JAMESHAWK85
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no this is show by pakistan army what they do in bangladesh
Kashmir | News & Discussions.
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GUNNER
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Kashmir Fake Encounter: Major Suspended
SOURCE NDTV [06-June-2010]
An Army Major named in the alleged fake encounter case in Jammu and Kashmir has been suspended pending inquiry. Another Army Colonel has also been removed from command.
In the said encounter in Machil, three civilians were allegedly killed in a staged encounter after being lured for job in the Army.
The action came after Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah met senior officials of the Army and police at a high-level meeting today.
He chaired a Unified Headquarters meeting in Srinagar over the recent alleged fake encounter.
The meeting was attended by senior core commanders of the Army, state's police chief and state intelligence officials.
The officials discussed all the alleged fake encounters including the one in Machil.
Even as more complaints about alleged fake encounters in Kashmir are being investigated, there's cynicism, which is stemming from the fact that though several Army officers were indicted by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the police in the Pathribal and Ganderbal fake encounters, no action was taken.
Commenting on the issue, CM Omar Abdullah had earlier said, "There is a need for transparency. Army is judge, jury and hangman.
SOURCE NDTV [06-June-2010]
An Army Major named in the alleged fake encounter case in Jammu and Kashmir has been suspended pending inquiry. Another Army Colonel has also been removed from command.
In the said encounter in Machil, three civilians were allegedly killed in a staged encounter after being lured for job in the Army.
The action came after Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah met senior officials of the Army and police at a high-level meeting today.
He chaired a Unified Headquarters meeting in Srinagar over the recent alleged fake encounter.
The meeting was attended by senior core commanders of the Army, state's police chief and state intelligence officials.
The officials discussed all the alleged fake encounters including the one in Machil.
Even as more complaints about alleged fake encounters in Kashmir are being investigated, there's cynicism, which is stemming from the fact that though several Army officers were indicted by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the police in the Pathribal and Ganderbal fake encounters, no action was taken.
Commenting on the issue, CM Omar Abdullah had earlier said, "There is a need for transparency. Army is judge, jury and hangman.
kashith
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Deep Roots in Kashmir Tug Hindus Back Home - NYTimes.com
SRINAGAR, Kashmir The ceremony is simple and common. A Hindu priest lights a fire, places some herbs, clarified butter and other offerings atop it and through its peculiar alchemy the smoke purifies everything it touches.
Kuni Takahashi for The New York Times
A Muslim insurgency forced many Pandits to flee the Kashmir Valley in the 1990s. The once-abandoned shrine has reopened, and a worker repaired its paintings of Hindu gods. More Photos »
But nothing about this Maha Yaghya ritual performed in the once-abandoned Vichar Nag shrine here on a recent Saturday night was simple. A week of downpours left the shrines grounds waterlogged and putrid. The wood was wet and the fire would not start.
But most peculiar was the ceremonys location, astride one of the worlds most fractious religious fault lines, between two nuclear-armed neighbors who have fought three wars, two of them over the land on which the shrine sits.
Twenty years ago, nearly 400,000 Hindus fled the Kashmir Valley, fearful of a separatist insurgency by the areas Muslim majority. Now they are trickling back, a sign to many here that the Kashmir Valley, after years of violence and turmoil, is settling in to an uneasy but hopeful peace.
The valleys upper-caste Hindus, Pandits as they are known, are reconnecting with their ancestral home, a few to stay and even larger numbers to visit. More than a dozen shrines have reopened in recent years, said Sanjay Tickoo, a Kashmiri Pandit who never left the valley and is now trying to entice those who left to return.
Their presence was once part of what made the Kashmir Valley a unique and idyllic patch of India, filled with apple orchards and shimmering fields of saffron framed by spiky, snow-capped peaks. A well-to-do but not overly powerful minority, the Pandits lived for centuries in relative harmony with their Muslim neighbors.
Kashmirs mosaic of relatively peaceful coexistence first began to crack during the partition of British India, in 1947. But it was more than a decade of insurgency beginning in 1989 that turned the region into the battleground of the fierce rivalry between Hindu-majority India and Muslim-dominated Pakistan, who each control a portion of Kashmir.
Though not all fears or tensions from the past have dissipated, almost everyone here professes to want the Pandits to come back to the valley. Because they had lived here for generations, there is no sense that their return is intended to dilute the regions Muslim majority.
The overwhelming majority of Kashmiris believe the place is really incomplete without its diversity, said Omar Abdullah, the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir. It is an important milestone in our return to normalcy if they begin to come back.
M. L. Dhar, a 75-year-old Kashmiri Pandit who lives in a suburb of New Delhi, returned recently to Kashmir for the first time. He was astounded at the warm welcome he received from the valleys Muslims.
I have never been as peaceful as I have been here in the last seven days, he said.
Mr. Dhar lived around the corner from the Vichar Nag shrine and was stunned to find it a wreck. For years troops from the Border Security Force camped out on the grounds of the shrine. They left several years ago, abandoning it to the elements. Today it is withered, all shattered windows and peeling paint garlanded with razor wire.
