Author: Kashmir Newsline

Many believe Zawahiri has left behind a more robust and pervasive Al Qaeda that has its footprints in more countries than it ever had. by Shome Basu In 2003, just two years after the 9/11 when the World Trade Centre (WTC) was hit by hijacked airplanes by militants affiliated to Al-Qaida, US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was asked a question over a briefing at the Pentagon: Why couldn’t the US government locate the masterminds behind the dastardly act. It was about Osama bin-Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri. Rumsfeld was quick to retort: “It is hard to find a single…

It is dangling the carrot to China that it can continue doing business if it does not embarrass India on the battlefield. by Sanjay Kapoor On twitter, an active China watcher was quick to point out that while United States, Australia and Japan were critical in their joint statement against China’s aggressive intent to take over Taiwan, there was no India.  Where really is India? Many western commentators are wondering why is the government of Narendra Modi  is not critical of China’s attempt to browbeat Taiwan into submission over a controversial visit of US Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, to Taipei? The…

Kashmir is now nearing the eighth anniversary of the devastating floods of 2014, when hundreds of residential neighbourhoods, villages and the commercial nerve centers of the region were inundated like never before in recent memory. No matter how many anniversaries of this deluge go by, it still remains like a scar on our collective memory. The way the deluge unfolded and the scale of misery and devastation that it brought along was of a mammoth proportion. Every family was touched, every house impacted. With the kind of freak weather events happening in the region in recent years, it becomes all…

What is it about our culture today that makes us unable to admit that we are who we are? by Soni Razdan I read an article the other day about the new ‘urban poor’. These are young men and women who do not come from underprivileged backgrounds, but they make certain choices that ensure they suffer the disadvantages of a person of lesser means. For instance, they may come from a smaller city to a bigger one, have a decent job and are on the up. However, in trying to keep up a certain standard of living, and appear very…

Series of excerpts from Not Just Cricket by Pradeep Magazine. As we sat in the stands after the match had finished, we saw scores of people led by a local with an Indian flag in hand, dancing to the beat of a dholak. Even outside the ground, people kept walking up to us and greeting us with smiles. For those of us who were in Pakistan in 2004, the images of that nation are quite different from what we in the media portray today. 2006: A Country in Turmoil One and a half years later, I was back in Pakistan…

West Indies cricket has a rich legacy that needs to be restored. by Bilal Ahsan Dar In the finals of the 1983 World Cup, India were responsible for one of the biggest upsets in the ODI history when they bundled the mighty West Indies out for 140 after posting a below par 183 on the board. It stunned one and all around the cricket world, none more than Clive Lloyd and his men. Their Titanic had been rocked and there was no way they weren’t going to do something about it to set the record straight. The majestic Caribbeans had…

It’s a very good adaptation of Forrest Gump.  by Lalit Magazine   Laal Singh Chaddha has been in the news for more than two months now and, sadly, most of the time for wrong reasons. Social Media has been trending with #BoycottLaalSinghChaddha. Some self-declared critics already condemned it as a badly made movie – a cut and paste copy of Forrest Gump. So when I entered the cinema hall, the first thing I decided was to forget about Tom Hanks and Forrest Gump and to simply concentrate on the Hindi adaptation and to judge the movie on its own merits.…

There is a widespread anger among masses against the impunity that the divisive preachers enjoy. Kashmir Newsline Correspondent In the 1986 Bollywood blockbuster Karma, jailor Rana Vishva Pratap Singh (Dilip Kumar) gives Dr. Dang (Anupam Kher) a cracking slap who, in an absolute state of shock, blurts out: “Rana, is thappad ki goonj ki goonj tumhen sunai degi – this slap is going to resonate in your own life.” Over three and a half decades later, a similar slap is resonating across Kashmir via social media, having already triggered hot debates and questions regarding the obnoxious temperament and behavior of…

Streamlining treatment, traffic and tax is a prerequisite for transforming Kashmir as a society. Dr. Qazi Asraf To push-start a fruitful political process, the Jammu and Kashmir administration needs to implement the 3T strategy that will establish trust and rapport with masses and help create an atmosphere of discipline. A sense of it, to start with. What is the 3T strategy? It is simple and basic: managing treatment, traffic and tax. Transformation, not transference, should be the focus of the government. After all, what is the role of the government if not driving the transformation of society toward positivity and…