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Militants blast house, 2 children killed
Cong launches campaign, criticises daughters’ Bill Women outnumber men voters in |
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RSS team to garner support for BJP Break ties with PDP, morcha asks Cong
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Militants blast house, 2 children killed Jammu, March 22 A group of militants entered the house of a Gujjar, Fetah Mohammad, in the remote Tanka mountainous hamlet of Doda district last night and demanded food and shelter from the family, the sources said. Apparently angry at the family’s refusal to entertain them, the militants blew up the mudhouse with a grenade, killing Mohammad’s four-year-old son on the spot and injuring his wife and four children. Five-year-old Zahida, who was seriously injured, died on the way to the hospital. As per the preliminary investigation, militants who were involved in the incident belonged to Lashker-e-Toiba (LET) and were Pakistanis, they said. The security forces and the police have launched a cordon and search operation in the entire Tanka forest belt to track down the militants. Meanwhile, a Lashker-e-Toiba commander and a special police officer (SPO) were killed in two separate militancy related incidents, the sources said. Troops launched a search and cordon operation early today after receiving a tip-off about the presence of militants in the Gool forest area of Udhampur. The ultras, hiding behind the bushes, fired and in the retaliatory action one militant was killed, they said. The militant has been identified as Abu Bukhi, group commander of LET, they said adding that one AK rifle, 5 magazines, 9 grenades, one radio set, one rocket, 3 IEDs and some explosive material were seized from his possession. In another incident, a group of militants entered into the house of special police officer (SPO) Mohmmad Sadiq and killed him. Troops also busted a militant hideout in the Dharmsal area of Rajouri district last evening and seized one wireless set, 5 kg of explosives, 219 rounds of AK rifle, 56 pistol rounds,5 detonators, one I-card and some religious books. SRINAGAR:
Thirteen persons, including nine militants, were killed while the security forces busted three hideouts and seized a large cache of arms and ammunition in the Kashmir valley overnight. A defence ministry spokesman said the troops, on a specific information, launched a massive search operation in the woods at Bandipora, about 55 km from here, on Saturday evening. He said when the troops were moving into deep forest, they were fired upon by the militants hiding there. Troops also retaliated and in the two-day operation, five militants were killed. Five AK rifles and other arms and ammunition were seized from the slain militants. The security forces did not suffer any casuality, he said. Meanwhile, two more militants were gunned down by the security forces at Wadwan in north Kashmir while another was killed in the central Kashmir district of Badgam last night. A large cache of arms and ammunition were seized from the slain militants. An official spokesman said militants shot at and critically wounded Ashiq Ahmad Wani, a former political activist, at Nowshera in the downtown city today. He was admitted to a hospital, where he died. The police today recovered the throat-slit body of Mohmmad Yousuf Khatana at New Theed while Noor-ud-Din was shot dead by militants at Harwan last night. He said a militant was killed in an encounter with the security forces at Sokar Dedha under the Gool police station last night. One jawan was also injured in the clash. Zahida, who was injured in a blast at Tanka Banihal yesterday, died in the hospital today. The security forces busted three militant hideouts, one each at Anantang, Baramulla and Rajouri districts and seized arms and
ammunitions, including six rifle grenades, one roll of IED wire, one kg of RDX, 10 gelatine sticks, one pistol, one UBGL, six UBGL grenades, two hand grenades, five kg of explosives, five magazines, nine detonators, one wireless set, 10 metres of cordex wire and over 400 rounds.
