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| Saturday, November 11, 2000, Chandigarh, India   
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Pak may review hardline on Kashmir Centre sits over Upper House strength
issue 5 held for attack on
pilgrims Farooq hopeful of closer Indo-Pak
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Pak may review hardline on Kashmir NEW DELHI, Nov 10— As Hurriyat chairman A.G. Bhat met the Pakistan High Commission officials again today, there were indications that Islamabad was undertaking a serious review of its hard line on Kashmir. While Bhat was alone at the Pakistan High Commission today, initial details of an extensive meeting between the five Hurriyat leaders and the Pakistan High Commissioner, Mr Ashraf Jehangir Qazi, on Wednesday suggested that a new phase in Islamabad’s Kashmir policy was likely in coming weeks. On Wednesday when a five- member Hurriyat team led by its chairman Bhat met the Pakistan High Commissioner along with other officials for an extensive meeting lasting for over four hours, Mr Qazi, after listening to the Hurriyat leaders plea for a change in the All- Party Hurriyat Conference’s stand on talks with New Delhi, reportedly told those present at the meeting that he would convey his response to the issue after his return from Islamabad. Observers in the valley are of the view that Pakistan is about to soften its line on Kashmir. It is surprising that Mr Qazi sat all along in the meeting, which was in itself unusual, observers pointed out, adding that normally the deputy high commissioner and other junior officials attend to the Hurriyat leaders. In the four-hour long lunch-cum-business meeting on Wednesday, both Bhat and the former Hurriyat Chairman, Mirvaiz Umar Farooq, reportedly told the Pakistan High Commissioner that there was a strong view within the organisation that a dialogue with New Delhi was the need of the hour. Even JKLF leader Yasin Malik said people in Jammu and Kashmir favoured a dialogue and the majority within the APHC was for a policy of moderation. While
Bhat, Mirvaiz Farooq, Malik, Sheikh Abdul Aziz and A.G. Lone came to attend a
meeting, the former Hurriyat chairman, S.A.S. Gillani, was conspicous by his absence.
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Centre sits over Upper House strength
issue JAMMU, Nov 10 — The state government is perturbed over “inordinate” delay on the part of the Union Home Ministry in forwarding to President of India the state legislature’s recommendations on the need for increasing eight seats to the Upper House in Jammu and Kashmir. The case has been pending, according to a senior government functionary, for the past over one and a half years. He said that on several occasions not only the Chief Minister but the Law Minister, Mr P.L. Handoo, had discussed with the central leaders the matter and they had been assured that the recommendations would be forwarded to the Rashtrapati Bhavan for the Presidential approval. Over six months ago the state authorities had raised the issue when the Chief Minister, Dr Farooq Abdullah, had a meeting with Mr K.R. Narayanan. When the state government had sent the note to the Centre for its approval to the plan of adding eight more seats to the State Legislative Council there was no response from the Union Home Ministry. It was after repeated reminders that the Union Home Ministry sought clarification on the issue. It wanted to know from the state government as to what was the need for increasing the seats in the Upper House. The state government had informed that since the number of seats in the Legislative Assembly had been raised from 77 to 87 it was a constitutional formality to make a similar increase in the Legislative Council also. A ministerial colleague of Dr Farooq Abdullah said that despite assurances from the Centre the matter had been swept under the carpet. “We do not know what the BJP-led NDA government wants to gain by delaying approval to the plan of increasing the seats of the Legislative Council,” he said. When asked if the Centre was holding its approval to check further expenses as amount involved on adding eight seats would be over Rs 16 lakh per annum the minister said that an elected government “cannot afford to ignore a constitutional obligation in the name of financial crunch”. He suspected that delay in giving approval to the plan was part of the overall move of the Centre to “tease” the state government as during the past two years “we have been facing acute cash crisis mainly on account of central government’s apathy towards a state which has been tormented by Pakistan sponsored proxy war. |
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JAMMU, Nov 10 (UNI) — The Jammu and Kashmir police has nabbed five saboteurs who were involved in masterminding the attack on Amarnath pilgrims in Jammu on August 1 this year. Besides, the police has also arrested a head granthi and alleged narco-terrorist and a top Pakistani guide was killed by the special operations group (SOG).The Inspector-General of Police (Jammu zone), Mr R.V. Raju, told newsmen here last evening that of the five arrested saboteurs, three were residing in Jammu and two in Doda districts. A fidayeen was killed on August 1 this year when the militants, after carrying out the attack on Amarnath pilgrims, were trying to escape. Mr Raju said that the head granthi, Man Mohan Singh, was arrested from Jammu. One pistol and some IED, allegedly hidden by him in the religious complex, were also seized. Man Mohan Singh was assigned the task of eliminating important personalities in Jammu and carrying out blasts at crowded places. He was given the pistol, IED and Rs 25,000 by another militant, Manjeet Singh. The IGP said that police had got concrete clues that a nexus between the ISI and Khalistan Zindabad Force (KZF) had been established to carry out subversive activities in Jammu and Kashmir. " We have foiled a number of such plans of these militants with arresting a number of activists of KZF in recent past,’’ he said, adding that the arrest of some more KZF activists were expected in the near future. The SOG killed a Pakistani militant and guide in the Nikki Tawi area yesterday. He was involved in carrying out several subversive activities in the state. SRINAGAR: Elsewhere in the valley, militants shot dead a father and his son and kidnapped a village headman from Markote Humhama in North Kashmir early on Friday morning, while a militant was killed and a police constable injured in other incidents. Militants shot dead Naseer Din and his son, Ayub, and injured his another son, Jumma, in Markote village of North Kashmir. |
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Farooq hopeful of closer Indo-Pak ties SRINAGAR, Nov 10 (PTI) — Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah has expressed the hope that India and Pakistan would come closer and usher in a new era of peace and development in South Asia. " The two countries cannot afford to continue with the present atmosphere of enmity and would one day realise, like the European nations, that peace and friendship are the only way for development and progress,” Abdullah said addressing a public meeting after inaugurating Islamia Faridya Educational and Research Centre at Kishtwar in Doda district yesterday. The European countries, which did not see eye to eye with each other in the past, were today units of the same European bloc, he said and wished the same thing happening in south Asia. He said the decade-long militancy had badly affected the state and its people. Lauding the efforts of the management of Islamia Faridya Educational Centre, the Chief Minister announced that admission in the centre would be open to all children irrespective of religion or caste. He sanctioned Rs 5 lakh for the purchase of laboratory equipment for the
centre. Dr Abdullah underlined the need for starting computer coaching classes at the centre. Children and students of other institutes, who wish to receive computer training there, should be provided the facility at concessional rates and the amount so earned be utilised for maintenance of computers, he added. |
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