In their bid to express solidarity with Rohingya Muslims, over 100 students and teachers from the Central University of Jammu and Kashmir held a protest march in Srinagar on 7 September 2017.
Holding out placards emblazoned with “We stand with Muslims in Burma,” the group also questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s silence on the looming crisis.
The unrest in Kashmir continues to take a toll on the state’s tourism industry. The killing of militant Burhan Wani in June 2016 let to a sharp downturn in tourism. since 1989, violence in Kashmir has repeatedly hurt tourism. In the early and mid-90s as militance peaked, over 9,000 incidents of violence drove tourists away from the valley.
The attack on a bus carrying Amarnath yatra pilgrim on the night of 10 July in Anantnag, leaving seven people dead and many others injured, has evoked unequivocal condemnation from the people in Kashmir. The Inspector General of police, Muneer Khan, said that the Laskhar-e-Taiba (LeT) was behind the killings, which are being described as the worst terror attack on the Amaranth Yatra in the last 15 years. Condemnations for the killings have poured in from all sides, not only the political leaders. In fact, civil society groups called for a sit-in protest at Pratap Park, Lal Chowk in Srinagar to show their solidarity with the families of those killed in the attack.
Veteran Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar headed a five-member delegation that met Hurriyat leaders Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Shabbir Shah, and SAS Geelani in Srinagar on Thursday.
Stone-pelting in Kashmir has dominated headlines for a while now. But the third week of April saw the birth of a new face of rebellion, with young girls taking to the front-lines of the protest. School-going girls picked up stones and stood their ground against gun-toting men in Srinagar’s Lal Chowk. Dressed in school uniforms, and standing tall with bags on their backs, they covered their faces and proclaimed loudly that they had had enough of being told how to lead their lives. The Quint reached out to schoolgirls who had taken to stone pelting on 24 April.
Amid mounting tensions in the valley, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Monday met Prime Minister Narendra Modi at 7 Lok Kalyan Marg in New Delhi. Emerging out of the meeting, Mufti remarked that talks and stone-pelting cannot go hand in hand. Following such a statement, one would expect unrest to quell in Jammu and Kashmir.
Regarded by the United Nations Human Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) as “one of the most persecuted, excluded and vulnerable communities” in the world, Rohingya Muslims of Myanmar living in Jammu are worried about an unusual situation that is threatening to rob them of their livelihood and their settlements, once again. Advocate Hunar Gupta – a member of the BJP’s legal cell and standing council of the central government – filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) before the Division Bench of the High Court seeking identification and deportation of Rohingyas and Bangladeshis from Jammu.
