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Amarnath Land Row
Reconsider decision on Vohra, plead Cong leaders
Vohra appoints advisers
BJP deplores Army presence in Jammu
Land row: BJP blames Centre
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Voters’ mood against mainstream parties
People allege police atrocities
Kashmiri leaders are
Blast at Srinagar airport
averted
Valley remains shut, clashes continue
CRPF personnel stand guard to prevent any untoward incident in Srinagar on Thursday. — Tribune photo by Mohd Amin War
Petrol pumps go dry
Geelani still under house arrest
Malik admitted to hospital
JKLF chief Yaseen Malik being taken to the hospital in Srinagar on Thursday. — A Tribune photograph
Attack on newspaper office condemned
Curfew relaxed in Rajouri
Agnivesh meets Mirwaiz
Parties express concern over Jammu situation
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Amarnath Land Row
Jammu, August 7 Addressing a press conference here today, samiti convener Leela Karan Sharma said: “The Centre did not feel the need to extend an invitation to the samiti. It was nothing but a plot to divert people’s attention from Jammu so that Kashmir-centric parties could raise a hue and cry over the issue. A number of parties invited in the meeting were not even aware of the matter”. On the dialogue, Sharma said: “We will welcome representatives of the government if they come to us with a concrete proposal to break the deadlock”. However, sticking to the samiti’s one-point agenda, he said: “Land is the core issue and we will not make any compromise on it”. Sharma lashed out at Kashmiri leaders who were accusing the protesters in Jammu of resorting to economic blockade of the valley. He said Jammu faced shortage of essential commodities due to the bandh call given by the samiti. Sharma also countered the allegations of the land row agitation taking a communal turn in Jammu. He said contrary to statements of some separatist leaders’ that Muslims were being attacked in Jammu, members of the Muslim community were united with Hindus in their struggle for the land. Sharma said the samiti would again meet tomorrow to decide their future course of action. The samiti has also clarified that though the Amarnath yatra would end on August 16, the agitation will continue till land was restored to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board. |
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Reconsider decision on Vohra, plead Cong leaders
Jammu, August 7 Addressing mediapersons here today, sitting party MLC R.S. Chib and former MLAs - Raman Bhalla, Sham Sharma, Yogesh Sawhney, Suman Lata Bhagat and Dr Manohar Lal, said: “Keeping in view the frayed tempers of people and in the interest of peace, we again request the UPA government to reconsider recalling N.N. Vohra from the Governor’s office”. “We are not against the Governor. He is a learned man but considering the volatile situation in Jammu and people’s brewing anger against him, we request the Union government to ponder over its decision”, they said. During the all-party meet convened by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh yesterday at New Delhi, Mukherjee had ruled out the possibilities of recalling Vohra. The former Congress legislators said: “There is nothing wrong in shifting the present incumbent to any other state. His services can be utilised elsewhere and there is no big deal considering the situation across Jammu”. It may be recalled that Congress MPs - Dr Karan Singh, Lal Singh and Madan Lal Sharma had requested the Prime Minister to recall Vohra as they felt the move would help restore peace across Jammu. The Congress leaders, however, welcomed the decision of sending an all-party delegation to the state to review the situation. “The move would certainly help ease the situation because the delegation would meet with people having different opinion”, they said. The Congress leaders said: “We strongly feel that the land in question should be restored to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) forthwith and we stand by the demand of the Amarnath Yatra Sangharsh Samiti”. The Congress leaders lashed out at Mehbooba Mufti, Sajjad Lone and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, who they claimed “were not only instigating people but also widening the gap by their inflammatory statements”. They also described the “economic blockade” of the valley as a malicious propaganda of these Kashmiri leaders. |
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Vohra appoints advisers
Srinagar, August 7 Earlier, the Governor had deferred the move for the elections to the state Assembly due to be held within the next few months. The advisers are expected to assume responsibility shortly, a Raj Bhavan spokesman said here today. Those appointed include
H.H. Tyabji, S.S. Bloeria and C. Phunsog. All three are retired IAS officers of the Jammu and Kashmir state cadre and have served as chief secretaries to the state government. They have also held other important assignments in the state and Central governments. Former chief secretary, S.S.
