Srinagar, February 3
At least 30 persons, including 13 police and CRPF men, were injured in clashes between angry protesters and the police in several parts of the city for the third consecutive day today. The police lobbed tear gas shells and fired in the air to disperse the demonstrators at various places across the city, while protests and clashes also took place in some other major towns, including Baramulla, Anantnag and Shopian, today.

These protests have been held in protest against the death of teenage boy Wamiq Farooq. The Hurriyat Conference had called for a general strike against the increasing human rights violations, paralysing normal life across the valley yesterday, while a spontaneous bandh amid protests was observed across the valley today.

Protests followed by clashes with the police and CRPF personnel took place in Nowhatta, Gojwara, Rajouri Kadal and Kawdara areas of the downtown, while shops and business establishments were closed. Traffic towards the Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS), Soura, was also disrupted due to the clashes en route. The SHO of Nowhatta police station was among those who were injured, sources here said. The police maintained that 13 policemen were injured today, including one who received head injuries. Another policeman is also undergoing treatment at the SKIMS, Soura, after he was injured in the head during the clashes yesterday.

Clashes also took place in the central Maisuma and adjacent Budshah Chowk, Hari Sigh High Street, Maharaja Bazaar and other areas also took place, which continued till late in the evening. The police lobbed tear gas shells and resorted to a lathi charge to chase away the stone throwing youths, causing damage to the passing vehicles, mainly government vehicles.

While senior APHC leaders, including Shabir Ahmad Shah and Nayeem Ahmad khan, were placed under house arrest yesterday to prevent them from attending the funeral ceremony of Wamiq at Rainawari, APHC chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq visited the house this morning. Clashes had also taken place in the area later when people gathered in the area protesting the killing of the teenager, which prompted the police to lob tear gas shells and cane charge the protesters.

Amid a complete shutdown in other major towns of the valley, clashes also took place in Anantnag and Shopian towns of south Kashmir, and Baramulla town of north Kashmir. 

Srinagar, February 3
Next time you buy the world famous Kashmiri saffron, double check it, as you might be paying a huge amount for the dyed and dried tip of corn fiber and the fiber of marigold flower, which is being sold as Kashmiri saffron.

The police has busted a racket of manufacturing and selling of fake saffron in saffron rich town of Pampore, where most of the crop is produced and exported to other parts of the country and even western countries.

The Kashmiri saffron is famous world over for its rich aroma and is used in religious rituals, manufacturing of cosmetics, and is also the costliest spice used for its rich aroma and distinctive taste in various cuisines. Saffron is also famous for its rich medicinal values in traditional and modern systems of medicine. “It is the costliest spice in the world and one gram of it is sold at Rs 300, that means Rs 3 lakh per kg,” said Abdul Aziz, a saffron grower in Pampore.

It takes 75,000 blossoms or 225,000 handpicked stigmas of the ‘saffron crocus’ to make around 500 gm of the original saffron, which makes it the world’s most expensive spice.

The saffron growers in Pampore allege that a major racket of manufacturing and selling of fake saffron has been going on in the town. Fake saffron worth crores of rupees was being manufactured and sold not only in the state, but also outside the state. It was even exported.

The material used for making fake saffron is the tip of corn fiber and the fiber of marigold flower, which is dyed. The material is dried and chopped in fine pieces and it takes the shape of saffron.

The racket was so big that the police had to book four persons under the Public Safety Act. With the supply of spurious saffron, the economy of the valley was facing huge losses, as it had resulted in a decline in the sale of original saffron and also brought a bad name to the Kashmiri produce. “After we got information from the saffron growers, we raided various places. From one place, we seized 11 kg of fake saffron and 29 kg of raw material used to manufacture fake saffron. From another place, we seized 35 kg of fake saffron,” said the police spokesman.

“So far, four people have been arrested and all of them have been booked under the PSA” he said.

Jammu, February 3
Students of various colleges of the city are demanding “open choice” or “reduction in syllabus” for the final examination due in March.

This demand was raised by members of the Jammu Joint Students Federation (JJSF) a few weeks ago. Now, college students are gradually lending their voice to the JJSF. Not only in Jammu, but also in Kathua district college students are demanding the same.

Putting forward the reason for the demand, the students said due to the late declaration of results by the university the academic session was not started in time and the syllabus was yet to be completed.

They added that their studies also suffered for over two months due to the class boycott during the agitation over the Central university issue.

“Usually part I and II classes start in August, but this year it started in July and September, respectively. The classes of part-III started in October whereas it always starts in September,” Pratap Singh Jamwal, a IInd year student of Government Gandhi Memorial (GGM), Science College, said.

