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Sunday,
October
5, 2003,
Chandigarh, India  
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Racket involving sale of minor girls in Punjab exposed
J&K steps to save flora and fauna Pak militant arrested |
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Racket involving sale of minor girls in Punjab exposed Jammu, October 4 The police has registered as many as 36 cases pertaining to girls who went missing during the past few months and it is suspected that most of them might have been lured to Punjab by organised gangs operating here. Two women and a man allegedly involved in the trade of sale of innocent girls have been arrested and at least three girls have been recovered from Tarn Taran. It is learnt that the gang generally abducting school girls in the age group of 14 to 19 and selling them for anything between Rs 18,000 to Rs 20,000, particularly in the Tarn Taran area of Punjab. The racket has surfaced close on the heels of reports of girls from Himachal Pradesh being sold in Punjab. There were reports that a couple of girls belonging to the families which have taken refuge in the Devipur camp from the villages near the Indo-Pak border because of indiscriminate firing by Pakistani troops have also been abducted by such gangs involved in the sale of girls. According to the police, two such rackets have been smashed so far and a search was going on for the others. A Class VIII student was recently recovered from Tarn Taran where she had been sold Rs 18,000 last month. Two girls, Usha (15) and Sushma (19), were abducted from the Devipur camp. However, the former managed to flee and inform the police here about what had happened with her. It is learnt that the modus-operandi of the gang members was to either become tenants of such innocent people who had school-going girls or become friendly with them. In another case, the police has recovered a Class VII girl who was abducted by an auto-rickshaw driver whose vehicle the parents had hired for dropping the girl to the school every morning. Meanwhile, Mr Balraj Puri, convener of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), has expressed concern over the sale of girls and has urged the government to take steps to recover all such girls. He said the illicit trade was flourishing because the ratio of women to men had fallen drastically in Punjab. The girls were being kept in bondage by grown-up men who could not get brides in their own state. |
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J&K steps to save flora and fauna Dachigam (Srinagar), October 4 The endangered species include hangul (stag), musk deer, markhor, snow leopard and brown bear. The government has initiated several measures to check the onslaught on the wildlife fauna and flora in the state. Over 200 nature clubs have also been set up to create awareness among the public to check the alarming decline in the number of the wildlife species. “Our wildlife fauna and flora have suffered a tremendous damage because of interference and neglect. Perhaps they can take no more. Unless we seriously dedicate ourselves to the noble task of care, retrieval and protection, some of the rarest fauna and flora that have been part of our great heritage will be lost for ever”, observed the Jammu and Kashmir Forest Minister, Sofi Ghulam Mohiuddin. He was addressing the inaugural function of the state-level Wildlife Week at Dachigam National Park here on Thursday. The minister said the number of hangul or the Kashmiri stag had dwindled from over 5,000 to 140 and that was restricted to the wildlife park at Dachigam only. He attached greater importance to the efforts and measures planned for the preservation of all species in the park. Mr Sofi expressed concern over the illegal occupation of land and water bodies by certain persons over the past decade. Referring to the measures taken to conserve wildlife initiated by the state government, Thakur Puran Singh, Minister of State for Forests, Wildlife and Fisheries Department, said about 15,700 sq km of area had been declared protected area network. Out of this nearly 10,000 sq km was only in the Ladakh region. As per the new draft forest policy the total protected area network for wildlife was proposed to be 15 per cent of the total forest area, the minister said. According to the census of the endangered species, hangul had the least number of 170 to 195 in Dachigam National Park, while the number of markhor had been estimated at 197-280, both endangered species being found in the Kashmir valley. In the Jammu region, the number of spotted deer (Ramnagar National Park) had been estimated at 40 to 63, the number of Barking deer between 40 to 63 in Kathua National Park, and the number of neel-gai between 22 and 60 in Ram Nagar National Park. In the ladakh region, the number of snow leopard had been estimated at between 250 and 300, 1717 that of Wild ass (kiang), 7000 Ibex, 11,000 blue sheep and 44 black necked crane. Giving details of the wildlife reserves in the state, Mr A R. Wadoo, Chief Wildlife Warden, J&K, said that two deer parks, one each at Pahalgam and Gulmarg were being developed. Species of blue sheep, Ibex, hangul, spotted deer and Musk deer, would be studied and propagated under captivity in these deer parks for subsequent release in the depleted wildlife areas. He said the wetlands of Hokersar, Haygam, Shallabugh, Surinsar, Mansar, Pangong, Tso-Morari and Chhanthang, had been proposed to be identified as Ramsar sites. |
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Pak militant arrested Jammu, October 4 Describing Abdul Rouf, a resident of Karachi, as a prize catch, the sources said he was arrested in the R S Pura sector yesterday. Rouf revealed during interrogation that he stayed in the winter capital for more than a month and carried out recce of vital installations, including the railway station and the airport, on the directions of Pakistan’s ISI, the sources said. To dodge the police and intelligence agencies, he worked as a labourer in a hotel at the railway station where he gave a fake residential address from Rajouri district, they said. He surveyed the railway station and its surrounding areas, the airport and Baribrahmna town and prepared maps of these places, the sources said. The militant also told his interrogators that he had accompanied two members of a suicide squad from Pakistan to the railway station, they said.
— PTI |
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2 held, 6 kg of charas seized Jammu, October 4 Deputy Superintendent of Police, Crime and Railways, M.H. Malik said the police nabbed two Kashmiri youths Shafiq-ul-Rehman and Abdul Rashid Rather, both residents of Bonigam village in Anantnag district of South Kashmir and seized six kg of charas from them. A case under the NDPS Act has been registered.
— UNI |
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Bandh paralyses life in Doda Jammu, October 4 People raised anti-militant slogans as all business establishments remained closed and traffic was off the roads in Baderwah, Kishtwar and Thatri. Both Hindus and Muslims condemned the militant attack on the pilgrims in the Gandoh area of the district yesterday in which three persons were killed and four injured.
— PTI |
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