Jammu, December 4
After maintaining a low profile for quite some time, Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) chief Saifuddin Soz has launched a “direct attack” on dissidents, who owe allegiance to Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, to corner them in their home turf.

The pro-Soz faction today organised a rally at Basholi in Kathua district, demonstrating that it had adopted an aggressive posture. Today’s rally was important because “Basholi is considered the stronghold of Congress Lok Sabha member Choudhary Lal Singh, who is gradually taking over as the leader of the pro-Azad group in the state”.

The pro-Soz faction intentionally selected Basholi for organising the rally to give a clear message to Lal Singh that a parallel leadership would be encouraged in this area. Interestingly, neither Lal Singh nor his wife Kanta Andotra, who had been MLA from this area, was present in the rally. Not only Lal Singh’s family and supporters were conspicuous by their absence, even Kathua district president of the Congress Subash Gupta, who is a member of the Upper House, also “boycotted” the rally. “I am not feeling well so I could not attend the rally,” Gupta told The Tribune. Asked whether he was invited by the organisers of the programme or taken into confidence before organising the rally, Gupta refused to comment.

Manohar Lal Sharma, the only Congress minister from Kathua district in the coalition government, was also not present in the rally. Although no Congress leader was ready to come on record about the absence of senior leaders, including Lal Singh and Manohar Lal, sources in the party said invitations for the programme were not extended to the leaders owing allegiance to the pro-Azad faction.

“As Lal Singh has gradually emerged as the leader of the pro-Azad faction in the party, we intentionally choose his home constituency to take him on in his home turf,” a senior leader of the pro-Soz faction told The Tribune.

Sources in the Congress said following the failure of Deputy Chief Minister Tara Chand to keep his flock together, the pro-Azad faction began looking towards Lal Singh as its leader in the state to continue its activities. Lal Singh had organised an impressive function last month at Kathua in which Ghulam Nabi Azad was invited.

To keep a check on the activities of Lal Singh, the pro-Soz group organised this rally in which a parallel leadership was projected for the Kathua Assembly segment. First time after many years the Congress had organised a rally at Basholi without the consent of Lal Singh and this function was likely to further fuel infighting in the party, sources said.

They added that “Lal Singh is likely to hit back in the days to come”. Although Lal Singh’s wife lost the last Assembly election from this seat to the BJP candidate, the MP considered himself the undisputed Congress leader from this area.

Jammu, December 4
Minister for Rural Development, Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Ali Mohammad Sagar has said the government was contemplating to put in place a foolproof mechanism to effectively check the conversion of agriculture land for other purposes.

Sagar was speaking at a high-level meeting on the land use Act here yesterday. Minister for Agriculture Ghulam Hassan Mir and Minister for Revenue, Relief and Rehabilitation Raman Bhalla, who are the members of the committee constituted by the government for formulating the Act, also attended the meeting.

Sagar said the proposed Act should not hinder the basic rights of the people to have their dwelling units on their proprietary land. He added a mechanism that would be beneficial to the people at large and did not result in shrinkage of agricultural land had to be evolved.

He said the draft publication must be put up for public opinion to get a wider consensus.

Hassan Mir, while speaking on the occasion, said the proposed Act would serve as a deterrent to the conversion of agricultural land for other purposes. Bhalla said instructions had already been passed to the departments concerned to ensure the proper implementation of the existing Acts.

Srinagar, December 4
Governor NN Vohra has stressed the need for the effective application of the findings of the research conducted in the realms of science, technology and engineering by adopting area-specific approaches to solve the developmental needs of people. He also stressed on contributing to the creation of greater employment opportunities for the youth.

The Governor, as chief guest, was addressing the valedictory session of the three-day 6th JK Science Congress at the University of Kashmir here today. The Science Congress was organised by the University of Kashmir in collaboration with the State Council for Science and Technology on the theme of “Science, Technology and Sustainable Development”.

The Governor emphasised that various task forces should be organised for giving a boost to different sectors of the economy by applying available research findings in these areas. He said groups of young scientists should be constituted to look at their local problems, perhaps by taking a district as a basic unit and apply the latest available science and technology approaches for increasing productivity and production in the varied sectors.

He said the state had a vast scope for boosting production and productivity in the sectors of agriculture, horticulture, floriculture, saffron cultivation, sericulture, dairy-farming, mushroom cultivation etc. This, he added, needed to be effectively harnessed in the state both for securing the objective of economic development and generating jobs.

