J A M M U   &   K A S H M I R

2 Army men killed in shelling
SRINAGAR, Sept 7 — Two Army personnel, including a Major, and three civilians were killed when the Pakistani troops resorted to shelling in Uri sector of Baramula district in north Kashmir last evening.Sources here said the Pakistani troops resorted to unprovoked firing in the area yesterday hitting Mahora area near Uri in which several houses were also damaged.

Fake currency to lure youths into militancy
JAMMU, Sept 7 — The problem of circulation of fake currency notes in Jammu and Kashmir has assumed new dimensions with the seizure of three highly sophisticated and computerised machines installed in the valley for printing fake Indian currency notes.

Panun, Kashmir decries talks with Hizb
JAMMU, Sept 7 —The Chairman of Panun Kashmir, Dr Ajay Charungoo and the head of its advisory committee Panun Kashmir, Dr M.K. Teng, in a joint statement have rejected Central Government’s initiative to hold talks with the Hizbul Mujahideen.

• Lawyers for trifurcation

2 Army men killed in shelling
Tribune News Service

SRINAGAR, Sept 7 — Two Army personnel, including a Major, and three civilians were killed when the Pakistani troops resorted to shelling in Uri sector of Baramula district in north Kashmir last evening.

Sources here said the Pakistani troops resorted to unprovoked firing in the area yesterday hitting Mahora area near Uri in which several houses were also damaged. Major Shanta Kumar and a jawan were killed as a result of the shelling. Three other civilians were also killed and several others were injured in the unprovoked shelling. The Army retaliated but no reports of damage on the other side of the LoC were available.

Senior security officers here believe the Pakistani troops indulged in unprovoked firing to manage the “infiltration of armed militants into the valley” before the high mountain passes on the LoC get closed for the winter months. The security officers believe that more such attempts would be made by the Pakistani troops to push in infiltrators for creating trouble in the valley. The high mountain passes would be covered under deep snow for the winter months ahead and there may not be any possibility of infiltration and exfiltration attempts in these areas.

The Pakistani troops have resorted to repeated shelling and firing from across the border during the recent weeks. At least one BSF personnel was killed in such an incident in the Gulmarg area of Baramula district on Sunday last. At least 12 civilians have been injured in the shelling in the past few days. The firing has been going on in the Keran, Karna, Tangdhar, Gurez and other areas along the LoC in Kupwara and Baramula districts.

Fake currency to lure youths into militancy
Tribune News Service

JAMMU, Sept 7 — The problem of circulation of fake currency notes in Jammu and Kashmir has assumed new dimensions with the seizure of three highly sophisticated and computerised machines installed in the valley for printing fake Indian currency notes.

Government sources said that well qualified youths some of them engineers with B. Tech and Degree or Diploma in computer sciences, have been engaged in printing fake currency notes. The idea of setting up sophisticated equipment for printing these fake currency notes was cleared by the agencies across the border after several lakhs of fake currency notes, which were being smuggled from across the LoC, were seized by the Indian security forces during the past six months.

The sources said that in just three raids carried out by the BSF and the police fake Indian currency notes, of the denomination of Rs 50 and Rs 100, were seized in the Kashmir valley recently.

According to these sources, the BSF seized fake currency notes of the value of over Rs nine lakh from two places. At these places the Pakistan trained youths had printed fake currency notes of the value of over Rs 80 lakh which had already been circulated in the markets. Some bundles of the fake currency notes have been deposited with the nationalised banks too.

In another recent raid the police seized fake currency notes of the value of Rs 20,000.

Sources said that during the past six months fake currency notes of the value of over Rs 10 crore have been in circulation in the markets of the state. The sophisticated machines have scanners which “revive” old and soiled genuine currency notes of the denomination of Rs 50 and Rs 100 to avoid suspicion. Those engaged in the printing of fake currency notes had received a feedback that “crisp and fresh” currency notes were accepted by the people and banks with suspicion. Hence old and soiled notes were being given a “fresh” look and they are mixed with the new fake notes.

Since Pakistan has been witnessing crumbling of its economy its material aid to the militants and other separatist groups, operating in Jammu and Kashmir, had dwindled and declined during the past four years. The Pakistani agencies set up sophisticated equipments at three places, two across Poonch and Kupwara, where fake Indian currency notes were being printed. These currency notes were smuggled not only in Jammu and Kashmir but to other Indian states.

