Bomb detected at JKDFP office

SRINAGAR, Jan 17 (PTI) — A major tragedy was averted with the timely detection of a powerful explosive device, while a militant was killed and some arms and ammunition were seized by the security forces in the Kashmir valley since last evening, an official spokesman said today.

An explosive device was defused in a building housing the office of the Jammu and Kashmir Democratic Freedom Party (JKDFP) at Saraibala, near the Republic Day parade venue here, last evening, he said.

A senior police officer said had the device, planted on the third floor of the multi-storeyed building, exploded it could have destroyed the building and several adjoining structures.

The spokesman said the security forces shot dead a foreign mercenary in an encounter in Baramula district of north Kashmir last evening. Some arms and ammunition were seized from him.

He said four suspects who were arrested by the security forces during a search at Laripora in Pahalgam were released after preliminary questioning yesterday.

The security forces seized a pistol, two hand-grenades 250 kg of ration items and a magazine with seven pistols rounds from an abandoned militant hideout at Shonth village in Kupwara district yesterday, the spokesman added.

Sowing complete in border villages
Tribune News Service

JAMMU, Jan 17 — Sowing in several hundred acres of land in three border villages — Londi, Khora and Paharpur — where cropping practices had been suspended during the past two years due to heavy Pak firing, has been completed with the help of the BSF. The BSF had been given 10 tractors for carrying out farming practices by the Department of Agriculture on the instructions of the Chief Minister, Dr Farooq Abdullah.

According to the Inspector-General, BSF, Mr UC Chhabra, BSF jawans swung into action after Pak Rangers agreed on ceasefire following a meeting in Lahore two months ago. The moment the BSF jawans went to the fields with the tractors, the farmers who had not dared to work there, came out in large numbers to carry out sowing.

Mr Chhabra said that on the 187 km long international border (IB) and in Rajouri and Poonch sectors the BSF has been in the forefront in fighting militants and in checking infiltration and arms smuggling. He claimed that it was a result of round the clock patrolling that the BSF had succeeded in checking infiltration and arms smuggling. Scores of militant hideouts in Poonch and Rajouri sectors had been smashed in recent weeks and the BSF in collaboration with the Army and the police eliminated more than 100 militants, including foreign mercenaries in recent weeks.

The IG BSF has said that the BSF has acted as a link between border villagers and the civil administration. In various villages the BSF officials would interact with village lambardars and elders and find out their problems and grievances which were forwarded to the civil authorities concerned for redress. He said eight medical camps were organised by the BSF and books, stationery and sports items were distributed among school students.

Mr Chhabra paid tributes to 26 BSF personnel who laid down their lives in the Jammu sector during the past one year while fighting the militants.

Rise in stress-induced ailments
Tribune News Service

JAMMU, Jan 17 — Every fourth person in troubled Jammu and Kashmir is said to be suffering from stress-induced ailments. There has been an unprecedented increase in the number of patients with diabetes and neurological disorders.

According to medical experts, a large number of persons in the valley and a majority of the displaced families camping in Jammu continue to be in the grip of "fear psychosis".

A well-known neurologist, Dr Susheel Razdan, said "depression, hysterical fits and suicidal tendencies are the main problems arising from Kashmiris' acute sense of insecurity in the face of the raging turbulence in the valley".

Ghulam Rasool, a shopkeeper from Srinagar, who came for treatment to the neurologist, said he would like to live away from the valley, "a paradise turned hell". "If you leave your home for work in the morning, you can never be sure of returning home alive and in one piece in the evening," he said.

A serious case is that of a poor Kashmiri woman, Farzi, who was seen muttering unintelligible words. She could say "Bandook bardar" (bearer of the gun), apparently referring to militants and the security forces engaged in encounters and exchange of fire. Out of 34 patients at the clinic 28 were said to be suffering from fear psychosis and depression.

A prominent physician in Srinagar, Dr Naseer Ahmed Shah, said: "the Kashmiri mind at the moment is unstable and confused, if I may say so". He added that it was prone to depression caused by nine years of turmoil and violence in the valley and elsewhere in the state. To him Kashmiris "are torn between militants and security personnel." He said: "A guntoting militant goes to a common man's house for night shelter. He cannot refuse for fear of being killed by the insurgent. Night over, the militant moves away and after a shot while security personnel barge into his house to inquire why he had given shelter to the militant. Despite a detailed explanation the average Kashmiri faces trouble during the interrogation".

He said Kashmiris, by and large, lost their peace of mind and started banking on sedatives. There had been a colossal increase in the sale of various drugs in the valley and elsewhere in the state.

A snap survey by this correspondent revealed that with a phenomenal increase in stress-induced ailments among people in the valley and among displaced families, Jammu has witnessed a mushroom growth of nursing homes. During the past eight years more than 25 nursing homes have been set up.

After the turmoil began the number of "medical shops" and those selling medicines and other drugs in Jammu has increased from 50 to over 300.

The survey revealed that prior to the rise of militancy medicines and other drugs of the value of over Rs 75 crore used to be imported into the Kashmir valley, and in Jammu it was not more than Rs 10 crore per year. There has been an increase in the imports. People often spend more than 30 per cent of their income on medicare and medicines.

Another problem that has gripped people in the valley and elsewhere in the troubled areas of the state is anaemia.

CPM for all-party meeting on Kashmir

JAMMU, Jan 17 (PTI) — Communist Party of India (Marxist) has asked Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah to convene an all-party meeting over continuing violence in the state.

The Chief Minister should convene an all-party meeting in which even those in disagreement with mainstream parties should be invited, state party secretary Mohammad Yusuf Tarigami said in a letter addressed to Mr Abdullah here today.

Expressing deep concern over the inter-group killings, custodial deaths and assassinations of political activists in the state, he said the continuing violence is threatening the very existence of an orderly society.

The state secretary of CPM said that he apprehended slipping away of the golden opportunity provided by the 1996 elections and gradual erosion of people’s confidence in public institutions and the democratic process, amidst increasing sense of insecurity in the common man.

The letter has suggested that the proposed meeting could evolve ways and means in order to stop bloodshed of uninvolved, unarmed and innocent people in the state, Mr Tarigami said.