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Tuesday,
July 8, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Geelani’s demand
baseless: Lone Governor reviews yatra arrangements
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CRPF to raise 64 battalions by 2005
Flyover dedicated to
martyrs Floodlights installed along
border
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Geelani’s demand
baseless: Lone Jammu, July 7 The chairman of the People’s Conference, Mr Sajjad Lone, has explained in writing to the APHC chief, Prof Abdul Gani Bhat, that his organisation had not directly or indirectly participated in the 2002 Assembly poll. And some persons, who had contested the elections, had been expelled from the People’s Conference soon after the poll results were declared. Mr Lone had said that “as such there is no justification for” Mr Geelani to have demanded the expulsion of the People’s Conference from the APHC. Sources close to the People’s Conference leaders said that Mr Lone had blamed Jamait-e-Islami for having a “secret understanding” with the People’s Democratic Party which helped the latter to dislodge the National Conference in the Kashmir valley in the Assembly poll. The People’s Conference leadership is preparing a detailed report in which it has blamed several secessionists, including Syed Ali Shah Geelani, for having derailed the armed campaign in Kashmir. One leader of the People’s Conference asked how was it that Mr Geelani was released from detention when others continued to rot in jails and the government spent several lakhs of rupees on his treatment. “Does it not indicate a secret understanding between the powers that be in Srinagar and Delhi and Mr Geelani?” he asked. He said several separatist leaders had exploited the sentiments of people while they kept their children engaged in lucrative jobs. The People’s Conference leadership has decided to mount pressure on the members of the executive committee of the APHC for expelling Mr Geelani from the conglomerate on the charge of sabotaging the ongoing “jehad” and for attempts at creating dissensions within the Hurriyat Conference. For the past over three months, the People’s Conference chief had preferred a wait and watch attitude but when Mr Geelani has made expulsion of Mr Lone from the conglomerate as a prestige issue, the conference leadership has decided to hit back. With rift between the two becoming sharper, Professor Abdul Gani Bhat’s task to keep the flock together has become a bit difficult though he is hopeful for a peaceful settlement. |
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Governor reviews yatra
arrangements Jammu, July 7 Mr Sinha earlier convened a high-level meeting of officers, overseeing yatra arrangements and suggested to them to ensure incident-free pilgrimage. He advised the security agencies to check pilgrims, buses and luggage at several points between Jammu and Pahalgam so that no one could make mischief in the guise of a pilgrim. The Governor called for utmost vigil during the one-month-long pilgrimage. He said whenever “a wind of normalcy and change starts blowing, some forces raise their ugly heads for derailing peace and economic development.” He referred to the recent suicide attack on the Army camp near Jammu in which 12 soldiers were killed and seven others wounded and said such incidents delayed the return of peace to the state. The meeting was told that stay facilities had been created for the pilgrims in Jammu at 26 places. From July 12, when the first batch of yatris would be flagged off, 3,500 pilgrims were to be permitted to travel to Pahalgam every day. Out of this, 2,700 will reach the holy cave via Pahalgam and 800 from the shorter route of Baltal in Sonamarg belt. The Governor also visited the Maulana Azad Memorial Stadium from where pilgrims were scheduled to board buses and other vehicles. Medical facilities have been provided for the pilgrims at the centres and in addition to this two mobile teams of doctors have been kept ready for service. Medical facilities will be available at various stations on the Jammu-Pahalgam highway. Among those who attended the meeting included Divisional Commissioner Lokesh
Jha. Jammu, July 7 Nearly 300 persons, mostly sadhus, assembled at the Tawi bridge around noon and blocked traffic, raising slogans against the state government for its decision to close the registration of pilgrims for the Amarnath yatra. —
PTI |
