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Saturday, April 6, 2019

Rizwan Pandit of Awantipora

Days after a private school teacher died in custody, Umar Mukhtar met the family at Awantipora to understand the sequence of events that led to a sort of crisis, days ahead of Lok Sabha polls. There are two parallel investigations going on to probe the incident

Thousands of people participated in the funeral of Rizwan Pandit during the intervening night of 19 and 20 March. KL Image by Kamran Yousuf
It was around 11:30 pm during the intervening night of March 17 and 18, when Asadullah Pandit, a resident of Awantipora, was woken up by frantic knocks at their door. As he opened the door, it was a police contingent standing outside. They said nothing. Instead, they hurriedly made their way into the house and started asking about the family members present in the house. Some went upstairs and started searching the house. By then, all of the members had huddled at one place.
Mubashir Asad, his eldest son, was asked if militants were in their house. One by one, all the male members were asked questions which they found strange. Rizwan Asad, 29, his second son, was asked more questions. Soon, the cops went into his room and searched it for half an hour. Before leaving the place, they took six cell phones, a laptop, a pen drive, a torch, along with Rizwan.
“I thought since nocturnal searches are a routine, they would search our house too. But they snatched my son from me in front of my eyes. We all were locked up in a room and Rizwan was taken,” Pandit narrated to a room packed with mourners. “The police threatened to kill us all if we raise any hue and cry.”
Rizwan had been in the police custody earlier too. Last year, on August 16, Rizwan was summoned to Police station Awantipora. Without informing anyone in the family, he presented himself. He was instantly locked up. The same day, police called his brother Mubashir and told him about his detention. Then, Mubashir was a school teacher. He left the class midway and hurried to the police station. But neither he nor any other family member was allowed to meet Rizwan for three consecutive days. “Every morning, we used to go to the police station and return in the evening without meeting him. We were not told for what crime he was detained,” Mubashir said. The police station is just a walking distance from Pandits’ home.
Three days later, his family was allowed to meet him. “He had been subjected to physical and mental torture,” alleges Mubashir.
Rizwan was there for 10 consecutive days without any charges when on August 26, police in a statement said they have apprehended some ‘over ground workers’ from the IUST vicinity. An FIR was lodged with terror-related activities in the name of Rizwan which his family claims was ‘fabricated and false.’ Also, the two mobile phones that Rizwan was carrying were taken away and are still with them.
“How a person arrested 10 days ago can be framed in something that happened on August 26,” questions Mubashir. Finally, Rizwan was slapped with a PSA and shifted to Kot Balwal Jail, Jammu, on September 8. Even though the court had quashed his PSA and bailed him out, he was still kept in the custody. “Even after getting the bail, he was kept in illegal detention for 16 more days,” said Mubashir.
He remained behind the bars till January 06, 2019. Post-release, Rizwan continued his normal life and joined Sabir Abdullah Public School where he was principal.
His recent arrest was his second one. This time he proved unlucky. “The police party was headed by the DySp operations Awantipora. He was the one who warned us,” alleged Mubashir.
Earlier that day, Rizwan had gone for a feast to some friend’s place. Around 4 pm, he called his father, told him he would stay there for the night but Pandit refused permission. “I thought it is not safe to be out for the night,” said Pandit, not knowing the fate.
After he was arrested, the family did not sleep. Next morning, they went to the local police station. “He is not with us; it was the Cargo team who took Rizwan with them. We have nothing to do with it,” the family said they were told.
The news was shocking because Mubashir knew ‘what it means to be in the Cargo’. But cops dispelled their fears, saying Rizwan was taken for questioning and once they will be done, he will be set free.
With no option other than to wait and hope for the good, the family was awaiting his release. Only a day after Rizwan was picked (March 19), the Islamic University of Science and Technology Awantipora (IUST) was closed for no reasons. It set tongues wagging everywhere. As the news reached Pandits’, they rushed to the police station. “Rizwan was injured during interrogations and is now hospitalised,” they said they were told.
Still figuring how to respond to the situation, they saw photographs of Rizwan, dead, on the social media. Police had picked him for the “links with the militants”, which the family refuses. Rizwan was MSC chemistry from Dehradun and was also tutor at the Elite Group of Tutors, a coaching institute.
The Torture in Custody
Police finally asked the family to collect the body from PCR. They refused. “You have snatched him from us why will we get it from there. We will collect it from you,” Pandit told Awantipora police.
As his body reached home and was taken for the funeral bath, Rizwan’s body displayed extreme torture marks, the family said.
“The left eye had completely turned blue and blood was still oozing out of his nose. Cut marks on the head were visible. The tummy was swollen and turned blue signifying the damage to the vital organs,” his father said. “I have never witnessed such brutality in my life,” added Mubashir. “There were cut marks on his thighs as if cutters were used over his body. The hot iron had been pressed at seven different places on his body.” His father insisted: “What pierces my heart is not his death but the way he was killed.”

