by Khalid Bashir Gura

SRINAGAR: With the vaccine nowhere in sight, the world scientists have turned to the supercomputers to seek solutions for containing the contagion. The Covid-19 has already killed 1.15 million people as the infection has impacted more than 42 million across the world.

Health workers extracting plasma from an individual who survived Covid-19 infection. The special camp in which cops donated their plasma was organised by SKIMS in Srinagar on July 22, 2020. KL Image: Bilal Bahadur

After the initial race for vaccine – some countries say they are almost ready, the scientists are trying to harness the powers of supercomputers in times of medical emergency, pinning hopes on the machines with high levels of power and performance employed by the human in genetic, biological, and weapons research.

The questions like how to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic are the ones being asked to supercomputers.

Scientists are using supercomputers for several challenging tasks, such as understanding how the virus spreads in a community, how it infects the human body, as well as for finding cure and vaccine.

What Is A Supercomputer?

Since the 1990’s, the power of supercomputers has increased by a factor of a million. With a combined power of roughly a million laptops, Summit at Oak Ridge National Laboratory is presently one of the world’s most powerful supercomputer after Japan’s Fugaku.

The Summit supercomputer at Oak Ridge National laboratory has a peak performance of 200,000 trillion calculations per second – equivalent to about a million laptops.

The largest number of Covid-19 supercomputing projects involves designing drugs. Even though, it’s likely to take several effective drugs to treat the disease, supercomputers let researchers take a rational approach and aim to selectively muzzle proteins that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, needs for its life cycle.

The world’s fastest supercomputers have been tasked with going through thousands of molecules to find potential compounds that could be used to create a Coronavirus vaccine. Studies found that the surface of the Coronaviruses is covered with crown-like proteins, which allow the viruses to bind and invade human cells. Hence to find a drug that can be used against the virus, it is significant to understand the proteins the virus contains and the human cell host receptors and the way other chemical compounds interact with them.

The Achievement?

Jeremy Smith is a biophysicist at the Center for Molecular Biophysics at the University of Tennessee and Oak Ridge National Laboratory where supercomputer is used to discover drugs. “We build three-dimensional virtual models of biological molecules like the proteins used by cells and viruses, and simulate how various chemical compounds interact with those proteins. We test thousands of compounds to find the ones that “dock” with a target protein. Those compounds that fit, lock-and-key style, with the protein are potential therapies,” she writes in the news portal scroll.in

Similarly, the newly crowned Japan’s Fugaku supercomputer which is the world’s fastest supercomputer is being deployed in the fight against the Coronavirus. As reported it carried out 2.8 times more calculations per second than an IBM machine in the US called The Summit.

As media reports suggest, Fugaku has already been put to work on fighting the Coronavirus, simulating how droplets would spread in office spaces with partitions installed or in packed trains with the windows open.

A colourized scanning electron micrograph of a cell (green) heavily infected with particles (orange) from the virus that causes COVID-19, isolated from a patient sample.

“Using the world’s fastest supercomputer, Fugaku, Japanese research giant Riken advised several ways to lower infection risks in public settings,” Reuters reported.

Its lead researcher, Makoto Tsubokura, said that opening windows on commuter trains can increase the ventilation by two to three times, lowering the concentration of ambient microbes. But to achieve adequate ventilation, there needs to be spaces between passengers, the simulations showed, representing a drastic change from Japan’s notoriously packed commuter trains. Other findings advised the installation of partitions in offices and classrooms, while in hospitals, beds should be surrounded by curtains that touch the ceiling.

Supercomputer-driven models simulated in Japan suggested that operating commuter trains with windows open and limiting the number of passengers may help reduce the risk of Coronavirus infections, as scientists warn of airborne spread of the virus.

“In the US, these machines have been able to simulate 8,000 compounds and have identified 77 molecules that could work against the virus. Further efforts are now underway to refine the list and identify which of those drug compounds and molecules have the highest binding affinity with the virus, thus being able to disarm it most efficiently,” reported Indian Express.

Further, these computers can also help in developing a vaccine for the novel Coronavirus by identifying the virus proteins that can help create immunity among humans.  The other ways in which supercomputers are helping include studying the structure and origin of the novel Coronavirus, analyzing the spread of the virus in a population, as well as how it interacts with cells in the human body.

Bradykinin system

Fortunately, supercomputers are very good at churning through huge amounts of data. The Summit supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory analysed more than 40,000 individual genes in an effort to understand what happens when someone is exposed to the virus.

According to a recent study on the results, the virus spikes blood pressure levels, which can cause blood vessels to leak in the lungs (which can cause seizures, stroke, coughs, dizziness and more).

CRPF man who died of COVID-19 being cremated in Srinagar on Tuesday, July 14, 2020. KL Image by Bilal Bahadur

A team led by Dan Jacobson of the US Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory recently used the Summit supercomputer to analyse genes from cells in the lung fluid of nine Covid-19 patients compared with 40 control patients.

The computational analyses, published in the journal eLife in July, suggest that genes related to one of the body’s systems responsible for lowering blood pressure the bradykinin system appears to be excessively “turned on” in the lung fluid cells of those with the virus.

Based on their analyses, the team believes that bradykinin the compound that dilates blood vessels and makes them permeable is overproduced in the bodies of Covid-19 patients. Excessive bradykinin leads to leaky blood vessels, allowing fluid to build up in the body’s soft tissues.

“Much attention has focused on what’s known as the cytokine storm, a severe reaction in which the body releases an excess of cytokines, a variety of small proteins that help regulate the immune system. However, the researchers believe that a bradykinin storm may instead be to blame for much of the viral pathogenesis.

The bradykinin storm could explain the wide variety of symptoms experienced by Covid-19 patients, such as muscle pain, fatigue, nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, headaches, and decreased cognitive function.

Similar symptoms are also experienced by patients with other bradykinin-related conditions such as hereditary angioedema, a genetic condition that is characterized by episodes of severe swelling throughout the body,” reported HospiMedica. However, Jacobson said, lung-fluid samples from Covid-19 patients consistently revealed overexpression of genes that produce bradykinin, while also under expressing genes that would inhibit or break down bradykinin.

Health officials carry the body of a Covid-19 victim in south Kashmir’s Anantnag village. KL Image by Shah Hilal

As Jacobson’s paper notes, extreme bradykinin levels in various organs can lead to dry coughs, myalgia, fatigue, nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, anorexia, headaches, decreased cognitive function, arrhythmia and sudden cardiac death. All of which have been associated with various manifestations of Covid-19.

The Newer Revelations

Humidity can have a large effect on the dispersion of virus particles, leading to heightened Coronavirus contagion risks in dry, indoor conditions during the winter months showed a Japanese supercomputer.

According to a study by research giant Riken and Kobe University, the finding suggests that the use of humidifiers may help limit infections during winter times when window ventilation is not possible. The researchers used the Fugaku supercomputer to model the emission and flow of virus-like particles from infected people in a variety of indoor environments.

Further, the study also revealed that clear face shields are not as effective as masks in preventing the spread of aerosols. Other findings showed that diners are more at risk from people to their side compared to across the table, and the number of singers in choruses should be limited and spaced out.

SRINAGAR: Cartography is emerging the new tension to the diplomacy and invariably it is Kashmir at the focus of it, right now. Different countries and corporate fiddle with the political maps and it creeps to the newspaper front pages.

Imran Khan, Pakistan Prime Minister, driving visiting Saudi crown prince MBS from airport in February 2019.

In Delhi, a Joint Committee on data protection has questioned the micro-blogging giant Twitter for showing Ladakh as part of China. An executive of the company appeared before the Committee and was questioned. BJPs Meenakshi Lekhi heads the committee.

Though the company officials comprising Shagufta Kamran, senior manager, public policy, Ayushi Kapoor, legal counsel, Pallavi Walia, policy communications, and Manvinder Bali, corporate security insisted the company respects the sensitivity of India, the Committee, reports said found the explanations “inadequate”. Lekhi said the offence if tried, will lead seven years imprisonment.

While Delhi is dealing with Twitter, there is yet another “cartographic coup” across the seas. It involves the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, India’s major ally in the region that has separated Gilgit Baltistan from the Pakistan map.

The new Saudi 20 Riyal banknote has a world map that shows Gilgit Baltistan separate from Pakistan

On October 25, Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority released a new 20 Riyal banknote to commemorate its Presidency of organizing G-20 summit on November 21-22, 2020.

“The banknote, on the front side, carries the picture of King Salman bin Abdul Aziz Al-Saud, along with a slogan of Saudi Presidency, while the backside features a world map showing the G20 countries in a different colour,” The Daily Times reported. “However, the world map does not show Gilgit-Baltistan and Kashmir as parts of Pakistan.”

“According to the stand of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Gilgit-Baltistan and Kashmir (PoK), are now independent nations, official said,” Jammu newspaper Daily Excelsior reported. “This move by the Islamic Kingdom is a hard slap on Pakistan’s face which had released country’s new political map on August 5, 2020, after abrogation of Article 370 and prompted New Delhi to call it `political absurdity.’”

The love story between Riyadh and Islamabad is facing a crippling crisis as Delhi has barged between the two. This led Saudi Arabia imposing costs on Pakistan by withdrawing the credit facilities on oil exports and early repayment of a US 43 billion loan.

The recent low has been Riyadh telling Islamabad to restrict its “Kashmir Black Day” (October 27) event to its embassy premises, according to Hindustan Times. The newspaper said Iran – the Saudi rival, also imposed the same restriction on Pakistan embassy in Tehran.

“Saudi Arabia and Iran, the Sunni and Shia shoulders of Islam, refused to allow Pakistan missions to hold public events to observe the 27 October anniversary of Jammu and Kashmir’s accession to India as a Black Day, a departure from previous years that signals Pakistan’s shifting equations in West Asia,” the newspaper reported. “People familiar with the matter said the Pakistan embassy in Iran had proposed an event in Tehran University to observe what it has called a Black Day. But Tehran surprised Islamabad when it communicated its refusal to allow the event.”

The newspaper added: “Islamabad’s plans to hold a public event within the Pakistani consulate in Riyadh were also blocked by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.” The newspaper said that Pakistan’s changing equations in the region are outcome of its getting cosy with Turkey.

by Khalid Bashir Gura

SRINAGAR: On October 28, the much-awaited trailer of the movie based on Ghalib, the son of the Parliament attack convict Mohammad Afzal Guru, was released on YouTube.

In this still, from Ghaalib masala film, the mother Depika is biding her son adieu as he leaves for the school. Photo: Special arrangement.

The release of the film was postponed due to the pandemic which forced closure on the cinema halls. The film is scheduled to hit the theatre two days prior December 13, 2001, anniversary of the attack.

The film Gaalib is based on the ups and downs of Guru’s son Gaalib’s life and the situation of Kashmir.

Donning keffiyeh (chequered black and white scarf) a man with streaks of salt and pepper beard is seen speaking to a female apparently his wife in a court: “Mujhe poora yaqeen hai ki sarkaar mujhe kabhi bhi phaansi de sakte hai,” (I’m sure that the government will hang me anytime) as the trailer of the Bollywood movie Gaalib opens with this dialogue of Kashmir born Bollywood actor Mir Sarwar who is playing the role of Afzal Guru.

Further in the trailer, he is seen advising his son (Ghalib) played by Nikkhil Pitaley: Jo Raasta Maine Chuna Hai, Tum Kabhi Mat Chun Na, (Don’t choose the path that I chose).

The shooting was completed in almost eighteen months according to the writer of the movie Dhiraj Mishra who scripted the movie along with his wife Yashomati Devi. Further adding the writer said that the movie has been shot in picturesque locations in Jammu and Kashmir’s Bhaderwah, also known as Chota Kashmir and in Mumbai, and Allahabad.

The film explores the bond between Afzal Guru’s son and his mother in the Bollywood film named Ghaalib slatted to release in December

The film also stars Dipika Chikhalia whose character name is Shabana and is playing the role of Ghalib’s mother. Earlier she had played the role of Sita in the famous TV series Ramayana.

