mass civil uprisings and the use of technology for information dissemination, protests and mobilisation in the state have led to major curbs on mobile services and the internet.

The Indian state and the regime in Jammu and Kashmir have also been conducting mass surveys for the “demographic and psychographic profiling” of the people in the state through “various intelligence agency sleuths and surveyors from a number of Indian think tanks.” These in-depth surveys ask the surveyed families and individuals for details on their “mental” states, their political orientation and information on family members who may be linked to a militant organisation. While the police and army expressed ignorance over this covert operation, activists and resistance leaders have termed it “illegal” and “dangerous.”

The state’s sleuthing also focuses on social sorting and profiling by creating “flowcharts.” An engineering graduate who had been recruited as a police wireless operator and additionally deputed for collating records told me that, “For each individual, a flowchart detailing their linkages and networks is created. Certain coded categories are used to group people.” A 25-year-old MBA (Masters of Business Administration) graduate from the University of Kashmir was picked up from Old City in 2012 for his pro-freedom posts on social media. He was tracked by the police’s cyber unit, which seized his laptop and phone. “The police asked me names of my neighbourhood and college friends. They asked me specific questions about my social circle,” he told me when I met him in February this year.

The government also relies heavily on human intelligence or “agents” embedded within the population. “Surveillance aided by technology is only a supplement and not a replacement to the human interface,” K Rajendra Kumar, the director general of police in Jammu and Kashmir told me over the phone in April.

“Technologies become obsolete. We are trying to upgrade systems with a futuristic vision. Right now the focus is to modernise police control rooms, CCTV networks and have mobile squads. I would like to have the entire area under the camera eye,” he added. When I asked him about the cost of such projects, he said, “There are various agencies functional here and we work together for stronger and cost-effective surveillance.”

Snooping has become elemental to the state’s socio-cultural atmosphere, leading to fear and its internalisation. SAR Geelani, a professor from Kashmir who teaches Arabic in Delhi University, believes that the state aims to socially alienate people through such projects. Geelani, who was given the death sentence in the 2001 Parliament attack case, but was later acquitted of all charges, told me, “This is part of their social engineering project. They fear togetherness. It is a psychological war.”                    

When I spoke to Arshad Hussain, a psychiatrist based in Kashmir, in December over email last year, he said, “It makes an individual hyper vigilant, gives rise to mistrust and suspicion and can lead to paranoia.” Muzammil Karim, a Delhi-based clinical psychologist, agreed with this prognosis. During a phone conversation, Karim told me that he believes increased surveillance can lead to behavioural changes. “Surveillance may lead people to mask real identities in everyday lives, affecting personal and professional relationships and can cause anxiety. Two of the patients I attend to in Kashmir, sought counselling from me due to these issues. One of them, a journalist, was on the brink of psychosis. Such people think that any information may be used against them,” he said.

Societies that are under surveillance of this kind have a fractured social atmosphere that can, in turn, fracture one’s view of oneself and of others. Saiba Varma, a cultural anthropologist, who is currently a postdoctoral fellow at Duke University, told me in April over email that state surveillance, which also includes people on government payrolls, contributes to a sense of mistrust and fear and pervades social relations. “In this sense there is a way that state logics of surveillance have trickled down into the everyday, and into everyday relations between people. Is designed to further erode the social fabric,” she explained.

Contesting the “nothing-to-hide” argument used by champions of state surveillance, she said, “This is not how surveillance works; anything can be manipulated or turned against you.”

During Varma’s stay in Kashmir for her 20-month-long ethnographic research, “Medicalisation of the Conflict-Mental Health, Trauma and PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder)", conducted between 2009 and 2010, she said that people frequently asked her, “Oh, you met so-and-so? You don't know who this person actually is.” Varma told me, “To me, this statement signifies a destabilisation of a person's identity, despite living in a society that still functions largely on face-to-face relations.”

Kumar, the director general of the Jammu and Kashmir police, did not seem to find these concerns relevant, “Anything can be compromised when it comes to national security,” he told me when I attempted to bring up the issue with him. Apart from snooping on specific individuals, the state’s mass surveillance is aided through CCTV installation projects, which have flourished in public places such as markets, malls, educational institutions, under various pretexts that include traffic control and eve-teasing.

In 2013, owners of various business establishments in Srinagar’s Karanagar received a written directive from police, a copy of which is available with The Caravan, ordering them to “install the CCTV cameras within a fortnight.”

The owner of a shopping complex in Karanagar, told me that it cost him Rs 20,000 to install the camera. He added that the system ceased to function after the floods in September.