Last year, students faced a similar problem due to the Amarnath land agitation and the university authorities granted permission for “open choice”, we are optimistic that this time too they would show similar attitude, Jamwal added.

Rohit Wali, part-III student of the same college, said the efficiency of the college administration could be gauged from the fact that they had completed only 50 per cent of the syllabus so far, whereas exams would be conducted after one month.

Students also alleged due to mid-session transfer of lecturers, the syllabus remained incomplete. Expressing similar views, Jyoti Choudhary, a part-I student, said,“Not only the syllabus, but also practicals are yet to be completed.” “They have not taken the second internal assessment test and have not conducted internal-practicals so far,” he added.

Srinagar, February 3
About 50 lakh educated unemployed youth of the state will be provided training till 2022 in various skill development institutes so that they could earn their livelihood, while five lakh educated unemployed youth are already registered for the purpose.

Finance Minister AR Rather announced this while inaugurating a five-day Rozgar Mela in Budgam district near here recently. Employment melas were also inaugurated in Kulgam and Ganderbal districts. These programmes are being held in all district headquarters with the involvement of different government departments to provide assistance and guidance to the educated youth to get benefit of various employment schemes. These schemes are part of the new employment policy of the government that was announced on December 5 last year.

In his address at Budgam, the Finance Minister said so far, the government had provided jobs to 20,500 through different recruitment agencies and the process would continue in future also.

Educated unemployed youth of the district would be provided training in various categories by different departments and agencies. For this purpose, different departments and agencies have set up their stalls, which include industries, handicrafts, handlooms, fisheries animal and sheep husbandry, agriculture and horticulture, besides other departments. The departments have kept printed material available in the stalls to educate people.

Asking the unemployed educated youth to consider other avenues of employment than seeking government jobs alone, Minister for Social Welfare Sakina Itoo, while inaugurating the Employment Mela at Kulgam yesterday, said the process of providing easy and hassle-free credit would be made more effective to enable them setup their own income generating units.

Over 3,000 aspirants participated in the Employment Mela that was inaugurated by the Deputy Commissioner at Ganderbal district headquarters near here yesterday, where 34 stalls by various departments and agencies have been set up for the week-long programme.

Srinagar, February 3
Of the annual allocation of Rs 79.73 crore, Rs 54.67 crore has been spent on various projects and schemes, constituting 77 per cent of the plan allocation in Baramulla district during the current financial year so far.

This information was given to Chief Minister Omar Abdullah when he chaired a review meeting of the District Development Board in Baramulla district yesterday. Appreciating the achievements of the board, the Chief Minister urged the officers to utilise funds allocated for various projects judiciously and also ensure that quality material was used for works. He asked Nabard to release the remaining 50 per cent funds earmarked for the projects at the earliest.

Minister for Education Peerzada Mohammad Sayeed, who is also the chairman of the District Development Board (DDB), other ministers and MLAs comprising the DDB, besides senior officers of the district also attended the meeting.

The Chief Minister sanctioned Rs 50 lakh as additional funds for the Water Supply Scheme, Pattan, and assured another Rs 50 lakh in April for the purpose. He also released Rs 30 lakh for the acquisition of land for Higher Secondary School, Tangmarg, and Rs 30 lakh for the construction of roads in Uri.

Omar also issued orders for releasing Rs 30 lakh for constructing an administrative block in Watrigam, Rafiabad.

Jammu, February 3
After failing to win the proxy war through terrorism, Pakistan is now funding stone throwing on security forces and agitations to create trouble in the state, especially the Kashmir valley.

As many as 1,500 CRPF jawans were injured in the stone throwing by protesters and 343 times their vehicles were damaged in the last one-and-half year. Special DGP, CRPF, NK Tripathi told mediapersons here this afternoon.

“We are giving special training to jawans to handle such protests, especially stone throwing. Besides, we are studying the nature of injuries to provide preventive and safety equipment to the jawans,” he said. Tripathi announced that the CRPF would take over the security management of the National Highway in the major portion of the Kathua-Srinagar road.

It is the first time that a senior officer has named Pakistan behind the spate of protests in the valley. Only yesterday Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had said some persons

were funding the agitations, which had suddenly increased.

“We have strong information that stone throwing was being funded by agencies from across the border. This was their new way to spread terror and shut down the valley, but the CRPF is fully geared up to take up the challenge,” the DGP said, stressing this was the main challenge before the security forces this year.

