J A M M U   &   K A S H M I R

5 militants, cop killed in valley
SRINAGAR, Nov 6 — Five militants and a policeman were killed in separate encounters while the security forces arrested four persons and averted a major tragedy with timely detection of an improvised explosive device in Jammu and Kashmir since last evening.

Many suspected of killing Shia leader
SRINAGAR, Nov 6 — Who killed senior Shia leader Aga Syed Mehdi, near here, on Friday? A Defence Ministry spokesman claimed here on Saturday that foreign militants belonging to Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad had blasted the IED at Magam, killing Aga Syed Mehdi and five others.

J&K ultras adopt new plan to deter youths

SRINAGAR, Nov 6 — The bomb attack on a police training facility in Baramula district of Jammu and Kashmir, which killed one recruit policeman and injured 26 on Friday, was part of a new strategy adopted by separatist guerrillas to deter local youths from joining the state police force, official sources said.

Senior intelligence sources here said the bomb attack at Sheri Police Training College came in the wake of intelligence reports suggesting that extremist groups were concerned about the entry of a large number of local youths into the police force following special recruitment drives.

The state police force, under the orders of the Chief Minister, Dr Farooq Abdullah, recently began recruiting unemployed youths from border areas so that they would not be swayed by extremist propaganda and join separatist groups, the sources said. Mr Gurbachan Jagat, DGP, has been personally supervising this programme.

Despite the financial problems being faced by the state government, more than 4,000 youths have already been recruited into the police force in the recent past.

Just a day before the bombing at Sheri Police Training College, Mr Jagat had returned after recruiting another batch of youths from an area close to the Line of Control (LoC) dividing Jammu and Kashmir. As these recruit policemen are trained in training facilities like the one attacked by extremist on Friday, the strategy adopted by the police appears to have evoked a violent reaction from separatist groups.

A senior police officer said the separatist groups had also intensified their efforts to lure more Kashmiri youths into joining their ranks. Instead of taking youths across the border to guerrilla camps in Pakistan-administered Kashmir for training, separatist groups now organise preliminary training camps inside Indian territory where freshly motivated youth are taught to use firearms and explosives.

Once inside these training camps the ‘‘youths are handed over to the control of foreign instructors who use religion and alienation to battle-harden the youth,’’ the officer said. The unemployed youths readily fall prey to allurements offered by the separatists, the officer said.

‘‘We have, in fact, unearthed an even closer nexus between Kashmiri separatists and those of Punjab. Like the Gurmath training camps which Sikh extremists held in various parts of the country during the early stages of Punjab militancy, Kashmiri militants are now known to organise training camps inside Indian territory,’’ he said.

At least 36 such training camps are presently being run in different parts of Jammu and Kashmir. ‘‘These are already earmarked for elimination and steps are underway to destroy them,’’ the police officer said. — IANS

5 militants, cop killed in valley

SRINAGAR, Nov 6 (UNI) — Five militants and a policeman were killed in separate encounters while the security forces arrested four persons and averted a major tragedy with timely detection of an improvised explosive device in Jammu and Kashmir since last evening.

Two foreign mercenaries, including a self-styled deputy commander of the Pakistan-based Harkat-e-Jehadi Islami outfit, were killed in an encounter with the security forces at Dhara-Sangla village in the Surankote area of Poonch district last night, an official spokesman said here today.

Many suspected of killing Shia leader
Tribune News Service

SRINAGAR, Nov 6 — Who killed senior Shia leader Aga Syed Mehdi, near here, on Friday?

A Defence Ministry spokesman claimed here on Saturday that foreign militants belonging to Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad had blasted the IED at Magam, killing Aga Syed Mehdi and five others.

“As per reports , this was the work Sipaha-e-Sahaba, a radical anti-Shia faction in Pakistan, actively supported by the Pakistani regime. The Sipaha-e-Sahaba believes in the elimination of Shias. Detailed planning for this operation was done across the Line of Control, involving activists of Lashkar-e-Toiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad and Pakistani officials,” he said.

The All-Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC) has alleged that the “government-controlled media” tried to implicate Sipaha-e-Sahaba, an organisation which did not exist in Kashmir. “Further , the reference of inter-group clashes in Pakistan indicated that India has been trying to dub the ongoing struggle as a terrorist and communal onslaught,” an APHC spokesman said.

The Lashkar-e-Karbala, a lesser known outfit, and Hizbul Momineen were, according to a local news agency, the first to claim the responsibility of the attack. However, according to another local news agency, Hizbul Momineen chief, presently in Pakistan, has denied the involvement of his group in the killing. He had also denied having links with Lashkar-e-Karbala.

Jamiat-ul-Mujahideen , a radical militant outfit, has hailed the killing of the Shia leader. “His actions took him to bizarre end,” a spokesman of the Jamiat-ul-Mujahideen said here.

The police is yet to get any clues about those responsible for the killing. Aga’s killing, according to the police, cannot be directly linked to the attempt of the militants to create sectarian trouble in the valley.

Two attempts were made on the life of another senior Shia and Congress leader, Maulvi Abbas Ansari, who was a minister till last year in the Farooq Abdullah’s National Conference Government. The police here believe that such attacks were only targeted at the mainstream political leaders and not on the leaders of a particular sect.