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Tuesday, September 4, 2018

tanacetum vulgare,tansy plant

Tansy is a perennial, herbaceous flowering plant of the aster family, native to temperate Europe and Asia. It has been introduced to other parts of the world, including North America, and in some areas has become invasive.
Tansy flower plant

Tansy seeds : 250 seeds (US$ 150), 500 seeds (US$ 250)
More details: jkmpic@gmail.com
Write us at: Jamu and Kashmir medicinal Plants Introduction Centre
POB: 667 GPO Srinagar SGR J&K 190001
web: http://jkmpic.blogspot.com/2018/08/tanacetum-tanacetum-vulgare-plant.html
Ph: +91-9858986794,+91-1933-223-705

Chestnut trees kashmir

Availability of planting material : Apple tree, Apricort tree ,Goji berry tree, Ginkgo biloba
Chestnut trees
 tree , Almond tree, Peach tree, Pear tree, Amlok tree, Howthorne tree ,Hazel tree, Pican,Chestnut,Hazelnut, Zaitoon tree , Walnut seed and medicinal and herbal plants.

More details: Jammu and Kashmir Medicinal Plants Introduction Centre
POB 667 GPO Srinagar SGR J&K 190001
Ph: 09858986794/9419966983

Wednesday, August 29, 2018

Database of Medicinal Plants in India

Tansy flower
Database on Medicinal Plants “Comprehensive Database on Some Important Medicinal Plants havingCentral Council for research in Ayurvedic Sciences successesfully and the data have been displayed in the form of an e-portal entitled “Database on MedicinalPlants” . Afore mentioned e-portal is uploaded on webpage http//:www.nmpb-mpdb.nic.in with the consultation of National Informatics Centre (NIC). Keeping in the mind for all type of searcher, the information in prepared e-portal regarding authors, title of the article, book / journal name, publisher, volume, page no., year etc. for all collected references is fed with user-friendly search option with necessary hyperlinks to guide further. Nearly 33,700 references are collected pertaining to the 16 selected medicinal plants. Out of these, approximately 22,000 reprints / abstracts could so far have been collected. Collected data includes the classical literature from Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy system of medicine as well as modern literature from various books and journals covering basic and applied science like Botany, Chemistry, Pharmacology, Pharmacy, etc. and medicine. The e-portal “Database on Medicinal Plants” will act as a common platform at which maximum possible published information on a particular medicinal plant can be accessed.
High Trade Value” a project sponsored by National Medicinal Plants Board, Department of AYUSH has been executed by

Monday, August 27, 2018

Exotic products such as Kiwi, hazelnuts, asparagus make their way into India plates

NEW DELHI: When Gurgaon resident Avanti Agarwal (name changed) got married this year, dishes made of white asparagus that she had arranged to be served turned out to be a huge hit.

Kiwi is mostly grown in the mid hills of Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, J & K, Sikkim, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh,Karnataka,Uttarakhand  and Kerala.  Having been very newly introduced in the country estimates of area and production have not yet become available. 

Availability of Kiwi fruit planting material athttp://jkmpic.blogspot.com/2016/12/kiwi-fruit-cultivation-in-india.html

"We had a separate stall serving white asparagus because it is healthier and more nutritious than the green one. Everyone loved the salads and soups made from it," said Avanti who is a vice president with a multinational bank and a health freak. She is also a regular at gourmet stores in the National Capital. Avanti is not an exception and this is not something that's reserved for special occasions. The grocery lists of many households these days have exotic products such as hazelnuts, asparagus, basil and kiwi fruit— products that were barely visible in the country a few years ago and now increasingly appealing to the Indian palette.

Consider this: India imported $270,000 worth of shelled hazelnuts in the first four months of this financial year compared with $150,000 in the whole of 2014-15. Similarly, asparagus imports have already crossed $160,000 compared with $400,000 last year. Imports of herbs such as rosemary and basil, the foreign cousin of the desi tulsi plant, have more than doubled to $3.5 million in this period from the whole of 2014-15.

