Kashmir

IT HAS been a dreadful week in Kashmir, the bloodiest yet in two decades of uprisings against Indian rule.

"Hurriyat welcomes the approach adopted by China and America jointly in terms of addressing the issue of Kashmir in South Asia, " he said.

So far, the United States has tried to stay out of the Kashmir debate.

Some groups evolved from ones that had been fighting India in Kashmir, but most were tribesmen who previously had not been active.

Yet as a presidential candidate Mr Obama promised to seek some sort of diplomatic resolution in Kashmir.

There has been no one claimed to be responnsive or this accident, and this kind of chain-explode is usually adopted by Kashmir.

So long as it was fighting Pakistan, even liberal Indian opinion seemed ready to tolerate a heavy hand in Kashmir.

Students were eager to ask about U. S. policy on Kashmir, Iraq, additions to the U. N. Security Council and terrorism.

With the arrival of winter in the Kashmir valley, people are beginning to stock up on traditional fire pots made of clay and twigs.

It may not be easy to persuade India to make concessions on Kashmir to a weak government in Islamabad.

Speaking about Musharraf's prevention of the cross-border incursion into India-controlled Kashmir, Bush said: "He must show his efforts. "

To a query, he said his government was willing to render all possible help to make Kashmir a favoured destination for Bollywood once again.

New Delhi has interpreted this as a challenge to its sovereignty over Kashmir, the subject of a dispute with neighbour Pakistan.

Pakistan and India have fought three wars involving thousands of troops on both sides of Kashmir's border, known as the Line of Control.

Microfinance in Kashmir should also become a priority of the Indian government to make employment durable over the long term.

Meanwhile Pakistan seems to be sending fewer militants into Kashmir these days.

I share the grief, the sorrow, and the sense of loss of every mother, every father, every family, and every child in Kashmir.

Yet the separatist chiefs preferred to see it as a brazen effort by the government to shift Hindus into the Muslim-dominated Kashmir valley.

And a dramatic video shows the aftermath of a bridge collapse in an Indian-controlled region of Kashmir.

By this measure, the Muslim majority living in the Indian-administered Kashmir valley has never been Indian.

"We're not afraid of the K word, " he said in response to a question about Kashmir.

One day last month, I spoke with a medical student in Srinagar, the summer capital of the Indian-administered state of Jammu and Kashmir.

His purpose in Kashmir had not been entirely unpolitical.

Mass text messages were blocked, schools closed down, and a fresh curfew was imposed in the restive, Muslim-majority Kashmir valley.

A paramilitary bunker near the line dividing Indian from Pakistani Kashmir was ransacked this week, and a police station torched.

Moreover, the army has for decades been tangled up in nasty insurgencies in Kashmir and north-eastern India.

The insurgency in Kashmir, likewise, is seen as a means of bogging down the old enemy, India.

Q: It has been repeatedly reported since September that the Chinese Government began to issue separate paper visas to residents of Kashmir.

Specialists and connoisseurs regard the Kashmir colour with its velvety shine as the most beautiful and most valuable blue.

During two months of violent protests in Indian-controlled Kashmir the mosque had been barred to stop crowds gathering.

We have initiated working on a project to establish Village Information and Communication Technology, Centres in various parts of Kashmir.

Within the Indian state of Jammu &Kashmir itself are signs of a new-found reasonableness.

While Kashmir's Hindu rulers prevaricated, hoping somehow to become an independent country, Pakistan's leaders decided to force the issue.

But on Monday he broke his silence reasserting his line that the bitter divide over Kashmir must be the main issue in dialogue.

It is groundless and ridiculous to say that Chinese troops are in Pakistan-administered Kashmir for construction.

A five-year-old ceasefire across the line of control that divides disputed Kashmir still holds, and neither side has reinforced the border.

Sir Halford Mackinder, it appears, was quite right about Kashmir, which lies at the nexus of these great events.

But Kashmir is not the only obstacle to Lashkar's disarmament.

Indian paramilitary soldiers stand guard near the site of an explosion in Srinagar, Indian-administered Kashmir.

It was founded on a belief that Hindu India is Pakistan's mortal enemy, and on an ambition to drive India from Kashmir.