AG Mir, Jammu and Kashmir’s former police chief, who now heads the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in the state, told me that, “We requested the businesses to make use of CCTVs.” Mir added that surveillance is an “intense and tedious process” and has been “increased to curb militancy, crimes and to maintain law and order.”

Ahead of the local elections in 2014, the Kashmir University Students Union (KUSU)—a student organisation that has been banned by Kashmir University—had organised a talk critiquing the election process in Jammu and Kashmir. A 24-year-old member of the union told me that one of his friends was caught on the CCTV camera inside the campus of an engineering college in North Kashmir while he was distributing flyers to promote the event. “The authorities questioned and harassed him. He was asked to bring his parents and they threatened to bar him from sitting in exams,” recalled the union member. “Whether or not you are being watched, there is always a sense of unease. One is constantly thinking about it,” he added.

“We aim to upgrade and expand the surveillance mechanisms. There are more than 40 cameras in Srinagar alone which have been installed from the point of view of requirements. I can’t tell you exactly where,” Mir told me. He said that software such as Call Detail Record analysis—designed to capture huge volumes of call data and events in real time—have become integral to policing.

The government also uses Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) to curb the new wave of “quality militancy.” Ahead of the state polls in the region in 2014, Israeli-built Heron UAVs and Indian built mini-drones were heavily deployed for surveillance in various districts and their use was “carefully planned.”’

Om Shankar Jha, a counter-insurgency expert, explained in his paper for the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, New Delhi, that was published in December 2009, that major surveillance projects such as Night Vision Devices, GPS for patrol cars, surveillance camera systems, CCTV systems, security equipment like portable x-ray machines, vehicle scanners, cyber patrol and communication monitoring systems, fall under the Modernisation of Police Force (MPF) scheme which was modified to enhance counter-insurgency mechanisms. The annual central budget allocation for the MPF scheme, according to Jha, was enhanced to Rs 1000 crore from 2000–2001 for 10 years. Under this scheme, the central government has put Jammu and Kashmir in category ‘A’ along with 8 north-eastern states, entitling them to 90 per cent central assistance.

In May this year, a series of attacks were targeted at telecom infrastructure in north Kashmir, killing two people and injuring at least three, after which the communication lines were snapped and services remained shut for few days. The state ascribed these attacks to militants, branding them as an attempt to thwart technology-dependent counter-insurgency measures. A few reports suggested that militants had used the attacks to react to the loss of their communication equipment—thar helped them evade state surveillance—from a mobile tower in Sopore of north Kashmir.

While some reports say that the attacks have been strategised by the militants to paralyse intellegence agencies that have been using technology to eliminate militant commanders in recent years, other reports argue that the insurgents are just as dependent on telecom infrastructure for their operations. In 2012, for instance, the Jammu and Kashmir police discovered the use of a smartphone application among a prominent militant group for Voice over Internet Protocol calls, which are difficult to intercept. Following this line of thought, militant groups and the resistance leadership have asserted that such attacks are a tactic by Indian agencies to tarnish the freedom movement in the state.

I was unable to arrive at a definitive conclusion regarding which of these versions was true. However, what I was able to ascertain was that the state appeared to be using its resources to deploy a strategic and comprehensive surveillance program as an instrument in its counter-insurgency mechanism. In response, the insurgents seem to have retaliated by using these tools to their benefit as well.

The experiential reality of this surveillance for those who are affected by it, works in strange ways. A student from Kashmir who is currently pursuing his PhD in Peace and Conflict Resolution at Jamia Millia Islamia, a public central university in  Delhi, told me, “You oscillate between two ends—whether to share important information or withhold it. The burden is huge and one is constantly pre-occupied with this.” This preoccupation with surveillance on an everyday basis also creates some possibilities of subversion and camaraderie, embarking into territories of humour and the absurd. “Sometimes, it gets hilarious. We use certain codes over the phone, knowing little about our success. One of my friends would speak words backwards and the most serious of conversations would provoke laughter,” the student told me, laughing.

A Kashmiri shopkeeper was in for the shock of his life when he started getting calls from his friends who told him that his face was plastered all over the town on posters released by the police of militant Abdul Qayoom Najar.

Irfan Shah, a Kupwara-based shopkeeper has accused the Jammu and Kashmir police of "identifying" him as one of the most wanted militants in the valley, according to the the Indian Express.

Reportedly, the police think that Shah is a "lookalike" of Najar, who is believed to be behind the mysterious killings of six civilians over the past one month in Sopore.