Purchases of exotic fruit, vegetables, oils and other ingredients are increasing, thanks to higher incomes, the opening up of gourmet food stores and the rising number of Indians travelling abroad and bringing new tastes back home. Add to this, cookery shows -- both Indian and foreign – that have exposed the upper middle-class to a range of ingredients and dishes so much that the level of experimentation has gone up dramatically.

Read more at:
//economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/49330788.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

Sunday, August 19, 2018

Flood Helpline No's of Kerala

Kerala floods: Helpline numbers, emergency contact details, and how you can help with donations,
Flood Helpline
supplies, medicines

Kerala has been ravaged by unprecedented floods following torrential rains that also triggered landslides, claiming 97 lives since 8 August besides disrupting air, rail and road traffic in several places. Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh had on 12 August undertook an aerial survey of the floot-hit regions and announced an immediate central assistance of Rs 100 crore to the state for relief works.

The Kerala government has put out appeals for financial donations and essential items for thousands of displaced people, living in relief camps around the state.

Here's how you can help those affected by the Kerala floods:

Contribute through the Chief Minister's Distress Relief Fund (CMDRF)

The chief minister's office released a letter appealing for help to rebuild the lives of people affected by the floods in Kerala. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said, "We have an important task before us, the task of bringing life back to normalcy."
Direct link: https: donation.cmdrf.kerala.gov.in

Donations can be made through cheques or demand drafts (DD), or internet banking. Address for cheques: The Principal Secretary (Finance) Treasurer, Chief Minister’s Distress Relief Fund, Secretariat, Thiruvananthapuram – 1;

To contribute online -

Account number: 67319948232
Bank: State Bank of India
Branch: City branch, Thiruvananthapuram
IFS Code: SBIN0070028
PAN: AAAGD0584M
Name of Donee: CMDRF
The chief minister's office has also released helpline numbers.

Kasargod: 9446601700
Kannur: 91-944-668-2300
Kozhikode: 91-944-653-8900
Wayanad: 91-807-840-9770
Malappuram: 91-938-346-3212
Malappuram: 91-938-346-4212
Thrissur: 91-944-707-4424
Thrissur: 91-487-236-3424
Palakkad: 91-830-180-3282
Ernakulam: 91-790-220-0400
Ernakulam: 91-790-220-0300
Alappuzha: 91-477-223-8630
Alappuzha: 91-949-500-3630
Alappuzha: 91-949-500-3640
Idukki: 91-906-156-6111
Idukki: 91-938-346-3036
Kottayam: 91-944-656-2236
Kottayam: 91-944-656-2236
Pathanamthitta: 91-807-880-8915
Kollam: 91-944-767-7800
Thiruvananthapuram: 91-949-771-1281

Thursday, August 16, 2018

Organic farming Kashmir/India

JK Medicinal Plants Introduction centre
The Jammu and Kashmir Medicinal Plants Introduction Centre's  Herb Garden playscentral role in the education of our students. Botanical medicine students study and cultivate a variety of medicinal plants throughout their life cycle. Many of these plants are harvested at their seasonal peak for creating medicinal tinctures and salves. Nutrition classes use the cultivated culinary herbs and organic vegetables in the instition's whole-food kitchen lab. The garden is designed, cultivated and managed by students and volunteers under the guidance of the garden manager and assistant garden manager with a combined total over 21 years of experience.
Availability: Herbs, Crude Drugs, Herbal Seeds, Herbal Roots,Forest Tree seeds, Temperate fruit plants,Medicinal herbs,Flower seeds and much more.....
If you don't found you variety/sort/quantity, which you are looking for, please send us a mail to :  jkmpic@gmail.com

Ph: 09419966983,09858986794/01933-223705

CSIR - Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine

Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine (IIIM) is a National Institute of the Council of Scientific &
Herbal plant
Industrial Research (CSIR) of India, with primary focus of research on drug discovery from natural products (medicinal plants and microbial species).



waving tricolour at Lal chowk

Epilobium parviflorum, commonly known as the hoary  willowherb or smallflower hairy willowherb, is a  herbaceous perennial plant belonging to the Onagraceae family.


