FJ Kashmir

  inam ul rehman   As we start to grow up our desires become solid. Having a car was one of the desires that fortified with age, but I was always certain that I will not bring it from my father’s pocket, take an interest-based loan from any bank, or sell a piece of land for it. Although I would drive the vehicles of my friends and cousins. This too stopped in 2005, after some innocuous thing became prickly.    Finally last year I was able to bring one.    Owning a vehicle is a dream that only a small population can fulfill. Then having a license to drive is what one desires. And here in Kashmir licenses were distributed like freebies. I remember in my clan some had licenses before owning a vehicle. This was not a strange thing exclusive to our clan only, I saw many people who had licenses before driving anything.    In 2021, a new regional transport officer, Kashmir, Sajid Yahya Naqash took charge and he immediately shot a message for the p...

  inam ul rehman A decade earlier there was a great hype given to “The road to stability in Pakistan and Afghanistan runs through the Valley of Kashmir .” It was a hyperbole then, and it proved so. Ever since the Taliban stormed Kabul and won it without a fight, most think tanks, intellectuals, analysts of the Indian state are wary that they will come to the disputed territory of Kashmir and wreak havoc! But why would the Taliban come to Kashmir?   What enmity does the Taliban have toward the state of India? What has the state of India done that the Taliban would cross the borders of Pakistan and start guerrilla war in Kashmir?   Of course, what prompts these speculations is the age-old trust deficit of India on the Islamic republic of Pakistan, and treating the Taliban as its proxy. While the former is a genuine concern the latter is a bloated view. The Taliban, in fact, most of the Afghans refuse to become proxies of anyone, and the former more so with its v...

  Why are Indo-Pak making the bodies of Kashmiris as their battleground?   inam ul rehman                     A couple of top army commanders that include Srinagar based 15 Corps , Lt Gen D P Pandey , and director-general of the Defence Intelligence Agency and deputy chief of the Integrated Defence Staff, Lt Gen. KJS Dhillon , chided Kashmiris for remaining silent on civilian killings that took place in the month of October. The latter used the words “selective dementia” and “silent majority” while referring to civilian killings in the Valley   ( https://www.aninews.in/news/national/general-news/why-selective-dementia-happens-to-silent-majority-when-theres-terrorist-killing-in-kashmir-lt-gen-kanwal-jeet-singh20211021001143/ ).    Since the army does straight talk, I will say it point blank.  When the Sikh pogrom took place in 1984, it was expected that the s...

 inam ul rehman  Like all great artists, and concerned citizen of his community, Akhtar Rasool was a lonely person. He had several friends, was a star of his community, but he held many views which were contrarian. He groomed artists, gave them suggestions, and didn’t shy in saying that Kashmiri artists do not have that perseverance, grit, and imagination to grab the attention of clients.     Akhtar Boss, as I fondly used to call him, belonged to a minority community which is also marginalised in Kashmir. I used to see his artistic work in the Greater Kashmir pullout magazine . It was Urdu weekly Kashmir Uzma , where he changed the view of newspaper editors and layout designers. He designed Kashmir Uzma in his own novel way. His frontpage illustrations combined with Riyaz Masroor ’s editing skills made this weekly a household name.   In 2007, I joined the daily Etalaat , an English newspaper. Here I came to know Akhtar boss’s work. He was the overall...

Book:  The lover boy of Bahawalpur : How the Pulwama case was cracked  Author: Rahul Pandita   Publisher: Juggernaut .  inam ul rehman   As the car laden with many hundred kilograms of explosives rammed into a paramilitary convoy on February 14 , Kashmiris watched in disbelief that killing of such magnitude took place in “world’s most militarised area” where surveillance of every human is unparallel. After the initial disbelief murmurs of this blast being inside job started to do rounds. It picked up, and even photos were circulated to prove that the suicide bomber Aadil Dar was paraded before a press conference by police. Do these rumours have any source?  Of course, Aadil Dar the suicide bomber, and Aadil Dar the arrested one were different entities.   You know what is common between Noor Muhammad Tantary , Ashiq Nengroo , and Abbas Rather . Noor is considered revivalist of the Jaish-i-Mohammad , and one who put “many boys on a suicide mission”. As...

inam ul rehman   The first time I heard the name of Dilip Kumar was in the early 90s when my father mentioned to me that the name of our adjacent Dilsoz Colony was kept by the former when he used to frequently visit the Valley. At the time I had no interest in him.    I was puzzled why of all actors Dilip Kumar’s name of the colony stuck with the people.  Those days Doordarshan used to telecast classic Bollywood movies once a weeknight. As a teen, I had no interest in black and white movies which langured on. But the puzzle of why Dilip’s name stuck with the place made me uncomfortable.  Internet was not yet to be midwifed, google was in clouds, and the only source was books. But a school-going kid reading books on film stars was taboo.    So, I started to read magazines, particularly Urdu film magazines and there was plenty written on him. His film Saudagar was then a runaway success, Urdu magazines went over the top to praise his acti...

Book: Midnight's Borders: A People's History of Modern India Author: Suchitra Vijayan Publisher: Context     inam ul rehman     God made men, and what did men do? Men made borders, divided humans in mine and thine country, created a humanitarian crisis in which humans are at each other's throat all in the sham faith of protecting the country at the expense of human lives.   Suchitra’s seven-year research brings her to the same conclusion that man-made borders have wreaked havoc on the earth and created a rift between humans in which a human being is judged from the place s/he comes from.      “No human being is illegal. Existing is not illegal.” These two sentences sum up the author’s motive for writing this book. The book is a drift from the normal readings we generally like to have. It is about the borderlands of India with Bangladesh , Afghanistan , Myanmar , and Pakistan to a lesser extent. These disfranchised people are living on Indian...