J A M M U   &   K A S H M I R

Top Lashkar man shot, 3 hideouts smashed
Srinagar, April 11
A self-styled commander of Pak-based Lashker-e-Toiba was killed and three ultra hideouts were smashed in Jammu and Kashmir where militants set off two grenade blasts targeting security forces since last evening.

‘It was dance of death in Gujarat’ Srinagar, April 11 It was like a rebirth for 11 Kashmiri traders and salesmen who had gone to Gujarat to participate in an exhibition and saw men, women and children being burnt alive. They even witnessed their own stalls looted and set afire by rioters but managed to escape with the help of two Hindus.

Security men guarding sensitive localities of Jammu on Wednesday after militants gunned down five members of a family in Doda district of Jammu late last night. — PTI photo

BJP for pickets in remote areas
Jammu, April 11
The state unit of the BJP has demanded setting up of security pickets in the far-flung villages of Doda, Udhampur, Poonch and Rajouri districts to prevent militants from carrying out massacres of minorities.

Court restrains J&K BJP President
Jammu, April 11
The President of the state unit of the BJP, Mr D.K. Kotwal, has been restricted from taking any policy decision till further orders, according to the First Civil Subordinate Judge on a petition filed by Mr Som Nath and other BJP workers.

CCS to decide on restoration of STD
Jammu, April 11
The BSNL has left the issue of the restoration of Internet and STD facilities in Jammu and Kashmir to the Cabinet Committee on Security.

A Border Security Force officer hands over educational material to a school girl during a civic action programme in Srinagar on Thursday. A statement of the BSF said they provided books, stationery and uniforms to 120 needy school girls on the occasion. — Reuters photo

Finishing touches being given to the stage for the inaugural programme of the two-day Baisakhi festival at Nishat Gardens in Srinagar on Thursday. The highlight of the inaugural programme will be a performance by film director Muzaffar Ali's troupe. — Photo Amin War.

Top Lashkar man shot, 3 hideouts smashed

Srinagar, April 11
A self-styled commander of Pak-based Lashker-e-Toiba was killed and three ultra hideouts were smashed in Jammu and Kashmir where militants set off two grenade blasts targeting security forces since last evening.

Abu Furqan alias Hanzla, a LeT “divisional commander”, was killed in an encounter with a joint search party of the Army and the Special Operations Group (SoG) of the local police at Partapora in Pulwama district last night, a police spokesman said.

Furqan, a Pakistani national, was active in south Kashmir for the past one year and his killing is a setback to the LeT in Kashmir, the spokesman said, adding an AK assault rifle, a wireless set and six grenades were seized from him.

Militants hurled a grenade at a BSF picket at Khanyar in downtown Srinagar this afternoon but no was hurt.

Ultras also threw a grenade at a security patrol in the Trehgam area in Kupwara district. The grenade missed the target and exploded in an open field causing no injuries.

The spokesman said militants clashed with the security forces at Lolab in Kupwara and near Sopore in Baramula but there were no casualties.

The security forces smashed two militant hideouts during search operations in Kupwara last night leading to the recovery of a universal machine gun, 30 hand grenades and 16 rifle grenades.

The spokesman said the security forces busted another militant hideout in the Surankote area of Poonch district and recovered five hand grenades, five IEDs, 80 kg ration and 60 litres of kerosene oil.

Two Hizb-ul-Mujahideen militants identified as Ishfaq Ahmad and Nazir Ahmad Hajam were arrested by a joint party of the CRPF and the SOG here last night.

Five grenades and some ammunition were recovered from the arrested militants, the spokesman said.

He said another militant, Nazir Ahmad Dar, was arrested in the Lal Chowk area here. PTI

‘It was dance of death in Gujarat’

Srinagar, April 11
It was like a rebirth for 11 Kashmiri traders and salesmen who had gone to Gujarat to participate in an exhibition and saw men, women and children being burnt alive.

They even witnessed their own stalls looted and set afire by rioters but managed to escape with the help of two Hindus.

Mr Bashir Ahmad Bhatt, who accompanied a trader as a salesman, said that immediately after the Godhra incident some people belonging to the majority community came to their exhibition on the university road and asked them to leave the state as Hindu fundamentalists were planning to attack Muslims.

‘’We just did not understand what to do and for a moment we were scared,’’ he said, adding that ‘’But since police personnel were deployed there, we became confident that they would not allow anybody to harm us’’.

‘’However, when we decided to leave on being warned again, it was too late and we had to stay in our stalls for next one week, mostly without food and water’’.

The Kashmiris said, ‘’Next morning our water tank, which remained there throughout the exhibition, was withdrawn for unknown reasons and there was no water’’.

One of them who went to fetch water was beaten up by some people and he returned bleeding from his nose and head.

‘’We saw rioters throwing men, women and children into leaping flames after injuring them with sharp-edged weapons,’’ they said, adding that, ‘’We were pleading before policemen to take us to the railway station or any other safe place.’’

‘’But the police threatened us that they will shoot us if we try to leave our stalls’’.

‘’After remaining without water and food for about two days, it was a cobbler who helped us though he charged Rs 100 for a water bottle and 500 times more for the eatables’’.

The Kashmiris recount that after they had lost count of days, one afternoon a group of motorcyclists, armed with hockey sticks and other weapons, encircled their stalls, but because of the presence of police personnel they left without harming them after talking to the uniformed men.

‘’We thanked the police personnel for saving our lives and stalls from them (rioters) without knowing what was in store for us for the night. The rioters came at night and set ablaze our stalls and to our shock we found all police personnel missing,’’ they said.

