J A M M U   &   K A S H M I R

Pak leaders to attend convention on Kashmir
NEW DELHI, Jan 10 - The Jammu and Kashmir Awami National Conference is organising a convention in Jammu on February 10 and 11 to evolve and suggest an acceptable solution to the Kashmir problem.

10,329 file papers for panchayat poll
JAMMU, Jan 10 — A total of 10,329 candidates had filed papers for 485 panchayats of Poonch, Rajouri Kathua and Kupwara districts, an official spokesman said here today. Of them, 2258 nominations were for the post of sarpanch and 8071 for panchayat members, the spokesman said.

Jamait plan to target politicians foiled
SRINAGAR, Jan 10 — The Jammu and Kashmir police claims to have unearthed a Jamait-ul-Mujahideen plan to target senior politicians and also cause disturbances during Republic Day with the arrest five top militants in Srinagar and Kolkota.

‘Include Sikhs in J&K peace talks’
JAMMU, Jan 10 — Various Sikh organisations, including the State Gurdwara Parbandhak Board, has demanded that representatives of Sikhs should also be included in the proposed talks for settling the Kashmir issue.

Top Hizb militant shot dead
SRINAGAR, Jan 10 — A self-styled battalion commander of pro-Pakistan Hizbul-Mujahideen was killed in an encounter with Border Security Force in the Kashmir valley, where militants exploded a grenade and torched a panchayatgarh since last evening, a BSF spokesman said here today.

Govt regrets BJP leaders’ charge
JAMMU, Jan 10 — The Jammu and Kashmir Government has termed as “irresponsible and motivated” the charges levelled by some BJP leaders that central funds were being used to promote militancy in the state.

Students go on strike against 54 admissions
JAMMU, Jan 10 — City of temples, as Jammu is called, today witnessed series of protest demonstrations in support of the demand for cancellations of admission given to 54 students of a private college in the two government medical colleges and restoration of uninterrupted power supply.

Bandh held
UDHAMPUR, Jan 10 — A bandh was observed here in protest against unscheduled heavy power cuts in the town.

Pak leaders to attend convention on Kashmir
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Jan 10 - The Jammu and Kashmir Awami National Conference is organising a convention in Jammu on February 10 and 11 to evolve and suggest an acceptable solution to the Kashmir problem.

Talking to mediapersons here, the former Chief Minister and president of the party, G.M. Shah, said leaders, intellectuals and eminent citizens from both sides of the LOC and activists from the UK, the USA would discuss the Kashmir issue and its peaceful resolution.

He said various proposals would be discussed to find an acceptable solution to the Kashmir problem.

Mr Shah said recent steps taken by India and Pakistan towards peace had kindled a ray of hope for the people of Kashmir. Hailing Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s statement that he would not be confined to the beaten track of the past in finding a solution to Kashmir, Mr Shah said the people of Kashmir would whole-heartedly support his efforts.

He said while people of the subcontinent were enjoying fruits of independence, people of the valley had been subject to monoeuvring of the two ideological opponents.”

He said people of the state had been made promises which were never fulfilled. Thousands of lives had been lost till now leaving behind a trail of destruction and misery.

Mr Shah said every one had to rise above party politics and regional interests to save the future of the people. “For a practical solution, it is necessary that the unity among all regions is kept in mind. The solution can be evolved only through dialogue,” Mr Shah said.

Maintaining that the All-Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC) was a force in the valley, he, was categorical that it did not entirely represent the people of Kashmir. “The APHC has also not been able to carry along people of all the three regions of state,” Mr Shah said.

Mr Shah said over 225 prominent leaders from Kashmir, including those from the APHC, the National Conference, the Congress and the BJP, nearly 150 from Jammu province and 23 from Ladakh had been invited to the convention.

While 13 leaders have been invited from Europe and the USA, 38 leaders including JKLF Chief Amanaullah Khan have been invited from POK.

10,329 file papers for panchayat poll

JAMMU, Jan 10 (PTI) — A total of 10,329 candidates had filed papers for 485 panchayats of Poonch, Rajouri Kathua and Kupwara districts, an official spokesman said here today.

Of them, 2258 nominations were for the post of sarpanch and 8071 for panchayat members, the spokesman said.

There were 158 women candidates in the fray, he said, adding of them 31 had filed nomination papers for sarpanch and 127 for panchs constituencies.

Meanwhile, 2,911 candidates had withdrawn their nominations in five blocks of Mendhar, Balakote, Poonch, Mandi and Surankot of Poonch district.

