Human Rights

NEW DELHI (AP) — The music videos began appearing on social media within hours of the announcement by India’s Hindu-led nationalist government that it was stripping statehood from the disputed region of Kashmir that had been in place for decades.

The songs delivered a message to India’s 250 million YouTube users about moving to the Muslim-majority region, buying land there and marrying Kashmiri women.

21 Aug 2019; MEMO: Israeli occupation forces stormed the outskirts of the village of Lakiya in the Negev yesterday and distributed demolition and evacuation notices.

The notices affected more than 30 buildings and houses, most of which belonged to the Abu Mutair family and the family of former Knesset member, Juma Al-Zabarqa.

21 Aug 2019; MEMO: A Palestinian grandmother has finally been able to visit her father’s grave, after battling Israeli authorities for permission to do so over two decades.

The grave of Salwa Salem Copty’s father is located inside an Israeli military base near Nazareth, which was built on the ruins of Ma’alul, one of hundreds of Palestinian villages destroyed during the Nakba.

21 Aug 2019; MEMO: The UN has postponed a conference on torture that was set to take place in Cairo at the beginning of September after a wave of criticism from human rights activists who have documented the Egyptian government’s extensive use of torture against political opponents.

GAZA, Palestine, Aug 21 (NNN-WAFA) – Hamas, on Tuesday, downplayed the threat of Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to launch a large-scale offensive on the Gaza Strip as “useless.”

Netanyahu’s threat to wage a war against Gaza “is empty of its content and comes in the frame of his election campaign,” said Abdulatif al-Qanoua, Hamas spokesman in Gaza, said, in a press statement.

“Netanyahu will certainly lose any new war that will be waged against Gaza, similar to the previous ones,” al-Qanoua warned.

Srinagar, Aug 21: A Kashmiri and a policeman were killed while a sub-inspector was injured in an alleged gunfight between Indian security forces and Kashmiri separatists in Baramulla district of Indian administered Kashmir, an Indian official said.

The Indian security forces' spokesperson alleged that a cordon and search operation was underway in the area following information about presence of Kashmiri separatist.

New Delhi, Aug 20; IANS/GANASHAKTI: The Union Home Ministry on Tuesday increased from 60 to 120 days the time limit for filing appeals in Foreign Tribunals (FTs) regarding exclusion from the final National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam.

A review meeting chaired by Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday decided to amend the rules realising the difficulties in filing an appeal within the prescribed time for all those excluded from the final NRC.

Srinagar, Aug 20; GANASHAKTI:  Barricades around the Clock Tower in Srinagar's city centre Lal Chowk were removed after 15 days on Tuesday, allowing the movement of people and traffic in the commercial hub, as restrictions eased in several localities while continuing in others.

No students showed up in most primary schools that reopened on Monday but attendance in government offices has improved, officials said.

Jammu/New Delhi, Aug 20 (PTI) Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad was stopped at the Jammu airport on Tuesday and sent back to Delhi, a party leader said, the second time in a month the former chief minister was not allowed to visit Jammu and Kashmir.

"Azad sahib had arrived from Delhi at around 2.45 pm and was not allowed to move out from the airport and forcibly sent back in a return flight to Delhi at 4.10 pm," state Congress chief spokesperson Ravinder Sharma told PTI.

Guwahati, Aug 20 (PTI) A family in Silchar in Assam has called off the wedding of their daughter when the groom failed to provide his citizenship credentials.

Dilwar Hussain Laskar, of Nayagram village near Silchar was in love with a local girl and the two families had agreed to their marriage.

But trouble arose when the girl's family wanted to know from his family on August 15 whether his name was in the citizens register.