As cops found their colleague accompanying the most wanted militant in a Jammu bound car intercepted on the highway, it was like a proverbial killing of two birds with one stone. The arrest of the DySP, shady for most of his career, however, shockedthe police that lost nearly 2000 members to counter-insurgency. Amid the din over who actually handled the officer, a fair investigation may help solve certain riddles for the sake of history, writes Masood Hussain

 With three former Chief Ministers’ still incarcerated, businessman politician Syed Altaf Bukhari regrouped a section of the political class to defreeze the politics in Kashmir’s winter chill. Saima Bhat met the new characters to explore the possibility of a new politics dawning upon Kashmir, that ceased to be special as well as a state

The situation that emerged on August 5 has started taking toll on the population’s mind-space. Sharing information reluctantly, psychiatrists believe the real load of the crisis will reach hospitals later in this year, reports Saima Bhat

A detailed breakdown of an eventful year that left its indelible mark on Jammu and Kashmir’s contemporary history and the costs it entailed

As protests, sloganeering, stone pelting surfaced on mainland India streets, Kashmir’s Standard Operations Procedure (SOP) was literally in vogue with arrests, firing, internet ban and snapping of cell phone services. Many think that as Kashmir story moved out of the Valley, it is Kashmir dominating the spaces, processes and the policies, reports Masood Hussain

With instability and turmoil frequenting Kashmir, more than 200 thousand students at the college and university level are facing crippling crisis as their degrees get delayed inordinately. The new norm of the Universities in Kashmir offering graduation in four years and managing masters in more than three years is deducting one to two years of precious economic life from Kashmir’s new generation in the most vibrant phase of their life, reports Aaqib Hyder

The internet ban has taken a huge toll on Kashmir media, impacting the quality of journalism and making many journalists redundant as they fail to send their contributions to their media organisations. Unlike the scribes operating from Srinagar, the blockade proved deadly to the district reporters. Umar Khurshid met a group of scribes down south who were forced by the situation to hunt for alternative livelihoods including physical labour

After almost three months of lockdown, the state of Jammu and Kashmir finally was re-organised into a federally-ruled Union Territory. To be ruled by a Lt Governor, the process of giving it a new structure has already begun. This reports details the historic transition

THE URDU UMPIRE More than 130 years of being the official language of Jammu and Kashmir, Urdu’s fate hangs in balance as the downgraded state inches towards becoming the Union Territory. In anticipation of UT’s new assembly deciding about the new official language, Masood Hussain details the fascinating story of Urdu’s emergence and importance in Kashmir

Unlike all other unrests that Kashmir witnessed since 1990, apple somehow escaped the crisis. In the wake of the abrogation of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status, the Rs 10,000 crore economy is caught in crossfire and is struggling to survive at crippling costs, especially after a series of killings in south Kashmir, reports Shams Irfan

With only BJP contesting the Block Development Council (BDC) polls, the politics of Jammu and Kashmir is frozen in time. Though the government indicated that the gradual release of political beings will undo the nine-week thaw, there has not been anything other than an over-hyped photo-shoot, reports Masood Hussain

As the Kashmir lockdown and communication blockade gets into third month, people expect the court interventions may actually offer some relief. In cases challenging the Kashmir reorganisation, however, the Supreme Court has posted the hearing for November 14. The judicial interventions have already triggered a quick follow-up in case of detention of minors since August 5, reports Tasavur Mushtaq

Coinciding with the 50 days of lockdown, the Kashmir story migrated to America along with the Prime Ministers’ of India and Pakistan. Though the ultimate objective was to deliver speeches to the United Nations General Assembly, the two nukeowning leaders actually remained busy in wooing the US President Donlad Trump, reports Masood Hussain on basis of the media coverage of the high profile visit of Narendra Modi and Imran Khan

Almost 42 days after he was restricted to his Gupkar home, the government finally arrested Dr Farooq Abdullah formally under Public Safety Act. The arrest of five-time Chief Minister and five-time MP is not an ordinary development in Kashmir history, Masood Hussain reports

With the rival armies engaged in an eyeball to eyeball confrontation on Kashmir borders, Indian and Pakistani diplomats are busy fighting the ‘war by other means’ between Geneva and New York

Overlooking the Dal Lake, a gothic monster has proven to be inauspicious for everyone — from its builders to those interested in it post-partition. After seven decades of abandonment by its owners, the Palace is now a special jail holding a single prisoner for over a month now, reports Masood Hussain