Police said that two people who are non-state residents made an abortive bid to raise tricolour but were whisked away.
More : https://www.greaterkashmir.com/news/kashmir/2-men-beaten-up-for-waving-tricolour-at-lal-chowk/293530.html

Sunday, August 12, 2018

What happened in kashmir in 2008

Separatist leaders have paid  rich tributes to slain Hurriyat leader , farmer supreme commander Sheikh Abdul Aziz on his 10th death anniversary.  
shaheed-e-Azeemat Sheikh  Aziz 
Aljehad & Chairman of People's Leauge ,
Hurriyat Conference (G) chairman Syed Ali Geelani described him as a visionary leader. “shaheed-e-Azeemat" usually used to remain silent in the company of his fellow leaders, yet his body language would speak louder than his words. He always remained ready to sacrifice even his life for the sacred cause. This he proved on 11th of August 2008 by facing the bullets while leading a march towards Muzzarafabad. The best way to pay tributes to him and others is to remain steadfast on our resolve and take the ongoing movement to its logical end,” a spokesman of the conglomerate quoted Geelani as having said while telephonically addressing a conference organised by Hurriyat at its head office here.
Geelani urged all the units of Hurriyat Conference to kick start a door to door election boycott campaign, the spokesman said, adding that the conference was presided over by the Hurriyat general secretary, Ghulam Nabi Sumji
In a statement, Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chairman Muhammad Yasin Malik while paying rich tributes to the late leader said, 
Jinab Sheikh Sahib was a humble soul, a dedicated fighter who remained in the front row of the movement and sacrificed his life for the Kashmir cause.” 

What happened in Kashmir in 2008
Come to Pampore-Pampore Chalo 2008 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-7CNa9vJHc

what happened in kashmir in 2008
stone pelting in kashmir 2008

Stone pelting in Kashmir - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_pelting_in_Kashmir


Muzaffarabad chalo - Tribune India

https://www.tribuneindia.com/2008/20080812/main5.htm

Tuesday, August 12, 2008, Chandigarh, India ... SrinagarAugust 11. At least four persons, ... while all educational institutions would be closed till August 14.

Wednesday, August 8, 2018

salvia officinalis sage seeds

Salvia officinalis is a perennial, evergreen subshrub, with woody stems, grayish leaves, and blue to purplish flowers.

Availability: Seed/plant/leaves/tea
Write us at : jkmpic@gmail.com
Ph: 09858986794/01933-223705
That means hops contain phytoestrogens—the plant version of estrogen. More specifically, the
Hops tea
phytoestrogen contained in hops is known as 8-prenylnaringenin. ... Hops have been used to assist women for many years, and will aid in your breast growth journey.
hops breast size
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hops for breast growth


Heroin worth Rs. 250 crore seized in J&K

In a major success against drug trafficking and possible narco-terrorism, the police on Monday seized 51 kilograms of high-grade Afghan-origin heroin worth over Rs. 250 crore from a Punjab-bound truck here.PTI

'Biggest ever haul of heroin worth over Rs 250 crore seized in Jammu, two held'

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has found that at least five Indian companies engaged in cross-LoC India-Pakistan trade have links to the Hizbul Mujahideen, as per a report in Times of India.
As part of its probe into the alleged transfer of funds from across the border, used to fuel terror networks, the NIA had been investigating close to 300 companies that were engaged in cross-border trade since 2008. The agency found five companies with dubious transaction records, leading it to further probe them.
The report quoted sources that revealed that 'these companies were engaged in barter trade with Pakistan-based individuals/companies, that were under-invoicing the import of California almonds at trade facilitation centres (TFCs) located at Salamabad and Chakkan-da-Bagh in Jammu and Kashmir. The money acquired by under-invoicing the import, NIA believes, could have been used to fund "terror operations."
Representational image. Getty
Representational image. Getty
Earlier this month, Some arms and ammunition were recovered from a truck engaged in cross-LoC trade in Uri sector of north Kashmir's Baramulla district. The weapons were hidden in a camouflaged cavity of the truck designed particularly for illegal smuggling.
After clothes, California almonds have emerged as the new product in cross-LoC trade in Jammu and Kashmir that are being used as a mode of terror funding.
The NIA has registered a case in this connection and had carried out searches on traders at trade facilitation centres at Salamabad in Kashmir region's North Kashmir's Baramulla district and Chakan-da-bagh in Poonch district of Jammu region.
According to the cross-LoC trade agreement between India and Pakistan, products grown in both sides of Jammu and Kashmir will be exchanged under the barter system. The products included the California almonds, that is grown in parts of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. During the searches, documents related to exchange of California almonds were seized and are being scrutinised, the NIA said.
The traders from PoK were sending and receiving California almonds and it is alleged that the money was used for funding of terror groups in the state.
"This is in gross violation of the State policy of prohibition on trade in 'third-party origin goods' through this mechanism and information indicated that these funds are being used for fomenting terrorism and separatism in the state of Jammu and Kashmir," the NIA had said.
With inputs from PTI

