India’s top court upholds end of special status for Kashmir, orders polls
New Delhi, IndiaReuters India’s Supreme Court upheld on Monday a 2019 decision by the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to revoke special status for the state of Jammu and Kashmir and set a deadline of 30th September next year for local polls to be held. India’s only Muslim-majority region, Jammu and Kashmir has been […]
India revives network of village guards in Kashmir after militant attack
Srinagar, India Reuters India is reviving a network of thousands of village guards in Jammu and Kashmir, including arming some with automatic rifles, after a militant attack in the disputed region killed seven civilians earlier in January, a police official said. New Delhi has battled a decades-long armed insurgency in Kashmir, accusing arch rival Pakistan […]
No jobs, passports for ‘anti-national’ social media posts in India
Thomson Reuters Foundation At least three Indian states are denying passports and government jobs to people because of their social media posts or participation in protests, human rights activists said. In a move that could jeopardise the futures of tens of thousands of vocal young Indians, authorities in Jammu and Kashmir, Bihar and Uttarakhand have […]
Kashmir to enact India’s forest rights law 14 years on, in boost for nomads
Thomson Reuters Foundation Authorities in India’s Jammu and Kashmir will implement a law to grant land rights to forest dwelling communities 14 years after the legislation was enacted nationwide, a long-awaited move that may better protect nomadic tribes, human rights activists said. The Forest Rights Act of 2006 aimed to recognise the rights of at […]
Forest enclosures, flouted laws and coronavirus: Scarce pastures put Kashmir nomads’ migration in peril
ATHAR PARVAIZ, of Thomson Reuters Foundation, reports on the struggle of the pastoralists of the Himalayan Kashmir as they find traditional lowland grazing areas becoming increasingly scarce…
Postcards: Kashmir fells trees in effort to fight coronavirus panic
ASHUTOSH SHARMA, writing for Thomson Reuters Foundation, reports…