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OPINION

P4Kashmiriyat is dead, this much is certain. And everything associated with it – religious harmony, secularism, the distinct relationship between Kashmir and India –is gone as well. Kashmiriyat has been in the throes of death for some decades now, but the latest moves by the Indian government to abrogate Article 370 and 35A, and demote the state of Jammu and Kashmir to a Union Territory, have put the final nail in its coffin. Constitutionally and rhetorically, Kashmir is no longer special.

Kashmiriyat The Death Of An Idea

OPINION

P4Kashmiriyat is dead, this much is certain. And everything associated with it – religious harmony, secularism, the distinct relationship between Kashmir and India –is gone as well. Kashmiriyat has been in the throes of death for some decades now, but the latest moves by the Indian government to abrogate Article 370 and 35A, and demote the state of Jammu and Kashmir to a Union Territory, have put the final nail in its coffin. Constitutionally and rhetorically, Kashmir is no longer special.

Kashmiriyat The Death Of An Idea

OPINION

P4Kashmiriyat is dead, this much is certain. And everything associated with it – religious harmony, secularism, the distinct relationship between Kashmir and India –is gone as well. Kashmiriyat has been in the throes of death for some decades now, but the latest moves by the Indian government to abrogate Article 370 and 35A, and demote the state of Jammu and Kashmir to a Union Territory, have put the final nail in its coffin. Constitutionally and rhetorically, Kashmir is no longer special.

Kashmiriyat The Death Of An Idea

OPINION

P4The most important case in India today is not the Babri Masjid-Ram Mandir dispute but the trial of the Supreme Court by the people of India. And a litmus test in this trial will be the court’s behaviour in the case against the detention of Farooq Abdullah under the draconian J&K Public Safety Act. The Supreme Court was created by the Constitution of India on January 26, 1950. A few months after the promulgation of the Constitution, a constitution bench of the apex court held in Romesh Thappar vs State of Madras that “the Supreme Court is constituted as the protector and guardian of the fundamental rights of the people.”

The SC Is Also on Trial

Kashmiri Pandit Group Seeks Govt Nod to Visit Valley

PM's Desire of 'Hugging Kashmiris' Hollow: NCPress Trust of India

SRINAGAR: The National Con-ference on Saturday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi's state-ments on "hugging Kashmiris" and turning Kashmir into a para-dise sound hollow and belie ac-tions taken by his government.

Now we see PM Modi par-roting new catch-words. These catch-words are hollow and will eventually vanish into oblivion, the party said in a statement.

Asserting that the party rejects

the prime minister's rants , the NC said people are the best judge of the veracity of Modi's ear-lier catch-words of "Kashmiriyat, Jhamooriyat and Insaniyat".

"The government led by PM Modi has obliterated the very visage of Kashmiriyat by bifur-cating the state. The jhamooriyat rant too turned out to be a damp squib following the detention of legitimate political voices of the state," said the NC statement.

"The PM's insaniyat rant too turned out to be a More On P2

Agencies

JAMMU: A group of Kashmiri Pandits have written to the gov-ernment seeking its permission to visit Jammu and Kashmir and meet the political and religious leaders as well as civil society activists there to promote peace and amity in the Valley.

In the letter written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and the Jam-mu and Kashmir administration,

Kashmiri Pandit Satish Mahaldar and his team said: "As a follow-up measure and in accordance with the wishes of our respected and beloved Prime Minister, a delega-tion of Kashmiri Pandits wants to go to Kashmir and meet various leaders, including religious lead-ers like Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, and civil society activists."

According to the letter, "This would be the first positive step towards building a positive inter-community relationship to pro-

mote peace and development in the Valley."

"It would also ensure stability and help remove the fear of vio-lence or war between communi-ties. A responsible and positive inter-community relationship will enhance a peaceful atmo-sphere," it added.

The Kashmir Valley has been under a security clampdown since the revocation of Article 370 -- that accorded Jammu and Kash-mir a special status -- More On P2

AS A FOLLOW-UP MEASURE AND IN ACCORDANCE with the wishes of our respected and beloved Prime Minister, a delegation of Kashmiri Pandits wants to go to Kashmir and meet various leaders, including religious leaders

like Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, and civil society activists."

P10

News In Brief

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No Relief For ‘Chota Geelani’SRINAGAR: State High Court has rejected the petition challeng-ing the slapping of Public Safety Act on ‘ChotaGeelani’ who is allegedly known for his anti-India activities in Kashmir Valley. Chota Geelani according to officials is a known stone-pelter who has the potential to mobilize like-minded youth. Sources told Kashmir News Trust that the family members of ChotaGeelani had approached the High Court challenging slap-ping of Public Safety Act on him. Sources said that after hearing the arguments of public prosecu-tor, the court out-rightly rejected the petition of the family of the accused. Pertinently, authori-ties slapped PSA on scores of persons after Government of India abrogated special status of Jammu and Kashmir in the first of August last month.

4 Lakh Devotees To Visit KatraJAMMU: Around four lakh pilgrims are expected to visit the Mata Vaishno Devi shrine atop Trikuta hills in Reasi district of Jammu and Kashmir during the upcoming Navratra festival, and adequate security arrangements have been made for the devo-tees, officials said on Saturday.The 'golden gate' at the entrance of the cave shrine, which is in the final stage of completion, and illuminated tracks will the new additions during this year's Navratras which will commence on September 29 and culminate on October 7.Jammu Divisional Commissioner Sanjeev Verma told reporters, "As far as safety of the pilgrims is concerned, we are fully prepared for the rush of devotees and are promise-bound to provide adequate security to them... we are expecting a footfall of 3.5 lakh to four lakh pilgrims at the shrine during the Navratras this year." More On P2

JeM Module Busted In South KashmirJAMMU: Police conducted raids at several places in south Kashmir's Pulwama district and apprehended two overground workers of Jaish-e-Mohmmad (JeM) on the basis of leads pro-vided by three arrested terrorists of the outfit in Kathua earlier, officials said on Saturday.The arrested OGWs include the owner of the intercepted truck, which was ferrying terrorists and AK-type rifles to Kashmir from Punjab, in Kathua district Thursday last, they said."We have arrested two supporters of JeM terrorists from Pulwama. They include truck owner Suhil Ahmed Latoo of Gulshanabad, Pulwama, and Bashir Amhed Lone of Rajpura, Pulwama," a senior police officer told PTI. The duo has been taken on remand. They are being interrogated to know about the JeM module and its activities, he said. The officer said more ar-rests are likely to take place in the case. More On P2

Indo-Pak Battle Shifts to USTrump to Meet Imran Tomorrow, Modi on Tuesday

Houston Gears Up for ‘Howdy Modi’ EventHOUSTON (TEXAS)- Preparations are in full swing for Sunday''s mega ''Howdy Modi'' event at the massive NRG stadi-um here that will see 50,000 enthusiastic Indian diaspora members greet Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he takes the stage, with US President Donald Trump joining him in a rare gesture.The event at the NRG Football Stadium, one of the largest in the US, has been or-ganized by the Texas India Forum (TIF), a non-profit organization.The Indian American More On P2

Pro-Kashmir Groups Plan Counter ProtestsHOUSTON: with US-based Kashmiri activists having filed a federal lawsuit accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of rights violations in Kashmir, New Delhi is known to be in touch with Washington over the Prime Minister's security.The Indian mission is also working to find out the implications of the federal lawsuit.According to a report in the Houston Chronicle, the 73-page lawsuit More On P2

Lalit K Jha

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump will meet Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday, a day after he joins Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the mega "How-dy Modi" event in Houston and will again hold a meeting with the Indian leader in New York on Tuesday, a senior official has said.

Both the meetings with the leaders of India and Pakistan would be held in New York on the sidelines of the 74th session of the UN General Assembly, a senior adminis-tration official told reporters on Friday in a preview of Trump's engagements in the Big Apple next week.

Trump is expected to arrive in New York

on Sunday night after his participation with Modi at the "Howdy Modi" event in Hous-ton where the two leaders will address over 50,000 Indian-Americans.

The US president will then travel to Ohio where he will be joined by Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

"President Donald J Trump will be travel-ling to Houston for 'Howdy Modi: Shared Dreams Bright Futures' event. That will be the day wherein he will travel on to Ohio where he will be joined by Prime Minister Morrison of Australia where they will visit Pratt industry and celebrate US economic relationship with Australia," the official said.

On Monday (September 23), the first day of his stay in New York on More On P2

Day 48: Businesses Remain Shut

SRINAGAR: Though there is no official announcement from the authorities about lifting of the restrictions clamped on Kash-mir 48 days back, private vehi-cles are plying on the roads and very few barriers put up earlier by paramilitary forces, are in place. However all markets in capital Srinagar and in other major towns remain closed.

Police on Saturday reim-

posed restrictions in the Handwara area of Kupwara district as a precautionary measure to maintain law and order, officials said.

Fresh restrictions were im-posed in many parts of the Valley on Friday in view of apprehensions that vested in-terests might exploit the large Friday prayer gatherings at big mosques and More On P2

Except Shops, Everything Normal: JKPSRINAGAR: Barring shops, life across Kashmir has returned to normal and that in some areas even shops remain open in morning and evening hours, Jammu and Kashmir police saidon Saturday. It also said that those issuing threats to shopkeepers will be dealt with strictly. Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) Law and Order, Security, Munir Khan also said there was no threat issued by militants in any part of More On P2

No Bond Signed by Mirwaiz: Hurriyat‘Hurriyat Leader Remains Under House Arrest’

Azad Visits LD Hospital & TRC, Meets People

India, Pak Exchange Fire Along LOCPress Trust of India

JAMMU: Pakistani troops targeted forward posts and villages along the Line of Control in the twin districts of Poonch and Rajouri in Jammu and Kashmir, an Army spokesman said on Saturday.

“Pakistani troops initiated un-provoked firing of small arms and shelling with mortars in Balakote sector of Poonch and Nowshera in Rajouri overnight, drawing be-fitting retaliation by the Indian Army”, he said.

The spokesman said Pakistan first violated the ceasefire in Nowshera sector from 8 pm to 10 pm on Friday followed by firing of small arms and shelling with mortars in Balakote from 11.45 pm to 2 am.

There was no More On P2

Firing takes Toll on CattleAt least 16 animals were killed in heavy firing and shelling by Pakistan Army on forward posts and villages in different sectors along the Line of Control (LoC) in Poonch and Rajouri districts, officials said on Saturday.The intense shelling from across the border also prompted the au-thorities to suspend class work in nearly half a dozen government-run schools falling More On P2

Scientists, Academics Flay Communication Blockade in Kashmir

Observer News Service

SRINAGAR:Former Chief Min-ister and veteran Congress leader, Ghulam Nabi Azad Saturday visited a couple of places in Kashmir capital Sri-nagar and interacted with people inquiring from them about the prevailing situation.

Azad visited LD Hospital and TRC and talked to patients, at-tendants and transporters. He also interacted with Shikara and houseboat owners.

Azad, the leader of Op-position in the Rajya Sabha, reached Srinagar on Friday on his maiden visit after revoca-tion of Jammu and Kashmir's

special status.Azad was allowed to visit

couple of district of Jammu and Kashmir after he ap-proached Supreme Court. Kashmir is on edge since Au-gust 5 when Government of India abrogated Article 370.

He was earlier sent back to New Delhi when he was the part of the delegation led by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.

Azad also met various delega-tions at Circuit House Srinagar.

Pertinently, Azad is vehe-mently criticizing the move of Government of India about the abrogation of Article 370.

A bench, headed by Chief Justice of India More On P2

Observer News Service

SRINAGAR: Hurriyat Confer-ence (M) Saturday denied me-dia reports that the chairman of the amalgam Mirwaiz Umar Farooq has signed any bond to secure his release.

A handout issued by Hurri-yat (M) stated that its chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq continues to be under house arrest since August 5 at his residence as such his access to people and com-munication is extremely limited.

“The news item carried by some newspapers quoting sources that the Hurriyat chair-man has been released after signing a bond, is entirely base-

less,” said the statement. It fur-ther said that the conglomerate remains firm by its principle stand on the issue of Jammu and Kashmir and stands with the people in this unprecedent-

ed situation that all are facing.Interestingly, media reports

from New Delhi suggested, Mirwaiz was one among seven individuals who have signed bonds to secure their release.

It said that apart from Mir-waiz, two leaders of National Conference, one each from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and two others, whose political affiliations were not immediately revealed, had signed the bonds.

Pertinently, at least 36 detain-ees have been lodged in sub-jail Centaur since August 5. Mirwaiz was placed under house deten-tion on August 5, in the wake of scrapping of Article 370 and Article 35 A. More On P2

KO Monitoring Desk

SRINAGAR: Over 500 Indian academics and scientists have issued a statement demand-ing an end to the restriction on telecommunications and the internet in Kashmir, calling the move "deeply undemocratic".

"We are writing to express our deep concern about the crisis in Kashmir that has now persisted for over a month, and which was precipitated by the government’s decision to de-operationalize Article

370 of the Constitution and to end Jammu and Kashmir’s full statehood," the letter said.

The signatories wrote that they hold various views on Article 370, but they "are ap-palled by the government’s decision to restrict telecom-munications and the internet in Kashmir for over a month".

They said that while land-line connections had been re-stored in some parts of Kash-mir, "landline teledensity in Kashmir is below 1% accord-ing to the government’s own

statistics". This measure, they said, has "failed to provide substantive relief to Kashmir’s residents. In our own institu-tions, we have witnessed stu-dents suffering because they are unable to maintain contact with their families."

They spoke about "credible reports" that suggest that the restrictions had made it "dif-ficult for ordinary people in Kashmir to procure medical and essential supplies or even for children to attend school".

"We believe More On P2

PRESIDENT DONALD J TRUMP WILL BE TRAVELLING TO HOUSTON for 'Howdy Modi: Shared Dreams Bright Futures' event. That will be the day wherein he will travel on to Ohio where he will be joined by Prime Minister Morrison of Australia

where they will visit Pratt industry and celebrate US economic relationship with Australia."

