The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

	British woman found dead in houseboat Dutch national arrested, booked on murder charge Ishfaq Tantry Tribune News Service Srinagar, April 6 A 24-year-old British tourist was today found murdered at a houseboat in the Dal Lake. A suspect who is a Dutch national has been arrested while attempting to leave Kashmir. Sarah Elizabeth, hailing from Manchester, was found in a pool of blood in her room this morning, the police said. The houseboat staff found it in the room where she had been staying for nearly two months. After registering a case of murder, the police arrested 43-year-old Dewit Richard from Qazigund, 75 kilometres from Srinagar. Holidaying in Kashmir, he is suspected to be involved the murder. He was nabbed while trying to flee Kashmir , the police said. The police is looking into the possibility that the British tourist may have been sexually assaulted before murder and is awaiting a forensic report in this regard. “It was found during preliminary investigation that the Dutch tourist, putting up in another room of the houseboat, was missing from his room. He had left his belongings in his room and boarded a taxi,” a police spokesman said. He said the police at all the exit routes was alerted as soon as the incident was reported by the houseboat owner. He said the suspect was detained from the national highway. He added that a case under Section 302 (murder) was registered at the Ram Munshi Bagh police station and an investigation got under way. A forensic team was deputed for collecting clues from the scene of the crime, a police official said. He added that victim’s body was sent for post-mortem examination. “Richard claimed during questioning that he was under the influence of drugs when he committed the crime,” a police official said. The houseboat staff woke up around 3:30 am and found the front door of Sarah’s room open. After finding her body, they saw the Dutch tourist in the adjacent room missing. “The Dutchman, who checked in two days ago, abandoned his luggage,” houseboat owner Abdul Rahim said. He said he immediately informed the Nehru Park police post. “She was like family. She had dinner with us before going to bed last evening,” he said. He said they heard noise around 3:30 am this morning. “We woke up and found the door of Richard’s room open. We found the door of Sarah’s room open as well,” he said. “We found her body in a pool of blood. The small boat tugged to the houseboat was missing. Richard may have used it to reach the shore,” he added.
	Kashmiri Pandits inalienable part of heritage, says Governor Tribune News Service Jammu, April 6 Governor NN Vohra today stressed the importance of strengthening the bonds of communal harmony and glorious composite cultural ethos of the state. He observed that the Kashmiri Pandits were an inalienable component of this centuries-old heritage and hoped that sooner they would be able to return to their homes and hearths in the Valley in an enabling atmosphere which would further strengthen the cultural ethos. The Governor was addressing a convention organised by the Youth All-India Kashmiri Samaj (YAIKS), an organisation of the displaced Kashmiri Pandits, here today. He observed that delegations of various groups of the Kashmiri migrants met him from time to time and brought their demands and difficulties to his notice. He said he had been discussing all these matters with the Chief Minister, the Minister for Revenue, Relief and Rehabilitation and other authorities concerned. He added that while considerable headway had been achieved to address the problems confronting the Kashmiri migrants, the solutions to resolve the remaining ones could be found by sitting together. He observed that he would address Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and the Minister of State for Revenue, Relief and Rehabilitation to find ways and means to implement the Prime Minister’s Rehabilitation Package and find solutions to the remaining matters. Referring to the Hindu Temples, Shrines and Religious Places Bill, which had been referred by the legislature to a select committee, the Governor hoped that there would be a positive movement in this regard in the coming months. The Governor thanked YAIKS for organising the function. The Governor and Minister for Housing, Horticulture and Culture Raman Bhalla were presented turbans and mementos by Maj Gen BN Dhar (retd). Bhalla said many problems of the Kashmiri migrants had been addressed while the government was committed to resolving the remaining issues. He referred to the Prime Minister’s Rehabilitation Package for the Kashmiri migrants and assured the delegation that this would be implemented speedily. RK Bhat, president of YAIKS, projected the demands of the organisation, which included implementation of the Prime Minister’s rehabilitation package in toto, filling up of the remaining sanctioned posts for the Kashmiri migrants and updating voters’ lists of the Kashmiri migrants as per the data available with the Relief Commissioner. Prof Indu Kilam, advisor of YAIKS, gave details about the aims, objectives and activities of YAIKS. Principal Secretary to the Governor Navin K Choudhary was present on the occasion.
