J A M M U   &   K A S H M I R

A paramilitary jawan stands guard over a trail being used by the Amarnath yatra pilgrims on Thursday. — AFP photo

Rain halts yatra to Amarnath
SRINAGAR, July 20 — With the arrival of another batch of 3,965 pilgrims in 246 light and heavy vehicles from Jammu today, the total number of yatris who have arrived in Pahalgam so far has gone up to 44,780.

No decision on talks mechanism
NEW DELHI, JULY 20: The Vajpayee government is yet to apply its mind about having a group of ministers or taking recourse to some other mechanism for discussing the autonomy issue with the Jammu and Kashmir government.

Prof Bhat is APHC chairman
SRINAGAR, July 20 — Prof Abdul Ghani Bhat of the Muslim Conference was elected chairman of the separatist All-Party Hurriyat Conference  here today. He replaces Syed Ali Shah Geelani of the Jamaat-e-Islami who held the position for a two-year term.

Rain halts yatra to Amarnath
Tribune News Service

SRINAGAR, July 20 — With the arrival of another batch of 3,965 pilgrims in 246 light and heavy vehicles from Jammu today, the total number of yatris who have arrived in Pahalgam so far has gone up to 44,780.

Of these, nearly 38,000 had darshan of the ice lingam at the cave shrine till this evening while 10,800 devotees left for their homes after darshan till this morning.

Meanwhile, one yatri, Mr Naranjan Bai, from Gujarat, who suffered a fracture near the cave, has been brought to the base camp at Baltal where he is being hospitalised.

The movement of yatris was stopped from Pahalgam base camp and Chandanwari this morning following heavy rain overnight which continued till this afternoon. The movement of yatris was also stopped via Baltal in order to prevent any untoward incident on the track. However, according to the reports from Pahalgam the movement of yatris was restarted at 1-20 p.m. today following clearance of the weather.

It was cloudy in the area this afternoon while the movement of yatris was stopped at 3 p.m. as per practice.

According to PTI, three more pilgrims died on their way to the Amarnath cave shrine in south Kashmir Himalayas, raising the toll to seven.

The deceased, identified, as Chabeel Dass of Ghaziabad (up), Amarnath Ikarni Anand of Maharashtra and Prem Brama of Ahmedabad, died following heart attack yesterday, an official spokesman said.

Four pilgrims — Sarwati Bhai of Gujarat, Dev Raj Gulati, Anil Jain and Ramesh Padroo (all residents of Delhi) — had earlier died on their way to the 3,880-metre-high cave shrine since the month-long yatra commenced on July 13.

It was estimated that over 1.20 lakh pilgrims would visit the shrine this year for which the government had made elaborate security arrangements but the number of the yatris arriving at the Pahalgam and Baltal base camps would be three times the number allowed by the government, an official spokesman said.

Autonomy for J&K
No decision on talks mechanism
From T.R. Ramchandran
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, JULY 20: The Vajpayee government is yet to apply its mind about having a group of ministers (GOM) or taking recourse to some other mechanism for discussing the autonomy issue with the Jammu and Kashmir government.

The initial proposal that emerged after two rounds of talks between the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, and the J and K Chief Minister, Dr Farooq Abdullah earlier this week was for a GOM from the Centre and the sensitive border state to battle it out across the table on the emotive autonomy question.

Though a crisis situation has been defused, the Prime Minister’s office (PMO) is now having second thoughts whether it is advisable for the Head of Government to constitute a GOM considering the complexities of the proposed autonomy dialogue for which there are no quick fix solutions.

The PMO feels that the discussions on the J and K autonomy issue will require patience and perseverance on both sides. The subject matter is highly sensitive and will inevitably have its ups and downs besides hitting some seemingly insurmountable roadblocks.

Notwithstanding the imponderables, the negotiations are expected to be a long drawn affair. The thinking in the PMO is that the GOM arrangement is primarily meant to resolve a problem expeditiously. It is argued that it will be naive on anybody’s part to assume that the protracted Kashmir tangle which has been hanging fire for nearly 50 years can be fixed in a jiffy.

Therefore, the PMO is mulling over whether it should appoint a group of experts to come to grips with the autonomy resolution adopted by the J and K assembly. This comes in direct conflict with the Union Cabinet’s rejection of the J and K Assembly resolution on autonomy.

