4,000 passports delivered across Jammu, Kashmir region post Aug 5: Prasad

As many as 4,000 passports were delivered in Jammu and Kashmir post August 5, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Thursday told Rajya Sabha and appreciated India Post for its good service.

“There was no suspension of postal services in Kashmir post August 5, 2019” and rather India Post has done a commendable job including delivery of 4,000 passports, Prasad said during Question Hour in the Upper House. He said there are 1,694 post offices in Jammu and Kashmir including 698 in Kashmir.

“Postal services remained unhindered. In August, a good amount of postal services were delivered. There was no dislocation per se,” Prasad said.

However, to regulate the inward mail traffic and electronic money orders, the Department of Posts temporarily suspended booking and transmission of speed post, registration post and parcels from August 5 to August 18 and booking of electronic money orders to Kashmir from August 13 to 27 on account of operations reasons, he said.

He said the Department of Posts resumed inward mail services to Kashmir from the rest of country from August 19 and electronic money orders from August 28.

Prasad said the government took various steps for functioning of post offices to service courts and other institutions.

Both wings of High Court of Jammu & Kashmir i.e. Jammu wing and Srinagar wing and all the district courts in Jammu and Kashmir regions have been functioning normally before and after August 5, he said.

In reply to another query, he said health services and schools were functioning normally. Replying to a supplementary, Prasad said as far as Internet was concerned it was related to security issues also as cross border activities was fuelling a toxic atmosphere.

4 Kashmiri men held at Delhi airport with 40 lakh Indian currency

Press Trust of India

New Delhi, Dec 5: Four Kashmiri men were arrested by the customs officials, in coordination with the Military Intelligence and the CISF, at Delhi airport for allegedly trying to smuggle into the country Rs 40 lakh for “possible use in the Valley”, officials said on Thursday.

It is for the first time that Indian currency in such a large quantity has been seized, they said. The four men were intercepted at the airport after their arrival from Jeddah on Tuesday, the officials said.

An amount of Rs 39.14 lakh was seized from them, the officials said, adding the operation was done in coordination with the Military Intelligence and the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF).

“It is for the first time that such a large amount of Indian currency has been seized. The accused intended to travel to Jammu but were caught before they could board the flight. The money is suspected to have meant for its possible use in the Valley (Kashmir),” an official said, wishing anonymity.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Kashmir Monitor staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)