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Thursday,
April 10, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Govt assurances fail to arrest Pandits’ exodus PDP leader, 5 ultras killed in J&K Mufti plans public meeting for Prime
Minister Offices to reopen in Srinagar on May
5 |
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Cop gets life term for killing
teacher Dal-nagin project gets central
nod
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Govt assurances fail to arrest Pandits’ exodus Jammu, April 9 As many as 14 members of two more Hindu families today left Nadimarg for Jammu. While confirming their migration, the police said they had travelled by two trucks that had been sent to them by their relatives from Jammu. Till now as many as 26 Pandit families have fled from Nadimarg. A week ago the Chief Minister, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, had sent a delegation of senior officers and Pandit leaders to Nadimarg to persuade Hindu families to abandon their plan of migrating from their ancestral village. The officers and the Pandit representatives, including Mr Raman Matoo, Minister of State for Industries, and Mr B.K. Vaishnavi, senior PDP leader, had assured them that they would be provided with additional security. They were also promised that an educated youth will get admission in a professional college outside the state and one member of each family will be given a job. At that stage some Pandit families had been sent back from Khannabal and the government had made payment to the drivers whose vehicles had been taken on hire for taking the families to Jammu. When some of the Pandits informed Mr Vijay Bakaya, Principal Secretary, Planning, that they had already sold their houses, land and cattle to their neighbours they were assured that the sale deeds would be cancelled under the Distress Sales Act, 1997. However, all these assurances failed to motivate Pandits to stay back in the valley. Their migration has seemingly sent panic waves among 150 families of displaced Pandits, living in camps in Jammu, who had conveyed their willingness to the Chief Minister to get rehabilitated under the government’s plan of raising clusters in Khirbhawani and Mattan areas as part of the process of bringing back the migrants to Kashmir in groups. After the Nadimarg carnage the state government too has been advised to go slow with the plan of bringing back Hindus to the valley and to suspend the idea of rehabilitating the displaced families in some selected villages at least for the time being. At one stage not only the leaders of Pandits’ organisations, including the Panun Kashmir, but others had also blamed the Chief Minister for having provoked those against the return of the migrants to the valley to carry out the massacre in Nadimarg village. Sources close to Mufti Mohammad Sayeed said the Chief Minister had an idea of showing to the world that normalcy had started returning to Kashmir by successfully bringing back 100 odd Pandit families out of over 34,000 families that had left Kashmir in 1990. According to Dr Ajay Chrungoo, Chairman, Panun Kashmir, the security scenario was not yet “conducive for the Hindus to return to Kashmir.” He again advised the Chief Minister to “forget about implementing his plan of bringing back Pandits to the valley till the last gunman surrendered or was eliminated by the security forces.” However, the Chief Minister is keen to build confidence among the people living in the valley and those in the camps in Jammu for which suitable measures were being taken to improve the security situation. In this connection the government has directed the security forces to intensify their operations against the militants, without causing any inconvenience or harassment to the civilians. The state government has conveyed, in clear terms, to the Centre that it required liberal financial assistance for executing various development projects. In addition to this a demand has been made for a suitable economic package which could help in winning the hearts of people. |
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PDP leader, 5 ultras killed in J&K Srinagar, April 9 Official sources said militants shot dead a ruling PDP leader Abdul Razaq Rather at Kulgam in South Kashmir today. According to sources deputy district commander of JuM Ali Mohammad Malik was killed in a fierce encounter at Warnow Lolab in the frontier district of Kupwara today. The encounter ensued after a search party was fired upon by the militants. Some arms and ammunition were also recovered from the site of encounter. Sources said Malik, a wanted militant was active in North Kashmir during the past 13-years. He was involved in many militancy related incidents. Official sources said militants shot dead Riyaz Ahmad at general bus stand Sopore in North Kashmir this afternoon. Militants hurled a hand grenade towards an ITBP vehicle at Sangam Chowk in South Kashmir last evening, injuring three jawans and an equal number of civilians. The injured jawans were identified as Constable Pritam and Havildar Ram Bahadur and Ramesh while the injured civilians were identified as Dilshada, Uwais and Amir Dar. The injured have been admitted to different hospitals. JAMMU: Four militants were killed on Wednesday in separate incidents in Jammu and Kashmir where Army personnel foiled an infiltration bid by Lashker-e-Toiba militants, official sources here said. Troops guarding the Line