India Narrative

While the erstwhile State’s own Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) has completed investigation or filed charge sheets in a number of the matters lingering since long in the last three years, the Central investigation agencies have been remarkably proactive in Jammu and Kashmir after its reorganisation in August 2019. Unlike the Central agencies, most of the ACB’s cases pertain to the alleged corrupt practices of the junior public servants. Very few of the senior J&K Administrative Service (JKAS) and IAS or IPS officers have been proceeded against, primarily for the fact that they happen to be either batch mates or seniors of the top functionaries of the organisation. In recent times, this is believed to be the main reason for the transfer of some high profile investigations, under judicial or administrative orders, from the ACB to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The ACB’s investigations into the encroachments and illegal constructions in the area of PatniTop Development Author...

Dispelling the western media narrative, faithfully echoed by a section of the Indian national media that Kashmir as a deserted ghost territory after withdrawal of its semi-autonomous status in August 2019, as many as 15 million tourists and pilgrims visited Jammu and Kashmir, notwithstanding the coronavirus pandemic, in the last 15 months. According to the most authentic official statistics, a total of 1,51,66,887 tourists have visited Jammu and Kashmir in 15 months from 1 January 2021 to 31 March 2022, notwithstanding the Covid-19 pandemic. It breaks all the records of the corresponding period in the last about 10 years. “The pandemic and terrorism are a reality, now both diminishing, but parallel to it runs the inflow of over million tourists—at an average of 0ne million each month”, said a senior bureaucratic source. As usual, the Mata Vaishno Devi pilgrims account for more than 90 percent of the visitors who have visited the Union Territory during the last 15 months. Even if all th...

Kashmir’s top business leaders on Tuesday met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi ahead of his scheduled visit to Jammu and Kashmir on April 24. This is for the first time during the BJP’s second term that the valley-based business leaders have had an extensive interaction with the Prime Minister who is planning his first  visit to Jammu and Kashmir after withdrawal of the erstwhile State’s special status in August 2019. After August 2019, when J&K was reorganised into the Union Territory, PM Modi visited Jammu’s Rajouri district, only to celebrate Diwali with jawans and officers of the Indian Army on 27 October 2019 and 4 November 2021. Now on 24 April, he is scheduled to address public meetings, hold meetings with the Lieutenant Governor’s bureaucracy and administration, apart from Police and security forces. The Prime Minister’s visit is expected to give a boost to the UT’s Industrial Development Policy. According to highly placed bureaucratic sources, a number of foundation s...

Once again, unidentified terrorists, widely believed to be the separatist guerrillas, have greeted the onset of the holy month of Ramzan with bloodshed in the Kashmir valley. In the four separate terror strikes, one head constable of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) has been killed while one CRPF jawan, four non-local workers and a resident Kashmiri Pandit have been injured in the first two days of the holy month of fasting. According to authoritative sources, two suspected terrorists appeared at the pharmacy of one Bal Krishen aka Sonu at his residential village of Chotigam, near Harmain, in the South Kashmir district of Shopian at 7:30 pm on Monday. One of them, armed with a pistol, fired upon Sonu at point blank range. With three gunshot wounds on his body, he was quickly evacuated and rushed to District Hospital Shopian. On examination, doctors referred him to Army’s 92 Base Hospital in Srinagar. He was stable and responding to the treatment late on Monday night. Most of the...

  With the arrest of two youths in their mid-20s, the Police in Srinagar have cracked a grenade attack that had left two civilians dead and 36 others injured in the evening on Sunday, 6 March. Of the 38 injured, Mohammad Aslam Makhdoomi (70) and Rafiya Nazir (19) had later died at hospital. Sources associated with the investigation revealed to India Narrative that neither of the two detained youths had a history of involvement with any unlawful, subversive or terrorist activity. As such, they did not figure in the lists of the wanted militants or subversive elements in possession of the Police, security and intelligence agencies. Sources identified the duo as Mohammad Bariq and Fazil Nabi, both 24-25 years of age and both residents of Koolipora, Khanyar, in downtown Srinagar. According to these sources the detainees disclosed during their preliminary interrogation that they had remained in touch with Shahid Shafi Mir of Khanyar and Zahid Farooq Khan of Nowhatta, both before and aft...

  Nearly 34 years after the outbreak of terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir, the Government has decided to construct a high security prison for terrorists, secessionists and other anti-national elements in the Union Territory. The Administrative Council headed by Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha on Wednesday allotted land in Jammu’s Kathua district for the establishment of a special jail. It is for the first time that a special jail is being built in the terror-ravaged UT for convicts and under-trial detainees involved in terrorism, secessionism, sedition and other unlawful subversive activities. As of now, such convicts and under-trials are lodged either in the UT’s own prisons or some jails outside. A number of such detainees remain lodged in Delhi’s Tihar Jail where the JKLF co-founder Maqbool Bhat and a Jaish-e-Mohammad operative Afzal Guru were executed respectively in 1984 and 2013. Also read:  Two overground workers of terrorist group arrested in Baramulla Some of such detain...

  When results of the class 12th exam in Kashmir were declared by the Jammu and Kashmir State Board of School Education (BOSE) on Tuesday, February 8, there was unexpected jubilation, particularly among the female students and their families, across the valley. Most of the top merit positions had been grabbed by the girls. While the girls outclassed the boys in all streams of Science, Commerce and Arts, they grabbed the lion’s share of the first 20 positions as well as the overall distinction categories. Among the girls, 78 percent passed the exam—27,104/34,879. Among the boys, not more than 72 pc—26,971/37,301—qualified. Arusa Parvaiz Shah (17), the daughter of an ordinary shopkeeper and a student of Kashmir Harvard Naseembagh, secured the first position of merit among all streams. She obtained 499 out of 500 marks i.e. 98.8 pc. On Saturday, 12 February, Srinagar’s Deputy Commissioner Mohammad Aijaz Assad draped Arusa with the State honours. She revealed her ambition of taking adm...

  Over two years after its transformation from a State to a Union Territory (UT), Jammu and Kashmir is getting back a commission of the empowerment and protection of women. The UT administration on Tuesday approved the constitution of “Jammu and Kashmir Commission for Women” for which a chairperson and four members would be appointed shortly. According to the Government Order issued by Sheetal Nanda, Commissioner-Secretary Social Welfare, JKCW would have powers to investigate and examine all matters related to the safeguards provided for women under the Constitution and other laws. It would also review extant provisions of the Constitution and take suo motu cognizance of various issues related to women’s rights. The Commission would be headed by a female chairperson committed to the cause of fair sex. It would have five government nominee members, each having not less than 10 years of experience in the field of women welfare, administration, economic development, health, education ...

Jammu and Kashmir is the first among all States and Union Territories across the country to be integrated with the National Single Window Clearance System (NSWS). The country’s youngest but largest UT achieved this pioneering distinction when Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha launched the Jammu and Kashmir Single Window Clearance System through the cyber domain www.singlewindow.jk.gov.in at Raj Bhawan in Jammu on Monday. The NSWS is linked with India Industrial Land Bank (IILB) which hosts 45 industrial parks of Jammu and Kashmir. This will help investors to discover available land parcels in the UT. A 2020 budgetary announcement of the Government of India, NSWS is a digital platform that serves as a guide for investors to identify and to apply for approvals as per their business requirements. The platform was soft launched in September 2021 by the Union Minister for Commerce and Industry, Textiles and Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Piyush Goyal. This integration will el...