Pakistan wants talks about the status of Muslim-majority Kashmir, which India regards as an integral part of its territory.

It's an amazing turn-around for the man blamed by India for fighting in Kashmir that ended the last peace process two years ago.

At least 500 people were wounded in clashes this week between Kashmir Muslim protesters and Indian security forces.

Kashmir is a symbol, like Palestine, of a sense of injustice.

It would like to build a new one in Pakistani Kashmir, but India has objected, and the money is not forthcoming.

The protests stem from a dispute over a plot of land in the Kashmir valley on which Hindus want to build shelters for pilgrims.

"Infiltration" across the "line of control" dividing Indian and Pakistani bits of Kashmir, has fallen.

Farooq, also the chief priest of Kashmir, said he is planning to visit China soon.

More important, withdrawing soldiers would be hugely popular in Kashmir, where alienation from Indian rule runs deep.

The president's conciliatory words come as Kashmir, the disputed Muslim-majority Indian state, goes to the polls in state elections.

Pakistan renewed the old call for a plebiscite in Kashmir and criticized India for human rights violations in Kashmir.

Only the Muslim-dominated Kashmir valley and adjacent parts of Jammu seem hellbent on secession.

Just now their concerns seem overblown. But the government in Delhi would be wrong to think of Kashmir as yesterday's problem.

In Pakistani-controlled Kashmir, officials say at least 22 people were killed on Thursday.

Kashmir's pro-India party was quick to interpret the offer as a great prize, while separatist parties rejected it outright.

By contrast, the India-Pakistan frontier is an international border -- except in Kashmir -- where a clearly delineated LOC exists.

Kashmir's chief minister, visiting Delhi, trod on Indian sensitivities by calling for "a political solution" .

But they are right that, in terms of its impact, if not its immediate death toll, it dwarfs the awful Kashmir earthquake of 2005.

It reportedly sent several thousand soldiers to parts of Pakistani-controlled Kashmir this year, to build roads for its "all-weather" ally.

The nuclear deal gives it extra clout with India, which it should lean on to show restraint in and flexibility on Kashmir.

Around the first century B. C. , Buddhism, born in India, was introduced into Xinjiang through Kashmir.

The agency played a role in supporting insurgents in Kashmir and militants in Afghanistan during the Russian occupation of the country.

Eight people were killed in a gunfight between suspected militants and troops in the Samba sector of Indian administered Kashmir last week.

UCAVs will be inducted in the Indian Air Force and used to fight terrorists in northern Jammu and Kashmir bordering Pakistan.

India's views have also been shaped by a 1962 war that ended with China seizing a chunk of the northern India state of Kashmir.

The talks will cover issues such as peace and security and Kashmir - the territory divided between them, but claimed by both.

Islamic separatists have been fighting for Kashmir's independence from India, or for the region's merger with Pakistan.

However, a just settlement in Kashmir would do more to undercut the men of blood than any amount of Pakistani police-work.

The gleeful separatists are meanwhile plotting protests against the occupation of vast tracts of Kashmir by the army.

Separately, Indian media says that the Kashmir issue was touched upon during Premier Wen Jiabao's meeting with his Indian counterpart.

As Kashmir smoldered, the Indian and Pakistani foreign ministers met at the United Nations; the mood was tense, even hostile.

Abdullah, 38, who heads a powerful party in the troubled northern state of Jammu and Kashmir, told Reuters he was overwhelmed by the praise.

The wretched state of Kashmir serves as a pretext for Pakistani hostility to India.

Owais and those like him have presented the Indian government with a new and perhaps insoluble Kashmir crisis.

In September, an all-party delegation of Indian politicians-including even the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party-visited Kashmir.

But this cannot happen so long as Kashmir burns, so Washington is tip-toeing into a new diplomatic mess in the Himalayas.

Kashmir has been riven by insurgency for more than two decades; parts of the north-east for even longer.

Indian Lt Gen BS Jaswal is responsible for Indian army operations in the Indian-administered state of Jammu and Kashmir.

But as the Indian government deliberates, this year's bloody summer in Kashmir is already becoming a recruiting tool for jihadists.

Then when Pakistan saw what India wanted extra, they insisted there should be the right of self-determination in the Kashmir Valley.