"I'm really scared,” Shah told The Tribune. "I learnt about my photo figuring on the posters on Friday when some friends informed me that my picture was being shown on the television as one of the suspects in the series of killings in Sopore. I was surprised to see my picture, which I had taken with my nephew during a picnic last year, on a police poster," he said.

Alarmed, Shah went to the police station with a bunch of his relatives and senior citizens in the town. "The SP contacted his seniors, and even sent my pictures to them. He cautioned me that I should not leave the town at least for one month," Shah said.

Jammu and Kashmir, June 22: J Malik, a local journalist was allegedly beaten up by the security staff of Jammu & Kashmir’s agricultural minister, Ghulam Hanjura. Accoding to Malik, as the the cavalcade of the minister passed by him, his security staffers passed lewd comments at Malik’s wife. (READ: Journalists’ Forum Assam condemns journalist killing)

“I went to speak to the minister, but before I could reach him, he signaled something to his guards and they started thrashing me,” Malik said. He later lodged an FIR with the police. “I registered a complaint with the police because I was beaten at the behest of the minister”, he added.

The attack on Malik, a J&K journalist incidentally follows the killings of Jagendra Singh an Uttar Pradesh journalist who was reportedly burnt alive and Sandeep Kothari, a Madhya Pradesh journalist whose charred body was found in Maharashtra. (Image Credits-ANI)

Students from the militant hotbed of Tral continue to bring laurels to the place. This time, a 19-year-old boy from Tral has secured the eight rank in the Common Entrance test (CET) and has also qualified the AIIMS entrance test.

The results of the Common Entrance test (CET) was declared by the Board of Professional Entrance Examinations on Saturday night. More than 28,000 students had appeared in the entrance test in May.

Shahid Nabi, a resident of Baragam village of Tral, 39 km from the summer capital Srinagar, has secured the eight rank in the CET exam.

“I am feeling happy that I am among the toppers, but I won’t be joining any of the colleges in the state as I have already been selected in AIIMS, the result of which was declared three days ago,” said Shahid.

Being from an uneducated family, Shahid saw it as no barrier and worked hard for the exam.

“No one is educated in my family. My father is a farmer and my mother is a homemaker. The financial conditions are not good. But that did not stop me from achieving my goal. We are two siblings. My elder brother is also pursuing medicine at Government Medical College in Srinagar,” said Shahid.

With no school in Baragam village, it was a struggle for Shahid to go to another village for pursuing his higher secondary education. “There is no school in our village and it would take me more than 30 minutes to reach my school in nearby Noorpora village. There are not many educational facilities in our village,” he said.

Students from militancy-hit places of Tral and Sopore are setting a new trend. Two girls from Tral secured top two positions in Class X, the result of which was recently declared by the Board of School Education (BOSE).

In Class XII, the result of which was declared by BOSE recently, a girl from violence-hit Sopore bagged the first position in the science stream.

Students from these areas have started to break the stereotype of violence. Like other students, Shahid also wants to bring fame to his native village by his success.

“I am not too excited by my success, I have to work harder and bring more fame to my place,” he says.

Shahid believes that with hard work and dedication nothing is impossible to achieve. “I want to give credit of my success to my parents and teacher. I want to tell all those students who want to qualify the CET that it is not tough if you work hard. Being from a far-off village, I used to consistently study during my Class XI and XII for 6 to 7 hours every day. We should start studying from the start of the academic session so that we don’t feel pressurised at the end,” he said.

8The unusual series of attacks on cellular towers in different parts of Indian-administered Kashmir Valley has already resulted in the killings of two civilians. And furthermore, the way these attacks have been taking place is also very dubious in my opinion.

Many appear clueless about the perpetrators, despite claims made by Lashkar-e-Islam, a lesser-known outfit that had purportedly circulated threat-posters to cellular companies, their employees, and local owners who usually rent out space for installing towers in their compounds, in North Kashmir.

These attacks allegedly carried out by Lashkar-e-Islam, which seem to have categorically asked the mobile operators, vendors, and their employees to shut their businesses in the region, led to the deaths of Ghulam Hassan Dar in Sopore, and Imtiyaz Ahmad in Pattan. One of them had rented out space to a cellular company by allowing the installation of a tower in his compound.

The way these attacks are being orchestrated is what is bothersome for me.

During the early 1990s, the Kashmir Valley was gripped by an unusual panic; the invisible dae’n (witch). It was believed that a mysteriously undetectable “witch”, called dae’n (dayan) in the native tongue, would attack individuals inside their homes during the evening. Therefore, the entire localities would formulate their counter-strategies and collectively assemble either outside their houses or near the local mosques with firelights (mashals) to scare the invisible dae’n amidst pro-freedom and anti-India slogans.

