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Friday,
May 10,
2002, Chandigarh, India  
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J&K poll: BSP worries Cong Infiltration bid foiled, 3 JeM ultras killed
Lashkar trying to spread
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Minister asks ultras to join poll process Law to check misuse of Red Cross emblem
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J&K poll: BSP worries Cong Jammu, May 9 These fears were expressed by none other than the PCC President, Mr Ghulam Nabi Azad, during his hectic tour of the border districts of Poonch and Rajouri. Mr Azad has suggested to his party colleagues to woo senior Scheduled Caste leaders and workers, and if need be, they should find place in the party’s block committees so that Dalits and the backward sections of voters are available to support the Congress. The state unit of the Congress feels that the BSP may tie up with the BJP or the National Conference. If left to the party President, Sheikh Abdul Rehman, the BSP would prefer an alliance with the National Conference. However, the development in Uttar Pradesh, where the BSP leader, Ms Mayawati, formed the government with the support of the BJP, may motivate the leaders of the two parties to have an open or secret alliance in Jammu and Kashmir. In the 1996 Assembly poll there was a secret understanding between the National Conference and the BSP. The result was that the BSP won two Assembly seats. This secret tie-up was alive during the two Lok Sabha elections. In the two Lok Sabha elections in the Jammu constituency, the BSP has been number four after the BJP, the NC and the Congress. Supporters of the BSP have been voting in favour of the Congress in the past and hence Mr Azad would like to have some chunk of voters belonging to the Dalits and the Backward Classes to support the Congress. Mr Azad has been trying hard to revive the Congress at the grassroots level. In this connection he has set up six-member committees for all six districts in the Jammu region. These committees have been asked to submit the names of party men who can be appointed office-bearers in the block Congress committees and emphasis is on including Backward Classes and Dalits in such committees. Under the plan, Jammu district has been divided into two zones, Jammu urban and Jammu rural, and for both these belts six-member committees have been constituted to revive the Congress. The PCC President has selected a team of dedicated Congress leaders to make up for the ground that it had lost after several senior party leaders, including Mr Talib Hussain and Mr Mirza Abdul Rashid, joined the National Conference. Their resignation from the Congress had further weakened the party in the Poonch and Rajouri areas. While Mr Mirza Rashid was rewarded with a seat in the Rajya Sabha, Mr Talib Hussain entered the Lok Sabha after winning the Jammu seat in a recent byelection. Mr Azad’s public rallies in Poonch and Rajouri districts were well attended, but he was aware of the fact that it was the result of individual efforts that people had come to listen to him while the organisation at the district level was inactive and ineffective. He has directed his party men to restructure the Congress in Poonch and Rajouri districts so that the National Conference does not get a cakewalk in these areas. However, senior BSP leaders, including the party President, Sheikh Abdul Rehman, are said to have conveyed to the party leadership in Delhi that what was feasible in Uttar Pradesh may not be advantageous to the organisation in the state if it was forced to have a tieup with the BJP. The Sheikh is in favour of an open or secret electoral understanding with the National Conference which alone may help it in winning two to four Assembly seats. It may take time for the BSP to formulate its final decision because at present the state unit of the BSP is in disarray with four senior party leaders having submitted their resignation’s to Mr Kanshi Ram who will be visiting Jammu shortly to resolve the problem. Mr Kanshi Ram has already announced that the BJP-BSP tieup would remain confined to UP only. As such the option for the BSP in Jammu and Kashmir is open. It may go alone in the next Assembly poll or under a secret understanding either with the NC or the BJP. |
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Infiltration bid foiled, 3 JeM ultras killed Jammu, May 9 Official reports said when the Indian forces spotted an intrusion bid from across the Doda post, they opened fire. The Pakistani troops gave an effective fire cover in which two India soldiers received injuries. The Indian troops retaliated hitting Pak bunkers with mortar shells and more than six Pak bunkers were destroyed in which three to five Pakistani soldiers were believed to have been killed. The Pakistani forces also pounded the border village with mortar shells, but there was no major damage to “our bunkers”, according to Defence Ministry sources. Two assault rifles, one pistol and large quantities of ammunition and explosives were seized from the slain rebels. Sources said the Pakistani forces were making a determined bid to push into Jammu sector large groups of militants who had been brought to the launching pad across Poonch and