The Indian government said that China had to be sensitive to India's concerns, one of which is the disputed area of Kashmir.

Hundreds of thousands of troops are stationed in Kashmir, which has suffered two decades of insurgency.

Kashmiri worker painstakingly cleans Dal Lake in Srinagar, in Indian-administered Kashmir, of the weeds that clog its surface.

Modest efforts to build trust are under way, such as allowing barter trade of farm goods with the Pakistani-run bit of Kashmir.

one, to my certain knowledge, spent nine months on a novel about Kashmir, then reset the whole thing in the Scottish Highlands.

In India it occurs in northwest , so it's known as the Kashmir Roller .

Soon they'll sell Arunachal Pradesh to China and Jammu and Kashmir to Pakistan as well.

A "composite dialogue" on a range of problems from the disputed control of Kashmir to cross-border terrorism and trade will restart.

Sandy places, riversides; high elevations. Qinghai, Xizang [Kashmir, Pakistan; C Asia (Pamir mountains)].

A: We condemn the incident in Kashmir and extend our sympathy and condolences to the families and relatives of the victims.

Both face potentially destabilising external disputes: China with America over Taiwan, India with Pakistan over Kashmir.

On the eve of the talks in Delhi, the two countries traded allegations over shooting in the disputed territory of Kashmir.

Despite the fact that Islam forbids the use of contraceptives, the demand for condoms in Kashmir has risen significantly.

Compared with much of South Asia, Kashmir, a disputed territory in northern India, has many rivers and relatively few people.

China and India fought a war in 1962. China has taken control of a slice of Kashmir which India says was ceded illegally by Pakistan.

There are at least three good reasons for cutting troop levels in Kashmir.

Yes, that includes Kashmir. Get used to it.

Western forces remain in Iraq and Afghanistan. Kashmir is home to the Indian army, and Chechnya to the Russians. Israel still flourishes.

US officials believe he is employed by a Pakistani spy agency to campaign for independence for the disputed Kashmir region.

Despite his dream of a legacy of peace in South Asia, Singh was very slow in responding to the crisis in Kashmir.

India decides to exploit the vacuum and punish the Kashmir-based militants it blames for the recent Mumbai railway bombings.

The two-decade-long insurgency, backed by Pakistan, which has never renounced its claim to all of Kashmir, is almost defeated.

In Kashmir this had led to a round of tit-for-tat diplomatic incidents.

Most contentious of all, however, are the borders in Kashmir, where Pakistan, India and China all have competing claims.

It is time for his government and people throughout the region to get behind him and heal Kashmir's gaping wounds.

An employee works inside an aluminium utensil manufacturing unit on the outskirts of Jammu, in Indian-administered Kashmir.

On June 20th, the main opposition People's Democratic Party launched a fresh round against the army's draconian powers in Kashmir.

In October, an earthquake killed more than eighty thousand in Pakistan and Pakistani-administered Kashmir.

India and Pakistan have been locked in occasionally violent competition for control of Kashmir since their bloody partition in 1947.

Imran told the anchor, referring to the disputed Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir.

And while India has sometimes behaved brutally in Kashmir, civil society watchdogs are pressing for better behavior there.

In the classical literature of Kashmir Shaivism kundalini is described in three different manifestations.

He was the person who planned and organized the survey of Kashmir.

The Indian-controlled, Muslim-majority, Kashmir valley is in ferment.

Swaths of India are in the grip of armed Maoist insurgency; Kashmir has long been under a bloody security lockdown.

The presenter lead a team of mental health professional to treat the victims of the earth quake in the Kashmir region of Pakistan.

On Saturday, Indian police killed six rebels in a major gunfight in the Tral area of southern Kashmir.

It helps India that Pakistan, the eternal trouble-stirrer in Kashmir, is in disarray.

The contested territory in northern India lies in the state of Jammu and Kashmir.

Q: An Indian army commander claimed recently that China stationed troops in Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

While I was in Bangladesh, thirty-five Sikhs were murdered in Kashmir by unknown killers intent on getting publicity tied to my visit.

The strategy of using Islamist militants to topple a big power worked well in Afghanistan and was tried again against India in Kashmir.

China's visa policy toward residents of the India-held Kashmir is consistent and remains unchanged.