Bloeria, who is one of the appointed advisers, was nominated among four members of the committee to hold talks with the Amarnath Yatra Sangharsh Samiti to defuse
the situation. |
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BJP deplores Army presence in Jammu
Jammu, August 7 While paying tributes to Narinder Sharma in Kathua who died yesterday by Army firing at Palli Morh, Gupta said: “Just to appease the elements of disintegration, separatism and fundamentalism, the men in authority led by the Congress at New Delhi are employing all sorts of forces, including the Army to crush the movement of the people against non-secular and communal approach adopted by some leaders of the NC and the PDP”. He said the Army was meant to defend the borders and fight forces inimical to the integrity of the country, but, “It was highly deplorable that in Jammu, the Army was being used to kill the people”. Gupta said the present situation in Jammu was the worst type of undeclared emergency. |
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Land row: BJP blames Centre
Jammu, August 7 Addressing a press conference, state BJP vice-president Prof Hari Om said, “We have already made it clear that it was the Union government and its representative in the state, Governor N.N. Vohra, who created a serious controversy over the land transfer issue. Now they need to resolve the issue to the satisfaction of the samiti, spearheading the mass movement for the last 35 days.” He said BJP president Rajnath Singh and general secretary Arun Jaitley took the similar stand during the all-party meet held at the Prime Minister's official residence in New Delhi yesterday. “Rajnath Singh told Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the representatives of political parties that if they genuinely want to restore peace in the Jammu province, they should open dialogue with the samiti; re-divert the 800 kanals of land at Baltal to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board and to recall Governor N.N. Vohra immediately.” He said the BJP president made it clear that this was the only way the authorities could give a healing touch to the alienated people of Jammu. He informed that Jaitely told in the meeting that if the Kashmir valley was sensitive to its psyche, Jammu too had a psyche and it had to be respected. “The Jammu psyche, Jaitley said, has now asserted and no one should ignore it,” Hari Om said. He said the BJP raised the issue that the authorities have “alienated the nationalists in Jammu to give a boost to the separatist psyche in Kashmir.” |
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Voters’ mood against mainstream parties
Jammu, August 7 People here strongly believe that in lust of power, these parties, with an eye on the coming elections, pushed the state of Jammu and Kashmir into present turmoil. “Undoubtedly the PDP is in trouble. After remaining a party to the state Cabinet order, wherein the land was diverted in favour of the Amarnath Shrine Board, it raked up the issue stirring sentiments of the people in Kashmir valley and then pulled out of the alliance,” Mohammed Qureshi, a Bhatindi resident, said. Taking people of Kashmir valley for granted, the PDP, which had no issue in hand to go into the next elections, thought it to be an apt plank to create a sympathy wave, he added. However, things went haywire when Kashmiris trained their guns on the PDP, because two of its ministers Muzaffar Hussain Beig and Qazi Mohammed Afzal were in the Cabinet meeting that had passed the order, he said. Jagan Nath Tickoo, a retired government official in Talab Tilloo, said, “If the PDP raked up the controversy triggering protest demonstrations in the valley, then the Congress, too, can not escape the responsibility of hurting sentiments of Hindu community.” After the PDP pulled out of Ghulam Nabi Azad’s coalition government, the latter immediately rescinded the Cabinet order without thinking about its serious ramifications, he added. He also questioned veracity of cancelling the order saying that being a minority government, which had to prove its majority on the floor of the House, had no powers to cancel the Cabinet order. A banker, Sarbjeet Kour, while describing these parties as birds of the same flock said the NC also added fuel to the fire when Omar Abdullah delivered his speech during the UPA government’s trust vote on July 22. |
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People allege police atrocities
Jammu, August 7 After the Army was called out to hold flag marches in the area, policemen could be seen taking refuge behind them, to escape the people’s wrath. At several occasions, security personnel deployed to control the angryprotesters, not only went "berserk" and entered people’s houses and "ransacked" them, but also damaged the windowpanes and vehicles. "The police is expected to maintain law and order, but they have committed atrocities on the people of Jammu. They resorted to cane-charge and used tear gas shells to disperse peaceful gatherings", Dinesh Kumar, a local resident, said. Dinesh said: "They themselves are responsible for the animosity that brews among people against the police". On many occasions, the otherwise peaceful agitation took a violent shape after the presence of police reportedly infuriated the people. The people blame the police for "committing atrocities" on them in order to crush their voice. "They (police) resorted to use of brutal force to crush our voice. They even entered our houses and thrashed the inmates who had nothing to do with the protest", Meenu Devi, a resident of Muthi locality of Jammu, said. People's anger against the police force is so widespread that police posts and police vehicles are regularly being targeted by agitating mobs. Two days ago, angry protesters set ablaze a police post in Jaurian village and thrashed two policemen. Meanwhile, a senior police officer said: "The police in Jammu was performing its duty to maintain law and order in the region. The police uses force whenever the situation demands, but people who defy the orders, don't like the presence of police around them", the officer said. |
