Kashmir Conflict and the Advent of Torture: An Overview

Modern states have built burgeoning detention facilities like immigration centers, prisons and police cells that engage in torture and other cruel, inhuman treatments. The law enforcement agencies engage in torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment in the name of counter- terrorism, security threats and soon. The state uses torture and makes it clear that enhanced interrogation techniques makes a person from kidnapping to extra-ordinary rendition, from citizen to unlawful enemy combatant and from human to terrorist. The valley of Kashmir faces torture and other cruel inhuman treatments since insurgency began in 1990’s, with violent uprising and have elicited terrorism. Methods like torture is used as a tool of counter- insurgency by Indian security forces. The government of India used all efforts to crush the movement of self- determination of Kashmir. The strong response from India violates the human rights and international humanitarian laws. The law enforcement agencies, army and para- military forces have engaged in reprisal attacks against civilians resulting in indiscriminate firing, search operations, gang-rapes and burning of houses in the valley. After 1990, the situation in the Kashmir valley deteriorated and Kashmir was declared a disturbed area and laws like Disturbed Area Act (DAA) 1990, Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) 1990 and Public Safety Act (PSA) 1978 were imposed. The purpose of the paper is to examine the concept of Torture in Kashmir valley and bring to light the plight of the victims in the valley

Effect of Perceived Organizational Politics and Core Self Evaluation on Job Satisfaction

Many studies explore the effect of perception of organizational politics on job satisfaction but a very few investigate for the factors that are salient to this relationship. Perceptions of politics have been considered to be a source of stress at workplace which has detrimental consequences on the desired outcomes. Current study aims to explore the effects of perception of organizational politics (POP) and core self-evaluation (CSE) on employee job satisfaction. The present research also examines core self-evaluation as a moderator in the relationship between perception of organizational politics and job satisfaction. With a sample size of 100 respondents drawn from the health sector of 3rd largest city of Pakistan, named Faisalabad, the current study tested the main effects of POP and CSE on job satisfaction by using a self-administered survey having a total of 30 items. For analyzing the data, SPSS was used. As hypothesized, results show that perceived organizational politics had a significant negative relationship with job satisfaction but the results for CSE were not significant. Furthermore, CSE moderated the relationship of POP and job satisfaction, such that the negative relationship between perception of organizational politics and job satisfaction was weaker when core self-evaluation was high

Prevalence, predictors and outcomes of potential drug-drug interactions in left ventricular failure: considerable factors for quality use of medicines

Hospitalized patients with left ventricular failure (LVF) are at high risk for potential drug-drug interactions (pDDIs) and its related adverse effects owing to multiple risk factors such as old age, comorbidities and polypharmacy. This cross-sectional study conducted in two tertiary care hospitals aim to identify frequency, levels and predictors of pDDIs in LVF patients. Data about patients’ demographic, hospital stay, medication therapy, sign/symptoms and laboratory test results were collected for 385 patients with LVF. Micromedex Drug-Reax® was used to screen patients’ medication profiles for pDDIs. Overall prevalence and severity-wise prevalence of pDDIs were identified. Chisquare test was performed for comparative analysis of various variables. Logistic regression was applied to determine the odds-ratios (OR) for predictors of pDDIs. The prevalence of pDDIs was 96.4% (n=371). Overall 335 drug-interacting pairs were detected, which were presented in a total of 2870 pDDIs. Majority of pDDIs were of major- (48.9%) and moderate-severity (47.5%). Logistic regression analysis shows significant association of >6 all types of pDDIs with >12 drugs as compared with <8 drugs (OR=16.5; p=<0.001). Likewise, there was a significant association of >4 majorpDDIs with men as compared with female (OR=1.9; p=0.007) and >12 drugs as compared with <8 drugs (OR=10.9; p=<0.001). Hypotension (n=57), impaired renal function (23) and increased blood pressure (22) were the most frequent adverse outcomes associated with pDDIs. This study shows high prevalence of pDDIs in LVF patients. Majority of pDDIs were of major- and moderate-severity. Male patients and those prescribed greater number of medicines were more exposed to major-pDDIs

Handover Architectures for Heterogeneous Networks Using the Media Independent Information Handover (MIH)

In heterogeneous networks, network selection by nature is a multi-dimensional problem. Many parameters need to be considered for handover decision making. Apart from handover accuracy and efficiency, an important consideration is the scalability and signaling overhead of such handover algorithms. In this article we propose to break down a Simple Additive Weighting (SAW) based heterogeneous handover algorithm in two parts. The execution of the first part is carried out in an independent and proactive manner prior to the actual handover, assuming three different handover architectures. The handover architectures are differentiated based upon the level of the distribution of the handover algorithm among multiple network components. The Media Independent Handover (MIH) and its different services are used to retrieve and share information among MIH enabled nodes and for conformity among heterogeneous network standards. The proposed algorithm is evaluated with respect to handover accuracy, handover delay efficiency and signaling overhead. The evaluation is carried out for all three handover architectures using simulations. Only handovers between Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11) and WiMAX (IEEE 802.16) networks are considered. But the handover framework is general and can be extended to consider other wireless and mobile communication networks

The half-widows of Kashmir: A discourse of enforced disappearance

Women all over the globe have to struggle for their sustenance as well as for justice. Most of such narratives are common in conflict zones, where women have to bear unfavourable circumstances, indifferent society, absence of laws, poor rehabilitation mechanism and unresponsive government machinery. Women whose husbands have been subjected to enforced ‘disappearances’ are often called ‘half widows’. Half widows illustrate one of the starkest forms of the general insecurity in Kashmir. The wives and mothers of men who have ‘disappeared’, who have been picked up and taken into custody by the authorities, or killed, remain in a tragic state of suspense. They are unaware of their true marital identity and in the complete absence of information on the fate of their loved ones. The half-widows do not get to know about their husbands, whether they are dead or alive and live in the hope that one day they may return home. However, they continue to live their lives, seeking livelihoods, supporting their children financially and emotionally. The absence of any assured rehabilitation measures renders them emotionally bruised, psychologically traumatized, economically disturbed and even physically crippled. These half-widows continue to suffer in silence, the lack of a structured database is painfully evident as no thorough record has been maintained or comprehensive survey conducted to measure the problem realistically. Therefore, in order to seek recognition, and thus redress, this paper documents the saga of such women in the context of liminality and exception