Kashmiri girls all set to be airhostesses

October 5th, 2009 REYASI - More girls are going to schools in Reyasi district of Jammu and Kashmir after an ebb in the two decades-long insurgency in the state. Along with decline in rebel violence, militant diktats like imposing ban on cinema and threatening girls wearing skirts or not seen in burqas or headscarves, have also faded away.

October 3rd, 2009 MATTAN - A fire ritual was performed by a batch of 40 Kashmiri Pandits at the Sun Temple in Ranbirsinghpora in Jammu and Kashmir's Anantnag district for the first time in 700 years on Friday. The All Parties Migrant Coordination Committee (APMCC), an organisation of migrant Kashmiri Pandits in the Kashmir Valley organized the event.

September 7th, 2009 SRINAGAR - Kashmir University launches first trilingual English-Kashmiri-Hindi online dictionary, containing over 12,000 words, to promote Kashmiri language. Christened as 'Kashmiri Zaban.com, the dictionary has been compiled by university's department of linguistics making use of three scripts, Roman for English, Devanagri for Hindi and Modified Persio-Arabic for Kashmiri.

May 27th, 2009 SRINAGAR - Rubina, a Class 11 student in the old quarter of the Jammu and Kashmir summer capital, is among 50 odd girls who regularly attend martial arts classes in school to ward off attacks by delinquent youth. "It has become absolutely necessary to master some self-defence techniques as roadside eve-teasing, obscene comments by youths in the city have put me on alert," she said at the end of one such evening training session.

May 18th, 2009 SRINAGAR - A number of girls in Kashmir are presently drawn to learning martial arts, as they wish to learn self-defense techniques and also be physically fit. By learning this art, these girls are confident of defending themselves against any anti-social element and also keep themselves fit.

May 4th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Kashmir's Pandits staged a silent protest here, saying their names were struck off from the voters' list. Most of Kashmiri Pandits live in Jammu, and the rest who fled the region reside mostly in New Delhi and other cities across the country.

April 12th, 2009 AHMEDABAD/JAMMU - Bollywood actor Om Puri joined the campaign trail of Mallika Sarabhai in Gandhinagar, who is pitted against L K Advani, prime ministerial candidate of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Om Puri recalled dancer Sarabhai family's contribution to the society.

April 11th, 2009 JAMMU - Bollywood actor Anupam Kher Saturday vowed to work for the empowerment of exiled Kashmiri Hindus and for their return to their homeland with 'honour and dignity'. Kher was speaking at a conference here to draw 'global attention toward the burning issues confronting the Kashmiri Pandits', who fled the Kashmir Valley in early 1990s as Muslim militancy peaked, at times targeting members of the community.

April 3rd, 2009 SRINAGAR - Many Kashmiri Hindus celebrated Ram Navami, the birth anniversary of Lord Ram, on Friday with reverence in Srinagar, as this festival brought various devotees together at a Hindu temple here. "We want the older interaction with people, peace, religious understanding and a harmonious world.

April 1st, 2009 SRINAGAR - Separatists in Kashmir have offered to help rebuild and renovate temples damaged during the near two decades militancy. asin Malik, chairman of the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front Muhammad, said that a committee could be formed for the purpose, stressing that it should be "apolitical".

March 28th, 2009 JAMMU - A migrant Kashmiri Hindus' group Sunday said it would field candidates from two of the six Lok Sabha constituencies in the state. The Jammu Kashmir National United Front, a political party founded by and for the Kashmiri Pandits - Hindus who have always been seen as a political elite in the Muslim majority state - will field its candidates in their original home, the Kashmir Valley.

March 24th, 2009 JAMMU - Displaced Kashmiri Pandits staged a protest in front of the Election Commission office in Jammu, demanding inclusion in the voter's list. Kashmiri Pandits, who have migrant's status in the region, want their names to be included in the voter's list so that they can exercise their franchise in the upcoming general elections.

March 8th, 2009 CHANDIGARH - A documentary portraying the ordeal of displaced Kashmiri Hindus was screened here Saturday evening, followed by the inauguration of a photo exhibition highlighting the manner in which hundreds and thousands of migrants are living far away from their homeland. The event was organised by Roots in Kashmir (RIK) - a Kashmiri Pandit organisation - at the Panjab University (PU) campus.

January 30th, 2009 PATNA - A Dalit widow was beaten to death by five girls in a Bihar town after she objected to their cutting grass in her field, police said Saturday. Shobha Devi, in her 50s, a resident of Ram Tola in Saharsa town, 225 km from here, was lynched by the girls of a neighbouring village.

January 4th, 2009 NEW DELHI - India's flagship carrier Air India has handed 10 air hostesses the pink slip for being overweight. The hostesses, who were grounded some months earlier, were served the termination notices in the last week of December, a senior Air India official, who did not wish to be identified, told IANS.