the varmul post march 4th

Minor drowns,Motorcyclist injured in

Handwara

A minor girl Tuesday drowned in a pond at her native village in Handwara.A 5 years old girl Sahista Bano daughter of Noor Din Tajal resident of Gujjar Patti Bader-kal in the jurisdiction of Police Station Hand-wara drowned in a pond at her native village. The body of the deceased was fished out by Police and locals. After completion of medico legal formalities, the body of the deceased was handed over to her family for last rites.A Motorcycle bearing registration number JK09A-1777 driven by Khalid Ahmad Bhat res-ident of Harpora, Handwara met with an ac-cident near Byepass Fruit Mandi in the juris-diction of Police Station Handwara, resulting in injuries to the motorcyclist. The injured was shifted to hospital for treatment. Handwara po-lice has registered a case in this regard. (KNS)

PDD employee diesin Bandipora

A PDD employee was today electrocuted in Bandipora village and he died on the spot due to electric shock.Police said Khurshid Ahmad Bhat son of Ghu-lam Hassan of Seer Mohalla Chati Banday re-ceived electric shock while lifting transformer at Guri Hajam Mohalla in Argam, Bandipora. “The employee died on the spot,” the spokes-man said in a statement to KNS. After completion of medico legal formalities, the body of the deceased was handed over to his legal heirs for last rites. Bandipora police has registered a case in this regard, he said. (KNS)

DDC Baramulla interacts with Uri fire victimsDistrict Development Commissioner Baramulla, Yasha Mudgal visited Uri town and took stock of the situation emerged due to the recent fire in the town. The DDC was accompanied by SDM Uri, Tehsildar, SDPO Uri and other officers.The DDC interacted with the traders affected by the recent fire and assured the affected fami-lies of every type of support from the administration.The DDC directed the Sub-divisional Magistrate Uri to prepare a list of the shops that have been gutted in the fire to be sent as a special case of relief under SDRF. The SDM was also directed to sort out the issue of permission for construction of the Shops with the Municipal Committee Uri.Meanwhile, the delegations of the affected people put forth various issues before the Deputy Commissioner. The affected traders mentioned the delay of funds from Insurance companies. The DDC assured the Public that all their issues will be taken care of on priority basis.

Govt mulling to bring cropsunder Insurance cover

In a big relief to the farming community, Advisor to Governor, Khurshid Ganai on Tuesday said that the government was mulling to bring various crops under insurance cover.While chairing a high level meeting of officers of agriculture and horticulture departments here today, Ganai said that the government would take every step to reach out to the farmers with latest technological interventions. He said that he had a deliberation with the officials and it was decid-ed that the various types of the crops would be brought under insurance cover.The meeting was informed that various efforts have been carried out to reach out to farmers un-der Farmers Bhima Yojana.“We will try to look for the possibilities where we could bring in the Crops under insurance over,” he told officials at the meeting.“I will have to take up this issue with other sectors including J&K Bank and other Insurance com-panies for bringing crops under insurance over,” he informed.Commissioner/Secretary Agriculture Production, M.A. Bukhari, Directors Agriculture, Horticul-ture and senior officers of departments were present in the meeting.The Advisor told the meeting that the officials should review the preparedness of the stock and other fertilizers available at their respective district headquarters. He urged officials to plug in the loopholes in the service sector.Earlier the farmers and fruit growers demanded that their long pending demands be met. They said that they have been demanding insurance over of their crops for a long time.The associations hailed the decision of government for intervening into bringing profiteering under control by announcing rates for various agriculture and horticulture products, especially tree spray oil.

