On September 8, 1982 Abdul Majid Wani was one of the million people who gathered for the funeral of Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah. An avid supporter of the National Conference, Wani along with many family members had gathered at the polo ground at Srinagar to have a last glimpse of the mortal remains of Abdullah. Instead of the occasion, however, his thoughts lingered on his 14-year-old son, Ishfaq Majid Wani, who had refused to accompany the family members for the burial. Wani took the refusal as...

MUHAMMAD YOUSUF SHAH was born on 18 February 1946 in Budgam’s Soibugh village. He studied medicine and political science before becoming chief of Hizb-ul-Mujahideen and chairman of the United Jihad Council (UJC), an amalgam of 14 militant outfits operating in Jammu & Kashmir that seeks the state’s accession to Pakistan. He is widely known by his nom de guerre Syed Salahuddin, a tribute to Saladin, the 12th century Muslim political and military leader who fought in the Crusades. In a...

The Amnesty International’s (AI) recently published report terming the Public Safety Act (PSA) as a ‘revolving door’ to keep Kashmiris, who can’t be convicted through proper legal channels, locked up and out of the way has come as an embarrassment to New Delhi which takes pride in its status as the world's biggest democracy. In an interview with Kashmir Dispatch correspondent UZMA FALAK, AI's Campaigner India - Asia Pacific Programme, Bikramjeet Batra says that his organisation will...

Langate MLA Sheikh Abdul Rasheed is popularly known in Jammu & Kashmir as ‘Engineer Rasheed’, a reference to his professional qualification. Rasheed was a separatist and then became a human rights activist. In a candid chat, he tells BABA UMAR what the Centre needs to do to solve the Kashmir issue. Excerpts:

You are opposed to the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA). Can the State really do without it?

The removal of AFSPA is important because it gives tremendous powers to...

Islamabad (Anantnag): It was not just another example of communal harmony Kashmiris are famous for. The scene was extraordinary -- it was a Muslim son mourning death of his Pandit father.

Pandit Arzan Nath, 61, a former employee of the fire services department breathed his last Wednesday morning at the Bota Mohalla residence of his close friend Abdur Rehman Wagay in Seer Hamdan area here, where he was staying for over two months.

Nath, stayed back when most of the pandit families, including...

Srinagar: After charges of nepotism, the University of Kashmir (KU), Valley’s highest seat of learning is in news again for wrong reasons. The varsity continues to use an expired National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) grade thus putting the future of its students in jeopardy.

KU, figures in the list of validity-expired institutions issued by NAAC on its official website (http://www.naac.gov.in). However, the varsity continues to use the expired accreditation status on all its...

Srinagar: Come April, and you will see several of government militia commanders (locally known as Ikhwanis) holding rallies for the forthcoming Panchayat Elections in Jammu and Kashmir. The Ikhwan commanders are approaching what they call “like minded people” from last one and half month to start new political parties which according to them would “work differently for the solution of Kashmir issue”.

Liaquat Ali Khan, the erstwhile chief commander of an anti-India militant outfit...

If courage had a face, it would resemble 50-year-old Bhakti's. In the North Kashmir hamlet of Kunan-Poshpora, where agony and adversity to women was forced upon, on the intervening night of 23rd and 24th February, 1991, through the “weapon of rape”, she stood stoically against the perpetrators of the crime very few are capable of.

The incident that is perhaps written as the night of “oppression and brutality” may also be inked as a night when a mother of six daughters showed...