As Nikkhil Pitaley is playing the role of Ghalib in the movie, that mainly revolves around the mother-son relationship. “I have focused on the situations that Kashmiri kids find themselves in and how terrorism impacts their education and lives,” Mishra the writer of the movie said.  “The movie is about gun versus pen.”

A few years ago, when Ghalib (the real one) had shined in his academics, it had started a debate in the media about his struggle and success. Some from the mainland India jettisoning their rational capabilities and allowing prejudice to creep in raised questions on the Ghalib’s result as to how can a son of a man, who was hanged in Tihar, shine academically.

But the writer who was in Delhi at that time busy with some research project was fascinated by Ghalib’s story. “I read about his academic success in one of the newspapers in Delhi. I learned about his struggle,” said the movie writer. The writer’s creativity instantly sparked off and that is when he decided to script the movie with his wife.

When asked that if he ever met the real Ghalib and his family, Mishra said: “I contacted him on social media platform Instagram but he seemed to be introvert and reluctant to talk. I chose to respect his privacy.”

Scrip writer Dhiraj Mishra who said he respected Ghalib’s right to privacy while trying to listen to his story on WhatsApp. Photo: Special arrangement

The movie has been produced by Ghanshyam Patel, co-produced by Nimisha Amin and directed by Manoj Giri, the movie has been written by Dhiraj Mishra and Yashomati Devi.

Earlier the director of the movie Manoj Giri had told media that, “I want to change the perception of the people regarding Jammu and Kashmir. The film is based on a young Kashmiri teenage student and his mother with a troubled past.”

Earlier according to the reports Bollywood returned to Bhaderwah after 33 years as the shooting of film Ghalib had begun in the town.

A few years back while shooting in Bhaderwah, Dipika had told media persons that she was playing the character of a militant’s wife. “Basically we fear a militant… we hate his family. They too are human beings. His wife and his child did not do any wrong,” she had told media during the shooting of the film.  “I was a little worried before visiting this place but after reaching here, all my inhibitions fizzled in the breathtaking locales of this unexplored heaven. Now I’m seriously considering buying a place for myself here.”

Actor Nikkhil Pitaley, 26, who is playing the role of Ghalib said that even though he could never meet the real Ghalib but he was fascinated by his story and struggle. Praising the hospitality of Kashmiri people, the actor of the movie recalled the days he spent in the valley. “Kashmiri people are lovely. During shooting most of the times they used to bring us food from home. I have never met such kind people,” he said. Speaking about the awe that he was in by working with renowned artist Deepika Chikhalia, Pitaley said that he had to undergo dramatic physical changes to do the role of young Ghalib and for his act had to lose many kilos as initially the Deepika who was to play the mother’s role had refused to act with him.

A month later when the young actor went to her home almost after losing eight kilograms she could not recognize him according to the actor.

“Ghalib was my first movie and I chose to debut with it because the story was powerful,” Pitaley said.

Pertinent to mention that Afzal Guru was hanged and buried in Tihar Jail on February 9, 2013, after his mercy petition was rejected by then President Pranab Mukherjee. The film, however, is not based on the attack or the trail but how Guru’s son managed to survive after the hanging of his father. The storyline is completely fictional.

by Tahir Bhat

SRINAGAR: In a development coinciding with the first anniversary of the UT system rollout in erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir state and the oath-taking of the new LAHDC dispensation in Leh, the committee that was set up for the apportionment of Assets and Liabilities of the erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir between the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and Union Territory of Ladakh has made its exercise public.

Civil Secretariat in early August 2019.

Here are the key highlights of the order issued by the General Administration Department:

JK Bank

As per the order put in the public domain, the UT of Ladakh will get 8.23 per cent of the bank’s shareholding which equals to 13.89 per cent of the existing shareholding of the erstwhile State of Jammu & Kashmir. The UT of Jammu and Kashmir will continue to have 51 per cent shareholding. Ladakh will get one post of director on the bank board and a reasonable proportion of employees.

J&K Bank Corporate Headquarters Srinagar. KL Image

The exact details from the order are:

“The arrangements for Jammu and Kashmir Bank Ltd shall be as follows:

1. J&K Bank Ltd. shall continue its operations as a going concern in both the UTs.
2. The UT of J&K shall continue to have majority shareholding in the Bank.
3. 51% of the shareholding in the J&K Bank Ltd. shall remain with the UT of J&K. The remaining 8.23% shareholding in the J&K Bank Ltd. (approximately 13.89% of the existing shareholding of the erstwhile State of Jammu & Kashmir), shall be transferred to the UT of Ladakh.
4. One post of Director on the Board of the J&K Bank shall be earmarked for the UT of Ladakh.
5. A reasonable proportion of employees of the J&K Bank Ltd. shall be recruited from the UT of Ladakh, details of which will be worked out by the Bank.

Six Companies

The panel has given Ladakh 20% of the equity and 20% of the loans extended by the erstwhile Government of Jammu and Kashmir from the six companies:

1. Jammu and Kashmir State Financial Corporation
2. Jammu and Kashmir Grameen Bank Ltd.
3. The Jammu and Kashmir Small Scale Industries Development Corporation Ltd (JKSICOP).
4. J&K Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Backward Classes Development Corporation Ltd.
5. Jammu Kashmir Trade Promotion Organisation
6. Jammu and Kashmir State Cooperative Bank Ltd., Srinagar.

The order reads: “Provided that, the immoveable assets of Companies/ Corporations and Entities mentioned above, located in the UT of Ladakh, shall be transferred to an entity as and when it is set up by the UT of Ladakh:

Provided further that the employees of the aforesaid six (06) companies posted in the UT of Ladakh or otherwise, shall be given the option to work in the UT of Ladakh or in any entity to be set up by the UT of Ladakh and based on such option their services will be placed at the disposal of the UT of Ladakh or an entity designated by it:

Provided also that these companies shall continue their operations for both UTs till transfer to a designated entity in UT of Ladakh takes place.”

SRTC

The Jammu and Kashmir State Road Transport Corporation is the main public career of the erstwhile state. It is in red. The panel has ordered the following:

1. JKSRTC will remain a going concern for the UT of J&K only. There will be no apportionment of equity of JKSRTC to UT of Ladakh.
2. The fixed assets of JKSRTC, located in the UT of Ladakh shall be transferred to any entity designated by the UT of Ladakh, as and when it is established or designated.
3. Nineteen (19) buses currently operational in the UT of Ladakh, 20 additional buses, 10 (ten) of which are below five years old and 10 trucks, 05 of which are below five years old, stand transferred to the UT of Ladakh or to an entity to be established/designated by it.
4. Till such an entity is designated/established for the UT of Ladakh, JKSRTC will continue its operations from both the UTs.
5. The employees of JKSRTC posted in UT of Ladakh or otherwise, shall be given the option to work in the UT of

SRTC

Ladakh or in any entity to be set up by the UT of Ladakh and based on such option their services will be placed at the disposal of UT of Ladakh or any entity designated by it.”

A Member On Board

The panel has ruled that the UT of Ladakh will have one representative on the Board of Directors in the following corporations:

1. J&K Grameen Bank
2. J&KSICOP
3. J&K SC, ST and OBC Development Corporation Limited
4. J&K State Cooperative Bank Limited

No Division

In almost 32 commercial entities, the panel has decided against any division in equity, investment and loans, subject to the proviso at the end:

Kashmir has dense thick forests

(i)      The Jammu and Kashmir State Forest Corporation.
(ii)       Ellaquai Dehati Bank.
(iii)      Jammu and Kashmir Minerals Ltd.
(iv)     Jammu and Kashmir Projects Construction Corporation Ltd.
(v)      Jammu and Kashmir Police Housing Corporation Ltd.
(vi)      Jammu and Kashmir State Overseas Employment Corporation Ltd.
(vii)     Jammu and Kashmir State Industrial Development Corporation Ltd. (SIDCO)
(viii)    Jammu and Kashmir State Agro Industries Development Corporation
(ix)      Jammu and Kashmir Tourism Development Corporation
(x)      Jammu and Kashmir Handicrafts (Sales and Export) Corporation Ltd.
(xi)     Jammu and Kashmir Industries Ltd.
(xii)     Jammu and Kashmir Cements Ltd.
(xiii)    Jammu and Kashmir Horticulture Produce Marketing and Processing Corporation Ltd.(xiv)    Jammu and Kashmir State Handloom Corporation Ltd.
(xv)    Jammu and Kashmir State Cable Car Corporation Ltd.
(xvi)    Jammu and Kashmir Women’s Development Corporation Ltd.
(xvii)   Jammu and Kashmir Medical Supplies Corporation Ltd.
(xviii)   National Projects Construction Corporation Ltd.
(xix)    Tawi Scooters Ltd.
(xx)     Himalayan Wool Combers Ltd.
(xxi)    J&K State Handloom Handicrafts Raw Material Supplies Organization Ltd.
(xxii)   Ply-Board Industries Ltd.
(xxiii)  Kashmir Ceramics Ltd.
(xxiv)  Citizen’s Co-operative Bank Ltd., Jammu
(xxv)   Jammu Central Co-operative Bank Ltd., Jammu
(xxvi)   Urban Co-operative Bank Ltd., Anantnag
(xxvii) Baramulla Central Co-operative Bank Ltd.
(xxviii) J&K State Co-operative Agriculture and Rural Development Bank Ltd., Srinagar
(xxix)  Jammu and Kashmir Handloom Fabric Marketing Co¬operative Societies Ltd.
(xxx)   Registrar, Co-operative Societies, J&K, Srinagar.
(xxxi)  Jammu and Kashmir State Power Development Corporation Ltd
(xxxii) Chenab Valley Power Projects Pvt. Ltd.

It further said: “Provided that the employees of these Companies / Corporations and Entities who are posted in the UT of Ladakh or otherwise shall be given the option to work in the UT of Ladakh or in any new entity to be setup by the UT of Ladakh and based on such option their services will be placed at the disposal of the UT of Ladakh or an entity designated by it.

Provided further that the physical fixed assets of these corporations, if situated in the UT of Ladakh, will be transferred on an ‘as is where is’ basis to the UT of Ladakh or an entity established by it.”.

The Statement

The official spokesman also issued the following statement with regard to the development, historic in nature:

“The Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir, in terms of section 84(3) read with section 85(2) of Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Act, 2019, is pleased to apportion the Assets, Liabilities and Posts of the erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir between the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and Union territory of Ladakh as per Annexures A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H and I to the notification issued in this regard.

All references to the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir or Ladakh shall mean the geographical area represented by the respective Union territories or shall mean the respective Governments of the Union territories as the case may be in the context of their usage.

The lieutenant governor of Union territory Jammu and Kashmir Manoj Sinha addressing Press conference at Raj Bhawan Srinagar on Thursday, October 15, 2020. KL Image by Bilal Bahadur

According to a notification issued in this regard, section 84 and 85 of Jammu and Kashmir Re-organization Act, 2019 provided for apportionment of Assets and Liabilities of the erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir between the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and Union Territory of Ladakh; and section 85 of the Jammu and Kashmir Re-organization Act, 2019 provided for establishment of one or more Advisory Committees for apportionment of Assets, Rights and Liabilities of the Companies and Corporations constituted for the State of Jammu and Kashmir between Union Territory of J&K and UT of Ladakh.

Also, in terms of section 84 and 85 of the Jammu and Kashmir Re-organization Act, 2019, the Central Government, vide Order No. 11014/5/2014-K-I/III dated 09.09.2020, constituted an Advisory Committee under the Chairmanship of Sanjay Mitra, IAS (Retired) which submitted its report to the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. The comments of the Government of Jammu and Kashmir and Government of Ladakh were sought on the recommendations of the Advisory Committee by the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. The Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, held consultations with the Union Territory of J&K and Union Territory of Ladakh and based on the agreements between the Union Territory of J&K and UT of Ladakh, the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India vide No. 11014/05/2014-K-I/K-III dated 28.10.2020 conveyed to issue necessary orders in terms of Jammu and Kashmir Re-organization Act, 2019; and the Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir accepted the recommendations of the Advisory Committee as per the agreements arrived at between Union territory of J&K and Union Territory of Ladakh as conveyed by Ministry of Home Affairs vide afore-stated communication.

