J A M M U   &   K A S H M I R

Jawan, ultra die in shootout
Time-bomb in bus defused
Heavy shelling along LoC
SRINAGAR, April 25 — Four security personnel,including two special police officers, and two militants were killed while forces captured five militants and also averted a major tragedy in the state during the past 24 hours.

Over 200 ultras enter J&K
JAMMU, April 25 — The rate of infiltration from across the border has witnessed sudden increase during the past couple of weeks following failure of the security forces to plug the border routes.

Facelift to Srinagar for durbar move
SRINAGAR, April 25 — This capital city is getting a facelift in view of durbar move from Jammu to here next week. The Civil Secretariat housing the office of the Chief Minister and his ministerial colleagues will reopen here on May 8 for the summer months. These offices functioned in Jammu, the winter capital of the State for the past six months.

Jawan, ultra die in shootout
Time-bomb in bus defused
Heavy shelling along LoC

SRINAGAR, April 25 (UNI) — Four security personnel,including two special police officers, and two militants were killed while forces captured five militants and also averted a major tragedy in the state during the past 24 hours.

An official spokesman said the police averted a major tragedy when it detected and later defused a time-bomb planted by militants in a bus (JK 02D-4185) at Kathua bus stand this morning .

Militants hurled a hand grenade followed by firing on a security vehicle at Kunzar on the Srinagar-Gulmarg road last evening, injuring two jawans, two police personnel and four pedestrians.

A jawan died on his way to hospital.

Militants attacked a search party at Karapora Pakherpora in the central Kashmir district of Badgam last night with automatic weapons. The security forces retaliated and in the shootout, an SPO was killed. However, the militants escaped. One person was later taken into custody.

Forces killed a foreign militant in an encounter during search operations at Androla last evening while four suspected persons were arrested near the BG post in Poonch last night.

One person was injured when an explosive device went off at Rampora in downtown area here last evening.

The police arrested a militant at Batakote. Two live grenades were recovered from the forest area of Kranoo in Kupwara.

A report from Udhampur said an encounter took place between militants and the Rashtriya Rifles (RR) at Goli Bagh village in Deesa area of Doda district this afternoon.

During the encounter, which was still on till reports last came in, a militant and a Lance Naik were killed while special police officer (SPO) Vijay Kumar was seriously injured. He was taken to the Military Hospital, Udhampur.

The area was cordoned and reinforcements rushed to the site. It was suspected that two more militants were hiding there.

Sources said Army jawan Gurdeep Singh was killed on the spot at Poni village in Reasi area of Udhampur district this morning when his service weapon accidentally went off.

A woman, Shakeela Bagum, was injured in an encounter between militants and the security forces at Chatru in Doda district late last night.

The injured woman was admitted to the sub-district hospital in Doda where her condition was said to be critical.

Pakistani troops resorted to heavy mortar shelling on some villages along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu district since yesterday, official sources said.

Pallanwala town and its adjoining areas came under heavy mortar fire from across the border form 0800 hours yesterday.

Shells were also fired from across the border on Makri village of Nowshera sector in Rajouri district during the period without any casualty on the Indian side.

Indian and Pakistani troops traded light arms fire in Laam and Bhawani areas of Rajouri district and five areas of Jammu district, the sources said.

Over 200 ultras enter J&K
From M.L. Kak
Tribune News Service

JAMMU, April 25 — The rate of infiltration from across the border has witnessed sudden increase during the past couple of weeks following failure of the security forces to plug the border routes.

Official sources while confirming that more than 200 militants sneaked into Jammu and Kashmir from across the LoC during the last one fortnight said that after the distance between one “naka” party and the other was widened on this side of the border the infiltrators found it easy to cross into the state. The decision to reduce the number of naka parties but increase the deployment of jawans at each naka party was taken following reports that Pak soldiers accompanying infiltrators had been directed to step up armed attacked on the naka parties.

Hitherto four to eight soldiers would from a naka party and check infiltration and arms smuggling. At many places, including Kupwara, Rajouri and Poonch the infiltrators, equipped with sophisticated weapons, attacked the naka parties and inflicted casualties on the Indian troops. To prevent such operations the Army authorities have increased the deployment of jawans at each naka party to a platoon. No doubt this would insulate the soldiers against surprise attacks by the infiltrators, it has, at the same time, left gaps which the infiltrators have used for crossing into Jammu and Kashmir.

During several meetings the Army authorities were suggested by the senior police and BSF officers that additional troops be deployed on the LoC and the IB so that more grey areas were covered thereby preventing Pakistani agencies from pushing into the state large groups of militants. Official sources said that the Army authorities had stated, in these meetings, that “it is not possible to raise a human wall on the 160 km-long Indo-Pak border. We cannot keep our men on every inch of the border.”