No one seems to know the complete truth about the ‘witch era’ until today.

Now in 2015, during the age of internet revolution and information technology, Kashmir is yet again witnessing an unusual and unexpected trouble, in the form of the cellular tower attacks in North Kashmir and the summer capital, Srinagar. My concern is, why just cellular towers? What is the purpose of attacking just communication lines? Is there is a greater plan at play?

On June 1st, a grenade was lobbed on a cellular tower in old Srinagar, injuring one civilian. Prior to this, mysterious attacks of such nature were carried out in North Kashmir’s Pattan, Sopore and Handwara towns. The apparent aim seems to be to create panic and present Kashmir as an unsafe place for trade, travel, and tourism and perhaps also to push the beautiful valley back to the dark ages by halting its economic progress, which to a large extent is dependent upon mobile phone connectivity and internet facilities.

While parts of the valley have come back on the grid and connectivity has been restored to some parts of North Kashmir, the question remains: who is the real culprit?

And who could be the ultimate beneficiary?

This new ‘tower terrorism’ began when threatening posters began circulating in North Kashmir purportedly by a group called Lashkar-e-Islam, dictating cellular companies to immediately wind up their businesses and shut down operations in Kashmir. This, in itself, seems utterly peculiar. What could the group want by cordoning Kashmiris off and severing connections with the rest of the world?

No one seems to have a clue about what this new organisation is up to. Is this a real organisation or an ‘unseen’ phenomenon, like the ‘dae’n’ during the 1990s?

After these attacks on the cellular towers, the chief minister of Indian-controlled Jammu and Kashmir, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, called a high-level meeting to “review the overall security situation”. Taking strong note of the disruption of cellular networks in various parts of the valley, Sayeed observed that,

“People cannot be pushed into the Stone Age as modern-day functioning in the government, banking, tourism, education, and other vital sectors, in particular, old-age pension and e-transfer of insurance claims and compensation to flood-affected victims are totally dependent on internet connectivity”.

He also said that cellular networks have become the lifeline in this area as these services are availed by all sections of the society, according to a government press release. But Jammu and Kashmir’s former chief minister, Omar Abdullah, launched a scathing attack on Mufti Saeed on Twitter,

“Has Mufti Syed said anything to reassure the people connected with the cell phone industry in Kashmir? A single statement? Probably won’t!!”

Omar Abdullah ✔@abdullah_omar
Has Mufti Syed said anything to reassure the people connected with the Cell Phone industry in Kashmir? A single statement? Probably won't!!
9:29 PM - 1 Jun 2015

In yet another jibe, Abdullah satirically tweeted further,

“Mufti Syed 02-05 “I gave the people of J&K cell-phones” Mufti Syed 15-?? “I oversaw the demise and removal of cell-phone services in Kashmir”

Omar Abdullah ✔@abdullah_omar
Mufti Syed 02-05 "I gave the people of J&K cellphones" Mufti Syed 15-?? "I oversaw the demise & removal of cell phone services in Kashmir"
9:59 PM - 1 Jun 2015

Earlier, Mufti Sayeed had made a statement on the side-lines of a function organised at Sher-e-Kashmir International Convention Centre (SKICC) in Srinagar that,

“The situation in North Kashmir is a temporary phase.”

He also had said that such incidents would,

“Not stop us (the government) from bringing peace in the valley”.

Despite such claims the situation continues to be grim.

There is also growing apprehension that the mobile blackout could adversely affect Srinagar, especially after the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) decided to temporarily shut down its operations across the valley Monday evening onwards. The BSNL made this decision after the recent attack on a mobile transmission in an old Srinagar city near Gadood Bagh, Habba Kadal.

Who could be behind such attacks? And what is this Lashkar-e-Islam all about? Many questions need to be answered.

According to the chief of the United Jihad Council (UJC), Syed Sallahuddin, Lashkar-e-Islam is an “India-sponsored organisation” and has no links whatsoever with the UJC.

The UJC, an amalgam of various Kashmiri militant organisations, based in Pakistan-administered Kashmir (PaK), is headed by Sallahuddin, who is also the supremo of Kashmir’s largest militant outfit, Hizbul Mujahideen. This UJC statement has appeared in all major dailies based in Srinagar. There was considerable pressure on the UJC to issue a statement after Syed Ali Shah Geelani, inarguably the most popular resistance leader of Kashmir, had asked the UJC chief to probe further into the recent attacks.

All important resistance leaders based in the Kashmir Valley have voiced their concern over the attacks. Some of them suspect that the attackers are “India-sponsored” to “defame Kashmiri movement and militants”.

