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By Zulfiqar Ali Khan in The Dawn, Feb 17 HUNZA, Feb 16: Hundreds of people, including students and patients, stranded in Gojal valley and Hunza have expressed concern over the condition of boats provided by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) for ferrying them between the two landslide-affected areas. Over 500 people stranded in Gojal and Hunza due to the blockade of Karakoram Highway (KKH) by a lake formed on Hunza River after the January…

MUZAFFARABAD, Feb 16: The Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) government has taken strong exception to the alleged substandard construction of an important artery by the Frontier Works Organisation (FWO), and has decided to take up the matter with the National Highway Authority (NHA). The decision was taken at a high-level meeting held here on Tuesday to review the progress in communications sector. The meeting was chaired by Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider and attended among…

ISLAMABAD: Attorney General Anwar Mansoor told the Supreme Court on Tuesday that it had the jurisdiction to rule on a dispute relating to the appointment of the AJK chief justice. In July last year, his predecessor Sardar Latif Khan Khosa had taken a diametrically opposed view before the apex court that it lacked jurisdiction to decide matters relating to the appointment of AJK judges because it was a sovereign state having its own president, prime…

The Daily Times, Feb 16 LAHORE: Top terrorist commander Ilyas Kashmiri, whose 313 Brigade is an operational arm of the al Qaeda, has vowed to continue attacks across India until the Indian Army leaves Indian-held Kashmir and gives the Kashmiris their right to self-determination. In the message sent to Asia Times Online, early on Monday – shortly after the deadly weekend bombing of the German Bakery in the western Indian city of Pune – Kashmiri…

AZAD Kashmir was created within two months of Pakistan’s independence with high expectations. Nestled in the mountainous western region that abuts the vale of Kashmir, it forms an archer’s bow that is about 100 miles long and about 20-40 miles wide. The Pakistani security elite hoped that an arrow fired from the bow would bring about the instant liberation of the vale of Kashmir from Indian occupation. The first arrow was fired almost within days…

MUZAFFARABAD, Feb 14: AJK Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider said on Sunday that a comprehensive security plan for the protection of foreigners, particularly the Chinese, executing mega development projects in Kashmir would be devised within three weeks in consultation with the government, Wapda and other construction companies. Mr Haider was talking to journalists on his return from Chattar Klas, located some 20 kilometres south of Muzaffarabad, where Interior Minister Rehman Malik, Wapda Chairman Shakil Durrani…

NEW DELHI: Indian Home Minister P Chidambaram said on Thursday ‘Azad’ Kashmir is an Indian territory and “we should facilitate the return of Kashmiris who have crossed over the Line of Control (LoC) for some reasons”. Talking to reporters, he confirmed an amnesty scheme for militants who had gone to ‘Azad’ Kashmir and said India was ready to “welcome” them if they are ready to return after giving up militancy. “The idea is accepted… This…

MUZAFFARABAD, Feb 10: Declaring 2010 as ‘judicial year’, Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) High Court Chief Justice Ghulam Mustafa Mughal on Wednesday announced several decisions for easy and speedy dispensation of justice as well as revival of the trust of public in judiciary. In his maiden interaction with the media after assuming the office on January 1, Justice Mughal said he had decided to introduce the concept of self-accountability from the upper level instead of…

Islamabad, Feb 10: Human rights and political activists from Gilgit-Baltistan on Wednesday criticised the government for what they called inaction and indifferent attitude towards the landslide-hit people of Hunza-Gojal. Briefing mediapersons about the landslide that hit Atabad in Hunza and killed 19 people and severed communication links between China and Pakistan, at the National Press Club, leaders of Gilgit-Baltistan Human Rights Advocacy Network (GBHRAN) and Progressive Youth Front (PYF) said that despite lapse of over…

A month after a landslide in Upper Hunza killed 20 people and left 1,500 others homeless, the fate of the victims has largely been forgotten. Their suffering is far from over. The Gojal tehsil remains cut off from the rest of the country, since the river was dammed as a result of debris tumbling into it after the landslide and has risen into a lake blocking the Karakorum Highway. About 75 households trapped beyond this…