The notification further added that this apportionment shall be in force with effect from 31.10.2020. The annexures mentioned above have been enclosed herewith for necessary reference.”

by Umar Mukhtar

SRINAGAR: The United States of America has a presidential form of democracy.  Comprising 50 states, a federal district (the capital Washington DC), five major territories, and various minor islands, the world’s most powerful democracy has two political parties – The Republicans and The Democrats.

Donald Trump

In this election, results of which will be available shortly, the contest is mainly between the Donald J Trump, the Republican candidate who is seeking re-election for next four-year term and Joe Biden, the Democrat candidate who has earlier served as the Vice President of Barack Obama.

Republicans are conservatives and the Democrats are liberals. They are a contrast as far their home politics is concerned and they vary hugely on their outlook about the world order. Republicans, the Trump’s party, is considered to be the grand old party to which American leaders Richard Nixon, Ronald Regan and George Bush belonged. Republicans believe in restrictions on immigration, gun rights, low taxes and other things that will make residents privileged in comparison to immigrants. Over the years they are seen as supremacists while dealing with the black people. Periphery is their main support base.

It's not my place or Donald Trump's place to declare the winner of this election. It's the voters' place.

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) November 4, 2020

The Democrats are liberals, who believe in fairer treatment to all citizens, do not support restrictions on immigration and have a liberal outlook towards the global issues. Bill Clinton, Kennedy, Barack Obama, all belonged to the Democrats.

The Democrat presidential nominee Joe Biden with his running mate Kamla Devi Haris. Photo: Twitter

The Presidential election has at least two major pre-poll exercises that take place at the respective party levels in which the party men decided in a phased manner who the presidential candidate would be. The basic exercise is the Primaries (if held through secret ballot) and Caucuses (if held by voice vote). Then it goes to national convention where a party’s presidential candidate is formally announced.

What is interesting is that the American presidential elections are held on Tuesday because it is mandated by the constitution that the presidential election be held every four years on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November. This is a practice since 1845 when Congress amended the constitution. The reasons were rooted in the local community that, by then, was mostly agrarian. Then, people from the villages had to reach the nearest town to cast their vote. Friday, Saturday and Sunday were considered days of worship and Wednesdays were seen the main business days. This left only Monday and Tuesday for consideration and the Congress decided for Tuesday so that the voting days do not fall on the All Saints Day, falling on November 1.

The American presidential elections are different from the parliamentary form of elections in, for instance, India. Though all voters cast their votes it is not necessary that the person who takes more votes will be the president. In the 2016 elections, Hillary Clinton was the most popular because she polled 65,853,514 votes. However, Donald Trump polled 62,984,828 votes and still became the president.

In the USA, each state has been given a number of electoral college votes based on population and other parameters. Across all states, there are a total of 538 electoral votes for which the candidates contest. So the voter does not elect the American president directly but a local representative who eventually elects the president.  Anybody who gets 270 elector votes or more is the president of the United States.

“This means voters decide state-level contests rather than the national one, which is why it’s possible for a candidate to win the most votes nationally – as Hillary Clinton did in 2016 – but still be defeated by the electoral college,” BBC reported.

Another twist in the American elections is that states award all their electoral college votes to whoever won the poll of ordinary voters in the state.

“For example, if a candidate wins 50.1% of the vote in Texas, they are awarded all of the state’s 38 electoral votes. Alternatively, a candidate could win by a landslide and still pick up the same number of electoral votes,” explains BBC. “It’s, therefore, possible for a candidate to become president by winning a number of tight races in certain states, despite having fewer votes across the country.” However, there are two exceptional states – Maine and Nebraska, which divide up their electoral college votes according to the proportion of votes each candidate receives.

This is the simple reason, why the US presidential candidates target specific “swing states” – states where the vote could go either way – rather than trying to win over as many voters as possible across the country. “Every state they win gets them closer to the 270 electoral college votes they need”.

LIVE: President Donald J Trump https://t.co/J7hhaUPUf0

— Team Trump (Text VOTE to 88022) (@TeamTrump) November 4, 2020

But the American election is not electing the President alone. The same vote actually elects the members of the American Congress and the Senate. So the same election elects all the 435 berths of the Congress and 33 of the Senate. So in the American system of democracy, a candidate can be a president even when he lacks a majority in the Congress and the Senate. It was the case of the Trump administration as well in which he lacks a majority in either of the two houses.

Early trends in the ongoing counting suggest that Joe Biden is ahead of Trump. But this year, the final results will take some more time because of the surge in postal ballots.

by Hirra Azmat

SRINAGAR: With the onset of winter, health experts have advised Covid patients requiring oxygen supply to keep a back-up ready owing to the electricity outages.

The electricity crisis in Kashmir has become a phenomenon owing to the fact that the power department has failed to enhance its transmission capacities to meet the demand for electricity in winter months when the temperature plummets to below zero.

Therefore, the doctors have suggested keeping non-electric dependent oxygen sources like oxygen cylinders at home and remain prepared for all eventualities.

Professor of Surgery, Government Medical College, Dr Iqbal Saleem said the winter has shown its harshness before time along with the erratic power curtailment.

“It would be advisable to have a hybrid inverter system at home as a normal oxygen concentrator requires 300 watts. In Covid times, well-prepared means the difference between life and death,” he wrote on Twitter.

Similarly, a senior resident at SMHS said that the patients should get concentrators which would run on inverter/ generator supply.

“Keeping at least one Oxygen cylinder as a backup, in case of an electrical shutdown. Second, regular monitoring of Oxygen saturation of patients with Pulse oximeters,” he said.

He stressed that the use of Bukharis / Kangris / gas heaters should be discouraged in the room of the patient.

President Doctors Association Kashmir Dr Suhail Naik said that home quarantine and isolation has proved a game-changer in the management of covid pandemic.

“Although home management has decongested the hospitals to a larger extent and has improved psychological stability among masses, many patients among them are oxygen-dependent and require continuous oxygen support,” Dr Naik said.

He noted that the oxygen at home is generated by a medical gadget “oxygen concentrator” which requires uninterrupted electricity for functioning.

“Therefore, during these winters uninterrupted electricity is of utmost importance to save thousands of lives and prolonged load shedding schedules can suffocate many patients simultaneously,” Dr Naik said.

He pointed out that further, a large number of patients who are suffering from Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) develop frequent exacerbations during winters and often need oxygen therapy.

“Therefore, this winter it is the moral responsibility of the Power Development Department to provide uninterrupted electricity during coming winters and our prolonged load shedding schedules,” Dr Naik said.

SRINAGAR: Indian-American politician, Pramila Jayapal, 55, who has been critical of Delhi’s Kashmir policy and the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) was re-elected to the US House of Representatives for the third consecutive term. She is among the four (and possibly five) Indian-Americans who have made to the US parliament, so far.

“WOW, we did it decisively: 85% & 344,541 votes!  Thank you #WA07. I am humbled, grateful & ready to serve again.  Our path to truly build a more just & equitable country is long. But we are bold, progressive & unafraid, and if we believe in the possible & organize, we WILL win!” Jaipal tweeted after the results of her Washington berth were out.

Jayalpal who has been an Indian citizen for 35 years is a Chennai-born congresswoman of the Democratic Party. She defeated Republican Craig Keller in the seventh congressional district in Washington State by 70 per cent. With nearly 80 per cent of the vote, Jayapal, who has emerged as one of the top progressive lawmakers in the US Congress in the last four years, received 344,541 votes against just 61,940 for Keller.

She was the first Indian-American woman to be elected to the US House of Representatives in 2016. Besides that, she is the second Indian-American to have been declared elected to the House of Representatives. Raja Krishnamoorthi, also from the Democratic Party, also won easily from Illinois. As this report was filed Dr Hiral Tipirnen, another Indian American was leading from Arizona. If elected she would be the second Indian origin female to enter the US Congress.

Others who have won include Dr Ami Bera, and Ro Khanna. This is for the first time that the Indian-American community has emerged a major political force in American history. The USA has nearly 18 lakh voters who have Indian origins. The winning India origin politicians will strengthen, what is called the Congress’s Samosa caucus. However, the focus shall remain on senator Kamala Harris whom Joe Biden has taken as running mate, the Vice President.

Those trailing right now include Sri Preston Kulkarni, 42, in Texas. Republican Manga Anantatmula has already lost from Virginia so did Republican Nisha Sharma.

Of all the American politicians from Indian roots, it was Japayal who was quite reactive to the reading down of Article 370. She had introduced a resolution with colleague Steve Watkins to urge India “to preserve religious freedom for all and end communications blockade and mass detentions in Jammu & Kashmir”. The resolution had urged New Delhi to “uphold the democratic values” upon which the country was founded even as he expressed concern over the continuing tension and alleged human rights violations in the Valley post the revocation of Article 370 that provided for special status to the only Muslim-majority state.

Jayapal was in India when Article 370 was read down and had raised the issue of children being detained. “This is unacceptable …the detention without charges,’’ Jayapal said, in reference to the Public Safety Act. She had been vocal about the case of Dr Mubeen Shah, a businessman, who, she said was detained without an offence.

After Article 370 was read down she wrote a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and urged him to press India to immediately end the communication blockade and release those who have been detained. Quoting her letter, Hindustan Times reported that, the September 11, letter to Pompeo urged “the Administration to press the Indian Government to immediately end its communications blackout of Kashmir, expedite the process of reviewing and releasing individuals ‘preventatively’ detained, ensure hospitals have access to life-saving medicines and protect the rights of the Kashmiri people to freedom of assembly and worship” reads the letter.

Tagging the letter in a tweet, Jayapal had said: “I continue to be deeply concerned about credible reports of a humanitarian crisis in Jammu & Kashmir. Even in complex situations, we look to strong democratic allies like India to uphold basic human rights and due process,” Hindustan Times reported. This Kashmir activism led the Foreign Minister Dr S Jaishanker refused to meet her when he flew for a meeting with the US lawmakers.

by Hirra Azmat

SRINAGAR: With the onset of winter, the spread of coronavirus cases show a surge in the Kashmir valley.

An inside view of an SMHS hospital ward dedicated to Covid-19 care in Kashmir. Watch the oxygen cylinders, now the basic requirement. KL Image: Bilal Bahadur

According to the official figures, Jammu and Kashmir have recorded around 5935 active cases till November 4. Of which, 4320 cases are from Kashmir.

Nodal Officer Government Medical College, Srinagar Dr Salim Khan warned that there is a resurgence of Covid-19 cases in the valley.

“Over a couple of weeks, the graph of COVID case detection, admission of COVID cases and COVID related deaths have again gone up,” he wrote on Facebook.

Dr Khan pointed out that the complacency among the general population and resultant widespread of COVID-19 Infection as is evident from the Sero survey in Kashmir.

“The survey points towards that chances of transmission of infection to vulnerable populations especially elderly and persons with co-morbidities is still high,” he said.

Dr Khan stressed on following SOPs religiously, wear masks, maintain social distancing. “Kindly protect the vulnerable population in your homes and the community.”

An official at SMHS Hospital said that currently all the seven wards have been occupied with the Covid-19 patients.

On average, the hospital admits around 40 patients (falling in the middle age group) with bi-lateral pneumonia. Out of which 60 -70 per cent test Covid positive.

“In the last month, there were many vacant beds as the Covid cases had dropped off. Presently, even though many patients with bilateral pneumonia prefer to maintain oxygen supply at home, there is still a high inflow of patient admission.  As a result, all the beds are occupied,” he said, wishing to be named.

President Doctors of Association Dr Suhail Naik attributed multiple reasons for the increasing trend in Covid cases getting admitted in hospitals.

