J A M M U   &   K A S H M I R

Two of suicide squad shot
JAMMU, Jan 23 — The police here today shot dead two militants of a suspected suicide squad and recovered a large quantity of arms and ammunition meant for disrupting Republic Day celebrations here today.

Fidayeen on way to Delhi: J&K police
JAMMU, Jan 23 — The state intelligence agencies have sent an urgent message to the Delhi police cautioning it about the activities of a group of Fidayeen which has sneaked into the Union Capital recently.

Buddhist leaders to meet PM
JAMMU, Jan 23 — The Ladakh Buddist Association will send a delegation of prominent Buddhists to meet the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, to request him to grant asylum to the 17th Karmapa immediately.

Valley back to 'dark" days
SRINAGAR, Jan 23 — While the shortage of power in the Kashmir valley has turned the tide in favour of certain dealers, the darkness takes one back to the primitive ways to servive in the severe wintry conditions.

India ready to face any threat: Farooq
JAMMU, Jan 23 — The Chief Minister, Dr Farooq Abdullah, has said India is prepared to face any threat from Pakistan. He said: "We are capable of facing any challenging from across the border."

Two of suicide squad shot

JAMMU, Jan 23 (PTI, UNI) — The police here today shot dead two militants of a suspected suicide squad and recovered a large quantity of arms and ammunition meant for disrupting Republic Day celebrations here today.

The two foreign mercenaries of Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, arrested earlier today, were killed when they attacked a police party which had taken them to a spot to unearth explosives hidden by them, a police spokesman said.

Mohammad Younis and Mohammad Aslam of Jhelum and Mirpur areas, respectively, in Pakistan, were arrested from a local hotel, he said.

Following their confession during interrogation that they had hidden explosives in the Tawi area, the two were taken to the site where one of them picked up a grenade and threw it at the police party.

The two militants in Army uniform had last night escaped arrest at Panama Chowk when a traffic policeman stopped an autorickshaw in which they were travelling.

Two more militants, one of them identified as Feroz Ahmad Langoo, were killed in separate encounters during search operations at Yarikhah in Badgam district of central Kashmir and Laam forest in Pulwama district of south Kashmir, last night the spokesman said.

He said the Jammu and Kashmir police killed two Kashmiri militants, identified as Mohammad Shafi and Umar Din, at Mandal-Satwari in Jammu region last night.

The body of a militant was today recovered from the debris of a house which was damaged in Friday’s, encounter at Chak-e-Badergund in the Qazigund area of Anantnag district in south Kashmir, the spokesman said.

Fidayeen on way to Delhi: J&K police
From M. L. Kak
Tribune News Service

JAMMU, Jan 23 — The state intelligence agencies have sent an urgent message to the Delhi police cautioning it about the activities of a group of Fidayeen which has sneaked into the Union Capital recently.

According to the State Government reports, four Fidayeen, two of them from across the border, have been directed to carry out gun or grenade attacks on vital installations and disrupt Republic Day celebrations.

The state agencies have furnished the Delhi police descriptions of the Fidayeen.

Meanwhile, two of the four Fidayeen Mohammad Yunus alias Mohammad Shafi and Mohammad Aslam, alias Din Mohammad, who were arrested while trying to blow up an Army Transit camp near Jammu University were killed near the Nikki Tawi area last night.

The police said these two Fidayeens were taken to the site where they had concealed arms and ammunition. While one of them was fiddling with a grenade it went off killing the two on the spot. The two hailed from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

Another report said that they were killed when they tried to flee from the Nikki Tawi belt. Two other Fidayeens are still being interrogated. They belong to Sopore.

The two Fidayeen hired a three-wheeler yesterday. They had plans to blow up the army transit camp. The auto driver stopped his three-wheeler near a party of traffic police personnel near Panama chowk. The two militants took to the heels.

In the evening a CID official learnt the two Fidayeen were staying in a hotel. He bolted the door of the room from outside and summoned the police.

Their arrest led to the arrest of two other Fidayeen. These four Fidayeen reached Jammu from Kashmir three days ago. They had been staying in two different hotels. They had been assigned to blow up vital defence installations and disrupt Republic Day celebrations. They had also been asked to eliminate VIPs in the winter capital.

As a result of growing activities of Fidayeen additional security force has been deployed in Jammu city. Several sensitive places have been almost ringed by gun-toting constables. The checking of vehicles has been intensified and Maulana Azad Stadium, where the main Republic Day function is to be held on January 26, has been made out of bounds for people, including sportsmen. The area in and around the stadium has been placed under heavy security guard.

The Director General Police, Mr Gurbachan Jagat, has decided to sanction one rank promotion to the CID official who bolted the two Fidayeen inside a hotel room which led to their arrest. The CID official may also receive some reward.

Buddhist leaders to meet PM
Tribune News Service

JAMMU, Jan 23 — The Ladakh Buddist Association (LBA) will send a delegation of prominent Buddhists to meet the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, to request him to grant asylum to the 17th Karmapa immediately.

This was announced by LBA president Tsering Samphel while addressing a public function in Leh yesterday which was held to express happiness over the arrival of the "living Buddha" in India from Tibet.

Mr Samphel said India had given shelter to sages, scholars and spiritual leaders from different countries on different occasions. He said it would be in tune with the age-old policy if the government granted asylum to the spiritual leader.

