By Farman Ali Legendary music composer Muhammad Zahoor Hashmi, ‘Khayyam’, best known for his classic melodies such as ‘Wo subha kabhi tu aayegi’ ‘Kabhi Kabhie mere dil mein khayal aata hey’ and Aey dil-e-nadan’ passed away on Monday (Aug 19, 2019) at the age of 92 due to cardiac arrest. He was suffering from various age-related ailments. On July …

Call upon peoples of South Asia to work together for the rights of oppressed nations   Herald Report An alliance of Pakistani Left parties, civil society and peace activists condemned the Modi-led Indian government’s move to annex Jammu and Kashmir warned that the humanitarian crisis in Indian-controlled part of the Himalayan state can spiral into a dangerous conflict between the …

Article 370 enabled Kashmir to give land to the tiller. Today, that freedom is gone by Nyla Ali Khan The recent unilateral decision of Prime Minister Modi’s government to revoke Article 370 — which guaranteed the special status of Jammu and Kashmir — the dismemberment of the state, and its diminishment are, to my mind, flagrant violations of the sovereign Constitution of …

https://www.nytimes.com/video/players/offsite/index.html?videoId=100000006653817/     The Indian government has confined about seven million Kashmiris to their homes and imposed a complete communications blackout. By Arundhati Roy NEW DELHI — As India celebrates her 73rd year of independence from British rule, ragged children thread their way through traffic in Delhi, selling outsized national flags and souvenirs that say, “Mera Bharat Mahan.” My India is …

Herald Report Indian security forces have maintained tight restrictions across its controlled Jammu and Kashmir during Eidul Azha, fearing protests against the revocation of the Himalayan region’s special status a week ago. Streets and markets were practically deserted on August 12 as a result of the security lockdown, now in its eighth day, reports said. In the city of Srinagar, …

By Jon Allsop  In early August, the government of Narendra Modi, India’s recently reelected Hindu-nationalist prime minister, moved troops into the Kashmir Valley, which is majority-Muslim, then cut the region off. The internet and landlines went down; TV channels were taken off the air. Prominent local politicians were detained. Without consultation, Modi revoked the special autonomy Kashmir has long enjoyed …

Herald Report Islamabad: Left parties and women organizations of Pakistan have condemned the Indian government’s revocation of Jammu and Kashmir’s autonomy. In a statement, it will escalate tensions in the region and will affect tens of millions of working class and women in the two countries. AWP: The Awami Workers Party AWP), a Left party, condemned the Indian government move, saying, …

Why Modi’s move on Kashmir is likely to achieve the opposite of what he intends, questions the Economist When the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir joined the fledgling Indian union in October 1947, it had little choice in the matter. Pakistan-backed tribesmen had invaded; only Indian troops could repel them. The consolation was that Kashmir was promised a lot …

#kashmir Posted by Suchitra Vijayan on Sunday, 4 August 2019   By Hassan Akber   What Has India Done? After days of troop surges, arrests, speculation and denials, Indian Home Minister Amit Shah introduced a presidential order and a bill in Parliament on August 5, 2019. Through the order, India has revoked Article 370 of the Indian Constitution thereby ending …

Professor Faisal Devji on Muslim depoliticisation, Hindu nationalism and historians mimicking detectives. Here is excerpts from an interview with Seema Chishti of The Indian Express   What do you make of contemporary history writing? As Gandhi realised more than a century ago, history, or rather historical consciousness, had not only come to define the self-proclaimed superiority of western civilisation in …

Turtuk was part of Pakistan until 1971, when the Indian army occupied the village during a border war along the Line of Control and never gave it back. By Dave Stamboulis A tumultuous history Turtuk is incredibly hard to get to. The small hamlet sits at the far end of Ladakh’s Nubra Valley in far northern India, hemmed in by …

Islamabad needs to rethink its foreign relations in the context of a new ‘Great Game’ in the Eurasian region and beyond war and peace in Afghanistan, say experts   HAH Report   Islamabad: Diplomats and experts on Wednesday stressed the need for a thorough revamping of Pakistan’s foreign policy and it’s relations with its neighbours and the United States in …

Dr Asim Sajjad PRIME MINISTER Imran Khan and US President Donald Trump presented quite a spectacle when they came together at the White House earlier this week. Much has been said and written about the chemistry, charisma and clarity on show, the absurdity of it all seemingly a side note. Pakistan, the US and the world at large appears to have got …

OHCHR blasts India and Pakistan for failing to improve the situation in the contested Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan   Herald Report The UN human rights office on Monday blasted India and Pakistan for failing to improve the situation in the contested Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan, while renewing calls for an international probe into violations in the disputed Himalayan region. Last year, the …

Raza Naeem on the politics and worldview contained in the work of Kaifi Azmi (1919–2002) by Raza Naeem “Stone Kaifi to death, the rulers cried The Messiah? We do not know where he hides!” Born Syed Athar Hussain Rizvi, a hundred years ago this year, Kaifi Azmi, who passed away into eternity seventeen years ago on the 10th of May earlier …