“First and foremost being the people don’t adhere to precautionary measures and have resumed the normal pre-Covid life. Secondly, people have completed the harvesting and moved indoors due to the cold climate. During the harvesting season, people were dispersed over large areas in their fields and consequently, the spread of the virus was not high,” he said.

He said that further due to cold weather the respiratory “innate immunity” is compromised and people become susceptible to respiratory viral infections including Covid 19.

“People have to understand that the virus is there with the potential to kill anyone irrespective of age and or comorbidities. They are advised to follow precautionary measures religiously, avoid overcrowding and keep living rooms well ventilated. Further high-risk people must go for a flu shot in order to keep influenza illness under control,” Dr Naik said.

SRINAGAR: In the about to conclude US presidential election 2020, all the three Muslim members of the Congress were re-elected. They are from Democrats and two of them are women.

American Muslim politicians Omar Ilhan and Rashida Tliab who were re-elected to the US Congress in 2020 on Democratic Party mandate

However, there have been other firsts as for as foreign origin Muslims are concerned. At least five Muslim politicians – again, all Democrats, were elected to the respective state assemblies from five different states.

Congress

The three Muslim Congressmen are Ilhan Omar (Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District), Rashida Tlaib (Michigan’s 13th Congressional District) and Andre’ Carson (D) who was re-elected from (7th District, Indiana). They were in Congress in the last term as well.

Yes, honor the sweat equity that went into these victories, from communities directly impacted by Trump’s cruel policies and those voting their conditions. https://t.co/1bgQvorW4l

— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) November 5, 2020

The Somali origin American, Ilhan Omar, 38, defeated Republican Lacy Johnson. Rashida Talib, who is from Palestinian descent, defeated candidate David Dudenhofer.

André Carson (D) defeated Republican Catherine Ping and libertarian Chris Mayo in Indiana. Carson was first elected to Congress in 2008. He converted to Islam in 1990.

Your white supremacy is showing again. #Detroit births movements that make our country more just, while you enable your own writers to sling racist and sexist language. Just be quiet. https://t.co/NwBXv43BUw

— Rashida Tlaib (@RashidaTlaib) November 5, 2020

Both Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar won re-election with an overwhelming majority of the votes in their respective districts in Michigan and Minnesota. “Tlaib and Omar have faced incessant attacks from President Donald Trump as well as criticism from officials in their own party over their outspoken stances against the Israeli government’s treatment of Palestinians,” according to a report in the Middle East Eye.

Andre Carson

In an interview with Middle East Eye last week Tlaib said that she would continue her advocacy for rights of the Palestinian people.

Omar, interestingly, was active during 2019 summer on Kashmir advocacy. She attended at least one Congressional hearing in which she asked very uncomfortable questions to some of the individuals representing Delhi.

In the history of US Congress, there have been only four Muslims including the three who have retained their status in the just concluded election. The first has been Keith Alison who converted to Islam in 1982. He was in Congress between January 2007 and January 2019.

State Assemblies

Last night, Mauree Turner, Madinah Wilson-Anton, Iman Jodeh, Samba Baldeh and Christopher Benjamin were the five Democratic politicians who made history by becoming the first Muslim state legislative lawmakers in different US legislative bodies. These include three women.

“Mauree Turner, who won her race for state House in Oklahoma, will be the first Muslim lawmaker elected to the state’s legislature. In Delaware, Madinah Wilson-Anton became the first Muslim elected to the legislature. Iman Jodeh, who won election to the Colorado House of Representatives, will be the first Muslim lawmaker in the state’s history,” reported HuffPost. “In Wisconsin, Samba Baldeh became the first Muslim elected to the Wisconsin State Assembly similarly Christopher Benjamin became the first Muslim American elected to any state office in the Sunshine State, representing the 107th District in the House of Representatives.”

Turner, a 27-year-old criminal justice advocate, The Washingon Post reported is  “a queer, Black Muslim who wears a hijab” and has become “the first openly non-binary state lawmaker in the country”. An LGBTQ, she also will be the first practising Muslim elected to the Oklahoma state legislature.

We did it! I ran to make the #AmericanDream a reality for Everyone. I am a proud #Muslim, #PalestinianAmerican, & #firstgeneration American. And I am proud to be able to represent my communities & the people of #hd41 in the #Colorado state legislature! Now, let's get to work. pic.twitter.com/ndZ1Q3HrgY

— Iman Jodeh (@ImanforColorado) November 4, 2020

Baldeh, a 48-year old Muslim who immigrated from the Gambia to Madison, Wisconsin, in 2000, joined local politics as an unlikely candidate. On Wednesday, he successfully defeated his opponents in the race for state Assembly to represent the 48th District.

Three of the five Muslim politicians who were elected to different US state assemblies in the 2020 elections (L-R) Madinah Wilson-Anton, Christopher Benjamin and Samba Baldeh.

“A member of the Madison city council since 2015, Baldeh said he was frustrated by the uptick of Black deaths at the hands of law enforcement and the vilification of Muslims by various political figures which motivated him to run,” Huffpost quoted him saying, adding “I hope [my win]is also an inspiration to particularly kids of colour and Muslims [to show them], ‘Look, we can do this. This is all our country and we should see it as such, and behave as such, and participate as such.’”

Similarly, Wilson-Anton said that she hopes her win will further shatter stereotypes about Muslims and Muslim women being oppressed or timid. “We’re all part of this country,” Huffpost quoted her saying.

President Joe Biden

The Democrats are inching towards the historic victory, even though, so far they have polled less votes than Republican candidate, Donald J Trump. Muslims have supported the Democrats and not Republican.

The Democrat presidential nominee Joe Biden with his VP nominee Kamla Devi Haris, an American with Indian origins from mother’s side. Her father was a Jamaican.

According to a study conducted by the American Pew Research Centre in 2017, there are about 3.45 million Muslims in the United States, representing about 1.1 per cent of its population. “By 2040, the Muslim population in the United States is expected to exceed the Jewish population and become the second-largest religious group in the country after Christians,” the pew report said.

In this election, nearly 69 per cent of Muslim voters cast their ballot for Democratic Presidential nominee Joe Biden while 17 per cent supported President Donald Trump, according to a survey conducted by Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organization in the US.

Donald Trump

Compared with the 2016 election, in which then-President-elect Donald Trump received 13 per cent of the Muslim vote, Trump in 2020 received only 4 per cent more support. Trump has been accused of holding a hostile approach towards Muslims. He initially banned people from six Muslim-majority countries from entering the US. While in 2020 Trump has toned down his explicit anti-Muslim rhetoric, which marked his 2016 campaign, many Muslims in America have bitter memories of policies such as the Muslim ban.

Joe Biden, 77, is inching towards victory. He had previously vowed to include Muslim Americans in his administration and repeal Donald Trump’s Muslim ban.

SRINAGAR: At least three researchers from Jammu and Kashmir have made it to the list of World’s top two per cent scientists, a compilation of the University of Stanford, USA. The list includes Kashmir’s top medicos Dr M S Khuroo, gastroenterologist and ex-director SKIMS, Srinagar, and Dr Parvaiz A Koul, the current head of Internal and Pulmonary Medicine SKIMS. Dr Shakeel Ahmed, the third researcher from the Jammu and Kashmir, is the youngest researcher from India.

Prof M S Khuroo whose work on Hepatitis-E virus is globally acknowledged.

The researchers have figured in the “Updated science-wide author databases of standardized citation indicators”. It lists the top 2 per cent scientists from all over the world from a list of over 1,59,000. Around 1500 Indian researchers have made it to this list but so far only these three names from Jammu and Kashmir could be known.

Dr Parvaiz Koul

This database, a work of John Ioannidis, Kevin Boyack and Jeroen Bass from the departments of Medicine, Epidemiology and Public Health and Biomedical Data Science, University of Stanford, California, USA has been published in the October 16 issue of PLOS Biology. It evaluated the global impact of the works of top scientists in the World, which included all scientists who are between top 100,000 across all fields and top 2 per cent of their discipline, based on the number of citations. The data was collected from the Scopus database for 6.8 million prolific authors out of whom the top 100,000 were analysed.

Thanks all for your compliments and words of encouragement. Gratitude.
Wish it motivates young researchers to outdo us in academic research and truly make me proud.

— Parvaizkoul (@Parvaizkoul) November 5, 2020

Meanwhile, Dr Koul after being listed among the top scientists reached to his Twitter handle, where he wrote that “it was a moment of gratification to be in the list” and hoped that it motivated more and more researchers to publish in high impact journals. “Thanks all for your compliments and words of encouragement. Gratitude. Wish it motivates young researchers to outdo us in academic research and truly make me proud. “The day one of my students outpaces me in every single sphere, I will be a satisfied man,” he wrote.

Dr Khuroo, however, has expressed concern over the fact that only two scientists from Jammu and Kashmir were featured in the list. “We have more than six research institutions here in Jammu and Kashmir. We need to be doing more research and more relevant research,” he said to a local daily newspaper.

Dr Shakeel Ahmed, a young assistant professor from district Rajouri, who is presently working in the Government Degree College Mendhar, has managed to be in the list in the field of polymer chemistry.

Dr Shakeel Ahmad

Author of several research publications in the area of green nanomaterials and biopolymers for various applications including biomedical, packaging, and water treatment, Dr Shakeel has said that he has published more than 15 books in the area of polymers, nano-materials and green materials with publishers of international repute such as Elsevier, CRC Press, Wiley, Scrivener publishing, etc. He is a member of the American Chemical Society and Royal Society of Chemistry.

Hailing from Dhangri village, Dr Shakeel has completed his BSc from Government PG College, Rajouri. He completed MSc in 2012 from Dr Saiqa Ikram Department of Chemistry, Jamia Milia Islamia. In 2016, he completed his PhD from Jamia Milia Islamia, Delhi.

“It is a moment of gratification to be on the list. It will inspire the young generation of Jammu and Kashmir to work for furthering science especially from Pir Panjal region,” Dr Shakeel told a local newspaper.

by Khalid Bashir Gura

SRINAGAR: Wasil Manzoor, 18, a resident of Pampore was recently featured in BBC’s trending programme as a local social media star sensation: How to be a social media star without the internet.

Wasil Manzoor

Still in his teenage, he works in a private company to support himself financially. Manzoor has a huge following on Tik Tok and social media apps like Instagram to boast of. He has more than twenty-five thousand followers on Instagram and had almost half a million followers on Tik Tok, the app currently banned by the government in India after a standoff with neighbouring China. After passing his board exams, he wants to tiptoe into college life and aspires to be a journalist.

Manzoor did not let the virtual world blindfold real world. An elder among his sibling, he sensed the responsibilities and realities of financial limitations that his humble background entails with. Thereby, he sought financial independence but everyday harsh realities of life do not stop him to dream and do what he is best at; acting.

A Modest Start

In December 2018, when young Manzoor’s final exams’ were finished and he was brandishing his new gifted phone from the family to his friend he decided to make a funny video on Tik Tok just to ward off boredom.

With each funny video, he entertained people and each video motivated him for next until his 30th video became viral and then there was no looking back as the video garnered more than three million views on the app according to Manzoor. “It was a conceptual video where two brothers loved and proposed the same girl,” he said as after the viral video what followed was: fame, followers and money also trickled down.

Now a, TikTok star with followers running three lakh in less than a year, his every video used to became viral till August 5, 2019. “I used to earn from the promotional videos, paid campaigns. For each viral video would fetch Rs 700-1500. I would have around more than 1 million followers had August 5 communication clampdown and lockdown not followed,” he said.

Along with his friend Faizan, he was at the peak of popularity and sudden disruption took everyone by surprise and no one was informed what is in store for us. “If I had a hint of being cut off from the rest of the world, I might have informed them prior to lockdown. Few days prior to August 5, lockdown I had travelled to my maternal home to Budgam. I was stuck for months there and was frustrated,” he said. “My mother had suffered a fracture in her hand and I came to know after months as phones were not working.”