Thursday, August 2, 2018

Salvia officinalis plant

Salvia officinalis is a perennial, evergreen subshrub, with woody stems, grayish leaves, and blue to purplish flowers.

Availability: Seed/plant/leaves/tea
Write us at : jkmpic@gmail.com
Ph: 09858986794/01933-223705

OM Prakash Vidyarthi -Forest food of J&K

Shri OM Prakash Vidyarthi Commissioner Forest Ecology , Environment and Climate
Change applauds Herbal display and cuisine development while inaugurating exhibition of herbal ,medicinal products and interaction with herbal innovators in the Institute of Hotel Management Raj Bagh Srinagar ,more than 200 officers ,scholars,scientists,media persons ,advocates ,herbal growers ,women invitees and members of civil society participated in the first ever forest cuisine development session.

Tuesday, July 10, 2018

blackberry plant seeds

Blackberry bushes provide large delicious blackberries with pain free picking. Easily grow tons of berries with this low maintenance bush!

Black berries




Availability of plant/seeds
US$ 150 (50 seeds) pkt
US$ 300 (250 Seeds) pkt

More details: jkmpic@gmail.com
Mob: +91-9858986794
......... +91-9419966983
Ph: +91-1933-223705

Herbal plant extracts in India

1. Acai berry extracts 4:1 , 5 % Vit C
2. Apricot Extracts
3. Artichoke Extracts 2.5 % Cynarin
4. Aspargus racemosus Extracts 20 %
5. Astragalus Extracts 10:1
6. Avena sativa Extracts 10:1
7. Burdock Root Extracts
8. Chamomile Extracts
9. Cranberry Extracts 25 % PAC
10. Damiana leaf Extracts 10:1
11. Dandelion Extracts 10:1
12. Dong quaniAngelica sinensis Extracts 10;1
13. Elder berry Extracts 10:1
14. Ganoderma Extracts 20 % Polysacchride
15. Ginseng Extracts 20 % Ginsenoside
16. Gojiberry Extracts 20 % Polysacchride
17. Hawthorn berry Extracts 10;1
18. Horney goat Weed Extracts 5 % Icarin
19. Horse chest nut Extracts
20. Horsetail Extracts
21. Kiwi seed Extracts 4:1
22. Maca Root Extracts 15 % Sterol
23. Mucuna puranis Extracts 20 % L Dopa
24. Mulberry leaf Extracts 1 % DNJ
25. Nettle root extracts 10:1
26. Nigella sativa Extracts
27. Olive leaf Extracts 20 % Oleuperon
28. Queracetin Powder 95 %
29. Pygeum bark Extracts 10:1
30. Rhodiola rosea Extracts 3 %
31. Red Rasberry Extracts 10 % Rasberry Kitone
32. Rose hip Extracts 20 %
33. Rosmerry Extracts 20 %
34. Saw palmetto Extracts 25 % Fatty Acid
35. Seabuckthorn Powder SD
36. Siberian Ginseng Extracts 0.8 % Eleutheroside
37. St. Johns Wart Extracts 0.5 % Hypericine
38. Tongkat Ali Extracts 100:1
39. Vitex agnus Extracts
40. Valerian officinalis
41. Wild yam Extracts
42. White willow bark Extracts 10 %
43. Yohambe 10 % Yohambin HCl
44. Anacyclus pyrethrum Pyrethrins 0.5%
45. Juglans regia extract
46. Junipher dried extract
47. Hemidesmus indicus Saponin 7%
48. Aconitum heterophyllum Tannin 5%
49. Achillea Millefolium
50. Swertia chirata
51. Smilax china
52. Cedrus deodara
53. Glycyrrhiza glabra
54. Gmelina arborea Alkaloid 0.3%
55. Panax Ginseng Ginsengosides 20%
56. Sphaeranthus indicus Alkaloids 0.3%
57. Tinospora cordifolia Bitters 2.5%
58. Viola odorata Mucilage 20%
59. Ferula asafoetida Vol Oil 1%
60. Peganum harmala Mucilage 10%
61. Nardostachys jatamansi Jatamansic acid 2%
62. Nigella sativa Saponin 10%
63. Cichorium intybus
64. Picrorrhiza kurroa 65. Celastrus paniculatus dried extract
66. Urtica dioca Saponin 10%
67. Abelmoschus moschatus Resin 3%
68. Vitex negundo Tannin 5%
69. Pinus Pinaster OPC 95%
70. Inula racemosa Bitter 3%
71. Rheum emodi Antraquines 3%
72. Vinca rosea Alkaloids 1-2.5%
73. Dactylorhiza hatagirea Glucosids 5%
74. Tephrosia pupurea Rutin 4%
75. Asparagus racemosus Saponin 30%
76. Serenoa Repens Fatty Acids 45%
77. Valeriana Wallichii Velerenic Acid 0.8%
79. Colchhicum Luteum Baker Alkaloids 0.4%
80. Taxus baccata Vol Oil 10%
81. Ruta graveolens Rutin 5%
82. Prunella vulgaris Vol Oil 2%
83. Viburnum thapus Tannin 7%

