The Tribune...Jammu and Kashmir

J A M M U CA N D
K A S H M I R

Sunday, July 19, 1998

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Yaseen Malik arrested, Hurriyat leaders put
under house arrest
SRINAGAR, July 18 — Hurriyat Conference leader Mohammad Yaseen Malik was arrested today while other top leadership of the organisation, including its chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani were put under house arrest as a "precautionary measure", the police here said...

40,000 visit Amarnath
in 13 days
JAMMU, July 18 — With 20 more days left for the completion of the month-long annual pilgrimage to the 13,500-feet-high Amarnath cave in eastern Kashmir, about 40,000 pilgrims have already visited the cave during the past 13 days...

Heavy Pak firing on villages
JAMMU, July 18 — Pakistan has almost declared an 'open war' against India in the northern sector of Jammu and Kashmir by pounding at least eight villages in Gurez, Bandipore and Uri sectors, forcing over 4000 people from Gurez to migrate to safer areas on the outskirts of Bandipore...

Yaseen Malik arrested, Hurriyat
leaders put under house arrest
SRINAGAR, July 18 (PTI) — Hurriyat Conference leader Mohammad Yaseen Malik was arrested today while other top leadership of the organisation, including its chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani were put under house arrest as a "precautionary measure", the police here said.
The step follows information with the authorities that the Hurriyat Conference was planning to hold a public meeting at Iqbal Park here today, despite denial of permission by the authorities.
Mr Malik was arrested from his Maisuma residence this morning. The Hurriyat office at Rajbagh was also placed under strict vigilance.
Among those whose houses were cordoned off included Mr Geelani, Maulvi Mohammad Abbas Ansari, Prof Abdul Gani Bhat, Qazi Abdullah and Mohammad Yaqoob Vakil. The leaders were detained without assigning any reason, Hurriyat sources said.
Meanwhile, reports said the renewed firing by Pakistani troops had forced migration from three border villages in Kashmir. Eight persons, including five militants, had been killed in continued violence last evening, an official spokesman said.
Thirteen passersby were wounded today when militants attacked a security picket with a grenade at Jehangir Chowk in the heart of the city.
Residents of Bagtoor, Tarabal and Izmarg villages in the Gurez Sector of North Kashmir’s Baramulla district have migrated to Bandipora because of the continued shelling and firing by the Pakistani troops for the past few days.
Official sources put the number of migrants at over 2,000 and said, "it is a routine affair for the villagers living near the line of control to escape Pakistani bullets."
Two persons, including a 13-year-old student, were killed in a gunbattle between the security forces and suspected militants.
JAMMU: With the arrest of five persons, the police claim to have solved the Shalimar Express bomb blast case.
Bachan Lal, resident of RS Pura, Mehraj-ud-Din Bhat, resident of Safa Kadal Srinagar, Mohammad Yousuf Ganai alias Usman, a resident of Pulwama, Mushtaq Ahmed Najar alias Bitta, a resident of Baramulla and Basheer Ahmed Kandsoo alias Basharat, a resident of Sopore are the five persons apprehended by the police under suspicion of their being involved in the explosion.
The blast took place on the railway track at Rayamore near Bari Brahamana on June 23. Eight bogies of the Delhi bound Shalimar Express were derailed and 35 passengers injured.
According to a police spokesman, after the explosion in Shalimar Express, systematic investigation was carried out by the police on June 25, 1998, by activating intelligence agencies and strengthening the checking system .
According to the spokesman, the Bari Brahamana police recovered a bicycle left unattended near the national highway. As nobody claimed ownership, it was taken away by the police, which suspected that militants might have used the bicycle after carrying out the explosion.
It was brought to the notice of the police that on June 20, Bachan Lal, son of Gulab Chand resident of Simbal camp RS Pura, who was missing from the camp for a long time, was seen near Khour RS Pura.
On further investigations it was revealed that he came and stayed in the house of Satpal of Khour RS Pura village. Bachan Lal was a close associate of Ranjeet Singh alias Neeta, head of the Khalistan Zindabad Force (KZF), who had earlier been arrested and detained in the Central Jail, Jammu, for his involvement in militant activities.
As the presence of the dreaded KZF militant was noticed, the police geared up its operations and was able to apprehend the five suspects from a hideout in New Delhi, the spokesman said.

