More heads usually means better decisions. When the Hurriyat leaders put theirs together after decades of separation, one thought this basic rule would apply. But as always the Hurriyat leaders proved themselves what they are: a massive disappointment. And these are no ordinary times we are talking about. At one end, the current times are […]
That a large number of Kashmiris are involved in spying for the state is a fact all too well known. It is probably ‘normal’ in a place like Kashmir where people see the state as an entity of occupation and the state is constantly looking for collaborators and informers to maintain its writ. The people […]
It was anybody’s guess what Mehbooba Mufti was up to for the past three months after her father’s demise. Initially she tried to position herself as a politician who is not power hungry. She kept on whipping her moral high horse to take her higher and higher so that people are deceived into perceiving her […]
I am a Kashmiri and have lived all the 25 years of my life in Kashmir. But I can barely manage beyond a few words in Kashmiri – my mother tongue. When I ask for direction on the street and am told to go daechunn, I am not sure whether that is left or right. […]
POINT Elders have utterly failed to transmit moral values to the younger generation. The pomp and show of the western civilisation has swayed our youth and elders are to blame for not educating them about its pitfalls. Youth seek instant gratification and pleasure. Elders don’t educate youth about things like patience. Our personal greed has […]
‘These curbs could now extend to the classrooms’ What happened on 9 February and onwards does not constitute a crime and in no way sedition. There have been some alleged slogans in bad taste but that should have been dealt with at the internal level. A university is a place where different ideas, opinions and […]
Muneer Baig The situation in Kashmir has forced many Kashmiris to leave their homeland in search of answers for their struggle as Kashmiris and as human beings aspiring for a better life. I left Kashmir and migrated to the United States in the early ‘90s. it was not easy, but there were not many options […]
Fatima Chand I accepted Islam two years ago, offered the very first salat of my life 24 months ago. It refreshed my soul, mind and heart. I felt like a new person. Things began to make sense. My life seemed to be on a very different track from those around me, in terms of spirituality […]
After Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s death, analysts believed his daughter would step into his place without any hassles. Many expected Mehbooba Mufti to re-brand the party and effect a change from her father’s surreptitious ways of conducting politics. But the way she has gone around things post-Mufti shows ambivalence and ambiguity are in the DNA of […]
Umar Qayoom, 17, was picked up by men in uniform from Soura and tortured in custody. He suffered internal injuries during torture and succumbed on 25 August 2010 at SKIMS. Umar was a taekwondo player and had won several medals in different competitions. Umar’s family has stored away all these medals in a cardboard box. […]