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Kashmiri leaders are ‘communal’
Jammu, August 7 In a statement released here, the JSF leaders said, “It is interesting that people like Farooq Abdullah, Mehbooba Mufti and M.Y.Tarigami, who are fanning communalism and misleading the people in Kashmir, are appealing the people of Jammu for maintaining communal harmony and brotherhood. They asked why these leaders did not make such appeals to the people in Kashmir. Jammu was known for its secular traditions and that was why the Muslims here were extending their support to the land row agitation led by the Amarnath Yatra Sangharsh Samiti, they said. Lashing out at the Centre, the JSF alleged the Congress-led UPA government had turned a blind eye to the genuine demands of the people of Jammu, while it was worried about restoring supplies of essential commodities to the valley. “On one hand, the Centre has handed over the Jammu-Kashmir National Highway to the Army to ensure smooth supplies of goods to Kashmir and on the other, the people here are facing acute shortage of ration,LPG etc due to imposition of curfew and deployment of the Army ,” the leaders said. The JSF also flayed the brutal killing of two persons in the Samba police firing, adding that the sacrifices of the people would not go waste. |
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Blast at Srinagar airport averted
Srinagar, August 7 Official sources said a sentry of 83 Battalion of the CRPF saw a man moving around in the wee hours who managed to flee when the sentry questioned him. However, his movement raised suspicion and troops of the battalion came out to search the area for any possible explosive. They detected the powerful IED, which was enough to blast away a major part of the CRPF camp nearby and could be detonated to target VIP vehicles that use the road on their way to the airport. It was disabled later. "It was a very strong IED. It had as many as 17 detonators to cause the maximum impact," CRPF spokesman Prabhakar Tripathi told The Tribune. Militants had connected it to a mobile and all they had to do was to dial a code to detonate it. The bomb had combination of ammonium nitrate, which has emerged as an explosive of choice for terror outfits as it is more easily available than substances like RDX, urea and petrol. Official sources said they were not sure about the outfit which planted it. However, fresh intelligence inputs about LeT that it was in an overdrive to target important mainstream leaders to derail the electoral process has put the security forces on the alert. The recovery of the IED on the airport road has only added to their concern.
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Valley remains shut, clashes continue
Srinagar, August 7 Protesters clashed with police and CRPF personnel at several places and they had to burst tear gas shells to quell the mob. Mourning was observed on the fourth day, a traditional custom among Muslims, of the death of Asif, a teenager from Maisuma, who was killed after being hit by a tear gas shell. The mourning procession to his grave only surcharged the atmosphere and youths clashed with the police, prompting the latter to burst many tear gas shells. Violence was also witnessed in Anantnag as protesters chased the police and damaged a vehicle before the police dispersed them with tear gas shells. Though there was no strike call for today, the bandh in the valley has come as a reminder to its June agitation against the transfer of land to the Amarnath Shrine Board when spontaneous strikes started the nine-day-long protests, which left six persons killed. "We are going to witness another long spell of strikes and protests in Kashmir till things do not improve in Jammu. As agitators in Jammu are keeping the pressure on the government to revoke their earlier decision on land transfer, people here will be doing the same thing to warn the government that they should not factor in only Jammu sentiments while taking any decision," Asif Qureshi, a shopkeeper, said. UNI adds: Official sources said thousands of people took to the streets at Khanabal and blocked the Srinagar-Jammu national highway. Raising slogans against the communal forces for attacking Muslims and Kashmir drivers and businessmen in Jammu, the processionists alleged that the government had failed to control the situtation. When they refused to allow normal traffic on the highway, the police resorted to a lathi charge and later fired tear gas shells to disperse them. The police later fired several rounds in the air, the sources said. Reports of stonepelting on passing vehicles were also received from different parts of the city and the north Kashmir district of Baramulla. |
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Petrol pumps go dry
Srinagar, August 7 Almost all petrol pumps were closed with “no stock” board in the city and outskirts. However, an attendant at a petrol pump at Dalgate said only diesel was available. Two petrol pumps, which otherwise remain busy throughout the day, at the Moulana Azad road were also closed because of no stock. People also complained of shortage of essential commodities. However, authorities claimed that hundreds of trucks loaded with essential commodities and petroleum products had arrived here. They claimed that there was no shortage of petrol, diesel and essential commodities in the valley. —
UNI |
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Geelani still under house arrest