A group of activists, led by Mr. Tickoo and others, hoped the purification ritual would draw Kashmiri Pandits from outside the valley.
Mr. Tickoo never left the valley. As most of his neighbors packed up to leave in 1990, Mr. Tickoo, then 22, asked his mother if they should go, too.
She said, Lets wait another week, Mr. Tickoo said. That carried from weeks to months to years.
Last year Mr. Tickoo completed a survey of the remaining Pandits in the valley, counting fewer than 3,000.
From birth to death Kashmiri Pandits have our own culture, our own rituals, Mr. Tickoo said. Outside of Kashmir you cannot be a Kashmiri Pandit.
Why the Pandits fled, and whether their departure was a hasty overreaction or a rational response to a mortal threat, is debated to this day. Dozens of Pandits were killed in 1989 and 1990, according to government records, and anti-Hindu rhetoric from separatist militants was on the rise.
Now, two decades later, both sides of the religious divide wonder whether they erred. Gulam Rasoul, a retired police officer who lives near the newly reopened temple, said both sides shared blame.
They ran away, and we drove them out, he said. Now they regret it, and we also regret the loss.
He quoted an old Kashmiri saying. Kashmir is like a Mughal garden, he said, referring to the immaculately tended gardens, full of roses, lilies and violets that dot the landscape here. If you have only one tree in the garden it will have no fragrance. When the Pandits left, the fragrance was gone.
Hindus Begin to Return to Kashmir Valley
But platitudes belie deep divisions. Many Muslims see Pandits as more loyal to India than to Kashmir, while many Pandits view Muslims as not-so-secret agents of Pakistan.
Some Pandits, especially those who fled farthest from the valley, have never been back and continue to think it is unsafe to return. And they had little financial incentive to come back. Many worked for the government and kept receiving their salaries in exile.
L. N. Dhar, a doctor who lives in New Delhi, left Kashmir with his extended family in 1990. He opened a clinic and settled into an upscale neighborhood in the citys southern suburbs.
These people had guns, they were free to shoot anyone, kill anybody, Dr. Dhar said. It was an atmosphere of terror. We had no option but to leave that place.
Leaving Kashmir, he said, has turned out to be cultural suicide, he said. Scattered Pandits find it hard to keep their traditions and rituals alive. Their children barely speak Kashmiri, if at all.
Once these links are gone out, identity is completely lost, he said.
Despite the feeling that militancy is unlikely to return anytime soon, few Pandits have permanently returned. It was always an affluent and well-educated community, so many Pandits are well established elsewhere in India and beyond.
At the Vichar Nag shrine, as the harmonium wailed and the rising chorus of old Kashmiri songs filled the air, Muslim onlookers marveled at the return of their long-lost neighbors.
I have not seen these people before, so I am curious, said Nazim Amin Butt, a 22-year-old business school student. He watched with rapt attention as the chanting priest daubed saffron, red, pink and blue powder on the earthen fire pit, and placed heaps of flower petals at the head of the lingam, the phallic icon of Lord Shiva.
It is not a problem that they come here, Mr. Butt said. They come from this place just like us. They belong here.
SRINAGAR, Kashmir The ceremony is simple and common. A Hindu priest lights a fire, places some herbs, clarified butter and other offerings atop it and through its peculiar alchemy the smoke purifies everything it touches.
Kuni Takahashi for The New York Times
A Muslim insurgency forced many Pandits to flee the Kashmir Valley in the 1990s. The once-abandoned shrine has reopened, and a worker repaired its paintings of Hindu gods. More Photos »
But nothing about this Maha Yaghya ritual performed in the once-abandoned Vichar Nag shrine here on a recent Saturday night was simple. A week of downpours left the shrines grounds waterlogged and putrid. The wood was wet and the fire would not start.
But most peculiar was the ceremonys location, astride one of the worlds most fractious religious fault lines, between two nuclear-armed neighbors who have fought three wars, two of them over the land on which the shrine sits.
Twenty years ago, nearly 400,000 Hindus fled the Kashmir Valley, fearful of a separatist insurgency by the areas Muslim majority. Now they are trickling back, a sign to many here that the Kashmir Valley, after years of violence and turmoil, is settling in to an uneasy but hopeful peace.
The valleys upper-caste Hindus, Pandits as they are known, are reconnecting with their ancestral home, a few to stay and even larger numbers to visit. More than a dozen shrines have reopened in recent years, said Sanjay Tickoo, a Kashmiri Pandit who never left the valley and is now trying to entice those who left to return.
Their presence was once part of what made the Kashmir Valley a unique and idyllic patch of India, filled with apple orchards and shimmering fields of saffron framed by spiky, snow-capped peaks. A well-to-do but not overly powerful minority, the Pandits lived for centuries in relative harmony with their Muslim neighbors.
Kashmirs mosaic of relatively peaceful coexistence first began to crack during the partition of British India, in 1947. But it was more than a decade of insurgency beginning in 1989 that turned the region into the battleground of the fierce rivalry between Hindu-majority India and Muslim-dominated Pakistan, who each control a portion of Kashmir.
