Kashmiri Hindus pray for peace on the occasion of Ram Navami

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 29th, 2009 SRINAGAR - Hindus and Muslims in Kashmir rubbed shoulders and joined hands in celebrating the festival of Dussera on Monday. They together burnt the effigies mythological demons of Ravana his brother Kumbhakarna and son Meghnad and made it a memorable occasion since the revelries of Dussera were witnessed in the Kashmir valley after nearly two decades.

September 27th, 2009 NEW DELHI/SURAT - Thousands of devotees visited the Jhandewalan temple to offer prayers on the occasion of Ram Navami, the ninth day of Navratri festival on Sunday. The devotees, converging in large numbers with families and friends, made a beeline at the Jhandewalan temple on Sunday to offer prayers to Goddess Vaishno.

September 18th, 2009 KOLKATA/ALLAHABAD - Scores of people gathered in Kolkata and Allahabad on Friday to take a holy dip, or 'Tarpan', in the Ganges, on the last day of the 'Pitrapaksha Mela'. The 'Pitrapaksha Mela' is held annually in September.

September 7th, 2009 GAYA - With the onset of the fortnight long 'Shraddha,' solemn Hindu ceremonies, a serpentine queue of devotees has begun trotting up the Pret-Sheela (ghost-stone) hill shrine in Gaya to pray for the salvation of their ancestors and get rid of the evil spirits. Elderly faithful, from far and wide, are carried by kin and porters on baskets to pray for the departed.

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.

June 2nd, 2009 VARANASI/ALLAHABAD - Devotees took a holy dip in the sacred Ganges River to mark the occasion of "Ganga Dussehra" on Tuesday. The devotees thronged the banks of Ganges at Varanasi since early hours of morning to offer prayers and seek blessings from Ganga.

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 5th, 2009 BHIWANDI - While Hindus performed puja at home on Ramnavami festival, hundreds of religious-minded participated in a 'Deep Mahotsav' ceremony in Bhiwandi area near Thane in Maharashtra. Organised by Shri Hanuman Dikha Padamshali Samaj, this special ceremony, which was organised by lighting 1,00,000 earthen lamps to create image of Lord Hanumana besides designing words like 'Jai Shri Ram' and 'Om', was held for the first time in Maharashtra.

April 4th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) may have admittedly launched its manifesto on the birth anniversary of Hindu god Ram, but there is hardly any party in India that does not try to score brownie points in the name of religion. On the festival of Ram Navami, senior Congress leader and minister Kapil Sibal had a vermilion mark on his forehead.

April 3rd, 2009 AYODHYA - Devotees visited temples and took holy dip on Friday on the occasion of 'Ram Navami'. In Ayodhya, thousands of devotees started visiting temples since early hours to pay their respects.

April 2nd, 2009 NEW DELHI - President Pratibha Patil and Vice President Hamid Ansari have greeted the countrymen on the auspicious occasion of Ram Navami, which will be celebrated tomorrow. In her message, President Patil said: "May the celebrations of this joyous festival bring all our people together and inspire us to follow the highest moral and ethical values of Lord Ram and rededicate ourselves to build a glorious nation." In his separate message, Ansari said that the life and teachings of Lord Rama is a beacon of light to mankind with his message that the good and the righteous shall always emerge victorious.

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 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.