Major killed in encounter
JAMMU, Oct 19 — A Major and three militants were killed and four security personnel injured in an encounter in the Mulshetra area of Kishtwar subdivision of Doda district today. Reports said on a tip off men of the 11 RR battalion cordoned off a militant hideout. The rebels opened heavy fire killing a Major, who was leading the operation, on the spot.

Students threaten immolation
SRINAGAR, Oct 19 — Eighty students of a private medical college here today threatened immolation if they were not immediately absorbed in government medical colleges as promised by the Chief Minister, Dr Farooq Abdullah.

Unique way to fight polio
SRINAGAR, Oct 19 — The Jammu and Kashmir Academy of Art, Culture and Languages has launched a unique way of motivating people through theatre towards the pulse-polio campaign.

They don’t resent Army’s presence

KARGIL, Oct 19 (PTI) — Their standing crops were mowed down by Army vehicles and houses damaged due to shock waves created by the boom of mighty 155-mm Bofors guns, but the people of Kargil, who bore the brunt of Pakistan’s failed incursion in the area, have no regrets.

“We are alive because the Army was here to save us. We have suffered losses, but that is a small price to pay for the aggression by a neighbour who has scant regard for human life or peace,” says Mr Abdul Rashid, a school teacher and resident of Kharbu village, 24 km from Kargil on the national highway.

“Pakistan ko to bilkul tameez nahin hai. Achha hua jo apni Army ne use dant tod kar wapas bhaga diya (Pakistan does not have any decency. It was good that the intruders were kicked back into their country by our Army,” he says proudly.

On persistent questioning about the losses the villagers suffered due to the Army presence, an almost exasperated Mr Ghulam Nabi (80), a veteran of 1947 retorts: “Saheb, fauj koi fiza mein to nahin rah sakti. (The Army cannot live suspended in the air.)”

Perched on a plateau rising 350 m above the road and under direct view of the Sheryal and Twainbum posts of Pakistan, residents of Chanigund village, 12 km from Kargil, see the Army as their only hope.

“It provided us with vehicles when we had to flee overnight to protect ourselves from shelling. It gave us medicines and sometimes even food and other surplus stocks of essentials it had. If someone falls ill, the Army provided an ambulance to take the patient to hospital,” says Mr Mohammad Hasan, a resident of the village.

For Batalik, a major theatre of the summer conflict, and nearby villages, the Army goodwill school at Darchiks village on a 250-m scarp above the gushing Indus river is the only nearby educational institution they can send their kids to.

Ditto for Kaksar village, which sits virtually on the Line of Control (LoC) has borne the brunt of Pakistani shelling since 1991 and shot into limelight during the conflict when Lieut Saurav Kalia and his five soldiers were captured in the area, brutally tortured for several days and their badly mutilated bodies handed over to India.

The residents of Kaksar are a hardworking lot with the village boasting of a very high number of personnel in state police and government jobs and most families are quite prosperous, but their only source of education is the Army goodwill school in their village.

The Buddhist tribal residents of Garkhun village in the Batalik sector, who first noticed the Pakistani intruders, are in a fix because their windowpanes were shattered by the booming Indian artillery guns returning fire.

But they are not complaining.

Says Mr Tashi Tsering, the postmaster of the village: “We should not have closed the windows during the shelling. Now even if we replace the panes, we do not know when Pakistan starts firing again and the Indian guns on the fringe of the village are forced to retaliate. It would be good if they can be taken further down the road.”

Senior artillery officers say strategic constraints can force the Army to place the guns in the vicinity of villages, but generally care is taken to steer clear of civilian population.

On charges of the Army cutting down trees and damaging crops in certain areas, an officer retorts: “Did you want us to save the crops or the country. In times of war, it is not always possible to keep in mind the environmental impact of having Army units or artillery batteries at a certain spot.”

“The Army is one of the most environment-friendly organisations in the country and we have exclusive Territorial Army battalions, including the one based in Dehra Dun which is exclusively dedicated to greening the area,” the officer said.