Stressing the need for the judicious use of natural resources and ensuring the protection of environment and ecology, the Governor observed that there was an earnest need to find practical solutions to problems like global warming, climate change, scarcity of water resources, as all these were affecting all forms of life.

He lauded the Vice-Chancellor of the university for organising the Science Congress. He also gave away “Best Presentation Awards” to five young scientists on the occasion on behalf of the J&K Academy of Sciences and the university. 

Srinagar, December 4
The 11-member delegation of Parliamentarians and members of civil society, led by Ramvilas Paswan held meetings with PDP president Mehbooba Mufti and separatist Hurriyat Conference leaders Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Syed Ali Geelani on the second day of their visit here today.

The team arrived here yesterday on its maiden visit to have an assessment of the prevailing situation in the Kashmir valley, which has been witnessing turmoil for the past five months. The team has been meeting a cross-section of people, including the families of those killed during the turmoil.

Mehbooba, while appreciating the efforts of the delegation to reach out to people, regretted that the visit of the Prime Minister’s all-party delegation had left a lot to be desired, as there was no follow up action after its return. She said the delegation had raised hope among the people as it was the first high-level political delegation visiting the state and it had broken the ice by even reaching out to separatists.

Even after more than two months, no action had been taken on the ground, she observed. Even the eight-point package announced by the Centre was yet to see the light of the day, she said. Thousands of youths had been arrested after the announcement of the package despite the fact that the centrepiece of the package was the release of prisoners, she pointed out.

Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, as the head of six-member APHC delegation, put forth his viewpoint before the visiting delegation, which called on him at his Nigeen residence. The recent attacks on the Mirwaiz and his colleague, Bilal Lone, outside the state also were discussed, besides the human rights issues in Kashmir.

Geelani reiterated his stand on the five-point programme. “We are not against a meaningful dialogue. But the bilateral talks have not yielded any results in the past nor would these be fruitful in future,” he told the visiting delegation. A conducive atmosphere could be created to move forward to resolve the Kashmir issue only when the Centre accepts the five-point programme, he said.

Jammu, December 4
Tension brewed in Qasim Nagar here this afternoon, as area residents blocked the road in protest against a former corporator’s bid to remove an electricity transformer from the land belonging to the Jammu Development Authority (JDA), sources said.

They added that former corporator Rashida Begum, in the dark of the night, engaged some electricians and removed wires from the transformer, which led to a complete black-out in the area.

Subhash, an area resident, said, “When asked Rashida Begum relied that the land belonged to her and she could remove the transformer from it. This led to tension.”

Angry residents raised slogans against Rashida and the Power Development Department (PDD) and later blocked the road.

However, they dispersed after the police assured them that action would be taken against the defaulters.

A senior police officer said they had started investigation into the incident. “Rashida Begum has also been called to Bagh-e-Bahu police station for her statement,” added the officer.

Meanwhile, police personnel were deployed in the area to avoid any escalation in tension.

Srinagar, December 4
A school bus was set ablaze by a group of agitated youths in downtown Srinagar to enforce bandh, while normal life was disrupted in response to the separatists’ bandh call in the Kashmir valley today.

The school bus was intercepted by a group of protesters, who were enforcing the bandh at the Ranger stop in the Khanyar area of the city early this morning, when it was going to pick up students of Tibetan Public School. Only three students were in the bus at the time of the incident and they along with the bus driver were asked to get down. The driver managed to save the life of one child, who was still in the bus when it was torched. No harm was caused to any of the students or the driver, while the bus was heavily damaged before the police could reach there and chase away the miscreants.

According to a police spokesman, “In order to enforce the secessionists’ called hartal, in the so-called peaceful manner, miscreants intercepted a school bus, bearing registration number JK01N-9073, near the Ranger stop at Khanyar. The bus was on way to pick up schoolchildren. The driver was forcibly asked to stop the bus, which was later set ablaze, putting the lives of schoolchildren at risk,” the police said.

Normal life was disrupted across the Valley in response to the bandh call given by the hardline APHC led by Syed Ali Shah Geelani. All shops and business establishments remained closed in the main markets, while shops in some interior areas here and other major towns were open. A thin traffic plied on the roads as only private vehicles and auto-rickshaws were plying, with passenger transport also plying in some areas. Government offices and educational institutions were open, though some of the private schools were closed in view of the bandh call.

