Peace Watch » Archive
Abdul Majid Zargar has a viewpoint
The Supreme Court judgment in Pathribal fake encounter case constitutes a severe assault on the right to life of common people living in conflict areas like Kashmir. Following Chittisinghpora massacre of Sikhs in the year 2000, five innocent civilians were virtually dragged from their beds and killed in cold blood by personnel of 7 Rashtriya Rifles. The victims were labeled as LET mercenaries responsible behind the chittisinghpora incident. Even the then Union Home Minster, Lal Krishen Advani flew from New-Delhi to shower praises on the Army unit responsible for the Act. When the identity of five men became known as innocent civilians, protests intensified across Anantnag, forcing the government to order a judicial inquiry. On April 3, 2000, the protesters marched towards the Deputy Commissioner’s office. Nine of them were … Read entire article »
Filed under: Kashmir-Talk
Hurriyat Conference’s Battle Within
It was a storm in teacup. That is how I looked at the ripples caused within a faction of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHCM) by the statement of its former Chairman Abdul Gani Bhat. He had stated that the United Nations resolutions on Kashmir ‘were not practically applicable in the present time’. He also asked the multi-party forum to join hands with the National Conference and the PDP and drafting a common minimum program … Read entire article »
Filed under: Editor's Take
Untold Tales of Kashmir
It was time of change. As, I was leaving my mother’s lap, that warm hug, where evil could not harm me and learning to waddle with watangour- walker, toddling and stumbling at every step, lots of changes were taking place– changes that were bringing down the towers of Ilium, hubris and hegemony. It was a period of paradoxes and power. I do not know if these changes could be compared to the changes during the Victorian period for criss-crossing of ideologies, politics, duality and duplicity. It was a period of what social scientists would call as ‘paradigmatic change in the socio-economic structure.’ Panting for breaths the centuries old order and practices was dying – feudalism was dying, the brutal institution of moneylenders was gasping for breaths, and peasantry was discovering … Read entire article »
Filed under: Editor's Take
Kashmir Muslim Society New Challanges
I want to have a frank talk with ‘the pulpit’. My belief is that I will not be committing any blasphemy in stating my mind to the preachers and sermonizers in my part of the world. Like overwhelming majority, I am born, and brought up in a Muslim family and have not received any formal education in Deen. I have not been a student of any seminary or theological school. Conscious of my limitations and … Read entire article »
Filed under: Editor's Take, Featured
Abdul Majid Zargar Reviews- The Meadows, Kashmir 1995
There are now enough grounds to order reinvestigation of 1995 abduction & killing of six foreign tourists following startling revelations by a new book that they were killed by pro-government counter-insurgents fully aided & abetted by the security forces . The book – “The Meadow, Kashmir 1995 – Where the terror began, by Adrian Levy and Cathy Scott-Clark”, succinctly details the reasons & circumstances leading to the brutal killings of five out of six abducted innocent foreign tourists. The two British Authors, who specialize in investigative journalism and have worked for UK’s “The Sunday Times” and “The Guardian” for nearly 18 years and have been honored with ‘Foreign Correspondents of the Year’ award in 2004 and ‘British Journalists of the Year’ award in 2009, have made painstaking efforts in lifting … Read entire article »
Filed under: Featured
My Nostalgia Story of A Generation
I am a witness- witness to an era. So is the whole crop of my generation and the generation after. Born and brought up in a city, should I say of defiance or desolation; I have been the witness- in the words of a poet ‘ to the threshing of the grain’. Something eerie was there in the zephyr- yes the morning breeze that blew across our city; it sang different cradlesongs for us. Songs, which for over three centuries have mixed with chilly wintry winds and soothing summer breezes. That taught ‘us no love for the authority but for the defiant’ and abiding love for the ‘commoners’- the devout. I do not remember in my childhood having ever seen a minister walking through our streets or visiting our school- top … Read entire article »
Filed under: Editor's Take
Nostalgia
I am a witness- witness to an era. So is the whole crop of my generation and the generation after. Born and brought up in a city, should I say of defiance or desolation; I have been the witness- in the words of a poet ‘ to the threshing of the grain’. Something eerie was there in the zephyr- yes the morning breeze that blew across our city; it sang different cradlesongs for us. Songs, which for over three centuries have mixed with chilly wintry winds and soothing summer breezes. That taught ‘us no love for the authority but for the defiant’ and abiding love for the ‘commoners’- the devout. I do not remember in my childhood having ever seen a minister walking through our streets or visiting our school- top … Read entire article »
Filed under: Editor's Take