Apart from Syed Ali Geelani, the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) Chief, Yasin Malik, too has deplored the attacks on cellular towers in North Kashmir and Srinagar. He has asked the UJC chief to investigate the recent incidents.

Moreover, the Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS), while condemning the attack on the BSNL office in Sopore, North Kashmir, raised an important question in its press statement on May 25.

“… In the last 25 years of insurgency and counter insurgency operations, many civilians have been targeted. In almost all the attacks on civilians, the police have failed to conduct credible investigations to hold the killers accountable. In the context of Indian policy of proliferation of terrorist groups in Kashmir for countering and defaming the Jammu and Kashmir movement, it has been always difficult to conclusively establish the culpable persons. In this context it becomes incumbent on United Jihad Council to also on their side establish who are the people behind this particular attack on non-combatants,” read the JKCCS statement.

Ironically, according to official statements made by top Indian army commanders operating in Jammu and Kashmir, the “militants are on the run in Kashmir” and that the scale of militancy related violence has gone down by a considerable margin. They also claim that there are only about 130 militants active in the region.

Obviously things are not simply black and white in a conflict-hit place like Indian-administered Kashmir, where both the state actors and non-state actors have been actively involved in fomenting trouble over the past few decades in order to harbour their respective interests.

On social media, some assertive Kashmiri youths are also raising a finger of suspicion towards the Indian armed forces, because they think,

“The vested interest in the Indian security establishment is in no mood to annul the draconian Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) in Jammu and Kashmir”.

As the AFSPA was recently repealed in Tripura, the demand about its revocation has grown in Kashmir.

There is also an unsubstantiated view that the vested interest in the Indian security agencies could be behind the recent attacks to “justify the continuity of the draconian Armed Forces (Special) Powers Act (AFSPA) in Jammu and Kashmir”.

This law grants complete impunity to armed forces and immunity from prosecution. Some Kashmiri youths also believe that these attacks are the “handiwork of the enemies of Kashmir and Kashmiris whose sole aim is to derail the economic progress”.

Irrespective of what the case maybe, it needs to be understood that a larger message is at play here and as soon as the Kashmiris understand this, the better it would be for them to cope.

The Morning Wrap is HuffPost India's selection of interesting news and opinion from the day's newspapers. Subscribe here to receive it in your inbox each weekday morning.
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Off The Front Page

The rivalry between former Bihar chief minister Jitin Ram Manjhi and incumbent Nitish Kumar is so intense that they are both insecure about who gets the fruits that grow in the gardens of the CM’s official residence, where Manjhi continues to stay.
Claiming that Ganesha idols had ‘eyes that were getting smaller and smaller’ as a consequence of being made in China, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar cited it as reason to spur the Make in India campaign.
Just days after the Modi government promised no discrimination on the grounds of religion, the iconic Somnath Temple in his home state of Gujarat has declared itself off-limits to non-Hindus unless they obtained special permission.
Villagers in Arhera, Mathura, were left gasping in surprise and shock after an 80-foot fountain of oil inundated their fields on Wednesday. The oil, hundreds of litres of it, spewed out of an Indian Oil Corporation pipeline after a valve fixed by pilferers into the pipeline came undone.
Officials responsible for overseeing the school and high-school examinations in Gujarat have found that several teachers and invigilators were making elementary errors such as ‘2+2=3,’ when evaluating students’ answer sheets.
Maharashtra's youngest councillor, Ashim Damle, has been thrown out of his party - not for anti-party activities-- but for abducting his girlfriend from a hermitage.
Opinion

Kaushik Basu, in The Indian Express, reminisces about his meetings with recently-deceased mathematician, John Nash, who Basu describes as ‘the Shakespeare of economics.’
Pavan Varma says in The Hindu that India’s development plans cannot imperil its security initiatives.

NEW DELHI -- With every passing day, official action against Maggi Noodles is spreading. After Delhi and Uttarakhand, now India's favourite snack has been banned in Gujarat and Jammu and Kashmir.

The common reason for such bans is that various tests have found excess quantities of lead and MSG (Monosodium-glutamate) in Maggi.
Why exactly are these substances bad for the human body?
HuffPost India spoke with Amit Khurana, project manager for food safety and toxins at the New Delhi-based Centre For Science and Environment, to find out how lead and MSG harm our bodies.

Lead is a heavy metal, Khurana said, which the body does not excrete, but rather it gets accumulated in the body.

This heavy metal affects multiple body systems but is especially harmful for the liver and kidney, said the food safety expert. Infants and pregnant women are particularly vulnerable to lead because it harms the central nervous system in children.