Meanwhile, the Kashmiri Pandit Sangarsh Samiti (KPSS) has condemned the incident of burning of a school bus in the downtown. In a statement, KPSS president Sanjay K Tickoo said such acts needed to be condemned at all forums. He urged Geelani to ask the masses to maintain law and order during the bandhs organised by his Hurriyat faction. 

Jammu, December 4
The Pakistan-India People’s Forum for Peace and Democracy today stressed upon an intra-Jammu and Kashmir dialogue along with confidence-building measures, including the hassle-free movement of people and goods through all pre-Partition routes across the Line of Control in the two divisions of the state.

The two-day national convention started here today in which peace delegates and members of civil societies aired their views on internal and external dimensions of the Kashmir issue.

Chairman of the Kashmir Times Group of Publications, Ved Bhasin, advocated that draconian laws, if not repealed, must be made non-operative and the security forces must exercise power with accountability under the purview of human rights.

He said land mines all along the LoC and border fencing on both sides must be removed.

Expressing anguish over the recent deaths during demonstrations in the Kashmir valley, he sought release of all political detenues and stressed on the restoration of civil rights.

“The practice of arming and deploying surrendered militants by the security forces must be done away with,” he said, adding, “The whereabouts of disappeared people must be made known to their families.”

Noted peace singer Seema Anil Sehgal earlier sang compositions of Urdu poets from Pakistan and India underlining need for peace in the sub-continent through sustained dialogue.

Aga Ashraf Aali from Pakistan traced lingua franca as the genesis of Partition. He also expressed concern over the shift from Persian Islam to Arabic Islam in his country.

“There is strong need on both sides to explore solutions to the burning problems in humanism and Hindu-Muslim unity,” he concluded.

Prof Rekha Choudhary elaborated on and appreciated the peace process between the two countries before the Mumbai attack and said the process must be resumed for an economically vibrant south Asia.

“We will have to think beyond Kashmiri, Pakistani and Indian nationalism to explore solutions,” she said and warned that any solution that ignored minorities could be 
disastrous.

Veteran journalist Balraj Puri and president of the PIPFPD Manoranjan Mohanty stressed upon reconciliation of diversities in the plural state. Mohanty also stressed on the solution within the self-determination framework and south asian perspective.

While senior journalist Anuradha Bhasin expressed concern over the “shrinking democratic space”, Jatin Desai, an activist working for detained fishermen in Indian and Pakistani jails, said, “The India-Pakistan Judicial Committee on Prisoners, which has been almost defunct for two years, must be reconstituted soon.”

Leh, December 4
Mohammad Iqbal, a physically challenged who is actively involved in the issues of people with various disabilities in Ladakh, has been awarded the 12th Shell Helen Keller Award in the category of role model for other physically challenged persons.

Mohammad Iqbal, 43, a resident of Shey village in Leh district, was born with locomotor disability. He was given the award for his inspiring works on environment protection through other physically challenged persons by engaging them in income generating activities in waste products. The award was presented at a function by Union Home Minister P Chidambaram in New Delhi on Thursday last. It has been instituted by the National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People (NCPEDP) to honour people for their extraordinary work for the cause of physically challenged.

With the help of his NGO, People Action Group for Inclusion and Rights (PAGIR), 35 other physically challenged, both literate and illiterate persons, from all over Ladakh are generating income by recycling waste products like papers and clothes into carry bags and decoration pieces.

To generate income for physically challenged persons from tourism, which is the mainstay of Ladakh, the PAGIR has also started tour packages like “Himalaya on Wheels” for tourists with disabilities and who are willing to visit Ladakh.

Iqbal is also the recipient of the Real Hero Award instituted by CNN-IBN. Iqbal said, “The awards further boosted us to carry forward the work to help our fellow beings.” He added that the PAGIR was working for the promotion of employment opportunities and the rights and issues of the physically challenged people of Ladakh.”

Srinagar, December 4
Lt-Gen SA Hasnain took over as the GOC of the Srinagar-based 15 Corps or Chinar Corps from Lt-Gen NC Marwah here today. On assuming the command, Lt-Gen Hasnain laid a wreath at the War Memorial in BB Cantt, a defence spokesman here said.

Lt-Gen Hasnain is no stranger to the Kashmir valley, as he had earlier commanded the Uri Brigade and the Dagger Division. Before assuming the command of the Chinar Corps, Lt-Gen Hasnain was commanding a Strike Corps in the Southern Theatre.