Banker held for fraud in Kupwara

A banker was on Tuesday arrested by police in Sogam area of north Kashmir’s Kupwara district on the charges of fraud.Official sources told GNS that the Fareed Ahmad Kolay, a resident of Kalaroos, who is the cashier-cum-cleric at Sogam branch of State Bank of India, was arrested by police after they received several complaints of fraud against him.Sources said that two complainants namely Fayaz Ahmad and Ghulam Rasool complained to police that despite depositing amount in their accounts the same is not being credited even as the said cashier gives them proper receipts.“Later it come to fore that the Fareed used to put the cash amount deposited by the account holders in his pocket. He has so far fraudulently robbed people worth Rs. 8 lakh by this way,” said the sources.Subsequently, police today arrested the banker while the SBI also suspended him from his service. Confirming the arrest, the SHO Ateequallah told GNS that they have registered a case under FIR 03/2016 under section 420, 467, 471, 409 RPC. (GNS)

RAJA NOUMANBaramulla

The poor mobile and defunct net services by Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited over past few days is giving serious trouble to customers in Baramulla and its adjoining areas. According to BSNL customers the broad-band and the cellular services are down from the last several days creating lot of problems for the common people while as the authorities are in no mood to solve the problems. Talking to The Varmul Post, Saqib Bhat a resident of Bara-mulla town said that I am visit-ing continuously the BSNL of-

fice for the broadband services from last 3 days but I am not getting any response from the official side.“ From last three days, internet services are down. My official

work gets hampered. Whenev-er I visited the office in last 3 days either the cashiers or the officers were absent from their

duty. Today only, I visited the office four times but there were no employees at the counter.”When our correspondent vis-ited the office regarding this matter, almost all the rooms were locked except the billing counter. When enquired about the matter as why the rooms are locked, it was told that they employees are on a lunch break and the counters will reopen at 2:30 pm, however upto 2:45 pm nobody among the employees were seen back to work. When this reporter tried to contact GK Rao, the divisional officer of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Lim-ited, he did not receive the re-peated calls.

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited irks people of Baramulla

Noble Images, a Kashmir based photo agency (gallery) cum photo journal, an initiative by young journalism students of Government Degree College Baramulla was inaugurated today with young budding journalists taking part with enthusiasm. According to a statement issued by Noble Images, the photo agency will provide a platform to young talented generation of Kashmir to represent and sell their work on an international level. The agency deals with selling stock work of different young photographers, artists, poets, writers and other talented youth to different magazines, newspapers, photo journals and other organizations both on regional and international level. The managing director of Noble Images and a renowned social activist cum youth leader Touseef Raina inaugurated the agency. The initiative was taken by a young journalism student of Govt College Baramulla, Idrees Mir who is also the CEO of Noble Images. While talking to Varmul Post he said that I struggled hard for a job but didn’t get one, all because of the shrinking future of photography in Kashmir. I

just want photography to come in existence as other professions are because people in Kashmir don’t take photography and other visual arts as a professions. Noble images will now represent Kashmir on an international level and the ones who roam here and there for jobs have an opportunity to display and sell their work on national cum international level . “I just want people to know that photography and visual art is also a profession of which our young generation is passionate, just like other professions this profession is also reputed and has scope,” he added.

Sumaya Khan, a media student from Baramulla who also participated in the inaugural function said that photography in Kashmir is proceeding towards its dark future as this profession is not appreciated and applauded by the people. “Noble images is an initiative which will help this young generation and the coming generations to touch skies by

displaying their talent on an international level as the talent of Kashmir is always neglected, this in a great initiative and I wish these guys a very bright future” said Basit shah another media student.

Kashmir’s first photo stock agency starts functioning in Baramulla.

