M A I N   N E W S

12 militants killed in encounters
Tribune News Service and UNI

Jammu, May 3
Indian troops eliminated eight hardcore militants in the forest village of Copra Chapadian in the Mandi area of Poonch district today.

The police said following a tip-off, the security forces cordoned off the area where a group of militants were hiding. The Army sent its dogs to ascertain whether the militants were still in their hideout.

As the dogs barked, the militants opened fire. The troops retaliated, killing eight militants on the spot and recovered large quantities of arms and ammunition.

In another encounter in Thana Mandi of Rajouri district, four militants were killed.

A Defence Ministry spokesman said during the past 123 days, about 125 militants, most of them foreign mercenaries, had been eliminated in Poonch and Rajouri districts. He said still about 300 militants were active in these districts.

SRINAGAR: Militants shot dead one person and wounded three security force jawans in separate incidents in the valley since Wednesday.

The body of a woman was recovered in the frontier district of Kupwara.

Meanwhile, the security forces averted a major tragedy on Thursday defusing a powerful improvised explosive device.

Habibullah Beigh was shot by the militants at Sirajpora while the body of Raja, wife of Mohammad Sultan Malik, was recovered at Handwara in Kupwara.

The militants shot at and wounded a BSF sub-inspector Kamal Singh in Baramula this afternoon. He has been admitted to hospital in a critical condition.

In another incident, the militants lobbed a hand grenade towards the security forces near the Kupwara bus stand on Thursday afternoon. 

Deendar Anjuman banned
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 3
Deendar Anjuman, which had triggered bomb blasts in churches in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Goa between May and July last year, was today banned by the Centre for having links in Pakistan and for indulging in activities which are “prejudicial to the security of the country”.

Citing the reasons for banning the radical outfit, a Home Ministry spokesman told newspersons here “the activities of Deendar Anjuman are detrimental to the peace, communal harmony, internal security and maintenance of the secular fabric of the Indian society, and that it is an unlawful association.”

The organisation, active in the Deccan areas, was engaged in distribution of anti-Christian literature, in espionage activities and was having the potential to disturb peace, communal harmony, and the secular fabric of the country, he said.

“Deendar Anjuman has links at Mardan in Pakistan and has been organising bands of disgruntled Muslim youths in India into a militant outfit for launching a jehad with the avowed objective of total Islamisation of the subcontinent,” he said.

The organisation also planned to create disturbances, particularly by promoting hatred and creating suspicion and ill-will among the Christians and Hindus as well as among other communities.

It had directed its activities against Christian institutions with a view to embarrassing the government, particularly in the international community and weakening it internally and had plans to target major infrastructural installation, including railways, telecom network, electricity grids, oil refineries and defence installations, he said.

The decision to ban the outfit follows a meeting between the Centre and representatives of police forces of Andhra Pradesh, Goa and Karnataka in Bangalore during which it was stressed that there was a grand design of Pakistan’s ISI to foment trouble by putting one community against another to weaken the moral strength of the country and its secular fabric.