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Monday,
April 8, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Baisakhi festival to
be grand affair Arms, explosives recovered enough for two wars
Three militants gunned down J-K poll roll revision begins |
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Dal Lake hotels to be shifted Mount pressure on Israel: Taragami Four give the slip to militants Panther’s MLA is ‘best legislator’
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Baisakhi festival to
be grand affair Srinagar, April 7 The festival which begins on April 13 will be marked by performances of film director and fashion designer Muzaffar Ali’s troupe and Kathak dancer Anamika Singh, besides singers from the valley. Apart from the Nishat and Shalimar gardens, cultural functions would be held at Achchabal, Shopian, Manasbal, Uri, Baramula, Beerwah, Handwara, Kupwara and Cherkote. Mr Pervez Dewan, Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir, said at a press conference here yesterday. The Nishat and Shalimar gardens and Dal Lake were formally opened to tourists on Baisakhi. He said April was the time when the tourists from Maharashtra and Gujarat visited Kashmir. He said the festival would help spread the message that Kashmir was ready to welcome them. The Divisional Commissioner said Muzaffar Ali would perform at Nishat Garden along with his troupe of 33 artistes from Avadh, Delhi and Rajasthan on April 13. Five Kashmiri instrumentalists would also be part of the troupe, he said, adding that Anamika Singh would perform Sufiana Kathak on the same day and a “filmi” Kathak on the second day. He said 80 per cent performances would be presented by local artistes. Among other things a “shikara” race would be held at Dal Lake on Saturday. Earlier, the IGP, Kashmir range, Mr K. Rajendra Kumar, said efforts would be made to provide a free environment to people. The police, he said, would be assisted by the Army and the paramilitary forces to ensure peaceful atmosphere during the celebrations. Mr Pervez Dewan said a week-long festival in May, Dhumbali festival in June and Bagpipe and brass band festival in October were in the pipeline. He said the Kashmir Hotel and Restaurant Association had offered 50 per cent concession between April 12 and April 15 on advance bookings while the State Road Transport Corporation would ply free bus services for school children from Lak Chowk to the Nishat and Shalimar gardens on April 13. |
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Arms, explosives recovered enough for two wars Jammu, April 7 The recoveries include nearly 38,000 weapons, 1.36 lakh explosive devices and 35 lakh rounds of ammunition, sources said adding that “such huge recoveries made in Jammu and Kashmir is enough to fight two small-wars.” They said 38,104 weapons, including 23,500 AK-type rifles and 9,144 pistols and revolvers were recovered between January 1990 and December 2001. The breakup of other weapons include 985 universal machine guns (UMGs), 947 rocket projectile guns (RPGs), 707 rocket launchers, 328 snipper rifles, 2,149 rocket boosters, 81 light machine guns, 142 rifles, 63 ground position mortar guns and 58 carbines. The 1,36,840 explosive devices found during this period included 45,031 hand grenades, 23,511 explosives mostly bombs, 48,544 detonators, 5175 anti-personnel mines, 496 anti-tank mines, 4616 IEDs, 4080 rockets and 4887 electronic detonators, the sources said. Apart from this, the security forces had also recovered 6366 Kg of RDX during this period, the sources said. Similarly, 35.26 lakh ammunition rounds had been recovered during the counter-insurgency operations in Jammu and Kashmir, they said. Besides, 3481 wireless sets, 56 telescopes, 15,764 cordex wire and 519 binoculars were also found. “There are still huge dumps of arms, ammunition and explosive material kept by Pakistan-sponsored militants in different areas”, they said and added that efforts were on to recover them. Different agencies participating in the counter-insurgency operations included the Army, BSF, CRPF, ITBP, Special Service Bureau J and K police, Special Operation Group and Special Task Force they said.
PTI |
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Three militants gunned down Jammu, April 7 Senior Superintendent of Police, Poonch, Kamal Saini told UNI on the telephone that acting on a tip-off that some ultras were hiding at Salotri, police and Army personnel launched a joint operation to flush them out. As they zeroed in on the ultras, the latter opened fire upon them from their Kalashnikov rifles. In the ensuing gunbattle three ultras had been shot dead so far and the encounter was still continuing when reports last came in, Dr Saini informed. SRINAGAR: Militants made an abortive attempt to blow up a security camp and a grid station in the Kashmir valley, where a teacher has been killed since last evening, an official spokesman said today. Militants fired a rifle grenade towards a BSF camp at Barbarshah in Srinagar in the wee hours today. The grenade missed the target and fell in a nearby nullah. No loss of life was reported, the spokesman said. The security forces
detected an IED planted by ultras near Gangoo-Lajoora grid station in south Kashmir which was defused before it could cause any damage, he said. The police recovered silted head of a teacher, Mushtaq Ahmad Mir, from Nagbal in Pulwama district on Sunday, he said. Militants also shot at and critically injured a civilian in downtown Srinagar in the morning, he added.