The World Health Organisation also confirms that lead is particularly harmful for children: WHO finds that childhood lead exposure is estimated to contribute to about 600,000 new cases of children developing intellectual disabilities every year, and it estimated that lead exposure accounts for 143,000 deaths per year with the highest burden in developing regions.

"There is no known level of lead exposure that is considered safe," according to WHO. "Lead poisoning is entirely preventable."
The long-term impacts of MSG are still debated among doctors, Khurana said, but in the short-term it can cause hyper-tension, palpitations and headaches.

Food safety regulations in India require manufacturers to disclose whether MSG has been used on the product's package.

Khurana also explained food safety regulations do not allow MSG to be added to pasta and noodles, but it can be used in seasoning, which in this case would be the masala of the Maggi noodles. It is unclear, however, whether the MSG found in the Uttarakhand tested samples was in the noodles or the masala. 

So far, the extent of the problem is also ambiguous. While Maggi noodles has been banned in Delhi and Uttarakhand, Maharashtra and Goa have found it to be safe. This could mean that only some batches of Maggi have excess lead and MSG.

Khurana said that state governments, which are testing Maggi, need to go public with the details of their findings so that people can understand the extent of the problem and the health concerns.
The expert also said the Maggi controversy only highlighted the lax standards of safety checks and labelling enforced for packaged goods in India

SRINAGAR: Senior National Conference leader Mustafa Kamal today kicked up a controversy by suggesting that there was nothing wrong in Pakistani flags being raised in Kashmir but his party chief and nephew Omar Abdullah said the party "does not subscribe to these views".

Kamal, former minister in J&K and brother of National Conference patron Farooq Abdullah, questioned why the central government gets "perturbed" over raising of Pakistani flags in the Valley and said India should "respect" the neighbour's flag.

"What difference would raising Pakistani flags make? Now the government of India is getting restless, getting more perturbed. It is being done deliberately," the additional general secretary of the opposition party told reporters here.

"This is a flag of an independent nation of Pakistan. India has to respect it. India and Pakistan both are signatory to the United Nations's charter and they have to respect each others' flags. Pakistani flag is not just a piece of cloth, the flag of J&K is not a piece of paper, the flag of India is not a piece of paper, they all have their respects," he said.

His comments come amid a row over repeated incidents of Pakistani flags being hoisted at rallies of separatists in Kashmir. This has caused unease in the central government, particularly since BJP is a partner in PDP-led J&K government.

Omar Abdullah, the former chief minister of the state, said such remarks cause embarrassment and should not have been made especially by a person who has been a former legislator and a minister.

"These views of Mustafa Kamal are his views and his views alone. The party does not subscribe to these views," the NC president told NDTV.

Noting that there has been a greater frequency of the hoisting of Pakistani flags over the last few months, Abdullah said, "I think, it is in part a reaction to the coming together of BJP and PDP. It is an alliance which people in J&K are finding very difficult to swallow."

The state's deputy chief minister Nirmal Singh was dismissive about Kamal, saying "people like these" keep making such comments for media attention.

Repeated incidents of Pakistani flags being hoisted at rallies of separatists in Kashmir. (File photo) (TOI photo: Anindya Chattopadhyay)

Srinagar: Day after claiming that it has got “important evidence” vis-à-vis Lashkar-e-Islam’s alleged connection with Indian security agencies, the Hurriyat Conference headed by Syed Ali Shah Geelani on Wednesday said the amalgam would “public the evidence if need arises”.
“If need arises,” the amalgam’s spokesman Ayaz Akbar told Srinagar based news agency GNS, “we will public the evidence.”

He said at this moment there is no need to make it public. Asked why, he said: “Right now the issue has been cleared — both here as well as across the Line of Control. So, we understand that they (Lashkar-e-Islam) have been exposed and their ploy has failed. And, God willing, they won’t be able what they wanted to do under the banner of Lashkar-e-Islam. So, right now, we don’t feel the need of making the evidence public.”

He, however, said: “If in future need arises, we will make it public. Although we hope there would be no such situation, but of course we will public it that time,” adding: “but we won’t disclose where from we got it (evidence).” (GNS)

Sopore: Days after the attacks on mobile towers and the killing of two persons, police have reportedly arrested four persons including the mastermind behind the grenade attacks in North Kashmir’s Sopore town.
Police sources told CNS that at least four persons have been arrested who are allegedly involved in the recent attacks that were carried out by gunmen in North Kashmir. Sources added that all the four persons are Over Ground Workers of militant outfit Hizbul Mujahideen. The head of the group has been arrested from Badambagh Sopore where many mobile towers are located.