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Militants gun down 5 villagers Jammu, July 7 An unspecified number of militants sneaked into Indian territory this morning and opened fire on civilians at Dhaneka and Langar villages in the Noushera sector before noon killing five of them on the spot, DIG of police, Rajouri-Poonch range, S.M. Sahai, said. The dead were identified as Kalidass (50), Joginder Lal (50), Munshi Raj (65), Tarawati (62) and Babli (30). One woman, identified as Deevano Devi, was also injured in the firing by militants, Mr Sahai said, adding that she was being airlifted to Jammu for treatment. The police and security forces rushed to the border villages and launched a manhunt to track down the culprits. SRINAGAR: In a pre-dawn attack, heavily armed militants targeted an army camp in the Bandipora area of Baramulla district in north Kashmir on Monday, police sources said. Noone was hurt in the attack by unidentified militants on the troops of the Rashtriya Rifles camping at Kaloosa village around 2.10 a.m. Militants fired rockets, grenades and heavy and light arms to target the troops for about half an hour, the sources said. A bandsaw belonging to Mohammad Abdullah Khan and a joint residential house of Ghulam Mohammad Dar and his brother Ghulam Hassan Dar were completely damaged in two powerful blasts in the village this morning, the sources said. The villagers accused the Army of blasting the bandsaw and the house and roughing up local residents in retaliation to the attack on their camp, the sources said. But the Army denied the charge and said ultras while fleeing laid three powerful improvised explosive devices (IEDs) to target the troops. Sources said militants abducted two former ultras and shot them dead at Kakapora in the south Kashmir district of Pulwama late last night. — PTI, UNI |
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CRPF to raise 64 battalions
by 2005
Jammu, July 7 The paramilitary force also apprehended 4,654 militants and recovered 3,638 major arms and 2,16,860 cartridges during the period, a CRPF spokesman said today. In its fight against insurgency, the CRPF lost 278 of its jawans, while 2,071 of its soldiers were wounded, he said. The CRPF claimed to have achieved major success in dealing with “fidayeen”, a phenomenon that came into being in the state in 2000, by killing 32 “suicide bombers” in 17 “fidayeen” attacks. The spokesman said 276 companies had now been deployed in the state (Kashmir 199 and Jammu 77), performing various duties such as counter-insurgency operations, maintaining law and order, escort duty of VIPs and guarding vital installations. Besides, it was undertaking civic action programmes in the region to win the confidence of the people. —
UNI |
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Flyover dedicated to
martyrs Srinagar, July 7 A decision to this effect was taken at a high-level meeting chaired by Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed here this morning to celebrate Martyrs’ Day in a befitting manner. Director-General of Police Gopal Sharma, Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir, Parvez Dewan and other senior officers of the police and civil administration attended the meeting, an official spokesman said. The four-lane flyover project was approved by the Chief Minister only four days ago in memory of martyrs who laid down their lives for the restoration of the people’s rule in Jammu and Kashmir when the state was under an autocratic dispensation. In the afternoon, a public meeting will be held near the project site after formal initiation of the construction work. The flyover will ease traffic congestion at the Jahangir Chowk and Exhibition crossing. Lauding the role of the martyrs of 1931, Mufti Sayeed said that the day had to be observed in a manner as would be befitting to their memory. He asked all agencies to ensure adequate security and cleanliness in and around the venue of the main function at the Martyrs’ Graveyard in downtown Srinagar. The Chief Minister will pay tributes to the martyrs followed by gun salute, reversal of arms and sounding of the last post by a contingent of the J&K police. |
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Floodlights installed along border Jammu, July 7 “The work to provide floodlighting along other portions of the fenced border is going space,” BSF IGP (Jammu frontier) Dilip Trivedi told a group of visiting mediapersons near the zero line at Abdullian in the R.S. Pura sector of Jammu and Kashmir last evening. He said fencing along 80 km of the total of 187.5 km international border in Jammu had been completed and the whole project was likely to be finished by December, 2005. Halogen lights had been installed on 35-foot high steel poles behind the fences, he said adding that the poles were 60 to 70 feet from each another. Claiming that infiltration had come down to a “considerable low” with the completion of fencing along almost half of the border, the IGP said the influx of militants from across the border would reduce to “zero” after the completion of the project in 2005. Referring to some incidents of infiltration by Bangladeshis, he said the arrest of some of them was not a major problem. “The most challenging aspect is the infiltration of armed terrorists and the troops have succeeded to check them because of fencing and floodlighting,” Mr Trivedi said. The BSF officer did not rule out the possibility of concentration of armed terrorists on the other side of the border following pressure on them in the wake of the operation in Hil Kaka. “But our troops were ready to deal with them,” he said. —
PTI |
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