Our belief was that a prosperous Kashmir would give leaders in India and Pakistan the space to find a political solution.

Now people are saying that anytime fundamentalists in India or in other regions of Jammu can cause an economic blockade in Kashmir.

It helps, too, that Kashmir has fallen quiet in recent months, though that may be merely seasonal.

It occupies one-fifth of the original state of Jammu and Kashmir.

It has lost over 3, 000 men in its war with the Taliban; and fewer jihadists are entering Indian-controlled Kashmir.

In the longer term Indian leaders need to break their unhelpful silence on Kashmir's prospects.

Mountain slopes, shrubby areas; 2500-4600 m. Xinjiang, Xizang [Afghanistan, Kashmir, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Sikkim, Tajikistan].

They may imagine that something like Northern Ireland's Good Friday agreement might one day be attainable in Kashmir.

Buffeted from within and without by waves of seemingly intractable strife, Kashmir faces a stormy future.

We shall never succumb to or compromise with terror, in Jammu and Kashmir or elsewhere.

Since then, violence has engulfed both the Muslim dominated Kashmir Valley and the Hindu dominated Jammu region.

Autumn has brought an outbreak of good sense in Kashmir, but can it last?

The Kashmir issue, the United Kingdom in the South Asian subcontinent nearly 200 years after colonial rule left an evil fruit.

Do the competing claims to the West Bank and Gaza deserve any more official attention than, say, the competing claims to Kashmir?

Shala Haroun, an American Muslim from Kashmir, misses the big family gathering on Ramadan.

Will the discussion cover China's visa policy toward residents of the India-held Kashmir?

Further west along the LAC, another flashpoint lies in Kashmir.

Hence Barack Obama's proposal, on the presidential campaign trail, to appoint a special envoy to Kashmir.

Hardest-hit were the provinces of Pakistan-Administered Kashmir and the North West Frontier.

China rejected the visa request because he controls part of the disputed territory of Kashmir, which is partly claimed by China.

Gravelly slopes. W Xizang [Afghanistan, NW India, Kashmir, Pakistan].

Pakistan has used a long-running territorial dispute over Kashmir as a reason to launch wars.

They see Indian troops in Kashmir as an often brutal occupying force.

The Kashmir issue is an issue left over by history between India and Pakistan.

Distributed in Jilong Xian of southeast Xizang and north India, Kashmir, Nepal, Pakistan.

Cashmere: Animal-hair fibre forming the downy undercoat of the Kashmir goat.

Officials in Jammu and Kashmir said yesterday they had reported the incident to New Delhi and had sought guidance.

China's visa policy concerning residents of Kashmir is consistent and remains unchanged.

Indian and Pakistani troops traded small-arms fire on Tuesday along their tense frontier in Kashmir.

China has also begun issuing different visas for Indians from Arunachal Pradesh and Kashmir.

the two countries each administer part of Kashmir but claim the territory in full.

Mr. Singh appealed for calm in Kashmir and called on all political parties to help find a solution.

He asked all political parties to find a solution keeping in view the long-term interests of Jammu and Kashmir.

Two men staged a gun-and-grenade attack in Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian-administered Kashmir.

Separatist leader and Kashmir's main cleric Mirwaiz Umar says the issue has moved beyond land transfer.

Do you know your army to kill Muslims, do you know this week how many Muslims in Kashmir have been killed?

India is the status quo power in its core dispute with Pakistan, over Kashmir.

Is nobody else capable of making any mistake in Kashmir.

China recently denied visa to an Indian army general who had served in Kashmir, in effect questioning India's claim over it.

Even a settlement of the dispute over divided Kashmir seemed possible.

Summary: This summer, Kashmir has been rocked by a fresh outbreak of protests and violence.

At 81, Syed Ali Shah Geelani has finally achieved a dream, leadership of the anti-Indian sentiment in the Kashmir Valley.

His Jaish-e-Mohammed group became the main guerrilla outfit fighting Indian security forces in Kashmir.

Some groups in Kashmir have been fighting to gain independence from India for more than 20 years.

Grassland on high mountains. 3200--5600 m. Qinghai, Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan [Afghanistan, Bhutan, India, Kashmir, Nepal, Pakistan, Sikkim].