Major killed in encounter
Tribune News Service

JAMMU, Oct 19 — A Major and three militants were killed and four security personnel injured in an encounter in the Mulshetra area of Kishtwar subdivision of Doda district today.

Reports said on a tip off men of the 11 RR battalion cordoned off a militant hideout. The rebels opened heavy fire killing a Major, who was leading the operation, on the spot. Additional forces were rushed to the spot and the encounter lasted for more than four hours. Three militants are said to have been killed in the encounter. Four security personnel were injured.

Before the hideout was smashed by the RR men several militants managed to escape.

Meanwhile the police achieved a major success in Doda by arresting a dreaded militant, Farooq Mir alias Jaan Baaz, who had been operating as tehsil commander of 'Harkat-e-ul' Jamait Islami. The police had launched a man hunt to arrest or eliminate Farooq Mir who had been active in carrying out a series of militant strikes in Doda district.

SRINAGAR, (PTI) : Five militants, were among six persons, killed in separate incidents in the Kashmir valley since yesterday. The security forces smashed six militant hideouts and recovered a big cache of arms and ammunition and also defused a powerful land-mine foiling militants' attempt to set off a blast in the valley during the period, an official spokesman said here today.

Panic gripped the Batmaloo area of central Srinagar today following a shooting incident which left a militant killed. A pistol and a grenade were seized.

A Defence Ministry spokesman said three militants were killed in two separate encounters with the Army at Sadganga Drugmullah and Nalabend Kulangam in Kupwara district last night.

Three AK assault rifles, two hand grenades and some ammunition was seized.

He said body of a released militant, who was associated with Al-Burq outfit was recovered from the Beerwah area of Badgam district today.

The body of a man was recovered from Khoi Maran Haka Bazar Hari Parbat in downtown Srinagar today. It bore sharp-edged weapon injury marks on the forehead.

A possible tragedy was averted today when the security forces detected a powerful land mine planted by militants on the roadside at Gundwani in the Damhal Hanjipora area of Anantnag. The mine was defused by experts.

The Security forces busted four militant hideouts during search operations at Gandigana, Tilpetra, Hangikoot and Haparuda forests in Kupwara district yesterday.

A big cache of arms and ammunition, including two AK assault rifles, an RPG launcher, seven RPG grenades, a disposable rocket launcher, a disposable rocket, four solar rockets, four other rockets with eight boosters, five rifle grenades, seven hand grenades and about 1500 rounds of ammunition were seized from the hideouts.

The security forces also recovered four disposable rocket launchers, a two-inch mortar bomb, 19 grenades, five RPG boosters, 10 electric detonators, five explosive filled pipes and 80 rounds of ammunition from two separate militant hideouts unearthed during the course of combing operations at Waterbala in Baramula district and Salar-Pahalgam in Anantnag district last night.

Militants kidnapped a person from his house at Manzhar in Kupwara district last night.

They kept the war machine fit
From Kavita Bhargava

UDHAMPUR: During the Kargil conflict weapons such as the Bofors gun did wonders and helped in the victory of the Indian troops fighting in most difficult terrain against Pakistani troops and mercenaries. But maintaining the weapons, repairing the Bofors gun was a job that the engineers and technicians of Corps of Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (EME) did very successfully.

Most of these electronic modules were repaired at Srinagar and Udhampur within a month as compared to a few months at other places. Because of the urgency of the situation, the craftsmen, artisans and gun-fitters worked round the clock and lived up to the expectations of their officers.

The Bofors gun was the weapon most extensively used in Operation Vijay. Keeping these guns as well as other equipment serviceable was a Herculean task for the EME.

Spares were available only in limited quantities due to the ban on dealings by the manufacturers. Thus the entire maintenance was by cannibalisation. The wear and tear was more pronounced due to the effectiveness of the weapons system. The recycling of defective guns was critical in the shortest possible time. Defect in guns needed to be repaired at the gun positions. Naib-Subedar Nageshwar Mahto of EME sacrificed his life while repairing the Bofors gun in the Dras sector.

