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NEWS ANALYSIS
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Geelani, Yaseen,
Shabir freed Violence worries APHC Militants
kill VDC member Jawan hurt in shelling Panthers against Mangla dam extension Vehicles, urbanisation behind increase in
accidents Refugees seek
better deal 2 special judges to hear
anti-graft cases 50 injured in bus mishap
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NEWS ANALYSIS Jammu, October 23 But the decision of the Centre to start a dialogue with the Kashmiri separatists through the Deputy Prime Minister is being seen as an outcome of many underlaying factors. After the APHC split, with the hardliners, led by Syed Ali Shah Geelani out of the picture, the coast is clear for the centre to start dialogue with moderates, led by Maulvi Abbas Ansari. The August 25 statement of Maulvi Ansari, expressing willingness to start dialogue with the Centre, also encouraged the government. Also the Centre had realised appointing interlocutors would not work and a dialogue on the political-level would make a better headway. Also the Chief Minister, Mufti Mohd Sayeed has had series of meetings with Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Mr L.K. Advani during the last seven months in which he persuaded them for a direct dialogue. Also the escalation in violence in Jammu and Kashmir may have prompted the Centre to engage the separatists in a dialogue so that militants, especially foreign mercenaries, should lose political patronage. Prof Abdul Gani Bhat, a former APHC Chairman said the Centre’s decision should have the tacit support of Islamabad. He said, “The recent OIC resolution on Kashmir, continued interest shown by the USA, Russia and China in the settlement of the Kashmir issue may have prompted Delhi and Islamabad to initiate additional confidence-building measures and the proposed dialogue with the separatists is part of that exercise.” Since Mr Geelani, was skeptical and wanted the dialogue within the ambit of 1994 Parliament resolution there were fears that the talks may not lead to the permanent settlement of the dispute. Mr Bhat said, “Without involving Pakistan in the proposed talks there cannot be any durable settlement of the Kashmir issue.” He said, “There have been series of agreements with the mainstream political leaders in Kashmir, including the Indira-Sheikh accord, but all these failed to resolve the Kashmir issue because Pakistan’s involvement was missing.” However, the mood in the PDP camp was upbeat as the leadership claimed it as fulfilling of its four-year-old dream of bringing the separatists and the Central Government leaders on one table. The National Conference leadership also supported the decision though till year back it opposed an talks with the APHC. The reason was that the NC leaders did not seem prepared to fight on the two fronts, the state government and the separatists. Political observers in Kashmir believed that the proposed talks could create an opportunity for a section of the separatists to remain by the right side of the establishment in Delhi. The APHC
(Abbas) leaders would finalise their strategy during a meeting of its executive committee because they faced a great risk in case they took two steps to shake hands with the Government of India. |
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Mufti urges Hurriyat
to give good response Srinagar, October 23 Addressing a function at Hazratbal here today the Chief Minister said, nobody should ignore the aspirations and yearning of people who want peace. All the parties must respect the desire of the people and take necessary steps to resolve the internal dimensions by holding meaningful dialogue with the Central Government. He said that he had been persistently trying to break the stalemate in the process of dialogue. He said there was no harm in talking to our own people and the Centre had done well to open another and higher channel of dialogue. The Chief Minister was addressing at the first annual day function of National Institute of Technology (NIT) today. |
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Centre’s offer meaningless, say militants Srinagar, October 23 Asking the separatist leadership not to enter into the proposed “useless and futile” dialogue, the Hizbul Mujahideen said it was unwise to do so until the Centre declared Kashmir as a “disputed” issue. Hizbul chief operations commander Gazi Naseer-ud-din said the outfit was for a resolution of the Kashmir issue through a dialogue, but for that the Centre “should declare Kashmir a disputed issue and start meaningful and result-oriented tripartite talks involving representatives of Kashmir”. Jamiat-ul-Mujahideen operations commander Malik Tahir alleged that by announcing the proposals India wanted to “hoodwink” the international community to escape world criticism and divide the people of the state in the name of peace. The Al-Nasreen and the Farzandan-e-Millat (FeM), two lesser-known militant outfits which claimed responsibility for the recent attack on Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s residence, said the Centre should invite the mujahideen (militant) leadership for talks. They said only the mujahideen and not the Hurriyat Conference had representative character.
