J A M M U   &   K A S H M I R

BSF man among 26 killed
SRINAGAR, Sept 29 — Twenty militants, some of them foreigners, three security personnel, including a BSF Assistant Commandant and a counter insurgent were among the 26 persons killed, while security forces arrested seven militants in the state during the past 24 hours.

PDP posing threat to Cong
JAMMU, Sept 29 — The state unit of the Congress has come under serious threat from the People’s Democratic Party headed by Mufti Mohammad Sayeed. At least six Congress leaders along with over 300 workers have joined the PDP recently in the Jammu region. Mr Sayeed, a shrewd politician, is cashing in on the infighting in the state unit of the Congress where the PCC chief, Mohammad Shafi Qureshi, finds himself in an embarrassing situation because leaders have refused to obey his instructions. Mr Qureshi recently nominated a new district party chief for Rajouri which resulted in a revolt in the area.

Pressurise govt, BJP MLAs told 
JAMMU, Sept 29 — The Chief Minister, Dr Farooq Abdullah, has invited Opposition legislators, especially those belonging to the BJP, to accompany him to Delhi to put pressure on the Centre for releasing adequate funds for various development works. The issue of financial crunch figured during a meeting the Chief Minister held with prominent citizens here today. 

• Yatra leaves for Vaishno Devi
  
  

BSF man among 26 killed
Tribune News Service and UNI

SRINAGAR, Sept 29 (UNI) — Twenty militants, some of them foreigners, three security personnel, including a BSF Assistant Commandant and a counter insurgent were among the 26 persons killed, while security forces arrested seven militants in the state during the past 24 hours.

Those killed include Imtiaz Bhai and Sher Bhai, both residents or Pakistan. A large quantity of arms and ammunition, including five AK rifles, three pistols and two wireless sets, were recovered from the site of the encounter.

The IGP, Kashmir Range, Dr Ashok Bhan, said that the SOG (Special Operation Group) assisted by the BSF launched a search operation in Chewa Khurd village of Pulwama district yesterday on the receipt of specific information. The raiding party was fired at by the militants hiding in the village, which ensued in the encounter. The IG said that search of the debris was going on and there were reports of another body under the debris. Till reports last came in, the search was going on.

Two BSF jawans, Bhopal Singh and Ganesh Kharat, were injured when an IED planted by suspected militants went off when the jawans were on duty at Shahabad Khurpora on Awantipora-Tral road in Pulwama district this morning.

In another incident, the SOG smashed a hideout of militants at Zakura on the outskirts of the city this morning. One AK rifle, one KK rifle, four AK magazines, 15 grenades, one grenade thrower and 1120 rounds of AK ammunition were recovered from the hideout.

JAMMU: At least 17 persons, including four security personnel, were killed in different parts of the Jammu region in encounters between the rebels and the security forces during the past 24 hours.

The police said that two Army men were killed near Abdullian village in R.S. Plora sector on Friday morning when a group of Pakistan-trained militants intruded into Indian territory and opened fire on the border guards. Unofficial reports had earlier stated that the two security personnel were killed when they were mistaken for militants by another group of border guards.

However, the police said that the encounter was still going on and the security forces had blocked the escape route for the intruders.

In another incident, one Assistant Commandant of the BSF, U.N. Prasad, was killed in encounter with the rebels of Lashkar-e-Toiba in Chawali village near Gool in Udhampur district on Friday. Two militants were eliminated in the encounter.

Eight militants were killed in an encounter with the troops at Prankot and Panjnara near Budhal in Rajouri district. Large quantities of arms and ammunition had been recovered from the slain militants. One JCO lost his life in the armed fight.

In the Manjakot area of Rajouri and upper reaches of Doda, two more rebels were killed.

The police said that the security forces had been directed to carry out relentless operations agaisnt the militants so that the rebels had no time to settle down and establish hideouts.

PDP posing threat to Cong
Tribune News Service

JAMMU, Sept 29 — The state unit of the Congress has come under serious threat from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) headed by Mufti Mohammad Sayeed.

At least six Congress leaders along with over 300 workers have joined the PDP recently in the Jammu region.

Mr Sayeed, a shrewd politician, is cashing in on the infighting in the state unit of the Congress where the PCC chief, Mohammad Shafi Qureshi, finds himself in an embarrassing situation because leaders have refused to obey his instructions. Mr Qureshi recently nominated a new district party chief for Rajouri which resulted in a revolt in the area.

