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: Rasheed wants AFSPA to be scrapped at.
The separatist leader flays govt cleric for making ‘stupid’ demands, says ‘western guests are always welcome’. Baba Umar reports A day after a top government cleric asked visitors of United States to “immediately” leaveKashmir, senior Hurriyat (G) leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani on Saturday 15 September flayed the cleric saying the “guests in Kashmir need not.
Maulana Abbas Ansari, a powerful Shia cleric, is the head of a religious group, Itehad-ul-Muslimeen (Unity of Muslims) – a constituent of the All Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC) headed by moderate separatist leader Mirvaiz Umar Farooq. Recently, the group went to Pakistan – a visit it declared ‘successful’. In a freewheeling interview with Baba Umar, Ansari.
Despite Al Qaeda’s call to ignore the UN’s role in arbitrating conflict , separatists refuse to depart from their old stand. Baba Umar reports Just a few months ago when al QaedaSupremo Ayman al-Zawahri called for a Muslim coalition in liberating what he called are “occupied Muslim Lands” including Jammu and Kashmir, Zawahri was conditioning such an alliance to.
Faced with shrinking habitats and blocked corridors, bears and leopards are increasingly coming into conflict with villagers across the Kashmir Valley. Baba Umar reports ON 8 OCTOBER last year, when Meer Ahmad Khan, 55, a forest guard, crossed the perimeter of Nadurbagh forests in Ganderbal district (23 km east of Srinagar) along with four other guards, he heard.
Instead of punishing the men in uniform who tortured two young men, the J&K Police is targeting those who exposed the act. Baba Umar reports WHAT WAS hidden in police lock-ups so far is slowly coming out in grainy videos from the Kashmir Valley. A video clip uploaded on YouTube recently shows personnel of the Jammu and Kashmir Police stripping two young men.
While members of the civil society welcomed Justice Verma’s suggestions on the controversial AFSPA the government remains non committal. Baba Umar reports Those fighting for the complete removal of the controversial Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA-1958) in India’s troubled Jammu and Kashmir and North East, may find a moral backing in the Justice Verma Committee’s recommendations..
LeT spokesperson Dr Abdullah Gaznavi told BBC that the group will “any time soon take revenge for this act”. Baba Umar reports Pakistan-based Lashkar Toiba (LeT) has vowed to avenge Afzal Guru’s hanging. It’s spokesperson Dr Abdullah Gaznavi told British Broadcasting Channel that the group will “any time soon take revenge for this act.” Quoting the LeT’s.
Kashmir may have failed to hog media headlines in recent times, but stories of personal tragedy have continued to unfold in the picturesque valley, without respite. These are stories of young men who the government and the army believe to be ‘terrorists’ who got what they deserved. But the relatives of these ‘terrorists’ insist it was atrocities by the State that pushed these men into the folds.
Mushtaq Ahmad Zargar, 46, Commander-In-Chief, Al-Umar Mujahideen, is the chief of pro-Pakistan Al-Umar Mujahideen, which had 700 militants when the Kashmiri insurgency was at its peak in the 1990s. Zargar, who comes from a copper polishing family, crossed the LoC in 1988, and rose to lead Al-Umar after breaking away from pro-azaadi JKLF in 1990. Al-Umar’s key men were killed.