The LBA leader will also visit Dharamsala to meet the spiritual leader and invite him to Ladakh.

Valley back to 'dark" days
Tribune News Service

SRINAGAR, Jan 23 — While the shortage of power in the Kashmir valley has turned the tide in favour of certain dealers, the darkness takes one back to the primitive ways to servive in the severe wintry conditions.

"Winter is a hard time for men and animals in Kashmir, and when wood and charcoal are dear the poor citizens of Srinagar are to be pitied", wrote Walter Lawrence, a British author, exactly a century ago. The same is true of the life being faced by about 40 lakh people of the valley these days.

The valley, which has a capacity of generating 15,000 MW of power from its natural hydel resources, is unable to do so due to the Indus Water Treaty between India and Pakistan. According to the treaty, waters of the Jhelum, Sindh and Chenab in the state cannot be stored for power generation. The result is that the state has to rely on the import of power from the northern grid.

The entire valley was plunged into darkness due to a blast in the 220 kv Kishanpur-Pampore and 132 kv Udhampur-Srinagar transmission lines at Qazigund disrupting the import of 230 kvs of power from the northern grid on January 14. The valley is left with only 85 MWs of power following the blast of a 400 kv tower at Kuthipora, village Wagura in Budgam district near Srinagar on January 15, disrupting the supply of 150 kvs from Uri Civil Hydel Project.

Since November, 1999, the availability of power has been only 425 MWs as against a demand of 750 MWs at peak hours in the valley. Power was available only for 14-hour per day. This included the supply of 150 MWs from Uri, 34 MWs from Lower Jhelum, 6 MWs from Upper Sindh and 5 MWs from the Ganderbal projects, amounting to 195 MWs. At least 230 MWs were being imported from the northern grid, thus providing 425 MWs to the consumers in the valley. With the disruption in transmission lines at Qazigund and at Wagura grid station, the state has been left with only 85 MWs of power. "Out of this, the essential load of hospitals, telephone exchanges and water works installations sums up to 30 MWs", stated Mr A.R. Matto, Chief Engineer, Power Development Department. A meagre 55 MWs of power is available to the public, whose demand in Srinagar, towns and district headquarters works out to 550 MWs. Thus, only 10 per cent of the requirement is available at present which means that a particular area cannot get power for more than over two hours a day.

The shortage of power has crippled life in the whole of the valley which is already reeling under "chillai kalan", the 40-day peak winter season. Further, employees’ strike has added to the woes of the common man. The situation further worsened due to the blocking of the 300-km-long Srinagar-Jammu national highway after heavy snowfall, which re-opened after over a week on Wednesday. Being the only surface link with the rest of the country and the life-line of the valley, its blocking led to a shortage of essential commodities in the market.

The only business that flourished due to power shortage was that of kerosene stoves and candles. Dealers of kerosene stoves are doing a brisk business these days as people have to rely on these in the absence of electricity and cooking gas.

Students are also having a tough time as most of them are preparing for examinations after the winter break.

India ready to face any threat: Farooq
Tribune News Service

JAMMU, Jan 23 — The Chief Minister, Dr Farooq Abdullah, has said India is prepared to face any threat from Pakistan. He said: "We are capable of facing any challenging from across the border."

Talking to a group of newspersons here today, he said Pakistan had been committing one mischief or the other on the border but with better border management "we will be able to give a befitting reply." When asked to comment on the Pak allegation that Indian troops had crossed the LoC in Pallanwala to capture a post Dr Farooq Abdullah said Pakistan had denied that it had sent its troops to capture Indian Posts in Kargil and Dras in May last. And when, "we handed over the bodies of Pak soldiers killed in the Indian retaliatory fire Islamabad kept mum."

The Chief Minister was grateful to the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari, Vajpayee, for having understood the security-related difficulties in Jammu and Kashmir. "We have been given additional battalions of the security forces and we hope the situation will improve shortly," he said.

Dr Abdullah said he was pained to hear that some of his critics had started treating the demand for greater autonomy as secession. "Greater autonomy is not separatism. We do not want to separate from India. It will strengthen the Indian nation and further cement the relations between Srinagar and Delhi," he said.

Referring to the employees strike the Chief Minister said they should understand the difficulties of the state government because of the financial crisis. "We have promised the employees that whenever the fiscal situation improved the government will accept all their demands, "he said adding that they should realise that the state government was the first to implement the recommendations of the fifth Pay Commission.

Earlier, addressing a function related to the networking of interactive broadcasts, organised by the IGNOU, the Chief Minister said he regretted that he had implemented the fifty pay panel report which had entailed an additional financial burden to the tune of over Rs 700 crore when the internal resources of the state were less than Rs 600 crore.

Referring to the demand of certain politicians that a White Paper be issued on the fiscal health of the state, Dr Abdullah said that the demand was being raised by those who had lust for power. Such political leaders should know that I have no lust for power. If I feel that my staying in power is not beneficial to the people, I will quit immediately."

He again requested the employees to call off their strike. He said the employees knew of the state's financial health and they had no reason to go on strike. It is because of the heavy wage bill that "I have to go to the Centre repeatedly with a begging bowl," he said.