Jammu, February 25
Stray incidents of violence marked complete bandh in Jammu today on a call given by the Bar Association, whose members had been on strike for the past 10 days.

Activists supporting the bandh call pelted scores of buses and cars with stones in the city. The police said that nobody was wounded. The agitators burnt rubber tyres and raised road blocks. However, a skeleton matador and bus services operated in some areas but there was a complete shutdown in the interior of the city.

Most of the business establishments remained closed paralysing normal life.

The call for the bandh was supported by all main Opposition parties, including the BJP and the National Conference. The members of the Bar Association had given the call for Jammu bandh in protest against “inordinate delay” on the part of the government in constructing a lawyers’ chamber within the premises of high and lower courts.

They said that the government had “ignored our genuine demand and remained unmoved by the total collapse of work in the courts for the past 10 days.”

Later the agitating lawyers took out a procession from the court premises and marched to the Civil Secretariat. A few metres away from the secretariat the demonstrators were stopped by the police.

The lawyers tried to register their protest but they were not allowed to break the police barrier.

The Deputy Chief Minister, Mr Mangat Ram Sharma, described the lawyers’ strike as “illegal”. He told newsmen here today that the government had earmarked Rs 1 crore for the project, which was estimated to cost Rs 6 crore. He said during his meetings with the members of the Bar Association he had assured them that the work would start from April, but the lawyers refused to end their strike.

Mr Sharma said that he had donated Rs 15 lakh and a Congress MP, Mr Madan Lal Sharma, had kept Rs 25 lakh from the constituency fund for the project. He said that the government had decided to set up lawyers’ chambers not only on the high court premises but also in the lower courts at the district headquarters.

The president of the Bar Association, Mr Sunil Sethi, held the state government responsible for the situation.

Srinagar, February 25
It was close to the opening tube of Jawahar Tunnel on north portal, where Gowhar Wani, correspondent for the ANI here was rescued from an avalanche after about 45 minutes of quick action by labourers last week. “Was it a dream or something else?” he fails to understand as he recalls the harrowing experience, striving to get a breathing space and remembering his mother.

Wani, accompanied by his cameraman, Rauf Ahmad, had left for the coverage of the highway blockade on Friday. Rauf Ahmad and other security officials had a narrow escape from the avalanche. Six other Beacon personnel, who were buried under the snow, however, are yet to be recovered. Only two mediapersons were among 315 persons inside the 2.57 km-long Jawahar Tunnel for over 74 hours, only to have reached home here on Tuesday evening.

“This was a harsh experience…. at the same time I experienced how troops work under hostile circumstances,” he said. Gowhar’s face is red with icy winds. He has undergone medical examination and has been advised repeated check-ups for the next few days. He feels breathing and stomach problems, besides compression of ribs.

It all started around 1 p.m. on February 18 when he was recording an interview with an officer of the Beacon, looking after the road. “When the interview was going on, a cracking sound horrified all of us,” he recalls, adding that the interview was stopped to “get shots of the snow from that side not knowing that it was so dangerous”. The driver of the Beacon officer said it was too risky to stay on in the open, and everybody ran towards the tunnel to take refuge, he recalled. “The officer was about 3 m ahead of me followed by my cameraman, who took visuals…many people around cried loud, others ran for safety towards the tunnel…so did I,” he recalls. “I was trapped and surrounded by snow only.... I tried to get a breathing space, which continued for about five minutes. I felt breathless, but regained consciousness after some time. I left it to the God and was reminded of my mother.” “Then I do not know anything,” he said. After 45 minutes he had been rescued, as revealed to him by those around only to “see a number of people, mostly labourers with spades, over me as my body was still in deep snow”. “All others, the Beacon officer, his driver, my colleague and others with us were safe, but six Beacon persons who had been buried under the snow are yet to be recovered,” he said.

About 50 persons from the nearby Verinag area, deep below the tunnel, had ventured on Monday towards the tunnel, looking for their relatives and labourers working with the Beacon. By that time, weather had also improved and the presence of the villagers helped those trapped to move out, Gowhar recalls.

It had taken the villagers more than four hours to find a track to the tunnel. During the time all those trapped in the tunnel were eagerly looking for the weather to improve.

There were again warnings from the Snow Avalanche Study Establishment (SASE) that kept “us from venturing out”, he said. After this horrifying experience of 74 hours, they had to walk down to the nearby village for night stay. Carrying some equipment, the two mediapersons walked down over 15 km to Qazigund on Tuesday to get a vehicle for Srinagar.