“Several companies of the CRPF were getting specialised training in Jalandhar and Amritsar to provide internal security in the state as well against such agitations,” he said. GOC-in-C, Northern Command, Lt-Gen PK Jaiswal had in a media briefing last November classified the stone-throwing incidents as “agitational terrorism”. Tripathi said he won’t go into using the term, but the funding of the stone throwing on security forces by Pakistan was going on through different channels.

The DG said the CRPF was in the process of taking the control of the National Highway-1 by the end of this month. He said the Army had agreed to give equipment used for managing the highway, but it was mainly due to the non-availability of forces that the process had been delayed.

The CPRF was earlier scheduled to take over the control of highways from January 15. While the Kashmir valley was observing a shutdown in protest against the death of a youth in such a protest, the DG said the CPRF was using maximum restraint despite all provocations.

“We take care of human rights. There are no complaints against us,” he said, adding that the CRPF was slowly taking over internal security from the Army.

Jammu, February 3
Fed up with the repeated assurances by the ruling elites, hundreds of villagers from the Panchari block of Udhampur today started a march towards the district headquarters to lodge their protest before Chief Minister Omar Abdullah. The Chief Minister was in the town to the review the progress of developmental works.

However, the authorities had sealed the entire Panchari block and did not allow the villagers to come on the road leading to Udhampur town. As they were not allowed to proceed towards the district headquarters, residents of 38 villages staged demonstrations at different places and observed a total shutdown in the Panchari block.

“The authorities with the help of the police have been trying to stifle our voice,” Om Parkash Raina, president of the Panchari Beopar Mandal, told over the telephone. He alleged that the entire tehsil had been virtually turned into a police colony and all routes connecting with main road had been blocked by the cops.

For the past one decade, residents of the Panchari block have been demanding a degree college in their area and tehsil status for their block as the residents find it difficult to reach Udhampur. Successive state governments have promised to fulfil these promises, but all assurances remained only on papers.

Located about 40 km from Udhampur town, this block lacks all basic amenities. Comprising 21 panchayats and 38 villages, a majority of students of this belt could not purse higher education in the absence of a degree college in the block.

Om Parkash said in the absence of road connectivity people had to walk from one place to another. Three days ago, when residents of this belt got information about the visit of the Chief Minister on February 3, they decided to start a march from Panchari to Udhampur to apprise him about the hardship being faced by them.

“Since yesterday evening, people started gathering at the block headquarters to proceed towards Udhampur,” Raina said and regretted that this morning the administration blocked all routes and sealed the entire area.

The issue of sealing the Panchari block was also raised in the district development meeting by Udhampur MLA Balwant Singh Mankotia. The Chief Minister assured to look into the grievances of the people.

Jammu, February 3
“There is no rule of law in the state, as the police department has failed completely to trace its own employee. My husband is an ASI and has been missing since last month during duty hours. But the police is not willing to launch a search operation,” said Ratna Koul, wife of Maharaj Krishan Koul, who was posted at the railway station, Udhampur.

Ratna, with tears in her eyes, said they had requested all senior police officers, but no one was paying heed to their plight. She added, “My husband is the lone breadwinner of our family. I have two grown-up children, who are studying. It has become difficult for me to find out my husband and arrange a source of income for the family.”

“The situation has worsened for us,” said Kiran Koul, daughter of the missing ASI. “We are unable to understand why the authorities are trying to hush up the matter. They are cooking up stories and trying to give it a different colour,” she alleged.

The family members told this correspondent that ASI, Maharaj Krishan Koul is missing since December 28, last year and a missing report was registered in this matter at Railway police station, Jammu on December 31. But no result has come out yet, they said.

Maharaj’s family members appealed to Chief Minister Omar Abdullah to look into the matter. They said though they had visited Delhi and other major cities, they could not get any clue to the whereabouts of Maharaj.

Ratna further alleged that “the police is spreading rumours that her husband was not happy with his family and he ran away out of frustration.” She termed the rumours as baseless and demanded strong action against the officers spreading these.

However, Yashpal Singh Jamwal, SHO, railway police station, said, “We are trying our best to find out our colleague. A special team has also been constituted for the case.”

Jammu, February 3
To ensure timely completion of developmental works, the state government has decided to engage experts to monitor projects. This was stated by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah here today while addressing a meeting of the District Development Board (DDB), Udhampur, held under his chairmanship to review the physical and financial progress registered under different sectors in this district ending January 2010.

The meeting was convened to review the progress of the decisions taken during earlier DDB meetings. After Rajouri, Udhampur is the second district where the Chief Minister has himself reviewed the implementation of the decisions taken in earlier meetings.

