-The Hindu With the exception of Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and PDP leader Mehbooba Mufti, hardly anyone of consequence has supported Pragaash, the Valley’s first all-girl rock band, the members of which have gone into hiding after receiving a threat of ‘social boycott’ from the Dukhataarn-e-Millat, a radical women’s outfit. Three fresh Facebook pages have come up with nearly 1,000 supportive posts in the past four days but most...

-The Hindu As Kashmir’s civil society and cultural groups remain lifeless, separatists have a field day to get the all-girl band shut Despite Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah’s reassuring tweets, the teenage members of the Valley’s first all-women rock band have gone into hiding immediately after receiving a threat of ‘social boycott’ from the Dukhataarn-e-Millat, a radical women’s outfit. Coming as it did after the fatwa from Kashmir’s head mufti, this...

-The Times of India While Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh waxed eloquent on the "success" of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) and called it a key instrument for "financial inclusion" at a government conference in New Delhi on Saturday, latest data reveal a picture of declining employment generation under the scheme. Even more startling: Jobs created for the most marginalized sections - dalits and adivasis - have...

-The Hindu Complaints by Pakistan of executions, beheadings in secret cross-border raids by Indian forces In classified protests to a United Nations watchdog that have never been disclosed till now, Pakistan has accused Indian soldiers of involvement in the torture and decapitation of at least 12 Pakistani soldiers in cross-Line of Control raids since 1998, as well as the massacre of 29 civilians. The allegations, laid out in confidential Pakistani complaints to the...

-The Indian Express Verma panel wants criminal trial for armed forces men in rape cases. A look at some such cases in Kashmir One of the key recommendations of the Justice J S Verma Committee has been that sexual offences by armed forces personnel be brought under ordinary criminal law. In Kashmir, the armed forces have frequently sought — and got — immunity from prosecution in civilian courts after their personnel have had...