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Thursday,
July 10, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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PDP activist, ASI shot by ultras Hurriyat
leader released after 13 years Hurriyat
executive committee meeting Jamait-e-Islami
not to leave APHC |
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Elections
to Kargil council today Rail
project ahead of Talk to
George on mobile phone issue, Somnath urges Advani Morcha
chief’s no to regional councils Move to
ban private practice of doctors
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PDP activist, ASI shot by ultras
Srinagar, July 9 The activist, Mohammad Abdullah, also a retired police inspector, was fired at point-blank range by militants near his residence in Chancer village last night. He was returning after offering prayers in a mosque. He was admitted to a hospital, where doctors declared him dead. In the other incident, ASI Ghulam Hassan, posted as divisional officer at Yaripora police post, was kidnapped and later shot dead by militants near Yaripora. Hassan was kidnapped from his residence late last night and his bullet-ridden body was found by the police. Abdullah had shot into prominence for firing at a top JKLF commander Abdul Hamid Sheikh and his associates at Lal Bazar in Srinagar in 1988, sources said, adding that his action earned him a promotion to the rank of a police inspector. According to a police spokesman, a militant was killed, two others were arrested and a hide-out was busted by the security forces in Jammu and Kashmir since last night. The militant was killed in an encounter with a joint search party of the police and the security forces at Gunthal village in Surankote area of Poonch district. An AK rifle, three magazines and a wireless set were recovered from the slain militant. The security forces apprehended a Lashker-e-Toiba militant from the Shopian area of Pulwama district and seized two hand grenades from him. The security forces arrested another militant belonging to Al-Badar outfit at Karan Nagar locality of Srinagar. Two rifles and some grenades were seized at his instance. The BSF smashed a militant hide-out at Aragam in Anantnag district and seized two hand grenades, four rifle grenades, two remote control devices and two mines from it, a BSF spokesman said.
— PTI |
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Hurriyat leader released after 13 years
Srinagar, July 9 Saleem, associated with the Kashmir Mass Movement (KMM), a constituent of the All-Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC), was arrested in 1990 under the Public Safety Act (PSA). However, he was not released after the expiry of his detention period and was set freed yesterday from Kotbalwal Jail on court orders. The coalition government headed by the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) has promised in its common minimum programme that all detainees, not involved in any serious offence, will be released. The process of release of detainees started after the government came to power in the state and during the first three months, 26 top Hurriyat leaders, including Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front Chairman Mohammad Yaseen Malik and Noor Mohammad Kalwal were set free from different jails. However, the process was stopped after the BJP and the Centre criticised the move alleging that it would demoralise the security forces. Later a committee with a central representative was set up to review the cases of detainees and order their release on merit. Meanwhile, 560 persons are presently detained in and outside state jails under the provisions of the Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act, 1978, officials said. The government released 92 detainees since October last year on court orders. Instructions have been issued to the police not to re-arrest any detainee whose release has been ordered by the court. Kotebalwal Jail in Jammu has the highest number of 265 detainees, followed by District Jail Udhampur, with 76 detainees.
— UNI |
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Hurriyat
executive committee meeting put off Srinagar, July 9 Hurriyat sources said the executive committee which was slated to meet to discuss the ways to counter Geelani’s allegations had to be postponed as the Jamait had called an emergency meeting of its command council. The sources said the allegations and counter-allegations between Geelani and lone over the past few days had ended any hopes of reconciliation attempted by the Hurriyat leadership. Geelani, a Jamait leader, has been demanding action against the People’s Conference for allegedly taking part in last year’s Assembly elections through dummy candidates. Lone, on his part, accused him of making vicious statements which created an atmosphere that led to his father Abdul Gani Lone’s killing last year.