— PTI |
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Army option
better than talks, says morcha Jammu, October 23 In a joint statement the leaders of the Mukti Morcha, including Prof Virender Gupta, Mr H.B. Khajuria and Col V.P. Sharma, described the decision of the Centre on Kashmir as part of “yet another blunder” of the BJP-led NDA government. They said that talks with APHC leaders and starting of Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus services, besides another confidence-building measures were not going to resolve the problem. The leaders said, “Such exercise will create added problem for the people and the security forces.” Professor Gupta urged the Government of India to initiate military options for ending the
menace of terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir and suggested that first of all militant camps operating across the border be destroyed. He and his party colleagues said that instead of dialogue drastic measures against militants and against Pakistan were needed for restoring peace in Jammu and Kashmir. They said that the aim of India to force Pakistan to vacate occupied Kashmir cannot be achieved through hollow slogans and speeches. |
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Geelani, Yaseen, Shabir freed Srinagar, October 23 A JLKF spokesman said Mr Malik, vice chairman Javid Ahmad Mir and eight other leaders of the outfit, who were prevented from going to Tral for signature campaign and taken into custody early yesterday, were released last night. The cordon around the Hyderpora residence of Mr Geelani, who was put under house arrest early yesterday, was also lifted last evening. Similarly Mr shah, who was arrested at Awantipora when he was on way to Bijbehara along with his supporters, was also released last night. Mr Geelani and Mr Shah were arrested to prevent them from going to Bijbehara where they were scheduled to attend the 10th death anniversary of 46 persons killed in a security force firing on a procession. The arrest of Mr Malik and others sparked a violent demonstration at Maisuma near here, forcing the police to use tear gas shells. Life at Maisuma returned to normal today. — UNI |
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Violence worries APHC Jammu, October 23 Leaders of the APHC (Abbas) attribute the rise in violence to three factors. According to Mr Abdul Gani Bhat, a former APHC Chairman, “the delay in the resumption of the Indo-Pakistan dialogue for settling the Kashmir issue is the basic cause.” He told this correspondent “the Kashmir issue cannot be resolved and peace cannot be restored in the state without involving Pakistan in a broadbased dialogue.” He admitted that the split in the APHC had also created confusion, resulting in escalation of violence. He said, so far, the efforts for the reunification of the two factions of the APHC had not yielded any positive results. The third factor, according to Mr Bhat and his party colleagues, was the wrong policies being adopted by the state and the Central governments. While explaining it, Mr Bhat said, “reports have revealed that the Government of India planned to appoint another interlocutor and even if a former newspaper Editor, Mr R.K. Mishra, was sent to Kashmir for negotiations he too will meet the same fate his successors, including Mr K.C. Pant, had met.” He alleged that the Central Government was simply “befooling” people by conducting series of experiments. He said: “Nothing will emerge out of talks between Central interlocutors and a section of Kashmiri separatists and the mainstream political leaders.” The APHC leader said “during the past 40 years there had been several series of accords between the mainstream political leaders in Kashmir and Delhi, but such exercises did not settle the Kashmir issue.” He favoured a twin strategy, adding that first of all Delhi should involve Islamabad in a dialogue on Kashmir and simultaneously senior ruling political leaders in Delhi could engage separatists and “Jehadis” of different hues in talks. Mr Bhat did not agree with Chief Minister, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s suggestion to Delhi that talks with separatists be held by the ruling political circle in Delhi. “If we want the Kashmir issue to be settled and peace restored in the state, India has to involve Pakistan in a serious and purposeful dialogue. |
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Militants
kill VDC member Jammu, October 23 Militants attacked a VDC post near Barshalla in Doda district last night. VDC members retaliated and the exchange continued for two hours. VDC member Muneer Ahmed was killed in the exchange of fire. Reports from Poonch district said security forces during a search operation busted a militant hideout in the house of one Gulam Hussan in the Kurmi Nallah Darsangla area in Surankot tehsil last night.