Though not all fears or tensions from the past have dissipated, almost everyone here professes to want the Pandits to come back to the valley. Because they had lived here for generations, there is no sense that their return is intended to dilute the regions Muslim majority.
The overwhelming majority of Kashmiris believe the place is really incomplete without its diversity, said Omar Abdullah, the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir. It is an important milestone in our return to normalcy if they begin to come back.
M. L. Dhar, a 75-year-old Kashmiri Pandit who lives in a suburb of New Delhi, returned recently to Kashmir for the first time. He was astounded at the warm welcome he received from the valleys Muslims.
I have never been as peaceful as I have been here in the last seven days, he said.
Mr. Dhar lived around the corner from the Vichar Nag shrine and was stunned to find it a wreck. For years troops from the Border Security Force camped out on the grounds of the shrine. They left several years ago, abandoning it to the elements. Today it is withered, all shattered windows and peeling paint garlanded with razor wire.
A group of activists, led by Mr. Tickoo and others, hoped the purification ritual would draw Kashmiri Pandits from outside the valley.
Mr. Tickoo never left the valley. As most of his neighbors packed up to leave in 1990, Mr. Tickoo, then 22, asked his mother if they should go, too.
She said, Lets wait another week, Mr. Tickoo said. That carried from weeks to months to years.
Last year Mr. Tickoo completed a survey of the remaining Pandits in the valley, counting fewer than 3,000.
From birth to death Kashmiri Pandits have our own culture, our own rituals, Mr. Tickoo said. Outside of Kashmir you cannot be a Kashmiri Pandit.
Why the Pandits fled, and whether their departure was a hasty overreaction or a rational response to a mortal threat, is debated to this day. Dozens of Pandits were killed in 1989 and 1990, according to government records, and anti-Hindu rhetoric from separatist militants was on the rise.
Now, two decades later, both sides of the religious divide wonder whether they erred. Gulam Rasoul, a retired police officer who lives near the newly reopened temple, said both sides shared blame.
They ran away, and we drove them out, he said. Now they regret it, and we also regret the loss.
He quoted an old Kashmiri saying. Kashmir is like a Mughal garden, he said, referring to the immaculately tended gardens, full of roses, lilies and violets that dot the landscape here. If you have only one tree in the garden it will have no fragrance. When the Pandits left, the fragrance was gone.
Hindus Begin to Return to Kashmir Valley
But platitudes belie deep divisions. Many Muslims see Pandits as more loyal to India than to Kashmir, while many Pandits view Muslims as not-so-secret agents of Pakistan.
Some Pandits, especially those who fled farthest from the valley, have never been back and continue to think it is unsafe to return. And they had little financial incentive to come back. Many worked for the government and kept receiving their salaries in exile.
L. N. Dhar, a doctor who lives in New Delhi, left Kashmir with his extended family in 1990. He opened a clinic and settled into an upscale neighborhood in the citys southern suburbs.
These people had guns, they were free to shoot anyone, kill anybody, Dr. Dhar said. It was an atmosphere of terror. We had no option but to leave that place.
Leaving Kashmir, he said, has turned out to be cultural suicide, he said. Scattered Pandits find it hard to keep their traditions and rituals alive. Their children barely speak Kashmiri, if at all.
Once these links are gone out, identity is completely lost, he said.
Despite the feeling that militancy is unlikely to return anytime soon, few Pandits have permanently returned. It was always an affluent and well-educated community, so many Pandits are well established elsewhere in India and beyond.
At the Vichar Nag shrine, as the harmonium wailed and the rising chorus of old Kashmiri songs filled the air, Muslim onlookers marveled at the return of their long-lost neighbors.
I have not seen these people before, so I am curious, said Nazim Amin Butt, a 22-year-old business school student. He watched with rapt attention as the chanting priest daubed saffron, red, pink and blue powder on the earthen fire pit, and placed heaps of flower petals at the head of the lingam, the phallic icon of Lord Shiva.
It is not a problem that they come here, Mr. Butt said. They come from this place just like us. They belong here.
Parashuram1
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This is a very good news. I think my wife would finally be pleased to see this change. Thank you for posting.
psychedelic_renegade
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The Hindu : News / National : Colonel removed, Major suspended in J&K fake encounter case
An Army Major has been suspended and a Colonel removed from his command for their alleged involvement in the killing of three youths in a fake encounter in April in Kupwara district of Jammu and Kashmir.
“The Colonel has been removed from the command. The second officer (Major) has been suspended as of now and an inquiry has been ordered,” Lt Gen B S Jaiswal, chief of Army’s Northern Command, said on Sunday.
Both Col D.K. Pathania, Commanding Officer of 4 Rajput Regiment, and Major Upinder of the same regiment, were named as main accused by the Jammu and Kashmir police in the April 30 Machil encounter case.
The Army on April 30 said they had killed three unidentified infiltrators in Machil sector along the LoC and later claimed they were Pakistani terrorists.