Similarly, nominations had been withdrawn in seven blocks, including in Sunderbani, Nowshehra, Rajouri and Budhal of Rajouri district and four blocks of Tangdhar, Teetwal, Keran panchayats and Machail panchayats of Kupwara district.

Nominations had also been withdrawn in eight blocks of Ghagwal, Hiranagar, Kathua, Barnoti, Lohai-Malhar, Billawar, Bani and Basohli of Kathua district.

According to chief electoral officer, who is also election authority for panchayats, 1400 candidates, 59 sarpanchs and 1341 panchs, had been declared elected unopposed after the withdrawal of nominations.

Of them 544 were in Mendhar, Balakot, Poonch, Mandi and Surankote blocks of Poonch district, 526 in Rajouri, Manajkote Darhal, Budhal, Sunderbani, Kalakote and Nowshehra blocks of Rajouri district, 106 in Tanghdar, Teetwal and Keran panchayats of Kupwara district and 224 in Kathua district.

Jamait plan to target politicians foiled

SRINAGAR, Jan 10 (UNI) — The Jammu and Kashmir police claims to have unearthed a Jamait-ul-Mujahideen plan to target senior politicians and also cause disturbances during Republic Day with the arrest five top militants in Srinagar and Kolkota.

Inspector General of Police Ashok Bhan told a group of journalists last night that on the basis of specific information that pro-Pakistani Jamait-ul-Mujahideen had again started reorganising itself in the Kashmir valley, a special team of Jammu and Kashmir police carried out simultaneous raids at various places in Srinagar and Kolkota in West Bengal.

He said during the raids, the police arrested four top militants of Jamait, including self-styled chief coordinator Muzaffar Mirza, Khurshid Ahmad, deputy district commander, Mohallad Sultan Islahi and Abdul Aziz Pir, an employee of municipality.

Dr Bhan said the Kashmir police also arrested Nisar Ahmad Gandroo from Kolkota in West Bengal. He said Gandroo had very close links with Pakistan’s ISI and Pakistan-based militant outfit Lashker-e-Toiba.

He said investigations revealed that the group was planning to target senior politicians and also cause large-scale disturbances during the Republic Day functions in the valley.

He said the group admitted having caused a bomb blast near Hanuman Mandir near here recently in which four Border Security Force jawans and 27 civilians were injured.

The group also admitted having helped a top militant general Abdullah to escape from custody from a hospital here last year.

Meanwhile, the pro-Pakistani Hizb-ul Mujahideen fired a number of grenades last night from an unknown place towards Bakshi Stadium, venue for the main Republic Day function.

However, the grenade exploded without causing any damage.

‘Include Sikhs in J&K peace talks’
Tribune News Service

JAMMU, Jan 10 — Various Sikh organisations, including the State Gurdwara Parbandhak Board, has demanded that representatives of Sikhs should also be included in the proposed talks for settling the Kashmir issue.

The president, State Gurdwara Parbandhak Board, Mr S.S. Wazir, has sent a three-page letter to the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, copies of which have been submitted to the Union Home Minister, Mr L.K. Advani, External Affairs Minister, Mr Jaswant Singh, and the Chief Minister, Dr Farooq Abdullah, requesting the Government of India to give permission to the representatives of the Sikh community to visit Pakistan and the occupied Kashmir for interaction with the people so as to pave the way for the restoration of peace to Kashmir and for the settlement of the Kashmir issue.

Releasing copies of the letter Mr Wazir told newsmen here that the Sikhs who had migrated from Pakistan and settled in Jammu and Kashmir had been getting a raw deal from the government during the past 52 years. He said these refugees had been allotted land and houses but denied the proprietary rights. They were entitled to vote for Lok Sabha elections but not for the assembly poll.

Since they were denied the state subject certificates their children could neither get admission in professional colleges nor could be recruited in the state government departments.

Mr Rangil Singh, a former minister, who was present at the press conference referred to 25 seats having been kept vacant in the state assembly for representatives of Kashmir that was under the occupation of Pakistan. He suggested to Mr Vajpayee to either annexe the occupied Kashmir, as per the resolution adopted by Parliament, or settle the dispute for ever so that the Sikhs living in Jammu and Kashmir as refugees were given all rights.

Mr Wazir supported the Prime Minister’s peace initiative and requested him to take bold and innovative measures for settling the dispute. He, however, stated that the community should not be ignored while bilateral or tripartite talks were started. He welcomed the plan of the Hurriyat Conference leaders to visit Pakistan and suggested to the Centre to allow representatives of the Sikh community to be part of the Indian delegation to Islamabad and Muzaffarabad.

