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| Tuesday, February 27, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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Forest
fire generates heat in House Bandh
disrupts life in Jammu Five Hizb
militants killed Meenakshi
traced near Indore |
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Forest fire generates heat in House Jammu, February 26 For 10 minutes the BJP members led by Mr Shiv Charan Gupta raised slogans while expressing deep shock over the incident. The protesting demonstrators waved a copy of a local newspaper which had claimed that a minister was responsible for encroachment of the forest land. The Speaker, Mr Abdul Ahad Vakil, suggested to the members to raise the issue through a proper notice, but the BJP members remained insistent in their demand that the minister involved in the encroachment of the forest land be identified and punished. The CPM member, Mr M.Y. Tarigami, and the Panthers Party members, Mr Harsh Dev Singh, supported the contention of the BJP members. It was after much persuasion from the Speaker that the BJP members resumed seats to allow question hour to start. The Assembly witnessed and unprecedented event when two ABVP activists, who had entered the visitors gallery on valid permission, raised slogans against the government admission policy. They blamed the government for having “illegally” admitted 67 students of the unauthorised Prime Medical College in the two Government Medical Colleges. The security staff of the Assembly immediately pounced on them and dragged them to a room. Later, ABVP leaders Vikas Sharma and Sunil Kumar showed bruises to mediapersons which they said they had received when the security staff beat them in the room. The kidnapping of a teenage girl, Meenakshi, from Udhampur, who is yet to be traced, kicked up a storm in the House. Several Opposition members blamed the government for its failure to trace the girl, even after 17 days. Mr Shiv Charan Gupta of the BJP said despite the announcement by the Chief Minister, Dr Farooq Abdullah, no CBI inquiry had been ordered. At this juncture the acting Chief Minister, Mr Ghulam Mohiuddin Shah, informed the House that the government had issued a notification regarding the CBI probe and he hoped that the investigations would start within a day or two. He said police teams had been sent to Chandigarh, Madhya Pradesh and other states to trace the girl. He denied the Opposition charge that the government was not serious about the investigations. However, several Opposition members, including Mr Shiv Charan Gupta and Mr Harsh Dev Singh, alleged that some policemen were involved in the incident and these officials were “shielding” the criminals. They said despite the fact that all prime accused had been arrested, Meenakshi remained untraced. She had been kidnapped on February 8. They said the government should come out “with the facts” because life had come to a halt in Jammu, Udhampur and Kathua due to repeated bandhs. The People’s Democratic Party member, Mr Abdul Rehman Veeri, staged a walkout when he was not satisfied with the government’s reply to his question regarding security cover to political leaders. Mr Veeri named several political leaders who had no security cover but the minister for Public Health Engineering, Mr Ali Mohammed. Sagar, said the government would not provide any security cover to anti-national elements. He even named some political leaders who had close relations were leaders of several militant groups. |
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Bandh disrupts life in Jammu Jammu, February 26 The call for bandh was given by the Amar Rajpur Sabha and was supported by various political organisations, besides, the Chamber of Commerce and Industries. Passenger transport services were paralysed after scores of matadors and private cars were smashed by the protesters. Work in government offices was affected and several banks remained closed as employees could not reach their work places in the absence of transport services. All educational institutions remained closed and number of schools had to postpone their examinations. Protesters held demonstrations at number of places. In several localities road barriers were raised by the demonstrators blocking the traffic. About 400 protesters tried to storm into the civil secretariat but were stopped by the police. It was after great persuasion that five protesters were allowed entry into the secretariat for submitting a memorandum to the acting Chief Minister, Mr G.M. Shah. In the memorandum, the protesters demanded that immediate steps should be taken to trace the girl. They demanded that the CBI probe be ordered soon so that those involved in the abduction of the girl were duly punished and the CBI be asked to find out if there was any encouragement to the kidnappers from some political personalities, or bureaucrats. |
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Five Hizb militants killed Srinagar, February 26 Panic gripped the Exchange Road area here when militants lobbed a hand grenade at a security picket near the bus stand at 1400 hours today. The grenade missed the target and exploded without causing any damage. Inspector-General of Police Ashok Bhan said a joint patrol of the security forces and the police was fired upon by militants at Trehgam near Dooru in south Kashmir district of Anantnag last night with automatic weapons. The fire was returned and in the exchange, four Hizb militants — Abdul Rashid, Rafiq Ahmad Dar, alias Imtiaz, Tariq Ahmad Shah and Mohammad Yousuf Wagay, alias Adil were killed. Mr Bhan said one of the slain militants Abdul Rashid, alias Tractor, was allegedly involved in causing an explosion at Dooru in which Minister of State Ghulam Hassan Bhat was killed last year. According to a police spokesman, an explosion was heard in Anantnag late last night. The body of Nazir Ahmad Najar was recovered near the site of the blast this morning. Nazir who had affliation with the Harkat-ul-Ansar, w\as reportedly killed when the explosive device he was carrying exploded. Militants shot at and wounded special police officer Mohammad Altaf at Mhama in Magam of central Kashmir last evening. The spokesman said the police arrested two militants at Awantipora while another was nabbed at Kupwara last evening. Two grenades, two magazines, 40 rounds, a wireless set, five rocket boosters and a rocket were recovered from the possession of the arrested militants. A report from Jammu said at least 15 persons were injured when militants lobbed a grenade near a hotel in Doda this afternoon. An acid grenade was hurled at Hotel Poppyland at 1330 hours, causing injuries to 15.
UNI |
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Meenakshi
traced near Indore Jammu, February 26 The girl would be brought back to Jammu and after preliminary questioning sent to her parents. Meenakshi was kidnapped from Udhampur on February 8. Since then Jammu, Udhampur and Kathua towns have observed bandhs, paralysing life. According to sources, Meenakshi was found with a woman from whom she had sought shelter. Some newspapers in Indore had published reports on her disappearance. After reading these, a woman resident of Indore, had got in touch with the police. Meenakshi put up no resistance because one of her near relatives from Udhampur was escorting the police team. Local political leaders and social activists have conveyed their appreciation to the Inspector-General of Police, Mr R.V. Raju, and the Director-General of Police, Mr A.K. Suri, for having taken suitable measures for tracing the girl. They have urged the police authorities to investigate into the entire incident so that the culprits and their accomplices are punished. Some of them have demanded that the case be examined by the CBI so that no local political leader and police official is able to influence investigations. The kidnapping incident had rocked the state Assembly on a number of occasions during the past one week. |
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