Rajouri. The agencies across the border, they said, have been perturbed over the rise in the rate of elimination of militants at the hands of the security forces. They said during the past four months, more than 1,000 militants had been killed in various parts of the state and over 300 arrested. The security forces have seized 600 assault rifles, over 1,500 magazines and 40,000 rounds of ammunition. In addition, more than 1,500 grenades, including rifle grenades, over 200 pistols and revolvers, one tonne of explosive material, scores of rockets and rocket launchers besides big sacks of ammunition had been seized from the rebels. Consequently, Pak agencies had become desperate and were trying to push into the state militants equipped with weapons and ammunition. The sources said during the past four months the Pakistani troops had resorted to unprovoked firing and shelling in Poonch, Rajouri, Akhnoor, R.S.Pora and Samba sectors simply to create a passable route for the infiltrators. However, the Indian forces had foiled the Pak gameplan though in various areas Pak agencies had succeeded in assisting rebels to sneak into the Jammu sector. Meanwhile, justifying the alleged manhandling of JKLF chief Mohammad Yasin Mailk by an activist of the Shiv Sena in the local Government Medical College yesterday, the president of the state unit of Shiv Sena (B), Mr Kalkiji Maharaj, said he had received a green signal from the party supremo to not allow any separatist leader to address either a press conference or a public meeting in the Jammu region. |
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Lashkar trying to spread
tentacles Jammu, May 9 A disclosure to this effect was made after a letter was recovered from one Abu Hazai, divisional commander of the Lashkar-i-Toiba, who was killed in an
encounter with the security forces in the south Kashmir area on April 10. In the letter the Pak agencies had given a clear instruction to Abu Hazai and his colleagues to travel to Gorakhpur from where they should board a train for Raksol. From Raksol they should travel by bus to Kamaria Ghat and search for the house of one Shah Mohammad Mian who could escort them to Akhtar Ali, supposed to be the kingpin of terrorist activities in eastern UP and Nepal. A Defence Ministry spokesman while divulging the contents of the letter said that Lashkar-i-Toiba was setting up bases in eastern UP and the ISI operatives, camping in Nepal, were lending them moral and material support. He said there was also the possibility of Lashkar-i-Toiba activists supplying weapons and explosives to
Moists in Nepal and helping them in ambushing the Royal troops. According the official sources, reports had indicated that the Pak agencies were trying to sustain communal violence in Gujarat so that India’s industrial base was totally wrecked. The sources said that what Gujarat was for India, Sindh was for Pakistan. The MOM movement had destroyed Pakistan’s industrial lifeline in Karachi and hence the Pak agencies, with the aid of the militants, were trying to cause heavy economic bleed to India by sustaining communal violence in Gujarat. The sources said reports from across the border had also indicated that activists of the Lashkar-i-Toiba were being pushed into India to carry out subversive activities in other Indian states. |
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Minister asks ultras to join poll process Srinagar, May 9 Instead of holding the people hostage the APHC leaders and militants should face them at the hustings and let them decide for themselves, he stated. Mr Sagar said it was never too late to mend past mistakes and asked the separatists not to resort to any behind-the-scenes machinations to weaken the National Conference (NC) The Minister blamed the separatist leaders for destroying the future of Kashmiris. Except for piling graveyards with the bodies of Kashmiri youths, these leaders contribution towards the welfare of the people was negligible, he lamented. “They have only filled their own coffers by destroying the lives of poor Kashmiris,” he said, adding that they stood exposed before the people who had seen their lust for power. The Minister said as they had developed a vested interest in the ongoing turmoil they would never allow peace to return in the state. He warned the people to stay alert about the nefarious designs of such elements.
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Law to check misuse of Red Cross emblem Jammu, May 9 “The Government will explore all possibilities to bring in a legislation to curb the misuse of the Red Cross emblem in the state by the medical fraternity,” Minister for Industries and Commerce Mustafa Kamal said at a function here last evening. Measures would also be taken for the implementation of the Geneva Convention, 1949, adopted by Parliament in 1969 with regard to the use of the Red Cross emblem. Mr Kamal said the ministeries of law and health would also be approached to enact a stringent law to check the misuse of the emblem by vested interests. Praising the work carried out by the Red Cross at the time of distress, Mr Mustafa assured the Jammu and Kashmir Red Cross Society every possible help to restore its credibility in the state.
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