J A M M U   &   K A S H M I R

Separatists feel betrayed
JAMMU, Sept 18 — Their is a growing feeling among the top brass of the Hurriyat Conference and the Hizbul Mujahideen that they have been “betrayed” by the Government of India by remaining indifferent to their talks offer for resolving the Kashmir turmoil.

Unexploded shells virtual ‘death-traps’
URI, Sept 18 — Bakhtiyar Ahmad, his sister Shintakhi Bibi and Naseema Bano were blown into pieces when they picked up an unexploded shell and started playing with it at Kachrali in Garkote, near here, last week.

Separatists feel betrayed
Tribune News Service

JAMMU, Sept 18 — Their is a growing feeling among the top brass of the Hurriyat Conference and the Hizbul Mujahideen that they have been “betrayed” by the Government of India by remaining indifferent to their talks offer for resolving the Kashmir turmoil.

Senior Hurriyat Conference leaders had conveyed through interlocutors their preparedness to hold talks with the Central Government. The same drill was carried out by a faction of the Hizbul Mujahideen when it declared on July 24 a unilateral ceasefire.

However, under pressure from Islamabad the Hizbul Mujahideen retracted and demanded tripartite instead of bilateral talks. When the government made it clear that it would not accept the tripartite talks proposal so long Pakistan continued to aid trans-border terrorism the ceasefire was withdrawn. The talks did not take off.

Reports said a section in the Hizbul Mujahideen has started playing carrot and stick policy against the government. On the one hand these leaders are for unconditional dialogue and on the other it continues the armed campaign.

Certain Hizb leaders feel dismayed over the way senior outfit leaders were betrayed. They say first, they were wooed to parleys and later they were discarded. However, government agencies said the doors for talks were open but without conditions.

Hurriyat leaders, according to sources have felt equally dismayed over the government’s non-acceptance of its chairman’s proposal to send two delegations, one to Islamabad and the other to New Delhi, for narrowing down the gulf that exists between the two countries. In fact Prof Abdul Gani Bhat wanted to act as a bridge between Islamabad and New Delhi. He was held Delhi responsible for sabotaging his plan because Islamabad had accepted his proposal.

In the context of these developments both the separatists and the government feel confused. Even the Army chief had favoured a political solution to the turmoil, but neither side is in a position to break the ice. Militants are under Islamabad’s grip and cannot dare to annoy Pakistan and the government cannot open a dialogue on its own which may ultimately prove meaningless.

Unexploded shells virtual ‘death-traps’

URI, Sept 18 (PTI) — Bakhtiyar Ahmad, his sister Shintakhi Bibi and Naseema Bano were blown into pieces when they picked up an unexploded shell and started playing with it at Kachrali in Garkote, near here, last week.

This was not an isolated case witnessed in the town, which faces heavy shelling from across the border. Earlier, many people, mostly children, fell victims to such unexploded devices and officials put their toll to over a dozen.

Besides a huge number of casualties, the devices also left over two dozen children without their limbs, the officials said.

A virtual death trap in the shape of unexploded shells following continued indiscriminate shelling by Pakistani troops has compounded the problems of the terror-stricken villagers of Uri township and villages across the Line of Control.

The residents claim the presence of the shells had badly affected their movement and cultivation of land.

Muskhtiyar Ahmad, a village numberdar said people were so scared that they had restricted the movement of the children and advised them not to venture into play grounds or fields fearing for their lives.

An elder on noticing such a shell could inform the police or the army, but innocent children out of curiosity tried to fiddle with it, he said.

He suggested that the police should be asked to fan out in different directions to locate and destroy such shells which otherwise had become a nuisance to the people.

The unexploded shells in their fields, pastures and in the periphery of their villages had people squarely blaming the government and security agencies for their failure to get rid of these deadly devices.

However, the officials claim that the unexploded shells whenever detected were being immediately defused by the Army.

Subdivisional police officer, Rafiq Ahmad Vakil posted at Uri said the police were acting swiftly on receiving information from the locals about such shells and sought the Army’s help in destroying the same.

Army troops also destroyed such shells whenever and wherever they found them during sanitising operation, he said adding, “We generally come to know of unexploded shells from the villagers.”