Kashmir Update

The Khwaja Naqshband Sahib shrine in the old city area is visited by thousands for annual congregational prayers called Khoja Digar. These prayers were to be held on Friday.

In video recorded interviews, the victims allege that the Indian army subjected them to immense physical pain and psychological pressure.
“What if they circulate the video and the video goes viral?” This fear often drives Abid Khan to suicidal thoughts, and for a month now, he has been resisting his family’s insistence on a comprehensive medical and psychiatric check-up.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on November 1 expressed concern for the people of Kashmir and said that the lockdown of the region cannot be supported for long. The German leader’s comments came hours after India and Germany agreed to work on bilateral and multilateral platforms to counter terrorism and extremism.

Several hundred people took to the streets of Kargil in the newly formed Union Territory of Ladakh to protest against the August 5 decision of the government of India to bifurcate the state of Jammu and Kashmir and read down Article 370.

The idiosyncratic trait of the Modi led BJP is to pat their own backs after making non-consultative, overnight,disastrous decisions and back it up with hyper-nationalist propaganda and then relentlessly tout their so called “valiant” verdicts as a grand service to the “nation”.

They neither represent the European Union nor the governments in their country. Credibility of Kashmir-bound MEPs is widely being questioned even in Europe

Chris Davies, member of the European parliament (MEP) from the UK, on Tuesday said that he had received an invitation to travel to Jammu and Kashmir but claimed that the offer was withdrawn after he insisted on moving in the Valley “unaccompanied by military, police or security forces”.

The Jammu and Kashmir administration – which is directly controlled by the Narendra Modi government in the Centre – has shut down seven government commissions, including those dealing with human rights, the right to information, the rights of the disabled, and allegations against public functionaries.

Amid the world’s focus on a Ukrainian quid pro quo, the Brexit endgame and the unconscionable treatment of the Kurds, a conflict grows beneath the radar with potential consequences that could dwarf these historic issues. Kashmir is seething.

There was an eerie silence on the drive toward the Shopian district in southern Kashmir, as stray dogs and cattle walked past on a recent overcast afternoon. But the silence was suddenly shattered as a convoy of heavily armed vehicles passed by shielding top officials of the paramilitary forces.