	BJP celebrates Foundation Day Our Correspondent Rajouri, April 6 Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) activists hold programmes at 40 places in Rajouri district today to celebrate Foundation Day. They alleged that the present regime was a booster to separatist forces. They unfurled BJP flags. Programmes were held at Bathuni, Jawahar Nagar and Rajouri city. Those were led by state unit vice-president Vibodh Gupta, Aatam Gupta, Ranjit Tara, Balbir Singh, Babu Ram Sharma, district unit president Bharat Bhushan Vaid, Dinesh Sharma, Yogesh Sharma and Vijay Gupta. Vibodh Gupta alleged that Omar Abdullah had been challenging accession to India and questioning the integrity of India. He said Congress ministers had been completely silent on the issue as they were shareholders in power. Bharat Bhushan Vaid claimed that the BJP reign at the Centre was the golden period. He said important programmes had been started by that government. They added that Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the first Prime Minister to stabilise ties with Pakistan and his government had fenced the Line of Control.
	Gear up for early Lok Sabha polls, NC tells cadre Tribune News Service Jammu, April 6 National Conference (NC) leaders today exhorted the party cadre to prepare for early Lok Sabha elections. They predicted that elections might be held earlier and told workers to be prepared to face the challenge. Sources said the leaders emphasised on preparing a roadmap for Lok Sabha elections on the first day of the Central Working Committee meeting. Some party leaders predicted that Lok Sabha elections would be held earlier and exhorted party cadres to prepare to face any challenge. The sources said some committee members urged the leadership to prepare a roadmap for upcoming Assembly elections. They suggested that the party announce Assembly candidates well in advance to give ample time to them to do the groundwork. The issue of continuing the coalition with the Congress was discussed. Some members opposed continuing it but there was no word from the leadership. The sources said some members complained against ministers and pointed out that they were not taking workers seriously. The members urged the party leadership to direct the ministers concerned to take up seriously workers’ problems. The sources said some senior leaders had reservations over some ministers’ style of functioning and urged the ministers to perform in the interest of the party.
	No policy for shelters to LoC residents: Govt Jammu, April 6 The government has no policy to provide shelter at safer places to people living in Pakistan shelling range along the Line of Control (LoC). “There is no proposal on a permanent basis,” Minister of State for Home Sajjad Ahmed Kichloo said today. The situation was being monitored and people would be relocated temporarily when it was felt that they needed it. — PTI
	Foreign militant’s memoir reveals motivation, infiltration techniques Azhar Qadri Tribune News Service Srinagar, April 6 A memoir of a foreign militant who has fought in Kashmir provides a detailed picture of infiltration techniques and dangers of crossing the treacherous and heavily militarised Line of Control. The Tribune-accessed rare memoir of Esa al-Hindi, a foreign militant of British-Indian origin who has crossed the Himalayas to fight in Kashmir, reveals motivation and techniques adopted by militants to infiltrate into the valley which in most likelihood end in violent death. He survived and wrote this memoir in the form of a treatise. “During the turn of the decade,” writes al-Hindi in the opening chapter of ‘The Army of Medina in Kashmir’, “the arena of the Kashmiri jihad witnessed added help from Allah in the appearance of ‘guest’ Mujahideen entering the state from overseas.” The US military study based on biographies of over 900 dead Lashkar-e-Toiba militants has revealed that 94 per cent of fresh recruits of the Lashkar-e-Toiba see Kashmir as a fighting front and most of them are educated and some are from affluent families. Believed to be one of Dhiren Bharot’s noms de guerre, al-Hindi fits into this profile. Bharot was arrested in England in 2004 as a high-profile al-Qaida member plotting to bomb financial sites in the US and the UK, including the New York Stock Exchange, the International Monetary Fund headquarters and the World Bank. He had converted to Islam when he was 20 years old and infiltrated into Kashmir more than a decade ago before returning to the UK where he wrote this book. “This book is not a historical essay,” al-Hindi wrote about his memoir, penned over a decade ago and rarely available in hardcover but accessible on the Internet. He further wrote, “It is a truthful first-hand exposure about recent affairs which transpiring in the state