— PTI |
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Jamait-e-Islami
not to leave APHC Jammu, July 9 According to Chairman of the APHC, Prof Abdul Gani Bhat the
Jamat leadership has conveyed to him its willingness to remain in the
conglomerate. “We have left it to Jamait-e-Islami to decide whether
it intends to retain Mr Geelani as its representative in the APHC or
replace him by another leader”, Prof Bhat told this correspondent. He
confirmed that he had received a letter from Mr Bilal Ahmed Lone, who
represents the People’s Conference in the Hurriyat Executive
Committee, in which he had replied to the charges levelled against his
party leaders. Prof Bhat said it was in the context of this letter
that “we had invited Mr Geelani to attend the meeting of the
Executive committee of the APHC where the matter could be discussed
face to face”. Prof Bhat said “Mr Geelani refused to attend the
meeting and instead of taking any unilateral decision we constituted a
three-member committee, comprising Mohammad Yasin Malik, Chief of the
JKLF, Moulvi Umar Farooq, Chairman Awami Action Committee and a senior
Shia leader, Moulvi Abbas Ansari, to work out a settlement between the
Jamat leader and the People’s Conference”. But the committee
failed to iron out the differences”, he said. The APHC Chairman
was upset over the way Mr Geelani aired his differences with the
People’s Conference. He said he should have discussed it in the
Hurriyat Executive Committee, which he did not do. Asked whether the
APHC Executive Committee will discuss the matter in the light of
accusations levelled by the Peoples’ Conference Chief, Mr Sajjad
Lone against Mr Geelani Prof Bhat said “we have no such plan yet.” He,
at the same time, said that the storm raised by Mr Geelani and Mr Lone
would not “cause any flutter in the conglomerate because individuals
do not matter in our organisation.” Sources close to the
separatist camps said that possibilities of Mr Geelani returning to
the APHC fold had become bleak after the charges levelled against him
by Mr Sajjad Lone who had accused the Jamat leader of trying to split
the conglomerate and following APHC leaders’ preferential treatment
to the Peoples’ Conference. In fact APHC leadership has been
encouraged in its “I care least attitude” adopted by it towards Mr
Geelani by the assurance from the Amir of Jamait-e-Islami that his
organisation would remain part of the amalgam. |
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Elections
to Kargil council today Srinagar, July 9 Elections to the 26-seat council will be held tomorrow in only 17 constituencies as six candidates have won unopposed while none has filed nomination papers from three seats of the Zanaskar area of the district. Official sources said poll material and officials had already been sent to far-flung areas. In the remaining constituencies, the process will be completed by this evening. The security forces are standing guard at polling booths in a precautionary move though Kargil district is almost militancy-free. Sources said special arrangements had been made for the voters who have recently shifted from near the Line of Control (LoC) following heavy shelling by the Pakistani troops. The government has ordered a public holiday tomorrow in Kargil district, an official spokesman said.
— UNI |
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Rail project ahead of schedule: minister
Srinagar, July 9 “I am pleased to announce that Srinagar railway station will now be completed by December this year instead of March next year,” he said. The minister was addressing a press conference here last evening after inspecting the construction of Rs 5 crore Srinagar railway station. He said the entire project from Katra to Qazingund and from Qazigund to Baramula was a challenge to the Indian Railways. Indicating that the progress of land acquisition in the valley was the main bottleneck in the past, the minister said out of 118-km-track from Qazigund to Baramula, land for 76 km has been acquired and Rs 330 crore already deposited with the state government for distribution as compensation to the landholders. The remaining land will be acquired within next two months, he announced adding that the work on the phase would be completed by December 2005. The project has been divided into three phases, with Udhampur-Katra phase targeted to be completed by March 2005, at a cost of Rs 425 crore, with Rs 263 crore already spend on the phase, Mr Dattatraya said adding that the second phase of Qazigund-Baramula project covering a railway track of 119 km was expected to be complete by December 2005. The minister said the tunnel in the Pir Panjal mountains running up to 12 km in length will be a big tourist attraction. Besides, a 1.4-km-long bridge, at about 1,400 metres above sea level, will be another tourist attraction.
— UNI |
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Talk to George on mobile phone issue, Somnath urges Advani Srinagar, July 9 The CPM MP called upon Mr Advani to personally take up the issue with Defence Minister George Fernandes, according to an official spokesman here. In a communication to Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, Mr Chatterjee said he had strongly pressed for early clearance of the mobile service in the state at a meeting of the consultative committee of the Union Home Ministry last week. The Chief Minister had raised the issue of delay in the clearance of the mobile service for the state during the recent visit of the parliamentary committee to Jammu and Kashmir.
— UNI |
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Morcha chief’s no to regional councils Jammu, July 9 In a statement issued here today Prof Virender Gupta, Mr H.B.Khajuria and Mr V. P. Sharma, while doubting the sincerity of the National Conference President, Mr Omar Abdullah supporting the regional councils, said nothing short of statehood status could end discrimination and “liberate” the people of Jammu from the prolonged “hegemony” of the Kashmiri leaders. The morcha leaders were also critical of the BJP demand for autonomy of Jammu province “with full legislature, administrative and financial powers. Prof Gupta said the BJP should first of all “identify the model it was proposing.” He said even as an autonomous unit the region might not be in a position to enjoy full legislative, financial and administrative powers adding that the BJP “leaders were simply trying to befool the people of Jammu.” He urged the BJP leaders to shun their duplicity and come out openly in support of the demand for the statehood status for Jammu province. He said “nothing short of trifurcation can end regional imbalance.” |
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Move to ban private
practice of doctors Srinagar, July 9 A high-level meeting, held here today under the chairmanship of Minister for Finance and Planning Muzaffar Hussain Beig, decided to build consensus on the issue.
— UNI |
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