Five of the six prominent leaders who joined the PDP belong to Rajouri district. They are Mirza Mohammad Iqbal, fromer MLA, Mr Vinod Mahajan, Mohammad Azam, Mohammad Khursheed Khan and Haji Mohammad Sayeed Raina.

This has encouraged several Gujjar leaders to quit the Congress and join the PDP.

Mr Sayeed and his daughter, Ms Mehbooba Mufti, have been spending five days in a week on touring the state. The focus of their mass contact has been the areas in Poonch, Rajouri, Udhampur, Jammu and Doda districts. Even far-flung areas have been visited by them where party conventions and public rallies were held.

Against this, the Congress has been facing difficulties within preventing Mr Qureshi from addressing party conventions and public meetings. Some leaders have organised parallel meetings to sabotage Mr Qureshi’s programme.

The National Conference has pegged its party activities on some ministers who during their official visits try to win support for the party. The party, too, is under threat from the PDP but it is the Chief Minister, Dr Farooq Abdullah, who has succeeded in keeping the party flock together despite marked erosion in the party’s mass base.

Mr Sayeed has started a campaign against the state government and is trying to convince people that the days of the National Conference rule “are numbered”. This has forced many NC supporters to keep their option of joining the PDP open. The Chief Minister was away from the state for about a month and there was hardly any leader in the party who could counter Mr Sayeed’s campaign effectively. Now that Dr Abdullah is back from his foreign trip, his supporters believe that he would galvanise the organisation to face new challenges.

Since the NC is in power, it may be able to retain its mass support in several pockets of the state. This, however, may not be applicable to the Congress because of factionalism.

Pressurise govt, BJP MLAs told 
From M.L. Kak
Tribune News Service

JAMMU, Sept 29 — The Chief Minister, Dr Farooq Abdullah, has invited Opposition legislators, especially those belonging to the BJP, to accompany him to Delhi to put pressure on the Centre for releasing adequate funds for various development works.

The issue of financial crunch figured during a meeting the Chief Minister held with prominent citizens here today. When some Opposition MLAs, including Mr Piara Singh, referred to the inconvenience being faced by the people of the Jammu region on account of prolonged electricity shedding, the Chief Minister said this was on account of the fall in river discharge since the state was unable to buy additional electricity from the Northern Grid, it was facing an acute power shortage.

The BJP members informed the Chief Minister that during the Budget session of the Assembly, he had requested the BJP MLAs to accompany him to Delhi where they could build pressure on the BJP-led NDA government to release adequate funds, but such a meeting was not arranged by Dr Abdullah. The Chief Minister apologised and assured the MLAs that he would take them to Delhi after the end of the autumn session of the state legislature in October.

The meeting reviewed the power supply position. Several MLAs demanded that load shedding during the night be stopped because of security reasons. They also demanded reduction in the load shedding period. This demand was not accepted.

The Chief Minister had to apologise again when some MLAs reminded him that his commitment to release Rs 9 crore for improvement of the power transmission system had not been fulfilled. He assured that the money would be released in the first week of next month.

When his attention was drawn to the suspension of work on burn grid station near Jammu when work on similar project at Zainakot in Srinagar was well under progress, Dr Abdullah stated that the work on burn project had to be suspended because of lack resources as several crores of rupees had been earmarked for the upgradation on Gladhi and Hiranagar grid station in Jammu.

The Chief Minister asked the citizens and legislators to cooperate with the government in reducing the level of power pilferage and leakage. He said if this problem was tackled the situation in the power sector could improve. In this context he announced that the government would launch an awareness programme even in educational institution.

Mr Adbullah’s suggestion that if business establishments were closed at 6 p.m., a major quota of power could be saved, was opposed by the President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industries.

He suggested to power engineers to submit a proposal to the government for installing trippers in each power transformer so that in case of heavy load, the supply got snapped without damaging the transformers. 

Yatra leaves for Vaishno Devi
From Our Correspondent

KATHUA, Sept 29 — The activists of the Shiv Sena Kathua unit led by Mr Ashwani Gupta, district president of the Sena, today started a Chhari Yatra from Kathua to Vaishno Devi. The devotees of Mata Vaishno Devi held a procession.