SOCIETY: MUTTON HUNGER

When the Wazwaan country is deprived of its staple food, it is a crisis for the government and the society that still is stalemate, reports Khalid Bashir Gura

REFUGEES: RELIVING RAKHINE?

As the situation in Myanmar goes from bad to worse, some of the Rohingya Muslim refugees are facing a new crisis in Jammu. It is being officially stated that the verification is in anticipation of their repatriation, reports Tahir Bhat

FAILING THE EDUCATION TEST

The successive lockdowns since the revocation of Article 370 on August 5, 2019, have battered Kashmir’s economy. Almost all sectors have been hit hard.

Politics: Jammu At Political Crossroads?

As the delimitation exercise looks set to enhance the number of seats in Jammu and Kashmir assembly for Jammu, bringing it at par with Kashmir, there is a renewed demand for the statehood for Jammu region among various native parties, even as the BJP continues to enjoy widespread support, reports Yawar Hussain

‘OUR MOTHER TONGUE IS FAR MORE THAN A MEANS OF COMMUNICATION'

A Malaysia based Kashmiri student, Asiya Hassan, who is busy building Kashmiri Dictionary on the web tells Khalid Bashir Gura

‘CONFLICT CAUSES TRAUMA (AND) IT DISTURBS THE STABILITY OF THE HUMAN MIND'

Dr Yasir Ahmad Rather, Consultant Psychiatrist and Associate Professor at the Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (IMHANS) GMC Srinagar, tell Khalid Bashir Gura about the costs of the drug abuse that Kashmir is paying.

RENEWED CEASEFIRE

Surprising the strategic affairs community with its quiet diplomacy, rival armies of India and Pakistan announced a fresh ceasefire. The development was welcomed by everybody from the border villages to the UN and the White House. The initiative will require frequent monitoring and quick follow-ups, reports Tasavur Mushtaq

LAGRIPORA

Suhail Ahanger, one of the two cops who were killed in a hit-and-run attack by militants in Baghat, was orphaned when he was seven months old. His father, Mushtaq, was gone missing during the early days of militancy in October 1990 much before Suhail was born.

EXCERPTS: TAXING PARADISE

Toronto Star rowing correspondent Gordon Sinclair entered Kashmir through LahoreJammu route in 1935 summer. While his narration indicates he mistook the boatmen as the sole Srinagar residents, his travelogue, however, offers interesting anecdotes about how getting into Kashmir was inhumanly different from living in Kashmir, even years after the 1931 uprising

DIPLOMACY: UNDERSTANDING CEASEFIRE

Not a single shot was fired anywhere on the LoC after the two armies implemented the ceasefire on February 26 night. The surprise development, however, is still in debate and the news-cycle because nobody knows why it happened and what it is leading to, a Kashmir Life monitoring desk report

BISCOE'S KASHMIR 1935

Missionary educationist, Cecil Earle Tyndale Biscoe (1863–1949) was a key player in pushing Kashmir to modern education and better understanding of the world around them. This first hand narrative by a Canadian writer, Gordon Sinclair, offers an idea of the situation in which the British padre fought ignorance, and backwardness by using his school as the main change-maker in a society devastated by deceit, dogmas and discrimination. Between the lines, it tells the story about who mattered in 1930s’ of Kashmir and why

LAL CHOWK

A day after the foreign envoys visit concluded, the Baghat attack triggered yet another debate – the abuse of Pheran, the Kashmir cloak that is part of the dress and a cultural symbol, by militants, As muscular voices about banning the garment were broadcast, there was an instant response – a few officers of the paramilitary forced some commuters to remove pherans.

GULMARG

Unlike previous years when the tourism industry in Kashmir suffered a severe dent, the tourist footfalls, mostly domestic came as a relief to the hospitality sector.