Rizwan Assad Pandit.
Part of the allegations was upheld by the autopsy report. “There was no blunt injury or damage to the internal organs,” Indian Express reported sources, privy to the post-mortem saying. “The blood loss in soft tissues due to multiple injuries was extensive internally, and this must have led to irreversible shock.” The source told the newspaper that Rizwan might have undergone “roller” treatment, adding: “He had cuts and injuries all over his body. He also had a haematoma (a solid swelling of clotted blood within the tissues) in his left arm and eye.”
While police announced an internal investigation, the government set up a magisterial enquiry. Police said they cannot talk as a magisterial enquiry, by a revenue officer in Pulwama, is in progress.
The pen drive and laptop that was taken by the police was not of Rizwan’s but the gadgets belong to a contractor cousin of theirs. He had some important documents ready in the pen drive. So he had to ask Mubashir for the Pen drive. “I saw DySP of the concerned police station with white headphones on, lifting it from Rizwan’s room,” said Mubashir to his cousin.
So they went to the police station to get the important data out of the pen drive. They contacted the DySP and told him about the data inside the pen drive. “He sent a cop and asked him to get the pen drive out of his pant pockets,” said Mubashir. Under a tight vigil, they were able to retrieve the data. (Kashmir Life)

Hinduism has become the most violent religion: Urmila Matondkar

Bollywood actor Urmila Matondkar, who is contesting the Lok Sabha polls on a Congress ticket from Mumbai North, has claimed that, under the leadership of Narendra Modi, Hinduism has become ‘the most violent’ religion.

“The religion which has been known for its tolerance has turned out to be the most violent of them all. This is the thing I hate the most about Narendra Modi government’s five years,” she said in an interview to a news channel.

She further said that there was a complete lack of freedom of expression in India and the country was moving towards a state of anarchy where people think violence was the only way to be. The 45-year-old star also accused the Modi government of perpetrating a climate of hatred and religious intolerance in the country.

Dr Karan Singh,(head of state) and Kashmir Issue

The special status to Jammu and Kashmir was given by the Government of India, it is not that the state had asked for it, the former Sadr-e-Riyasat (head of state), Dr Karan Singh, has said, while dismissing the notion that J&K got special powers to guarantee the Muslim majority character of the state.

Wednesday, April 3, 2019

Highway closure: Policies imported from Israel will turn Kashmir into Palestine, says Shah Feasal

Jammu and Kashmir Peoples’ Movement (JKPMP) chairman Dr Shah Faesal on Wednesday said that the decision to close the highway to civilian traffic on every Wednesday and Sunday is extremely shocking.
Taking to social networking site Twitter Shah wrote: “Policies imported from Israel will turn Kashmir into Palestine.”
“The decision to close national highway to civilian traffic on every Wednesday and Sunday is extremely shocking,” wrote Faesal on Twitter.
Grow Kiwi fruit plants
Kiwi plants
“@RajnathSingh_in how will the employees attend office? How will patients travel? School children?,” he said.
The former IAS topper was reacting to a government order banning the movement of civilian vehicles on the highway on Sundays and Wednesdays between 4 am and 5 pm to ensure the safe passage of forces’ vehicles.
“To mitigate the inconvenience to the civilians by this move, the government has notified 2 dedicated days in a week i.e, (Sunday & Wednesday) exclusively for movement of forces Convoys and there would be a complete ban on civilian traffic on the highway during these two days from 4 AM to 5 PM. This prohibition would be from Baramulla through Srinagar, Qazigund, Jawahar-Tunnel, Banihal and Ramban till Udhampur,” reads the government order. The restrictions will remain in force till May 31.

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How Article 35A hurt the people of Jammu and Kashmir?

by Arun Jaitely
The seven-decade history of the State of Jammu & Kashmir confronts changing India with several questions.  Was the Nehruvian course, which the State had embarked, a historical blunder or was it the correct course to follow?  Most Indians today believe that it is the former.  Does our policy today have to be guided by that erroneous vision or an out of box thinking which is in consonance with ground reality?
The Article 35A misadventure
Article 35A was surreptitiously included by a Presidential Notification in the Constitution in 1954.  It was neither a part of the original Constitution framed by the Constituent Assembly nor did it come as a Constitutional Amendment under Article 368 of the Constitution which requires approval by two-thirds majority of both Houses of Parliament.  It came as a Presidential Notification and is a surreptitious executive insertion in the Constitution.

