Kashmir conflict: Anger Rises In Their Crosshairs
Since Afzal Guru’s hanging, 650 police and CRPF personnel have been injured. The stone-pelters’ rage is known. Baba Umar tells the other side of the story AS THE spring wind got stronger, the hail of stones came to a halt. The CRPF personnel manning the mobile outpost sat for a quick lunch on the Azad Gunj Bridge in Baramulla, located […]
Kashmir ‘bad’ headlines moulded into papier-mâché art
A new art initiative has turned decades of bad headlines into distinctive papier-mâché boxes to send to gloomy editors, finds Baba Umar KASHMIR HAS received ‘bad press’ for more than two decades now. For national newspapers and magazines, the region is explained by government hand-outs declaring shoot-at-sight orders; by separatist guerrillas planning to attack military […]
Is Kashmir’s Omar Passing The Buck On AFSPA?
Legal experts claim the J&K Assembly and the Cabinet have the power to revoke AFSPA in the state, says Baba Umar On 6 March, Tahir Rasool Sofi (27) of north Kashmir’s Baramulla town was allegedly shot dead by personnel of the 46 Rashtriya Rifles. Almost 380 km away, in the state Assembly in Jammu, Chief Minister Omar […]
Repeal AFSPA, PSA From Kashmir – UN Special Rapporteur tells India
As many as 40 separate depositions were made during the meeting, unarguably the largest one ever convened by any UN’s Special Rapporteur, as part of the 10-day long official mission to India from 22 April to 1 May The UN’s Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women Rashida Manjoo on Wednesday appealed India to repeal the […]
Why’re Kashmiri Muslims taking their own lives?
Suicide is considered un-Islamic, then why are more and more Kashmiri Muslims taking their own lives? Baba Umar reports The sound of knocking continues to haunt 31-year-old Adil Ahmad. Until last year, these knocks were from the Pashmina wool suppliers who would come to the shawl weaver’s house in downtown Srinagar to collect their dues. In 2008, […]
27,000 Dead Goats. Is It Pashmina’s Turn Next?
Since January, 13 percent of the Changra goats has been wiped out, threatening the lucrative Pashmina industry in the Kashmir Valley, reports Baba Umar This summer, Pashmina shawl weavers like Ashiq Ahmed have a tough choice to make. They can either buy raw wool at inflated rates or abandon the 600-year-old weaving craft. In 2006, the […]