Bid on Kukka Parray's life
Tribune News Service

SRINAGAR, Dec 14 — At least 11 persons were killed in separate incidents in Jammu and Kashmir since yesterday. Militants fired a rocket on the residence of Kukka Parray, MLA, at Sonawari, Hajan, last night and followed it by firing. The house was partially damaged. There were no reports of any injuries. This is the first attempt by militants on leader of the Ikhwanul Muslimeen.

In another attempt, militants fired a rocket towards the Ikhwan camp at Janglat Mandi in Anantnag town last night. This was followed by firing by militants for about four hours early this morning, residents of the town said.

Militants shot at Mohammad Sidiq Misgar at Sangeen Darwaza, here last evening. He succumbed to his injuries while being shifted to the Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS), Soura. The police said the deceased was dealing with Army scraps.

Militants also fired upon the guards posted at the residence of the SP, Operations, Pulwama, at Janbazpora in Baramulla district. The guards returned the fire. There was no damage.

Five persons, including four militants were killed in an encounter with security forces at Yasu, Achchabal in Anantnag district yesterday. A jawan of the security forces was also killed and another injured.

Two houses, including the residential house of Abdul Ghani Bhat and a store of Mohammad Akbar Bhat were also gutted as a result of the exchange of fire. Three AK rifles and a pistol were found from the site of the encounter.

Two militants were killed in an encounter with the joint operations group of security forces and the Jammu and Kashmir police at Ashmugam and Anantnag district yesterday, the police said. They have been identified as Nisar Ahmad and Firdous Ahmad. A civilian, Abdul Rashid Shah was injured in the crossfire.

In another encounter at Serandar in the Bandipore area of Baramulla district, two militants, Rubani Khan and Firdous Khan of Chchithay Banday were killed, the police said.

Two unidentified militants were killed in an encounter with security forces at Rajrani-Majhore in the Thanamandi area of Rajouri district. They were identified as Mohammad Haroon and Mohammad Sahil from Pakistan.

The police and security forces have apprehended three suspects from different places in Srinagar while another suspect was held from Budgam district.

JAMMU: According to reports, the two Pak militants were involved in carrying out IED blasts in Rajouri and Poonch districts, which included seven IED blasts on December 9.

Jammu telecom services go awry
Tribune News Service

JAMMU, Dec 14 — As a result of tussle between the Indian Telecom Service (ITS) officers and non-ITS officials the telecommunication services in Jammu have gone awry. The number of complaints regarding faults in telephones , disruption in teleprinter channels and delay in receipt of telephone bills have been on the increase.

A premier English daily, which has a teleprinter channel between Jammu and Jalandhar, has been pleading with the telecom authorities here and Jalandhar to rectify the channel fault. But for the past 20 days the fault has not been rectified. The Jammu Telecom authorities hold Jalandhar VFT officials responsible for it and Jalandhar authorities blame the Jammu carrier unit.

Senior officials said they have no control over the Jalandhar carrier unit. Others said the Directorate of Microwave was a separate unit and neither the General Manager, Telecom, nor any other official had control over it. The Telecom circle has been compartmentalised into carrier, machine and microwave units. Each unit is an empire by itself.

Senior telecom officials have not changed the situation. For days together phones of subscribers remain non-functional and repeated requests for rectifying faults receive no response.

Usually most of the subscribers in Jammu have to pay surcharge while making payment of telephone bills. This is because of delays in receiving the bills. Several subscribers showed to this correspondent telephone bills which they had received one week after the due date of payment. The telecom authorities hold the Postal Department responsible for it and the postal employees blame the telecom people for issuing bills behind the scheduled date.

The telecom enquiry does not remember even the Chief Minister's phone numbers. They have to take help from the computer for giving telephone numbers of VIPs. For finding out the phone number of non-VIPs it takes them five to 10 minutes invariably the number given by them is wrong.

Some of the subscribers in Jammu said the telecom authorities have gone slack since the day Mr Jagmohan took over as Minister for Communications.