Massacres confirm Doda's dubious status
From M.L. Kak
Tribune News Service

JAMMU, Aug 4 — The two massacres by militants in the upper reaches of Chamba area, in which more than 35 people were killed and several injured, have reconfirmed reports that Doda district has become a focal point for extending J-K insurgency into neighbouring Himachal Pradesh.

The two incidents are not the first of their kind. Militants have struck in the past in the upper reaches of Chamba bordering Bhaderwah tehsil of Doda district. The entire 40 km road between Bhaderwah and Ranikot and between Gandhov in Doda district to Chamba in Himachal and the surrounding hill belt extending between Chamba and Dharamshala, Basoli in Kathua to Dalhousie-Madhopur in Punjab and the south Kashmir belt via Kishtwar have no security cover. On these routes militants have roamed freely during the past two years.

Police authorities in Kashmir are of the opinion that a troubled Doda district could pose severe security problems for Himachal and Punjab besides the adjoining Kathua and Udhampur district of Jammu. Mounting anti-insurgency operations in Doda district is not as easy as in Kashmir. A vast zone extending several hundred km from Bhaderwah to Chamba, Kishtwar to Anantnag and from Doda to Udhampur has no motorable roads. It takes two days from Bhaderwah to the border of Chamba and more than six days from the tehsil headquarters of Doda district and Udhampur district to the mountain villages where militants have carved out safe havens.

Piecemeal operations against the militants have never proved effective and invariably resulted in casualties among the security forces.

From 1996 onwards there have been a string of massacres in Doda and Udhampur districts. In fact the trend of selective killings began in Doda district, spread to Udhampur and Rajouri and now to the Chamba area of Himachal.

Reports with the state Government reveal that large groups of militants, especially foreign mercenaries, have already sneaked into Chamba areas. They have been surveying the hillbelts and last nights carnage may not be the last unless security forces are deployed in strength in Doda district and the areas in Chamba that touch Bhaderwah. A few battalions of troops have been sent from Dalhousie for carrying out operations to flush out militants in the Chamba belt but these operations are unlikely to bear any results unless the security forces are directed to move from Bhaderwah and Basoli.

The situation calls for multi-directional operations according to police experts. Such operations cannot be possible with the limited number of companies of security forces posted in Doda district.

Confiscate militants’ property: BJP
Tribune News Service

JAMMU, Aug 4 — The state unit of the BJP has urged the government to confiscate the property of those militants and their relations who have been identified for their involvement in carrying out large-scale killing of innocent people in several areas of the Jammu region.

Stating this at a press conference here today, the president of the state unit of the BJP, Mr D.K. Kotwal, said that the killers of 28 persons in the Prankot and Dhakikot area of upper reaches of Udhampur had been identified by the police. These killers were at large and the only way to discourage such killings was to attach their property. He said in certain cases some police officials were in league with the militants and hence the killers of innocent people could not be arrested.

Mr Kotwal flayed the state government and the Doda district administration for not having bothered to send senior civil and police officials to Saranwa and Thakarein Hor villages where 17 members of a particular community were killed recently.

"Not a single senior government functionary had visited the two villages", Mr Kotwal said adding people in these two villages and the adjoining areas were panic stricken.

The BJP chief, alleged that the government was not increasing the the number of village defence committees. He said in the absence of adequate security force it was necessary to arm these committees with modern arms.

Meanwhile the Jammu Joint Students Federation (JJSF) has blamed the wrong policies of the Centre and the Farooq Abdullah-led state government for the escalation in militancy-related incidents in the state.

At a meeting here on Tuesday, which was presided over by the federation chairman, Mr Rajinder Jamwal, the JJSF expressed concern over the increase in the number of incidents of killing of innocent civilians by the militants.

The federation leaders said during the Governor’s rule the situation had started returning to normal but in the past 21 months of the National Conference rule the situation had worsened especially in the Jammu region. It said that the "unholy" nexus between the BJP and the National Conference had led to rapid deterioration in the security situation.

The JJSF criticised the discriminatory policies of the NC government. In this connection it referred to the selection of candidates for the MBBS and BDS courses and large-scale transfers of doctors from the Jammu area to Kashmir.

It held the state and the central government responsible for the failure of the state administration to carry out relief operations in border villages in various sectors of the Jammu region who had been subjected to harassment, fear and inconvenience by repeated firing resorted by Pak troops and the Rangers. The JJSF demanded adequate compensation to all those farmers who could not carry out farming along the border due to heavy Pak shelling.