— PTI/UNI |
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Cong launches campaign, criticises daughters’ Bill Jammu, March 2 Mr Amrit Malhotra, MLC and vice-president of the PCC, today asked Ms Mehbooba Mufti not to widen
differences between the two parties by raising irrelevant and extraneous issues. Mr Malhotra took exception to a TV interview of Ms Mufti in which she had reportedly said that the Congress had disowned Article 370, providing special status to J&K by not supporting the Bill in the legislative council. He pointed out that the original law pertaining to the state subject rights did not provide for gender discrimination. The controversial Bill prepared now was violative of the fundamental rights. The Congress was willing to discuss the differences regarding the Bill with its coalition partners, he added. Political observers feel that Mufti was purposely allowing the controversy to grow as this would help the PDP in the Kashmir valley where the situation was quite opposite with women coming out in favour of the Bill. But his silence has created differences between him and the Congress. Those close to the Mufti claim that he does not foresee any threat to his government as he was in a win-win position even if the BJP-led NDA government returns to power at the Centre or the Congress somehow manages to capture power. They argue that the Congress was not in a position to withdraw support to the Mufti-led coalition government and on the other hand, Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Deputy Prime
Minister, Mr L.K. Advani, have been generous towards him. The Mufti has reportedly adopted a wait and watch policy by not taking any action against Mr Bhim Singh, chairman of the Panthers Party, who despite being a partner of the coalition, was publicly campaigning against the local leadership of the Congress and the PDP himself. Meanwhile, Dr Nirmal Singh, BJP president and the candidate for the Jammu Lok Sabha seat, while campaigning in Rajouri and Poonch districts today urged the people to launch an agitation against the Bill that was gender discriminatory. He accused the PDP-Congress-Panthers Party coalition government of ignoring the border districts of Rajouri and Poonch where no development work had been taken up. |
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Women outnumber men voters in border segments Jammu, March 22 This phenomenon has been witnessed in the constituencies that were situated on the border with Pakistan or were militancy prone. In the two segments of the Baramula Lok Sabha constituency in the Kashmir Valley the difference between men and women voters is very less. The Kargil segment of the Ladakh constituency, that has constantly been targeted by Pakistan and where Operation Vijay was conducted by the Indian Army to flush out Pakistan army infiltrators, has registered an increase of 4593 women voters over the number of men voters. The Zanskar segment in the same district has 5939 more women voters than men. Gool-Arnas, which is considered as a hotbed of terrorists in the Udhampur constituency has also registered 1984 more women voters than men. The fair sex dominates the
electorate scene in the Suchetgarh and Chhamb segments that are situated near the Indo-Pakistan border. This is being attributed to menfolk serving outside. A large number of men of these areas are serving the security forces. The Nubra segment on the foothills of the world’s highest war field of Siachen glacier has just 92 men voters more than women. Same is the position in the Karnah and Gurez segments of the Baramula constituency where the strength of men voters is just 106 and 671 more women, respectively. However, in the 87 Assembly segments that constitute the six Lok Sabha seats, the total strength of electorate is 63,77,282. Of this, 29,05,107 are women. This time there has been an increase of 13,46,794 voters over the number of 50,30,488 in the last Lok Sabha elections in 1999. |
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RSS team to garner support for BJP Jammu, March 22 The team would meet the JSM leaders here and at Udhampur in a bid to make them campaign for the BJP nominees. The JSM, set up by the RSS in the last Assembly elections, had played spoilsport for the BJP by splitting its vote bank. The JSM, that demanded the creation of Jammu as a separate state, had put up candidates against the BJP in several constituencies. However, the RSS realised its mistake when the BJP managed to win only one seat in the Assembly of 87. Its senior leaders, during the first phase of discussions with the JSM recently, had managed to persuade them not to repeat history by contesting the election separately. But now the senior RSS leaders were reportedly coming here to persuade them to join the campaign in favour of the BJP candidates, Mr Chaman Lal Gupta, Minister of State for Defence from Udhampur and Dr Nirmal Singh, president of the state unit of the BJP from Jammu. The JSM has reportedly shelved its demand for the separation of Jammu from Kashmir on the advice of the RSS. |
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Break ties with PDP, morcha asks Cong Jammu, March 22 In a statement here today, Prof Virender Gupta, President of the JMM, said the Congress should ask the Governor to dismiss the Mufti-led government that was trying to vitiate the atmosphere before the Lok Sabha elections by raising the controversial issue. He said the Congress could prevent the erosion of its credibility in the Jammu region only by breaking its ties with the PDP. Professor Gupta said the state subject clause discriminated against women. While the state government had passed the Resettlement Bill providing state subject rights to those who migrated to Pakistan between 1947 and 1954, it was denying these rights to women who married elsewhere in India. Moreover, the refugees who came here from Pakistan during Partition in 1947 had also not been granted state subject rights by the government. |
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