Earlier, Lt-Gen Marwah handed over the charge to Lt-Gen Hasnain after having commanded the Chinar Corps for one year. In a sombre yet impressive ceremony, Lt-Gen Marwah laid a wreath at the War Memorial. A large number of officers were present on the occasion to bid adieu to the General Officer, who is proceeding as the Commander-in-Chief of the Andaman and Nicobar Command. Lt-Gen Marwah wished the troops good luck before leaving for Udhampur en route to Delhi.

Meanwhile, Lt-Gen Hasnain called on Governor NN Vohra at the Raj Bhavan here last evening. The Governor discussed with Lt-Gen Hasnain the continuing impact of trans-LoC factors on the internal security situation and the importance of a fully coordinated approach among all uniformed forces to effectively tackle the emerging situation.

Jammu, December 4
Eunuchs from India and Pakistan did their bit for peace and harmony between the two countries by solemnising marriages among themselves on the exhibition ground here today.

“People fight, cause wars, but we talk of love,” was the message that bride Rekha Patra from Patna and bridegroom Mehreesh from Lahore sought to convey by tying the nuptial knot.

Nearly 1,000 eunuchs from all nook and corners of India, and a few “special” invitees from Pakistan assembled here since December 1 for a 15-day annual festival. They chose a new city every year and believe they bring peace and prosperity along. This city has been chosen after 35 years.

Most of them is out of bounds for the other genders, but today these eunuchs took out a rally from the Exhibition grounds known as Jammu Haat to the Raghunath temple and let mediapersons in their camps on the special occasion of the marriages between eunuchs from India and Pakistan.

The eunuchs celebrate the marriage festival every year at a new city and have chosen Jammu after 35 years. And if there large number and the two marriages were not attraction enough, they came all decked up wearing heavy jewellery and travelling in swanky cars. Almost all kinds of costly cars were seen at the exhibition ground.

The eunuchs were wearing layers of gold jewellery. “We are very happy,” said Mehreesh from Pakistan. “It is my first visit to Jammu. People here as well as in other parts of India are similar to my Pakistan brothers and sisters. I wonder why there are borders between us.” Rekha Patra quipped, “We took a vow of living in peace and harmony. Hope the two nations would live the same way.”

Haji Mian Haji Siara, head of Jammu and Kashmir eunuchs, said the 15-day festival was an annual feature where important decisions like the election of leaders were taken, besides paying homage to the departed souls. There were discussions on problems confronting us and the religious ceremonies, including marriages, were solemnised.

Sungal (Akhnoor), December 4
The arrest of ‘contract killer’ Suresh Kumar, alias Tunda, by the local police has stirred a controversy, as family members of Suresh today claimed that the police had nabbed him seven days before announcing his arrest.

Earlier on December 2, the police had claimed that Tunda was arrested and an LML Vespa scooter was seized. It also claimed that Tunda had taken money from Surinder Singh, alias Chantu, of Gadigarh village for killing some witnesses in the Amandeep murder case.

However, father of Tunda, Milkhi Ram, an ex-serviceman, said, “The SDPO, Akhnoor, Mushtaq Chaudhary, along with some persons had attacked Suresh in 2005. They came to our house on November 25 and picked him up, saying they want to interrogate him in an old case.”

He added the police had arrested his son as part of a ‘well-planned conspiracy’.

Milkhi Ram said the police took Suresh to Akhnoor police station and since then they had not been allowed to meet him. He added, “We along with some villagers went to the police station. The SDPO there said they would release Suresh next morning, but he was not released.”

“After regularly visiting the police station, we got the same reply. We then approached a Cabinet minister, who called up someone to release Suresh, but nothing happened,” said Milkhi Ram.

“On December 2, we filed an application in the High Court for the release of Suresh,” he said, adding that their advocate had called them on Monday (December 6).

Suresh, who has a family of five, lives with his parents, wife, a daughter and a son.

Suresh’s wife, Nirbla Devi, said the day the police picked him up from their house, he was suffering from piles. But the police did not even listen to them.

Meanwhile, the police claimed that last night it arrested Jatinder Kumar, alias Billu, and Akram Khan, both residents of Nowshera, as they had allegedly been hired by Tunda.

A police spokesperson, JS Johar, said, “I am totally unaware whether the Akhnoor police had detained him a few days before announcing it or not. I will have to check it out.”