over the last decade at the time of writing.” He terms the attempt to infiltrate into Kashmir as the “most harrowing task”. He writes that while infiltrating, militants are “completely manual, sometimes crawling like babies on steep inclines and declines”. The account on infiltration is detailed and graphic. It mentions that once militants cross the Line of Control, they make themselves light and mobile as much is “humanly possible”. “The journeying is always commenced in thick of the night. Natural flashlights, reflectors or anything which can attract the enemy's attention are prohibited. Sometimes an outstretched hand may not be discernible due to intensity of darkness,” he writes. He writes that a clash with Border Security Force personnel is “not wished” at the Line of Control due to lack of weaponry and manpower. He mentions seven formations of infiltration, including single line, double file and extended line. He further writes that guides take a lead role in all these formations and they have “exceptionally unrivalled stamina and acute sense of direction”. In his autobiography, al-Hindi makes damning criticism of Pakistan for being a “puppet state of the western world” and blaming it for using militants as “cannon fodder” to perform “dirty work”. He lists motivation for militants to make the journey to Kashmir which mostly revolves around a baggage of history and “magnificent rewards of hereafter”. In chapter 5, ‘Deep Inside’, al-Hindi writes that once the Line of Control is crossed, militants are “homeless, poor and sometimes unsure of when or where their next meal will originate from”. Referring to wildlife, in Kashmir, he writes that they do not pose a danger to militants and “each keeps to himself, neither harming one another”. He also writes, “A burden for Muslim fighters living out in the open is blood-sucking swarm of mosquitoes that constantly torment them.” He also writes that militants have to suffer through “big lice problem” as they have to sleep on the forest floor. ‘The Army of Medina in Kashmir’, published by the Birmingham-based Maktabah al-Ansar, which is more of a treatise and less of a memoir, includes 16 chapters giving a detailed picture of techniques adopted by militants while infiltrating into Kashmir, motivation to fight, ambushes and beheading of soldiers.
	‘73rd Amendment clauses in offing’ Tribune News Service Jammu, April 6 The coordination committee of the National Conference and the Congress which met today under the leadership of state Congress chief Saifuddin Soz decided that relevant clauses of the 73rd Amendment would be incorporated in the Jammu and Kashmir Panchayati Raj Act. Talking to mediapersons after the meeting, Soz said the committee constituted by the Congress regarding incorporation of the 73rd Amendment had already submitted its report to the National Conference. “The government will take a decision within a week on adopting relevant clauses of the 73rd Amendment in the panchayat Act to empower panchayats,” he said. He added that block development council elections would be held soon after adopting the relevant clauses. The elections had been postponed at the 11th hour as the Congress opposed elections without a provision of reservation for weaker sections and women.
	Indigenous theatre back after decades Bismah Malik Tribune News Service Srinagar, April 6 From the Kashmiri adaptation of William Shakespeare's play “King Lear” to centuries-old “Shikargah Pather” (dealing with kingdom of Pashupati-Shiva and forest beings), Kashmir’s first “Bhand Pather” festival “Revisiting Bhand Pather” in New Delhi is enthralling the audience and reviving indigenous theatre after decades. MK Raina who is a cinema, television and theatre personality has led a 25-member artiste troupe which is performing three “Bhand Pathers” (drama-dance-blended plays) from April 5 to 7 at Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts being run by the Union Ministry of Culture. “The panel discussion among of drama-cum-film experts after each play is expected to raise thought-provoking ideas on reviving traditional theatre. “Gosain Pather” depicting the secular fabric of Kashmiri society was staged on April 5. It was based on indigenous Kashmiri philosophy transcending faith, caste and creed. “Shikargah Pather” depicting the harmonious man-nature relationship was staged today. It stressed on the importance of preservation of forests in an ecologically fragile place like Kashmir. It was revived after 30 years. The troupe will present tomorrow “Badshah Pather”, a Kashmiri adaptation of “King Lear”. Raina hoped that traditional open-air theatre which was a regular feature of villages and towns in Kashmir would be revived through this festival by showing these plays to a wider range of audience outside the state.
