Farooq drops Ansari, 6 others
JAMMU, Dec 13 — The mystery over the Cabinet reshuffle has almost been solved with the Chief Ministers, Dr Farooq Abdullah, deciding to recommend to the Governor that seven minister including the controversial Housing Minister, Molvi Iftikhar Hussain Ansari, be dropped from the Council of Ministers.

Militants target cops, kill 7
SRINAGAR, Dec 13 — Seven police personnel were killed and 18 others wounded as militants launched a series of attacks in the Lal Chowk and adjoining areas in the city today.

Polluting crushers closed
JAMMU, Dec 13 — All the nine stone crushers operating in Athwajan are close to Srinagar city have been closed for causing pollution beyond the permissible limits.This action has been taken on the directions of the Pollution Control Board and its subsequent closure notices.

Farooq drops Ansari, 6 others
From M. L. Kak
Tribune News Service

JAMMU, Dec 13 — The mystery over the Cabinet reshuffle has almost been solved with the Chief Ministers, Dr Farooq Abdullah, deciding to recommend to the Governor that seven minister including the controversial Housing Minister, Molvi Iftikhar Hussain Ansari, be dropped from the Council of Ministers.

Informed sources said that Molvi Ansari had a 30-minute meeting with the Chief Minister here today and after the Molvi refused to resign on the suggestion of Dr Abdullah the latter decided to drop him. The Chief Minister was under pressure to drop Molvi Ansari for having allegedly accepted kickback from a private firm which had been assigned the task of building a satellite town in Jammu.

The sources said the Molvi explained to the Chief Minister that he was not involved in the kickback controversy and blamed certain ministers and senior bureaucrats for having cooked up an issue to "malign" his image.

The Housing Minister had informed the Chief Minister that bureaucrats had leaked out to the Press portions of the Raju Committee report. He had stated that in the Raju committee report names of many senior bureaucrats had been mentioned but their names had not been deliberately leaked out. "You cannot hang a person till charges against him all proved in the court, Molvi Ansari is said to have told the Chief Minister adding that the Raju panel report is nothing but preliminary investigation."

When the Molvi refused to resign, the Chief Minister decided to recommend his sack from the Cabinet to the Governor. The sources said more than seven members of the Council of Ministers, including four Ministers of State, were included in the list of those to be dropped.

The Chief Minister left for Srinagar after having taken the decision. He is said to have tried to persuade the Molvi to follow his colleagues for whom resignation letters had already been sought. But the Housing Minister is said to have refused to resign.

Dr Abdullah is said to have decided to reduce the size of his 32-member Council of Ministers but he may give berth to three to four new faces.

These dropped from the Cabinet are Mr Ali Mohd. Naik, Revenue Minister, who was elected to the Lok Sabha, Molvi Iftikhar Hussain Ansari, Housing Minister, Mr M.S. Taroq, Minister of State Govind Ram, Minister of Industries. Both Raj Bali, Syed Abdul Rashid, Safdar Ali Beg.

The Chief Minister has reportedly reallocated the portfolios of Cabinet ministers. Under the reshuffle Mohd. Shafi is the Education Minister, mr A.R. Rather will be the new Finance Minister. Dr Mustafa Kanal has been given Industries, Ghulam Mohiuddin Shah, Housing and Urban Development, Ali Mohd. Sagar, Works, Abdul Qayoon, Revenue, Bashir Ahmed Kichloo, Social Welfare, Mina Altaf, Health services, Alat Shatru Transport and S.S. Slathia, Tourism.

Militants target cops, kill 7

SRINAGAR, Dec 13 (PTI) — Seven police personnel were killed and 18 others wounded as militants launched a series of attacks in the Lal Chowk and adjoining areas in the city today.

The attacks, carried out within a span of two hours in a 2-km radius, created panic and fear among people and shocked security authorities, official sources said.

Militants carrying silencer-fitted pistols and grenades shot at and seriously wounded a constable Ghulam Nabi at Madina Chowk near Gawkadal in the afternoon, the sources said.

Within minutes, they exploded a grenade and targeted policemen in a similar fashion at Ghanta Ghar, Regal Chowk, Koker Bazar and Kothibagh Bund, wounding 12 personnel.

The injured were rushed to hospital where five policemen, including an Assistant Sub-Inspector Sonam Durjay and a special police officer Bashir Ahmad were declared brought dead.

The condition of the injured was stated to be serious as they were fired at from a very close range.

The attacks, particularly the grenade explosion at Ghanta Ghar which followed the shooting spree by the militants, caused panic among residents and shopkeepers in the affected areas downed their shutters fearing retaliation by the agitated policemen.

Militants struck in the heavily-guarded Batmaloo area of central Srinagar and shot dead two policemen besides hurling three grenades in quick succession wounding 10 others, including six personnel of the General Roads Engineering Force (GREF).

The police assisted by paramilitary forces sealed several areas and a hunt for the militants was on.

The attacks, which continued till 3.30 p.m. coincided with the arrival of Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah from Jammu.

Polluting crushers closed
Tribune News Service

JAMMU, Dec 13 — All the nine stone crushers operating in Athwajan are close to Srinagar city have been closed for causing pollution beyond the permissible limits.This action has been taken on the directions of the Pollution Control Board and its subsequent closure notices.

An official spokesman said here this evening that the Electricity Department had disconnected the power connections of these units on the Srinagar-Jammu national highway. The information was given at a high-level meeting held here today to review implementation of the directions of the board for closing down these units.

The meeting discussed various alternative sites, including Rakh-i-Shalina for relocation of the affected stone crushers.

The meeting also took strong notice of the activities of other stone crushers running unauthorisedly and decided to serve closure notices on these units as well.

The meeting also discussed the issue with regard to the brick kilns operating in Pulwama and Budgam districts.

The meeting decided that no entrepreneur would henceforth be permitted to set up any brick kiln or stone-crusher without obtaining an NOC from the board on fulfilling its guidelines.

According to the guidelines, no brick kiln is allowed to come up within five km area of the municipal limits of Jammu and Srinagar cities and two km of a district headquarters.

It has also banned the setting up of such units within three to four km of a residential area and 1.5 km of a tourist resort or complex.