Srinagar, August 7 However, a spokesman of the Hurriyat Conference Aiyaz Akbar told UNI that Geelani had not been allowed to move out of his house since the evening of August 4. Barring a few hours on August 5, when he visited the Maisuma residence of a youth who was killed in police action on August 4, the Hurriyat Chairman had remained under house arrest, Akbar added. — UNI
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Malik admitted to hospital
Srinagar, August 7 He began the hunger strike in protest against alleged attacks on Muslims in Jammu and the economic blockade of the Kashmir valley. The JKLF chief, who already suffers from heart and kidney ailments, was shifted after being examined by the doctors at the site in Maisuma in central Budshah Chowk area, where he was holding fast, this morning. His has been kept in the ICU, where his condition is stated to be serious but responding to the treatment. Dr Ghulam Qadir Allaqband, who examined Mr Malik again this morning, declared his condition very critical. Later, supporters of Mr Malik took to streets and raised slogans against government and '' communal parties'' of Jammu. Raising pro freedom slogans, the processionists marched through different streets before dispersing peacefully. Last night Dr Allaqband and Dr Zafar Mehdi who examined Mr Malik said his blood pressure has also come down to 90 by 60. Dr Allaqband and Dr Mehdi said if Mr Malik refused to end his fast, the government should immediately intervene and arrest him before it is too late. Accompanied by JKLF colleagues, Malik was being visited by a number of separatist leaders and people from different walks of life, a JKLF spokesman said here this evening. |
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Attack on newspaper office condemned
Srinagar, August 7 The mediapersons representing local, national and international organisations described it as an attack on the freedom of press. They, however, said such attacks would not deter them from performing their professional duties. They also demanded a thorough probe so that the culprits were brought to book and punished. An official of the Greater Kashmir said some armed people attacked the newspaper’s Jammu office at around 12 am. He said one of them also opened fire. However, all the officials escaped unhurt in the attack. Meanwhile, almost all leading and other small newspapers were facing an acute shortage of newsprint. Official sources said trucks carrying newsprint had been stranded at different
places in Jammu and Punjab for the past several days. — UNI |
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Curfew relaxed in Rajouri
Rajouri, August 7 The administration here had imposed an indefinite curfew on Saturday last after members of a particular community lodged violent protests against the alleged attack on their community members by activists of the Bajrang Dal and the BJP. Sources in the district administration said, following the leaders of two communities pledging their support to bring peace in the town, the administration decided to relax curfew in a phased manner. Meanwhile, sources further averred that the curfew passed peacefully in various localities of the town and not a single incident of violence was reported. The curfew was relaxed in Jawahar Nagar area from 4 pm to 5 pm, old town area from 5 pm to 6pm and civil line areas, including Gujjar Mandi and DC colony from 6pm to 7pm, they added. Sources further said following no incident of violence from anywhere in the town, the administration may increase the duration of curfew relaxation tomorrow. The administration has made adequate security arrangements and the Army, police and the CRPF have been deployed in large numbers. |
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Agnivesh meets Mirwaiz
Srinagar, August 7 He also met hardline APHC chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani yesterday and chairman of the JKLF, Mohammad Yasin Malik. Yasin, who was on an indefinite fast, was shifted to a hospital today. During his meeting with Mirwaiz Umar, Swami Agnivesh expressed concern over the communal situation in Jammu and in adjoining areas, an APHC spokesman said. The spokesman said Swami Agnivesh stressed upon the need for joint efforts to work out a viable solution to the present crisis. He said solution to the Kashmir issue was necessary for maintaining peace in the region. Swami Agnivesh also assured that he would try to remove the wrong notions being nurtured in Jammu about Muslims and Kashmiris. |
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Parties express concern over Jammu situation
Srinagar, August 7 PDP leaders, including Peer Mohammad Hussain and Rafi Ahmad Mir in a joint statement have said that venomous fervor of communal forces in Jammu was not tolerable and that the continuous assault on Muslims there was highly condemnable. They expressed solidarity with the fruit growers and traders of the valley and said that the fruit growers and businessmen were losing crores of rupees everyday and demanded adequate compensation for the losses. Secretary of the state CPM M.Y.Tarigami describing the present situation in the state as highly critical appealed to the people to remain calm and uphold their age-old traditions of tolerance and brotherhood. Condemning the unprovoked attacks and assaults on Kashmiri drivers, minorities of Jammu and the economic blockade of Kashmir, Tarigami asked the government to ensure safety and security of the national highway. He appealed to the Punjab Chief minister to look into the complaints of harassment and looting of Kashmiri truckers and punish the guilty. He said fresh fruits worth crores were rotting for want of safe transportation to outside markets. |
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Srinagar, August 7
Srinagar, August 7