Detained youth released after protest in Kunzar

The nocturnal raids and subsequent deten-tion of youth sparked spontaneous shutdown in Kunzar Tangmarg area of North Kashmir’s Baramulla district while protesters who de-manded the release of youth disrupted vehic-ular movement on Srinagar-Gulmarg road as a result commuters faced lot ofinconvenience for hours togather.According to protesters, a joint team of Army and Special Operations Group raided differ-ent houses during night hours and arrested four youth from their respective residential houses. Terming all the arrested youth as in-nocent the protesters identified them as Su-hail Khalid Wani, Mudasir Rashid Sheikh, Obaid Nazir Najar and Waseem Ahmed Dar.Top police and civil administration officials including SDM Tangmarg Abdul Qayoom Sheikh rushed to spot to pacify the protest-ers. After four hours of protests and block-ade police reportedly released all the arrested youth.SSP Baramulla Mir Imtiyaz Hussain told CNS that the youth had been detained for ques-tioning regarding a sensitive matter. “They turned out to be innocent after thorough questioning and subsequently they were re-leased,” he said. (CNS)

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SUHAIL KHANSopore

A number of concerns have been surfaced with the closure of Sopore bypass bridge for the ve-hicular movement in view of the road test to be conducted by the Beacon authorities.The Sopore bypass bridge which is scheduled to remain closed for any kind of vehicular move-ment from February 27 to March 10, has created a lot of problems for the commuters. The bridge was completed after a long gap of 23 years. Locals and transporters allege that the politi-cians and authorities are responsible for the misery prevailing in Sopore town in present times, as the worst kind of traffic jams are being witnessed by commuters, which has made the life in Sopore very difficult.Shabir Ahmad, a resident of Sopore alleges that after several months of vehicular traffic running smoothly on the bridge, they are now going for the road test procedure which either means that this bridge was opened in a haste for electoral processes thereby putting the lives of the people in risk or there is some grave problem with this bridge.“How come authorities gave permission to Late Mufti Syed to inaugurate the bridge without proper testing procedure? What if the bridge would have collapsed when there was huge rush of trucks which usually are seen during the ap-

ple season in this apple rich town, killing per-haps dozens of people and crippling the region’s economy,” he added.According to engineers in civil construction department, there are certain guidelines before opening the bridge for vehicular movement once it gets completed but a road test after sev-eral months of traffic movement on the bridge

is not only worrisome but suicidal. The Sopore ByPass bridge which took 23 years in its construction was inaugurated by Late Mufti Mohammad Sayeed in August, 2015. Recently the bridge (which had eased traffic in the town considerably) was closed by BEACON authorities for its road test. However the closure of bridge not only created suspicion among the people of this town but resulted in massive traf-fic jams in and around Sopore town, a job which the local administra-tion has failed to do. According to locals due to the closure of bridge, the distance which usually took some minutes to reach is now taking hours. As schools have reopened, the students are finding it hard to reach their classrooms in time besides govern-ment employees also bear the brunt of this traf-fic mess. Meanwhile when contacted, the chief engineer BEACON, Brigadier A K Das told that the bridge has been closed in view of road test and it will take just couple of days to reopen. Gen-erally we do road test before inaugurating the bridge but in this case the bridge had already missed so many deadlines and we had a lot of pressure from our higher authorities that’s why we opened the bridge before its road test. “We have closed this time for a road test during the off season and I am sure people will not face that much of hardships as we would have faced during fruit season,” he added.

“ How come former Chief Minister, Late Mufti Mohammad Syed inaugurated the bridge without proper testing procedure? What if the bridge would have collapsed when there was huge rush of loaded trucks which usually are seen during the apple season in this apple

rich town ”

RAYEES GANAIEBaramulla

Shaista Bano, 22 from Chahla, Boniyar leaves early morning with other wom-en in deep forests to collect puffballs (Kanne Pappar), a way of helping their households. Shaista is selling these puff-balls from last six years in Baramulla town. She is the only bread winner of family, as her father is too old to earn for a family of five. Shaista’s younger sister Rabia who is studying in 7th class ac-companies her every other day in order to meet the needs back at home. It take them complete two days to collect few kilos of puffballs which they later sell in the market at a meager rate of 150/kg. Come Spring season, blossoms and fra-grances engulf the environs in the whole valley. The season gives us message of greenery and natural vegetations. North Kashmir’s Baramulla town besides green-ery receives Puffball vendors from differ-ent villages. These vendors who comprise mostly of women, who come from differ-ent villages visit the town every morning to sell these puffballs in order to make a livelihood. The puffballs which almost

