Chief of bureau of HT at Srinagar, Toufiq has been covering the volatile state of Kashmir for the past seven years. Was working as special correspondent in Indian Express in New Delhi, covering health and wellness. Has done human interest stories from across the country for almost a decade.
Articles by Toufiq Rashid
Tense Omar dials Delhi
The Central Reserve Police Force is turning out to be a bone in the flesh for the government of Jammu & Kashmir. On Sunday, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had spoken to Home Minister P Chidambaram and expressed concern at the deaths of civilians at the hands of the central police organisation in the valley. Toufiq Rashid reports.
Updated on Jun 28, 2010 11:11 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Toufiq Rashid, Srinagar
Omar opposes death to Guru, talks tough on rights violations
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has said he will oppose Parliament attack accused Afzal Guru’s death sentence, if the Centre seeks his opinion.
Updated on Jun 26, 2010 11:47 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Toufiq Rashid & PTI, Srinagar
J&K expands rehab plan for former militants
The Jammu and Kashmir government is planning to expand the package it discussed with the central government in February to rehabilitate militants who cross over from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and give up arms.
Updated on Jun 26, 2010 09:01 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Toufiq Rashid, Srinagar
J&K Militants using solar missiles
The J&K police recovered two solar missiles in Kupwara on Tuesday. Sunlight was to have triggered the missiles that were tied to a tree and aimed at a strategic set-up of the security forces.
Updated on Jun 02, 2010 11:43 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Toufiq Rashid, Srinagar
Nothing austere about J&K govt
Despite Chief Minister Omar Abdullah’s instructions in December 2009 to reduce spending on splendour, the Jammu and Kashmir government spent Rs 5.79 crore on official and private residences of its 23 ministers and 29 senior bureaucrats in 2009-10.
Updated on May 09, 2010 12:43 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Toufiq Rashid, Srinagar
Gentleman who’d be officer
Misunderstood by all, laughed at by many and pitied by many more, we are a hilarious world nonetheless...’ This is how a blog by Civil Services topper Shah Faesal, written about his fellow Kashmiris when protesters swamped the Valley’s streets during the Amarnath land row, begins.
Updated on May 08, 2010 10:52 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Toufiq Rashid
First ever: Kashmiri tops UPSC
Shah Faesal, a doctor from Srinagar, has topped the civil services examination 2009, it was announced on Thursday. Accoring to media reports Faesal lost his parents to terrorism.
Updated on May 07, 2010 01:27 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Ritika Chopra & Toufiq Rashid, New Delhi
Two Lashkar-linked J&K youth held for Delhi terror alarm
The Jammu and Kashmir Police on Sunday detained two persons allegedly involved in activities that prompted the terrorist attack advisory in New Delhi a day earlier. According to police sources, one of the young men detained allegedly made the phone call that led to a full-blown intelligence alert in the Capital. Toufiq Rashid reports.
Updated on May 03, 2010 07:23 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Toufiq Rashid, Srinagar
My son was minor at time of Lajpat Nagar blast: Mom
Her son Mirza Nissar Hussain’s primary school leaving certificate is the only proof of age Padshah Begum (65) can produce. “He was a minor studying in Class 8 when picked up by the police,” said Begum, whose son Hussain is one of three men sentenced to death for the Lajpat Nagar blast in Delhi in 1996 that left 13 people dead and 38 others injured.
Updated on Apr 29, 2010 01:28 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Toufiq Rashid, Srinagar
Survey on orphans and widows in Kashmir
There is some ray of hope for those who have lost everything in the last 20 years of militancy in the Valley. The government of the state plans to reach out to the widows and orphans of militancy and rehabilitate them.
Updated on Apr 28, 2010 11:40 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Toufiq Rashid, Srinagar
Second cloned camel in the Gulf - an Indian connection
UAE scientists made news early this week after claiming to have cloned world's second camel, this time from what they called 'a pinch of skin of an elite animal'.
Updated on Apr 09, 2010 01:31 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Toufiq Rashid, Srinagar
Militant organisations devise a common language
A two-letter message ``KL" is enough to alert militant groups that a group either caught in an encounter or stationed somewhere belongs to a particular organization. Similarly `KM' stands for a fellow militant being killed, KN for a fight, KR-for meeting tonight, J2 for Hindu and JQ for hideout.
Updated on Apr 03, 2010 12:38 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Toufiq Rashid, Srinagar
I am not a politician, says youth brigade women wing head
Till the other day she was just a young another woman running her business. She used to try and lure big names in consultancy business to enter Kashmir and was helping place young Kashmiris in careers inside and outside Jammu and Kashmir, reports Toufiq Rashid.
Updated on Mar 31, 2010 11:49 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Toufiq Rashid, Srinagar
Minor girl married without her knowledge
In blatant violation of the laws of marriage, a court in Kashmir has registered marriage of a 16-year-old girl.
Updated on Mar 23, 2010 10:51 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Toufiq Rashid, Srinagar
Probe confirms BSF man role in teen death
Investigations into the death of 16-year-old Zahid Farooq has revealed that he died of bullet injury though no bullet was found in his body. Farooq’s death in February had led to widespread protests in the Valley.