Top Hizb militant shot dead

SRINAGAR, Jan 10 (PTI) — A self-styled battalion commander of pro-Pakistan Hizbul-Mujahideen was killed in an encounter with Border Security Force in the Kashmir valley, where militants exploded a grenade and torched a panchayatgarh since last evening, a BSF spokesman said here today.

Gul Mohammad Khan, alias “Bambar Khan”, one of the most wanted militants in south Kashmir, was killed in encounter with BSF troops in the Baderkote area of Pahalgam last evening, the spokesman said.

He said BSF troops were on a routine patrol in the Baderkote forest area in Anantnag district of south Kashmir, when they noticed movement of two armed militants.

Troops asked them to surrender but militants resorted to firing and in the ensuing encounter, he was killed while his accomplice escaped.

Khan was involved in a large number of militancy-related incidents during the past several years, the spokesman said, adding an AK-56 rifle, two magazines with 43 rounds and Indian currency were seized.

Meanwhile, a police spokesman said militants detonated a grenade in Kupwara district town in north Kashmir today, but no one was hurt in the explosion.

Militants lobbed the grenade outside a local hotel in Kupwara town around 10.30 a.m. but caused no harm, he said.

Militants also set ablaze a panchayat house at Dharpora in Kupwara district last night damaging it, the spokesman added.

Govt regrets BJP leaders’ charge

JAMMU, Jan 10 (PTI) The Jammu and Kashmir Government has termed as “irresponsible and motivated” the charges levelled by some BJP leaders that central funds were being used to promote militancy in the state.

State Finance Minister Abdul Rahim Rather said the funds in the state were being spent judiciously as per guidelines on speeding up development and welfare of people.

The minister said the Planning Commission monitored the fund utilisation and there was no specific instance to show that these funds were used for promoting militancy.

“Such wild allegations without specifics only prove that the leaders have played to the gallery to mislead public opinion,” he said.

Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and several top leaders have time and again acknowledged the “Herculean task” being performed by the state government to steer the state out of the morass, he said, adding that the leaders at lower rung were making irresponsible utterances that demonstrate their ignorance of the ground realities.

Describing the allegations as “absurd”, he regretted that such statements have come at a time when the state government has accelerated the pace of development and successfully combated trans-border militancy.

Challenging them to prove the charges, Mr Rather said the Chief Minister had several times offered to face the commission to probe what happened during the seven years central rule and four years of NC rule in the militancy-torn state.

He said an industrial culture had been revived in the state and big industrial houses had shown interest in investing in the state.

The recent commissioning of Rs 9 crore software technological park believed the claim of BJP leaders that the central funds were being misused.

Students go on strike against 54 admissions
Tribune News Service

JAMMU, Jan 10 — City of temples, as Jammu is called, today witnessed series of protest demonstrations in support of the demand for cancellations of admission given to 54 students of a private college in the two government medical colleges and restoration of uninterrupted power supply.

On the call of the ABVP, students of different colleges, including those studying in two women colleges, observed general strike on the second day today. The students marched in big procession and disrupted work in the medical college. The demonstration squatted in front of the civil secretariat.

Groups of people, including women, organised separate demonstration in protest against prolonged power shedding. They burnt effigies of Chief Minister, Dr Farooq Abdullah, and the Power Minister, Mr S.S. Slathia.

Passenger transport services were disrupted because of the protest demonstrations.

Mr Romesh Puppa, national secretary ABVP, who was released here yesterday after being arrested on Monday while leading a demonstration in the Jammu university, told newsmen that despite peoples hue and cry the state government continued to remain silent over the demand of the ABVP for the cancellation of the admission of 54 students belonging to a Srinagar-based private medical college in the two government medical colleges. He circulated copies of the government order and said that the “order itself is vague and illegal.”

Mr Romesh Puppa announced that the Jammu bandh will be observed on January 15 in case the government failed to improve the power supply and cancel the admission order. He said that the ABVP had drawn a long programme of agitating against the government malpractices. He said that after January 13 “our agitation may be violent and the government will be responsible for any untoward incident.”

The ABVP leadership has appealed to the ABVP led NDA government to intervene and force the state government to rectify the wrong. He said that by admitting 54 students most of them from valley in Jammu medical college the National Conference Government had further given a step-motherly treatment to the people.

Bandh held
From Our Correspondent

UDHAMPUR, Jan 10 — A bandh was observed here in protest against unscheduled heavy power cuts in the town.

The bandh call was given by the BJP, the BJYM, the Shiv Sena and other parties. All business establishments banks, schools and colleges remained closed while vehicular traffic remained off the road. The presence in the offices were very thin. Effigies of the Chief Minister were burnt in Indira Chowk. No untowards incident was, however, reported from any part of the town.