Omar said the government had decided to engage external consultants for monitoring of bigger and smaller projects being executed in the state. The smaller projects would be monitored by the consultancy wing of NABARD called NABCONS.

For the purpose, he exhorted upon executing agencies of different projects to extend full cooperation to the consultancy to verify the ongoing projects.

Omar had exhorted upon the officers to achieve optimum results on the ground in a stipulated time frame, with a focus to complete the works in available working period of the current fiscal.

Expressing his satisfaction over 71 per cent utilisation of plan funds ending January 2010, the Chief Minister appraised sincere and honest efforts of officers of various development departments in achieving result-oriented progress of work on the ground both physically and financially with no compromise on the quality of works.

“I do not want that expenditure should be booked for the sake of expenditure. Expenditure means that there should be actual physical work on the ground otherwise money will disappear and it would be very difficult for us to maintain check on material already booked,” he said and told the officers that the expenditure should not be booked only and shown as work done in their progress reports.

He also asked the Udhampur DDC for the submission of the status report on the development of Dabbar Park, besides examining the feasibility for the construction of mini-secretariat in Udhampur.

He also directed the superintending engineer, PWD, Udhampur, to work out the possibility of construction of the road link from the Lander area with the Sawlakote Hydel project.

Jammu, February 3
A militant was shot dead by the Army in a gunfight in Mendhar tehsil of Poonch district today. Defence sources said acting on a tip-off, troops of the 39 Rashtriya Rifles (RR) launched a search operation in the Chattral-Nadal forest area in Mendhar tehsil last night, and this afternoon security men were fired upon by the militants. 

In the retaliatory fire one militant was killed. Though the identity of the slain militant could not be ascertained, an AK 56 assault rifle, some ammunition and explosive material were seized from the encounter site.

Meanwhile, the police has arrested two sympathisers of the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) in Reasi district. The Reasi police achieved a success when they apprehended two sympathisers working for terrorists in the Mahore area of Reasi district on Tuesday, a police spokesperson said.

The duo has been identified as Ghulam Mohammed and Zakir Hussain, both residents of Dubri village in Mahore tehsil, he added. Both of them were providing logistic support, eatable items and shelter to LeT terrorists, including a self-styled commander, he said. After getting inputs regarding the movement of these sympathisers in the area, the police swung into action and apprehended them.

During the search of their houses, one kg of IED was seized from a cowshed. A case under Section 120-B, 121, 122 RPC, 7/25 Arms Act, 4/5 Explosive Substance Act stands registered against them at Mahore police station.

Meanwhile, a fierce encounter broke out between the security forces and militants in the Pathiala area of Kishtwar this evening. On a tip-off, security personnel launched a search operation in the area. According to the police, a group of militants reportedly fired some shots on a patrol party in the Pathiala area. “We received some information from the remote area about the encounter, but we have not been able to contact our jawans,” ML Thakur, SDPO, Kishtwar, said.

However, sources said a district commander of the Lashkar-e-Toiba, Nisar Ahmed, and one another militant were killed in the encounter.

Jammu, February 3
A group of 18 elders from the remote and far-flung areas of Rajouri and Poonch districts, who went on a national integration tour, met Governor NN Vohra at Raj Bhavan here today. The 10-day tour, organised by the Army’s 38 Rashtriya Rifles under the Sadbhavana programme, was flagged-off from Jammu on January 25 and concluded here today.

Interacting with the group, the Governor enquired from them about the experiences they had gained during the tour. They said it was a lifetime opportunity for them to have witnessed the national level Republic Day parade in the Union Capital. The touring group visited Jammu, Delhi, Agra, Jaipur and Ajmer. In Delhi, the group witnessed the Republic Day parade, had a Metro ride and visited the Jama Masjid, India Gate, Chandni Chowk, Qutab Minar and local malls. They called on President Pratibha Patil at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. The group also met Union Minister for New and Renewable Energy Farooq Abdullah.

At Agra, they visited Agra Fort, Taj Mahal and Fatehpur Sikri. Similarly, at Jaipur, they visited the Hawa Mahal, Jantar Mantar, Mehrangarh Fort, Museum and other landmarks in Jaipur town, while at Ajmer they paid obeisance at the Dargah of Khwaja Moin-ud-Din Chisti and visited Ajmer town. They also had interacted with media at Delhi and Jaipur.

For many of the touring persons, it was their first visit to any place outside the state, for which they thanked the Army for organising the tour.