Confirming the arrest of four persons, a police said that investigation is going on in full swing and more arrests are expected in coming days. He said that these persons are also responsible for the grenade attack on mobile tower in Kralateng Sopore.

Sources told CNS that police have identified the person who had allegedly installed Ken Wood Repeater device on one of the mobile towers in Sopore. (CNS)

New Delhi: Jammu and Kashmir government officials handed over compensation cheques to 2014 flood victims ranging between Rs 47 and Rs 378.

The cheques were given to the farmers hit by flood in Sarora region.

The farmers have described the cheques a 'joke' and refused to accept it.

Several farmers said that government officials had last month visited the village to inspect the loss incurred due to flood. At that time, they hoped that the outcome will be something fruitful.

"I have received a cheque of Rs 100. My loss was estimated around Rs 30,000. What is the meaning of this cheque? What should I do with this? I have to spend over Rs 100 to go to Srinagar... the compensation amount here is Rs 100. Government is doing a joke," a farmer said.
"We were hopeful of getting something concrete... officials visited our village. But this cheque is useful for me," another farmer said.

Farmers now said that they are planning to demonstrate against the ruling PDP-BJP government.

Dr. S. S. Jamwal, Director Agriculture, Jammu, however said that the cheques were distributed according the norms set by government.

"The cheques are according to the rules and regulations of the government," the official said.

The state witnessed worst-ever floods in a decade in September 2014. Nearly 300 lost their lives and thousands were rendered homeless with a huge loss of property.

Expressing its “satisfaction” over the “clarification” given by the United Jihad Council (UJC) about the Lashkar-i-Islam organization, the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) claimed that it has been proven that the said “terror organization is the brain child of the Indian secret agencies on the pattern of Al-Faran and “its only purpose is to harm and defame the freedom struggle and economics of Kashmir and to disturb the social setup of the state”.

In a statement issued to Kashmir Dispatch, Hurriyat conference claimed that  revealed  that have got “important evidence” in this regard “which authenticates” the claims of the Jihad Council and it proves that the Lashkar-i-Islam is the creation of the Indian secret agencies.

“On 31 May Sunday, Hurriyat Chairman Syed Ali Geelani had appealed the UJC to find out the truth behind the lesser known organization “Lashkar-i-Islam” who are killing and threatening the people related to the telecommunication system in the Valley. Jihad Council gave detailed explanation in this regard and during this period Hurriyat conference also got evidence of this process that the attacking and threatening of the communication related people is actually the handiwork of the Indian secret agencies and a plot in this regard was formulated some months back according to which an operation will be held in the guise of ‘Mujahideen’ and this operation was also given a particular name,” the amalgam said. While continuing, it said: “And according to these evidences, it looks that this operation is directly looked over by the Indian home ministry and the state administration and even the state police has been deliberately left ignorant in this regard like in the case of Al-Faran group creation and how this organization at first kidnapped and then killed the five innocent European tourists and the state administration and the police were totally unaware about it.”

The Hurriyat said: “Today’s operation is meant to damage the economical and social setup of the Kashmir, according to the reports received by the huriyat conference, the pro-freedom leaders can be the target of this operation.”

Pertinently, the Lashkar-e-Islam have slammed Hurriyat and asked its leaders not attend “funerals of martyrs”.

“If any kind of untoward happened with any pro-freedom leader, it will have serious consequences and all its responsibility will be on the Indian home ministry,” the Hurriyat said, adding: “This operation is also an attempt to cut-off and isolate the Kashmir from the outer world and India want to keep the world community into dark about the human rights violations committed by its forces in Jammu & Kashmir. The emergence of the Lashkar-i-Islam immediately after the statement of Indian home minister Mr. Manohar Parrikar that ‘the terrorism will be eliminated by the terrorism and target killings’ has something hidden in it and it also proves the apprehensions and the doubts of the people right that the Ikhwani culture will again to be started in Jammu & Kashmir but this time in any other form.”

“The person who is said to be the architect of the Ikhwanies (renegades) in 90s and have earned his name in formulation conspiracies, is today at the highest position in the policy makers in New Delhi and is second authority after the Narender Modi in India, so this notion can’t be out rightly rejected that the Lashkar-i-Islam  is the creation of the same brain and once again he wants to play a bloody game in this troubled state and create an atmosphere of terror and horror,” the amalgam without naming the person claimed.