The tyres of the Bofors gun and its carriage cost Rs 2 lakh each in terms of foreign exchange. A gun with a damaged tyre is immobile and cannot fire as the recoil shock of the weapon (over 6 tons psi) is absorbed by these tubeless tyres. The EME, with the help of indigenous material and ingenuity, was able to render the weapon system serviceable and thus carried out a saving of approximately Rs 3 crore in terms of foreign exchange with a meagre investment of about Rs 38,000 only.

The EME technicians maintained Army aviation helicopters which were critical for Operation Vijay. The task was extremely difficult due to the paucity of critical spares. These flying machines are old and occasionally some parts are required to be brought from HAL and then recycled. High-altitude operation brought about stress on the machine due to the war and hits by enemy fire. The maintenance and repair time of a machine was reduced by over 300 per cent in spite of the lack of spares and recycling of the same spare — a challenge to the EME.

Telecom equipment is critical and decisive in any battle. The difficulty to maintain it due to the diversity of equipment procured, both indigenous and imported (with spares always in short supply), made workshops reduce the equipment to hours or few days, where under normal circumstances, it would have taken a week or even a fortnight.

The Army used numerous indigenous and imported missile launchers. The serviceability of this weapon is quite important for effective use of the missile in battle. EME tradesmen operated with infantry units to ensure the serviceability and restore the user confidence in its fire capability. Jawans Kamlesh Singh and Sheshnath Singh Yadav died while ensuing the serviceability of missile launchers during the capture of Tololing.

The lines of communication are required to be kept open for the smooth induction of men, material and equipment. With the help of recovery vehicles, everything from vehicles to guns was recovered by the EME. Havaldar Gangu Ram Dass, a recovery mechanic, lost his life while carrying out such a recovery in the Kargil sector.

The equipment lived up to expectations and necessity of the users because in the workshops, the EME craftsmen were working in shifts round the clock so that the man behind the machine had an operational war machine in the 74-day Kargil war.

Students threaten immolation

SRINAGAR, Oct 19 (PTI) — Eighty students of a private medical college here today threatened immolation if they were not immediately absorbed in government medical colleges as promised by the Chief Minister, Dr Farooq Abdullah.

Mr Saima Khursheed, spokesperson for Prime Medical and Dental College (PMC) students who are on an indefinite fast, told reporters here that Dr Abdullah, during a visit to the PMC on August 1, had promised that the students of the medical college, where no examination had been conducted so far despite being affiliated to Kashmir University, would be adjusted in various government medical colleges in the state.

"We are lost and drowned in a dark sea ... with help eluding us even after knocking at the doors of everyone," Mr Khursheed said.

The Jammu and Kashmir High Court, which had ordered the closure of the PMC in 1997, had on a review petition from the college directed that the college should either be closed, and the students adjusted in government colleges, or granted affiliation by the university.

Unique way to fight polio
Tribune News Service

SRINAGAR, Oct 19 — The Jammu and Kashmir Academy of Art, Culture and Languages has launched a unique way of motivating people through theatre towards the pulse-polio campaign. At least 30 theatre groups, belonging to different parts of the state, are engaged in performing five shows each in different languages.

According to Mr Balwant Thakur, Secretary of the academy, these performances started on Saturday and were based on themes of motivation in Kashmiri, Dogri, Ladakhi, Pahari, Gojri, Balti, Bhaderwahi and Shiraji in different parts of the state. He said during the first three days, over 300 programmes were organised. "These groups are drawing large crowds particularly in the rural pockets of the state," Mr Thakur said.

"In Kargil and the outskirts of Leh, people had the opportunity to watch theatrical performances for the first time. Theatre is the most effective medium of communication and is presently playing a major role by motivating people to eradicate polio. Jammu and Kashmir perhaps is the only state where this kind of motivational campaign through traditional street theatre has been successfully initiated," Mr Thakur said.

Earlier, the academy had organised two special workshops held at Jammu and Srinagar in which leaders of these groups provided guidelines for the production of short plays in various languages to motivate the rural audience to have their young children vaccinated to eradicate polio.