Islam in Kashmir was spread by the Peaceful missionary activities of the Sufis. The common masses were reeling under the dictatorship of exploitative kings and religious clergy. Most of them were illiterate peasants, who found in Islam the egalitarian social justice and equality for all. Hence over a period of time they accepted the alien creed as their faith. The important Sufi who is pioneer of Islam in Kashmir, was a Kubrawi Sufi, Mir Sayyid Ali Hamdani, known to Kashmiris as Amir e...

The  debate over Armed Force Special Powers Act has been going since October last year when chief minister Omar Abdullah declared that it would be revoked from the state within some days. True that those “days” have changed into months and much is going to follow, the debate has taken a new twist on twitter some days ago. Omar, it seemed is quite curios about the fact that he is not given the choice to revoke the controversial law even from some areas only, while the Maoist...

“Intelligence” wrote Harlan K. Ullman and James P. Wade in their book, which examined future security needs and strategies of United States, “Shock and Awe: Achieving Rapid Dominance”, “is comprised of five categories of knowledge and understanding: a society’s leadership; culture and values; the strategic, political, economic, and physical environment; military capabilities and orders of battle; and comprehensive battlefield information.” This book was written in 1996 and...

The state government recently unveiled a new recruitment policy according to which non-gazetted recruits in J&K will be paid a fixed monthly salary equivalent to 50 per cent of the basic pay for the first two years. For the next three years the new non gazetted employees would be entitled to a fixed salary of 75 per cent of the basic pay. Only after completion of five years in stipendiary mode will the employee be entitled to a prescribed pay band and all other allowances as applicable...