The Communication Gag

As months passed by without access to phone and Internet, Manzoor was frustrated. Initially, he had thought that siege will end soon but it turned out to be longer than expected. “I felt choked all the time and wanted to run away from the confinement.” What haunted him and added to his frustration was that his work on TikTok might go down the drain and he may end up losing millions of followers. “When one is inactive on social media platforms for months, people, of course, will follow.” But Manzoor was taken by surprise when after easing of lockdown he went to Delhi and checked his account. The fact he was oblivious to was that he had gained more than one lakh followers even without making new videos for months on TikTok but on Instagram his followers had reduced from 12000 to 5000.

“Most of my videos get viral outside Kashmir and as the internet was working in other parts of India my TikTok account continued to garner followers.”

A Visit To Delhi

In late November 2019, when he travelled to Delhi, he was surprised to see a spike in followers but according to him, it took another one month to restore the account to former impression. “Almost for a month, in Delhi, I worked hard making videos and hoping for them to get viral. But I was disappointed,” he said adding that the audience may have had thought that we have stopped making videos and my new videos were not getting viral for more than a month. It was only at the start of New Year that smile and happiness outside his acting world were back.

The disappointment with the fallout of being cut off from the world did not last and persistence and patience paid as in January 2020 his videos started getting viral again; garnering views in millions.

In Jammu and Kashmir, as life was limping back to new normalcy, the slow speed Internet was restored by the end of the January but social media was still inaccessible as only approved number of sites by the government was allowed to access. As months passed by and Kashmir was still emerging from the post-August 5, 2019, reading down of article lockdown, another lockdown due to raging pandemic enclosed people all across the world like Kashmiris. As the world had access to high-speed internet when coronavirus pandemic forced them within homes, Kashmir was rejoicing and ascending to access through VPN’s to finally government lifting ban on all barred sites but slow speed internet persists for more than a year now.

Entertaining In Lockdown

This year’s pandemic lockdown was less harsh to endure as the Internet was working for Kashmir. During the lockdown, he continued making videos to entertain people and his audience liked and appreciated his work all across the country despite slow speed that added to his frustration and his limited access, and recurrent Internet shutdowns he battled in his district due to frequent encounters. “Most of my audiences are from outside as the people in Kashmir have difficulty in loading videos. It takes time in buffering even a small video at such a low speed. For fifteen seconds video it takes many minutes to upload video,” he claims.

These days, he is most active on Instagram on which he has more than 25 thousand followers. “If one has high-speed internet one can do a lot many things. 2G speed has limited our abilities to function fully,” he said.

When the nationwide lockdown was imposed due to pandemic, in mid-March early this year, Manzoor when saw people violating lockdown restrictions across the country, he made a video wherein he urged people to stay put and stay in just like Kashmiris have had previously and that too without the internet. “I questioned them why can’t they stay in. They have high-speed Internet. Kashmir is still grappling with low-speed internet,” he claimed and the video, which he posted on Instagram and TikTok got more than 2 million views according to him.

Being exposed to a large audience even from mainland India, Manzoor says he gets both positive and negative comments. “Sometimes people from India do not believe that internet in Kashmir can be shut for so long, and some even saluted for being Kashmiris being used to lockdown,” he said. “And those who don’t believe what is happening in in Kashmir are ignorant of the realities as mainstream media never portrays realities or informs them of truth,” he adds.

Want People Laugh

According to him his only motive for making videos is: “to make people entertain and laugh as I know how depressed people are and what we really go through in everyday life.” But he learned as a content producer that it is not just people in Kashmir that are depressed but even outside students and audience who watch his videos; though the intensity may vary, he added.

While making videos he endured months of criticism from relatives and people who really did not consider making videos a productive engagement. He found his consolation and strength in the family. “My family, especially my father supported me,” he said, adding that once his videos got viral and people acknowledged his talent of giving expressions, the cruelty from conventional and conservative minds subsided. “I did not matter to me what anybody said, as long as I knew I am doing right and does not harm anyone.”

A Journalist In Making

As Manzoor, looks forward to carrying on his dream of becoming a journalist, he also plans to continue to do what he is best at that is acting and hopes someday, like many other TikTok stars who are working in the media industry, will be noticed for his skills and be like them, even if it means if an advertisement company hires him or any web series director someday signs him for the project.

He has hopes and dreams from TikTok but he sees it as his non-vocational activity. “With hard work, patience everything is possible,” he said as he considers studies important along with talent and skills.

But after witnessing bumpy ride in the past few months, Manzoor managed with limited speed and infrequent Internet. After few months, fate had another parting in store, this time more heart-breaking than former: On June 29, this year the central government banned hundreds of Chinese apps following tensions between India and China which escalated into deadly clashes in the Galwan Valley on June 15 that killed 20 soldiers. In an official statement, the ministry of information and the ministry of information and technology said the apps have been banned due to many reasons such as security and privacy.

As he continues to upload content at 2G speed on social media app Instagram, he is now aware of what has happened to TikTok. “I am being informed by people from other countries on social media that my TikTok account is working and its faithful followers have not left their star.”

by Khalid Bashir Gura

SRINAGAR: Abdul Samad, the 19-year-old Kashmir cricketer is continuing to win hearts with his jaw-dropping performances in IPL even as his team Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) had a heartbreaking departure from the tournament after losing to Delhi on Sunday.

Altroz Super Striker of #Qualifier2 between @DelhiCapitals and @SunRisers is Abdul Samad. @TataMotors_Cars #AltrozSuperStriker #Dream11IPL pic.twitter.com/R3aWCFZGgZ

— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) November 8, 2020

As the team’s hopes in IPL 2020 race to winner’s title are gone, Samad’s blistering knock against the Delhi Capitals refuses to die down despite defeat.

Delhi Capitals defended a total of 189 as they defeated SRH by 17 runs and progressed to finals of IPL where defending champion Mumbai Indians are waiting for them today.

After 59 games and lots of tightly contested matches, the defending champions Mumbai Indians will lock horns in Dubai on Tuesday (November 10) with Delhi Capitals.

Delhi Capitals defeated Sunrisers Hyderabad in Qualifier 2 of the tournament to make it to their first-ever IPL final on Sunday.

On Sunday, as the boat of SRH was sinking, the 19-year-old Samad made an impact and tried to save it with a 16-ball 33.

Kane Williamson praised the youngster and said that his innings helped SRH to get back into the game as both built a crucial stand of 57. However, much to his disillusionment and his team he was unable to assure the victory of his side and take them to finals.

Samad made his IPL debut versus Delhi Capitals at Sheikh Zayed Stadium on September 29 and also ended this year’s IPL seasons last match with the same team at the same stadium on November 8.

He has played 12 IPL matches this season, scored 111 runs with a strike rate of 170. In his journey to 111 runs, he smashed 6 sixes and 8 fours.  Unlike his batting, his bowling was unimpressive as in 12 matches he bagged only one wicket with an economy of 13.

But as Samad will be packing his luggage full of memories in IPL 2020, his performance is being praised by many former Indian players like Harbhajan Singh, Yuvraj Singh and Irfan Pathan who expressed hope in his talent and hard-hitting ability.

His father was sports teacher in our school. Anyone from Ranbir School Jammu will know him.
Great debut #abdulsamad That massive Six won many hearts in J&K. Jammu is proud. Whole J&K is proud of you. pic.twitter.com/huuWu4oIii

— Aakash Magotra (@aakash1_11) September 29, 2020

“Abdul Samad gonna be a special & Big player in future.. played some brilliant shots today specially that pull shot against Nortje,” tweeted Harbhajan Singh.

Former pacer Irfan Pathan who had a role in mentoring Samad to reach to this stage took to Twitter, saying: “Yes he should have won the game for @SunRisers but really proud of #abdulsamad for showing character and power game. #1stseasonofipl.”

Another feather added to Jammu & Kashmir’s cricketing fraternity as Abdul Samad is all set to make his ipl debut.I wish him the luck for his long career ahead! I am certain,this will create positive waves in J&K’s younger generations; who will look upto this upcoming Hero! #ipl pic.twitter.com/Abd4wykRFO

— Irfan Pathan (@IrfanPathan) September 29, 2020

It was Irfan who had noticed his hard-hitting ability. Pathan had seen the talent of the right-hander when he was working with Jammu and Kashmir as a mentor in domestic cricket.

Yuvraj Singh also responded to Pathan’s tweet as he too was in admiration of Samad’s batting and said he can be a special player in the future as he showed a lot of promise against Delhi Capitals. He tweeted: “#samad showed a lot of promise I feel can be a special player in the future.”

A big-hitting batsman, Samad struck more sixes for Jammu and Kashmir in the Ranji Trophy. He scored 592 runs in 17 innings at an eye-popping strike rate of nearly 113.

Samad became the fourth player from Jammu and Kashmir to break into the IPL after Parvez Rasool, Mansoor Dar and Rasikh Salam, when Sunrisers snapped him up for his base price of Rs 20 lakh in the December 2019 auction.

In an interview with Hindustan Times, former West Indies batsman Brian too had said about his fondness for Samad. He in fact named the right-hander in his list of young Indian batsmen who impressed in IPL 2020.

Later, Samad was declared Altroz Super Striker of the Match with an award of Rs one lakh.

“When VVS Laxman, Sunrisers’ mentor, was looking for a middle-order finisher for his franchise, Mewada, who was Laxman’s Under-19 team-mate many moons ago, recommended Samad for the role wrote,” ESPNcricinfo. Pathan and Mewada first spotted Samad as a 16-year-old in 2018, at a trial in Jammu.

“He was effortlessly hitting the ball,” Pathan told ESPNcricinfo. “But when I looked through his numbers, he didn’t have one 50-plus score. I took him aside and told him he would be put in the probables, but he needed to work on preserving his wicket. It’s not about six-hitting.”

O mankind, you are those in need of Allah, while Allah is the Free of need, the Praiseworthy. #Quran 35:15

— Abdul Samad (@Abdulsamad0111) October 11, 2020

Samad USP: Hitting sixes. It was on display in the Ranji Trophy.

Does he have the ability to build an innings too?

Samad has shown signs of it in the Ranji Trophy. When Jammu and Kashmir were reduced to 131 for 4 in their second innings against Maharashtra on a green track in Pune, he absorbed the pressure and averted a collapse, scoring 78 off 89 balls. His contribution was central to Jammu and Kashmir stretching their lead to 363 and eventually winning the game.

With the end of IPL 2020 for him, it will be interesting to see if his knocks will enable him to knock the IPL door next year too and possibly a changed, chiselled Samad on display.

Abdul Samad 3rd J&K Cricketer To Play In IPL, Hits Huge Six On His Debut

by Khalid Bashir Gura

SRINAGAR: Almost a year-long wait for a possible cure to the contagion that killed more than 1.2 million across the world, finally there is something positive. German pharmaceutical company, the BioNTech and American pharma giant, Pfizer have finally announced that they have a vaccine that is 90 per cent effective in managing Covid-19.

A colorized scanning electron micrograph of a cell (green) heavily infected with particles (orange) from the virus that causes COVID-19, isolated from a patient sample.

This sent the entire world starting from the US president-elect Joe Biden into a sort of ecstasy. Now two days later, the focus is on who did it?

It is now being reported globally that a researcher couple is behind the breakthrough: they are German citizens, a Turkish Muslim couple – Dr Ugur Sahin and his wife Dr Ozlem Tureci.

“It could be the beginning of the end of the Covid era,” Dr Sahin told the New York Times that ran a special story on the couple.

Turkish Muslim immigrant couple Dr Ugur Sahin and his wife Dr Ozlem Tureci who are behind the Covid-19 vaccine. They own a company that is now worth the US $ 21 Bn. A New York Times photo

“Dr Sahin was born in Iskenderun, Turkey. When he was 4, his family moved to Cologne, Germany, where his parents worked at a Ford factory,” the newspaper said. “He grew up wanting to be a doctor and became a physician at the University of Cologne. In 1993, he earned a doctorate from the university for his work on immunotherapy in tumour cells.”

It was while working as an oncologist in Homburg that he met his future wife, Dr Türeci, the British newspaper The Telegraph reported, informing that, “her father was a Turkish doctor who immigrated from Istanbul and she was born in Germany. She is the chief medical officer of BioNTech.”