“According to the government figures, there are few Mujahideen left in whole of the Jammu & Kashmir and they too are very cautious and vigilant and due to the strong spy network, they hardly manage to expose themselves. Since the surfacing of the Lashkar-e-Islam, it seems that there are militants everywhere and not only this but they openly in the broad day light kill and threaten people and paste threat posters on the roads and army and police are totally unaware about this. This kind of bravery attempts are only done by those persons who are either sponsored by the government or have any type of links with the secret agencies,” the Hurriyat said. 

Hurriyat further said that the “impolite language” which Lashkar-i-Islam are “using with the people related to the telecommunication, has never been the manner of the real Mujahideen and nor they use abusive language”.

Hurriyat conference appealed the people that not to worry and terrify and don’t lose hope. “It is a temporary phase and this plot of the intelligence agencies will also fail to succeed in achieving its goal likewise in the past and Kashmiri nation will carry forward their just struggle at any cost and in any way. Indian wicked policies will prove curse for them and it will prove blessings in disguise for we people,” the Hurriyat added.

The news of a pigeon detained in India on suspicion of being used to spy for Pakistan was met with amusement on both sides of the border – and encouraged Pakistanis to share memes and jokes making fun of their neighbours.
It all started when a 14-year-old boy in an Indian village close to the border with Pakistan found a white pigeon with a message written partly in Urdu, the language widely used in Pakistan, and some numbers in on its feathers. The bird was taken to police who ordered the bird to be X-rayed. Nothing suspicious turned up, but the pigeon was registered in police logs as a “suspected spy” according to reports.
The area where the bird was found is close to Kashmir, claimed by both India and Pakistan and the scene of cross-border military confrontation.
“This is a rare instance of a bird from Pakistan being spotted here. We have caught a few spies here. The area is sensitive, given its proximity to Jammu, where infiltration is quite common,” local police superintendent Rakesh Kaushal told the Times of India.
India and Pakistan frequently accuse each other of spying. This week, the Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif expressed concern over the actions of foreign intelligence agencies in Pakistan – which many saw as an allusion to India. But the official detention of a bird led to amusement and sarcasm on both sides of the border.

In Pakistan, pictures were created to mock the Indian authorities and portray the humble pigeon as a suave modern-day spy. The hashtags #PigeonVsIndia and #IfIWereAPigeon have been mentioned tens of thousands of times. Both hashtags appear to be promoted by two social media teams who actively seek to create Twitter trends, and identify themselves as supporters of Pakistan’s Tehrik-i-Insaf political party.

BBC

Srinagar: Police on Tuesday reiterated its stand that the militant out-fit Hizb-ul-Mujahideen is behind the attack on telecos in valley and that Lashkar-e-Islam is a ‘pseudo’ name being used by it.
Talking to KNS, Inspector General of Police (IGP) Syed Javed Mujtaba Gilani said the police have found prima- facie evidence against the militant out-fit Hizb-ul-Mujahideen and that investigations are going on in full swing. Asked that Hizb has already negated its involvement in attacks of such nature besides condemning it, IGP said,”It is for them to say whatever they want. For us, they are involved and we have evidences for it.”

Gilani said that police is taking all necessary measures in pacifying the situation on ground and is mulling to provide security so that the telecom sector in valley could be put back on gear.

The IGP assured that within two days, network connectivity in entire valley will be restored and any attempt to disrupt the same shall be foiled sans any delay. “We are taking all measures to ensure that the connectivity is restored. It will take us a day or two to put the affected sector back on gear- we will do it,” the IGP said.

Pertinently, the mobile phone towers owner association in Kashmir on Tuesday decided to keep transmitting towers off till June 10 after unidentified men attacked mobile vendors in Sopore town and adjoining areas, forcing them to shut down outlets of different companies.

After Monday’s attack in Srinagar in which one civilian was injured when a rifle grenade was fired at a mobile phone tower, cell phone services in parts of Srinagar have been adversely affected. (KNS)

Srinagar: United Jihad Council (UJC), an amalgam of various militant organizations, Tuesday requested the mobile companies to resume their routine work, urging people to catch hold on any person found involved in terrorizing people associated with the cellular business.
In an emailed statement to KNS, UJC spokesman Syed Sadaqat Hussain said that there are black sheep using the name of militant groups and people must unmask such elements wherever they find them.

The militant amalgam has also urged masses in general the Huriyat Conference in particular to understand such plans of ‘enemies’. “Wherever such traitors of Milat are found and harass respected people, telecom companies and people associated with the business, people and especially the youth must catch hold on them and punish them,” declares the statement.

The UJC has also requested all telecom companies, owners of mobile towers, mobile vendors, retailers, franchises and others associated with the people to resume their normal work. (KNS)