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| Monday, August 14, 2000, Chandigarh, India   
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Kashmir fears attacks on I-Day BJP sees ‘internal
sabotage’ in J&K Militants directed to target J&K cops Rebuilding educational infrastructure Sharnarthi panel rejects package |
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Kashmir fears attacks on I-Day SRINAGAR, Aug 13 (Reuters) — Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday braced itself for attacks by separatist militants in the run-up to the country’s Independence Day celebrations. The state’s main separatist alliance, the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, called for a strike on Tuesday to mark Independence Day as a black day. Security patrols were stepped up and house-to-house searches started in Srinagar, where the Chief Minister, Mr Farooq Abdullah, is due to hoist the tricolour on Tuesday. “We expect more violence, already there has been more damage done in the run-up to this year’s independence day than in the last one or two years,” said an official of the Border Security Force. Tensions has risen again in Kashmir after the biggest frontline militant group Hizbul Mujahideen called off a 15-day ceasefire, citing New Delhi’s refusal to accept three-way talks, including Pakistan to resolve the 53-year-old Kashmir dispute. About a dozen people have been taken into preventive custody and more troops deployed in Srinagar, the BSF official said. “We have intensified patrolling, set up intelligence teams and in select areas launched search and cordon operations.” But he added: “It is not possible to hermetically seal the city unless you freeze all civilian movement.” Motorists have been asked to keep their cars off the main streets of Srinagar after this week’s car bomb. Hundreds of men were on Sunday ordered out of their homes in the city’s Maisuma locality while security forces searched their homes for weapons and checked identities. India accuses neighbour Pakistan of fomenting the revolt. Islamabad denies direct involvement but says it offers moral and diplomatic support to the Kashmiri people in their struggle for self-determination. Twice in the past 53 years the nuclear-capable neighbours have gone to war over Kashmir.
BJP sees ‘internal
sabotage’ in J&K JAMMU, Aug 13 — The state unit of the BJP has urged the Central Government to review the security situation in Jammu and Kashmir and if need be dismiss the Farooq government to check further deterioration in law and order. The party president, Mr D.K. Kotwal, told mediapersons here today that the law and order situation had witnessed a new low with militants on the offensive. It was time to initiate strict measures to meet the new challenges, even if it meant sacking of the National Conference government by the Centre. Mr Kotwal said the long-pending demand of the BJP for weeding out anti-national elements from the state administration had not been conceded. He said the BJP was of the firm opinion that but for the overt or covert support of a section within the state administration, militancy could have not survived for such a long time in the state. He said there were indications of “internal” sabotage. He said the BJP had not supported the demand for trifurcation of the state, but it opposed the continued “stepmotherly” treatment being meted out to the people of Jammu and Ladakh regions. He said after going through the Regional Autonomy Committee report, the BJP had come to regard it as the “most dangerous” exercise to divide the state on communal lines which would only serve American interests. He said the BJP would oppose tooth and nail any plan for implementation of the Regional Autonomy Committee report. Vaid Vishnu Dutt, BJP MP, who was present at the press conference, criticised the state government for mishandling the situation in a village in R.S. Pora recently. |
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Militants directed to target J&K cops JAMMU, Aug 13 — Militant outfits dominated by foreign mercenaries have been directed by agencies across the border to target the Jammu and Kashmir police to demoralise it. According to state government officials, though militants have been assigned the task of carrying out attacks on security camps, they have been given specific instructions to target police pickets. The bomb explosion in Srinagar on Thursday was part of the plan to create a scare among the state constabulary. A senior police officer said during the first seven months of the current year more than 55 police personnel were killed in various militancy-related incidents in different parts of the state. This indicated, he added, that the police was in the forefront of the anti-insurgency operations. Asked whether Thursday’s blast would demoralise the police, the officer said there was no question of that. The officer explained that the Pakistani agencies were worried because the police had eliminated more than 2,000 militants during the past three years and recovered a large quantity of arms and ammunition. The Pak-trained militants, the officer said, “see their enemy in our boys who being local have succeeded in smashing a large number of militant hideouts and the communication network in the state”. |
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Rebuilding educational infrastructure SRINAGAR, Aug 13 (PTI) — The Jammu and Kashmir Government has reconstructed 500 primary school buildings and reopened 231 of them in the state as. These schools were damaged in militancy related incidents. “The education system especially in the Kashmir valley was worst affected by the Pakistan-sponsored militancy which completely derailed it with destruction of over 800 government school buildings, closure of schools and reduction in teaching days,” official sources said today. Moreover the examination system was thrown out of gear. Even its sanctity was badly eroded with unhealthy growth of mass copying. To bring back the education system back on the rails was, indeed, a gigantic task. The government has spent over Rs 43 crore in four years to reconstruct 500 school buildings while reconstruction of other 157 such buildings was in progress, the sources said, adding that over Rs 15 crore more were required to complete the process of reconstruction of damaged buildings of educational institutions, located mostly in the Kashmir valley. A unique programme “Rehber-e-Taleem” has been recently launched in the state to ensure people’s participation in keeping primary schools operational in rural and remote areas of the state, the sources said. They said under this pilot project, first of its kind in the state, more than 6,000 village level committees have been constituted, each comprising five local non-political members drawn from the cross section of the village. Thus, over 30,000 non-official members have been involved in this scheme which envisages, inter alia, selection of teachers in the primary schools on contract basis and over- see the attendance of teachers and overall teaching in the school, the sources said. Launched in May this year, it has resulted in reopening of 231 primary schools, they said. |
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Sharnarthi panel rejects package JAMMU, Aug 13 — The Jammu and Kashmir Sharnarthi Action Committee (O) has flayed the package announced by the Union Cabinet for displaced persons of 1947 from Pakistan occupied Kashmir. Addressing a press conference here today the general secretary of the SAC (O) , Mr Surjit Singh, termed the package inadequate and said it was contrary to the directions of National Human Rights Commission. He has stated that the government has sanctioned Rs 47 crore when the demand had been made for Rs 112 crore. Mr Singh said the package was not acceptable to the SAC and they would continue their struggle. He also demanded refugee status for the displaced families from Pakistan occupied Kashmir. The President of SAC (O), Mr Nand Lal, criticised the section of Sharnarthis who had recently hailed the package. He said since 1947 several thousand refugees living in 46 basties in the Jammu region have been leading a miserable life. He further said for the past 52 years “we have been deprived of Fundamental Rights”. He said: “our children are not entitled to get jobs or admission in professional colleges in the state”. |
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