Mohamad Shafi, Shehzad Ahmed and Riyaz Ahmed, all residents of Nadihal in Baramulla district, were gunned down after they were allegedly lured to the border areas and shot dead in an alleged encounter.
Following complaints from relatives of the victims, a territorial army jawan and two others were arrested.
The Army had ordered an inquiry into the killing after the police filed a report accusing the Major of entering into a criminal conspiracy with some locals to eliminate the three youths by labelling them as terrorists.
“Pathania has been asked not to leave the Valley till the inquiry is completed,” Army sources said. He was all ready to leave for Meerut where his regiment has been relocated.
Gen Jaiswal said, “It (inquiry) will be totally transparent and the truth will be there.... The inquiry is on. Our genuine concern is to be transparent. This is the first step. And this should be the indicator that subsequently we will be coming out with the truth.”
This is the second time that the Army has removed a serving officer from a command. Earlier, Colonel Gloria of 33 Rashtriya Rifles was removed for allegedly killing three boys who were playing cricket in a playground in Dudipora-Handwara in February 2006, three months after he had taken over the reins of the counter-insurgency unit.
In the Machil case, police inquiry relied heavily on the statement of a trooper of 161 battalion of the Territorial Army in Gauntmullah, Baramulla who told the investigators about the alleged involvement of Major Upinder. Abbass, the Territorial Army jawan, was among three persons including a former Special Police Officer arrested by the police in this case.
Meanwhile, the police have recorded the statements of the parents of the three slain youths after taking them to Kupwara.
Earlier, Chief Judicial Magistrate Sopore had recorded the statements of close relatives of the three youths.
The action came after Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah met senior officials of the Army and police at a high-level meeting on Sunday.
Mr. Abdullah has made a strong pitch for amending the Armed Forces Special Powers Act to make it more transparent. He is expected to raise this issue during the two-day visit of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh here from Monday
An Army Major has been suspended and a Colonel removed from his command for their alleged involvement in the killing of three youths in a fake encounter in April in Kupwara district of Jammu and Kashmir.
“The Colonel has been removed from the command. The second officer (Major) has been suspended as of now and an inquiry has been ordered,” Lt Gen B S Jaiswal, chief of Army’s Northern Command, said on Sunday.
Both Col D.K. Pathania, Commanding Officer of 4 Rajput Regiment, and Major Upinder of the same regiment, were named as main accused by the Jammu and Kashmir police in the April 30 Machil encounter case.
The Army on April 30 said they had killed three unidentified infiltrators in Machil sector along the LoC and later claimed they were Pakistani terrorists.
Mohamad Shafi, Shehzad Ahmed and Riyaz Ahmed, all residents of Nadihal in Baramulla district, were gunned down after they were allegedly lured to the border areas and shot dead in an alleged encounter.
Following complaints from relatives of the victims, a territorial army jawan and two others were arrested.
The Army had ordered an inquiry into the killing after the police filed a report accusing the Major of entering into a criminal conspiracy with some locals to eliminate the three youths by labelling them as terrorists.
“Pathania has been asked not to leave the Valley till the inquiry is completed,” Army sources said. He was all ready to leave for Meerut where his regiment has been relocated.
Gen Jaiswal said, “It (inquiry) will be totally transparent and the truth will be there.... The inquiry is on. Our genuine concern is to be transparent. This is the first step. And this should be the indicator that subsequently we will be coming out with the truth.”
This is the second time that the Army has removed a serving officer from a command. Earlier, Colonel Gloria of 33 Rashtriya Rifles was removed for allegedly killing three boys who were playing cricket in a playground in Dudipora-Handwara in February 2006, three months after he had taken over the reins of the counter-insurgency unit.
In the Machil case, police inquiry relied heavily on the statement of a trooper of 161 battalion of the Territorial Army in Gauntmullah, Baramulla who told the investigators about the alleged involvement of Major Upinder. Abbass, the Territorial Army jawan, was among three persons including a former Special Police Officer arrested by the police in this case.
Meanwhile, the police have recorded the statements of the parents of the three slain youths after taking them to Kupwara.
Earlier, Chief Judicial Magistrate Sopore had recorded the statements of close relatives of the three youths.
The action came after Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah met senior officials of the Army and police at a high-level meeting on Sunday.
Mr. Abdullah has made a strong pitch for amending the Armed Forces Special Powers Act to make it more transparent. He is expected to raise this issue during the two-day visit of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh here from Monday
civfanatic
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IM a kashmiri from srinagar
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Colonel removed, Major suspended in J&K fake encounter case - India - The Times of India
SRINAGAR: An Army Major has been suspended and a Colonel removed from his command for their alleged involvement in the killing of three youths in a fake encounter in April in Kupwara district of Jammu and Kashmir.
"The Colonel has been removed from the command. The second officer (Major) has been suspended as of now and an inquiry has been ordered," Lt Gen B S Jaiswal, chief of Army's Northern Command, said on Sunday.