Tuesday, April 2, 2019

Growing ginkgo Trees for Profit

The Jammu and Kashmir Medicinal Plants Introduction Centrewas established under the  Fruit & Medicinal plants Development Project during the year 2020-2011.  The infrastructure, existing as on date, was created over a period of 5-10 years.  The Ginkgo plantation was started during the year 2001-2004.  The main thrust of the programme was to develop Ginkgo plantation of  improved cultivars. 

Cultivars/Varieties
'Autumn Gold' (perhaps Autumn Gold™) - This male (non-fruiting) selection is common in the trade and notable for its symmetrical crown that is broad and rounded. The mature size is 50' tall with a 30' spread and fall color is an excellent deep yellow.
'Jade Butterfly' - An unusual dwarf, slow-growing form, this plant has bright green leaves and a mature height that is less than half that of standard forms. It's an introduction out of New Zealand that is gaining popularity.
'Magyar' - An introduction that is gaining momentum in the trade, this plant is a non-fruiting male with upright, ascending branching to 60' tall and half as wide. It is well-suited to urban planting as a street tree.
'Pendula' (also listed as f. pendula) - Plants listed under this name are quite variable, with few expressing a strong weeping habit. Most bear branches that are horizontal or droop slightly
'PNI 2720' (Princeton Sentry®) - A very popular non-fruiting male form, this form assumes an upright habit that tapers to the point. It reaches 60' tall, but only 25' wide.
'Saratoga' - Commonly offered, this plant has a strong central leader and an upright, narrow habit (40' tall and 30' tall).
'Variegata' - Many different clones are offered under this name, but most feature leaves that are irregularly streaked with yellow.

Contact:-
Jammu and Kashmir Medicinal Plants Introduction Centre
POB 667 GPO Srinagar SGR J&K 190001
Mob: 09858986794/09419966983
Ph: 01933-223705
e-mail: jkmpic@gmail.com
More detailshttps://ginkgoseeds.blogspot.com/

Sunday, March 31, 2019

The Jammu and Kashmir Bank, Nambalbal Pampore

Address: Address: Shaheed-e-Azemat Road, Nambalbal, Pampore 192121
State: JAMMU & KASHMIR
District: PULWAMA 
Branch: NAMBAL BAL PAMPORE, PULWAMA
Contact: 951933223931
IFSC Code: JAKA0ENAMBL (used for RTGSIMPS and NEFT transactions)
Branch Code: Last six characters of IFSC Code represent Branch code.
MICR Code: 190051048

Monday, March 4, 2019

Thursday, February 28, 2019

How do you feel that now Indian Air Force has destroyed 3 terrorist camps in Pakistan occupied Kashmir?



Signboard of the Madrasa Taleem al-Quran, run by Maulana Masood Azhar. Credit: Twitter

Nirmalya Kajuri (নির্মাল্য কাজুরী), Following and studying Kashmir conflict for 10+ years

Edit: I have found some new information which suggests my original conclusion may not be correct.
Original answer below, new information in the end.
Original answer:
I don’t believe IAF destroyed any terrorist camps.
I would be very happy if I am wrong about this and the mission has been a success. But the evidence I have seen so far says otherwise.
When it comes to India-Pakistan news, my experience is that you can’t blindly believe either side without independent confirmation. When it comes to a national level conflict, both Indian and Pakistani media just parrot whatever the government tells them.
But by now we have had three independent reports from reputed international media sources - a New York Times Report, a Reuters report and this report in BBC Hindi. Both the Reuters and BBc report are based on interviews with villagers who live near the strike zone. The reports agree with each other but disagree with the official versions of India and Pakistan.


The Saint called  Prof.Dr Sheikh Jalal
Let me summarize the main takeaways from the reports (but do read them):
1.     Villagers confirmed that Jaish-e-Mohammad had been operating in the Balakot area for a long time. Jaish used to have a training camp which they later turned into a Madrasa.

2.    This Jaish-run Madrasa stood on a hilltop and villagers said that they were not allowed close to it. According to the BBC report Jaish no longer ran training camps in that area.
3.    The IAF mission was clearly to bomb this Jaish-run Madrasa.

4.    Villagers heard four loud bangs in succession at around 3 AM. This confirms that four bombs had been dropped.

5.    But none of the bombs hit the Madrasa. Villagers claimed that they exploded about a kilometer away from the Madrasa. They saw four craters where the bombs had hit.
6.    Villagers did not find any dead or injured people around. The only casualty was a man sleeping in his house where sharpnel broke the windows.

