Missing kids 'sent' to PoK

SRINAGAR, Oct 8 (IANS) — A number of children have been reported missing from several parts of Jammu and Kashmir and are believed to have been sent across the India-Pakistan border to be trained as terrorists.

According to police officials, the youngsters between the 13-18 age group are missing from villages in Kupwara, Doda, Anantnag, Rajouri and Poonch. The children are known to be taken across the border by guides familiar with the mountain passes that link Jammu and Kashmir with the Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK).

"We don't have the exact number but it is substantial, said a police officer of Anantnag. It could run into a few hundreds, he added.

That the children were being sent across the border became known when the security forces intercepted a few groups of more than 20 children each trying to cross the border in Kupwara, Poonch and Gurez in the past two months. Their guides deserted them when they saw the army approaching the groups.

When questioned, these children said they were being forcibly taken from their villages by the insurgents. "They (the insurgents) had guns and they threatened to eliminate our families if we did not go for training", said Rehman Butt, a class VIII student.

The others who were brought to Manasbal camp of the Army had a similar tale.

Insurgency in Kashmir has attracted people of all age groups. Youngsters as young as 12 and men in their late fifties joined the ranks of insurgents in the early years of the insurgency.

The youths were drawn from all classes, but most came from poor families or had a criminal background. Things changed by end 1993 following the surrender of the militants at the Hazratbal shrine in November, 1993.

This incident robbed insurgency of its shine in the eyes of the locals. This triggered the influx of mercenaries from across the border, many of them Afghans.

JAMMU (UNI): Pakistan is pushing women recruits from the PoK into Jammu and Kashmir to woo locals in its proxy war against India.

According to sources, a large number of young militants in their mid-twenties have entered the Indian territory and are active in Poonch and Rajouri districts.

The burqa-clad recruits have formed an organisation, Anjuman-e-Khawateen, to sell dreams to gullible local girls and enlist them for carrying out subversive activities.

A senior defence official told UNI a similar organisation, Dukhataran-e-Millat, set up earlier with the help of local girls was wound up as it could not succeed in its activities.

The sources said the militants had a striking resemblence with the local girls which made it easy for them to mingle with them.

They said earlier foreign mercenaries found support from the local people for their needs like food, shelter and even money. But with the support no longer there, they are desperately looking for other modus operandi to win back the locals.

The militants also used to enter into a short-term contract marriage, ‘mutah’, with local girls, and after the expiry of a certain period both parties were free from their obligations.

One of the reasons why this system failed to work was that the local girls forsaken by their partners and families were left alone to fend for themselves.
The militants are now trying to make up now with the help of their women activists.

24 injured in J&K blasts
Tribune News Service and agencies

SRINAGAR, Oct 8 — At least 24 persons, most of them pedestrians, were injured in a series of explosions that rocked Srinagar today, while a block president of the National Conference and five others have been killed in separate incidents across the valley since yesterday.

Six pedestrians were injured in a scooter bomb explosion near the Civil Secretariat here this afternoon. The explosion took place at about 3 p.m. Eyewitnesses said the explosive hidden in a parked two-wheeler went off in the lane near the secretariat. A number of automobile workshops are located along the lane. At least three shops were also damaged due to the explosion.

The condition of two of the injured is reported to be serious. They have been admitted to SMHS hospital here, the police said. This is for the first time in the past two years that an explosion has taken place in the close vicinity of the Civil Secretariat housing the office of the Chief Minister and his ministerial colleagues as also the Secretaries. The offices are to shift to Jammu, the winter Capital of the state by the end of this month.

Five policemen and nine pedestrians were injured when militants hurled a grenade at a vehicle of the Jammu and Kashmir police at Khanqahi Mohalla, in the morning. The police said all those boarding the vehicle of the police station, M.R.Gunj were injured. The SHO of the police station was among those injured.

Three persons, including a jawan of the security forces, were injured when militants hurled a grenade at their picket in Gojwara in the interior city this morning. The grenade missed the intended target and exploded on the road injuring a BSF jawan and two pedestrians. A security force jawan and a civilian were injured in another grenade explosion at a security force picket at Braripora in the Safakadal area of the city in the morning. The condition of those injured is stated to be out of danger.

Mohammad Yusuf Sheikh, block president of the National Conference, was killed at Ashtingoo in the Bandipore area of Baramula district last evening, the police here today said. The National Conference leaders have condemned the killing of the block president. Another block president of the National Conference was killed under similar circumstances in the Ganderbal area near Srinagar 10 days ago.

Elsewhere, two foreign militants were killed in an encounter with the security forces at Keran in Kupwara district. Another foreign militant was killed in an encounter with the security forces at Kalaroos in Kupwara district, the police said.

The police said two persons, including a foreign militant and a jawan of the security forces, were killed in an encounter in the Lolab valley in Kupwara district. The security forces have recovered a large quantity of arms and ammunition in various search operations in north Kashmir districts of Baramula and Kupwara.

Militants kidnap 3 of family, kill 2
JAMMU: The militants kidnapped three members of a family, including a woman, from a village in Poonch district of the Jammu region yesterday and killed two of them, an official spokesman said.

A group of 12 militants swooped on Dana-Datkhtan village and encircled some houses last night, the spokesman said, adding they asked Abdul Ahmed, Syed Mohammad and Begum Anwar to accompany them at gunpoint.

The bodies of two of the hostages, who belonged to the Gujjar community, were recovered from the outskirts of the village, the spokesman added.

Meanwhile two persons, including a child, have been injured in cross-border firing by Pakistani Rangers in the region since Wednesday, official sources said.

A villager was injured when he was hit by bullets from across the border while working in his field at Gurah Mansa the sources said here.

His condition was stable, according to hospital sources.

In another incident, a five-year-old boy was hit by a stray bullet near the Katiala border outpost in the Samba sector.

There has been no let up in the firing from across the border in the Samba and R.S. Pura sub-sectors in the past one week, they said.