Both Col D K Pathania, Commanding Officer (CO) of 4 Rajput Regiment, and Major Upinder of the same regiment, were named as the main accused by the J&K Police in the April 30 Machil encounter case. The army had on April 30 said they had killed three unidentified infiltrators in Machil sector along the LoC and later claimed they were Pakistani terrorists.
Mohamad Shafi, Shehzad Ahmed and Riyaz Ahmed, all residents of Nadihal in Baramulla district, were gunned down after they were allegedly lured to the border areas and shot dead in an alleged encounter. Following complaints from relatives of the victims, a territorial army jawan and two others were arrested.
The Army had ordered an inquiry into the killing after the police filed a report accusing the Major of entering into a criminal conspiracy with some locals to eliminate the three youths by labelling them as terrorists.
Pathania has been asked not to leave the Valley till the inquiry is completed," Army sources said. He was all ready to leave for Meerut where his regiment has been relocated.
Gen Jaiswal said, "It (inquiry) will be totally transparent and the truth will be there.... The inquiry is on.
"Our genuine concern is to be transparent. This is the first step. And this should be the indicator that subsequently we will be coming out with the truth," he said.
This is the second time that the Army has removed a serving officer from a command. Earlier, Colonel Gloria of 33 Rashtriya Rifles was removed for allegedly killing three boys who were playing cricket in a playground in Dudipora-Handwara in February 2006, three months after he had taken over the reins of the counter-insurgency unit.
In the Machil case, police inquiry relied heavily on the statement of a trooper of 161 battalion of the Territorial army in Gauntmullah, Baramulla who told the investigators about the alleged involvement of Major Upinder.
Abbass, the Territorial army jawan, was among three persons including a former Special Police Officer arrested by the police in this case. Meanwhile, the police have recorded the statements of the parents of the three slain youths after taking them to Kupwara.
Earlier, Chief Judicial Magistrate Sopore had recorded the statements of close relatives of the three youths. The action came after Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah met senior officials of the Army and police at a high-level meeting today.
Omar has made a strong pitch for amending the Armed Forces Special Powers Act to make it more transparent.
He is expected to raise this issue during the two-day visit of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh here from tomorrow.
SRINAGAR: An Army Major has been suspended and a Colonel removed from his command for their alleged involvement in the killing of three youths in a fake encounter in April in Kupwara district of Jammu and Kashmir.
"The Colonel has been removed from the command. The second officer (Major) has been suspended as of now and an inquiry has been ordered," Lt Gen B S Jaiswal, chief of Army's Northern Command, said on Sunday.
Both Col D K Pathania, Commanding Officer (CO) of 4 Rajput Regiment, and Major Upinder of the same regiment, were named as the main accused by the J&K Police in the April 30 Machil encounter case. The army had on April 30 said they had killed three unidentified infiltrators in Machil sector along the LoC and later claimed they were Pakistani terrorists.
Mohamad Shafi, Shehzad Ahmed and Riyaz Ahmed, all residents of Nadihal in Baramulla district, were gunned down after they were allegedly lured to the border areas and shot dead in an alleged encounter. Following complaints from relatives of the victims, a territorial army jawan and two others were arrested.
The Army had ordered an inquiry into the killing after the police filed a report accusing the Major of entering into a criminal conspiracy with some locals to eliminate the three youths by labelling them as terrorists.
Pathania has been asked not to leave the Valley till the inquiry is completed," Army sources said. He was all ready to leave for Meerut where his regiment has been relocated.
Gen Jaiswal said, "It (inquiry) will be totally transparent and the truth will be there.... The inquiry is on.
"Our genuine concern is to be transparent. This is the first step. And this should be the indicator that subsequently we will be coming out with the truth," he said.
This is the second time that the Army has removed a serving officer from a command. Earlier, Colonel Gloria of 33 Rashtriya Rifles was removed for allegedly killing three boys who were playing cricket in a playground in Dudipora-Handwara in February 2006, three months after he had taken over the reins of the counter-insurgency unit.
In the Machil case, police inquiry relied heavily on the statement of a trooper of 161 battalion of the Territorial army in Gauntmullah, Baramulla who told the investigators about the alleged involvement of Major Upinder.
Abbass, the Territorial army jawan, was among three persons including a former Special Police Officer arrested by the police in this case. Meanwhile, the police have recorded the statements of the parents of the three slain youths after taking them to Kupwara.
Earlier, Chief Judicial Magistrate Sopore had recorded the statements of close relatives of the three youths. The action came after Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah met senior officials of the Army and police at a high-level meeting today.
Omar has made a strong pitch for amending the Armed Forces Special Powers Act to make it more transparent.
He is expected to raise this issue during the two-day visit of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh here from tomorrow.
TheBraveHeart
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Indian army is already short of 16,000 officers and in last six month nearly 100 officers were removed from their posts including top three Lieutenant Generals.
Please provide some source about the bolded part...