	Soz hints at going it alone in next Assembly elections Dinesh Manhotra Tribune News Service Jammu, April 6 Buoyed over his re-appointment as the Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee (JKPCC) chief, Saifuddin Soz today hinted that his party would go it alone in the next Assembly elections. Soz’s assertion that his party would form the government on its own is an indication that the Congress is preparing not to contest the next Assembly elections in coalition with the National Conference. The Congress and the National Conference had separately contested the last Assembly elections in 2008, but both parties had entered into a post-poll alliance due to fractured mandate. “The Congress would form the government on its own in the state,” Soz claimed while addressing a function organised here at the party headquarters to facilitate him on his re-appointment. He, however, hastened to add that the Congress would emerge as the single largest party because the party had strengthened its base in all three regions of the state. Soz said, “Jammu is the backbone of the Congress and the party is committed to fulfilling the aspirations and wishes of the people of the region.” He, however, claimed that the party had also strengthened its base in the Kashmir valley. Despite the Amarnath land controversy, of the total 17 seats which the party had won in the 2008 Assembly elections, Congress candidates had emerged victorious in 13 Assembly seats from the Jammu region. So Soz has reason to claim that the region is the “backbone” of the party. During his first reception after his re-appointment, Soz gave a veiled warning to the dissidents and said “the party is above any individual”. “I will try to keep all leaders together to make the Congress a strong force in Jammu and Kashmir,” he said. He asserted that he would leave no stone unturned to come up to the expectations of the party leadership, party workers and the people of three regions of the state. He said the Congress felt duty-bound to respect the urges and aspirations of the people of all three regions in order to strengthen the unity and integrity of the state and the nation. Hinting to vociferously take up the demand of the party to extend the 73rd and 74th Amendments of the Indian Constitution to Jammu and Kashmir, Soz said the Congress was committed to strengthening the democratic institutions in the state for the benefit of the people of the state and in order to ensure the participation of people in governance and development. United front Although JKPCC dissidents owe their allegiance to Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, a number of Azad loyalists, including two Cabinet ministers Nawang Rigzin Jora and Abdul Majid Wani, were at the airport to receive Soz this afternoon. The presence of Azad’s two staunch loyalists at the airport indicated that the party leaders would iron out their differences in the coming days to face new challenges.
	Srinagar-Leh national highway thrown open to traffic Majid Jahangir Tribune News Service Zojila (Sonamarg), April 6 After remaining closed for nearly four winter months, the Srinagar-Leh national highway was thrown open to vehicular traffic by the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) here today. The 434-km-long highway serves as an important link between the people of Ladakh and Kashmir and thousands of soldiers stationed at Ladakh. The highway traverses through the Himalayas at Zojila and the Zanskar mountain range at Fatula to enter into Ladakh. The BRO officials said 30 to 40 feet snow had accumulated at Zojila this year and the officials had done a good job to open the highway before scheduled. “Last year, the highway was reopened on April 25. But this year, due to the efforts of the BRO men, the road was thrown open to traffic almost three weeks ahead,” said Chief Engineer of Beacon Brig RK Sharma. “The snow-clearance work from Gangangir (Sonamarg) to zero point on Zojila (over 30 km road stretch) was completed in over three weeks,” the chief Engineer said. Zojila, located at 11,500 feet, is the toughest pass in the country due to its harsh weather conditions, treacherous and accident-prone mountain range. When the highway was reopened today, the winds were blowing at high velocity near Zojila. Despite tough conditions, hundreds of light motor vehicles started crawling along the potholed highway to reach their destinations. “For some days, we will only allow light vehicles. Later, we will allow heavy vehicles on the highway,” Sharma said. Executive Councillor of the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council Haji Ghulam Amir appealed to the BRO to also allow heavy vehicles ply on the highway. “With the reopening of the road, we feel we are out of jail. The heavy vehicles that carry essential commodities should be allowed to ply simultaneously,” Amir said. “The highway is the lifeline for nearly 3 lakh people of Kargil and Leh districts,” he said.