‘’However, a Hindu truck driver came to us and said he would take us to some safe place but we did not trust him for a moment and thought it was a conspiracy,’’ the Kashmiris said.

Around the same time, a journalist, who identified himself as a photographer of the BBC and had come to record their interview, agreed to help them reach the railway station but said they would have to apply “tilak ‘’ on their foreheads.

But, they said, ‘’As ill luck would have it, once we agreed to do so, the driver of his vehicle refused to allow us to board the vehicle’’.

‘’We had witnessed the killing of security forces, militants and civilians and destruction of property in the Kashmir valley during the past 12 years, but what happened in Gujarat before our eyes could not be explained in words,’’ they said.

It was only after a number of days, that Shakti, a Hindu three-wheeler driver, agreed to help them reach the railway station.

Shakti asked them to shave their beards and apply ‘tilak’ on their foreheads and said it was the only way to get out of that place.

However, Shakti could only help one of them reach the railway station. The other 10 were taken to a railway station by Shakti after ‘’we changed our dress and were raising anti-Muslim slogans on the way’’.

‘’The drivers charged us many times more than the actual fare, but we believe that the amount paid to them was too little for having saved our lives.’’

But reaching the railway station did not prove to be the end of their ordeal. They were asked to pay 10 times the actual fare and had to accept it as there was no other option.

‘’The ordeal did not end even after we boarded the train as the railway ticket checker threatened us that he would tell everybody in the train that we were Kashmiri Muslims if we did not pay him Rs 1,000 each.’’

When they told him that they didn’t have enough money and pleaded for consideration, he agreed to take Rs 700 from each of them. UNI

BJP for pickets in remote areas
Tribune News Service

Jammu, April 11
The state unit of the BJP has demanded setting up of security pickets in the far-flung villages of Doda, Udhampur, Poonch and Rajouri districts to prevent militants from carrying out massacres of minorities.

The demand was made by the vice-president of the party, Mr Kuldeep Raj Gupta, during his meeting with the Governor, Mr G.C. Saxena, here today. Mr Gupta told newsmen that he had urged the Governor to intervene so that security pickets could be set up in all remote villages, especially in hamlets inhabited by the minorities. He said he had told the Governor that the Pakistan-aided militants had been assigned the task of eliminating minorities so that they migrated to other areas leaving the villages as safe sanctuaries for rebels.

The BJP leader said the state government had failed to tackle the militants gameplan of carrying out one carnage after another. He also demanded that VDC members be equipped with sophisticated weapons and wireless sets.

Mr Gupta also demanded that the next Assembly elections be held under the Governor’s rule as the National Conference (NC) had developed the expertise of rigging the elections.

Meanwhile, the Union Minister for Food Processing, Prof Chaman Lal Gupta has held the successive Congress leadership in the Centre responsible for the Kashmir crisis. Addressing BJP workers here today Prof Gupta said the state’s accession was allowed to be signed belatedly and when the Indian troops were about to liberate Pakistan occupied areas the then Central Government ordered ceasefire. Later whatever gains the Indian troops had secured in 1965 and 1971 wars were frittered away by the Congress on the table. The accord with Sheikh Abdullah in 1975 and later the Rajiv-Farooq accord in 1986 were yet other blunders which created more political problems.

Prof Gupta praised the role of the Vajpayee-led government for having refused to resume Indo-Pak dialogue unless Pakistan stopped aiding cross-border terrorism. He ridiculed those Congress leaders who were criticising the BJP-led government for its failure to tackle the Kashmir crisis.

Court restrains J&K BJP President
Tribune News Service

Jammu, April 11
The President of the state unit of the BJP, Mr D.K. Kotwal, has been restricted from taking any policy decision till further orders, according to the First Civil Subordinate Judge on a petition filed by Mr Som Nath and other BJP workers.

The court has also directed the President of the all-India BJP to hold the election for the post of the president of the state unit of the party because Mr Kotwal’s term had ended in 2000. The court said the party leadership should hold the election for the post as per its earlier order issued in December 2000.

The court has upheld the plea of the petitioners that the party was trying to nominate a person to the president’s post which was in violation of the party constitution. The court ruled that under Section 10 of the party constitution there was no provision for nominating the party president and hence the constitution could not be bypassed.

What has made the dissidents in the party happy is that the time for “review, revision or appeal” had elapsed. The court also rejected the plea of the defendants that the court should supervise the election to the post of the president. The Judge ruled out that holding or supervising party elections was out of the purview of the judiciary.

The dissidents have already conveyed to the party high command that the defeat of the BJP in the recent byelection in the Jammu Lok Sabha constituency was the result of a weak candidate it had fielded and on account of infighting in the state unit of the party with the RSS trying to take the centrestage.

CCS to decide on restoration of STD
Tribune News Service

Jammu, April 11
The BSNL has left the issue of the restoration of Internet and STD facilities in Jammu and Kashmir to the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS).

Briefing newspersons about the suspension of these services here today, the Chief General Manager, Telecommunications, Mr P.C. Chhabra, said the BSNL had sent its recommendations for the restoration of these services and it was for the CCS to take a final decision. He said while the BSNL in this region suffered a daily loss by Rs 7 lakh about 9,000 PCO owners and Internet users suffered heavy losses.

Mr Chhabra said with the setting up of 43 new exchanges and increasing the lines of 47,000 during the 2001-2002 financial year telephone connections in Jammu were available on demand.