KASHMIR LIFE (KL): Recently, the Government of India reached out to Jammu and Kashmir’s politicians including you for the first time since August 5. Was the all-party meeting fruitful?
MEHBOOBA MUFTI (MM): This is a question that only the Government of India can answer. There are various confidence building measures which can be initiated to provide some kind of relief to the people of Jammu and Kashmir. The process can begin by releasing political prisoners along with lifting the siege that has been imposed since 2019. The suffocating atmosphere of suppression and repression needs to be ended. It is now up to the Government of India to walk the talk.
KL: You talked about the need for Confidence Building Measures (CBM) before the meet. Has there been any delivery on that front?
MM: Ideally, the Government of India should have released some political prisoners and initiated some other confidence building measures even before the meeting was organised. It would have sent a positive signal to the people here. But had we insisted on that then we may have been dubbed as the spoilers.
KL: Was the release of your two party colleagues a part of CBMs?
MM: Both Naeem Akhtar and Sartaj Madani were booked under section 107 and detained illegally since December 2020. As per section 107, a person can be detained only for a maximum of six months. The detention of the two leaders in question was ending in June 2021 under section 107. If the government had to continue their detention any further then they would require booking them under the Public Safety Act. So I am assuming that they were released as a matter of right and not favour. Although it would have been good to see the release of some political prisoners as a goodwill gesture before the all-party meeting.
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Before The Kabul Retreat
Described as the ‘Graveyard of Empires’, Afghanistan was always termed to be at peace when it was at war. But the land-locked desert country that was always in turmoil and one of the worst targets of the Great Game suffered immensely throughout, especially in the last 40 years, Masood Hussain writes
FINGERS CROSSED
Almost everybody in academia and politics that Khalid Bashir Gura spoke to, the response over Kabul happens was simple – wait and watch
Parliamentary Committee In Srinagar
The visiting 28-member Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs have had detailed interactions with top civil administration and discussed developmental scenario and people’s welfare measures in Jammu and Kashmir. It is on a 4-day visit. Congress leader and MP Anand Sharma is heading the committee.
MUSIC IN MUD HOUSE
Deep into north Kashmir, Faheem Mir meet a small community that sings and lives on folk music but is facing a tense situation in the last few years
THE KABUL SPILLOVER?
Security experts are divided over the possible impact of the Kabul situation on Kashmir. But the dramatic Taliban triumph has altered the region’s geopolitics, for the time being, writes Riyaz Wani
Durga Bhawan At Katra
To enhancing facilities for the convenience of the Vaishno Devi pilgrims, Lt Governor Manoj Sinha laid the foundation for the Durga Bhawan, a high utility pilgrim-centric facility worth Rs 24.4 crore. The facility will accommodate 4000 pilgrims.
Women Empowerment
In the first, 480 talented girls from Jammu and Kashmir were included in the degree and diploma courses of the Pragati Scholarship. Jammu and Kashmir has also got nine scholarships under the Saksham Scheme for Persons with Disabilities.
‘SOME HISTORIANS BELIEVE THAT AFGHANISTAN CONFLICT IS THE OUTCOME OF INDIA AND PAKISTAN KASHMIR STAND-OFF'
Foreign policy expert and editor of HardNews magazine, Sanjay Kapoor believes that Taliban 2.0 has more legitimacy unlike in the past as it had signed a deal with the US and negotiated with other countries of the region, but the final verdict can be passed only after it manages ticklish issues involving half of its population, the women
Boredom Is Creative?
Getting bored is not as boring as it gets, writes Azra Hussain
LG In Bangus
Lt Governor, Manoj Sinha inaugurated the Bungus Awaam Mela amidst grand arrangements for village games, exhilarating local performances, and other activities to celebrate the 75th year of Independence.