Without minimising the tragedies there, it also means keeping the Kashmir issue on the boil.

Villagers try to catch trees floating in the flooded Nelum river in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani Kashmir on Friday, July 30, 2010.

That has antagonized India, which is especially angered by the Kashmir rail link through disputed territory.

And what's China's visa policy towards residents of the India-held Kashmir region?

The Kashmir issue is one left over from history between India and Pakistan.

New Delhi in turn says China is occupying 38, 000 sq km of Indian territory in Kashmir illegally ceded to it by Pakistan.

Located between India and Pakistan in Kashmir has been the most controversial areas of the bloody unrest occur from time to time.

It is essential, he says, to solve the core issue of Kashmir, a matter that for now has been left to fester.

But Omar Abdullah, the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, suggests going further.

The mountainous Kashmir region is divided among Pakistan, China and India.

Little progress was made in resolving their disputes, including disagreement over the divided territory of Kashmir.

Their only obsession is to grab Kashmir by force which will never happen.

Equally worrying, there are reports that Chinese troops have entered northern Pakistan, adjacent to Kashmir.

Mountain grasslands; 2700--5100 m. Qinghai, Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan [Bhutan, ? Kashmir, Nepal, ? Pakistan, Sikkim].

Kashmiri fisherman rows his boat through autumn leaves in Kashmir's Dal Lake in Srinagar.

Forests, scrub, mountain slope grasslands, mire meadows; 2500--3500 m. Xizang [Afghanistan, NW India, ? Kashmir, Nepal, Pakistan].

A senior figure in Kashmir said: "It is aimed at suppressing the voices who call for Kashmir's freedom from India. "

More dams are to come, as India's need to power its economy means it is quietly spending billions on hydropower in Kashmir.

But for residents, Kashmir is a place of injustice, death and destruction.

In response, the Jammu and Kashmir government has imposed almost a daily curfew to prevent demonstrations.

Indeed, it may well spread beyond Kashmir and go national.

India, meanwhile, says China is occupying 38, 000 sq km of its territory in Kashmir, illegally ceded by Pakistan.

Forests, scrub meadows, alpine meadows, stony valleys; 2300--4500 m. S Sichuan, SE Xizang, Yunnan [Bhutan, India, ? Kashmir, Nepal, Sikkim].

Thickets on mountain slopes, mountainous rocky crevices; 3000-4200 m. Xizang [Bhutan, India, Kashmir, Nepal, Pakistan, Sikkim].

In addition to the dispute about Arunachal Pradesh India says China still controls Indian territory in Kashmir.

Police in Indian-controlled Kashmir detained three people who run a cyber cafe in the region.

Grassy slopes, alpine meadows; 3500-4800 m. Guizhou, Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan [Bhutan, ? Kashmir, Myanmar, Nepal, Sikkim].

He provides several sensible recommendations, such as making a renewed effort to settle the festering disputes over Palestine and Kashmir.

The insurgency against Indian rule in Kashmir had recently gone quiet.

In 2005, a massive earthquake with its epicenter in Pakistan's Kashmir region left more than 70, 000 dead.

Now, the Kashmir conflict can no longer be avoided.

Open stony ground, stream sides; ca. 3800 m. NW Xinjiang [Afghanistan, NW India, Kashmir, Pakistan].

But Pakistan will remain unstable and angry so long as the Kashmir conflict continues.

A 6. 2 Richter scale quake hit Kohistan and surrounding areas including parts of Swat, Hunza and Kashmir in northern Pakistan in 1974.

In spite of great reluctance, Washington is slowly being drawn into the Kashmir dispute.

In the west, India claims Aksai Chin, a high plateau controlled by China, as part of Kashmir.

Kashmiri Muslim offer prayer on a street in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, Indian-administered Kashmir on Monday, Aug.

Oh look, a five-star military checkpointTHESE are unexpectedly happy days in conflict-torn Kashmir.

So, the ponds, the open bodies, are everywhere, right from Sri Lanka to Kashmir, and in other parts also.

600--5200 m. Gansu, Heilongjiang, Jilin, Nei Mongol, Qinghai, Xinjiang, Xizang [NW Himalayas to Kashmir, Mongolia, Russia].

Muslim children bathe inside an ancient Hindu Temple in Laddu, which is located in Indian-administered Kashmir.