PTI, UNI |
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J-K poll roll revision begins Jammu, April 7 In various areas the electoral rolls printed in Urdu did not tally with the ones printed in Hindi. In such areas voters were denied the right to cast their votes as some polling officers banked on either the voter list published in Urdu or in Hindi. Polling officers banking on the list published in Urdu debarred those voters whose names figured only in Hindi rolls. Voters who were dead a decade ago continued to be enrolled and many eligible voters did not find their names in the list. Recently, under instructions from the Chief Election Commissioner asking the state authorities to revise the electoral rolls to include several thousand Kashmiri Pandit voters, the authorities issued advertisements in local newspapers, inviting claims and objections from the migrant voters and others during the next 15 days. Though four days have passed, the zonal officers in Jammu have not received any formal instructions regarding updating the electoral rolls of the migrants. There are over 50 lakh voters in the state. While the Jammu region has over 25.52 lakh voters, the Kashmir valley has over 24.27 lakh and the Ladakh division with over 99,000 voters is at number three place. During the last several years people and political leaders in the Jammu region have been clamouring for increase in the number of Assembly seats on the basis of the population and the area. |
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Dal Lake hotels to be shifted Srinagar, April 7 Thirteen hotels, at present functioning in the lake area, would be shifted to Humhama near the Srinagar airport, official sources said here, adding that at least 1.6 acres of land had been identified which would be soon allotted to these hotel owners. A portion of 1.6 acres would be provided to the owners of restaurants and canteens who ran their business in cinema halls before militants imposed a ban on movie houses in Kashmir on January 1, 1990. An environmental time bomb is ticking beneath the shimmering waters of the lake due to encroachments, mechanical deweeding and continued agricultural activities in the floating gardens, with environmentalists fearing that unless immediate steps are taken, the lake would disappear in the next century. Situated at an altitude of 1,580 metres above sea level in east Srinagar and high Zaberwan mountains with their lower slopes descending to the lake and orchards and wooden fields in the backdrop, the lake has already shrunk to 14 sq km from 48 sq km in 1947. On the surface, the lake may still look beautiful, but its waters have been turned into a cesspool of filth, sewage and poisonous effluents, thanks to an outpouring of contaminants over the year, experts say. The lake waters have turned red due to the appearance of algae, believed to be the first sign of drying up. Biologically known as Euglena rubra, the single-celled organisms have turned the water toxic and it is no longer safe even for fish breeding. The change in the lake’s colour has been attributed to mechanical deweeding by some experts, but others feel it is because of lack of circulation and sluggish movement of water in the past few years. Dirt and garbage from the surrounding areas have virtually choked the lake. The pollution has not only been caused by the neglect of government agencies but also due to lack of civic sense on the part of the public, the experts say. The first encroachment inside the lake took place around the 1960s when Nehru Park, a tiny island in the lake, was constructed by the then government headed by Ghulam Mohammad Bakshi. At present, there are nearly 2,000 registered houseboats in the lake, which until 1989 added the refuse of more than 7,000 tourists during the tourist season, apart from that of 15,000 inhabitants of the area. Although the registration of new houseboats for the Dal has been banned by the government, the process continues in an unauthorised manner and today, the number is over 2,500. The government had set up a separate department to look after the lake but it was mired in controversy due to the alleged misappropriation of funds meant for the treatment of the lake and several officials were suspended. The case was referred to state Vigilance Commission.
PTI |
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Mount pressure on Israel: Taragami Jammu, April 7 The situation in West Asia was fast deteriorating. Therefore, it was imperative that international public opinion must prevail to bring peace and normalcy in the region, he said. In Srinagar, the NC said that peace in the sub-continent was possible only when India and Pakistan joined hands to resolve their differences through dialogue. Speaking at a function to felicitate the two CPI(M) Block presidents who, along with their 50 followers, joined the party at Kulgam, NC provisional chief Abdul Rashid Shaheen said: “To bring about peace in the region, both neighbours will have to talk out their differences across the table.
PTI, UNI |
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Four give the slip to militants Jammu, April 7 Armed militants had barged into the house of a Muslim family last evening in Sowie-Bagi village in Ramban belt of Doda hills and kidnapped the four, the sources said adding that militants took them to upper reaches of the area. The police had launched a search operation and cordoned off the area to rescue them. However, the abducted persons managed to escape from the captivity.
PTI |
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Panther’s MLA is ‘best legislator’ Jammu, April 7 Announcing the result, the Speaker of the state Assembly Abdul Ahad Vakil said here today that the legislator would get a citation and Rs 1 lakh from the Chief Minister’s Fund. Mr Harsh Dev Singh was selected on the basis of his performance, general conduct, decency, clarity of subject, punctuality and constructive contribution to the Assembly proceedings, he said. Last year, the award was bagged by the Bahujan Samaj Party legislator, Mr Sheikh Abdul Rehman.
PTI |
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New Acting JK CJ Chandigarh, April 7 Mr Justice Jhanji has served the Punjab and Haryana High Court before going to the Jammu and Kashmir High Court. |
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