Srinagar, May 19
The Jammu and Kashmir High Court today directed the CBI, which is investigating the sex scandal case, to conduct an identification parade of the persons named by the alleged kingpin of the racket and a minor girl who was part of it.

A Division Bench of the court, comprising Justice Hakim Imtiyaz Hussain and Justice Bashir Ahmad Kirmani, directed the CBI to conduct the parade of persons named by the kingpin, Sabina, and the girl in their statements before the agency.

Once the identity of the persons is established, necessary action should be initiated against them, the Bench said adding that the Director General of Police should provide all assistance to the CBI in this regard.

The court also directed that any person arrested in the case by the CBI after the identification parade should not be bailed out by the subordinate courts without bringing it to the notice of the Division Bench.

Although the Bench had asked the CBI to complete the identification parade by Tuesday, when the case would come up for hearing again, it conceded to the plea of Assistant Solicitor General Shabir Naik that time was not enough to carry out the process.

The court said instead the CBI should file a report on Tuesday stating how much progress they had made on the orders of the Bench.

As names of some guest houses and hotels have figured in the statements of the women, the court asked the CBI to probe the management of these business establishments.

The Bench also issued notices for cancellation of bails of the persons accused in the case. Two persons, Riyaz Ahmad Langoo and Naseer Ahmad, were released by a local court on bail in the month of March. — PTI

Srinagar, May 19
Beacon, the oldest project of the Border Roads Organisation (BRO), raised on May 18, 1960, celebrated its forty-sixth raising day here yesterday.

During its long inning, the project Beacon has actively taken part in the road infrastructure development in the most difficult terrain of the state. It has developed over 2,570 km of roads in the state in inaccessible areas and contributed towards its socio-economic growth, besides integrating the people. Beacon is presently maintaining about 1,650 km of roads in the state, besides maintaining the operational readiness of Srinagar and Awantipur airfields and upgrading 495 km of existing roads to national highways.

Its major landmarks include the construction of major road links such as Sonamarg-Kargil-Leh, connecting Ladakh division with the rest of the country by road. Apart from development works during peacetime, it has also participated actively during 1965 and 1971 operations, Operation Vijay and Parakrum.

In its endeavour to look after roads in Jammu and Kashmir, two more projects, Sampark for Jammu division and Himank in Ladakh division, have been raised during the past 46 years. Having been raised under the leadership of Brigadier (later Major-General) B.P. Wadhera, it was entrusted with a large network of roads and other works in entire Jammu & Kashmir. Later in 1975, project Sampark was raised at Jammu to handle roads in and around Jammu, while the project Himank was carved out of the project Beacon and was located at Leh to take care of roads in Leh and Ladakh regions in 1985.

The project, presently being commanded by Brig S.S. Dasaka since December 2004, braved the situation arising out of unprecedented snowfall early last year. The Srinagar-Jammu National Highway, which is lifeline to the valley, was opened in a record time against grave odds for which the project won laurels and appreciation from different quarters. Similarly, the project proved its mettle once again in March-April 2005 by constructing the Uri- Salamabad-Kaman Post road in a record time of 11 working days against many challenges. After the October 8 earthquake last year that heavily damaged the Uri-Kamaan road Beacon took the challenge and reopened the link in a record time, even as it had lost its 66 men at work.

The dedication and devotion of the gallant men of the project is continuously being recognised and the awards bestowed on its personnel include two Ashoka Chakras, four Kirti Chakras, five Ati Vishisht Seva Medals, 44 Shaurya Chakras, seven Sena Medals, 19 Vishisht Seva Medals, one Uttam Jeevan Raksha Padaks, three Jeevan Raksha Padaks, two Mention-in-Despatches, 103 Government Commendatory Certificates, 116 Chief of the Army Staff Commendation Cards, 22 Vice-Chief of the Army Staff Commendation Cards, eight GOC-in-C Commendation Cards, 175 DGBR Commendation Cards. A total of 511 awards have been bestowed since the raising of Project Beacon, including 37 awards in year 2005 and 49 awards in the year 2006.

Jammu, May 19
Having faced repeated terrorist attacks, about 100 residents of Kulhand village in Doda district today staged a dharna outside the office of the Divisional Commissioner here, demanding deployment of Army in the far-flung areas where the ultras were ruling the roost.

These residents had been sitting on dharna at the district headquarter of Doda following the massacre of 19 Hindus but they have shifted here following two grenade attacks that were made on them, killing two persons and injuring about 60.

They raised slogans against the government which, they alleged, had failed to protect the lives of the Hindus who were in minority in the area.

They were also demanding that the village defence committees (VDCs) should be strengthened by providing sophisticated arms and ammunition to them. The VDCs have been given the obsolete .303 rifles.

Earlier, the state BJP chief, Prof Nirmal Singh, and a former Union minister, Prof Chaman Lal Gupta, led the procession of the migrants from Geeta Bhavan to the Divisional Commissioner’s office. They said the BJP would launch a countrywide “save Doda” agitation.