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Thursday,
August 23, 2001, Chandigarh, India  
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Jammu
gears up to plug Taliban drug route Blast near
security forces camp Hurriyat
executive flays Advani’s offer BJP to
agitate against NC Govt |
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| Rebels
gun for Qureshi’s head Jammu, August 22 Dissidents in the state unit of the Congress have rejected a compromise formula and have intensified their campaign against the PCC chief, Mr Mohd Shafi Qureshi, demanding his immediate “ouster”. 
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Jammu gears
up to plug Taliban drug route Chandigarh, August 22 “The fear of increase in narcotic trade has been puzzling Indian agencies as there is a likelihood that Pakistan’s failure to handle narcotics trade due to suspected involvement of the Taliban and the ISI, may result in the drugs finding additional takers in India,’’ informed sources told The Tribune here today. The likely channel for this illegal trade could be the International Border in the Jammu region of Jammu and Kashmir as the Punjab border is relatively safe after the border fencing, the sources said. The issue is likely to be reflected in the quarterly Indo-Pak border meeting scheduled to be held on August 27 in Amritsar, sources said. They said with the army getting certain police powers in the Jammu region, illegal narcotic trade, which is suspected to feed terrorist activities and thought to be their finance source, is likely to be hit adversely. The meeting between the Border Security Force and Pakistani Rangers at Amritsar would have representatives from the Narcotics Department of Jammu, Punjab and Himachal from Indian side and their Pakistani counterparts. The counterpart department of Pakistan and the Indian narcotic authorities will exchange information from both sides of the border to jointly fight the menace. At the earlier meetings both countries have been sharing information regarding suspects and their modus operandi and have been persuading each other to increase cooperation and track down ‘’bad elements’’. The Indian authorities feel the drug situation in Pakistan has been getting from bad to worse and the drug cartel has been going on as it was and there has been no change even after Gen Pervez took over as Pakistan President. They said the Pakistani authorities had cracked down on illegal arms owners but they could not satisfactorily seize the arms as there was a strong link between drugs and arms. The free entry of the Taliban in Pakistan is also adding to the woes of Pakistan in terms of handling the illegal drug trade. The sources say that Taliban after the widespread sanctions is largely dependent on drug trade in which Pakistanis are being used as conduits. These factors are adding to the growing fear of India of the narcotic substances overflowing to India. Recently around 13 kg of drugs was seized in Jammu region, which is what is adding to the recent fear ahead of the border meeting. |
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Blast near
security forces camp Srinagar, August 22 One militant of Jamiat-ul-Mujahideen was killed in an encounter with the SOG and security forces at Panjoo forests in the Tral area of Pulwama district this morning. An AK rifle, two magazines and a pouch were recovered from the site of the encounter, the police said. The police today recovered the body of an SPO, Altaf Ahmad Khan, from Bazipora jungles in Kupwara district of North Kashmir. He had been kidnapped by unidentified gunmen from his residence last evening. The body of an unidentified woman was recovered from Sheikh Nar jungles in the Sogam area of Kupwara district. “A letter of Harkat-ul-Ansar outfit was found in which the outfit claimed to have killed her”, a police spokesman stated here this evening. Two security force jawans were injured in an explosion near a camp of the security forces at Zacchldara near Handwara in Kupwara district. Jammu:
There is no let-up in the firing resorted to by Pakistani Rangers along international border in Jammu frontier during the past two days, BSF sources said here on Wednesday. |
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Hurriyat
executive flays Advani’s offer Srinagar, August 22 The three-hour long meeting presided over by APHC Chairman, Prof Abdul Ghani Bhat, was held at the party headquarters at
Rajbagh. Others who attended the meeting included Syed Ali shah Geelani of
Jamaat-e-Islami, Mirwaiz Moulvi Umar Farooq, Moulana Abbas Ansari, Mr Abdul Ghani Lone, Mr Khalil Mohammad Khalil of Peoples League and Mr Ghulam Rasool Dar. The committee meeting was held for the first time after the Agra summit, during which top leaders of the APHC participated in the tea party hosted by the Pakistan High Commissioner in New Delhi in honour of the visiting Pakistani President, General Pervez Musharraf. According to a spokesman for the Hurriyat Conference, the Hurriyat executive committee reiterated its stand on the Kashmir issue saying that “statements and warnings cannot change the ground situation or solve the issue”. The meeting resolved that concrete steps to resolve the Kashmir issue were needed and that only would lead to peace in the sub-continent. Meanwhile, the Congress in Jammu and Kashmir today called a general strike across the state on Friday to protest against Mr Advani’s remark that the centre was considering giving “relief” to security personnel accused of human rights violations. The decision to call the strike on August 24 was taken at a meeting of the Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee, its president, Mr Mohammad Shafi Qureshi, said in a statement. The Congress statement said Mr Advani’s remark has “created panic and uncertainty” throughout Jammu and Kashmir and is bound to create an impression that security forces are habitual violators of human rights.” |
