J A M M U   &   K A S H M I R

MLA’s abducted nephew shot
SRINAGAR, June 16 — The abducted nephew of founder of the anti-insurgency Ikhwan outfit and Awami League MLA, Mohammad Yousuf Parray, was killed by militants in north Kashmir today, an official spokesman said.

Greater autonomy issue draws flak
JAMMU, June16 — The Jammu and Kashmir Nationalist Forum has expressed its serious concern over the adamant attitude of the National Conference Government to go ahead with its ill-advised move of greater autonomy to the state despite opposition to it by majority of the people in the state.

Decision to shift students flayed
SRINAGAR, June 16 — Non-teaching and other staff of the Regional Engineering College (REC) here have urged the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) to reconsider its decision to send non-Kashmiri students from the college to other Regional Engineering College in the country.

MLA’s abducted nephew shot
From Our Correspondent and agencies

SRINAGAR, June 16 — The abducted nephew of founder of the anti-insurgency Ikhwan outfit and Awami League MLA, Mohammad Yousuf Parray, was killed by militants in north Kashmir today, an official spokesman said.

The victim, Abdul Rashid Sofi, who was abducted by militants in north Kashmir today.

Sofi, who was abducted by militants from his Bandipora residence in a pre-dawn attack yesterday, was tortured and later shot dead by militants.

The bullet-riddled body of Sofi was found in Papachan village of Bandipora.

Parray and his relatives became the target of the militants after he shunned the path of violence and founded Ikhwan outfit, which is fighting shoulder-to-shoulder with security forces to weed out militancy from the state. 

JAMMU: Six militants were killed at two different places in the Jammu region by the security forces on Friday.

The BSF jawans gunned down three intruders in R.S. Pora sector in the morning. These intruders were presumably Bangladeshi nationals who were being pushed into Jammu sector for carrying out subversive violence.

In another incident in Rajouri, the troops killed three hardcore militants in an encounter on a tip-off, the Army jawans launched search operations and as they cordoned off the militant hideout they came under fire. The troops retaliated, killing the three rebels on the spot.

The Romeo Force of the Army killed one district commander of pro-Pakistan Hizbul Mujahideen outfit in Rajouri.

Meanwhile, Pakistani troops have renewed heavy firing on the Indian border villages and posts in Rajouri and Poonch sectors. During the past two days, the Pakistani troops carried out mortar shelling and MMG firing on the Indian villages. They launched a rocket attack on a police station in the border belt of Poonch. The police said that there was no casualty on the Indian side.

The Indian troops also returned the fire.

Indian troops guarding the LoC along the sector retaliated and the exchange of fire continued till nine in the morning, and two Pakistani soldiers, one each at Balakote and Bhawani, were killed in the firing.

An old vacant hut was damaged in shelling by Pakistani troops in the forward area of Kernik. However, no loss of life or damage to property was reported in the shelling.

Pakistani troops fired over seven rockets on a police station located in Sawajian in Poonch to blow it up and cause maximum casualties last evening. 

Greater autonomy issue draws flak
From Our Correspondent

JAMMU, June16 — The Jammu and Kashmir Nationalist Forum has expressed its serious concern over the adamant attitude of the National Conference Government to go ahead with its ill-advised move of greater autonomy to the state despite opposition to it by majority of the people in the state.

As a meeting held here yesterday the forum took stock of the situation regarding issues which are likely to arise out of the government’s plan to convene a special session of the state legislature from July 19 at Srinagar to discuss the greater autonomy proposal as put forth by the State Autonomy Committee.

The present state Assembly with over two third majority of National Conference members constituted in 1996 has since lost its representative character since in the 1999 Parliamentary elections the National Conference could secure only 5 per cent of the total votes in the state whereas the BJP which is opposed to the demand for greater autonomy secured better percentage of votes particularly in Jammu where both the seats were won the BJP. Besides, the BJP, the Congress has also opposed the demand for greater autonomy. Therefore, the present assembly has no ground to speak for the whole state on a sensitive issue like this.

Decision to shift students flayed
Tribune News Service

SRINAGAR, June 16 — Non-teaching and other staff of the Regional Engineering College (REC) here have urged the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) to reconsider its decision to send non-Kashmiri students from the college to other Regional Engineering College in the country.

“The move to send the students is irresponsible step,” staff members of the college here stated. This was in reference to the recent decision of the Central Government to send the students from outside the valley to other RECs as also to close down the college in view of its adverse reports. A report in a section of the Press here had recently stated that the Jammu and Kashmir Government was in receipt of a letter from the HRD Ministry regarding its decision to shift all non-Kashmiri students of REC (Srinagar) because of “threat” to them from Muslim Kashmiri students.

The staff and students of the REC, said that the Defence Minister, George Fernandes, along with the Chief Minister, Mr Farooq Abdullah, visited the college on April 28 and were convinced “that all allegations made in respect of the institution are totally baseless”. The allegations, according to the statement, were made “merely after a scuffle which took place on April 9 and 10 in its hostel between some students.”

“On one hand the Government of India as well as the state government have been trying to bring the migrants back to the valley but the move to shift the students belonging to other states and Jammu province from REC (Srinagar) to other colleges in the country may jeopardise the secular character of the Indian Constitution,” the spokesman said.