Sunday | 22.09.2019 02News

FROM FRONT PAGE

Indo-Pak Battlethe sidelines of the UN General Assembly ses-

sion, Trump's first event will be the global call to protect religious freedom, the official said, de-scribing it as a key event.

"After that the President is scheduled to meet with the following leaders. Prime Minister Khan of Pakistan, President (Andrzej Sebastian) Duda of Poland, Prime Minister (Jacinda) Arden of New Zealand, Prime Minister Lee (Hsien Loong) from Singapore, President al Sisi of Egypt and President Moon of S Korea," said the official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

On Tuesday (September 24), Trump will deliver his address to the UN General Assembly. After that, he will hold a number of bilateral meetings.

"Prime Minister (Boris) Johnson of United King-dom, Prime Minister Modi of India, the UN Sec-retary General," the official said, adding that the president will also meet his Iraqi counterpart and end the day with a diplomatic reception.

With Modi-Trump meeting on Tuesday, the two leaders would be meeting for the fourth time in as many months. The meeting in New York is ex-pected to set the tone of bilateral relationship be-tween the two countries over the next few years.

The two leaders are likely to discuss a range of bilateral, regional and global issues, includ-ing efforts to address the growing bilateral trade disputes, potential defence and energy deals and peace process in Afghanistan.

Houston Gears Upcommunity has been busy preparing for the three-hour show that will see artistes present Indian classical and folk songs and dances, among other numbers.More than a 1,000 Gujaratis from Houston are preparing for a mega ''dandiya'', a traditional Gujarati dance, to welcome the Prime Minister for the event.TIF spokesperson Gitesh Desai said that Indian Americans from across the US would be attend-ing the "historical event"."Some 50,0000 attendees from Indian American communities, and people from the 48 states are attending. It is going to be a historical event, the largest such event held for a democratically elected head of state. No such programme has been held earlier in the past. Senators, Con-gressmen, mayors and the US President Donald Trump are going to attend," said Desai.Several cultural programmes are on the anvil for the show, which has a theme "Woven", signi-fying how the Indian American community has become part of America, he said.He said more than 100 buses are being provided to ferry the participants.Massive billboards have come up near the NRG Stadium and across Houston with messages of welcome for Prime Minister Narendra Modi.A car rally was also organised in Houston on Friday, ahead of the ''Howdy-Modi'' event.Ahead of PM Modi''s arrival on Saturday, the heavy rains in Houston, brought about by Tropi-cal Depression Imelda, have abated. The rains had caused massive flooding across Houston and there were fears it might take off the sheen from the event. Imelda left four people dead.Texas accounts for 10 per cent of India-US trade, about $7 billion worth of US goods and commodities are moved between Texas and India.

Pro-Kashmir Groupsfiled jointly by two US-based Kashmiri activ-ists, alleges that Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah; and Commander of Indian Army's Srinagar-based 15 Corps, Lt. Gen Kanwal Jeet Singh Dhillon carried out extrajudicial killings and inflicted "cruel, inhuman, degrading treat-ment or punishment" upon Kashmiris follow-ing the revocation Article 370 -- that granted a special status to Jammu and Kashmir -- on August 5.The civil complaint has been filed under the Torture Victim Protection Act of 1991, a federal statute that allows civil suits on the US soil against foreign officials suspected of commit-ting torture or extrajudicial killing.The New York-based attorney of the Khalistan Referendum Front said he planned to submit the case as a class action.Human rights protesters are expected to con-verge in large numbers outside the Houston's NRG Stadium to hold a counter event to the 'Howdy Modi' gathering that will see 50,000 members of the Indian diaspora in attendance

on Sunday. US President Donald Trump is also participating in the event, underlining the im-portance of India-US relations.The pro-Kashmiri groups have made elaborate arrangements in Houston for the anti-India protest.

Day 48: Businessesshrines to fuel protests.The restrictions under Section 144 of the CrPc

continued as a precautionary measure to main-tain law and order, the officials added.

Security deployment remained in vulnerable areas and mobile and internet services were yet to be restored in most parts of the Valley 48 days after the Centre abrogated Article 370 provisions of the Constitution.

Restrictions were first imposed across Kashmir on 5 August after the Centre announced stripping of Jammu and Kashmir's special status and bifur-cating the state into two Union territories. The restrictions were lifted in phases from many parts of the Valley.

Friday prayers have not been allowed at any of the major mosques or shrines - including Jamia Masjid in Nowhatta or Dargah Sharief in Hazrat-bal.

Normal life continued to remain affected across the valley for the 48th consecutive day on Satur-day with markets closed and public transport off the roads, the officials said.

The internet services remained suspended across all platforms, they said.

While landline were functional, voice calls on mobile devices were working only in Kupwara and Handwara police districts of north Kashmir, the officials added.

The efforts of the state government to open schools have not borne any fruit as parents con-tinued to keep the kids at home due to apprehen-sions about their safety.

Most of the top-level and second rung main-stream politicians, including three former chief ministers Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti, continued to be in detention or under house arrest.

While NC president Farooq Abdullah was first placed under house arrest, he was on Tuesday booked under the stringent Public Safety Act (PSA).

His son Omar and PDP president Mehbooba Mufti were detained on the night of August 4.

Most of the mainstream leaders, including for-mer ministers and legislators, were also either detained or kept under house arrest, the officials said.

Except Shops, EverythingSrinagar and the rumour was baseless.He said that except shops, all other sectors are

functioning normally. “Even shops remain open in some parts of Srinagar and elsewhere in morn-ing and evening hours,” Khan said. “We hope that very soon, shops too will be re-open across Kash-mir.”

He said that life is returning to normal gradu-ally across Kashmir. On the reports of threats issued by unknown gunmen to shopkeepers in Srinagar, the ADGP Khan said that no such report was received from any part of city. “This is a base-less report and purely a rumour. There is no au-thenticity,” he said. The ADGP, however, said that many miscreants, who were spreading rumours by pasting posters in Srinagar and other parts of Kashmir have been detained and are being dealt with sternly.

“Miscreants are spreading false rumours to create an atmosphere of fear and they have been taken care of,” he said.

Kashmir has been under a tight grip of uncer-tainty post abrogation of Article 370 as the normal life has got badly affected with all the sectors shut while as internet has been completely suspended.

Azad Visits LDRanjan Gogoi, had on Monday allowed Azadto

visit four districts -- Srinagar, Jammu, Baramulla, Anantnag -- to meet people.

The bench had been told Azad's counsel and senior advocate A M Singhvi that the Congress leader wants to meet people and inquire about their welfare.

In his petition filed in his "personal capacity", Azad had told the Supreme Court that he had tried to visit the state thrice, but was turned back from the airport.

No Bond Signed

Mirwaiz is a key leader of Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL) comprising of Syed Ali Geelani and JKLF chief Muhammad Yasin Malik. Geelani remains confined to his Hyderpora residence while as Malik has been booked by NIA court and stands lodged in New Delhi’s Tihar jail. The trio had vociferously opposed any change in the State Subject Law guaranteed under Article 35A.

India, Pak Exchangereport of any casualty in the Pakistani firing on

the Indian side, he said.The cross-border firing between the two sides

was going on when the last reports were received, he said.

Deputy Commissioner, Poonch, Rahul Yadav said 16 domestic animals were killed in the over-night Pakistani shelling in the Balakote area.

"The class work in four schools was suspended today (Saturday) as a precautionary measure as there was apprehension of unexploded mortar shells lying in the vicinity," Yadav told PTI.

Officials said a few more schools were closed in Shahpur sector in view of the ongoing shelling for the safety of the students.

Several residential houses suffered minor dam-ages due to Pakistani shelling, they said, adding there was no report of any civilian casualty.

Panic gripped the border villagers as the shell-ing on civilian areas was intense, the officials said, adding the people have been advised to take nec-essary precautionary steps for their safety.

This year, according to officials, Pakistan vio-lated the ceasefire over 2,050 times, leaving 21 Indians dead and scores of others injured.

India has repeatedly called upon Pakistan to ask its forces to adhere to the 2003 ceasefire un-derstanding and maintain peace and tranquility along the LoC and the International Border.

Firing takes Tollwithin the firing range in Poonch district on

Saturday, they said.A defence spokesman said Pakistan initiated

the unprovoked ceasefire violation by targeting Nowshera sector in Rajouri and Balakote area of Mendhar, Shahpur and Kerni sectors in Poonch district, drawing befitting response from the In-dian army.

Scientists, Academicsthe government’s actions in detaining and re-

stricting the communications of opposition lead-ers and dissidents in Kashmir are deeply undem-ocratic. Whatever views one might hold about these individuals, a fundamental norm in a de-mocracy is that the party in power does not have the right to lock up its political opponents when they have not even been accused of any crimes," they wrote. Hundreds of Kashmiri political lead-

ers are under house arrest or detention. Meanwhile, over 80 artistes and academicians

have urged the government to lift the blockade in the state which is witnessing an unprecedented lockdown since August 5 after the abrogation of Special Status.

PM's Desire ofdamp squib following the unparalleled clamp-

down in the state in the shape of communication gags and curfews, it said.

The party said Modi's dream of 'Naya (new) Kashmir' is to "disempower people" of the state.

By turning the state of Jammu and Kashmir into (two) Union territories, the lieutenant governor, chief minister and other elected functionaries of the Jammu and Kashmir Union territory will be confined far behind in the protocol as compared to when J&K was a state, it said.

The statement said jobs and scholarships which otherwise were only reserved for state subjects would cease to be solely available to the youths of the state.

By removing the safety valve of the state in the shape of Article 370 and Article 35-A, the people of the state, irrespective of their caste, creed and religion have become prone of numerous suscep-tibilities," said the NC statement.

The party accused the Centre of trying to put the state land on sale ignoring the fact that farm-ers in a mountainous jammu and Kashmir have very low land-holdings.

"The state is mountainous and as such the land holding of the farmers are very small as compared to the farmers in the rest of the country.

Today, we see how the government of India and the local administration is persistent on putting up the land of the state on wanton sale without giving a thought to the plethora of socio-political, ecological and political issues that will pop up fol-lowing such a move, the party said.

The NC said the path on which the Centre was treading, would eventually lead to socio-political disempowerment of the people of Kashmir.

It will undo what good was achieved by the successive NC-led governments in the state. Peo-ple of the state have understood the reality and no gimmickry can beguile them. They are the best judges. They are seeing for themselves as to how the government has sucked the life and blood of the people of the state by unilaterally and uncon-stitutionally scrapping Article 370 and Article 35-A, the NC said.

Kashmiri Panditon August 5. All its political leaders, including

former Chief Ministers Mehbooba Mufti, Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah as well as separatist leaders are under house arrest.

On August 5, the government abrogated Article

370 and bifurcated Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories

4 Lakh DevoteesIn 2017 and 2018, the number of pilgrims who

visited the shrine during the Navaratras were 3.07 lakh and 3.2 lakh respectively.

CEO of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board (SMVDSB) Simrandeep Singh said, "The work on the huge golden gate, having nine images of god-dess Durga with Mahalakashmi figuring promi-nently, started over two months ago by a group of special donors and it will be ready within seven days."

According to the shrine board officials, about 12 kg of gold, 1,200 kg of copper and 1,100 kg of sil-ver have been used in the construction of the gate.

Singh said CCTV cameras are being installed from Katra to the Bhavan to keep a close watch while a special control room is also being set up to monitor the movement of the people round-the-clock.

Verma said the district development commis-sioner of Reasi will be the nodal officer to oversee the arrangements for the successful conduct of the festival.

The divisional commissioner said since there is no mobile Internet services in Jammu region since August 5, when provisions of Article 370 were ab-rogation, pilgrims, can enjoy broadband facility in hotels.

JeM Module BustedLast Thursday, the truck loaded with cardboard

material was intercepted during checking on the Jammu-Pathankot highway. Three terrorists, who were travelling on the truck, were arrested and arms and ammunition, including four AK-56 rifles, two AK-47 rifles, six magazines and 180 rounds of ammunition, besides Rs 11,000 in cash, was seized, officials had said.

The police had intercepted the truck (registra-tion number JK13E-2000) acting on specific in-puts at Lakhanpur in Kathua, when it was on its way from Punjab to the Kashmir Valley.

All the terrorists belonged to the Valley, they had said, adding that the truck was owned by La-too, and was being driven by Javaid Ahmed Dar.

The three terrorists were identified as -- Ubaid-ul-Islam and Sabeel Ahmad Baba, residents of Aghlar Kandi in Pulwama's Rajpora, and Jehangir Ahmad Parray, a resident of Pakherpora Charar-e-Sharief in Budgam.

They were illegally transporting arms and am-munition from Punjab to Kashmir to "disrupt peace in the Valley", the officials had said.

"Bashir was to receive the consignment of weapons," the officer said.

So far, six people have been arrested in the case, he said.

POLICE HEADQUATERS JAMMU & KASHMIR SRINAGARPhone /Fax no. 0194-2443031/2443032 website .www jkpolice.gov.in Email .phqjk@nic.in

(PROVISION SECTION) TENDER CANCELLATION NOTICEDue to various technical /procedural reasons, NIT No. 01 of 2019 dated 08/01/2019 floated by this Hqrs for hiring of Helicopter services for J&K police /CAPF is here by cancelled. Fresh e-tender is being floated for the purpose on j&k state e-procurement portal www jkternders.gov.in

Sd/ Mubassir Latifi (JKPS) AIG(Provision*Transport) For Director General of Police j&k Srinagar

DIPK NO . 0672/M

Advisor Sharma Represents JK at GST Council MeetDate for filing of GST returns extended for JK by another month; GST rates on hotel tariff cut, rationalizedSRINAGAR: Advisor to Governor, KK Sharma today represented Jammu and Kashmir at the 37th GST Coun-cil meeting held at Goa under the chairmanship of Union Finance Minister.

