The Indian Army on Sunday rejected Jammu and Kashmir People’s Movement leader Shehla Rashid’s allegations regarding situation in Jammu and Kashmir and termed them “baseless”.

“Allegations levelled by Shehla Rashid are baseless and rejected. Such unverified and fake news are spread by inimical elements and organisations to incite unsuspecting population,” the Army stated.

In a series of tweets, Rashid had on Sunday said, “People are saying that Jammu and Kashmir Police has no authority on law and order situation. They have been rendered powerless. Everything is in the hands of paramilitary forces. One SHOwas transferred on complaint of a CRPF man. SHOs carrying batons. Servicerevolvers can’t be seen on them.”

In another post, she wrote, “Armed forces are enteringhouses at night, picking up boys, ransacking houses, deliberately spillingrations on the floor, mixing oil with rice, etc.”

Agencies

The Jammu & Kashmir Cricket Association (jkca) will not be sending a team to participate in the Vizzy Trophy in Visakhapatnam as they have not received any response from governor Satya Pal Malik on the security arrangements for the team to travel. The association is also struggling to get in touch with its own players, including captain Parvez Rasool.

JKCA CEO SAH Bukhari confirmed this development but added that he was unaware of any letter being sent by JKCA administrator CK Prasad to the governer.

“It’s unlikely we will be going to play Vizzy Trophy. The situation is improving, but the biggest obstacle has been communication with our players. We have cellphone numbers of all our players in our association office, but they have not given any landline numbers. In today’s time, people don’t use landline and rely on cellphone. We have managed to speak to a few players but couldn’t speak to those who are in the Valley as their mobile phones aren’t working. Also, we don’t know where Parvez Rasool is,” Bukhari told The Indian Express.

Rasool not reachable

Asked whether the association tried to find the whereabouts of its players or send someone to check, Bukhari said: “No, we didn’t because if we sent our car to search for our players, we don’t know what is happening in their villages. We don’t want to take that risk. As this is just a local tournament and not a BCCI tournament, we thought it’s better not play this season.”

The Jammu & Kashmir Cricket Association (jkca) will not be sending a team to participate in the Vizzy Trophy in Visakhapatnam as they have not received any response from governor Satya Pal Malik on the security arrangements for the team to travel. The association is also struggling to get in touch with its own players, including captain Parvez Rasool.

Indian Express

To Indians celebrating the change in Jammu and Kashmir’s status, I suggest that they reflect on the word “consent”. All healthy human involvements seem to require the other person’s consent.

While recently researching South Indian history from the 17th century to our times, I was struck by a comment of the French priest Abbe Dubois (1765-1848), who lived in Kannada, Malayalam and Tamil regions from 1792 to 1823. Dubois conceded that the people “cherish” and “respect” the administrative machinery the British had built after defeating Tipu in 1799. But, said Dubois, they “hate and despise their [new] rulers from the bottom of their hearts”.

It was not for their skin colour that India’s British rulers were hated. They were despised because they took the land by force, without consent.

Let us for a moment take leave of all our senses and imagine that the removal of Article 370 turns out to be a wondrous remedy, and that in five years it does for J&K what the finest efforts of governments thus far, whether PM Narendra Modi’s or of previous PMs, had not achieved.
Let us assume that by 2024 the Valley becomes a model of harmony, prosperity and gender equality. In ease-of-doing-business, ease-of-residence, ease-of-movie-making and even, say, in employment opportunities, Kashmir is now better than Bengaluru, Pune or Jaipur! Even if all this happens, a people whose consent was never taken will “hate and despise their rulers from the bottom of their hearts”. For a hundred years, and longer.

Decades ago, after Nehru and his successors were unable to fulfil a pledge to obtain the Kashmiri people’s consent to be part of India, a sense of betrayal entered the Valley’s psyche. Now, a second betrayal stings that psyche. The BJP may have promised removal of Article 370 in successive manifestos to the Indian people, but it did say to Mufti Mohammad Sayeed in 2015 that it “would not touch Article 370”.