Also, when u mention of top officers being suspended/court marshal it actually means more refinement is being made towards army discipline which is always needed; unlike other world armies where even the worst can get away and work like an army within an army...
ice_man
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Complete strike in held Kashmir on Indian PM’s visit
Updated at: 1135 PST, Monday, June 07, 2010
SRINAGAR: In occupied Kashmir, complete shutdown is being observed, today, on the occasion of the visit of Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh to the territory.
The shutdown is aimed at conveying the Prime Minister that the Kashmiris reject India’s illegal occupation of Jammu and Kashmir, despite continued Indian state terrorism.
The shutdown is also meant to draw the world attention towards the fake encounter killings staged by Indian troops.
Call for the strike has been given by veteran Kashmiri Hurriyet leader, Syed Ali Gilani and supported by High Court Bar Association, Dukhtaran-e-Millat, Muslim League, JKLF-R and other pro-movement leaders and organisations.
The occupation authorities have sealed various localities of Srinagar. Heavy contingents of Indian troops have been deployed in the city while high alert has been sounded in and around the Kashmir University of Agriculture Science and Technology (KUAST) and a helicopter has been seen flying in the area. Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh is scheduled to attend a function in the campus.
Indian troops, wearing bulletproof jackets and carrying automatic weapons, have also been seen on motorboats and shikaras at Dal Lake.
Complete strike in held Kashmir on Indian PM’s visit
Updated at: 1135 PST, Monday, June 07, 2010
SRINAGAR: In occupied Kashmir, complete shutdown is being observed, today, on the occasion of the visit of Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh to the territory.
The shutdown is aimed at conveying the Prime Minister that the Kashmiris reject India’s illegal occupation of Jammu and Kashmir, despite continued Indian state terrorism.
The shutdown is also meant to draw the world attention towards the fake encounter killings staged by Indian troops.
Call for the strike has been given by veteran Kashmiri Hurriyet leader, Syed Ali Gilani and supported by High Court Bar Association, Dukhtaran-e-Millat, Muslim League, JKLF-R and other pro-movement leaders and organisations.
The occupation authorities have sealed various localities of Srinagar. Heavy contingents of Indian troops have been deployed in the city while high alert has been sounded in and around the Kashmir University of Agriculture Science and Technology (KUAST) and a helicopter has been seen flying in the area. Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh is scheduled to attend a function in the campus.
Indian troops, wearing bulletproof jackets and carrying automatic weapons, have also been seen on motorboats and shikaras at Dal Lake.
Complete strike in held Kashmir on Indian PM’s visit
KS
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RobbieS
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The Kashmiri Pandits are a silent and now displaced minority. Talks of freedom and referendum tend to forget these people who were driven out of their homes and were forced to rebuild their lives away from their roots. Their identity has been destroyed and their linkages with their ancestral lands stand frozen for many decades. Why is that nobody talks about them?
Roots in Kashmir Tug Hindus Home - NYTimes.com
***********************************
SRINAGAR, Kashmir — The ceremony is simple and common. A Hindu priest lights a fire, places some herbs, clarified butter and other offerings atop it and through its peculiar alchemy the smoke purifies everything it touches.
A Muslim insurgency forced many Pandits to flee the Kashmir Valley in the 1990s. The once-abandoned shrine has reopened, and a worker repaired its paintings of Hindu gods.
But nothing about this Maha Yaghya ritual performed in the once-abandoned Vichar Nag shrine here on a recent Saturday night was simple. A week of downpours left the shrine’s grounds waterlogged and putrid. The wood was wet and the fire would not start.
But most peculiar was the ceremony’s location, astride one of the world’s most fractious religious fault lines, between two nuclear-armed neighbors who have fought three wars, two of them over the land on which the shrine sits.
Twenty years ago, nearly 400,000 Hindus fled the Kashmir Valley, fearful of a separatist insurgency by the area’s Muslim majority. Now they are trickling back, a sign to many here that the Kashmir Valley, after years of violence and turmoil, is settling in to an uneasy but hopeful peace.
The valley’s upper-caste Hindus, Pandits as they are known, are reconnecting with their ancestral home, a few to stay and even larger numbers to visit. More than a dozen shrines have reopened in recent years, said Sanjay Tickoo, a Kashmiri Pandit who never left the valley and is now trying to entice those who left to return.
Their presence was once part of what made the Kashmir Valley a unique and idyllic patch of India, filled with apple orchards and shimmering fields of saffron framed by spiky, snow-capped peaks. A well-to-do but not overly powerful minority, the Pandits lived for centuries in relative harmony with their Muslim neighbors.
Kashmir’s mosaic of relatively peaceful coexistence first began to crack during the partition of British India, in 1947. But it was more than a decade of insurgency beginning in 1989 that turned the region into the battleground of the fierce rivalry between Hindu-majority India and Muslim-dominated Pakistan, who each control a portion of Kashmir.
Though not all fears or tensions from the past have dissipated, almost everyone here professes to want the Pandits to come back to the valley. Because they had lived here for generations, there is no sense that their return is intended to dilute the region’s Muslim majority.