Authorities set up six special jails in anticipation of the August 5 decesion. One of them is the Centaur Lakeview Hotel on the Srinagar’s famous Boulevard where most of the political class is being held for more than three weeks now, reports Shams Irfan after spending many hours outside the jail interacting with the relatives of the special detainees

The lockdown, now into fourth week, offers no idea about when Kashmir will return to routine

In the 1996 Rajasthan bus-blast case, police booked, among others, four Kashmiris– arrested from Kathmandu and Gujarat. A trial was launched and the court vindicated the prosecution by convicting the accused. Truth prevailed 23 years later when the High Court found no shred of evidence in the prosecution’s story. Though the four men are back home, nobody is asking whether the police wanted to help real perpetrators by involving innocents or it was just a case of manufacturing scapegoats, reports Shefali Rafiq

After almost nine quite deaths in north Kashmir, there are scores literally fighting for life as they have spent millions in managing their Heroin-thirst. In the police run, Rehab at Baramulla, Shams Irfan listened to horror stories from some young boys desperate to come out of the opioid crisis that is spreading like an epidemic in north Kashmir

As the modern Kashmir alleviated its kitchen-status to imported ceramics, copper and glassware, hundreds of potters halted their wheels and jumped to other jobs for a better living with a claim to better status in the new social order. This has pushed the world’s oldest manufacturing activity to obvious oblivion. Now a young engineer is reviving the art with modern tools, better designs and is keen to help the professionals in managing competition, reports Saba Gul

In one of Kashmir’s impoverished belts, a central government scheme has revived the Umeed that if women, alongside men, will contribute by getting into an economic activity, the destinies can alter. Nearly 4000 women making marginal contributions to their self-help groups now own Rs 2 crore savings as banks opened a Rs 7 crore credit line that is working tension free, reports Shams Irfan

Almost every year, more than 30,000 Muslims go on Haj and Umrah pilgrimages from Jammu and Kashmir and spend more than Rs 750 crore. The sector that manages this sliver of pilgrim tourism has immense potential of growth if the policymakers intervene to take it to the next level, Masood Hussain reports

As police arrested (later released by the Court) a senior editor for being a proclaimed offender for 28 years in a case registered in 1990, his colleagues opened up with Masood Hussain to explain why that era was the most dangerous phase for Kashmir media as recording history was a fatal business

As more than 4500 officers moved for an overnight stay in Panchayats between the Sino-Indian border and the Line of Control to listen to the grievances and check the service delivery, Shams Irfan, who participated in a series of such meetings in north Kashmir, reports the hope that Back To Village generated

Come Ramzan, the Muslim month of fasting, mike-fitted vans and visibly destitute women swarm Srinagar markets and peripheral towns. Most of them turn out to be frauds who befool people.  Shams Irfan spent weeks chasing this tribe of professionals who have taken beggary to a new level in Kashmir

Powerful Modi government is reportedly toying with the idea of a fresh delimitation for Kashmir assembly by undoing a legislative freeze. While there is no official word, the debate is gradually strengthening the disempowering debate. But the evolution of the institution of assembly suggests the delimitation process is time-consuming and is unlikely to change Jammu and Kashmir’s political demographics, reports Masood Hussain

How a downtown boy reaches the hallowed United Nations is nothing less than fantasy and fiction, says Haseeb A Drabu

A few students were desperate to find an option for getting a few minors out of child labour. They chipped in with their pocket money. As the society saw the boys concerned and struggling to help the needy, they joined the effort and that is how FETO was set up, reports Saima Bhat on the charity’s silver jubilee

Issue 41 Vol 11; BUKHARI BEGINS? January 12-18, 2020

January 05-11, 2020

January 04, 2020

December 22-28, 2019

December 15-21, 2019

December 08-14, 2019

November 03-09, 2019

October 27 - November 02, 2019

October 20-26, 2019

October 13-19, 2019

October 06-12, 2019

September 29 - October 05, 2019

September 22-28, 2019

September 15-21, 2019

September 08-14, 2019

Kashmir Life was launched in 2009 as a weekly with an avowed objective to create a world class news product for Kashmir and about Kashmir. Given the changes in the news market in which the larger events becomes crunchy bites on TV or snippets to suit a reader-in-hurry, we practice an exhaustive, in-depth and narrative form of journalism on issues concerning various facets of life in Kashmir.

January 14-20, 2018; Game Changer; Budget Issue; Special Issue

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Kashmir Life - January 19-25, 2020; Issue 42 Vol 11; THE DOUBLE CROSS?;

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