During the course of discussions, the meeting decided to do away with the 28 per cent GST rate be-ing charged on room-rent of hotels exceeding Rs 7,500 and fixed the rate of GST to the tune 12 per cent for a booking amount of Rs 2,500 to 7,500 and 18 per cent on amounts exceeding Rs 7,500 which would be highly beneficial to the J&K as tourism is one of the main stays of its economy, besides providing jobs to people.

Advisor Sharma also projected the cause of extending the filing of GST returns for another month in view of the non-availability of In-ternet facilities which was agreed to by the council.

Abrogation Of Art 370 Symbolised 'Gallantry And Peace': ShekhawatPress Trust of India

BHUBANESWAR: Hailing scrap-ping of Article 370 as a symbol of "gallantry and peace", Union Min-ister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat on Saturday said people of Kash-mir now look forward to a bright future as the Centre has launched the process of providing jobs to 50,000 people.

He also slammed Congress ac-cusing its leaders of expressing divergent views on abrogation of Article 370, which accorded spe-cial status to Kashmir, and asked the grand old party to make its stand clear on the issue.

"If Article 370 had given rise to terrorism, its abrogation will make Kashmir a new paradise," the Union Jal Shakti minister said.

"Abrogation of Article 370 was not only a historic and bold move, but it also symbolised 'Shaurya' and 'Shanti' (gallantry and peace). It will play a major role in bring-ing peace and brotherhood in Kashmir," Shekhawat said.

He said Prime Minister Naren-dra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah displayed tremendous cour-

age and political will in scrapping provisions of Article 370 which hin-dered development of Kashmir and pushed its people into miseries.

The minister was speaking at a Rashtriya Ekta Abhiyan pro-gramme organised here by BJP to make people aware of the facts about Article 370.

Stating that benefits of abro-gation of Article 370, which was a blot on the country, are clearly visible now, Shekhawat said the

people of Kashmir realise that the bold move is in their best interest.

Noting that the centre has al-ready initiated steps to boost de-velopment in the valley and ensure welfare of its people, the union minister said corporate houses are keen to set up projects in many sec-tors which will generate employ-ment opportunities in a big way.

Work has been initiated to fill over 50,000 vacant govern-ment posts in Kashmir, making

it the biggest such drive in the state, while many such measures are being taken as part of the Rs 80,000 crore special package an-nounced earlier by the prime minister, he said.

Similarly, people of Kashmir, who were deprived of the benefits of many central schemes, are now eligible for getting the fruits of all programmes like Ujjwala scheme and Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY), he added.

People of Kashmir are now en-titles to the benefits of the provi-sion of reservation, Shekhawat said adding all laws, including domestic violence, exploitation of children, will be applicable now.

The multi-dimensional society in Kashmir, which was poisoned due to the special provisions of Ar-ticle 370, will soon be transformed into an abode of peace, brother-hood and harmony and witness a boom in economic activities.

Kashmir is endowed with natu-ral resources and scenic land-scapes, but it remained backward for 70 years as a handful of lead-ers sought to protect their own personal interests.

Div Com Reviews Implementation Of Projects In Higher Education Department

SRINAGAR: Divisional Commis-sioner Kashmir, Baseer Ahmad Khan today convened a meeting to review progress of various projects being implemented in the Higher Education Department.

On the occasion, Div Com said that Deputy Commissioners have already been directed to identify and transfer the land in a time bound manner for newly approved degree colleges and educational Institutions.

Div Com directed the concerned officials to remove encroachments, if any at identified sites, within a week. The other allied issues viz electricity, water supply and con-struction of roads were also dis-cussed threadbare in the meeting.

For Macdamization of roads in and around Central University at Ganderbal, it was given out that Rs 40 lakh have been approved.

The Divisional Commissioner stressed the officers to work in close coordination with synergy and ded-ication so that the prestigious proj-ects of Higher Education Depart-ment will be completed in a time bound manner for benefit of local students which are residing in the areas of newly approved colleges.

Secretary Higher Education De-partment Talat Parvez, Additional Commissioner Kashmir Bilal Ah-mad Bhat, Chief Engineer R&B Sami Arif, Representatives of Central Uni-versity, NIT and other concerned of-ficers were present in the meeting.

News 03Sunday | 22.09.2019

JAMMU & KASHMIR POWER DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENTOFFICE OF THE CHIEF ENGINEER ELECTRICAL

MAINTENANCE & RURAL ELECTRIFICATIONWING EXHIBITION GROUNDS, SRINAGARE-mail: ce.mre.kash(@)gmail.com Tel No: 0194-2452001 Fax No: 0194-2453863

Extension Notice No. 1Due to no response against this office e-NIT no. CE/M&RE/08 of 2019-20 Dated 01/08/2019 invited for Selection of IT Implementation Agency to assist JKPDD forimplementation of IT infrastructure in 53 IPDS towns under IPDS IT Phase II and hosted on www jktenders.gov.in vide tender ID 2019_PDD_80483_1, the scheduled end date and time for e-bid submission and opening of technical bid is extended as per the following scheduleExtended end date and time for Submission of e-bid 27/09/2019: 1400 HrsExtended Date and time of opening of the Techni-cal bid

30/09/2019: 1400 Hrs

Address for place of bid submission and communi-cation

Office of the Chief Engineer, EMRE Wing Kashmir, Near Exhi-bition Grounds, JehangirChowk, Srinagar 190001

Online Financial e-bid opening date & time Will be communicated to the Technically Qualified BiddersVenue of opening of Technical & Financial e-Bids Office Of Chief Engineer, EMRE Wing Kashmir.Estimated Cost INR 31,68,16,000.00 (Rupees Thirty One Crore Sixty Eight LakhCost of e-Bid document INR 20,000.00 (Rupees Twenty Thousand Only)Earnest Money deposit(EMD) INR 63,36,320.00 (Rupees Sixty Three Lakh Thirty Six Thou-

sand Three Hundred Twenty OnlyContact Person & Address Office of the Chief Engineer EMRE Wing Kashmir, Near Exhi-

bition Grounds, Jehangir Chowk, Srinagar 190001 E-mail: ce.mre.kash@gmail.co Tel No: 0194-2452001*

Sd/- CHIEF ENGINEER EMRE Wing Kashmir

DIPK NO .0647/M

DISTRIC POLICE OFFICE KARGIL (LADAKH)Ph-No:-01985232645(0) Fax No. 232645: E-Mail ID:-sspkargil@jkpo!ice.gov.in,

TENDER NOTICEDistrict Police Offics Kargil has invited tender affixed with Rs.05 revenue stamps with sealed cover for supply of following building items/construction materials for the year 2019-20. S.No Name of items/materials S.No Name of items/materials01 Cement 21 Window glass 04 MM02 Sand per trip including loading charge 22 Window fram03 Stone including loading charge 23 Door fram 04 Gravel (Bajri) per trip including labour charge 24 Readymade door 05 CGI sheet 52 MM, 40MM 25 Ceiling Joint Safada06 Plain sheet 26 Ceiling Joint KD07 Rebar (Sariya) 08 MM, 10 MM.16 MM, 12 MM 27 Cornice08 MS pipe 28 Beading piece09 MS Sheet 29 Nails 0610 Flat Iron 25"x25"x6mm 30 Nails 0511 Wire mesh in feet 31 Nails 0412 Angle iron in Kgs 32 Nails 17 No13 Tyre (well) with bearing 33 Nails 3-214 Cement bricks including loading charges 34 Top for sheet15 Mud bricks including loading charges 35 Iron pick axe with handle16 Plywood 04MM, 06MM,10MM,12MM, 19MM

(Size 8x4)36 Iron spade

17 Teak plywood 04MM,6MM,0MM, 2MM, 19 MM (Size 8x4)

37 Binding wire

18 Popular Kadi 3x4x12 38 Fabricate sheet19 Popular Bailie 3x4x12 39 Fevicol in Grms/Kgs20 Popular Planks 3x4x12 40 Samica

Interested tenders are requested to furnish their quotation with quote their rates including GST with specification of items/materials by or before. 28.09.2019. The quotations should be Addressed to the undersigned and tender open date will be fixed on 30.09.2019 at Dis-trict Police Office Kargil.No: GB/Supply-49/2019-22954-60 Dated:18 /09/2019

Sd/- Superintendent of Police Distric Kargil

Dipk no . 0667/M

GOVRNMENT JAMMU & KASHMIR OFFICE OF THE SUPERINTENDENT INDUSTRIAL TRAINING INSTITUTE GUREZWhile framing the general list of the candidates of this institute at directorate of technical Education level below mentioned candidates are informed through the medium of this notice to attend this institute with all original documents and fee latest up 25th of September .2019 . After expiry of this last date no claim will be entertained.S . No

User ID A p p l i c a t i o n from no

Name Parentage Address

1 7006630853 ADM1942672 Shamshad Ahmad Lone

Ab Rahim Lone Gund Gull Shiekh Gurez Bandi-pora

2 6005568410 ADM192519 MARYAM BANOO GH RASOOL LONE

BADWAN WANPORA GUREZ BANDIPORA

3 6005460334 ADM1970178 NASEEMA BANOO MOHD SULTAN LONE LONE

KHANDYAL GUREZ BANDIPORA

4 9469636347 ADM1960850 SARTAJ NAZIR LONE NAZIR AHMAD LONE

GULSHANPORA BAGTORE GUREZ BANDIPORA

5 9858400816 ADM1959263 ABINDA KHAN GH HASSAN KHAN

PAPCHAN BANDIPC BANDIPO-RA

6 9906505700 ADM1990239 TAHIRAHAMD DAR M O H A M M A D MAQBOOL DAR

HARIL LANG ATE KUPWARA

Note Also rejected list of some applications is available in this office for information of those candidate due to some reasons.Sd/- Superintendent Industrial

Training Institute Gurez KashmirDIPK NO/ 0650/M

At UNGA, Modi To Focus On Developmental AgendaAgenceis

NEW DELHI: Against the backdrop of recent developments in Jammu and Kashmir, all eyes are on the UN General Assembly (UNGA), es-pecially the speeches that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistani counterpart Imran Khan will make during the session there.

Khan, who will be addressing the UNGA on September 27, has said he will "forcefully" raise the issue of Jammu and Kashmir at the forum. Modi is also scheduled to address the world body the same day.

While Khan is set to rake up the Jammu and Kashmir issue and be a cry baby, Modi is expected to fo-cus his address on developmental issues along with the global chal-lenges like terrorism and climate change. He will also articulate his views on the global economy and multi-polarity.

An indication that Modi would not be drawn into Khan''s rhetoric play was given by India''s Perma-nent Representative to the UN Syed Akbaruddin who said: "There may be some who stoop low. Our re-sponse to them is -- we soar high. They may stoop low, we soar high."

His comment came when asked what would be India''s response as Khan is set to raise the issue at UNGA.

Likening Khan''s impending agenda of raking up the Kashmir issue at UNGA to mainstreaming of "hate speech", Akbaruddin said: "We are confident that we will soar. We have given you examples of how we will not stoop. We will soar when they stoop low."

Pakistan has been desperately trying to internationalise the issue of Jammu and Kashmir ever since the government of India ended spe-cial status of the state on August 5. It has been inviting third party me-diation but has faced rebuff as no

country is willing to get involved.In a bid to draw international atten-

tion, Pakistan has even tried to create war hysteria and attempted nuclear blackmail but without any success, leading to its further frustration.

India has asserted repeatedly that decisions related to Jammu and Kashmir are its internal matter and that it will brook no third party interference. In fact, Modi, during a meeting with US President Don-ald Trump in France last month, bluntly told him that there was no need for any other country to take the "trouble" of getting involved in Jammu and Kashmir issue.

Indian leaders have lately been saying that if there are any talks with Pakistan on Jammu and Kashmir, those would be on vaca-tion of territories of the state un-der Pakistani occupation.

In his address at the UNGA, Modi is likely to talk about the path of economic progress and development chosen by India and the country''s aspiration to be-come a 5 trillion dollar economy by 2024. He is likely to highlight how the world could take advan-tage as India moves towards high economic growth, while pointing out the decisions taken to facili-

tate ''ease-of-doing-business'' in the country.

The theme of the UNGA this year is ''Galvanizing multilateral efforts for poverty eradication, quality education, climate action and inclusion''.

In a statement issued prior to his departure for the seven-day visit to the US last night, Modi said: "There are many pressing challenges for the international community - a still fragile global economy, turbulence and tension in many parts of the world, growth and spread of terrorism, climate change and the endemic global challenge of poverty."

These issues "require stronger global commitment and concerted multilateral action", the Prime Minister said, adding "I will reiter-ate our commitment to reformed multilateralism, which is respon-sive, effective and inclusive, and in which India plays her due role."

He noted that since its partici-pation as a founding member of the UN in 1945, India has shown unwavering commitment to mul-tilateralism to advance peace and security and promote broad-based inclusive economic growth and development in the world. --IANS

Is Kashmir A Colony Of India? Asks Iltija Mufti Kashmir News Trust

NEW DELHI: Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehboo-ba Mufti's daughter Iltija Mufti slammed the government's move to abrogate the Article 370.

Former Jammu and Kashmir CM Mehbooba Mufti's daughter Iltija Mufti on Friday slammed the govern-ment's move to abrogate the Article 370 and the communication black-out. She asked whether Jammu and Kashmir was an integral part of India or a colony. Iltija Mufti said that Kash-miri people have been caged for the past month and there was a humani-tarian crisis and trauma in the Valley.

"Kashmiris have been caged for the past month. You talk about the future, can we talk about the present first? Can we talk about the humanitarian crisis, economic crisis, psychological crisis, the hu-man trauma that people have been subjected to?" Iltija Mufti asked.

When asked about Article 370 being a stumbling block for Jammu and Kashmir's integration and the rights of women, Iltija Mufti said that that the Article 370 had noth-ing to do with development.'

She compared Jammu and Kashmir to other states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar and said that the state was faring much better than other states of the country.

"BJP rules states like UP and

Bihar which have such bad socio-economic paramenters. In com-parison, J&K had a much better performance. How do you explain lack of development in state like UP? In Bihar?" Iltija Mufti asked.

