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Sonia to name candidates
Doors open for Cong, says Omar Abdullah
Involve Salahuddin in talks: Mehbooba
Mufti preparing for Pak visit
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Japanese team visits terrorism-hit areas
Girl dies of scorpion bite
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Sonia to name candidates
Jammu, September 20 Mr Ghulam Nabi Azad, Union Minister, presided over the meeting as Ms Ambika Soni, who is general secretary in charge of J&K in the AICC, did not come. The issue of selecting candidates for the two seats of the local bodies constituencies in Legislative Council was deliberated at length and finally Ms Sonia Gandhi was authorised to choose party nominees. However, a section of the partymen suggested that no one who had lost the previous Assembly election should be given ticket. They termed certain leaders as “turncoats” who had always gone with the party that was in power in the state. They stressed that men with clean image should be given ticket as the election for the constituency of local bodies was being held after 30 years. Later, talking to reporters Mr Azad said that so far there was no change in the agreement that provided that the Congress party would head the government in the state by replacing the PDP. To a question whether the Chief Minister would be from the Jammu region or the Kashmir valley in case the Congress came to power, Mr Azad said that the state was one and certain vested interests were trying to make an issue out of it. Replying to questions about the talks between India the Pakistan to solve the Kashmir problem, Mr Azad said that Pakistan should take steps to check cross border terrorism. He said that the Centre should also talk to the elected representatives of the state and other sections of the society to find a lasting solution. |
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Doors open for Cong, says Omar Abdullah
Jammu, September 20 Mr Abdullah, who was talking to mediapersons after addressing a function that was organised by Guru Ravi Dass Sabha, confirmed that he had met Ms Sonia Gandhi and Mr Rahul Gandhi at Delhi recently when he discussed the current situation in the state. He refused to disclose further details of the meetings. When asked whether the NC would accept the offer of forming a government with the Congress if such a situation arose, Mr Abdullah said: “We will consider the issue at the appropriate time, but our doors are open for the Congress.” Referring to the recent meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Pervez Musharraf at New York, Mr Abdullah said that the meeting and the speech of the Pakistan president in the UN indicated that he was under tremendous pressure in his own country. He said that the general feeling in Pakistan was that India had gained from the talks. He said that neither Gen Musharraf and nor the
Hurriyat has any control over the terrorists. He said that the elected representatives of the state should also be taken into confidence by the Centre in the peace talks. Commenting on the suggestion of Ms Mehbooba Mufti that the Centre should also talk to the militant outfit of Hizbul Mujaheedin, Mr Abdullah asked who were the leaders of the outfit. |
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Involve Salahuddin in talks: Mehbooba
Jammu, September 20 Ms Mehbooba has said, in an interview to a TV news channel, that the mainstream political leaders of the state, including Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, NC president, Omar Abdullah and the PDP chief should also be invited for talks. The involvement of Syed Salahuddin in the parleys was necessary because he was a force to reckon with, she added. However, Syed Salahuddin has laid conditions for his involvement in the talks. He has said that first of all the Indian troops be withdrawn from within the valley in order to establish the position that existed prior to 1989, when militancy took its roots in the state. He also demanded that all those detained under the draconian laws be released and India declared that Kashmir was a disputed territory. Then “we can think of accepting the invitation for talks.” Salahauddin said that discussion on making the borders soft alone would not result in the settlement of the Kashmir issue. He said India neither exhibited flexibility nor sincerity, which was evident by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh declaring that borders “cannot be redrawn.” The Hizb
supremo said that the talks needed to be broadbased so that peoples’ representatives from “Azad” Kashmir, Gilgit, Baltistan, Jammu and Ladakh were also involved. He is highly pessimistic about the ongoing talks saying that these parleys will not lead anyone anywhere unless the dialogue is confined to a discussion on the implementation of the UN resolution on Kashmir. He said that the basic cause of the turmoil in Kashmir had been the denial of an opportunity to people to exercise their right of self-determination. The Jehad Council chief was equally critical of the Government of India and Pakistan for
involving APHC leaders in the dialogue. He said “Since the APHC lacked representative character nothing will emerge from talks with them.” On the other hand Mr Omar Abdullah said that neither the APHC leaders nor Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf had control over the militants operating in Jammu and Kashmir. He told mediamen in Jammu that Syed Salahuddin was not himself prepared for talks and he did not know what Ms
Mehbooba wanted to achieve by favouring Salahuddin’s involvement in the dialogue. Mr Abdullah said that when Dr
Farooq Abdullah was the Chief Minister he had cultivated five Hizbul Mujahideen commanders for entering into a dialogue with the government. He alleged that all these commanders were killed soon after Mufti Sayeed took over as the state’s Chief Minister. The NC president said during the past three years several commanders of Hizbul Mujahideen had been eliminated and it was intriguing that Ms Mehbooba, who heads the ruling PDP, was pleading for talks with Syed Salahuddin. |
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Mufti preparing for Pak visit
Jammu, September 20 The delegation headed by Mr Sayeed will include Deputy Chief Minister Mangat Ram Sharma, state Finance and Planning Minister Muzzaffar Hussain Beig and Education Minister Harshdev Singh as members of the delegation, official sources said. Although the Chief Minister has denied receiving any invitation from Islamabad, despite media report about Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf inviting him for talks next month, official sources said the visit was definitely on the cards. “It has been signalled to Mr Sayeed by the Ministry of External Affairs that the Jammu and Kashmir leadership will be invited by the Pakistani Government,” the sources said. A visit by a separate delegation of mainstream political parties comprising People’s Democratic Party (PDP) chief Mehbooba Mufti, National Conference president Omar Abdullah, Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) secretary Mohammad Yusuf Tarigami and others, is also in the offing. Both Ms Mehbooba Mufti and Mr Omar Abdullah are believed to be keen on visiting Pakistan and meeting General Musharraf. However, the proposed invite to mainstream leaders of Kashmir has upset hardline separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani. He has told his public meetings in Doda district that this was a “yet another proof of Pakistan’s shifting stand on Kashmir”.
— IANS |
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Japanese team visits terrorism-hit areas
Jammu, September 20 Gen Massaki also visited the Udhampur-based headquarters of the Northern Command where he interacted with Lieut-Gen Deepak Kapoor, GOC-in-C. Gen Massaki, who was accompanied by a Japanese delegation, flew over the Line of Control (LoC) between India and Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) from where trained terrorists infiltrate into the Indian territory. |
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Girl dies of scorpion bite
Jammu, September 20 The child was asleep at her home in the border town of Nowshera in Rajouri district when a scorpion bit her. The girl was rushed to a nearby hospital where doctors declared her “brought dead”.
— PTI |
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