More details:
The Jammu and Kashmir Medicinal Plants Introduction Centre
POB: 667 GPO Srinagar SGR J&K 190001
Mob: 09858986794,9419966983
Ph: 01933-223705
e-mail: jkmpic@gmail.com

Sunday, July 1, 2018

Doctor on duty declares son brought dead

"He wrapped the body in white cloth and broke down’
When Faizan Ahmed Poswal, 15, sustained bullet injuries in a gunfight between militants and government forces at Thumna village of Pulwama on Friday, he was rushed to District Hospital Pulwama but was declared brought dead by none other than the father Dr Abdul Gani Poswal, a medical officer at the hospital.

Dr Poswal was on duty when he received the body.
The emotions ran high in the hospital when Dr Poswal saw the body of the son but could not save him. He tried hard but it was all over leaving him no option but to declare him dead. He wrapped the body in white cloth and broke down. The doctors, nurses, medical officers all were crying." Funeral prayers were held inside hospital premises which were attended by entire hospital staff and local residents. Dr Poswal lived with his family at residential quarters in the town.

Friday, June 29, 2018

Saturday, June 16, 2018

shujaat bukhari rising kashmir

Murder of Shujaat Bukhari of Rising Kashmir, has shocked everyone. He is not the first journalist
Sheikh Ghulam Rasool Azad
who has been killed by unidentified assassins in Kashmir. But, so far, none of them have been caught

The murder in broad daylight of senior journalist Shujaat Bukhari, editor-in-chief of the English daily Rising Kashmir, has shocked the entire media fraternity in the Valley—and has them wondering whether the killers will ever be brought to justice.Bukhari is not the first journalist who has fallen to the bullets of unidentified assassins in Kashmir. So far, none of the killers has been cuaght and punished.The first media person to be killed in Kashmir was Lassa Koul, director of the local Doordarshan Kendra. Koul was kidnapped and subsequently killed in early 1990.

The Special Operation Group of JK Police claimed to have eliminated the " acting chief" of the pro-Pakistan 'AL-Fatha Force' identified as Mushtaq Ahmad Lone @General Mossa' in an counter with the SOG. Even as none of the militant organisation said anything about the man or the incident, some of the some of the journalists here claimed that Mr. Lone was not a militant but "printer, publisher and editor of vernacular weekly " Wehdat-e-Milli". JK Police have recovered  from his person an identity card which described the deceased as "printer, publisher & amp; editor " of the Urdu weekly.