On women rights, Iltija Mufti said that women in Kashmir are much more emancipated than women in the rest of the country.

"Kashmiri women are much more emancipated than women anywhere else in the country. Our infant and maternal mortality rate is better than most states," she said.

She also mocked PM Modi's "ache din aayenge" statement and said, "The gov-ernment says Article 370 was a stum-bling block and that its removal will pave way for development. In 2014, we were told acche din aayenge, aagayeacche din...aa gaye?" Further, talking about lifting the communication lockdown in Kashmir, Iltija Mufti said, "Becuse I am waiting...it feels like we have all been waiting it for a century."

She also said that since the econo-my was in a slump, moves like abro-gating Article 370 was just an excuse to distract the people from real issues.

"They (government) did it (ab-rogate Article 370) because they had to show 100 din main humne abrogate Kardiya..."

She also said, "The GDP is 5 per cent...a country like Bangladesh has overtaken us...so these (Article 370 being a stum-bling block are just excuses." (KNT)

Park Outside Pulwama Hospital Becomes ‘Dumping Site’

Two Hill Development Councils Join Hands To Get Domicile Law Enacted In LadakhKashmir News Trust

LEH: Leh Hill Development Coun-cil and Kargil Hill Development Council jointly held a meeting on Saturday to impress upon Govern-ment of India to enact domicile law in Ladakh region.

Sources told Kashmir News Trust that Chief Executive Councilor of Kargil Hill Development Council Feroz Ahmed Khan represented Kargil in the meeting that was held at Council Office Leh under the Chairmanship of P.Wangyal who is CEC Leh Hill Development Council.

Sources added that during the meeting it was decided to use all good offices to get the tribal status for the region. Confirming the de-velopment, senior BJP leader from LehCheringDorje told KNT that there are apprehensions that Lada-

kh may badly get affected with the removal of Article 35A. “Yes, people in Leh and Kargilare worried and they want substitute to Article 35A. The meeting was called to protect the cultural, linguistic and religious identity of Ladakh region,” he said.

Dorje added that not everyone is happy in Leh over the abrogation of Article 35A. “There are voices who are demanding enactment of Sched-ule 6 of Indian Constitution. A num-ber of organizations and committees have been formed to make people aware about the repercussions of re-moval of Article 35A. Both Hill Devel-opment Councils are working on it and all efforts are being made to per-suade Government of India to grant tribal status to Ladakh,” Dorje said adding that three Ministries have al-ready recommended the enactment of domicile law for Ladakh. (KNT)

PULWAMA:The sole park main-tained by Floriculture Department for the attendants near District Hospital Pulwama is in shambles.

The employees deputed by the Department for the maintenance of this park remain absent, atten-dants told Kashmir News Trust.

“This park is ruled by dogs. Ev-erywhere there is garbage. This

park is in fact become a dumping site. The foul smell repels visitors,” said Showkat Ahmed.

The attendants while accusing Floriculture Department of neg-ligence said that employees are drawing salaries without perform-ing any duty. They said despite re-peated requests, authorities didn’t give any heed.

Army Commander Reaches Out To Locals In South KashmirPress Trust of India JAMMU: Northern Army command-er Lt Gen Ranbir Singh has reached out to the locals in south Kashmir, considered to be the hotbed of mili-tancy, with a message that the army and the government are working to-wards restoring peace and ensuring overall development of the region.

During the interaction with a select group of community leaders organised on Friday, the army com-mander sought suggestions from the people to ensure a bright future for the youth of the valley.

The meeting comes at a time when normal life across Kashmir continues to remain disrupted since the scrap-ping of the special status to Jammu and Kashmir and its bifurcation into two Union Territories -- Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh -- on August 5.

A short video clip of the inter-action was shared on Saturdayby Udhampur-based defence PRO Lt Col Abhinav Navneet.

"Wherever we go, we try to con-vey this message to all and I want to request you to carry this message forward that we want peace and de-velopment of this region. We want

the boys and girls to get better educa-tion and good jobs... we want a bright future for them," Lt Gen Singh was heard telling the community leaders.

"We are working in this direction and so is the government. If you have any suggestions, we are ready to act upon those suggestions," the commander said.

The army has launched a mas-sive mission reach out initiative in Jammu region post revocation of the provisions of Article 370 to assist the local administration in maintaining peace, harmony and conducive en-vironment.

3 Arrested For Publicising JeM Threat Posters in J-K's PulwamaSRINAGAR: Three people were arrested for allegedly publicis-ing threat posters of the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) to intimidate locals in Pulwama district of south Kashmir, police said on Saturday.

They were arrested from Ladhoo village of Awantipora along the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway.

"Police in Ladhoo arrested three people involved in intimidation and threatening of locals. They were involved in publicising JeM threat posers," Police Kashmir zone tweet-ed on its official Twitter account.

Police have registered a case and seized incriminating material, it said, adding that further investi-gation is underway.

Various incidents of intimida-tion of civilians by militants and their supporters have come to light in Kashmir, where normal life continued to remain disrupted

for the 48th consecutive day on Saturday following the scrapping of special status to Jammu and Kashmir on August 5.

Director General of Police Dil-bag Singh recently said police is conscious of the threat to the ci-vilians from the militants and ef-fective measures have been taken to instill confidence among them.

"We are with the people and they are with us. We belong to each other, and are very conscious of the threat and we will not allow any harm to come to them. Those who are threatening them will be taken care of and the terrorists will be neutralised," he had said.

Singh said a couple of militants were neutralised and more than two dozen others, including their sympathisers, arrested for threat-ening the locals in the Valley over the past one month.

Sunday|22-09-2019

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Dangerous vacuum: On detention of J&K leaders

If mainstream politicians are discredited in J&K, the space will be filled by secessionists

The detention of National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah under the Public

Safety Act on Monday marks a new, dangerous low in the overreach of state power to curtail liberty in Kashmir. The 81-year old leader has been thrice Chief Minister, Union Minister and five times Member of Parliament. He is cur-rently MP from Srinagar. His father and Na-tional Conference founder, Sheikh Abdullah, led Kashmir’s Muslim population in rejecting the two-nation theory that led to Partition and the formation of Pakistan in 1947. And his son, Omar Abdullah, former Chief Minister and Union Minister, is also under detention since August 5, when the Centre abrogated Article 370 through a controversial process, ended J&K’s relative autonomy and is reorganising it into two Union Territories. While the BJP and the Centre have claimed massive public support for these moves, the Kashmir Valley has been in shutdown since then. Despite his declining pop-ularity in the Valley, Farooq Abdullah contin-ued to argue that Kashmir’s destiny was with secular, pluralist India. To treat him as a threat to public safety is a travesty of justice and an assault on democratic principles.

The manner in which he was detained smacks of complete disregard for the rule of law and accountability. His detention, for 12 days, was announced hours before the Supreme Court was to consider MDMK chief Vaiko’s plea seek-ing a directive that Mr. Abdullah be produced before it. In Parliament last month, Home Min-ister Amit Shah had said the NC leader was not in detention but was staying at home on his own volition. The detention has now been legal-ised under a stringent law that allows limited remedies and could be extended to as long as two years. The moves to silence and humiliate Kashmir’s senior-most politician betrays a dan-gerous tactic of marginalising the moderate, mainstream politicians. Almost all Kashmir’s political leaders are in jail, including former Chief Minister and PDP leader Mehbooba Muf-ti and the IAS officer-turned-politician Shah Faesal. They have kept the political process alive in Kashmir against all odds, and despite threats even as some sections of the population remained aloof or hostile to India. The argu-ment that Kashmiri politicians used the State’s special status to shield their corruption and nepotism is disingenuous, as these problems are endemic to Indian politics. The amorality of the government’s treatment of pro-India forces is certainly dispiriting, but dangerous is the vacuum this is creating. The void will be filled only by forces inimical to India, if the govern-ment removes politicians from public spaces by wrongly labelling them anti-India.

The Hindu

The SC Is Also on TrialIt remains to be seen if the court will uphold

the fundamental right to life and liberty.Markandey katju

THE most important case in India today is not the Babri Masjid-Ram Mandir dispute but the trial of the Supreme Court by the people of India. And a

litmus test in this trial will be the court’s be-haviour in the case against the detention of Fa-rooq Abdullah under the draconian J&K Public Safety Act.

The Supreme Court was created by the Consti-tution of India on January 26, 1950. A few months after the promulgation of the Constitution, a con-stitution bench of the apex court held in Romesh Thappar vs State of Madras that “the Supreme Court is constituted as the protector and guardian of the fundamental rights of the people.”

This view has been reiterated in several subsequent decisions of the court, for example in the nine-judge bench decision in I.R.Coelho vs State of Tamil Nadu.

The most precious of all the fundamental rights is the right to life and liberty, enshrined in Article 21. In Md Sukur Ali vs State of Assam the Supreme Court observed:

“This is because liberty of a person is the most important feature of our Constitution. Ar-ticle 21 which guarantees protection of life and personal liberty is the most important fundamen-tal right of the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution. Article 21 can be said to be the ‘heart and soul’ of the fundamental rights.”

Article 21 was enshrined in the Constitu-tion because the founding fathers were them-selves freedom fighters who had seen the civil liberties of our people trampled under foreign rule. They had also been incarcerated for long periods under the formula ‘No vakeel, no daleel, no appeal’. Hence they were determined that such arbitrariness does not recur in free India.

Emergency erodes top court’s dutyHowever, during the Emergency of 1975-

77, arbitrary arrests became the order the day. Instead of declaring them illegal, the Supreme Court abandoned its solemn duty under the Constitution by rendering the disgraceful ADM Jabalpur vs Shivkant Shukla judgment hold-ing that a citizen had no right to life and liberty once Emergency is declared. In other words, in an Emergency, citizens could be shot or jailed without trial by the executive with impunity.

In recent days too, when fascist tendencies have emerged again, the performance of the Su-preme Court and many high courts have been disappointing. For instance, bail was denied by the Supreme Court to Abhijit Iyer-Mitra who tweeted satirically about the Konark temple (for which he had soon apologised). This refusal was against the settled principles for granting bail laid down by the celebrated Justice Krish-na Iyer in State of Rajasthan vs Balchand. While rejecting bail, CJI Ranjan Gogoi made a flippant and cruel remark, least expected of the pater fa-milias of the judiciary, that if the petitioner ‘is facing threats, there is no better place than jail’.

We may contrast this with the observation of the distinguished judge of England, Lord Den-ning, who in Ghani vs Jones (1970), observed:

“A man’s liberty of movement is regarded so highly by the laws of England that it is not to be hin-dered or prevented except on the surest ground.”

Lord Denning’s decision was approved by the seven-judge constitution bench of the Indi-an Supreme Court in Maneka Gandhi vs Union of India (1978), and hence became the law of the land in India also.

In the case relating to the Bhima Koregaon accused (Romila Thapar vs Union of India) the Supreme Court should have quashed the en-tire prosecution, relying on the Brandenburg test, observing that there was no danger of any imminent lawless action by the acts of the ac-cused, even if the allegations against them are assumed to be true (though they appear to be on the basis of manufactured evidence).

Freedom of expressionComing to the arrest of Farooq Abdullah

under the draconian Public Safety Act, the grounds given are that he incited violence. This is manifestly absurd, and the Supreme Court should forthwith quash the order of the gov-ernment applying the Brandenburg test, which was followed by two decisions of the court viz Sri Indra Das vs State of Assam and Arup Bhuy-an vs State of Assam.

Farooq Abdullah’s record has always been that of an ardent Indian nationalist and he was never a secessionist. But he was deeply upset by the revocation of Article 370, which gave a special status to Jammu and Kashmir. Even assuming he wanted azaadi for Kashmir, this is no crime. Many people such as Khalistanis, many Kashmiris, some Naga groups demand azaadi, and this demand is protected by the freedom of speech and expression guaranteed by Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution.

It is only if one goes beyond that and commits violence or incites imminent violence that it be-comes a crime. There is nothing to show that Farooq Abdullah’s statement incited imminent violence.

The J&K Public Safety Act, which per-mits detention up to two years without trial,

has been declared ‘a lawless law ‘ by Amnesty International. It is similar to the Rowlatt Bill of 1919, against which Srinivas Shastri said these memorable words in the Imperial legis-lative assembly:

“When the government undertakes a repres-sive policy the innocent are not safe. Men like me would not be considered innocent. The in-nocent then is he who forswears politics, who takes no part in the public movements of the time, who retires into his house, mumbles his prayers, and salaams the government officials all around. The man who interferes in politics, who addresses public meetings, becomes sus-pect. Possession in the hands of the Executive of powers of this drastic nature will not hurt the wicked alone, it will also hurt the good, and there will be such a lowering of public spirit that all talk of responsible government will be a mere mockery. Much better that a few rascals should walk abroad than that the honest man should be obliged for fear of such a law to remain shut up in his house, to refrain from activities which it is in his nature to indulge in, to abstain from all political and public work, merely because there is a dreadful law in the land.”

These are times that try men’s souls, to use Thomas Paine’s words, and especially will they try the souls of our judiciary. If the judi-ciary fails in its duty to uphold civil liberties of citizens provided in the Constitution, as it did during the Emergency, then it will be said of it by the people of India, “Thou art weighed in the balance, and found wanting” (a passage from the Bible which was used by Winston Churchill to describe the Neville Chamberlain govern-ment on October 5, 1938 after the signing of the shameful Munich Pact with Adolf Hitler).

Markandey Katju is a former judge of the Supreme Court of India.

The Wire

O T H E R O P I N I O N

nikhat Sattar

HUQUQ Allah (rights of God) and huquq-ul Ibad (rights of His servants) are the foremost obligations

of Muslims. The first means to fulfil the obligations towards God and the second to do so for human beings. The Holy Quran enjoins returning evil with good. Being kind to others despite their unkindness is more likely to change their attitude. It is mentioned in the Holy Book: “Nor can goodness and evil be equal. Repel (evil) with what is better: Then will he between whom and thee was ha-tred become as it were thy friend and intimate!” (41:34)

Caring for others is also known as ihsan: adopting an attitude of en-suring better for others and less for oneself. Islam asks its followers to be sensitive to the feelings of others, especially if they are strangers, or if there is a chance of hostility. This becomes important when Muslims live and work in foreign lands, where their way of life and worship might be other than the norm. Their atti-tude towards their adopted countries should be that of guests caring for the possessions and feelings of hosts.