Updated on Mar 14, 2010 11:47 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Toufiq Rashid, Srinagar
Fatwa issued against stone-pelting in Valley
After the Jammu and Kashmir police and chief minister Omar Abdullah, it’s the valley’s top priest who called ‘stone pelting’ un-Islamic and issued a fatwa against it.
Updated on Mar 12, 2010 12:42 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Toufiq Rashid, Srinagar
Captain, militants killed in Kashmir
An army captain was killed and five security personnel, including four Rashtriya Rifles soldiers and a policeman, injured in a firefight with militants in Pulwama district on Thursday.
Updated on Mar 05, 2010 01:28 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Toufiq Rashid, Srinagar
Captain killed in Tral encounter
An Army Captain was killed and five security personnel, including four Rashtriya Rifles soldiers and a policeman, injured in an encounter with militants in the Tral area of Pulwama district, about 40 km from Srinagar on Thursday.
Updated on Mar 04, 2010 08:39 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Toufiq Rashid, Srinagar
‘A true Muslim and a martyr’
Her son Imtiaz Ahmad Thokar, the para-commando who was killed in the Sopore gunbattle, had faced death before. He was part of the Taj operation in Mumbai in 2008.
Updated on Feb 25, 2010 12:35 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Toufiq Rashid, Srinagar
Politics over baby’s death
Ghulam Rasool Teli, a daily wager in Jammu and Kashmir’s Rawocha village, 75 km from Srinagar, is inconsolable. He can’t believe his grandson Irfan is gone, forever, reports Toufiq Rashid.
Updated on Feb 23, 2010 11:56 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Toufiq Rashid, Srinagar
Sopore encounter: Two army men, one militant killed
One militant and two Army jawans were today killed in a gunfight between militants and security forces in Sopore town of north Kashmir. At least five militants are still holed up and heavy gunbattle is on.
Updated on Feb 23, 2010 02:30 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Toufiq Rashid, Srinagar
Combing operation on in Sopore to flush out Laskhar militant
A massive combing operation is on in a village in Sopore to flush out militants reportedly holed up in a residential area. The operation was started early morning after gun shots were heard from Warpora village about 55 kilometers from Srinagar.
Updated on Feb 20, 2010 03:27 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Toufiq Rashid, Srinagar
Hurriyat feels the heat as Kashmir boils
Three days after a Kashmiri teenager was killed allegedly by a teargas shell fired by the police, four masked men addressed the local press at Srinagar’s Nowhatta locality, a stronghold of Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, the chairman of the moderate faction of the Hurriyat Conference, on February 3.
Updated on Feb 15, 2010 12:53 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Toufiq Rashid, Srinagar
Avalanche kills 17 soldiers in Kashmir
Seventeen armymen were killed in an avalanche that buried their training camp near the ski town of Gulmarg in Kashmir on Monday, reports Toufiq Rashid. See map
Updated on Feb 09, 2010 01:28 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Toufiq Rashid, Srinagar
Gulmarg avalanche toll rises to 7, more than 80 missing
Seven soldiers have died and more than 80 are missing after an avalanche struck an army training camp in Gulmarg, 70 Km from Srinagar. Among the dead is one officer and six soldiers, while more than 15 have been moved to hospital with injuries.
Updated on Feb 08, 2010 05:30 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Toufiq Rashid, Srinagar
Mirwaiz backs out of dialogue
Moderate Hurriyat Conference leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq on Saturday refused to participate in the forthcoming dialogue process with the Centre unless it has “something concrete to offer”. Toufiq Rashid reports.
Updated on Feb 07, 2010 12:38 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Toufiq Rashid, Srinagar
Giving emotional support to victims of violence
As 14-year-old year old boy, Ubaid (name changed) battled for life after being severely injured by a teargas shell in his abdomen, his family members gathered outside the ICU of Sri Maharaja Hari Singh, Memorial hospital, were shattered. A day in the hospital seemed like an eternity for them.
Updated on Feb 05, 2010 02:26 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Toufiq Rashid, Srinagar
I’m a true Indian, says Mir
Ghulam Mohammad Mir, 60, has ridden his image of a nationalist thug to great “success” and greater infamy in his native Kashmir. It even landed him a Padma Shri this year — for “social work and public service”, reports Toufiq Rashid.
Updated on Feb 03, 2010 12:40 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Toufiq Rashid, Srinagar
Police arrest 8 minors on way to PoK
The Jammu and Kashmir police on Thursday foiled an exfiltration bid and arrested eight youth in Srinagar, who were planning to cross the border for arms training in PoK.
Updated on Jan 28, 2010 11:42 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Toufiq Rashid, Srinagar
This time, No flag-hoisting at Lal Chowk
For the first time in 18 years, the national flag was not hoisted in the city’s nerve centre, Lal Chowk, on Republic Day on Tuesday.
Updated on Jan 27, 2010 12:36 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Toufiq Rashid, Srinagar