In Jammu and Kashmir managers of militancy have been asked to use these fake currency notes to lure Kashmiri youths to insurgency for increasing the ex-gratia relief to the families of those whose boys, working as Pak agents, were killed by the security forces. And police reports have revealed that any militant getting killed by the security forces gets entitled to an ex-gratia relief between Rs two lakh and Rs five lakh. This way the bereaved families were being helped so that their support for the ongoing Jehad remained in tact.

Recently top sleuths of the ISI had visited forward areas across Poonch, Rajouri, Akhnoor, Kupwara and Uri to assess the situation on border as far as the Indian defence preparedness was concerned. These ISI sleuths, at their meeting at Muzaffarabad, took up several decisions. Under one decision militants were asked to lure porters and other menial staff, working in the Army units and cantonments, by paying them heavy sums of money so that they could pass on the information about the nature of weapons in the camps and the strength of the security personnel in each unit.

As such fake Indian currency notes were required to win over these porters for assisting the militants in carrying out specific armed strikes on the Army and police posts and pickets. Besides this the Pakistani agencies have directed the separatists to set up additional educational institutions where the children could be fully indoctrinated and motivated to join jehad and this project, requiring several crores of rupees, could take off only with the help of fake Indian currency.

Another project needing huge sums of money was to equip militants and separatists with still and video cameras so that during their operations against the security forces they could take pictures of the vital installations which were to be sent across the border for facilitating the ISI to engineer armed attacks on these installations.

Panun, Kashmir decries talks with Hizb
From Our Correspondent

JAMMU, Sept 7 —The Chairman of Panun Kashmir, Dr Ajay Charungoo and the head of its advisory committee Panun Kashmir, Dr M.K. Teng, in a joint statement have rejected Central Government’s initiative to hold talks with the Hizbul Mujahideen.

Addressing a press conference here today, they said the talks with only one militant group i.e. the Hizbul Mujahideen could not serve the nation’s interest. There are 18 militants groups operating in Kashmir. They said members of the Jehad Council had outrightly rejected the government’s initiative for talks. They stated that the willingness of the Government of India to negotiate with the terrorists unconditionally in spite of the fact that more than 100 innocent citizens of the country were massacred has presented our nation as a weak country seeking compromises with terrorists.

The leaders said the short lived ceasefire situation and the consequent dialogue within the framework of vague cliches has blurred the ideological focus of the security operations with dangerous ramifications for the future. During the abortive ceasefire with the Hizb, so many cases of interference into security operations came to light whereas a particular group of terrorists claimed immunity.

They said that only underlines the stress to which “our security forces” would be subjected to in similar situations.

They said India also appeared to be on the brink of falling into a “diplomatic trap” when there was nothing to negotiate with the terrorists who openly claimed their commitment to the jehadic doctrine and advocated ceasefire as a tactical ploy. The protracted negotiations, they added, with such a group would be only at India’s cost and the government may come under international pressure to modify the national consensus which was demonstrated when the entire political establishment rejected the greater autonomy proposal.

Panun Kashmir leaders condemned what they called “machinations which accord respectability and political legitimacy to armed fundamentalism”.

The organisation of the displaced families appealed to the Government of India to be firm in its dealings with regard to Jammu and Kashmir and abandon peace initiatives with terrorists.

They said no initiative to the resolution of the Kashmir problem should take into account socio-political aspiration of Hindus of Kashmir and people of Ladakh and Jammu.

It has demanded setting up of a committee of experts to examine the homeland concept for the rehabilitation of displaced families.

Panun Kashmir also called for a special census for the Kashmiri Pandits because they had been driven out of the valley by the militants 12 years ago. The leaders said Kashmiri Pandits had got scattered all over the country and a special census should be carried out so that proper details of their population growth were recorded.

Lawyers for trifurcation
From Our Correspondent

JAMMU, Sept 7 — The Jammu and Kashmir unit of the Lawyers Forum had backed the demand for trifurcation of the state.

A decision to this effect was taken at a meeting of the forum here today held under the chairmanship of Mr K.L. Bhatia, president. It appealed to the lawyers of Jammu to join the dharna being organised here on October 2 to press the demand.