More details at: http://writerasia.blogspot.com/2011/08/mushtaq-ahmad-lone-editor-wehdat-e.html
Mushtaq Ahamd Lone

In April 1991, Muhammad Shaban Vakil, editor of the vernacular daily Al-Safa, was killed in his office in Srinagar city.

In September 1995, Mushtaq Ali, a photojournalist with the AFP wire service, was killed in a parcel bomb explosion in the office of Yusuf Jameel, the then BBC correspondent in Kashmir. A burqa-clad woman had delivered the parcel bomb at Jameel's office in Srinagar's Press Enclave.

On January 1, 1997, Altaf Ahmad Faktoo, an anchor of the local Doordarshan Kendra was killed.On March 16, 1997, freelance journalist, Saidan Shafi was killed in Srinagar.

In February 2003, Parvaz Muhammad Sultan, who ran a  news agency, was killed in his office, again in Srinagar's Press Enclave.

In March 1996, Sheikh Ghulam rasool Azad, editor of the Urdu-language daily Rehnuma-e-Kashmir and the English-language weekly Saffron Times, was found dead on April 10 floating in Kashmir's Jhelum River. He had written about an increase in killings and arson incidents his hometown, Pampore. Family members say a militia group backed by Indian state security forces had kidnapped him in March.

In 29  August 1994, Ghulam Muhammad Lone and his 4 year old son reportedly killed by ARMED FORCES, in Kangan, Jammu and Kashmir.

In 29 April,2004, Asiya Jeelani, a freelance journalist, was killed in a mine explosion in India-controlled Kashmir, while working with the Coalition of Civil society to prepare a report on its election monitoring activities.

In February 2003, Parvaz Muhammad Sultan, who ran a local news agency, was killed in his office, again in Srinagar's Press Enclave.

Thursday, May 31, 2018

Justice For Asifa

THEY DIDN’T LET US BURY OUR DEAD DAUGHTER.”
The attempts to intimidate and drive out a nomadic community from their village has exposed the horrors faced by Muslims in India, where supporters of Hindu groups continue to be emboldened by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. Moazum Mohammad reports from the Pir Panchal mountains in the Indian-administered Kashmir.

s the sun emerged from a thick cloud over the lush green peaks in Pir Panchal on a recent morning, Naseema removed the blue tarpaulin sheet from the tent they’d been sleeping in. The mountains have been home to her and Mohammad Yusuf Pujawala, her husband, for the last few weeks. The couple, along with dozens of other families from the Bakarwal community, takes a grueling two-day trek to come to these mountains every year from Kathua, a village on the banks of the Khad, about 55 miles from the state’s winter capital of Jammu. This year, they were forced to arrive here earlier.
“This time we came early because of threats from Hindus in our village,” says Pujawala. Nearly 87 percent of Kathua’s population is Hindu, who dominate the businesses and own almost all of the land in the district. Bakarwals, the Muslim nomads who for centuries have traveled with their livestock between the mountain pastures in the summer and lowland grazing grounds in the winter, are the third largest ethnic tribe in the region—about 60,724 people, according to 2011 survey by the Indian government.
On January 10, Naseema and Pujawala’s eight-year-old daughter went missing from a neighboring village. Seven days later, authorities found her body in Rasana, a village in Kathua—she had been raped and murdered. Since then, eight men, including the custodian of a local Hindu temple, have been arrested in the case. (Indian law prohibits identifying a rape victim by name even after they have died.)
The incident has sparked outrage in the region and across the country, especially following protests in support of the detained men, led by outfits like the Hindu Ekta Manch, whose members have ties to both the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as well as the Indian National Congress.