As a young man, Prof Sahin battled against the odds to pursue his dream of a career in medicine — a long-shot for the son of a migrant car worker.

All these years later, “Prof Sahin and his wife, Özlem Türeci, are among the richest 100 people in Germany. They sold their first business for $1.4bn (£1bn) in 2016, and BioNTech’s value has soared to $21bn (£16bn) in the wake of the vaccine breakthrough,” The Telegraph reported. The New York Times reported that prior to starting his own research company, Dr Sahin worked under Rolf Zinkernagel, the 1996 Nobel Prize winner in medicine.

“Despite the couple’s wealth and business success, Prof Sahin remains in academia. He still teaches at Mainz University. He is described by colleagues as “humble”, and is known for turning up to business meetings carrying his bicycle helmet,” the report added.

Quoting his colleague, The Telegraph said: “He is a very modest and humble person. Appearances mean little to him. But he wants to create the structures that allow him to realise his visions and that’s where is aspirations are far from modest,” said Matthias Theobald, a colleague at Mainz University.

“After gaining his doctor with a thesis on immunotherapy treatment for cancer cells, Şahin followed his PhD supervisor to Saarland University in the town of Homburg, where Türeci was studying medicine. The couple married in 2002, interrupting their research only briefly to slip out of their lab coats and dash to the registry office on their wedding day. Their daughter was born four years later,” British newspaper The Guardian reported.

When research funds were hard to come by “we simply started our own company”, Şahin told the news-portal Heise. “Their first company, founded in 2001, was called Ganymed – not after the handsome hero of Greek myth but a Turkish expression roughly meaning “earned through hard work”, as Türeci told Süddeutsche Zeitung, one of the largest daily newspapers in Germany.

Their second company BioNTech which they founded in 2008, has currently 1300 employees. “The couple first set to develop immunotherapy cancer treatments, using genetic material called mRNA to train the human body to produce its own antigen,” The Guardian reported.

It was a quick war that killed more than 5000 people on either side of the Armenia and Azerbaijan as more than 100 thousand were displaced. It ended with a tripartite agreement, brokered by Russia, for the third time in history, but there was a complete absence of the Western world. What was surprising was the presence of Turkey, Pakistan, and Israel and to an extent Iran in the conflict directly or indirectly. Tahir Bhat went through global media coverage of the conflict to draft a comprehensive explainer of the crisis that started and ended without any involvement of larger peacemakers like UN, NATO or OIC. It explains the why, how and when of the crisis that festered the post-USSR central Asia for long.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan signed a peace deal on November 10, 2020. This must be the first agreement in history that ended a war and was signed virtually.

Why Azerbaijan and Armenia were fighting?

As the erstwhile United States of Soviet Russia (USSR) collapsed in 1991 fall, Armenia and Azerbaijan emerged as the new sovereign states like others. The small 4000-sq km region of Nagorno-Karabakh with 125 thousand population is located between these two small countries has historically been part of Azerbaijan. It is strategically located between western Asia and Eastern Europe and is internationally recognised as an Azerbaijan territory. During USSR collapse, the Armenia parliament petitioned Moscow suggested the region be given to Armenia as it has been part of the medieval Armenia kingdom (then called Artsakh) but it was rejected. It, however, asserted to stay autonomous and was supported by Armenia. This triggered a war between Azerbaijan and Armenia backed Nagorno-Karabakh. The clashes continued between February 20, 1988, to May 12, 1994, and the hostilities stopped after Russia managed a ceasefire.

Russia-brokered ceasefire helped ethnic Armenians to taken control of the region. It was during this conflict when the Khojaly massacre involving the brutal killing of at least 161 ethnic Azerbaijani civilians by Armenian armed forces took place. The Muslim who survived fled the Christian dominated region to Azerbaijan.

The region witnessed a 4-day war in April 2016 also and again Russia brokered a ceasefire, again.

The firing resumed in September 2020 and continued for six weeks. Azerbaijan took control over major Shushu city, overlooking Karabakh capital Stepanakert, and more than 200 villages after dismantling the air power of Armenia. There were series of ceasefires but they did not hold. Eventually, Russia prevailed over the two countries and a ceasefire was announced that is holding now, for the third day today.

In all these years, the Nagorno-Karabakh region had started exhibiting some autonomous existence. Armenia apart, the region was having its missions in Australia, France, Germany, Russia, the United States, and Beirut. It lacked UN membership, however.

A missile leaves a launchpad on Azerbaijan border. Pic: Azernews

What is the agreement between the two countries now?

The deal that Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan signed is the world’s first peace deal that took place virtually. The three leaders Russian President Vladimir Putin, Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan sat before the cameras’ discussed the issues and finally signed the agreement on November 10.

The deal envisages the Azerbaijan retaining control over the territory what it has managed in the 6-week war. Russia has already deployed its peacekeepers along the line of contact in Nagorno-Karabakh and along the Lachin corridor that links the Karabakh capital, Stepanakert, to Armenia. Supposed to be around 1960, they will remain deployed for as long as five years. People who were displaced because of war will return home and the two sides will exchange the dead bodies, injured and the prisoners. The fighting is stopped. As per the deal, Nakhchivan, the land-locked autonomous region of Azerbaijan will now have a Russian controlled corridor through Armenia to reach Azerbaijan. This west Azerbaijani exclave is surrounded by Armenia, Iran and Turkey.

This statement has historic significance. This statement constitutes Armenia’s capitulation. This statement puts an end to the years-long occupation. This statement is our Glorious Victory!

— Ilham Aliyev (@presidentaz) November 10, 2020

Armenia forces will leave from various other areas of the region and gave its possession to Azerbaijan within the next few weeks. Azerbaijan said Turkey will also be part of the peacekeeping process but Moscow denied it.

This is precisely why the deal is being seen as a surrender and defeat of Armenia. What is more interesting is that the peace deal indicated a major influence of Russia and Turkey in the region as it left no room for any Western power. A distant view of the conflict suggested that Russia, Iran and India were inclined towards Armenia as was the case of Turkey, Israel and Pakistan on the other side. A general impression is that the three countries supportive of Baku had rooted there concern in the fact that an extended Baku-Yerevan conflict could impact their energy supplies. On daily basis, Baku sells around 700,000 barrels of oil and 780 million cubic feet of gas.

Commentators are saying that the post-war agreement is almost similar to what the two sides had reached with third party assistance earlier in 2007. Armenia, however, avoid signing the agreement further paving way for the tensions in the region which led to the war in 2020.

The theatre of war between the Azerbaijan and Armenia

What is the nature of the conflict?

It is essentially territorial. The conflict evolved from apparently communal unrest between 1988 and 1990 and small-scale civil war involving rag-tag militias and irregulars in 1991 to an all-out war between two newly established states in 1992-1994. The conflict involves two key factors – the territorial integrity as Azerbaijan has been saying and eventually seems to have managed and the right of self-determination of the population that does not want to live with Azerbaijan and has a support of Armenia. Azerbaijan is predominantly Muslim, unlike Karabakh where Christian Armenians are the majority. The size of the area and the population inhabiting it is small. With Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity restored, it may have to negotiate with the Karabakh region for autonomy, something short of independence they are seeking.

What have been the costs of the 2020 conflict?

It is not known but a general belief is that for the two countries the 2020conflict has been devastating both in terms of the death, the injured and the loss to the infrastructure. Rusian President Putin who said he has been in touch with both sides throughout has said more than 5000 people were killed from both sides.

How Russia is placed in the conflict between two of its erstwhile sister states?

What is interesting is that Russia supplies arms to both countries. However, unlike Azerbaijan Armenia is a member of the regional security alliance called the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO). Moscow has always maintained that it has good relations with both the countries and wishes to stay neutral. Some commentators see Russia a rival to Azerbaijan owing to its monopoly over energy supplies to Europe. Russia is the only country that has a military base in Armenia.

Conflict Chronology

1920s: During Soviet rule in the south Caucasus, Nagorno-Karabakh became a semi-independent Soviet region within Azerbaijan.

1988: Nagorno-Karabakh voted to be part of Armenia, a decision opposed by both Baku and Moscow.

1990s: With the collapse of the Soviet Union, Soviet rule was transferred to Baku, but the majority Armenian population in the region resisted that decision.

1991: Armenian separatists seize Nagorno-Karabakh, along with seven adjacent Azeri districts, triggering a conflict that led to the death of at least 30,000 people and the displacement of hundreds of thousands.

1992: The Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (now the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) created the Minsk Group to encourage a peaceful, negotiated resolution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Co-chaired by Russia, France and the United States, the Minsk Group was criticised by Azerbaijan as biased to Armenia.

1994: A ceasefire was signed, ushering in two decades of relative stability.

2016: Deadly fighting erupted, killing at least 200 people from both sides.

2018-2019: When the freely elected protest leader Nikol Pashinyan came to power in 2018, he took steps with Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev to bring about a peaceful resolution to the conflict, vowing in a joint-statement in 2019 to “take concrete measures to prepare the populations for peace”.

July 2020: A flare-up of fighting between the two countries kills at least 17 combatants from both sides.

September 27, 2020: Clashes erupted between Armenian and Azeri forces in Nagorno-Karabakh. Armenia declared martial law and mobilised its male population to join the fighting.

November 10, 2020: Russian President Vladimir Putin, Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan signed an agreement that ended the conflict. Azerbaijan retained what it gained during the war and is expected to take-over other areas soon. It is being seen as Armenia defeat.

What was the role of Israel in the conflict?

The media coverage of the conflict suggested that Azerbaijan used the Tel Aviv supplied drones to smash the air defence systems of Armenia. Israel, it is interesting has relations with almost everybody in the region including Russia and Armenia. With Azerbaijan, it has a special relationship because it is the major energy supplier to the Jewish nation and buys most of its military hardware from it. Though Israel has diplomatic relations with Armenia as well but Armenians procure their military requirements from Moscow. Arms supplies apart, Tel Aviv has trained Azeri special forces also.

Azerbaijan supplies almost 40 per cent of Israel’s oil needs through the 1.2 million barrels a day Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline that handles almost 80 per cent of Azeri oil exports.

Comparison between Azerbaijan and Armenia in their war machinery

What was Turkey doing in the region?

Media reports did suggest that Turkish troops participated in the conflict but that was not confirmed by independent sources. However, it is a fact that Azerbaijan and Turkey enjoy a special relationship that is rooted in history. After the deal was announced, the Turkish foreign minister led a delegation to Baku, the Azerbaijan capital. Turkish leaders were as excited as the Baku was and the people celebrating the victory on Baku streets carried the flags of Turkey alongside their own country’s flag.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan publicly supported Baku in its struggle until the “end of the Karabakh occupation”. Turkey sees the Azeri Turks as part of the large Turkic nation and it is not uncommon to hear in both countries: ‘one nation, two states.’ Azerbaijan has been part of the Ottoman caliphate till its collapse following which it was taken over the USSR. Interestingly, even in July 1921, when the Bolsheviks led by Joseph Stalin formally transferred the Nagorno-Karabakh to Soviet Azerbaijan – apparently in a bid to placate Turkey, the region had sought inclusion in Armenia The petition, however, was rejected by the Kremlin.

But what is Pakistan doing in the region?

Though off late, Pakistan and Turkey are trying to move around the same trajectory within the fold of the Saudi dominated Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), Pakistan has been Azerbaijan’s old ally. Pakistan was the first country to accept Azerbaijan as an independent state and it continues to be the only country that has not recognised Armenia (the other country it does not recognise is Israel) as a state owing to the Karabakh issue. Though Armenians have historically migrated and lived in Pakistan, the two countries have no relations. In the September conflict, Pakistan was the second country that came publicly in support of Azerbaijan.

The other affinity that is between Baku and Islamabad is that Azerbaijan has historically remained supportive of Pakistan’s Kashmir narrative. It continues to be the member of the OIC’s Contact Group on Kashmir since 1996.