7.     New York Times reports:
The view that little had been damaged was supported by military analysts and two Western security officials, who said that any militant training areas at the site, in the Pakistani province of Khyber-Pakhtunkwha, had long since packed up or dispersed.

To summarize, India targeted a Jaish-run Madrasa and dropped four bombs, but missed by a small margin. Given the information I have received so far, I believe this is what happened.
Why do I believe this is the true version of events?
Firstly, these are from reputed and independent sources. Moreover these independent sources agree with each other. If India can produce some evidence of the strike or some other independent organization evidence to the contrary, I will change my mind.
So far, all I am seeing from the India side are statements and self-congratulation (and fake videos on Whatsapp).
As an aside let me note that even if it were a successful mission, tactically it would be much wiser to keep quiet about it. The fanfare is for political gains, not tactical ones.
Secondly, the Reuters report in particular is unlikely to be a fake news planted by Pakistan, because it clearly shows that Jaish-e-Mohammad was running a training camp in their soil. They would not plant a story which admits this.
Thirdly, a missed airstrike is the most plausible scenario. It is extremely unlikely that an air strike would not be anticipated by Pakistan. The terrorists have been moved to a location which would be close enough to Pakistani airbase so that Indian jets would not be able to get to them in time. If IAF bombs really missed them by a mere kilometer, it shows that the IAF had come within mere seconds of hitting the target.
That’s really impressive given that Pakistan was obviously prepared for this and as Waqas Maqsood pointed out in the comments, IAF fighters would be under orders not to engage PAF jets as that would be an act of war. Indeed, the whole incursion lasted only three minutes. It seems to me that the IAF knew it was up against near-impossible odds, took a chance and almost pulled it off. That is very impressive. I wish they had managed to blow up some terrorist camps but I don’t think they did.
The key point is evidence. I need to see some evidence before I believe either side. Till then I will believe the only evidence that has come from neutral sources and is also entirely consistent with facts and logic.
I would love to be proved wrong. I would love to know that India has made a strong response and showed that we won’t take this anymore.
But if the government is feeding us false information and misleading us about this for political gains, then that is very sad.
New info:
This tweet from a Pakistani student in UK. He is saying his friend told him that the madrasa was hit but not many died.
https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1079996013136527360/q3RNMgNp_normal.jpg

Indian Air Force,Pakistan Air Force,Pulwama Attack,Surgical Strike,Adil Ahmad Dar,

Jaish-e-Mohammed , Fake News,Indian Media Channels,Balakot Attack,Imran Khan


So a friend from the area has confirmed that madressa Taleem-ul-Quran (it’s board says run by Hazrat Maulana Masood Azhar) at Mansehra (Balakot) was hit, & there are ~10 ambulances around. But the area is now sealed. 


Monday, February 25, 2019

Supreme Court to hear challenge to Article 35A from Feb 26-27

Article 370 ?
Article 370 cannot be practically revoked. Jammu and Kashmir’s treaty of accession is linked to that, and legally, revoking 370 means revoking that treaty and making Jammu and Kashmir an independent nation.

In October 2015, the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir has ruled that the Article 370 cannot be "abrogated, repealed or even amended." ... On 3 April 2018, the Supreme Court of India gave a similar opinion declaring that the Article 370 has acquired a permanent status.

Friday, February 22, 2019

Pulwama attack-2019

73 Years Later, the "A-Bomb" Ginkgo Trees Still Grow in Hiroshima

73 Years Later, the "A-Bomb" Ginkgo Trees Still Grow in Hiroshima
"There’s a huge paradox at the heart of this
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Ginkgo trees

On August 6, 1945, an Allied plane dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, creating a fireball 1,200 feet in diameter. Disaster rained down upon the city, killing an estimated 150,000 people and leveling both the biological and man-made landscape. Little was left standing, but somehow the ginkgo trees were able to weather one of the most destructive moments in human history.

Those trees, now dubbed “A-bombed trees,” or hibakujumoku, are still in Hiroshima today, monuments to both humanity’s capacity for destruction and nature’s ability to withstand us at our worst. But while these roughly 170 ginkgo trees are now famous for surviving the Hiroshima blast, ginkgos as a species have persisted through a 200-million-year history of close calls that laid the foundation for its ability to withstand the A-bomb attack, explains Sir Peter Crane, Ph.D., director of Yale’s School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.
“A lot of trees are resilient, but ginkgo seems particularly so,” Crane tells Inverse. “But the thing you have to remember is that there’s a huge paradox at the heart of this ginkgo story, and that is it very nearly went extinct.”

Plants with seeds can be broken down into two categories: angiosperms, also known as flowering plants, and gymnosperms, or “naked seed plants.” Ginkgo trees fall loosely in the category of gymnosperms but make up a subclass called Ginkgoidae. The ginkgos we know today are the only remaining member of that subclass.

