The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Tuesday, September 10, 2002, Chandigarh, India

THE TRIBUNE SPECIALS

50 YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE

TERCENTENARY CELEBRATIONS

M A I N N E W S

5 of a community shot in J&K
Tribune News Service and UNI

Jammu, September 9
At least eight persons were killed and two wounded as militants struck at two places in Rajouri and Reasi areas last night.

According to the police, two militants barged into the houses of Balak Ram and Charanjit Lal at Dodasan Pai village in Rajouri last night and fired indiscriminately, killing five, including two women, on the spot. One woman was injured.

Those killed were identified as Balak Ram, his son Ashok Kumar, his wife Shashi Bala, Chiranjit Lal and his wife Dushan Bala.

In another attack by militants at lower Dibri in Reasi area of Udhampur district three persons, including a VDC member and an Army personnel, were killed.

BJP vice-president Chander Mohan Sharma has condemned the killings.

SRINAGAR: Security forces achieved a major success when they scuttled a militant plan to cause disturbance during the election process in the city when they arrested a militant along with 30 kg of RDX and some arms and ammunition on Sunday.

In other militancy related incidents, two special police officers, a policeman and a militant were killed in a fierce clash at Badgam in central Kashmir, while 13 persons were injured in a grenade blast on the Srinagar-Jammu national highway on Sunday.

An official spokesman said the security forces arrested a militant alongwith 30 kg RDX, two wireless sets, 37 AK rounds, two magazines and two rifle grenades at Natipora on Sunday.

Militants fired upon a vehicle of Soibugh police division at Nasarullahpora Badgam on Sunday. In retaliation two SPOs Mushtaq Ahmad and Mohammad Shafi, policeman Mohammad Sidiq and a militant, Bashir Ahmad Malik, were killed. Two grenades, one wireless set and four magazines were recovered, he said.

He said the militants hurled a hand grenade towards a security force vehicle near Biojbehara on the highway on Sunday. However, the grenade missed the intended target and exploded on the roadside, injuring 13 persons.

A Hizbul militant, Mushtaq Ahmad, along with two AK rifles, two magazines, 47 rounds and two wireless sets was arrested at Ompora Badgam, while another militant was arrested at Peer Bagh Natipora along with some arms and ammunition.

Hurriyat leaders meet Pak officials
Seek help for meeting of Kashmir committees
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 9
Hurriyat Conference Chairman Prof Abdul Gani Bhat and four other leaders today held a long meeting with officials of the Pakistan High Commission and discussed the conglomerate’s talks with the Kashmir Committee headed by Mr Ram Jethmalani.

During the four-and-a-half-hour lunch meeting, which was attended by Hurriyat leaders Javid Ahmed Mir and Ali Mohammed Sheikh and G. M. Bhat, they are also believed to have discussed the conglomerate’s decision to not take part in the Assembly poll in Jammu and Kashmir.

Mirwaiz Omer Farooq, who was not part of the delegation, today met officials of the American embassy, sources said.

Pakistan Deputy High Commissioner Jalil Abbas Gilani was assisted by senior diplomats of the mission during the talks.

A Hurriyat spokesman told The Tribune that the delegation discussed the proposal of the Jethmalani-headed Kashmir Committee to meet the Kashmir Committee of Pakistan.

The spokesman said the Pakistan Government had no objection to the meeting of the two Kashmir committees. The modalities of the meeting would be worked out later, he said.

The Hurriyat Conference and the Kashmir Committee had decided yesterday that all parties concerned must rise above their traditional positions, abandon extremist stands and show flexibility to reach an acceptable and durable solution to the problem.

The APHC has opposed any move to convert the Line of Control (LoC) into international border (IB) between India and Pakistan.

The APHC chief has ruled out the possibility of the Hurriyat accepting any such solution.

“The line drawn across our hearts cannot be acceptable, honourable, durable,” Mr Bhat told The Tribune here.

The Hurriyat’s rejection of the proposal comes at a time when moves are afoot to evolve a solution to the Kashmir problem around converting the LoC into international border.

Such a proposal is believed to have the backing of the USA.

Though both Indian and Pakistan governments have officially denied reports about their agreeing for such a compromise, the issue has been figuring in the backroom discussions in both the countries. Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah is among the leaders who see converting LoC into border as a realistic solution to the Kashmir imbroglio.