The sources said that the police and the BSF authorities had conveyed to the Union Home Ministry that checking infiltration was more important than launching “seek and destroy” operation because once the militants were inside the habitable villages and towns it was very difficult for the security forces to isolate and eliminate them.

Official sources said that in case the gap between the naka parties was not immediately reduced Pak agencies may succeed in pushing into Jammu and Kashmir more than 3,000 militants, including foreign mercenaries, within next two to three months.

Meanwhile, Pak army and intelligence authorities have been visiting frequently Kashmir refugee camps, across Uri, Keran and Karnah, to motivate the refugees to enroll the youths in the arms training camps. Sources said that during the past 10 years more than 5,000 Kashmiris have crossed over to Pakistan after they felt unsafe. During all these years the Pakistani authorities have been providing them sustenance allowance at the rate of Rs 250 to Rs 500 per head.

Many able-bodied refugees have been engaged in construction of border roads and other works. During the past one months more than 100 youths, in the age group of 15 and 20, have been booked for arms training in several training camps.

Those who had completed the training have been motivated to cross back to Kashmir and work as guides and couriers. Foreign mercenaries operating in Jammu and Kashmir have been finding it difficult to move from one place to another as they have not been well acquainted with the terrain and topography of the state. It is for this reason that the Pak agencies have been enlisting Kashmir youths for guiding these mercenaries in various areas of the state.

The Pakistani agencies are said to have established make-shift training centres for Kashmiri youths within the state where they are being motivated in taking part in what is called Jehad. In these training camps they receive training in handling of weapons, in assembling parts of long-range guns, in making explosives and in raising suicide squads.

Though the Pakistani agencies have left it to the foreign mercenaries to launch attacks on the security forces, the cooperation from the local youths has been given priority. It is because of this that more than 500 local youths, in the Kashmir valley and in parts of the Jammu region have been lured into militancy and they have been enrolled as activists of Hizbul Mujahideen, Hakatul Mujahideen, Lashkar-e-Toiba as their guides and couriers.

Facelift to Srinagar for durbar move
Tribune News Service

SRINAGAR, April 25 — This capital city is getting a facelift in view of durbar move from Jammu to here next week. The Civil Secretariat housing the office of the Chief Minister and his ministerial colleagues will reopen here on May 8 for the summer months. These offices functioned in Jammu, the winter capital of the State for the past six months.

Various government departments, including the Srinagar Municipality, Srinagar Development Authority, PWD and Estates have been making different arrangements for the past several weeks in view of durbar move. The Srinagar Municipality has already launched a special drive to improve the sanitation in the colonies and residential areas where durbar move employees will be staying. In addition the municipality will be giving dustbins at a nominal rate of Rs 100 each and provide the facility of cycle rickshaws to remove garbage from these areas.

The Health Department will depute staff in colonies and other hotels for providing medical facilities to durbar move employees. The State Road Transport Corporation (SRTC) will ply special services as per past practice for taking the employees to and from the Secretariat. However, the arrangements will ensure that each bus carries at least 20 employees. The traffic department will regulate traffic on various routes leading to the Secretariat and other places where the employees will be putting up, an official spokesman said. These decisions were reviewed at a meeting of the senior officers of the civil administration here the other day under the chairmanship of the Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir, Mr Khursheed Ahmad Ganai.

The roads leading from the Secretariat to the high security zones of Centaur Hotel and Cheshma Shahi, where most of the senior officers will be staying, are being repaired. A new coat of macadam is being laid on some of these roads, while on others the ditches and pits were being filled up.

Arrangements have been made to accommodate 2324 durbar move employees in various residential units and hotels. A team headed by the Deputy Commissioner has already selected various units for this purpose in consultation with the security and the Estates Department officials.

Meanwhile, the Director Estates, Mr M.I. Kirmani, along with the Deputy Director Estates, Kashmir, visited the identified places earmarked for the accommodation of durbar move employees.

Traffic regulating personnel will have tough time to regulate the movement of vehicles in the Lal Chowk area, through which most of the official vehicles carrying the Chief Minister, his ministerial colleagues, senior state government officers and employees would be passing at peak hours in the mornings and evenings.

Over the past couple of years, the practice of stopping civilian traffic on the main road from Batamaloo passing to the Civil Secretariat, the central Lal Chowk to Dalgate for half an hour in the morning and the evening respectively. This was to facilitate the “smooth movement” of “official caravans” without taking any “security risks”. This practice remained in vogue from 1990 with the eruption of militancy, and was adopted in order to avoid any kind of attacks by the militants on the official vehicles.