“The overwhelming majority of Kashmiris believe the place is really incomplete without its diversity,” said Omar Abdullah, the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir. “It is an important milestone in our return to normalcy if they begin to come back.”
M. L. Dhar, a 75-year-old Kashmiri Pandit who lives in a suburb of New Delhi, returned recently to Kashmir for the first time. He was astounded at the warm welcome he received from the valley’s Muslims.
“I have never been as peaceful as I have been here in the last seven days,” he said.
Mr. Dhar lived around the corner from the Vichar Nag shrine and was stunned to find it a wreck. For years troops from the Border Security Force camped out on the grounds of the shrine. They left several years ago, abandoning it to the elements. Today it is withered, all shattered windows and peeling paint garlanded with razor wire.
A group of activists, led by Mr. Tickoo and others, hoped the purification ritual would draw Kashmiri Pandits from outside the valley.
Mr. Tickoo never left the valley. As most of his neighbors packed up to leave in 1990, Mr. Tickoo, then 22, asked his mother if they should go, too.
“She said, ‘Lets wait another week,’ ” Mr. Tickoo said. “That carried from weeks to months to years.”
Last year Mr. Tickoo completed a survey of the remaining Pandits in the valley, counting fewer than 3,000.
“From birth to death Kashmiri Pandits have our own culture, our own rituals,” Mr. Tickoo said. “Outside of Kashmir you cannot be a Kashmiri Pandit.”
Why the Pandits fled, and whether their departure was a hasty overreaction or a rational response to a mortal threat, is debated to this day. Dozens of Pandits were killed in 1989 and 1990, according to government records, and anti-Hindu rhetoric from separatist militants was on the rise.
Now, two decades later, both sides of the religious divide wonder whether they erred. Gulam Rasoul, a retired police officer who lives near the newly reopened temple, said both sides shared blame.
“They ran away, and we drove them out,” he said. “Now they regret it, and we also regret the loss.”
He quoted an old Kashmiri saying. “Kashmir is like a Mughal garden,” he said, referring to the immaculately tended gardens, full of roses, lilies and violets that dot the landscape here. “If you have only one tree in the garden it will have no fragrance. When the Pandits left, the fragrance was gone.”
For years, troops were camped out at the Vichar Nag shrine.
But platitudes belie deep divisions. Many Muslims see Pandits as more loyal to India than to Kashmir, while many Pandits view Muslims as not-so-secret agents of Pakistan.
Some Pandits, especially those who fled farthest from the valley, have never been back and continue to think it is unsafe to return. And they had little financial incentive to come back. Many worked for the government and kept receiving their salaries in exile.
L. N. Dhar, a doctor who lives in New Delhi, left Kashmir with his extended family in 1990. He opened a clinic and settled into an upscale neighborhood in the city’s southern suburbs.
“These people had guns, they were free to shoot anyone, kill anybody,” Dr. Dhar said. “It was an atmosphere of terror. We had no option but to leave that place.”
Leaving Kashmir, he said, has turned out to be cultural suicide, he said. Scattered Pandits find it hard to keep their traditions and rituals alive. Their children barely speak Kashmiri, if at all.
“Once these links are gone out, identity is completely lost,” he said.
Despite the feeling that militancy is unlikely to return anytime soon, few Pandits have permanently returned. It was always an affluent and well-educated community, so many Pandits are well established elsewhere in India and beyond.
At the Vichar Nag shrine, as the harmonium wailed and the rising chorus of old Kashmiri songs filled the air, Muslim onlookers marveled at the return of their long-lost neighbors.
“I have not seen these people before, so I am curious,” said Nazim Amin Butt, a 22-year-old business school student. He watched with rapt attention as the chanting priest daubed saffron, red, pink and blue powder on the earthen fire pit, and placed heaps of flower petals at the head of the lingam, the phallic icon of Lord Shiva.
“It is not a problem that they come here,” Mr. Butt said. “They come from this place just like us. They belong here.”
Roots in Kashmir Tug Hindus Home - NYTimes.com
***********************************
SRINAGAR, Kashmir — The ceremony is simple and common. A Hindu priest lights a fire, places some herbs, clarified butter and other offerings atop it and through its peculiar alchemy the smoke purifies everything it touches.
A Muslim insurgency forced many Pandits to flee the Kashmir Valley in the 1990s. The once-abandoned shrine has reopened, and a worker repaired its paintings of Hindu gods.
But nothing about this Maha Yaghya ritual performed in the once-abandoned Vichar Nag shrine here on a recent Saturday night was simple. A week of downpours left the shrine’s grounds waterlogged and putrid. The wood was wet and the fire would not start.
But most peculiar was the ceremony’s location, astride one of the world’s most fractious religious fault lines, between two nuclear-armed neighbors who have fought three wars, two of them over the land on which the shrine sits.
Twenty years ago, nearly 400,000 Hindus fled the Kashmir Valley, fearful of a separatist insurgency by the area’s Muslim majority. Now they are trickling back, a sign to many here that the Kashmir Valley, after years of violence and turmoil, is settling in to an uneasy but hopeful peace.