Unfortunately, the fact is that in many cases, piety is now worn on one’s sleeve and many Muslims believe that they must ‘prove’ their religion by demanding special privi-leges. While this may, at times, be necessary and possible, it may not always be a smooth process. In To-ronto, Muslim students of some high schools recently demanded time off and a place within the school prem-ises to offer jummah prayers.

The demand was accepted, al-beit reluctantly. In one school, after performing ablutions, the students passed through the school cafeteria to go to their allotted prayer room, making the area wet. Even if offering Friday prayers collectively is consid-ered essential, given that the school management had accommodated their request, the least these students could have done was to keep the floor dry. Such disregard for the feelings of others is what leads to controversy in other lands and allows the ‘us vs them’ mentality, with regard to Mus-lims and the non-Muslim residents of other countries, to take shape.

We often see Muslims lining up in the middle of a road in France or the US to perform prayers, holding up traffic. If prayers are to be offered collectively, perhaps a park could be

found, out of the way of the traffic. Prayer is worship of God and is not to be exercised as a sign of arrogance by digging one’s feet in and showing that Muslims, too, can do what they want. While prayer is mandatory for Muslims, it is supposed to be offered in a way that does not inconvenience others. For example, during flights, it used to be common to see Muslim men standing up in the aisle to per-form their prayers. The practice has ended after repeated calls from flight attendants to refrain from doing so, and many now offer their prayers on the plane while sitting down.

One of the most troubling actions of some religious groups in Pakistan can be witnessed in residential areas and roads where hospitals are located. Here, utmost care needs to be taken to avoid noise, because people might be sick, sleeping, dying or grieving. It is, however, not uncommon to find loud-speakers being used in the vicinity, even when it is not time for the call to prayer.

While worship is meant to con-nect with God in silence, remember-ing one’s sins, repenting and giving thanks, it has been replaced by loud speeches and harsh tones. What a travesty we have made of the way we follow our most dignified and peace-

ful religion. “So woe to the worship-pers. Who are neglectful of their prayers. Those who (want but) to be seen (of men)” (107:4-6).

Our faith requires us to be mild, gentle and speak in measured tones, without anger or rancour. Strange-ly, our habits have become so en-trenched in harshness that even our religious sermons in mosques are shouted out. Think of the time when God asked Moses to go to Pharaoh — that most arrogant and cruellest of men — to invite him to believe. “But speak to him mildly; perchance he may take warning or fear (Allah)” (20:44).

Gentleness of manner is beauti-ful and harshness is unacceptable to God. According to Hazrat Ayesha, the Holy Prophet (PBUH) said: “Verily, kindness is not found in anything ex-cept that it beautifies it, and it is not removed from anything except that it disgraces it” (Sahih Muslim 2594).

If we wish others to be thought-ful and considerate to us, we must first demonstrate that we are so to them. The Prophet had said: “No one believes truly until he desires for his brother that which he desires for himself” (Sahih Bukhari 6528).

Dawn

Practise Islam In A Quiet And Dignified Way

Our faith requires us to be mild, gentle and speak in measured tones, without anger or rancour

Sunday|22-09-2019Think!Opinion, Analysis, Essays

All This Pandit Girl Found in Kashmir Was Abundance of Love

SNOWER Sania Vasudev is a Kashmiri Pandit who is an International celebrity styl-ist, independent designer

and a motivational speaker. She has been styling for celebrities like Shahid Afridi, Varun Dhawan, Alia Bhat, Manisha Koirala, Kunal Khemu, Rajiv Khandewal, Shreyas Talpade and many more. She is an alumnus of the Milan Marrangoni School of Fashion.

She was recently invited by In-sha Qazi- Director SSMD (School Of Fashion & Design) to do workshops at the campus. Below you can read Snower Sania’s experience in Kash-mir in her own words.

I am a Kashmiri Pandit, from Sri-nagar whose family migrated during the militancy in the 90’s. I was one year old then. Though my father had decided to stay back, all by himself throughout the militancy.

I grew up in a boarding and went back to live with my mother – a Kashmiri Pandit who worked as a teacher to earn a living and sup-port her kids. Her struggle, wisdom, purity and humility was inspiring . My mother raised us with Kashmiri values, hospitality, culture, rituals and kept us grounded and connected to our heritage. I grew up in a strict atmosphere, which also is part of our inherited trait. We were taught our language as a compulsion to keep ‘Kashmiriyat’ alive in our hearts. Considering my other relatives could not even understand their mother tongue it was exceptional for us. We lived a very simple and extremely challenging life. It was not easy to leave your land and start a new life, a new journey in a strange city. But we never complained, I learned this from my parents, “the ability to solve problems is not something re-served for special people, it’s a path that opens before any of us when we face reality head on, and I saw them winning every battle of life”.

As my father had decided to stay back in Kashmir I would visit him ev-ery 2 years during my summer vaca-

tions. That’s when I realized my soul belongs to these mountains, my Dal lake. I would always feel at ease walk-ing, trekking, eating as a local, speak-ing my own language with everyone around. I would feel emotionally rich and the language automatically creat-ed a bond, you don’t even have to ask for it. I was also determined to look be-yond the religious differences hence very easily I mingled with everyone. I spoke and questioned the bitterness existing between hearts and against army, the politics and the dishar-mony created due to cultural and re-ligious disputes. Those visits to home gave me opportunity to strengthen my bond with my land and people around. I became very aware of the sensitivities at a very tender age in life hence it pained me to see the most beautiful people in the most beautiful place on earth, called heaven, were sad and suffering.

I lost my father when I was 16. When I visited Kashmir after my fa-ther’s death I felt it could be the last time I will ever see the mountains, my neighbours and friends. I pained everytime I had to leave my Kash-mir but that time I felt a lump which was stuck for hours. As I was board-ing my flight I remembered praying for peace and happiness of this place and its people. They say if your heart is pure and intentions are good your prayers will always get answered and it happened to me too.

After many years I returned to the valley, my land. And this time I was aware of my profound mission. I am a social worker, motivational speaker and an arhatic pranic heal-er. I have consciously devoted my life to serve humanity and seek and learn more skills to be able to serve nature and the world to the best of my ability. By the grace of God, I am consistently walking the path he has drawn for me. Kashmir is divinely blessed and it heals your senses the moment you step out of your plane, you feel you have landed in heaven. People here still have warmth inspite of witnessing terror and sufferings

on a daily basis. I am amazed with the strength they hold deep in their hearts to love and give so freely. In Kashmir you will always be wel-comed with warmth and affection.

I am a fashion designer and styl-ist by profession and a freelance visiting faculty with all the fashion schools in Mumbai, Pune and Delhi. One day, I received an email from Insha Qazi, Director of SSMD. She introduced herself with so much humility and love by admiring and appreciating my work. She shared her vision of making a difference and creating awareness in Kashmir. She said that me being a Kashmir Pandit will make a bigger impact on youth of the valley and invited me to interact with the students and to encourage youth.

Youth today has potential and energy in particular, it can ca-talyse chain reaction of positive changes as they forge bonds and trust amongst people so without wasting anytime I grabbed this opportunity. I was more than glad to hear her excited voice. I imme-diately said ‘yes’ and got on board to share my vision to create maxi-mum value through my workshops. I wanted to talk about art, fashion and culture but I was also keen on raising awareness to lead a hap-pier life. Collective consciousness shift can only happen when there is awareness. We need to strengthen our spiritual oness, I wanted to speak about science and spiritual-ity and add value to there lives .

The introduction of fashion school in Kashmir is a big step taken by Insha Qazi. I believe education and spiritual awareness should be a compulsion in every society in this world, this spiritually energy gives rise to correct actions and ac-tivities that shape the direction of society over time, I assured her my intention was to make a positive dif-ference. I believe, someone has to go and give them love, someone has to tell them there is hope to have a bet-ter future and environment.

We conducted successful work-shops to speak about fashion, cul-ture, art and modern and ancient healing mediations and some breath-ing techniques for peace and bliss. My greater mission was to sow seeds of peace, love and harmony. It was not easy. Being a Kashmiri Pandit it was more than challenging. My family was worried about my safety and security but my faith in my own vision of this world and Kashmir was and is stronger than my fears of attacks, blasts, stone pelting and curfews. The school provided me with all the necessities and beauti-ful environment to teach and prac-tice twin hearts mediation. This meditation raises your awareness and consciousness and is a tool for achieving illumination and a great noble deed of blessing Mother Earth by becoming divine instrument of peace, abundance and prosperity. The students were skeptical of the chant and sound. I took a session to first deepen there understanding of spirituality and mediation and ex-plained to them that I respected their religious belief and that the medita-tion and breathing techniques were only to strengthen there bond with the divine and there higher soul. I also asked them to fight the negativ-ity of their outer world. My attempt

to interact with youth here proved to be productive as everyone was open to grow and evolve for the bet-terment. Me being a Kashmiri built the trust as I spoke my language, which was always appreciated by all my students. It was overwhelming to see them enjoy all the knowledge, ex-perience bliss and to see their faces glow and energies uplifted. I was for-tunate to have got this opportunity.

I decided to stay back 3 more days after I finished my workshops as I wanted to live with locals and visit villages. Insha invited me to her home. This is very common in Kashmir. Kashmiris keep there hearts and homes always open. I mingled with all her family mem-bers with ease and comfort. I was fortunate to have met one of most powerful souls, Insha’s mother, Mrs. Dillafroz, who is a social ac-tivist a very noble respected pub-lic figure here. It was enlighten-ing to know how affectionate she still feels towards all the Kashmiri Pandits she grew up with. There was only love in her eyes and her voice was filled with peace. I was pampered and spoilt with Kashmir food and Noon chai, which was and still is my favourite routine. I felt at home and enjoyed talking about greater future.

Creativity is inherent part of Kashmiris. I saw a new Kashmir which was ready to evolve and take a leap of faith towards growth as I saw art cafes, exhibitions, boutiques. My favourite find of this trip was Gulshan Book Store, a cafe in the middle of Dal Lake. I was drawn to this cafe full of books and stories on Kashmiri Pandits and history. See-ing The Quran and Bhagwat Geeta on one shelf brought shine to my eyes and soul.

I would walk alone in the af-ternoon, take a Shikara and cross Dal to study along with my Kehwa. Just being and absorbing this en-ergy of history and wisdom in this library. I wished to meet the local villagers, so I left my identity at home and explored rawness of the place. When I asked the Shikar-awalas and local villagers what they wanted and thought of the current situation, I heard only one thing ‘We want peace’. They wel-comed me with traditional hukka and noon chai. I have never felt so touched in my heart.

This hospitality is rare to find in the cities. Kashmir is not what we see in news headlines which are imposed on us, it is still full of love, warmth, strength and hope. I got abundance of love from everyone. I call it my holistic home calling holi-day. Kashmir needs more of love, peace and protection then any other city and I hope my this step forward will draw right attention and more organisations working towards harmony and peace will take such noble initiatives. This time around I packed my suitcase with bright smile on my face, knowing I will come back soon with more love and joy to share. “Love is the most pow-erful and still most unknown energy in the world”. See you … my Kash-mir, happier, stronger and brighter.

Thank you for your love. Thank you Gyawun for this space.

--By arrangement with Gyawun.com

Youth today has potential and

energy in particular, it can catalyse chain reaction of positive changes as they forge bonds and trust amongst people so without wasting anytime I grabbed this opportunity. I was more than glad to hear her excited voice. I immediately said ‘yes’ and got on board to share my vision to create maximum value through my workshops.

Business Sunday|22-09-2019 6I R A N F M I N S Y R I A

Corporate Tax Cut Positive But Growth Faces Headwinds: Moody'sPress Trust Of India

New Delhi: Moody's Investors Service on Saturday said the cut in corporate tax in-creases the government's fiscal risks while headwinds from cyclical factors such as rural stress, weak corporate sentiment and slow credit pose threat to near-term growth.

On Friday, the Centre announced a reduction in the base corporation tax rate to 22 per cent from 30 per cent as part of stimulus measures to revive slowing eco-nomic growth.

The rating agency said it does not ex-pect the corporate tax rate cut to revive growth to the extent that stronger tax buoy-ancy compensates for the loss of revenue.

"While the reduction brings India's cor-porate tax rate closer to peers throughout Asia and will support the business environ-ment and competitiveness, a host of cycli-cal factors, including rural financial stress, weak corporate sentiment, and a slow flow of credit in the financial sector, remain headwinds to near-term growth," it said.

Moody's said the cut in corporate tax is credit positive for companies because it will enable them to generate higher post-tax

incomes. "However, it is credit negative for the sovereign, as it aggravates mounting risks for the government in meeting its fis-cal deficit target."

Commodity and information technolo-gy (IT) services companies will benefit most

from the tax rate cut."But the degree of strengthening in cor-

porate credit profiles will depend on wheth-er companies reinvest surplus earnings into their businesses, or use them to reduce debt or to boost shareholder returns," it said.

In aggregate, rated non-financial com-panies in India reported a total pre-tax net income of about USD 35 billion for the fiscal year ended March 2019.

Assuming the earnings of these compa-nies remain unchanged for current fiscal, they will save about USD 3 billion from the tax rate reduction?.

"The central government deficit target of 3.3 per cent of GDP in fiscal 2019 already assumes faster economic growth and higher tax buoyancy than we expect," it said.

The July budget projected total corpo-rate tax revenue of Rs 7.7 lakh crore (around 4 per cent of GDP), and the finance minister estimated that the decrease in the corporate tax rate will reduce revenue by around Rs 1.45 lakh crore in the current fiscal year.