of Control at Noorkote-Chinous in Rajouri on Wednesday afternoon challenged a group of heavily armed militants who intruded 300 metres inside India, the sources said. An exchange of fire followed in which two LeT militants were killed while the others fled to Pakistan, the sources said. One personnel was also injured in the encounter and was admitted to hospital, they said. Two kg of RDX, three IEDs, two AK rifles, nine magazines, 13 grenades and some documents were recovered from the site. In another gunbattle with security forces, two Hizb-ul-Mujahideen militants were killed in the Chamalwas area of Doda district. Two security personnel were also injured in the encounter and hospitalised. Two AK rifles, seven hand grenades, nine magazines, 270 rounds and one wireless set were recovered from the spot. Elsewhere, during search operations at Balakote in Poonch district, Army personnel seized 23 AK-56 rounds, two Chinese hand grenades, one radio set, seven UBGL grenades, one magazine and some explosives. UNI & PTI |
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Mufti plans public meeting for Prime
Minister Jammu, April 9 The meeting has probably been fixed by the Mufti to show his strength in the valley and the support that his healing touch policy was receiving. It will be after a gap of about 17 years that a Prime Minister will address a public meeting in Srinagar. The last was addressed by the late Rajiv Gandhi in the mid-1980s. By addressing the public meeting in the midst of escalation of incidents of Pakistan-sponsored terrorism in the state in the recent days, Mr Vajpayee perhaps intends to send the signal that the people of the valley in general are on the Indian side. This will also be a rebuff to Pakistan which has been trying to project that the Kashmiris wanted liberation from India. Between the Congress and the current BJP-led NDA regimes at the Centre, Prime Ministers of the Third Front also visited the valley, but none addressed any public meeting. Mr Vajpayee will throw open the expanded airport where works worth Rs 45 crore have been done. He will also lay the foundation stones of the four-laning of the highway under the Centre’s programme of linking the North-South Corridor and the Railway project in the valley. Meanwhile, Mr N.N. Vohra, Centre’s interlucator, will visit the valley on April 20 to hold talks with various groups and individuals in a bid to hammer out a solution to the Kashmir problem. |
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Offices to reopen in Srinagar on May 5 Jammu, April 9 Officials and records of over 40 departments will be moved as part of the exercise. No moving employee shall occupy any government/municipal residential accommodation except under proper allotment, a government order said here. The moving employees, who have ration tickets in Jammu, are required to surrender these to the Director, Food and Supplies, Jammu, and obtain a certificate. The Director Food and Supplies, Kashmir will issue tickets to such employees at Srinagar on opening of offices. However, employees who desire to move without families may retain the government accommodation allotted to them at Jammu after intimation to the Estates Department. The state road transport corporation has been asked to make available sufficient number of buses for taking Srinagar based employees on April 26 and 27 and for taking Jammu-based employees on May 4. The salary for the month of April in respect of the employees working in the moving offices shall be drawn on April 23.
PTI |
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Cop gets life term for killing teacher Srinagar, April 9 Giving his verdict, Judge M Iqbal ordered that the accused, Bilal Ahmed Hajam (JKAP 14 Bn), be sent to the Srinagar central Jail. The judge observed that the period Bilal had undergone in custody should “be set off against the total term of life imprisonment”. Constable Hajam, in a fit of rage, had opened fire at the Deputy Superintendent of an examination centre, Farooq Ahmed Dar, in November, 1997, while he was on duty at Girls High School, Bomia Sopore. Dar was seriously injured and had died on way to hospital. The incident had taken place after Dar objected to the police constable’s movement inside the examination hall. Large scale protests had followed the killing of Dar and the police had arrested the constable under Section 302, RPC. The judge ordered to submit the records of the case to the Srinagar High Court for the confirmation of the conviction and sentence passed by this court. The execution of the sentence would remain subject to the confirmation of the high court.
UNI |
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Dal-nagin project gets central nod Srinagar, April 9 The Centre would provide 70 per cent funds while the state government would bear 3 per cent expenditure for the plan. This was stated by Jammu and Kashmir Minister for Housing and Urban Development Ghulam Hassan Mir during his tour of Dal and Anchar lakes. The minister inspected the area of the Dal Lake where deweeding was conducted this winter. Appreciating the work done by the agencies of Lakes and Waterways Development Authority (LWWDA), the minister hoped that the organisation would continue its efforts aimed at restoring the glory of the lakes and other water bodies. He hailed the demolition of encroachments over the 2500-kanal area of Anchar.
UNI |
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