A new dimension has been added following the Union Home Minister, Mr L.K. Advani, urging Dr Abdullah to submit fresh proposals focusing on greater devolution of powers for J and K. This might facilitate the Union Government sidestep the decision of the Union Cabinet throwing out the border state’s autonomy resolution.

The Centre and Dr Abdullah are biding for time with the PMO grappling with what format to adopt for the autonomy talks with the J and K government as Union Ministers cannot be involved in a dialogue that can drag on for an interminably long period.

There is, however, an element of urgency on Mr Vajpayee’s part to get the Kashmir dialogue going at an early date. He is keen to dispel the general impression in the international arena, especially among the major powers that New Delhi is not keen to have a dialogue with all parties concerned for finding a solution to the Kashmir problem.

Sources in PMO said there have been any number of people offering their good offices to the Prime Minister to get the talks on Kashmir off the ground. These include the senior leader of J and K and former Union Home Minister, Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, the high profile former Foreign Secretary who was also picked up for a gubernatorial assignment, Mr Romesh Bhandari, and the editorial board chairman of the Observor group, Mr R K Mishra.

Clearly Mr Vajpayee wants to equip himself that the NDA is talking to everybody in J and K for breaking the deadlock before he proceeds to the USA in September for the millennium session of the United Nations followed by an official visit to Washington for a summit with the American President, Mr Bill Clinton.

The NDA government’s desire to hold talks with a wide cross section of opinion in J and K including the All-Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC) is to see that Kashmir is no longer internationalised. Mandarins in the PMO contend that these talks will insulate J and K from Pakistan.

Kashmir experts stress that the NDA government cannot afford to sideline the Kashmir issue indefinitely. It also cannot reject the autonomy question summarily or allow J and K to remain in a continuous state of flux and disarray. "It is not just a law and order or security problem in J and K. It is a political problem which needs to be tackled by engaging with the widest cross section of opinion in the state," these experts added.

Prof Bhat is APHC chairman
Tribune News Service

SRINAGAR, July 20 — Prof Abdul Ghani Bhat of the Muslim Conference was elected chairman of the separatist All-Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC) here today. He replaces Syed Ali Shah Geelani of the Jamaat-e-Islami who held the position for a two-year term.

Former chairman Geelani said that Prof Bhat and Abdul Ghani Lone contested the election for the post. All seven executive members of APHC attended the deliberations at the party headquarters at Rajbagh. Except for the two candidates, all other five members cast their vote to elect the chairman. While Prof Bhat got three votes, Mr Lone got two Mr Geelani announced.

He said Prof Bhat’s name was proposed by Moulvi Abbas Ansari, while Mr Lone’s name was proposed by the JKLF chief, Mr Mohammad Yasin Malik. Both Mr Geelani and Prof Bhat were present at the hurriedly called press conference at the party headquarters here this morning.

The other executive committee members include former chairman Mirwaiz Moulvi Umar Farooq, who held the post for the first two consecutive terms, Mr Mohammad Yasin Malik of the JKLF, Mr Abdul Ghani Lone of the Peoples Conference, Moulvi Abbas Ansari of Ittehadul Muslimeen of Shia Muslims and Sheikh Abdul Aziz of People’s League.

The People’s League leader, Sheikh Abdul Aziz, is under detention for the past over eight years.

Prof Bhat, evading queries on his pro-Pakistan stance, held that he was always in favour of resolving the Kashmir dispute or else it will destroy us". He said he felt "comfortably heavy" when asked on taking over the new charge. He had remained the chief spokesman of the Hurriyat Conference for the past six years.

Having served as a government college teacher in Persian for 22 years, Prof Bhat has been undergoing detention since 1988 for his pro-Pakistan stance and related activities. The longest term he spent in jail was for 25 months in early 1990s.

He is also the founder-member of the Muslim United Front (MUF) formed in 1986.

Prof Bhat was released after over six months of detention early this year along with other APHC leaders in the wake of the Centre’s talks offer to the APHC. Others released with him were Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mr Mohammad Yasin Malik and Moulvi Abbas Ansari.

The election of the new chairman, was scheduled for April this year but could not be held on time in view of "hectic" political activity by the APHC leaders.