"As such, the reduction in corporate income tax revenue � even when balanced against the windfall from the recent trans-fer of central bank surplus reserves, equiv-alent to around 0.3 per cent of GDP in the current fiscal year � further narrows fiscal room for manoeuvre," it said.

Moody's said this assumes that the gov-ernment does not cut expenditure to offset the revenue loss.

US corporate sector hails India''s move to slash income tax rate for companies

Mobile production to reach USD 190 bn by 2025 with corporate tax cutPress Trust Of India

New Delhi: Mobile phone production in the country is expected to reach USD 190 billion by 2025 on the back of enabling policy environment and lower corporate tax rate, according to in-dustry body ICEA.

Smartphone market leader Xiaomi said cor-porate tax cut will enhance job generation ca-pability in the industry, invest more in product development and encourage more component suppliers to set up their factories in India.

"Total handsets produced in India clocked 290 million units valued at Rs 1,81,000 crore (nearly USD 25 billion) during 2018-19," ICEA said.

Electronic component makers body ELCI-NA said the rate cut in corporate tax from 30 to 22 per cent and a minimum alternate tax (MAT) from 18 to 15 per cent is historic and a boost to

the slumbering economy and "it will wake up the sleeping giant".

"With such enabling policy environment in place, it would not be impossible to reach the mo-bile handset manufacturing target of USD 190 bil-lion by 2025 which is about 50 per cent of the total electronics manufacturing target with a total ex-port target of USD 110 billion," ICEA Chairman Pankaj Mohindroo said in a statement.

He said mobile handset manufacturing has already witnessed a significant growth trajec-tory during the past 4-5 years leading to signifi-cant export take-off.

"Mobile handset exports have already crossed USD 1-billion mark during the first four months of the current financial year. In fact, there has been a record export growth of 800 per cent in 2018-19, compared to exports achieved in 2017-18," Mohindroo said.

Press Trust OF iNDIA

Washington: The US' corporate sector has lauded the Indian government for substantially slashing the income tax rate to 25.17 per cent, saying the move will reverse the econom-ic slowdown and allow global companies a "good option" for growing their manufacturing base in the country.

The government on Friday slashed the income tax rate for companies by almost 10 percentage points to 25.17 per cent and offered a lower rate to 17.01 per cent for new manufacturing firms to boost economic growth rate from a six-year low by incentivising investments to

help create jobs.Finance Minister Nirmala Sithara-

man said the reduction in tax rates was done by promulgating an ordinance to an amendment to the Income Tax Act.

"We laud the Government for addressing our longstanding demand

for lowering the corporate tax rates. The move will make Indian companies glob-ally competitive and allow

global companies a good option for growing their

man- ufacturing base in country," MukeshAghi, president of US India Strategic and Partnership Forum (USISPF) told PTI.

"This is a welcome step to reverse the economic slowdown," he said.

In-principle decision to link Aadhaar with GST registrationAgencies

Panaji: The GST Council on Friday took an in principle decision to link Aadhaar with registration of taxpayers under GST and also examine the possibility of making the 12-digit unique identification number mandatory for claiming refunds.

The council also decided to a withdraw a circular issued in June which prescribed that the additional discount given by a com-pany to a dealer in certain cases will be liable for Goods and Services Tax (GST).

As per an official release, the council also took an in principle decision to prescribe rea-

sonable restrictions on passing of credit by risky taxpayers in order to tackle the menace of fake invoices and fraudulent refunds.

The council, comprising state finance ministers and headed by Union Finance Min-ister Nirmala Sitharaman, which met here, also decided to give relief to the job-creating MSME sector in filing of annual GST compo-sition return (Form GSTR-9A) for fiscal years 2017-18 and 2018-19.

Also, the mandatory filing of Form GSTR-9 for those MSMEs which have aggregate turnover up to Rs 2 crore has been made op-tional for the last two fiscals.

The GST Council also decided that a com-mittee of officers will be constituted to exam-ine the simplification of forms for annual re-turn and reconciliation statement.

In another important decision, the council agreed that new return system will now be introduced from April 2020 (earlier proposed from October 2019) in order to give ample opportunity to taxpayers as well as the system to adapt.

Further, in order to nudge taxpayers to timely file their statement of outward sup-plies, it was decided to impose restrictions on availment of input tax credit by the recipi-ents in cases where details of outward sup-plies are not furnished by the suppliers.

The panel also recommended suitable amendments in CGST Act, UTGST Act, and the corresponding SGST Acts in view of creation of UTs of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh.

Meanwhile, during the meeting, 15th Fi-nance Commission Chairman N K Singh sug-gested that the council should deliberate on having either one, or at maximum two slabs under the GST regime.

He also pitched for hiking tax rate to meet the necessary revenue requirements.

UP farmers begin march to Delhi, threaten hunger strike over demandsNew Delhi: Thousands of farmers from different parts of Uttar Pradesh began a march to Delhi on Saturday to raise various demands including payment of dues for sugarcane, loan waiver and free electricity supply.

Paramilitary forces have been deployed on the route of the march. The farmers plan to march to the Kisan Ghat in Delhi from the Ghazipur border on NH-24. The farmers warned they would hold a hunger strike if the government did not meet their demands following the march to Delhi.

Puran Singh, national president of the Indian Farmers Organisation, was quoted by ANI as saying, “After our negotiations with Agriculture Ministry of-ficials failed, we are left with only this option of march-ing to Delhi to draw attention towards our demands.”

The march comes even as the Uttar Pradesh gov-ernment on Friday set a deadline of October 31 for sugar mills to clear dues of sugarcane growers.

Suresh Rana, the state’s minister for sugarcane development and sugarcane mills, told mediaper-sons in Shamli the government wanted mills to settle dues before the crushing season began. He warned if the mills did not pay the dues, the farmers would be given recovery certificates and would be paid by sell-ing sugar from godowns.

Tax cuts: SBI pegs cos saving Rs 50K cr; prices falling 2-5%

Press Trust Of India

Mumbai: The government unexpected move to massively slash corporate taxes by over 10 percentage points will result in savings of over Rs 50,000 crore to India Inc, according to an analysis by economists at State Bank.

The benefit coming in from the Rs 1.45 lakh crore tax giveaways will also help companies to cut prices by up to 5 percent to boost consumer de-mand, which has been sagging and is one of the prime reasons for the deep-ening slowdown.

The economy has grown the slow-est pace in six years at 5 percent for the June quarter, which has resulted in a rash of measures from the govern-ment, including the massive tax cut for corporates which varies from 10 t0 12 percentage points.

"Corporate savings will jumps by Rs 50,000 crore, product price can come down by 2-5 percent, boosting de-mand," they said in a note.

With new effective rate of 25.17 percent, tax saving for its sample of

3,446 listed companies could be at least Rs 44,000 crore, which is a substantial boon for the corporates waiting for business revival in stressed environ-ment, it said.

Echoing other analysts who have flagged caution on fiscal slippage, the SBI note said the fiscal deficit will widen to 3.75 percent as against the targeted 3.3 percent.

Many others have pegged this at 4.1 percent.

After calculating for the expect-ed tax revenue shortfall, decline in nominal GDP growth, expenditure rationalisation initiatives and RBI surplus, the net impact on the fiscal deficit will be Rs 82,000 crore or 0.4 percent of GDP, it said.

It also recommended the govern-ment minimise to the extent possible the off-balance sheet borrowings so that fiscal policy is more credible and acceptable to the market.

The next stage of reforms we ex-pect should now clearly happen for factor markets, land and labour, and rural sector, the report said.

Auto industry has to find its own balance to enhance demand: SIAMPress Trust Of India

New Delhi: Industry body SIAM on Saturday said the auto industry would have to "find its own balance" to boost demand, with the GST Council declining to cut rates for the sector.

"The auto industry was very hopeful of GST reduction. It is clear that there is no reduction of GST rate on vehicles from 28 per cent to 18 per cent," Society of Indian Automobile Manu-facturers (SIAM) President RajanWadhera said in a statement.

The industry has to find its own balance to enhance demand, he added.

The GST Council, which met in Goa on Fri-day, did not cut tax rates on automobiles. The industry had been demanding a GST rate cut from the current 28 per cent to 18 per cent in order to revive sales which have been facing a prolonged slowdown.

The auto components industry too had demanded a uniform GST of 18 per cent. At present, 60 per cent of auto components are taxed at 18 per cent, while the rest are in the 28 per cent slab.

Wadhera expressed hope that the festive season would help in ushering in positive con-sumer sentiments.

He said the reduction of GST compensation cess for the sub-segment of 10-13 seaters with length less than 4 metres is positive step as the industry had been demanding it for a long time.

"SIAM had requested for abolishing com-pensation cess for the whole segment of 10-13 seaters vehicles, however, the benefit has been partially met," Wadhera said.

He also expressed hope that the recent mea-sures taken by the finance minister will sup-port growth and once the market stabilises and revenue rises to comfortable levels, the govern-ment would be able to rationalise GST levels and reduce rates on vehicles.

‘No need to have trade deal with China before 2020 elections’Press Trust Of India

Washington: US President Donald Trump has said he does not feel the need to strike a trade agreement with China before the next year's presidential elections, emphasizing that he is looking for a complete and not a "partial deal" with Beijing.

The world's two largest economies have been locked in a bruising trade war since Trump in March last year imposed tariff hikes of up to 25 per cent on USD 250 billion of Chinese goods.

In response, China, the world's second largest economy after the US, imposed tit-for-tat tariffs on USD 110 billion of Ameri-can goods.

"No, I don't think I need it before the election," Trump told reporters on Friday at a joint news conference with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison when asked if he feels the need for a trade deal with Chi-na before the 2020 presidential elections.

Trump insisted that he was looking for a complete trade deal.

"We are looking for a complete deal. I am

not looking for a partial deal," he said."China has been starting to buy our agri-

cultural product. If you noticed over the last week and actually some very big purchases but that is not what I am looking for. We are looking for the big deal. We have taken it to this level," Trump said.

The trade dispute between the US and China widened in August, with each side imposing retaliatory tariffs on the other. But there have been signs of deescalation in recent days, and Trump has increasingly expressed optimism of reaching a deal with China. US and Chinese counterparts have resumed trade talks this month.

On September 19 and 20, deputy-level negotiators from the United States and China met here to continue discus-sions aimed at improving the trade re-lationship between the two countries, the United States Trade Representative said in a statement.

These discussions were productive, and the United States looks forward to welcom-ing a delegation from China for principal-level meetings in October, it said.

‘Why is Sitharaman in such a giving mood?’ Owaisi asks after corporate tax cutsAgencies

Hyderabad: AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi hit out at the Centre’s move to slash corporate tax on Friday, wonder-ing whether it was the working people or industrialists who were in need of relief in times of “economic crisis.”

“In an economic crisis with mass un-employment, who should get relief from burdensome taxes & service fees?” Owaisi asked. “Should it be big business or YOU? Who’s more in need of “relief”: industrial-ists or working people?”

In the biggest reduction in 28 years, the

Centre has slashed corporate tax by almost 10 percentage points as it looked to pull the economy out of a six-year-low growth and a 45-year-high unemployment by reviving private investments with a �1.45-lakh-crore tax break. “Why’s @nisitharaman in such a giving mood,” Owaisi tweeted.

“Corporations get loans written off & their tax liability is slashed,” the All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen leader said. “Debt-ridded farmers & unemployed young men with education loans are asked to fend for themselves. Rob the poor, reward the rich”.

SPORTS Sunday|22-09-2019 7India aim to wrap up T20I series against SA in BengaluruPress Trust Of India

Bengaluru: Virat Kohli's fa-miliar exuberance and pep talks drowned the chatter around Rishabh Pant as India prepared to play South Africa in the third T20 International here on Sunday, seeking a 2-0 series verdict.

The comprehensive sev-en-wicket victory in the sec-ond game, which was built on the back of a fine comeback by the bowlers and a Kohli masterclass, is history now and the team is looking for another commanding perfor-mance before the Test series gets underway.

The opener in Dharamsala was a washout.

Against a fairly new-look South African side that seems to lack the resources required to counter the home team's firepower, India will surely fancy their chances of an encore, at the M Chinnas-wamy Stadium.

Embattled wicketkeeper-batsman Pant could not deliver in the last match and as he con-tinues to struggle with the bat, he remains under scrutiny.

Pant has divided opinions -- many questioned his tem-perament, shot-selection and the resultant slump in form -- while others refused to be harsh on him considering the talent that he possesses.

The 21-year-old could be boosted by words of encour-agement from legends such as Sunil Gavaskar, who has also stated that the time has come for India to look beyond Ma-hendra Singh Dhoni, with lit-tle more than a year left for the T20 World Cup in Australia.

But the Pant sub-plot is un-likely to significantly impact

the Indians' prospects in the fi-nal game of what effectively be-came a two-match affair after the washout in the hill town.

The South Africans had no answer to Kohli's batting at Mo-hali's IS Bindra Stadium in the second T20I, and with the next game being hosted at a ground where he is too familiar with, the Indian captain will be eye-ing another good outing.

But before Kohli, his depu-ty Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan will be standing up to the Kagiso Rabada-led pace at-tack with optimism, the size of the ground only aiding stroke-makers like the two openers.

The terrific Indian trio could again be a thorn in the Proteas' flesh, with Rohit espe-cially looking to make up after failing to translate his start into a big knock in Mohali.

While Pant will be hoping for a reversal in his fortunes, India have the likes of the ex-

tremely talented Shreyas Iyer in their middle-order, followed by Hardik Pandya and Ravin-dra Jadeja.

the Indian team manage-ment may have taken heart from the fact that pacers such as Deepak Chahar and Navdeep Saini put their hands up in the absence of regulars Jasprit Bumrah and Bhu-vneshwar Kumar.

They may not have years of international experience behind them but the likes of Washington Sundar, Chahar and Saini showed that they can challenge the South Africans.

New captain Quinton de Kock will again have to shoulder the bulk of respon-sibility with the bat and he will hope for support from the likes of David Miller and Reeza Hindricks.

