Author: Kashmir Newsline

Ignorance about the risks in digital transactions is playing a major role in the surge in digital frauds. by Sajjad Bazaz The Covid-19 pandemic has transformed the way people now take care of their health. Today we observe a dramatic change in their behavior to thwart another onslaught of the virus. To put it simply, people are observing healthcare precautions such as use of face masks, social distancing and frequent hand-washing to neutralize the impact of the virus. However, there is another viral danger which has already enveloped the people at large scale and they need to combat it too. Despite…

In the deftly woven imagery, the author paints with potent words the horrifying atrocity that unleashed in the Jallianwalla Bagh more than a hundred years ago. by Lily Swarn On April 13, 1919, around twenty five thousand unarmed Indians had gathered in Jallianwalla Bagh, Amritsar. There were several children amidst the crowd listening to speakers denounce the inequities of the Rowlatt Act, which had been imposed on the country by the British. Many of them were relaxing and catching up with friends. Brigadier General R.E.H. Dyer entered the Bagh with a detachment of soldiers a bit after 5 in the…

The inside story of how a scam involving political leaders and government officials was packaged as ‘land jihad’. by Staff Reporter On April 5, 2022, a posse of some influential businessmen from Srinagar visited New Delhi as the emissaries of ‘Naya Kashmir’. With the Lieutenant Governor’s office, Raj Bhavan, inviting capitalists from Dubai to invest in Kashmir, this select group of natives – apparently unnerved by the tightening noose – had mellowed down their terms and conditions. After all, they had started sensing they were living in BJP’s ‘Naya Kashmir’ that came into being on august 5, 2019 after the abrogation…

It’s a rich blend of religion, culture, rituals and cups of noon chai. Saqib Mugloo For 82-year-old Ghulam Hussain, the month of Muharram means relief and days of free therapy. Hussain, a resident of Srinagar’s Lal Bazar neighbourhood, is among the 10 percent population of Kashmir and over 400 million global Shia population who commemorate the days of first month of Islamic calendar grieving and spending time in the remembrance of Prophet Mohammad’s grandson, Hussain Ibn Ali. Ghulam Hussain has witnessed the changing patterns of Muharram processions and also the introduction of new rituals. He was six years old when…

The government as well as the companies need to plug the loopholes so that there is no scope for unscrupulous elements to commit frauds. by Sajjad Bazaz Philanthropy was not deliberated and documented till 2014. It got a new facelift when the Companies Act 2013 brought the idea of corporate social responsibility (CSR) to the forefront through its disclosure-or-explain mandate with community at the centre point of all activities. This way, India became the first country to bring CSR activities under the legal framework and made it mandatory for the companies to spend a portion of their profits for the benefit of…

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…