A separatist insurgency in Kashmir has killed tens of thousands of people since it began in 1989.

Even strife-torn Kashmir is, by contrast, open to all comers.

When the foreign ministers of India and Pakistan hold rare bilateral talks in Delhi on July 27th, they will not discuss Kashmir's status.

Gravelly or sandy beds, among stones, sandy slopes; 2400-3100 m. Xizang [Afghanistan, Kashmir, Pakistan, Tajikistan].

Slopes, mixed forests, thickets of river valleys; 1100--3900 m. SW Sichuan, S Xizang, Yunnan [Bhutan, India, Kashmir, Nepal, Sikkim].

This rage is what makes it impossible to reduce Pakistan's obsession with India to matters of security or a land dispute in Kashmir.

A: The Kashmir issue between India and Pakistan is left over from history.

As the senior editorial person in the region, I was even burned in effigy in Kashmir.

Forests. W Xizang [Kashmir, Pakistan].

MENTION Kashmir in polite Delhi society and noses wrinkle.

Rocks and dry slopes; 2500--3000 m or sometimes higher. NW Xinjiang [Afghanistan, India, Kashmir, Pakistan, Tajikistan].

The rulers of some disputed areas, notably Kashmir, were told to choose which country to join.

Development in itself will not fix Kashmir.

Sichuan, E and S Xizang, C and N Yunnan [N India, Kashmir, Nepal, Pakistan].

The Kashmir problem is not a China craft.

Grasslands on mountain slopes; 2300-2900 m. S Xizang (Gyirong) [Bhutan, India, Kashmir, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan].

Purple: Farmers in Kashmir are picking saffron in suburb.

What's China's position over the Kashmir issue?

As Dr Mushtaq Margoob takes a break to munch a chapati and sip milky tea, he talks of Kashmir as a broken society.

India's response to an uprising in Kashmir has been, by turns, repressive and complacent. It is storing up trouble for the future.

Guerrillas attacked an army camp in Kashmir on Saturday.

His work over the past decade has focused on Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Kashmir.

Indian army colonel killed in gunfight in Kashmir .

Grassy slopes, rock crevices, dry cliff, stony pastures; 2400-3000 m. Sichuan, Yunnan [Kashmir, Pakistan].

People are demanding that they have a birth right to trade with other side of Kashmir.

Among rocks on grassy slopes; 3000-4800 m. Xizang [Bhutan, India, Kashmir, Nepal, Pakistan; tropical Africa, SW Asia].

Open ground, woodlands; 2100-3300 m. Xizang [Afghanistan, India, Kashmir, Nepal, Pakistan].

The government is worried over the situation in Indian Kashmir, which has been wracked by massive protests in recent days.

Many in Kashmir resent and fear the militants; but most feel the same about the army.

As for Kashmir - that is a whole different ball of wax (kind of resolving the Palestine - Israel conflict).

Subalpine thickets, cliff; 2100-4500 m. SW and W Sichuan, S and SE Xizang, NW Yunnan [Bhutan, India (Sikkim), Kashmir, Nepal].

Forests, rock crevices; 3900-4500 m. SW Xizang [E Afghanistan, N India, Kashmir, Nepal, W Pakistan, Tajikistan].

High mountain areas, rocks; 3900--4200 m. SE Xizang, NW Yunnan [Bhutan, India, Kashmir, Myanmar, Nepal, Sikkim].

Kashmir cannot belong to both India and Pakistan.

This is on a day that we hear that 50 people insurgents and Indian soldiers have been killed in both Jammu and Kashmir.

Rock crevices; 3800 m. Xizang [E Afghanistan, Kashmir, N Pakistan].

Officials in Islamabad have suggested that India should move beyond the Mumbai attacks and focus on issues such as Kashmir.

Montane meadows, rocky crevices, cushionlike scrub; 3500--5000 m. Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan [India, Kashmir, Nepal, Sikkim].

Musharraf: Confidence building is solution of Kashmir. That is the biggest confidence building measure.

Scrub slopes, forests; 2800-3300 m. S and SW Xizang, Yunnan [Bhutan, India, Kashmir, Myanmar, Nepal, Sikkim].

the official state language of Kashmir.