De Kock might have to change the manner in which he handled his bowlers in the

second match, introducing his spinners late in the innings despite the Indians easily tack-ling his fast bowlers.

Teams (from): India: Virat Kohli (cap-

tain), Rohit Sharma (vice-captain), Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Har-dik Pandya, Ravindra Jade-ja, Krunal Pandya, Washing-ton Sundar, Rahul Chahar, Khaleel Ahmed, Deepak Chahar, Navdeep Saini

South Africa: Quinton de Kock (captain), Rassie van der Dussen (vice-captain), Temba Bavuma, Junior Dala, Bjorn Fortuin, Beuran Hendricks, Reeza Hendricks, David Miller, Anrich Nortje, Andile Pheh-lukwayo, Dwaine Pretorius, Kagiso Rabada, Tabraiz Sham-si, Jon-Jon Smuts.

Match starts 7 PM IST.

Pakistan announce 16-man squad for Sri Lanka seriesAgencies

Lahore: Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Sat-urday announced 16-man squad for a three-match ODI series against Sri Lanka.

The head coach and chief selector Misbah-ul-Haq said that they have put together the best possible squad.

"After thorough discussions with the members of the selection committee and me-ticulous planning, I feel we have put together the best possible squad," PCB's official website quoted Misbah-ul-Haq as saying.

"These are the only 50-over matches we have this season and we want to make their optimum use. Over the course of my cricketing career, I have realised there are no easy games and there are no easy opponents in cricket," he added.

Abid Ali, Iftikhar Ahmed, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Rizwan, Usman Shinwari and Mohammad Hasnain have been recalled for the Sri Lanka series.

"The five boys, who have been recalled, were straightforward selections. Iftikhar Ahmed is a batsman who can also bowl off-spin, providing the captain with necessary bowling depth as Sri Lanka boasts a few left-handers in their ranks. Mohammad Nawaz has been performing well in domestic match-es," Misbah-ul-Haq said.

"Despite their strong performances, Mo-ahmmad Rizwan, Usman Shinwari and Abid Ali were unlucky to miss out the World Cup

squad. This is, however, a perfect opportunity for these players to prove their mettle in inter-national cricket and cement their place in the one-day side," he added.

However, Hasan Ali failed to find a spot as he is recovering from a back spasm.

Pakistan's 16-man squad: Sarfaraz Ahmed (captain), Babar Azam (vice-captain), Abid Ali, Asif Ali, Fakhar Zaman, Haris Sohail, Iftikhar Ahmed, Imad Wasim, Imam-ul-Haq, Mohammad Amir, Mohammad Hasnain, Mo-hammad Nawaz, Mohammad Rizwan, Shadab Khan, Usman Shinwari, Wahab Riaz.

The first ODI between Pakistan and Sri Lan-ka will be played on September 27 in Karachi.

Moeen takes break from Test cricket

Agencies

Dubai: England all-rounder Moeen Ali missed the central contract for Test cricket as he had taken a break from

the longest format of the game, Ashley Giles, the managing director of the Eng-land and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) confirmed on Friday.

"He just wants a little bit of a break

from Test cricket. I think for all the guys, not just talking about Moeen, it's been a really challenging summer," Inter-national Cricket Council (ICC) quoted Giles as saying.

The 32-year-old played extensive cricket in the summer as he was the part of the ICC World Cup-winning squad and after that, he played one-off Test against Ireland. He was also featured in the first Test of Ashes against Australia.

"A World Cup and an Ashes back-to-back have had a massive effect on many of these guys, psychologically as much as physically. Some of those guys are still carrying that. His experience in the first Test wasn't a great one but that's cricket," he added.

Ali will remain available for selection for the limited-overs format as he was awarded the ODI/T20I central contract.

"He's been a great servant to this team and that's why I encouraged him to leave that option open for him to come back. He might just need that time away and freshen up but he's been a really good servant to this team and he's relatively young," Giles said. (ANI)

Zimbabwe's Masakadza signs off with 'super special' winAgencies

Dubai: After the seven-wicket win over Af-ghanistan in the T20I tri-nation series match on Friday, Zimbabwe skipper Hamilton Ma-sakadza said 'it was super special' to lead the team to victory in his final match.

Masakadza played a knock of 71-run in his last match to guide his team to win against Af-ghanistan. Zimbabwe claimed their first victo-ry of the series after losing two games against Bangladesh and one against Afghanistan.

"It was super special. To lead the team to the win was really special, and that too in my last game. Also beating Afghanistan for the

first time was special," International Cricket Council (ICC) quoted Msakadza after saying.

"It was a special feeling going through that guard of honour that the guys put up for me," he said. "I just got a lot of emotions going but, obviously, in the end, I am happy that I have pretty much done what the team needed from me, to get them into a good position to chal-lenge Afghanistan for the win. I am very satis-fied today," he added.

Masakadza opened the batting with Bren-dan Taylor, as Zimbabwe chased a target of 156. Zimbabwe got off to a flier. Masakadza got to his 11th T20I fifty in 27 balls.

World Cup bronze medal a motivation for upcoming challenges: Bajrang Punia

Tennis: Europe lead Team World 3-1 after first day in Laver CupAgencies

LONDON-- Team Europe took a 3-1 lead over Team World on the first day of the Laver Cup after winning two of three sin-gles matches and the doubles contest in front of a sellout crowd in Geneva on Friday.

Dominic Thiem and Stefanos Tsitsipas won their respective singles matches before Roger Federer and Alex-ander Zverev teamed up in the doubles, saving a whopping 15 of 16 break points to beat Jack Sock and Denis Shapovalov 6-3 7-5.

“All of us tennis players travel around the world for 10-11 months of the year,” Federer said. “There’s no place like playing at home so this is a very special night for me.”

Greek Tsitsipas, ranked seventh in the world, kicked off the evening session with a 6-2 1-6 10-7 win over American Taylor Fritz, claiming the opening set in 24 minutes with two breaks of serve.

Although Fritz battled back in the second, winning six of the next seven games to level the score, Tsitsipas capi-talised when Fritz double-fault-ed at 7-7 in the super tiebreak — a race to 10 points when the match goes into a third set.

“I think the momentum changed in the third set tie-break,” Tsitsipas said. “I found my rhythm, had a more clear mind on the court, didn’t rush so much. I think that played a cru-cial role in closing it at the end.”

Earlier, in the first ses-sion, Europe struck first when Austrian Thiem beat Canada’s Shapovalov 6-4 5-7 13-11, sav-ing three match points in the super tiebreak.

Thiem, ranked fifth in the world, needed only one break of serve to take the opening set, but the 20-year-old Shapovalov fought back to break twice in the second set to tie the game at one set apiece.

The young Canadian led 9-7 in the tiebreak before squandering his match points as Thiem clawed his way back to win the contest on his sec-ond match point.

Mexico cracks down on homophobic slurs in football

Gabriel Jesus returns for Brazil after banAgencies

RIO DE JANEIRO: Ga-briel Jesus returned on Friday to the Brazil squad for next month’s friendlies against Ni-geria and Senegal af-ter his two-month ban from international football following his controversial dis-missal in July’s Copa America final.

The Manchester City striker was hit with the ban by South America’s football gov-erning body CONME-BOL last month for the way he reacted to being sent off 20 minutes from the end of the final, won by Brazil 3-1 against Peru.

He left the field in tears, made obscene hand gestures, angrily kicked a water bottle and almost knocked over the VAR booth.

Neymar was also picked on Friday for the Brazil squad days after he returned to action for Paris Saint-Germain following a summer-long transfer saga.

The world’s most expensive player scored a spectacular win-ner against Strasbourg in Sun-day’s 1-0 Ligue 1 win at the Parc des Princes, but was showered with boos by fans after courting former club Barcelona through-out the close season.

Neymar, who struggled with injuries last season, had already played for his country earlier this month in friendly matches with Peru and Colombia, the lat-ter of which saw him score and set another up in a 2-2 draw.

Atletico Madrid’s Renan Lodi, 21, earned his first interna-tional call-up after impressing in his first few games for the La Liga outfit.

Neymar’s PSG teammate Marquinhos has also been se-lected despite him leaving the field injured during his side’s 3-0 destruction of Real Madrid in the Champions League on Wednesday.

Agencies

MEXICO CITY: The Mexican Football Federation (FMF) announced a new crackdown Friday on the homophobic slurs often heard at its match-es, warning that the contro-versial tradition could get the country banned from the 2022 World Cup.

Mexican football fans are known for shouting out “Puto!”, a homophobic insult, when the opposing team takes a goal kick, a custom that has repeatedly led to FIFA fining the FMF.

“If we don’t solve this prob-lem before qualifiers start for the

2022 World Cup, it will endanger our chance to participate” in the tournament, FMF president Yon de Luisa told a press conference.

“We are trying to eradicate all racist slurs and discrimination from our football,” added Enrique Bonilla, the head of the Mexican first division, the Liga MX.

They announced harsh mea-sures for league matches, aimed at drilling the message into fans ahead of the World Cup in Qatar. Starting next week, for the next three rounds of league play, offi-cials will stop the match if there is a homophobic slur and play an announcement over the loud-speakers.

Agencies

NEW DELHI - Ace Indian grappler Ba-jrang Punia has insisted that he will not consider the bronze medal he won at the 2019 World Wrestling Championships as “victory”, but will use it as a motivation to perform better in the future. “Sometimes defeat teaches you something which even a victory cannot. I will not consider this bronze medal as a victory for myself but will use it as an inspiration to face upcom-ing challenges. Jai Hind. Jai Bharat,” Pu-nia tweeted in Hindi on Saturday.

On Friday, the 25-year-old fought back from a 0-6 deficit to defeat Mongolian Tulga Tumur Ochir 8-7 in the 65-kg bronze medal bout in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan. This was Punia’s second consecutive se-nior Worlds medal and third overall.

Alongwith Punia, Ravi Kumar Da-hiya also bagged bronze in the 57-kg category after he beat Iran’s reigning Asian champion Reza Atri 6-3 to win his maiden Worlds medal.

Both Punia and Dahiya had sealed

a spot at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics by qualifying for the bronze medal round. This took India’s haul to three medals at Nur-Sultan with Vinesh Phogat win-ning bronze in the women’s 53kg cat-

egory. The last time India won as many medals was in the 2013 World Champi-onships and one more can make this the country’s best ever performance in the prestigious event.

A World Cup and an Ashes back-to-back have had a massive effect on many of these guys, psychologically as much as physically. Some of those guys are still carrying that. His experience in the first Test wasn't a great one but that's cricket

CM

YK

CM

YK

SATURDAY 21092019 Kashmir Observer08 News

Trump Announces New Iran Sanctions

US Sending More Troops To ‘Protect’ Saudi’s Al-Jazeera

WASHINGTON: The United States an-nounced on Friday that it was sending military reinforcements to the Gulf re-gion following attacks on Saudi oil facili-ties that it attributes to Iran, just hours af-ter President Donald Trump ordered new sanctions on Tehran.

Trump said the sanctions were the toughest-ever against another country, but indicated he did not plan a military strike, calling restraint a sign of strength.

The Treasury Department renewed ac-tion against Iran's central bank after US officials said Tehran carried out week-end attacks on rival Saudi Arabia's oil infrastructure, which triggered a spike in global crude prices.

Those attacks, combined with an Ira-nian attack on an American spy drone in June, represented a “dramatic escalation of Iranian aggression”, Secretary of De-fence Mark Esper said.

The Pentagon chief announced that the US would send military reinforcements to the Gulf region at the request of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

“In response to the kingdom's request, the president has approved the deploy-ment of US forces, which will be defen-sive in nature, and primarily focused on air and missile defence,” Esper said.

However, Joint Chiefs of Staff Joe Dunford categorised the deployment as “moderate”, with the number of troops

not expected to reach the thousands.Earlier in the day Trump attacked both

critics who thought the mogul-turned-president would trigger war and hawks seeking a military response.

“The easiest thing I could do (is) knock out 15 different major things in Iran,”

Trump said.“But I think the strong-person ap-

proach and the thing that does show strength would be showing a little bit of restraint,” he said.

Trump in June authorised a military strike after Iran shot down the US spy

drone, only to call it off at the last moment.

Extensive damage

Saudi Arabia on Friday revealed extensive damage from the strikes on state giant Ar-amco's facilities in Khurais and the world's

largest oil processing facility at Abqaiq.The attacks, which knocked out half of

Saudi Arabia's oil production, have been claimed by Yemen which is controlled by pro-Iran Ansarullah, but Washington has pointed its finger at Tehran, condemning the strikes as an “act of war”.

Abqaiq was struck 18 times while nearby Khurais was hit four times in a raid that triggered multiple explosions and towering flames that took hours to extinguish, Aramco officials said.

Aramco flew dozens of international journalists to the two sites to show it was speeding up repairs, giving rare access to the nerve centre of the world's largest oil producer as it seeks to shore up inves-tor confidence ahead of a planned initial public offering (IPO).

Meanwhile, Yemeni rebels, who have repeatedly targeted key Saudi infrastruc-ture in recent months in cross-border attacks, unexpectedly announced late Friday that they planned to halt all strikes on the country.

The move, they said, was part of a peace initiative to end their country's devastat-ing conflict which has killed tens of thou-sands of people — most of them civilians — and driven millions more to the brink of famine. Iran denies US and Saudi accu-sations that it arms the Ansarullah.

New ground for sanctionsThe US already maintains sweeping

sanctions on Iran including on its cen-tral bank, with anyone who deals with it

subject to prosecution, due to Tehran's al-leged nuclear programme.

But the new sanctions on Friday were imposed for the additional reason of “ter-rorism”, Treasury said, adding that Iran's central bank had provided “billions of dol-lars” to two groups blacklisted by the US.

“Treasury's action targets a crucial funding mechanism that the Iranian regime uses to support its terrorist net-work, including the Quds Force, Hezbol-lah and other militants that spread terror and destabilise the region,” said US Trea-sury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

The Quds Force conducts international operations for Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards, while Hezbollah, the influential player in Lebanon, is among Iran's closest regional partners.