becomes the main source of income to these women folk usually appear dur-ing the months of February, March and April. Mostly people from far flung are-as visit the townships to sell varieties of forest vegetations in main Chowk Bar-amulla. Puffballs get the most attention of customers as it has a high medicinal value and for these women it becomes a season to earn.“It takes us two days to collect the puff balls in forests. We later clean them at our homes with water in order to sell them in market. Through this hard work we earn a little amount to sustain our families. It is a hectic job and consumers at times without seeing our hard work start bargaining for few pennies, which hurts us most,” said Parveena Bano, an-other Pufball seller. The season of puffballs comes to an end with last days of April, leaving these women jobless. These women claim be-ing sidelined in this male dominated so-ciety, where they are not given any chance to earn their livelihood. These three months come and go but there seems no final solution to their problems. .

Puffballs get the most attention of customers as it

has a high medicinal value and for these women it becomes a season to earn.The season of puffballs comes to an end

with last days of April, leaving these women jobless. These

women claim being sidelined in this male dominated

society, where they are not given any chance to earn

their livelihood. These three months come and go but there

seems no final solution to their problems.

‘Kann-e-Pappar’ sellers of Baramulla Picture By: Rizwan Dar

By MOHAMMAD ASHRAF

Recently Indian Army Commander in a press state-ment declared that the infiltration across LOC has reached almost to zero level. But it is a half state-ment only. He did not mention that in spite of zero infiltration the militancy is on the rise and there have been a number of serious encounters. He did not say a number of police personnel including a head constable and a number of constables have run away with their weapons and joined the militant ranks. Most of the “New” militants are highly mo-tivated and educated persons. Secondly, apart from huge crowds attending the funerals of militants, youth have been coming out at the encounter sites to create disturbances allowing militants to escape. This is a big change which is not being admitted by the concerned people. They have only warned peo-ple to stay away from the encounter sites for their own safety. Probably, they do not want this trend to become a part of the new wave of militancy. How-ever, no one can arrest the trend because it is a nat-ural reaction to continuous oppression which has reached a crescendo in the recent times.In early nineties when the Kashmiri youth start-ed an armed resistance movement, the motive was more sentimental and emotional. Moreover, the sentiment had been hijacked and exploited by ex-ternal supporters. The youth, even though phys-ically strong and sentimental, were not mentally prepared and motivated for a long militant struggle. In fact, the sentiment was exploited by the exter-nal agencies to introduce their own thought stream. Guns were put in the hands of the young men who had not yet reached the motivation level of armed resistance in their minds. It was because of this that a number of youth had been turned around and many had surrendered. Some of the militants had even become blackmailers. The turmoil of nineties which resulted in thousands of deaths and injuries, started building upthe motivation. A new genera-tion of Kashmiri youth came of age during that pe-riod of conflict and in the following years. These people had seen nothing but the high-handedness of the security personnel. They were witnesses to the massacres, fires, and rapes. A desire for revenge slowly started building in their psyche. There rose a very strong wave of alienation which is on the in-crease. The level of alienation can be judged from

the fact that during the recent encounter in Pamp-ore, women were singing lullaby songs for the mili-tants fighting the forces!Incidentally, as an interim new development, there was a calming down of the situation in the start of the present century and the militancy appeared to be declining. However, with the continued wave of suppression and the events of 2008 and 2010 when the young boys fought the bullets of the securi-ty forces with stones, the alienation again started rising. The main cause of this renewed upheaval was the total suppression of the freedom of expres-sion. There were many other factors including the frustration of highly educated youth. The unem-

ployment rose to all time high of almost a million educated youth. Kashmiri students studying or working in different parts of India were always on their toes because of local threats of the Hindutva brigade as well as extreme harassment of the securi-ty agencies. After every untoward incident, the first suspects are the Kashmiris. The recent upheaval in JNU has again made the Kashmiri students the first

