 |
Monday,
April 14, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
|
Hizb
blames Mufti for custodial deaths Maruti
Udyog told to pay damages BJP:
healing touch pro-terrorist
40
‘no-work’ days in Kashmir so far Police
reshuffle |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
Hizb blames Mufti for custodial deaths Jammu, April 13 Once again, atleast after five months, Kashmir has been gripped by undercurrents of resentment over custodial killings, and over the comeback of the SOG as far as operations against the rebels and their supporters are concerned. The Hizbul Mujahideen has started blaming the Mufti-led government for its failure to check custodial killings. The Hizb leadership has declared a “tooth for tooth” policy against ruling PDP while protesting against the death of its chief commander, operations, Saiful Islam, and the deputy divisional commander, Mohd. Yusuf Hajam. Both of them had been arrested by the police and later were shown having been killed in encounters. The Hizbul leadership has even blamed Mufti Mohd. Sayeed’s daughter, Ms Mehbooba Mufti, for “shedding crocodile tears” while visiting bereaved families. “Maro or Mareyngay” (kill or get killed) is the new slogan of the Hizbul Mujahideen leadership. Though random search and cordon operations have not been restarted more than 25 persons, including surrendered militants, have been arrested in various segments of the Kashmir valley during the past 10 days. Another irritant for those who expected a better deal from the Mufti. The Chief Minister, Mufti Mohd. Sayeed won hearts of a number of people when he personally visited several district and tehsil headquarters to handover letters of appointment in government departments, the failure of the coalition partners in tackling the problem of unemployment has started forcing people to lose faith in the leadership of the Mufti. Nazir Ahmed, an unemployed postgraduate, said “the Chief Minister has distributed appointment letters for Class IV jobs to the victims of militancy.”He said “whenever I approach, as others do, any minister we are informed that the ban on recruitment, imposed by the former National Conference government has not been lifted because of resource crunch.” Although the Government headed by the Mufti provided some relief to the people in the power, drinking water and road development sectors, hopes of suitable economic package seem to have been belied. A snap survey carried out by this correspondent revealed that Mufti Sayeed has not faulted. Circumstances have overtaken the policy he had formulated. He had ordered the assimilation of the SOG in the police with instructions to the security forces to operate with a new face so that people were not subjected to any inconvenience and harassment during anti-insurgency operations. Even men who matter in Delhi joined those who blamed the Mufti’s healing touch policy for the rise in militancy related violence. He was accused of having provoked the rebels to carry out the massacre in Nadimarg village by announcing his plan of carrying displaced people back to Kashmir, as if no other political leader had supported the return policy. Even the Farooq Abdullah led government had submitted a plan to the Centre for the rehabilitation of the displaced families in some parts in Kashmir. The Mufti felt upset over the way a campaign was launched not only by the BJP-led NDA government but even by his Congress partners against his healing touch policy. Hence the Muftis dream of winning the hearts of people may not be fulfilled without the assistance from the
Centre. |
|
Maruti Udyog told to pay damages
Jammu, April 13 JKCPC Chairman Justice M Y Kawoosa also asked MUL to pay to the complainant 9 per cent interest on the price of the vehicle from the date of delivery till liquidation of the complaint along with Rs 5,000 as damages, an official statement said here yesterday. Deciding the appeal directed against the order of the divisional forum, the statement said that Justice Kawoosa referred to the judgment in Kishore Sham Gupta versus Alfa Automobile and others decided by the Rajasthan State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission and also to the case of MUL versus Sammer Desai and others by Gujarat Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission. Justice Kawoosa observed, ‘’Price prevailing at the time of invoicing of a vehicle from the dealer will only be applicable.’’ ‘’As such it can be considered purely as unfair trade practice not only to obtain the escalated price but also to deny the benefit of gift scheme to the complainant,’’ said the statement issued yesterday. Authorised MUL dealer Highland Automobiles had advertised in a local Jammu daily on September 9, 1999, inviting the booking of Maruti Omni upto September 30, 1999 to avail a gift scheme cheque. The complainant, Mr Brijinder Kumar Arora, deposited the full cost of vehicle, Rs 1.75 lakh, with the dealer to avail the scheme. The delivery, was delayed by 12 days and made with a price escalation of Rs 6,855. The court exonerated Highland Automobiles, accepting its Counsel’s argument that: ‘’Principal is always liable for the acts of its agents.’’ The advertisement was made on the instructions of MUL, the counsel had argued.
UNI |
|
BJP: healing touch pro-terrorist Jammu, April 13 These demands have been made in a political resolution adopted at a two-days meeting of the executive committee of the state unit of the party. The general secretaries of the
BJP, Mr Rajnath Singh and Mr O.P.Kohli and the Minister of State for Defence, Mr
Chaman Lal Gupta, were among those who participated in the meeting. Releasing copies of the resolution to mediapersons here today, Mr Hari Om, spokesman for the party, said the BJP had demanded that terrorism and the separatists should be crushed with a heavy hand and the terrorist training camps in Pakistan be smashed. The resolution also demanded that POTA should be implemented in the state and the special operation group of the police be revived to meet the challenge of terrorism. The village defence committees should be strengthened and. Army camps be revived in every constituency in the Kashmir valley to curb terrorism. It was alleged that figures had been cooked up in the census to show that the population was more in the Kashmir valley than in the Jammu region. The resolution demanded that Municipal Corporation Act should be amended and the local self government institutions given adequate executive and financial powers. |
|
40 ‘no-work’ days in Kashmir so far Srinagar, April 13 From January 1 to April 10, there were 15 Sundays on which the offices, schools and business establishments remained closed. There were another 11 days of public holidays. Of the 13 general strikes that have been called so far this year, the issue of US-led war on Iraq evoked four strike calls and life in the valley came to a standstill because of these. The massacre of 24 Kashmiri Pandits at Nadimarg in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district on March 24 also led to two days’s strike. Friday has always been a favourite day for the separatists to call for general strikes and so far, four of the 13 strikes have been called on Fridays. The Kashmir Traders and Manufacturers Association called for a day-long strike on January 22 to protest against the “selective demolition of illegal encroachments” in the valley. Four days after the first strike, the Hurriyat Conference called for a general strike on January 26 — Republic Day. There are certain fixed days in a year when the separatist groups call for general strikes and one of them is February 5 — the day when the United Nations passed a resolution on Kashmir issue more than 50 years ago. Two days later, the 25-party separatist conglomerate called for a strike to express solidarity with the convicts in the Parliament attack case who were sentenced to death. February 9 also passed in a strike mode as protests rocked the valley. Yet another strike was called as Pampore Assembly byelection was held on February 26. Strikes were observed on March 21 and during March 25-28 over the US-led war on Iraq and the Nadimarg massacre. April 4, which had already been earmarked for a strike, observed a complete shutdown against the alleged
custodial killing of Hizb commander Saiful Islam two days earlier.
PTI |
|
Police reshuffle Jammu, April 13 This is the first large-scale shuffling of
non-gazetted police officers in Jammu and Kashmir eversince the PDP-led coalition government came to power about six months ago. These include 14 SIs who have been promoted as Inspectors. |
 |
| Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir | Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs | Nation | Editorial | | Business | Sport | World | Mailbag | Chandigarh Tribune | Ludhiana Tribune 50 years of Independence | Tercentenary Celebrations | | 123 Years of Trust | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