Betrayals may be inevitable in our fallen world. Taking people for granted, however, and doing with them whatever we want without their consent, is going too far.

Given the chance to separate, Quebec in Canada and Scotland in the UK chose, in free voting, not to do so. Rightly or wrongly, New Delhi does not seem willing to offer such a chance to the Kashmir Valley.
But can you imagine the UK’s English, Welsh and Irish telling their northern neighbours, without a previous word with any of them, that henceforth they — the Scots — have the privilege to belong to a “union territory”, that Scotland’s special status and political institutions stand abolished?

Can you imagine all of Canada, from Vancouver to Toronto and the Atlantic islands, cheering a declaration, made without previous conversation with any Quebecois, that Quebec is now a “union territory”?

Some in China might indeed rejoice if, without discussion with Tibetans, the Tibet Autonomous Region is renamed the Proud Chinese Territory of Tibet. Would Tibetans celebrate?

We are told that many in Jammu and Ladakh are now celebrating, though statehood would have been preferred to a UT status. In our Northeast, however, where every region is jealous of its distinct culture, and where some states have their own versions of Article 370, people are now more anxious, suddenly, about their future.
Any message about Kashmir that India wishes to send to China or Pakistan would be stronger if Kashmiris endorse it. Conversely, images of an Indian government that acts without consent can only create nervousness or alienation in countries like Bangladesh and Nepal.

Dissenters should not expect Modi and Amit Shah to go back on their proclamation, but we can say this to them: “Ruling without consent is bad enough. Will you however make sure that the representatives, civilian and military, who govern in your name, truly serve the people of J, K & L? Kashmiris will never give up their resentment of who governs them. Still, remembering how numerous Indians responded to British administration, will you strive to make the people of Kashmir ‘cherish’ and ‘respect’ how you govern?”

Even if attempted, this won’t be easy. Kashmir’s long insurgency has made service in the Valley an unwelcome proposition. That insurgency has also made Kashmiris unpopular across India. Modi may claim that removing Article 370 will help the Kashmiri people. But much of the cheering for the removal comes from a feeling that the time has come to hurt the Kashmiris.

The rest of the cheering comes from an impression that Indians can now go to the Valley with a new equation in which humbler and quieter locals will more readily acknowledge the visitors’ dominance.

If there is any road towards better relations between Kashmiris and India — or “the rest of India” as some would prefer to say — that road must contain a few Indians, official and private, who nurse a desire to win Kashmiri minds.

Then there are the peaks, waters and trees of Kashmir, whose consent no one thinks of seeking. If Chinese enthusiasm has dealt devastation to Tibet’s ecosystem, the Vale of Kashmir and the peaks surrounding it will not be made purer by ease of access. To safeguard Kashmir’s environment, a barrier much stronger than Article 370 was needed.

Note : This article is a copyright of Indian Express

Srinagar, Aug 18 (PTI) From dawn to dusk, and sometimes from dusk to dawn as well, the hours pass by in wakeful alertness for paramilitary troopers tasked with ensuring law and order in a land that is many hundred miles from home.

In the long hours of the night, as others try to get some sleep, Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) jawans can be heard stomping through the silent streets, armed with lathis and alert to any signs of trouble that might break out in Kashmir’s main city.

The days go in maintaining law and order and manning checkpoints set up in Srinagar and across Kashmir Valley, where restrictions were eased this weekend after August 5 when the Centre revoked Jammu and Kashmir’s special status under Article 370 and announced its bifurcation into Union territories.

The night brings with it more challenges for some jawans whose workday doesn’t end, but continues in ever watchfulness till the early hours of the morning, officials said.

CRPF Assistant Commandants Sanjeev Yadav from Uttar Pradesh and Bhanushekhar from Bihar are among those frequently patrolling through the city at night.

“Precaution is better than cure,” Yadav said while marching with his team in the interior areas around Dal Lake.

A breeze with the hint of autumn cools the air as the jawans take to the streets after a day of hectic law and order duties.