— PTI |
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Jawan hurt in shelling Jammu, October 23 The troops from across the Line of Control targeted several forward locations in Kalsian, Bhawani, Khangar and Rumlidhara areas of the Sector with mortar shells without causing any loss or damage, they said. “Over 60 mortar bombs were fired by them from last evening to this morning forcing our troops to retaliate effectively,” they said, adding any damage on the other side could not be ascertained so far. “Exchange of firing between the two sides along the International Border were reported from the R S Pura and Samba sectors since yesterday without any casuality on our side,” the sources said. Pakistani troops have been usually resorting to firing in Samba and R S Pura sectors with the object of targeting ongoing fencing work.
— OC |
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Panthers against Mangla dam extension Jammu, October 23 Prof Bim Singh, in a statement, said “my party fully supports the movement launched by anti-Mangla Dam Committee in Mirpur because expansion of the hydel project will submerge several hundred acres of land forcing half a million people to leave homes.” The Panthers Party Chief also called for intervention by the UN Human Rights Commission so that brutalisation of people of the Gilgit region was stopped. He also demanded referendum in the entire Pakistan-occupied Kashmir as provided in the UN resolution of 1948. He said Pakistan had defied the UN resolution by not handing over the occupied territory to the Indian Army. He appealed to Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, to take in hand measures that could liberate Pakistan-occupied Kashmir where people had been subjected to atrocities. |
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Vehicles, urbanisation behind increase in
accidents Srinagar, October 23 According to Inspector General of Traffic Police, J&K Ram Lubhaya this has been due to rapid urbanisation, followed by high standard of living by a section of society which resulted in unprecedented increase in vehicular population. He said there has been an increase of 148 per cent in vehicular population in the past decade, while only 2000 kms of road length was increased during this period. He said against 1,60,641 vehicles in 1993 the number increased to 3,98,352 in 2002-03. The Traffic Police Department has been advocating the constitution of the Traffic Engineering Board to manage the road conditions and address traffic problems to avoid death in accidents on road. However, no measures in this direction have been taken. The IG Traffic held “due to security scenario, not only the free and safe flow of traffic was affected, but the blue cops were put into an embarrassing position while performing their duties, that too without any arms on the roads”. Mr Ram Lubhaya said there had been an increase of 35 per cent in revenue realisation over the past 10 years from Rs 60,23,392 in 1993 to Rs 2,71,35,000 in the last year. An amount of Rs 1,41,14,918 has been realised between July and September last against Rs 91,25,550 during the corresponding period last year thereby constituting an increase of 54.67 per cent, Mr Lubhaya said. The IG Traffic said that in all 3950 accidents took place in the state this year out of which 406 were fatal and 3544 non-fatal. Of these accidents had taken place in Srinagar district in which 41 accidents were fatal. In Jammu district 1278 accidents had taken place with 124 fatal accidents. |
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Refugees seek
better deal Jammu, October 23 At a meeting of the organisation here today, presided over by Mr Joginder Singh Raina, a resolution was adopted condemning both the Central and the state governments for “treating the refugees from Muzaffarabad as children of lesser gods.” The resolution demanded an economic package for the refugees living in Jammu so that they were on a par with Muzaffarabad refugees settled in other states. |
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2 special judges to hear anti-graft cases Jammu, October 23 The state government has appointed first additional District and Sessions Judge Bansi Lal as Special Judge Anti-Corruption court for the trial of offences specified under the Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act in the jurisdiction of Doda, Rajauri and Poonch districts of Jammu division, they added.
— PTI |
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50 injured in
bus mishap Jammu, October 23 The bus, which was on its way to Payan village from Amb, fell into the gorge after the driver lost control while negotiating a curve at Dargwal last night. Eight of the injured, who sustained serious injuries, were brought to Jammu. Their condition is stated to be stable.
— PTI |
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