There were media reports that Pakistani troops participated in the conflict but Islamabad’s Foreign Office trashed it saying it terming reports as “speculative and baseless.”

Baku and Islamabad have inked an agreement in 2003 that allows Azerbaijani military staff, in particular special force units, to take part in annual military drills along with Pakistani armed forces.

Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan said he signed the deal because his army wanted it to be signed

A hybrid world war has started and the more the world continues to ignore it, the more it will become noticeable. This war is equally directed against Christians, Muslims & Jews. #Artsakh has become the frontline for anti-terrorism. We're with you, Vienna. Civilization must win!

— Nikol Pashinyan (@NikolPashinyan) November 3, 2020

Was there any role for India?

Apparently, there is no role. Delhi has diplomatic relations with both countries. It has had a very insignificant investment in Baku’s oil futures and recently there has been an agreement with Armenia envisaging a US $40 million sale of four Swathi weapon-locating radars. An earlier agreement of 1995 forbids Delhi from helping Azerbaijan in case of a conflict with Armenia over the disputed region. So far, three heads of the state of Armenia have visited India. However, there has not been anybody from Azerbaijan that came to India and vice versa.

India has taken a public position that it would support a peaceful resolution to the conflict. Earlier Delhi would talk about respect for territorial integrity. Though Armenia has been supportive of Delhi’s stand on Kashmir, India has avoided publicly endorsing Nagorno-Karabakh’s right for self-determination, apparently because of its repercussions back home. As recently as September 27, 2020, Armenian Prime Minister, Nikol Pashinian threw his country weight behind Delhi’s Kashmir position. He has met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in September 2019 on the sidelines of UN General Assembly session. Earlier in April 2020, Yerevan City Council approved the installation of Mahatma Gandhi’s statue in the Armenian capital.

There are around 1800 Indian’s living in Azerbaijan. Open-source media reports suggest that it was during the conflict that the media coverage by Indian media outlets triggered a situation that the Indian origin people started being asked uncomfortable questions.

What is the current situation?

The most important thing is the ceasefire is intact. The Armenian troops are leaving the territories so are the sections of the people who fear reprisals after Baku takeover. Azer media is gung-ho over the historic victory and now details are emerging about the status of the region ever since it was taken over by Armenian separatists. One media report quoting Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences (ANAS) survey said that 63 of the 67 mosques that were in the region are destroyed.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev with his wife Mehriban who is also the Vice President. The peace deal will help the couple control the country and get into a sort of monarchy.

While the peace deal turned Azerbaijan ecstatic, it has triggered unrest in Armenia. For the third consecutive day, tens of thousands of people have come on roads to protest the agreement and resignation of the prime minister. A number of protesters were injured in Yerevan, the Armenia capital, and there were arrests also. In his public address after signing the deal, Pashinian said it was “extremely painful for me personally and for our people,” to sign the deal because the situation was a “catastrophe” and he had no choices left.

#Artsakh's cultural cradle #Shushi stands strong against #Azerbaijan's attacks. The precious environment that the people treasured in their #hometown is being barbarically targeted by the aggressor, yet surely, #Artsakh's strong desire for #peace will prevail over any threat. pic.twitter.com/6Cx6osKvJ3

— Armenia (@armenia) November 6, 2020

Pashinian has said that he agreed to sign the deal after the Armenian army suggested it. Now, Chief of the General Staff of the Armenian Armed Forces, Colonel-General Onik Gasparyane has endorsed it. “This decision was an absolute necessity, the rejection of it could lead to irreversible consequences,” Armenian media quoted Gasparyan saying. “This must be clearly accepted and understood. I think this decision is correct, regardless of any speculation. This is a very bitter truth for us, but it was the result of an objective assessment of the situation.”

The war victory is expected to help Azerbaijan president in consolidating his empire and silence his critics. Ilham Aliyev’s family has been running the oil-rich nation as a fief. His father ruling Azerbaijan for around 30 years while being part of the USSR and after its collapse. Then the son took over in 2003. In 2017, he resorted for a referendum so that he could accommodate his ophthalmologist wife Mehriban Aliyeva, as one of the vice president’s. The family is filthy rich as they have stakes in oil, banking and insurance.

Will peace prevail?

A general impression is that since Azerbaijan has managed to achieve its objective, there will not be any tensions in future. For preventing a renewed crisis, the Russian peacekeepers would stay put in the region for the next five years. However, commentators insist that while the peacekeepers has secured the area and infrastructure, Baku may require to reveal how it intends to assure the ethnic Armenians that they can live with a majority Muslim countries with which it has had a tense past. Currently, the mood in Baku is that of a victor but in coming days it may have to take a call on which kind of politics it will permit in the region that hates to live with it.

SRINAGAR: Erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir’s arid region is exhibited the same trends regardless of the Line of Control separating them. A month after the Ladakh LAHDC polls were swept by the ruling BJP, the elections in Gilgit were won by Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).

Maryam Nawaz and Bilawal Bhutto Zardari in a meeting in Gilgit Baltistan in November 2020. They were campaigning for their parties during the third election to GB assembly.

Reports appearing in Pakistan media suggest that Khan’s party is formally staking the claim on the Gilgit-Baltistan government.

The GB assembly consists of 24 directly elected seats, in addition to nine reserved seats for women and political appointees that are allocated based on a proportional representation basis. The house has 33 seats in total. Elections were held on 23 seats because a candidate died during campaigning that led to the postponement of the elections in the particular constituency.

The Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) assembly’s 23 berths went to polls and of them 10 were won by PTI. While Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) won three seats, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) got two seats. The Majlis Wahdat-e-Muslimeen Pakistan (MWM) secured one seat after seat adjustment with the PTI whereas independent candidates emerged victorious in seven constituencies.

Imran Khan also flew to GB and campaigned during November 2020.

The results, however, have not been formally made public, so far. In certain areas, there were protests accusing the PTI of rigging the polls.

The GB region cast votes on Sunday (November 15). A day later results started pouring out.

The region witnessed high-pitch campaigning. While Imran Khan personally flew for a series of speeches, the opposition leaders – Maryam Nawaz Sharief and Bilawal Bhutto Zardari were stationed in the region for many days. Though Khan’s party failed to get the simple majority in the region, its emergence as the largest party is because of its promise to make the region, fifth province of Pakistan. This idea is being opposed by Delhi and the Kashmiri separatists. After unimpressive outcome for their parties, both Maryam and Zardari are accusing PTI of poll rigging. In fact, Bilawal participated in a protest demonstration against the poll verdict.

“With the addition of the proportional representation seats, Khan’s PTI and its allies are expected to have 16 seats, one short of the number needed for an outright majority,” Al-Jazeera reported.

Maryam Nawaz Shareef while campaigning in Gilgit Baltistan

The region that was being governed differently, was given a right to choose its assembly only in 2010. This is the third assembly that the region elected. Polling, however, has taken place on 22 seats only as a candidate died while campaigning that resulted in the postponement of the polls. As many as 330 candidates, including four women, contested the election. In order to ensure incident-free polling, around 15000 security personnel had been deployed for the election process, reports appearing in Pakistan media said.

GB is strictly following the party that rules Pakistan. The first election was won by PPP when it got 15 seats, followed by the PML-N, the then ruling party, in 2015 when it won 16 seats. It is now PTI turn.

Gilgit Gambit

“The Gilgit-Baltistan elections have delivered little surprise. Despite the spirited campaign by Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari and Maryam Nawaz, the GB electorate has chosen to vote as per convention for the party ruling in Islamabad,” Pakistani newspaper, Dawn commented on the elections. “These elections saw unprecedented levels of campaigning as well as wide media coverage because they took place in the backdrop of a larger political confrontation between the PTI and the opposition alliance PDM. The reactions to the results therefore are as unsurprising as the results themselves. The PTI says the poll outcome has buried the opposition’s narrative; the PPP and PML-N say the results are a product of electoral rigging. Neither may hold fully.”

The region is important because it hosts the umbilical cord of Sino-Pakistan friendship the CPEC that passes through it.

by Shakir Ashraf

SRINAGAR: A photograph of the coloured candle on Instagram inspired a 24-year-old Kashmiri girl to start her own candle making business.

Mehak Parvaiz, an engineering student who has started candle making in Srinagar.

Mehak Parvez, 24, resident of Elahi Bagh Srinagar started her venture by making and designing candles of various symmetries and shapes.

Mehak is pursuing her engineering at SSM College of Engineering. Since her childhood, she says, she was fond of candles and lighting produced by it.

“I remember those days when we used to lit the candles and a joyful atmosphere was created. Also, it was the only alternative to glow the room, in absence of electricity”, said Mehak. “Now, the culture of candles is dying.”

According to Mehak, she has taken this initiative in order to generate employment by setting up a big unit.

It has now been two months into the candle making and the response is positive and encouraging. Mehak is receiving 4-5 orders per week. “On festivals, birthdays, special occasions and events, people book their order to make their moments beautiful”, said Mehak

Mehak claims that she is receiving most of his orders through social media. She then delivers it through cash on delivery or advance payment.

People are appreciating her work on social media, from 100 followers she is now been followed by more than 700 people. Mehak is facing a lot of problems because of 2g internet, however.

“I have invested Rs 40,000 to start this business. Most of the materials was not available in Kashmir then I transported it from outside,” she said.

In an event, organised by the Jammu and Kashmir Tourism Development Corporation limited in Srinagar, Mehak was appreciated by the officials as she displayed varieties of candles during the event.

SRINAGAR: Lord Nazir Ahmad, the Kashmir origin British politician who was British history’s first-ever Muslim member of the House of Lords who stepped down in the most humiliating circumstances. He resigned a day ahead of a House Committee report held him responsible for sexual misconduct in a case of exploiting a vulnerable woman, reports appearing in British, Indian and Pakistan media suggest.

Lord Nazir Ahmad

The Charge

“Lord Ahmed breached the Code of Conduct by failing to act on his personal honour in the discharge of his parliamentary activities by agreeing to use his position as a member of the House to help a member of the public but then; sexually assaulting the complainant, lying to the complainant about his intentions to help her with a complaint to the Metropolitan Police regarding exploitation by a faith healer, exploiting the complainant emotionally and sexually despite knowing she was vulnerable,” the report by the House of Lords Conduct Committee reads.

It added: “…the Commissioner found that Lord Ahmed knew that he was dealing with a vulnerable person, who was undergoing treatment for anxiety and depression and who had already made clear that she did not want a sexual relationship. He nonetheless misleadingly induced her to visit him at his house under the pretext of offering to assist her as a member of the House of Lords…”

Pakistan born British citizen Tahira Zaman whose complaint actually led to Lord Nazir Ahmad’s retirement from House of Lords in November 2020. BBC photo

Lord’s victim was identified by British media as Tahira Zaman, 43, who had approached him in 2017 seeking a police investigation into the conduct of a faith-healer, who, she thought was exploiting women. Starting with this, Lord took the woman for dinner to his East London home. They had “a consensual sexual relationship”.

BBC Report

Ms Zaman later told the BBC: “I was looking for help and he took advantage of me. He abused his power.” She is a single mother and has her origins also in Kashmir.

BBC reported that the two met in February 2017 to discuss the case, a meeting in which “Lord Ahmed groped her upper thigh”. The contact snapped and revived only on July 14. A month later, she met him at his home and they slept together. Two months later, the relationship ended as Lord Nazir refused to divorce his wife.

The lady complained to the House of Lords and they found they cannot get into it. She approached BBC that investigated the case and it forced House of Lords to change its rules on conduct. Eventually, the case was investigated.

The Report said Lord Nazir “persistently gave deliberately inaccurate and misleading accounts to conceal his behaviour towards Ms Zaman”. While doing this, the report insisted that he “failed to act on his personal honour, as evidenced.” While admitting the brief relationship, Lord Nazir has insisted that he has not exploited anybody.