target of the security agencies and many students are returning to Kashmir. The so called mainstream politicians even though giving lip service to the suf-ferings of the people have totally failed to get any tangible relaxation in the grip of the security forc-es. Their failure to even soften or repeal the AFSPA (The Armed Forces Special Powers Act) which gives total impunity to soldiers to kill anyone or destroy any property has worsened the situation further. It is a well-known fact that Guerrilla War is the weap-on of the weak against the strong. Universally, it has not been possible even for super powers to win such a war. Be it the French in Algeria, the Italians in Libya, the Americans in Vietnam or in the recent times both the Russians and the Americans in Af-ghanistan. In the long run, they had to bow before the will of the people.It is time for the Indian Governmentto realise the truth that it is impossible in the long run to sup-press the feelings and aspirations of the people.It must also be mentioned that keeping an entire pop-ulation against their will is a costly affair. The secu-rity itself costs billions of rupees. For a developing country like India it is a big drain.The money being spent on the security grid could very well be utilised for the wellbeing of the millions living under the poverty line. The recent upheaval in JNU related to Kashmir situation indicates that the new generation of Indians does not accept the oppression of peo-ple simply for their views. It is a bold first step for engaging the people in a dialogue rather than sup-pressing them by showering bullets. The youth of Kashmir too have welcomed the move and extended support to the JNU initiative. It has been easy for the Indian government to unleash off and on vio-lence on Kashmiris for their total suppression but they will not be able to do the same on the students of JNU and some other institutions where the youth are realising the truth of the Kashmir Story. It could be the nemesis for the pseudo nationalists pulling India to disintegration and could open up the way to fulfil the long pending aspirations of the Kash-miri people. Time only will show. Incidentally, the first wave of militancy had come after the hanging of Maqbool Butt and this wave has come after the hanging of Afzal Guru!

[Mohammad Ashraf, I.A.S. (Retired) is Former Director General Tourism,

Jammu & Kashmir),

Kashmir: The ‘New’Wave Of Militancy!

The new generation of militants is more committed and determined, independent of the external motivation and support

Note: All views expressed in this column are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the organisation

It is time for the Indian Governmentto realise the truth that it is impossible in the long run to suppress the feelings and aspirations of the people.It must also be mentioned that keeping an entire population against their will is a costly affair. The recent upheaval in JNU related to Kashmir situation indicates that the new generation of Indians does not accept the oppression of people simply for their views. It is a bold first step for engaging the people in a dialogue rather than suppressing them by

showering bullets.

The private as well as government schools across the Valley Tuesday reo-pened after remaining closed for more than two months for winter vacations. The students were happy to join their classes and to meet with their friends after more than two months of break in the Valley.The students wore new uniforms hav-ing lunch boxes in their hands. “I feel happy to join my classes again after spending more than two months at home,” a student while waiting for his school bus said.

He said that during the period of two months he missed his teachers, his classmates, friends and his school. “Now, the reopening of school from today has brought happiness among me,” he said.Government had closed all schools up to 8th standard from December 7 last year while the High and Higher Sec-ondary Schools were closed from 21st December 2015. Director Education, Dr Shah Faesal has said that the first week will be utilized in a different way. “Stress will

be laid on the establishment of Stu-dent-Teacher relationship,” he said.In the first week, counselling sessions for the students will be conducted. The students will be taken to meet the elders of their locality to gain experi-ence.Besides, the director said, the winter task will be revived.“We will talk to students how they spent winters. We will make 2016 a year full of Academic activities,” Dr Faesal has said..

SCHOOL CHALLE HUM

As the schools in Kashmir division reopen after more than 10 weeks of winter vaccations, RIZWAN DAR captures the enthusiasm among students of Nor th Kashmir

the varmul post march 4th

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