RTI activists and social workers are protesting the murder of a prominent RTI activist, Ram Vilas Singh, in Lakhisarai district last fortnight. They have demanded a high-level probe into the murder, which was very much apprehended, and arrest of the people who had been identified by Singh as threat to his life. "Singh was murdered in broad daylight on December 8 at his village Babhangawan even though he had informed the...

—PTI For the first time in the two-decade long turmoil in Jammu and Kashmir, a Valley-based human rights group has admitted that militants were responsible for more enforced disappearances than security forces. Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP), an organisation seeking the whereabouts of missing persons in the State, said of the 132 cases it has documented, militant groups were responsible for 24 cases of enforced disappearances compared to 22 by...

-The Hindu   The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), on Monday, deferred till March the hearing on the Mullaperiyar dam issue, saying it will wait till the Supreme Court-appointed empowered committee submits its report. The decision was taken at a meeting of the full commission of the NHRC, a senior NHRC official said. “The commission has decided to wait till the empowered committee submits its report on February 29,” the official said. The NHRC had...

-EPW   With laws like the AFSPA, when will truth and justice prevail in Jammu and Kashmir? Like all Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) chief ministers after the dreadful years of president’s rule from 1990 to 1996, Omar Abdullah too stands discredited, especially in the wake of the 2010 uprising of the “stone pelters” which was later brutally suppres­sed. A widely held opinion in the Kashmir Valley is that the chief minister, whether of...

Act had been criticised for infringing on civil liberties, being arbitrary   The Jammu and Kashmir government has approved amendments in the Public Safety Act (PSA), which had come under criticism for being arbitrary and infringing upon the civil liberties of the people. Official sources said that the amendments were approved during a Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah here on Wednesday. The amendment Bill, sources said, would prevent the slapping...