A Thick Report

After the House of Lords Conduct Committee published its 270- page report, Lord Nazir announced he would challenge the same. Following his appeal, the Committee upheld the findings of the independent House of Lords Commissioner for Standards that asserted the Lord “breached the Code of Conduct by failing to act on his personal honour in the discharge of his parliamentary activities by agreeing to use his position as a member of the House to help the complainant but then: assaulting the complainant on 2 March 2017; lying to the complainant about his intentions to help her with a complaint to the Metropolitan Police regarding exploitation by a faith healer, and exploiting the complainant despite knowing she was vulnerable”.

Earlier Cases

The House of Lords said that the Conduct Committee, is Chaired by former Supreme Court justice Lord Mance and includes four external members, has dismissed Lord Ahmed’s appeal.

This, however, is not the first case of inappropriate behaviour of Nazir or his relatives. In 2019, Nazir and his two brothers were charged with sexual offences against minors. “Lord Nazir was charged with serious sexual assault against a boy under the age of 11 and the indecent assault of the same boy; two counts of attempting to rape a girl who was under the age of 16. All charges relate to dates between 1971 and 1974,” Pakistani newspaper Dawn reported. “His brother Mohamed Farouq was charged with four counts of indecent assault against a boy. One of these counts relates to when the boy was under eight, in the late 1960s. His other brother Mohammed Tariq was charged with two counts of indecent assault against a boy under 11.”

These cases are going to trial in early 2021, already delayed by the Covid-19 crisis. Earlier, he has spent 12 weeks in prison for rash driving.

Bitter Delhi Critic

Basically hailing from Pakistan administered Kashmir, Nazir had migrated to Britain as a child. He has lived in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, since his childhood. He grew up, joined politics and eventually became a “life peer” in 1998 on the recommendation of the then Prime Minister Tony Blair. In 2013, however, he resigned from the Labour Party after remaining associated with it since he was 18. He has been a bitter critic of Delhi’s Kashmir policy.

SRINAGAR: Unlike others in the electoral fray in this district, 40-year old Javed Iqbal Choudhary and his wife Shazia Choudhary, who are fighting district development council elections respectively from Peeri and Kotrenka area of Rajouri, don’t come from any political family. Javed has risen from grassroots, winning Panchayat and Block Development Council polls, before filing his nomination form as an independent candidate for DDC polls. His wife Shazia quit government service to contest election from the seat reserved for women.

Shazia Choudhary      Javed Iqbal Choudhary

A postgraduate in Environment Science, Javed has been running his independent business in Koteranka and provides livelihood to more than 60 persons.

Javed’s date with politics began when his father who was running for Panchayat elections in November 2018 died of cardiac arrest while campaigning.

Javed stepped in to take his father’s legacy forward and won the Panchayat elections by securing 1150 of 1300 votes.

In the first-ever Block Development Council election held in October 2019, Javid won by the highest-ever margin in the State. He secured 248 of 312 votes polled in the election.

Javed shot to fame for his extensive work during COVID-19. “He has worked extensively during COVID-19 and made masks and sanitisers for every household. He reached out to everyone, arranged movement passes and facilitated evacuation of stranded labourers and students. He even set-up villages committees to impose lockdowns in rural areas,” local residents told news agency KNO.

Javed’s commendable work not only gained him massive popularity in his own block but across Rajouri district.

When DDC elections were announced, Javid decided to plunge into the fray to take on traditional parties.

“All the traditional political rivals have joined hands against him.  Those who have fought elections against each other in the past have found a common cause to work together against Javed and his wife Shazia,” locals claimed.

Javed and Shazia’s rivals are Choudhary Zulfikar Ali( former minister), Iqbal Malik( who lost three elections from Budhal-Darhal as independent and Congress candidate) and Liaqat Ali( National Conference).

The couple are fighting elections from territorial constituencies of  Darhal Assembly segment which was the Peoples Democratic Party’s first-ever victory in Jammu region in 2008 when Choudhary Zulfikar Ali won the seat. In 2014, PDP retained the seat and Zulfikar was inducted as minister in PDP-BJP government.

After the abrogation of Article 370, Zulfikar deserted Peoples Democratic Party and joined Apni Party.

Zulfikar has fielded his wife Zubeda Begum in Koteranka territorial constituency against Shazia.

Strangely, BJP has not fielded candidates in Budhal Old A (Koteranka) and Budhal Old B (Peeri) even as the party has sizeable vote there. Interestingly, BJP has not also fielded their candidates in Peeri and Koterkna, raising questions about their secret pact with traditional parties.

Locals of the area said that they will teach a lesson to traditional parties during the DDC election.

“They have treated people of Buddhal as dumb-driven cattle for the past seven decades. They have failed to undertake development in the area.  We will show them the power of our vote in the election,” they said.

by Saima Bhat

SRINAGAR: After retiring to bed around midnight, when a young man in his thirties felt a wave of pain in his chest, he alarmed his family. Moments later, he was driven to the nearby health centre and eventually referred to SMHS in Srinagar. He had died before being seen by the doctors at SMHS.

Mudasir Ali

By around Friday dawn on November 20, everybody in Kashmir knew that one of Kashmir’s youngest and finest journalists, Mudasir Ali is no more. His death was attributed to his cardiac arrest. This was the second such case in less than two months.

A resident of Chrar-e-Sharief in central Kashmir’s district Budgam, Ali had no apparent ailment. He was working with Greater Kashmir for the last more than a decade now and also contributed to other publications regularly.

But his friend, who is a doctor, says Mudasir may have actually died of ‘pulmonary embolism’. “He had met an accident and his leg had got fractured. After removing the cast, he still had swelling in the leg. I think his symptoms, which he had informed his family about like breathlessness and pain in the chest could have been because of that. He was taken to the health centre from where he was referred to SMHS but if the doctor had given him heparin and put on oxygen he could have been saved. From Chrar to Srinagar, it takes almost 50 minutes,” said his doctor friend.

But Mudasir’s case is not in isolation. Another journalist Javid Ahmad, 31, a resident of Watergam village in Rafiabad Baramulla, was working as a defence correspondent of Rising Kashmir. He had a cardiac arrest when he was on his way to Srinagar on October 01. Travelling in a local taxi he collapsed when the bus reached Pattan.

Javid Ahmad

Both these reporters were below 40 and none of them had an underlying medical problem that could be linked to their heart attacks. Reportedly they were neither smokers nor had any issue of job insecurity. Earlier also, Maqbool Sahil met the same fate while he was riding his bike.

“The hearts of our youthful friends and colleagues are stopping suddenly,” journalist Muzamil Jaleel wrote on his social media handle. “There is so much grief in our lives. There is so much unbearable pain that we see and feel every day. Living, working, existing is a never-ending struggle. And the good among us, those who aren’t numb already, can’t take it anymore. When will we start living again, when will our land stop seeing the frail shoulders of parents carrying the coffins of their young children…when will we resume dying of old age…when will we start telling the happy stories.”

Journalists across the world live highly stressful lives. These are all the more complicated in situations like Kashmir.

Journalists have their own typical routine where they are always running to meet deadlines. “Our lives are different. We have a different lifestyle, where we usually follow a routine that our jobs dictate rather than what ideal life is all about,” said a senior journalist in the field for more than three decades now. “This lifestyle gets all the more complicated in situations like Kashmir. A general impression is that the level of anxiety and tension is abnormally high among Kashmir reporters and editors.”

Kashmir journalists protesting on Srinagar streets.

Understanding the need to address the issue, three years ago in 2017, Doctor’s Association in Kashmir (DAK), organised a free medical camp. The aim was to screen the journalists in Kashmir for various ailments. As many as 70 journalists were examined by various experts and various tests were carried out. Most of these journalists were below the age of 40 years.

As per the findings of the camp, most of the journalists were diagnosed with stress-related problems, including hypertension, increased sugar level, which most of them were not knowing, deranged lipid profile and fatty liver.

Reacting to the findings, Dr Mir Mushtaq, a senior member of DAK suggested journalists that they should re-organize their priorities and take some time out for themselves and spend time with their families and friends as they are working under challenging situations.

Journalists working with local media, with whom Kashmir Life spoke to said that they are working under immense stress. While there is job insecurity on one side, they said they have inadequate incomes.

“In these times, a journalist after completing his post-graduation gets less than Rs 10000 a month and continues to have a deadline dilemma and pressure from the management to perform. How you expect a person to remain at peace,” said a young journalist who has just joined the field.

Lamenting over the nature of the job, a female journalist told Kashmir Life that there is no distinction between a qualified and unqualified in this profession. “See anybody with mike and camera is a journalist,” she said. “There is no difference which at times puts us in an awkward situation.”

With the existing difficult situation, the condition post-August 5, 2019, changed drastically. The stress has grown immensely, both on the financial front and fear of being reprimanded by various law enforcing agencies.

Kashmir media, the stakeholders say “walks the razor’s edge for the past three decades, facing pressures from all sides of the conflict.”

In the last thirty years, Kashmir media lost more than 13 journalists and suffered direct attacks, intimidation, threats and pressures from various quarters.

“After August 5, other than to perform we have to have self-censorship so that the government agencies don’t create any hurdles in our work. We don’t have a free environment to work,” said another senior journalist.

Dr Arshid Hussain, Professor, IMHANS Kashmir

Outside the journalistic community, the psychiatrists dealing with the crisis also believe that in Kashmir the journalists are having a difficult time.

“Kashmiri journalists are mostly stressed and I am saying this out of my experience because I have many friends who are journalists,” says Dr Arshad Hussain, the leading psychiatrist in Kashmir. “I have seen more stress in journalism than any other profession. This job is very tiring and then there is no job security. And for the last two years, these issues have increased.”

Dr Hussain says a journalist can only be a journalist. “They are caught in. They don’t get sync with other works.”

“Some of these journalists have families, some are planning to get married and some have their families dependent on them and then they have a limited salary and they are not able to pay the medical bills, or take care of their families, which add to their stress levels. They always work under double-edged swords, of performing every day and then the pressure to run their families,” says Dr Hussain.

by Parrey Babar

SRINAGAR: The Wazwan country is witnessing interesting development as the mutton moved out of butcher’s knife. Mutton consumers are either managing their Roganjosh by paying the asking prices or have simply got into chicken eating.

The shortage coincided with the onset of winter that surges the mutton consumption because of the massive Harissa consumption. This is a special seasonal dish that urban Kashmir has routinely been consuming for most of the recorded history. Initially, there were quite a few Harissa eateries but now every hotel is offering the breakfast dish.

“After mutton shortage, we got the idea of making chicken harrisa and we got very positive responses,” Roohia Naziki, the promoter of the Chai Jai said. “People who have had health issues like diabetes have started eating this harissa.” It sells at only two-third of the mutton Harissa.

The mutton shortage owes to government intervention in its pricing. The government fixed the rate of Rs 480 per kilogram of mutton. But the butcher community said it is too less given the costs of the sheep heads and the freight. They were already selling upward of Rs 600 per kilograms. After the government started filing police cases against the mutton sellers, they shut the shop and went home.

This has created a sort of a crisis in Kashmir, especially Srinagar. Home apart, it has started hitting the hospitality sector.

In Lal Chowk, Standard Hotel and Restaurant that has been serving Wazwan to his customers since 1955 has edited out various courses from the menu. It is now offering only Kabab, rista and Rogan josh and a lot of chicken and vegetable dishes.

Do You Believe This?: J&K Spends Rs 10871 Cr on Eggs, Milk, Mutton and Poultry and 90% Consumption Is Locally Managed.

“We have decreased 70 per cent of dishes in Kashmiri wazwan because the mutton is not available,” Lateef Khan, who oversees the functioning of the restaurant said. “There are no options left other than chicken.”

Mughal Darbar, another restaurant chain, has prioritized party orders involving engagement ceremonies and most of these orders are pre-booked, some many months in advance. The daily wazwan serving in the restaurant are available in limited quantity for a few hours around noon. This is despite the fact that this restaurant chain owns a mutton storage facility.

Mutton is a major business activity. Market insiders said this sub-sector alone has around Rs 3000 crore turnover and most of the sheep and goat is supplied by Rajasthan an various other sheep-breeding states.