5 militants shot in encounter
Tribune News Service and agencies

JAMMU, April 21 — The Army today foiled a major Pak plan of kicking up violence in the upper reaches of Udhampur district by eliminating five hardcore militants belonging to the Lashkar-i-Toiba outfit.

Official sources said on a specific information the troops cordoned off a hideout in the Khatooni forest belt of Mahore tehsil in Udhampur district and when the soldiers neared the house they came under heavy fire. The troops retaliated and opened the fire from three directions in which all five militants were killed on the spot.

The search led to the recovery of a large number of weapons and large quantities of ammunition and explosives which the militants had planned to use in strikes in the adjoining villages. Reports said the hideout was being used for storing arms and ammunition and the militants used to frequent the area for shelter and for procuring weapons and explosives.

According to these reports some incriminating documents too had been seized. The troops had been directed to continue search operations in the Khatooni and Kalaban forest areas with the help of the police.

In another joint operation launched by the troops and the police sizeable quantities of ammunition, including 14 grenades, were recovered from a house in Maloot village in Rajouri district.

Since there was no assault rifles were seized it was evident that the militants had escaped to safer place before the security forces cordoned off the house which was being used by the militants as a hideout for the past several months. The security forces have launched search operations in adjoining villages of Maloot.

SRINAGAR: Abdul Gani Ganai, a militant of the Hizbul Mujahideen, was killed in an encounter with the police during a search operation at Check-e-Masjid village in the Shopain area of Pulwama district last night.

Ganai was trying to escape security checks at the village. An AK assault rifle and a wireless set were seized.

Militants shot dead Sultan at his house in the Mahore area of Udhampur district early today. They said, adding the motive behind his killing could not be known.

A powerful improvised explosive device was found in a three-wheeler near the State Bank of India main branch on Wednesday.

Official sources said the area was immediately sealed off and people in nearby buildings asked to leave the area. Employees at the bank rushed out in panic and work was suspended for some time.

ABVP rejects report of autonomy panel
From Our Correspondent

JAMMU, April 21 — The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) has rejected the recently released state autonomy committee report which has suggested the restoration of the pre-53 position to the state of Jammu and Kashmir.

Addressing a press conference here today, Mr Dattatreya Hosabale, national organising secretary of the ABVP said that the suggestions made in the autonomy report were detrimental to the psychological and territorial unity of the country. "The total unity of the state of Jammu and Kashmir with the Union of India had begun 50 years ago. Therefore, we cannot put the clock back, "said Mr Dattatreya adding that the parishad also did not agree with the regional autonomy committee report.

The national executive council (NEC) meeting of the ABVP to be held in Jammu from May 21 to May 24, 1999, would discuss threadbare these suggestions made by the state and regional autonomy committees. If necessary a resolution would be passed at the meeting, he informed .

The ABVP national organising secretary also informed that the NEC meeting which would be attended by presidents and secretaries of the ABVP from all over the country, would review the golden jubilee celebrations of the ABVP.

The NEC would also deliberate upon the present national situation and educational scene and resolutions would be adopted.

Stressing the importance of economic nationalism, Mr Dattatreya said the NEC would be focussing upon the economic issues of the country in the background of the international economic pressures and the globalisation process. In this regard, a thrust on economic nationalism in order to safeguard the economic sovereignty of the nation both on agricultural and industrial fronts had been contemplated. The issues of higher education, national security would also be discussed by the NEC, he added.

Referring to the political instability at the Centre, he said the President should follow the precedent that he had set himself last year.

Mr Ramesh Pappa, state secretary, ABVP, condemned yesterday's bomb blast in Rajouri and urged the government to strengthen the security in the region. He said the Mata Vaishno Devi University Bill which had been passed in the assembly, should be implemented soon.

APHC unmoved by national events
Tribune News Service

JAMMU, April 21 — If any organisation that remained unaffected by the fall of the BJP-led coalition government at the Centre it was the All-Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC), a conglomeration of 28 separatist groups, which demonstrated its inherent "we care least" attitude towards any significant national development.

Though in their heart of hearts the APHC leaders were happy over the defeat of the BJP-led government of the Centre on the floor of the Lok Sabha, they did not express in public any reaction except that fall or rise of one party or the other at the Centre had no significance for "us." The APHC, despite the fact that it has set up its offices in Jammu and Delhi, has preferred to adopt an attitude of passive spectators so that any reaction from them could be mistaken for their interest in the country's affairs.

Sources close to the APHC leaders said that the Hurriyat was in favour of an "unstable" government at the Centre so that it was forced to settle the Kashmir "dispute" within the ambit of the UN resolution providing for right of self-determination for the people of Kashmir.

The APHC has shown, hardly any interest in the tabling of the two reports, one by the state Autonomy Committee, and another by the Regional Autonomy Committee, in the state legislature. Even though the Autonomy Committee report has recommended the restoration of pre-1953 constitutional status, the APHC has described the report nothing but a "gimmick."

The Chairman of the APHC, Syed Ali Shah Geelani, has said that the demand for greater autonomy, as recommended by the committee, was part of the "delaying tactics" adopted by the Government of India. He has said that the Autonomy Committee's report was part of a bigger conspiracy to delay implementation of the UN resolution on Kashmir. He has said that Chief Minister Dr Farooq Abdullah was being used as a "tool" for helping India to "continue its subjugation of Kashmiri people." He has suspected the hand of some international agencies in substituting the right of self-determination by restoration of pre-1953 constitutional status.

The APHC leaders are of the opinion that had the "people" in Kashmir accepted greater autonomy for the right of self-determination the Kashmir "dispute" would have been resolved 50 years ago. The Hurriyat has reiterated support for tripartite talks on Kashmir so that representatives of the people of Kashmir were involved in the Indo-Pakistan dialogue.