	NC-Cong govt symbol of repression, claims PDP leader Tribune News Service Srinagar, April 6 Senior PDP leader and former Finance Minister Tariq Hameed Karra has said the National Conference-Congress coalition government in the state has become a symbol of repression, anarchy, economic subjugation, corruption and misrule. He said, “Given the alarming number of scams tumbling out of the coalition government’s cupboard, the present dispensation has earned the dubious distinction of being not only incompetent, but also a scandalous government.” In a statement issued here today, Karra said while the state’s “hapless people had become the victims of physical persecution, mental agony and economic distress, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and his ministers were busy playing to the galleries through contrived melodramatics and rhetorical outbursts.” “While complete governance failure was taking its toll on every sphere of public life, the latest wave of scams surfacing in various departments, including a scam in the Public Health Engineering Department, and the drug mafia racket had created an alarming situation, with the government functionaries busy amassing wealth by trading even the lives of people,” Karra said. He said given the enormity of the issue, normally in a civilised society, people involved in such scams and government functionaries who patronise them, should have been put behind bars. Karra said the detention of youth in the name of stone-throwing had become a lucrative money minting industry for a particular class of politicians and the police. “The modus operandi for this racket seems to be to first get the susceptible youth arrested and then force their families to approach the police through political touts and make huge payments to them to get their wards released. The booty is reportedly then shared by these touts and their cohorts in the police,” he said and cautioned that if immediate measures were not taken to curb such malpractices, “we would be surely pushing another generation of our youth towards a gory era of death and destruction”.
	81 magisterial probes over, 18 still on Govt had ordered inquiries into killings, loss to property since 1990 Ravi Krishnan Khajuria Tribune News Service Jammu, April 6 In Jammu and Kashmir, 99 magisterial inquiries were ordered to probe loss of lives and property since 1990, out of which 81 were completed and 18 are still on. The implementation of recommendations in the 81 inquiries remains under wraps because the government hasn’t shared the information. Law Minister Mir Saifullah has put the onus on the state Home Department. An official document stated that since 1990 the state government had ordered 99 magisterial probes out of which 81 were completed and 18 were going on. “Regarding actions taken on the recommendations (in case of 81 inquiries), the information is still awaited from the Home Department,” reads the document. Officially from 1990 to April 2011, 43,460 people have been killed in Pakistan-sponsored militancy. Of these, 21,323 were militants, 13,226 were civilians (killed by militants) and 5,369 were security personnel, including 1500 policemen (killed by militants). A commission comprising Justice SR Pandian, a retired Supreme Court judge, was constituted to enquire into the causes and circumstances leading to firing at Brakpora on April 3, 2000. The commission submitted its report in the same year. A commission headed by Justice OP Sharma was appointed to enquire into the causes and circumstances which led to firing on a procession in Haigam on February 15 and at Maisuma on February 17, 2001. The panel submitted its report in 2002. A panel headed by Justice GA Kucha, retired High Court judge, was appointed to probe as to whether the samples of those killed in the Pathribal fake encounter in March 2000, sent for DNA test to Kolkata, were fake or spurious. The commission submitted its report on December 16, 2000. Similarly, Justice (retd) Muzaffar Jan Commission was constituted by the Home Department to enquire into the causes and circumstances that led to the death of Neelofar Jan and Asiya Jan of Bonagam, Shopian. The commission submitted its report in 2009. The two women were allegedly raped and killed and the case sparked violent protests in the Valley. However, the case was subsequently handed over to the CBI.
	80% Class V students in rural schools cannot do simple maths 50 per cent of them cannot read basic English, says a survey Bismah Malik Tribune News Service Srinagar, April 6 Despite a high enrolment level (98 per cent in 2012) of schoolchildren in rural areas of the state, children aren't learning the basics, states the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) survey conducted under the aegis of the United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) during September-November 2012. The ASER survey reveals that 80 per cent of the children enrolled in Class V of state’s rural schools cannot do a simple division problem whereas 63.2 per cent of the students in Class VIII are unable to solve such a problem. As far as reading a simple text of Class II standard is concerned, only 41 per cent of the students in Class V are able to do that whereas nearly half of the students in Class V (52 per cent) cannot read basic English sentences. The ASER, a sample-based household survey, was conducted in 2012 in rural districts of the state by local organisations and institutions under the aegis of UNICEF. The Right to Education Act (RTE), which came into force in the country on April 1, 2010, guarantees first eight years of schooling for every child in the country. Children in the age group 5 to 16 years participated in the ASER survey. Just 50 per cent of the children could read simple text in regional language. In arithmetic, the students fared even worse with 80 per cent of the Class V students failing to solve simple divisions such as 918/7, 769/6 and 983/8. Educationists in the state say this trend is alarming and speaks volumes of the deteriorating quality of education imparted to schoolchildren in rural areas. “Only the increase in enrolment of schoolchildren shouldn't be our concern. The authorities should also focus on what kind of education is being imparted to children. If the children are not receiving proper education, it will be violation of Right to Education Act,” said GN War, an educationist.