BATTING FOR KASHMIR

Moved by the cricketers not playing with Kashmir bats, a young professional quit his well-paid job to get made-in-Kashmir bats a reality in test cricket, reports Shakir Ashraf

A PERFECT PLOT

Khalid Bashir Gura reviews Mystery of the Urban Monks, the debut novel by bankerwriter from Jammu, Vikram Singh. Published by Story Mirror, the novel was widely appreciated for its storyline

A LADY KARVAAN

Mehru N Nisa meets the young female scribe who crowd sources book to establish libraries for the underprivileged

WHY #UNI4KASHMIR?

The rudimentary shifts dictated by the Fourth Industrial Revolution has posed newer challenges to societies across the globe. Dr Mehboob Makhdoomi, who was educated in the West and worked in the consultative educational sector, is planning a university with peoples’ cooperation to address Kashmir’s knowledge deficit. In this write-up, he explains the motives, intentions and rationale for the initiative

PLANT COLLECTORS IN KASHMIR

While studying Botany, students hardly spare a thought about the processes and the people who gave their lives to identify and name the plants that Kashmir grows. Exceptional botanist, Ralph R Stewart who push-biked into Kashmir more than a century earlier details the contributions that Western experts made to Kashmir taxonomy

ENVOYS IN SRINAGAR

The latest visit by 24 foreign diplomats to Kashmir and Jammu coincided with various other developments in the region, a Team KL report

GOVERNANCE

EASING INDUSTRIALIZATION

‘RETHINK POWER PROJECTS ON UNSTABLE SLOPES'

Dr Irfan Rashid, a Senior Assistant Professor at the University of Kashmir’s Department of Geoinformatics has the distinction of being the first INSA (Indian National Science Academy), Young Scientist Awardee in Earth and Planetary Sciences from Jammu and Kashmir. His research focuses on glacier-climate interactions, glacier-related hazards, alpine vegetation dynamics and lake and wetland ecosystems. In an interview with Umar Mukhtar, he talked about the issues of development, hydropower and climatic change

BITTER HARVEST

The political turmoil of the past eighteen months has hit Kashmir’s apple industry hard. The entry of the NAFED and the import of duty-free Iranian apples through the Afghanistan route is being seen as interventions that will upset the apple-cart further, reports Yawar Hussain

RUDDERLESS PAGD?

After securing a majority in around 13 of the 20 District Development Councils, the PAGD struggled to hold on to its lead and lost the councils to Apni Party and the BJP, reports Yawar Hussain

BEYOND ACADEMICS

How DPS Budgam Helped Students Remain Engaged During the Pandemic

AZAD RETIRES

At 71, Ghulam Nabi Azad completed his last term in the Rajya Sabha. His political career spanned over 41 years and saw many highs, lows and the controversies. While retiring as the leader of the opposition – at a time when Jammu and Kashmir will lack a face in the House, it triggered yet another controversy for him, reports Tasavur Mushtaq

18 MONTHS AFTER

On February 5, the sudden restoration of the high-speed mobile internet pleasantly surprised people. But nobody answers the question as to why it took 550 days, reports Saima Bhat

TOURISTS RETURN?

After 18 months of hiatus, the tourist footfalls have started surging in Kashmir. Insiders in the hospitality sector believe that if Gulmarg crowds are an indication, Kashmir may have a better tourist year, reports Khalid Bashir Gura

Warmth In Winter

As the temperature plummets across Kashmir, various individuals and social groups are helping the poor brave the bitter cold, reports Saima Bhat

‘POULTRY SAFE FOR CONSUMPTION'

While confirming the detection of bird flu in crows and migratory birds in some areas of Kashmir, Director Animal Husbandry Purnima Mittal in an exclusive interview tells Umar Mukhtar that the government has acted in time to prevent the spread of infection to commercial birds

JAMMED JANUARY

As mercury dropped to a record low consistently, Kashmir faced the harshest winter in thirty years. With cascading effect on every sphere of life, Saima Bhat chronicles the hardships faced right from lack of mobility to management of frozen pipes