It’s not just about patrolling. The day for a paramilitary jawan begins early because morning deployment has to be completed before sunrise, said Yadav.

Special care has to be taken to ensure that terrorists have not planted IEDs (improvised explosive devices).

After August 5, barricades came up across the city, particularly in the sensitive downtown area where protesters often pelt stones at security forces.

The important strategy of round-the-clock deployment of paramilitary troops has yielded dividends with stone pelting incidents localised at the ‘mohalla’ level, officials said.

Thousands of CRPF personnel and other forces have been deployed in Srinagar and other parts of the Valley since August 5.

Purushottam Kumar, an assistant sub-inspector of the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), a force placed at the disposal of the CRPF, is posted near downtown Srinagar’s Sekidafar area.

The makeshift checkpoint he is manning came up on the intervening night of August 4 and 5, said Kumar.

“Small group of youths emerge from lanes and bylanes and disappear after hurling stones at us,” Kumar, who hails from Himachal Pradesh, said.

His senior, Khobram Drai from Arunachal Pradesh, said the challenges are many.

Guarding the area leading to SMHS hospital near Sekidafar, Drai said his team has to make sure the road is clear, day and night.

“People come for treatment here and we do not wish to delay their entry into the hospital. Some rowdy elements do not understand this. We have been meeting elders of the nearby locality but not much has changed,” he said.

Across the city, alert jawans can be seen moving around through the day.

A checkpoint set up near Ail Masjid, the second oldest mosque after historic Jama Masjid, is buzzing with activity. It is the main entry point into Srinagar from Ganderbal in central Kashmir and CRPF Assistant Commandant Bhanushekhar carefully checks all vehicles with a torch.

A pitched battle is just over and Bhanushekhar said he has to be extra cautious so that no terrorist or any arms and ammunition slip into the city.

“You see, this road connects to interiors of downtown and, as the saying goes, ‘savdhani hati, durghatna ghati’ (If you stop being careful, there will be accidents),” he said.

Banushekhar said jawans get tired after long hours of duty and it is important to keep the morale high. “One has to keep them motivated and I often give them lectures,” he said.

Part of his motivational lecture is telling his teammates that they are part of history and are playing an important role in the making of a new Kashmir.

“We have to keep a watch even at the skies during night. No one knows when a grenade or a petrol bomb is thrown. There are some notorious elements keen on instigating CRPF personnel but we are a disciplined force.

“Antisocial or antinational elements generally take cover behind old people and children and hurl stones at us… We will never lathi-charge or take action when the old and children are at the front,” he said.

Communication with families is an important part of his job.

“Every company commander has been given a phone and the jawans are allowed to speak to their families for sometime after performing their duties,” said Yadav.

The jawans are authorised to share the number with their families so that they can be contacted in case of emergencies.

“I do receive calls from the families of jawans in the night and while hearing them talk, I find myself part of their family,” Bhanushekhar said.

SRINAGAR, AUGUST 18: The Jammu & Kashmir Government today said that over 190 primary schools will re-open tomorrow in Srinagar, besides restoring full functionality of Government offices across Kashmir valley.

Addressing an evening presser here, Principal Secretary, Planning & Development, Rohit Kansal said that the process of easing of Prohibitory Orders and providing relaxations continued on Sunday as well.

He said the relaxations were provided in 50 police stations today as against 35 police stations yesterday (Saturday) and the duration in the relaxation was increased from six hours to eight hours.

Hoping to continue the relaxation in coming days, Mr Kansal said that no untoward incident was reported from the areas where relaxation was provided; adding traffic including public transport plied and shopkeepers opened their businesses.

He said that it was the endeavour of the Government to restore all the landlines to their full functionality as soon as possible and the BSNL officers and technicians are working continuously to restore working of exchanges across Kashmir valley.

He added that the government would attempt to restore infrastructural and developmental works as the overall situation further improves.

Deputy Commissioner Srinagar, Dr Shahid Iqbal Choudhary was also present on the occasion.