4 foreigners among 5 militants killed
Tribune News Service

SRINAGAR, Dec 24 — At least six persons, including five militants, four of them foreigners, were killed in a fierce encounter with security forces at Qamarwari in the capital city last evening.

The identity of those killed is yet to be ascertained, a police spokesman here said. Four AK rifles were recovered from the site of the encounter, while one house was damaged in 12-hour encounter. A constable driver of the security forces was among the killed. The five militants included four foreigners. Further details about their identity are awaited.

This is the fourth such encounter between foreign militants and the security forces in capital city during the past two months. Earlier, a number of foreign militants were killed at Nowgam, Pearbagh and Bemina. The location of the yesterday's encounter is near the residence of the Jammu and Kashmir Housing and Urban Development Minister, Moulvi Iftikhar Hussain Ansari.

Giving details of the encounter, a police spokesman said that acting on specific information, the Special Operations Group (SOG) of Jammu and Kashmir Police or Task Force assisted by the security forces cordoned off Hilalabad locality in the Qamarwari area here last evening. The militants were hiding in the house of Mohammad Amin Zargar, the police said, adding that the inmates were evacuated to a safer place. The house was completely damaged in the exchange of fire between the militants and the security forces.

The hiding militants were asked to surrender but they started firing on the search party. The fire was retaliated. Five militants were killed in the exchange of fire. The operation started at about 2.30 p.m. yesterday and continued till this morning.

Meanwhile, a police spokesman here today clarified that only five persons were killed by unidentified militants in the Kulgam area of Anantnag district yesterday. According to a police spokesman, inquiries revealed that only five persons and not eight persons were killed in Kulmo and Buchroo villages of Kulgam. They have been identified as Ghulam Hassan Matto and Mohammad Shafi at Buchroo, Mohammad Ramzan Bhat and Imtiyaz Ahmad at Koimo and Gulzar Ahmad of Gubhal, Kulgam.

Pandits ask govt to help them return
Tribune News Service

JAMMU, Dec 24 — Placing the ball in the court of the government, the Panun Kashmir, a frontline organisation of displaced families, today released a five-page document carrying suggestions for ensuring the return of migrants to the valley. The document was released by Dr K.L. Chowdhary, Chairman, Political Affairs of the body at a press conference here.

Dr Agnishekhar, President of the Panun Kashmir, Mr Moti Koul, Vice-President, and Dr K.N. Pandita, a noted columnist, were also present.

Releasing the document, Dr Chowdhary and others said through this document, they would like to counter the propaganda of the Government that the displaced people were not willing to return to Kashmir. "We are keen and determined to return to Kashmir provided we are assured of political rehabilitation and a dignified and secure living", Dr Chowdhary said.

The document lists three priorities for the Government:

(1) The Government should take in hand confidence-building measures among the displaced people before their return and rehabilitation.

(2) Core issues be examined and analysed for working out modalities for the return and rehabilitation of the refugees.

(3) The ground realities vis-a-vis the security environment in the valley have to be reviewed and Pandits should not be coerced to return to a place where the threat from guntoting youths and Islamic fundamentalists has not yet ended.

Under the confidence-building measures, the government should set up a tribunal in Jammu under an acting or a retired judge of the high court to dispose of illegal occupation of the immovable property of the displaced people in the valley. The tribunal should be asked to decide the cases within three months.

The documents has suggested to the government to stop the distress sale of the properties of the migrants and declare the sale already carried out as null and void. Immediate measures be taken to remove encroachments and illegal occupation of land and houses of the displaced people and till the return of the refugees, the properties be kept under the custody of the Deputy Commissioner or custodian.

In view of the enormous losses suffered by the Kashmiri migrants — about 37,000 houses have been damaged and 11,000 burnt — the government should delink compensation for loss from return to the valley as in the case of ex gratia relief for fire victims which is not linked to their return nor to the repair of the burnt houses.

The document has suggested that the compensation for the loss of revenue be computed on the basis of existing market rates and the compensation be paid to the sufferers within six months.

It has said that if Kashmiri Pandits "are part and parcel of the socio-cultural mosaic of the state, they have to be returned and rehabilitated in Kashmir at all costs and in this context, the government should provide them employment in the state and other sectors as source of sustenance".

In the document, the Panun Kashmir has posed a question: About 40,000 new posts have been filled by the government. What is the share of the refugees and what about the loss of jobs over the past eight years when no Pandit was recruited?

Among the suggestions that the Panun Kashmir has made in the document one pertains to fresh recruitment from among the Pandit candidates against the vacancies created owing to the retirement of Pandit employees. All recruitments should be delinked from return proposition. Promotion of Pandit employees be defrozen. Besides suggesting improvement in the Government's education policy regarding the refugees, and their admission in the professional colleges, the document has called for a new relief package. It has suggested to the Government to enhance the cash relief to Rs 5,000 per month to improve the living conditions in camps, two-room tenements for each family, and provide financial help to destitutes and house rent allowance for non-camp-dwellers.

It has called for proper facilities and avenues for the community to participate in all economic activities in the state. Two seats in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha should be reserved for Pandits.

It has made it clear to the government that Kashmir being a testing ground for Indian secularism and democracy, return, restitution and retention of Pandits as a concentrating group in Kashmir "is a litmus test of the will and the sincerity of the State and the Central Governments". Return of Pandits, it has said, cannot be conditional merely to the goodwill of the majority community and has to be delinked from such promises because in no democratic and civilised society does a minority exist and subsist merely on the majority goodwill.

The document has suggested that a commission of inquiry be instituted to examine the reasons of the rise of fundamentalism and terrorism and fix responsibility of genocide and exodus of the Kashmiri Pandits and suggest preventive and remedial measures.

It has said that since the majority community has been the defecto and dejure ruler of the state, it has monopolised political and economic power. As such, along with geopolitical restructuring, constitutional and institutional autonomy of the Pandit territorial segment had to become a reality and should proceed to the return of the refugees.

Answering the question, Dr Chowdhary and Dr Pandita said, "We are not seeking any assistance from any other country for securing a home land for Kashmiri refugees. They said that India has the vision and capacity to look into the reality and in the given situation, creation of a home land was the only way to hasten the process of return of the refugees to Kashmir". They emphatically denied that the refugees were willing to seek settlement and rehabilitation outside the valley".

The Panun Kashmir leaders were critical of the State Government and the Centre for having ignored the rights and aspirations of the nationalist community by having failed to fulfil their commitments made from time to time.