The Bakarwal family’s daughter. Illustration by Diasy Dee.
Police in the state of Jammu & Kashmir said the motivation behind the gruesome rape and murder was to terrorize and dislodge the Bakarwals from Kathua, and the man at the center of the conspiracy was Sanji Ram, the custodian of the local temple. Police officials have also said that Ram had been discouraging Hindus in Kathua from providing land to the Bakarwals for grazing their cattle.
“We didn’t know he was living next to us,” Naseema says about the Hindu priest. “If I knew, I wouldn’t have allowed my daughter to go to Rasana.”
Jammu & Kashmir police say the girl had walked to the nearby village that day to inquire about her horses. According to the charge sheet filed by authorities, that’s when the priest’s nephew signaled her to the forests, claiming he had seen her horses. Local investigators said she was then kidnapped, drugged, and held inside the Devisthan temple, where the men took turns and raped her.
“My daughter loved horses, and she would play with them,” Naseema says, pointing to a big stone a few yards away which she said her daughter used to jump on the horseback.
In a 15-page document, investigators describe in sordid detail what happened to the girl in January. The eight-year-old was held without food, given sedatives, and subsequently raped. Minutes before she was murdered, one of the accused men told the priest’s teenage nephew—he is a minor and is being tried under a separate law for minors—to wait so that he could rape her one last time. Then, according to police, the two of them raped the little girl again before strangling her with her scarf and hitting on her head with a stone.
“I can’t believe how brutal they were,” Naseema says. “Hindus would harass and abuse us when our herd would graze on their farmlands, but we never expected they would drug our daughter and rape her.”
When the parents went out looking for the girl on January 10, Naseema said they ran into Ram, the priest, who told them to go back home.“Your daughter is having roti somewhere, and you will find her,” Naseema says he told them that evening.


Mother of the rape victim migrated to the Pir Panchal mountains few weeks ago.

Life has always been filled with hardships for Kashmir’s Bakarwals, but Naseema said this year has been “the toughest and the saddest” because of the tragedy that befell them. “There is no end to the loss,” she says. Three of their children and Pujawala’s mother were killed in a road accident in the mountains eight years ago. After the accident, the family adopted the girl from Pujawala’s sister when she was only two months old.
Pujawala said they had plans to admit their daughter to school this year and were looking forward to seeing her in a uniform. Her family and relatives in the Bakarwal community remember her as talkative—“chirpy like a bird”—and a clever girl who was always happy whenever she went go to the meadows with the animals.
“She loved trekking along these mountains,” Naseema says. “She would sit on a horse and keep watch on the herd.”
The family was supposed to attend the court hearings on their daughter’s rape case in the following days, but Naseema didn’t know if they could make it.
“How can we attend the hearings?” Naseema shouts. “Who is going to look after the herd?”
For generations, Bakarwals have trekked hundreds of miles every year herding and grazing their goats, sheep, cows, and horses. Many of them say their lives would cease to exist without the animals because they are the only source of their livelihood. “For us, these goats and sheep are as dear as our children,” says Pujawala.” “I climb mountains so that our herd doesn’t die from hunger. We may not eat, but will do everything we can to protect them.”

1. Nomad families of the Bakarwal community cross a snow-fed stream in Kashmir. 2. A nomad sits outside his mud house in outskirts of Srinagar.