40,000 visit Amarnath in 13 days
Tribune News Service
JAMMU, July 18 — With 20 more days left for the completion of the month-long annual pilgrimage to the 13,500-feet-high Amarnath cave in eastern Kashmir, about 40,000 pilgrims have already visited the cave during the past 13 days. This number includes the 2,000 yatris who reached the shrine via the Baltal route. In addition, more than 5,000 security personnel have also offered prayers in front of the ice lingam inside the cave.
Despite three attempts made by the militants to disrupt the yatra the pilgrimage has remained incident-free though the pilgrims had to face discomfort during the journey from Jammu to Pahalgam owing to traffic jams on the Jammu-Khanabal national highway. Five pilgrims died on the route between Pahalgam and Amarnath following cardiac arrest.
Official sources said a major tragedy was averted when the security forces recovered three IEDs near Chandanwari on July 6 and these explosives were defused. Two other explosives were defused on the route before they could blow up the track. Recently, three militants were killed by the security forces while they were trying to hurl a grenade at a convoy of pilgrims near Banihal.
No major militant group had imposed a ban on the yatra but it was part of their tactical move. With the militants feeling unnerved by the unprecedented rush of pilgrims to the holy cave during the past 13 days, the three major insurgent groups — the Hizbul Mujahideen, Harkatul Ansar and Lashkar-i-Toiba — have set up a joint command for carrying out armed attacks on the security forces deployed to guard the pilgrims.
Militants belonging to these three outfits have established hideouts in the hilly belts between Sonamarg and the upper reaches of the area around the cave and from Kokernag to the Pahalgam alpine mountain range. These militant groups were, according to the official sources, waiting for an opportunity to launch gun and grenade attacks on security pickets and patrol parties to disrupt the yatra.
They have not succeeded so far because of elaborate security bandobast, which includes a regular road opening exercise wherein a company of security personnel equipped with the required gadgets carry out search for mines and IEDs and militants before the start of the trek from Pahalgam to the cave by each pilgrim group.
The state government expected more than 75,000 pilgrims to have darshan of the ice lingam if the Jammu-Khanabal road remained open and the passenger transport movement was not affected by rain and landslides.
So far, the holy cave has attracted pilgrims from all over the country. Though the rush of pilgrims from Punjab, Haryana, Delhi and Himachal Pradesh during the past 13 days seemed a routine thing, the state authorities were surprised to have large groups of pilgrims from Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

Heavy Pak firing on villages
Tribune News Service
JAMMU, July 18 — Pakistan has almost declared an 'open war' against India in the northern sector of Jammu and Kashmir by pounding at least eight villages in Gurez, Bandipore and Uri sectors, forcing over 4000 people from Gurez to migrate to safer areas on the outskirts of Bandipore.
Official reports said that six civilians and one commanding officer of the 9 Jat Regiment were killed in the Pakistani firing in Uri and Gurez sectors today.
The Indian troops retaliated and destroyed at least 15 Pakistani bunkers across the border but Pakistani soldiers are said to have used medium range missiles to pound the Indian villages and pickets in North-west region of Kashmir.
Government sources said that the situation was alarming on the India-Pakistan border in North Kashmir and additional troops had been despatched to the border to meet the challenge posed by Pakistan.
Eyewitness accounts said that people from Gurez town were seen marching for safety to Bandipore area after the town was rocked by rocket and artillery fire. The authorities have sent an SOS to Army headquarters to seek instructions about the action they should adopt in dealing with the new threat from across the border.
Latest reports said that the Defence Ministry has directed Northern Command to take any suitable action to prevent Pakistani troops from intruding into Indian territory.