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BJP to agitate against NC Govt Jammu, August 22 To begin with the BJP will stage demonstrations against the state government here from tomorrow. This was stated at a press conference here today by several senior party leaders, including Mr Chander Mohan Sharma, vice-president, and Mr Hans Raj Dogra, MLA. Mr Sharma and Mr Dogra expressed deep concern and anger over the way the National Conference government had been raking up only the “extraneous” issue of restoration of greater autonomy to the state which they said would not improve the power and water position. The BJP leaders said under the slogan of greater autonomy, the state government continued to discriminate against the Jammu region and as an Opposition party “we will agitate against it”. They also expressed concern over a nexus between some ruling politicians and the land mafia in Jammu as “they were trying to alter the demographic character of Jammu by encouraging people of one community from Kashmir, Doda and Poonch districts to buy land and houses in and around the winter capital”. Mr Dogra said the ruling politicians supported the land mafia in encroaching upon government and private land which was being made available to people belonging to the majority community in the state. He said in certain cases the mafia had forced poor landowners to sell their land for a song so as to enable the majority community to settle here and elsewhere. The BJP leaders said these politicians had used their influence to let a large number of unauthorised colonies come up where basic amenities like power and water were being provided at the cost of the people living in authorised and recognised colonies. The party leaders also demanded that a separate competent authority, which selects candidates for the professional colleges, be set up for the Jammu region and that it should be brought under the control of Jammu University. They said the competent authority set up was not free from “political interference” and that was the reason that candidates belonging to the Jammu region had been given a poor share in the seats in the medical and engineering colleges for which the selection lists were released recently. They wanted the Chief Minister, Dr Farooq Abdullah, and his ministerial colleagues to be responsive to the ‘burning problems” of the people in the Jammu region, adding that the autonomy slogan, which would be used by the ruling party during the next Assembly poll, might not have many takers. The BJP leaders said people in the region had become fed up with the “gimmicks” of the National Conference government. |
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Rebels gun for Qureshi’s head Jammu, August 22 Party sources said senior party leaders in Delhi, in consultation with the AICC President, Mrs Sonia Gandhi, had prepared a compromise formula under which all prominent dissident leaders were to be accommodated in the new body with Mr Qureshi as the PCC chief. Secondly prominent dissident leaders, specially Mr Mangat Ram Sharma, were assured that they would be consulted at the time of issuing party mandate to the candidates for the next Assembly elections. They were promised that the Congress High Command would not take any major policy decision, including the restructuring of the district committees, without their approval. However, the dissidents, according to the Congress sources, rejected this formula and straightaway mounted pressure on Mrs Sonia Gandhi to replace Mr Qureshi by any other leader. The dissidents have conveyed to the party high command that they would accept anyone as PCC chief except Mr Qureshi. However, till the massacre carried out by the militants in Kishtwar and at Jammu railway station the Congress High Command was in favour of the continuance of Mr Qureshi as the PCC President. But the recent events have forced even Mr Ghulam Nabi Azad, AICC General Secretary, once a supporter of Mr Qureshi, to side with the dissidents. Inside reports said Mr Azad had failed to trace Mr Qureshi for two days as he (Azad) wanted the PCC chief to visit Kishtwar and express party’s sympathies with the bereaved families. When Mr Qureshi could not be contacted Mr Azad flew to Kishtwar along with three other party leaders from Delhi. A day after Mr Azad had planned to organise a party demonstration in Jammu against the massacre of innocent people but this rally could not take off as Mr Qureshi treated it as an interference in his affairs. Taking advantage of it a senior party leader, Mr Taj Mohiuddin, has been camping in Delhi to persuade the Congress High command to act fast failing which several party leaders and workers might join either the National Conference or the Peoples’ Democratic Party, by Mufti Mohd Sayeed. Mr Taj Mohiuddin has met several AICC leaders and apprised them of the party’s dismal affairs in Jammu and Kashmir cautioning them that any further delay in the reorganisation of the PCC could cause irreparable damage to the organisation which was supposed to play the role of an effective opposition party in the troubled Jammu and Kashmir. |
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