Pujawala says his community had been tolerating the harassment and intimidation from Hindu villagers in Kathua for years. But in the aftermath of their daughter’s rape, members of the Hindu Ekta Manch have turned hostile towards Muslim families in the village. “We are four to five nomadic families in the village,” Pujawala says, “but the Hindus accused us of occupying their lands and conspired to throw us out.” Pujawala says Hindus in the village also regularly accuse them of “smuggling” cattle—illegally transporting cows for slaughter.
Last year in April, a Bakarwal family that was traveling with their cows was attacked by a mob of Hindu men in Jammu. About 150 men beat the Bakarwals with iron rods and sticks and burned down the local police post. When the police arrested 11 Hindu men involved in the attack, local groups called for a strike to force their release.
The attack was one of the many taking place across the country, as hardline Hindus formed vigilantism groups calling themselves Gau Rakshak—“Cow Protector”—and targeted Muslims and Dalits for possessing beef or transporting cattle for slaughter from one state to another. Reports of attacks on Muslims by cow vigilantism groups have grown since the election of BJP leader Narendra Modi—97 percent of the cow-related attacks from 2010 to 2017 took place after Modi’s election in 2014, according to a content analysis of the English media in India by Indiaspend.
“When Bakarwals go to mountains, they accuse us of smuggling cows.”
Talib Hussain, a Bakarwal lawyer and activist who has been rallying for justice in the Kathua rape and murder case, said members of right-wing Hindu outfits have been attacking Bakarwals during migration between Jammu and Pir Panchal mountains.
“When Bakarwals go to mountains, they accuse us of smuggling cows,” says Hussain, adding that Hindu right-wing groups like Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, or RSS, are systematically harassing and threatening Muslim nomad communities in Kashmir.
Chaudhary Abdul Hamid, a representative of the Bakarwal community, said the Bakarwals and the Gujjars—another ethnic Muslim community—have been living in fear following the rise in violent attacks by Hindu groups. “The Bakarwals receive permission for transporting cows during migration from one place to another, but they are still being targeted by Hindus,” says Chaudhary.
Two years ago, a BJP minister threatened a delegation of Gujjar farmers by reminding them of the 1947 massacre of Muslims in Jammu & Kashmir region. He was also among the two BJP ministers who addressed the Hindu Ekta Manch rally in support of those accused of raping the Kathua girl. Since BJP came to power in the region three years ago, the ministers who oversaw the provincial forest ministry directed to remove encroachments from the forests—a move many nomadic Muslims say was aimed at removing them from the forest land.
For the Bakarwals, who earn their livelihood by selling sheep and goats, shrinking grazing lands and increasing restrictions from Hindu villagers and vigilante groups is adding growing apprehension.
“The forests are being closed for Bakarwals,” said Hussain, the Bakarwal lawyer, who last year led a caravan of livestock to the region’s highest office to demand right to the forest for the nomad community. The BJP has opposed implementing the law to guarantee the rights to members of the region’s tribal community, arguing that the laws enforced by the parliament cannot be extended to the disputed territory.
“Our issue is with grazing rights and right to life, but the RSS and BJP don’t want the law to be applied here because it involves Muslim nomads,” says Hussain, who has pledged not to wear shoes till the law is not implemented in the region.


Kashmiri students protest in Srinagar demanding justice for the rape victim.

The Hindu men accused of raping their daughter are still in prison, and their trial is yet to begin. The Hindu Ekta Manch has started a donation campaign to hire the “best” legal team and file a plea in India’s top court for handing the case to Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), an agency under the jurisdiction of the BJP government. So far, the court has turned down the plea in previous hearings.
“The crime branch fairly investigated the incident, but the Hindus want to shield the accused men by seeking a CBI investigation,” Pujawala says. “We don’t want that to happen.” 
Following the nationwide outrage after a series of rape incidents, including the gang rape of the eight-year-old girl, India’s prime minister Narendra Modi signed an executive order last month introducing the death penalty for anyone found guilty of raping girls below the age of 12. “We want those men who snuffed the life out of a pure soul to be hanged,” Naseema says.
The Bakarwals still have more than five months before their winter migration, when they leave the mountains and head downhill to Kathua. But they are worried about going back to the village. Until now, Pujawala had been using pastures owned by Hindus on lease for grazing his flock. But Bakarwals fear that the Hindus would no longer lease grazing pastures to them even if they were allowed back in the village, especially if the Hindu men are found guilty and sentenced to death.
“I locked my home and abandoned my wheat fields in Kathua out of fear,” Pujawala says. “Usually I would hire a man to take care of fields, but no one was willing to stay on this year.”
After the family retrieved their daughter’s battered body from the village for the funeral, the Bakarwals wanted to bury her in the land they’d purchased a few years ago—and had used it as a graveyard to bury dead people in the past. But Pujawala said a group of Hindu men wielding batons threatened the family and told them they would excavate the girl’s body if she was buried there. So, the Bakarwals walked more than seven miles into another village to bury the girl’s body.
“When they didn’t even let to bury our dead daughter,” Pujawala says, “how can they give us their land to graze animals?”