The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Thursday, March 21, 2002, Chandigarh, India

M A I N N E W S

2 kids die in blast
Tribune News Service

A schoolgirl waits to be picked up by her parents after school in Srinagar on Wednesday. — AFP photo

Srinagar, March 20
Two children have been killed and five injured in separate incidents in Kashmir since yesterday.

The police here said two children were killed on the spot and five others were injured when an explosive device went off on the Doraswani and Tikipora road in the Sogam area of Kupwara district today.

Official sources said militants had planted a landmine at Doraswani Lolab to target security convoys. However, after the last security forces vehicle crossed the area the school bus ran over the mine at about 9 a.m.

The sources said two children — Hilal Ahmad (11) and Reyaz Ahmad Mir (10) died on the spot and five others were injured who were shifted to hospital in a critical condition.

Elsewhere in the state, a top Al-Badr and three Jaish-e-Mohammad militants were among five persons killed while forces busted a hideout in the past 24 hours.

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IAF mum on Bhatia’s plea
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 20
The Air Marshal Sekhon issue continues to rock the Indian Air Force (IAF) with reports now emerging that Air Marshal V.K. Bhatia, Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief of the Western Air Command, is seeking a fresh probe into his possible crossing of the Line of Control (LoC) in the Kargil region last month.

Air Marshal Manjit Singh Sekhon, the former AOC-in-C of the Southern Air Command whose resignation was accepted by the government yesterday, was heading the Court of Inquiry into the Air Marshal Bhatia incident and had submitted the report just after the “letter issue” rocked him and the IAF.

Although the IAF today declined to comment on the issue of Air Marshal Bhatia seeking a fresh probe, there was always an apprehension that this may happen as Air Marshal Sekhon had himself come under a cloud.

Air Force sources said they could neither deny nor confirm the report carried by an English daily. Apparently, there are strict instructions in the IAF against anyone talking to the media till such time the report on the Air Marshal Bhatia incident is finalised by the Air Headquarters.

The sources, however, made it clear that the report submitted by the Court of Inquiry into the incident “still holds good”.

The inquiry report has reportedly blamed Air Marshal Bhatia for violating the LoC, an action which led to Pakistanis firing surface-to-air missiles at the aircraft.

The probe virtually also came under a cloud when it became known that Air Marshal Sekhon himself had been lobbying for the post held by Air Marshal Bhatia. He had written to former Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal seeking his help to get appointed as Commanding-in-Chief of the Western Air Command.

The daily quoted highly-placed sources in the Defence Ministry as saying that Air Marshal Bhatia’s request for a fresh probe had been received. But it was an internal matter of the IAF and the Air Headquarters would have to take a decision on it. Air Marshal Bhatia has asked for an impartial and unbiased inquiry into the matter, the sources were quoted as saying.

Pakistan had also last week confirmed that it had fired on an IAF aircraft, carrying a senior officer, when it strayed into its airspace.