NC men seek adequate security
Tribune News Service

JAMMU, May 8 — A majority of National Conference leaders and workers in Jammu and Kashmir have been gripped by panic over the killing of the Pulwama district party chief, Mr Ghulam Hassan Bhat, on Wednesday and have demanded adequate security cover to all important party functionaries at the village and tehsil levels.

The party cadre has been so much unnerved by the killing of Mr Bhat — and that, too, in the presence of an 11-member police guard — that most of them have demanded that they should be given BSF or CRPF security cover to enable them to campaign for the party candidates in the Lok Sabha elections.

Informed sources said senior party functionaries had urged Mr Ghulam Mohiuddin Shah, Roads and Buildings Minister who is acting as Chief Minister in the absence of Dr Farooq Ahdullah, to convene a meeting of the Cabinet, to be followed by a meeting of the top brass of the security agencies, to work out the modalities for ensuring the security of party workers and leaders against possible armed attacks by militants.

The sources said most of the National Conference workers, legislators and other party functionaries have urged the government to postpone the panchayat elections, proposed to be held in June, so that they could get ample time for campaigning for the Lok Sabha elections.

The state government has yet to make foolproof security arrangements for the panchayat elections. The state government, according to official sources, needs more than 100 additional companies of the paramilitary forces for ensuring an incident-free panchayat poll. In addition, it needs more than Rs 45 crore — Rs 15 crore for meeting the poll expenses and Rs 30 crore on the deployment of additional security forces and on their board and lodging expenses.

In the absence of any commitment from the Centre on making available adequate companies of the security forces, the state government, in consultation with the Chief Electoral Officer, had prepared a tentative schedule for the panchayat poll which would be completed within a period of 52 days. The idea behind phasing the polling was to allow time to the government to despatch security forces from one district to another.

The state government has already made it known to the Union Home Ministry that in the light of reports suggesting step-up in militancy-related violence during the pre-Lok Sabha poll campaign, there is no scope for withdrawing companies of the police and and paramilitary forces deployed in different areas for carrying out anti-insurgency operations. As such, the state needs more than 270 additional companies of the security forces for providing security cover to the candidates contesting the ensuing poll and for manning the polling booths.

During the 1998 Lok Sabha poll the Centre had made available to Jammu and Kashmir 273 additional companies of the paramilitary forces which was one of the factors responsible for an incident-free poll.

Senior functionaries of the state government have conveyed to the Centre that in case it is not in a position to make available over 270 additional companies of the paramilitary forces, it should approach the Chief Election Commissioner and fix a three-phase polling programme for Jammu and Kashmir.

Under that situation, the government could hold elections in three phases and each phase could cover four districts. In such a case the security forces deployed in two districts. In such a case the security forces deployed in two districts where the polling had been completed could be shifted to two other districts where the polling was to be completed.

The state government has already received reports from across the border that Pakistani agencies have moved large groups of militants, most of them foreign mercenaries, close to the 1260 km-long border for pushing them into Jammu and Kashmir for escalating subversive violence which may force people to avoid taking part in the poll process.

In the wake of these reports the Centre needed to attach top priority to Jammu and Kashmir and meet the security demand projected by the state authorities, failing which the separatists may achieve their goal of disrupting the poll process.

Seminar on Gujjars
From Our Correspondent

JAMMU, May 8 — The first ever seminar on the heritage of Gujjars of Jammu and Kashmir, being organised by the Himalayan Research and Cultural Foundation, New Delhi, in collaboration with the Gujjar Desh Charitable Trust, Jammu, and the Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sangrahalaya, Bhopal, got under way here today.

The three-day seminar seek to trace the origin, evolution and dispersal of Gujjars in Jammu and Kashmir and their continued affinities and relationship with the Gujjars of the plains, to analyse the dynamics of social change, impact of modernisation any subsequent change in their ethno-political attitudes and to review their present socio-economic situation.

Mr Masood Choudhary, honorary director, Gujjari Research Institute, Jammu, Mr Bodh Raj Bali, Minister for Industry and Commerce, Prof Devender Kaushik, Chairman, Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies, Calcutta, Dr K Karikoo of JNU, and Prof RR Sharma, Vice-Chancellor, Jammu University, among others, spoke on the occasion.

19 Bangladeshis held

JAMMU, May 8 (UNI) — At least 19 Bangladeshi nationals have been arrested by the Border Security Force (BSF) from the Paharpur area of the Samba sector.

A BSF spokesman told UNI here today that all of them arrested made an attempt to run away to Pakistan through Paharpur border outpost when BSF troops confronted them.

Those arrested included 16 men and three women, who were handed over to the police for interrogation.