In the Jurassic period, Crane explains, ginkgos had diversified and flourished across Laurasia, the precursor to the continent of Asia. But the fossil record shows the ginkgos’ golden days weren’t destined to last. Over the course of several million years, ginkgos begin to slowly disappear from the fossil record. By the Pleistocene, which began roughly 2.5 million years ago, glaciation had killed off nearly all the different ginkgo lineages, leaving only a handful behind in the forests of central China.

“At the end of the last ice age, it was down to a few restricted populations in China, from which all the living ginkgos that we see today are descended, whether they’re in Manhattan or Tokyo or San Francisco or Seoul,” says Crane.

Having survived the mass extinction, this tiny enclave of tough Chinese ginkgos was quiet for a few million years. But eventually, they began to spread once again with a little help from humans. Crane estimates that between 1300 and 1400, the trees made their way to Japan. Once they got there, the evolutionary toughness of these “living fossils” was tested a second time by destructive forces that strangely set the stage for their eventual survival at Hiroshima.

The Great Kanto Earthquake
In 1923, a catastrophic earthquake struck just south of Tokyo with a magnitude of 7.9, setting the city ablaze. Only about 10,000 of the ginkgos that had made their way to Japan 500 years earlier were left standing in the city. But within months, people started to notice something odd. While all the other trees died, the ginkgos had slowly begun to grow again. The bark and outer rings of the trees were scorched, but the living cells within had clung to life.

“The Japanese noted that the ginkgos survived disproportionately from other trees,” Crane says. “The living tissues of the trees were not completely damaged by the fire; the same way they weren’t damaged by the Hiroshima bomb. After the great Kanto fire when they started to replant, they focused on the gingko because they knew it was particularly resistant to fire.”

A replanting effort began, wholly focused on the strange persistence of the ginkgo. Roughly 16,000 new gingko trees were planted across the country by the Japanese government, and a handful of them made their way to Hiroshima, where their will to live was tested once again just over 20 years later.
A “Cylinder of Living Cells”

In August 1945, Hiroshima’s ginkgo trees were in full leaf. When the bomb hit, the heat immediately burned those leaves into nonexistence. The branches were instantaneously stripped away, leaving the outer bark completely scorched.

But, as Crane explains, the tree was still alive on the inside. Somewhere underneath all of the destruction, a tiny cylinder of “living cells” had to have survived. Fortunately for the ginkgo tree, the extreme organization of its cell tissues created a compartment that was immune to destruction. On its very outside is the bark, a shell of hard, dead cells. Inside is the softer phloem, which carries sugars that feed the other cells. Then comes the xylem, a wood-producing layer of the tree. Closest to the core is the cambium, which Crane calls a “cylinder of living cells.”

The A-bomb almost certainly destroyed the dead outer layers, but Crane hypothesizes that the ginkgo bark was just strong enough to protect the life within.

“So now you’ve got a bare tree with no leaves, but come spring, there’s still enough energy there where buds can be developed and new leaves can start to form,” he says.

“It’s those living tissues that would supply the nutrients coming out from the roots that would differentiate into leaves the next season.”

The Process of Rebirth
In the autumn of 1945, the trees would still have been recovering from the enormous shock of the A-bomb. But by then the roots of the ginkgo, deep in the earth, were steadily collecting essential nutrients despite the lasting radiation from the bomb. This durability is another part of the ginkgo’s survival toolkit says Deanna Curtis, curator of Woody Plants and landscape manager at the New York Botanical Garden.

“I would think that the location of the tree and exactly where the tree’s roots were going would have to have played a role in this tree’s survival,” Curtis tells Inverse. “Ginkgo are considered tolerant of a variety of stressful soil conditions, which lead to their use as a common street tree.”

The ginkgo trees that are currently marked at Hiroshima all stand within 2,200 meters of the center of the blast. They would have been exposed to massive amounts of radiation — even strange black rain, dark with ash and other particulates that fell in the days following the explosion. But even after being exposed to what were perhaps the most stressful soil conditions in the history of the planet, the trees survived.

In the spring, the ginkgos bloomed again and continued to do so every spring after that. Today, each tree has a name and is marked by a plaque. They’re now natural memorials, reminders that evolution has equipped life to survive even the greatest catastrophes wrought by humans.


“That’s what caught people’s imaginations,” Crane concludes. “You have this incredible scene of devastation, and it would take months for people to come to grips with it. Just as they had gone through the winter, out pop these new leaves from trees that everyone thought were dead. That’s the power of the ginkgo story.”