The valley’s upper-caste Hindus, Pandits as they are known, are reconnecting with their ancestral home, a few to stay and even larger numbers to visit. More than a dozen shrines have reopened in recent years, said Sanjay Tickoo, a Kashmiri Pandit who never left the valley and is now trying to entice those who left to return.
Their presence was once part of what made the Kashmir Valley a unique and idyllic patch of India, filled with apple orchards and shimmering fields of saffron framed by spiky, snow-capped peaks. A well-to-do but not overly powerful minority, the Pandits lived for centuries in relative harmony with their Muslim neighbors.
Kashmir’s mosaic of relatively peaceful coexistence first began to crack during the partition of British India, in 1947. But it was more than a decade of insurgency beginning in 1989 that turned the region into the battleground of the fierce rivalry between Hindu-majority India and Muslim-dominated Pakistan, who each control a portion of Kashmir.
Though not all fears or tensions from the past have dissipated, almost everyone here professes to want the Pandits to come back to the valley. Because they had lived here for generations, there is no sense that their return is intended to dilute the region’s Muslim majority.
“The overwhelming majority of Kashmiris believe the place is really incomplete without its diversity,” said Omar Abdullah, the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir. “It is an important milestone in our return to normalcy if they begin to come back.”
M. L. Dhar, a 75-year-old Kashmiri Pandit who lives in a suburb of New Delhi, returned recently to Kashmir for the first time. He was astounded at the warm welcome he received from the valley’s Muslims.
“I have never been as peaceful as I have been here in the last seven days,” he said.
Mr. Dhar lived around the corner from the Vichar Nag shrine and was stunned to find it a wreck. For years troops from the Border Security Force camped out on the grounds of the shrine. They left several years ago, abandoning it to the elements. Today it is withered, all shattered windows and peeling paint garlanded with razor wire.
A group of activists, led by Mr. Tickoo and others, hoped the purification ritual would draw Kashmiri Pandits from outside the valley.
Mr. Tickoo never left the valley. As most of his neighbors packed up to leave in 1990, Mr. Tickoo, then 22, asked his mother if they should go, too.
“She said, ‘Lets wait another week,’ ” Mr. Tickoo said. “That carried from weeks to months to years.”
Last year Mr. Tickoo completed a survey of the remaining Pandits in the valley, counting fewer than 3,000.
“From birth to death Kashmiri Pandits have our own culture, our own rituals,” Mr. Tickoo said. “Outside of Kashmir you cannot be a Kashmiri Pandit.”
Why the Pandits fled, and whether their departure was a hasty overreaction or a rational response to a mortal threat, is debated to this day. Dozens of Pandits were killed in 1989 and 1990, according to government records, and anti-Hindu rhetoric from separatist militants was on the rise.
Now, two decades later, both sides of the religious divide wonder whether they erred. Gulam Rasoul, a retired police officer who lives near the newly reopened temple, said both sides shared blame.
“They ran away, and we drove them out,” he said. “Now they regret it, and we also regret the loss.”
He quoted an old Kashmiri saying. “Kashmir is like a Mughal garden,” he said, referring to the immaculately tended gardens, full of roses, lilies and violets that dot the landscape here. “If you have only one tree in the garden it will have no fragrance. When the Pandits left, the fragrance was gone.”
For years, troops were camped out at the Vichar Nag shrine.
But platitudes belie deep divisions. Many Muslims see Pandits as more loyal to India than to Kashmir, while many Pandits view Muslims as not-so-secret agents of Pakistan.
Some Pandits, especially those who fled farthest from the valley, have never been back and continue to think it is unsafe to return. And they had little financial incentive to come back. Many worked for the government and kept receiving their salaries in exile.
L. N. Dhar, a doctor who lives in New Delhi, left Kashmir with his extended family in 1990. He opened a clinic and settled into an upscale neighborhood in the city’s southern suburbs.
“These people had guns, they were free to shoot anyone, kill anybody,” Dr. Dhar said. “It was an atmosphere of terror. We had no option but to leave that place.”
Leaving Kashmir, he said, has turned out to be cultural suicide, he said. Scattered Pandits find it hard to keep their traditions and rituals alive. Their children barely speak Kashmiri, if at all.
“Once these links are gone out, identity is completely lost,” he said.
Despite the feeling that militancy is unlikely to return anytime soon, few Pandits have permanently returned. It was always an affluent and well-educated community, so many Pandits are well established elsewhere in India and beyond.
At the Vichar Nag shrine, as the harmonium wailed and the rising chorus of old Kashmiri songs filled the air, Muslim onlookers marveled at the return of their long-lost neighbors.
“I have not seen these people before, so I am curious,” said Nazim Amin Butt, a 22-year-old business school student. He watched with rapt attention as the chanting priest daubed saffron, red, pink and blue powder on the earthen fire pit, and placed heaps of flower petals at the head of the lingam, the phallic icon of Lord Shiva.
“It is not a problem that they come here,” Mr. Butt said. “They come from this place just like us. They belong here.”
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