Iran responded that the move showed that the US was running out of options.

Washington also imposed sanctions on Iran's sovereign wealth fund, whose board of trustees includes President Hassan Rouhani, as well as Etemad Tejarate Pars, a company that the Treasury Department said had sent money internationally on behalf of Iran's defence ministry.

Trump recently said that he hopes for talks with Rouhani, who responded that Trump must first ease sanctions.

Last year Trump pulled out of a nuclear accord with Iran negotiated under former president Barack Obama, sending ten-sions soaring as he tried to stop all coun-tries from buying Iran's oil.

After Bombing Saudi Oil Installations Yemenis Declare TruceSANA’A: An official with the Houthi dominated Ansarullah rebel move-ment in Yemen has said it will stop aiming missile and drone attacks at Saudi Arabia, warning that a continuation of the war could lead to "dangerous developments".

The announcement was made on Friday night by Mahdi al-Mashat, head of the supreme po-litical council, which controls the rebel-held areas in Yemen.

"We declare ceasing to target the Saudi Arabian territory with military drones, ballistic missiles and all other forms of weapons, and we wait for a reciprocal move from them," Mashat said on the Ansarullah-run Al Masirah TV.

"We reserve the right to respond if they fail to reciprocate positively to this initiative," he said, adding that the continuation of the Yemen war "will not benefit any side".

The announcement by the rebels came nearly a week after they claimed a major attack on Saudi oil facilities.

Iran denies being involved, warning that any retaliatory strike on it by the US or Saudi Arabia will result in "an all-out war".

'Preserve blood of Yemenis'"I call on all parties from dif-

ferent sides of the war to engage

seriously in genuine negotiations that can lead to a comprehensive national reconciliation that does not exclude anyone," said Mashat.

He added a major goal of the ceasefire was to "preserve the blood of Yemenis and achieve a general amnesty".

The Saudi-led military coalition did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Ye-meni announcement.

Mashat also called for the re-opening of Sanaa's international airport and open access to Ye-men's Red Sea port of Hodeidah, a crucial entry point for imports and humanitarian aid that has been at the centre of United Nations-

brokered talks. The US-backed co-alition led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates intervened in Yemen in March 2015 following an uprising in Sana’a toppled pro-West government in 2014.

The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people so far and left millions on the brink of famine, sparking what the UN calls the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

The Yemeni rebels have re-peatedly targeted key Saudi in-frastructure in recent months in cross-border attacks. Earlier this week, they said they had picked out dozens of sites in the UAE as possible targets for fu-ture attacks.

Netanyahu Clings To Power Despite LossJERUSALEM: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faced Israeli media headlines on September 20 suggesting power is slipping from his grasp after an election in which he trails his main rival with nearly all votes counted.

The right-wing leader failed on September 17, for the second time in five months, to secure a clear election victory and the centrist Blue and White party led by ex-armed forces chief Benny Gantz rebuffed his calls to join a unity government on September 19.

Near-final results released on Friday by the Knesset's elec-tion committee showed Blue and White will be the largest single party in the new parliament with 33 of the 120 seats, with Mr. Ne-tanyahu's Likud winning 31 seats, three less than it had before.

Israeli newspapers and com-mentators depicted the 69-year-old leader as in a weakened position, with headlines such as: “Himself Alone” and “Political Death Spasms”.

President Reuven Rivlin will on September 22 start consultations with the parties about choosing a leader to put together a coalition.

There were only narrow dif-ferences in the two main parties' campaigns on many important is-sues, and an end to the Netanyahu era would be unlikely to bring sig-nificant changes in policy on rela-tions with the United States, the regional struggle against Iran or the Palestinian conflict.

Palestinian elections?Palestinian President Mahmoud

Abbas appeared to see Israel's coali-tion drama as an opportunity for his government in the occupied West Bank to announce election plans.

Abbas told reporters outside Norway's parliament that he would issue a decree for elections across the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem when he re-turns to the Palestinian Territories following the U.N. General Assem-bly in New York.

Despite a long rift with Gaza's Is-lamist rulers Hamas, Mr. Abbas said his Palestinian Authority, which ex-ercises limited self-rule in the West Bank, would be ready to accept a Hamas victory “because Hamas is a part of our people, we cannot ex-clude Hamas. They have a right to vote and to nominate themselves.”

Some political analysts said Mr. Abbas was unlikely to follow through on his election pledge, pointing to difficulties holding a na-tional vote across Gaza and the West Bank and East Jerusalem, each of

which has a different ruling entity.There have not been any nation-

al Palestinian elections for 13 years. Mr. Abbas was elected president in 2005 and Hamas won a 2006 parliamentary election, plunging Palestinian politics into a bitter power struggle from which it has not emerged.

Peace planOne uncertainty is the timing

of U.S. President Donald Trump's long-delayed Middle East peace plan, which was expected soon after Israel's election, but could unsettle a weakened Netanyahu if released during complex coalition negotiations.

On September 19, Mr. Netanya-hu met Mr. Trump's outgoing Mid-dle East envoy Jason Greenblatt, a chief architect of the plan.

Many political analysts are wait-ing to see how Mr. Netanyahu tries to prolong his political survival, not least to claim a public man-date in the face of possible corrup-tion charges that prosecutors may bring within months. He denies wrongdoing, accusing his critics of mounting a witch-hunt.

In his election campaign, Mr. Netanyahu pledged to annex large swaths of the West Bank, territory Israel captured in a 1967 war where Palestinians seek a state along with Gaza and East Jerusalem. The move drew condemnation from world leaders as detrimental to achieving a lasting peace accord.

Gantz has urged redoubled ef-forts to restart peace talks with the Palestinians but stopped short of any commitment to the statehood they seek. He has spoken less con-cretely of Israel maintaining secu-rity control of the Jordan Valley.

Netanyahu and Mr. Gantz will now seek potential coalition allies, prominent among whom is the far-right former defence minister Avig-dor Lieberman. He secured eight seats for his Yisrael Beitenu party, making him a potential kingmaker.

Increased turnout by Israel's 21-percent Arab minority saw the Arab-dominated Joint List coali-tion grouping win 13 seats, making it the third largest grouping.

The religious parties represent-ing Israel's Ultra-Orthodox com-munities, known as Haredim, re-main a significant force, with Shas winning nine seats and United To-rah Judaism eight seats.

The right-wing Yamina won sev-en seats, the leftist Labor-Gesher six, and the Democratic Union five. The full official results will be pub-lished next Wednesday. Reuters

Students Skip Classes To Teach Leaders Climate Lesson

Reuters

SYDNEY: Hundreds of thousands of students and workers left their schools, colleges and offices on Fri-day and marched along city streets around the globe to demand that world leaders take urgent action to avert an environmental catastrophe.

The global climate strike, inspired by 16-year-old Swe¬dish activist Greta Thun-berg, kicked off in the Paci¬fic islands and followed the ris-ing sun across Australia, Japan, South-east Asia and then on to Europe, Afri-ca, the Middle East and the Americas.

Some of the banners at a march in Brussels said: “Cool kids save the hot planet”, “I won’t go to school until you make it cool” and “The warm earth destroys our cold beer.”

Protesters in about 150 countries called on governments to take im-mediate act¬ion to limit the harm-ful eff¬ects of manmade climate change. Social media posts showed scores of demonstrations, ranging from a few dozen primary school-children in Abuja, Nigeria, to tens of thousands of people in cities from Hamburg, in Germany, to Mel-bourne, Australia.

Egyptians Demand El-Sisi's Removal

Trump Not Keen On Trade Deal With China Before 2020 ElectionsPress Trust of India

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump has said he does not feel the need to strike a trade agreement with China be-fore the next year’s presidential elections, emphasizing that he is looking for a com-plete and not a “partial deal” with Beijing.

The world’s two largest economies have been locked in a bruising trade war since Trump in March last year imposed tariff hikes of up to 25 per cent on USD 250 bil-lion of Chinese goods.

In response, China, the world’s second largest economy after the US, imposed tit-for-tat tariffs on USD 110 billion of American goods. “No, I don’t think I need it before the election,” Trump told report-ers on Friday at a joint news conference

with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison when asked if he feels the need for a trade deal with China before the

2020 presidential elections. Trump in-sisted that he was looking for a complete trade deal.

“We are looking for a complete deal. I am not looking for a partial deal,” he said.

“China has been starting to buy our agri-cultural product. If you noticed over the last week and actually some very big purchases but that is not what I am looking for. We are looking for the big deal. We have taken it to this level,” Trump said.

The trade dispute between the US and China widened in August, with each side imposing retaliatory tariffs on the other. But there have been signs of deescalation in recent days, and Trump has increasingly expressed optimism of reaching a deal with China. US and Chinese counterparts have resumed trade talks this month.

On September 19 and 20, deputy-level negotiators from the United States and Chi-na met here to continue discussions aimed

at improving the trade relationship be-tween the two countries, the United States Trade Representative said in a statement.

These discussions were productive, and the United States looks forward to welcom-ing a delegation from China for principal-level meetings in October, it said.

President Trump said the US was taking in billions and billions of dollars of tariffs from China as a result of his policies.

China has devalued their currency and they are putting in lot of money into their economy and they have a very bad econo-my right now, he said.

“I don’t want them to have a bad econo-my, but it is the worst they say 57 years,” he said. Trump said two weeks ago the Chinese economy was the worst in 22 years, but now it is 57 years and is only going to get worse.

“Their supply chain is being broken up very badly and companies are leaving be-cause they can’t pay the 25, soon to go to 30 per cent tariff and we have 30 per cent very shortly on USD 250 billion,” he said.

“We have another tariff and a slightly smaller number on about USD 300 bil-lion worth of goods and products so they would like to do something as you know we are talking a little bit this week talking about lot next week and then top people are going to be speaking the week follow-ing,” Trump said.

“We can do a very big deal with China and it could go very quickly as you know but it wouldn’t be the appropriate deal. We have to do it right and that’s a very compli-cated deal with intellectual property pro-tection we have to do that and other things.

Hong Kong Police Accused of Torturing Protesters

CAIRO: Thousands of pro-democracy protesters marched in cities across Egypt on Friday, demanding the resig-nation of President Abdel Fattah el-Si-si. Videos posted on social media showed demonstrators chanting "rise up, fear not, Sisi must go" and "the people demand the re-gime's fall" late on Friday.

Protests were reported in the capital Cairo, the second-big-gest city of Alexandria and Suez.

Officers in civilian uniforms confronted the demonstrators who tried approaching Cairo's Tahrir Square, where mass pro-tests started in 2011 which top-pled Hosni Mubarak.

Al Jazeera is banned from re-porting from inside Egypt, but there were several reports of ar-rests made in the capital, and tear gas being used on demonstrators.

The demonstrations came after self-exiled Egyptian businessman and actor Mohamed Ali accused President el-Sisi of corruption and called on people to take to the streets and demand the leader be

removed. El-Sisi has dismissed the allegations as "lies".

"If el-Sisi does not announce his resignation by Thursday, then the Egyptian people will come out to the squares on Friday in protest," Ali said in a video posted on Tuesday

"Rise up, fear not, Sisi must go"Ali first began posting his vid-

eos on September 2. His latest videos have been viewed hun-dreds of thousands of times and has turned him into a public fig-ure in his homeland.

In a video on Friday that was published as protests were gain-ing momentum, Ali encouraged people to stand strong and con-tinue demanding their rights.

"God is great ... enough already, I want to come back to Egypt. I miss Egypt and my people. May God strengthen your resolve," he said.

Yehia Ghanem, Al Jazeera's Middle East analyst, said he "def-initely" believes Friday's protests represent a different level of mo-mentum among Egyptians.

HONG KONG: Amnesty Interna-tional accused Hong Kong police on Saturday of torture and other abuses in their handling of more than three months of pro-democra-cy protests, but the police say they have shown restraint on the street in the face of increased violence.

Anti-government protesters, many masked and wearing black, have thrown petrol bombs at po-lice and central government offices, stormed the Legislative Council, blocked roads to the airport, trashed metro stations and lit fires on the streets of the Chinese-ruled city.

Police have responded with tear gas, water cannons, rubber bullets, bean bag rounds and several live rounds fired in the air, warning the crowds beforehand with a series of different colored banners.

They have also been seen beat-ing protesters on the ground with batons, with footage of one such at-tack on cowering passengers on an MTR subway train going viral online and prompting widespread anger.

“The evidence leaves little room for doubt – in an apparent thirst for retaliation, Hong Kong’s security forces have engaged in a disturb-ing pattern of reckless and unlaw-ful tactics against people during the protests,” Nicholas Bequelin, East Asia director at Amnesty In-ternational, said in a report follow-ing a field investigation. “This has included arbitrary arrests and re-taliatory violence against arrested persons in custody, some of which has amounted to torture.”

In one instance, police shone green lasers into the eyes of de-tainees, Amnesty said, employing a tactic previously used by many pro-testers against police.

Responding to the Amnesty re-port, police said they have respected the “privacy, dignity and rights” of those in custody according to regu-lations, allowing detainees transport to hospitals and communication with lawyers and their families.

“The force to be used by police shall be the minimum force neces-

sary for achieving a lawful purpose,” police said in an emailed statement.

The official police Facebook page earlier noted that almost 240 police had been wounded in the violent pro-tests as they exercised “a high level of restraint … to restore public order.”

The recent round of protests in Hong Kong, a former British colony that was returned to China under a “one coun-try, two systems” arrangement in 1997, was sparked by planned legislation that would have allowed people ac-cused of breaking Chinese laws to be sent to the mainland for trial.

The legislation was withdrawn but the protests have broadened into calls for universal suffrage, including an independent inquiry into per-ceived police brutality, with demon-strators angry about what they see as creeping interference by Beijing.

China has said it is committed to the “one country, two systems” ar-rangement that ensures freedoms not enjoyed on the mainland, including right of assembly and an independent judiciary, and denies interfering.