 |
Sunday,
September 7, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
|
Srinagar
airport to go international, says Mufti Ghatti
route of infiltration
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Hurriyat
meeting put off Traders
observe strike in valley 2 IOC
senior executives booked
|
|
Srinagar airport to go international, says Mufti Srinagar, September 6 Addressing the inaugural session of a three-day World Travel and Tourism Council India Retreat, first such international conference, in the state and third in the country, here last evening, the Chief Minister said such national and international events helped in the peace process, an official spokesman said. He said Kashmiri youths born in the late eighties did not see much hope for themselves. “We have to bring them out of this traumatic phase of mind” the Mufti said. He said the first priority was to remove the alienation, win the hearts and the minds of the people and apply a healing touch to them. Another priority was to check human rights abuses, make paramilitary forces and the police accountable and improve the overall atmosphere. He said, luckily, the security forces responded to his policy and things had started looking up. The Mufti referred to his strategy to deal with the Kashmir problem and said dialogue, not gun, was the solution to it. He said it was the people of Jammu and Kashmir who had suffered immensely due to India-Pakistan confrontation. The task before his government was to evolve a strategy to deal with the internal dimensions of the problem. He said the Prime Minister had extended a hand of friendship to Pakistan to which it had responded by them. The Prime Minister had also appointed Mr N.N. Vohra to initiate a dialogue with the people. Inaugurating the tourism conference, Dr Karan Singh said tourism was central to economic development. The participants in the conference include a dozen Members of Parliament, leading mediapersons, opinion leaders, members of government and several members of the World Travel and Tourism Council, (WTTC) including its President and Secretary-General. Describing the return of tourists to the Valley as end of 14-years vanvas, Dr Karan Singh said revival of tourism in the state had been made possible after strenuous efforts by the Mufti government. He said all three regions of the state, Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh, were remarkable tourist destinations. He said the state was a centre of attraction for everyone, including the Pakistanis. “Let them come here as tourists and not terrorists”, he said and offered to receive the first Pakistani tourist to Jammu and Kashmir. |
|
Ghatti route of infiltration Ghatti (Kathua), September 6 The residents of 20 villages around were worried that the obsolete 303 guns issued to the six members of the Village Defence Committee
(VDC) in each of these villages were no match for the AK47 rifles of the militants which spray hundreds of bullets by the time a single round is fired from the guns of the VDC members. The residents had started believing the killing of two brothers of the village by terrorists two years ago as an isolated incident, but with the latest developments they have realised that the rain-fed Ujh nullah touching their village has become the route of infiltration for the militants from Pakistan. The militants have been adopting this river route which leads them to the Doda district which is haven for them. Moreover, the young boys and girls of the village have to cover a distance of 4 km every morning to reach the school on the Jammu-Pathankot highway. A good monsoon this time has come as a blessing in disguise for the militants as this has resulted in a dense foliage which provides them an excellent camouflage in this otherwise worst type of Kandi area of the Jammu division. For the past five days the militants managed to escape bullets of the security forces by taking advantage of not only the dense foliage, but also the deep ravines where it is difficult to
reach. Prithpal Singh, deputy sarpanch of this panchayat, who along with 25 other VDC members , kept the militants engaged in firing on Tuesday till the security forces reached the scene. However, 200 VDC members of the neighbouring villages reached there later and joined the security forces in the combing operation. These VDC members followed the foot prints in the sandy bed of the river and led the security personnel to the forest where the terrorists were engaged in a gun battle with the army for the past five days. These VDC members, talking to this correspondent, lamented that the authorities had armed them with discarded guns which were of hardly any use while facing the terrorists carrying fire-spitting weapons. Other VDC members, Dev Raj, Rajinder Kumar, Omkar Sharma and many others joined Prithpal Singh in highlighting their grievances. They said that each village was being paid Rs 4500 per month as remuneration of the six VDC members who not only protect the residents, but also collect intelligence about the movement of terrorists and other elements. The amount gets further divided the number of VDC members was more. With the Army completely taking over the operation against the terrorists, these VDC members are now ferrying drinking water for the troops and carrying their ammunition to the positions in the jungle. Prithpal Singh said that they have also brought a camel from a nearby village to carry water for the soldiers on the top of the hills around. The narrow path between the dense foliage is the only route to reach the top of the inhospitable hill. |
|
VHP seeks statehood for Jammu, Ladakh Jammu, September 6 He said that looking into his style of functioning and indecision on vital issues, the VHP would never want Mr Vajpayee to return as Prime Minister after the coming elections. Mr Vajpayee should shun his newly acquired pseudosecular behaviour, he said. He said that with Pakistan not responding properly to the friendship offer of India, time had come to shun the policy of appeasement and adopt hard options to crush terrorism. The VHP leader said while he did not approve of several actions of Mr Vajpayee, the image of the country had indeed been enhanced because of the nuclear test under his leadership. “With the evidence that the Babri
Masjid was built over a Ram temple at Ayodhya having come up during the excavations by the Archaeological Survey of India, all political parties should now say that the disputed site was a Hindu temple or face serious repercussions in the
coming elections, he said. He said separation of Jammu from the Kashmir Valley had now become inevitable because of the continued discrimination, especially in awarding relief to the victims of terrorism. The “healing touch” policy was actually meant for benefiting the terrorists and not their victims. Government employees accused of aiding terrorists had been released, he said. |
|
Hurriyat
meeting put off Jammu, September 6 Though the APHC Chairman, Maulvi Abbas Ansari, said that the meeting had been deferred because he was visiting Delhi today for a medical check-up, reports said that since the six members of the executive committee of the APHC had not yet decided over the reply they should give to a letter from Jamait-e-Islami chief, Nazir Ahmed Kashani so the meeting was put off. Mr Kashni has, in his letter, informed the APHC leadership that his representative would attend the proposed meeting of the general council provided it was made known in advance whether it would discuss only the issue pertaining to the expulsion of the People’s Conference from the 26-party conglomerate on charge of having participated in October 2002 Assembly poll. Maulvi Ansari told this correspondent “we have not yet replied the letter. We will do after I return from Delhi. |
|
Traders observe strike in valley
Srinagar, September 6 However, while emphasising the need for revision of load as per actual consumption with the cooperation of the people, the government clarified again that the tariff had not been increased and said talks about it were merely a rumour. Shops and business establishments here and in some other parts of the valley remained closed and traffic was off the roads. Work in government offices was also affected and educational institutions wore a deserted look. The Chief Minister reviewed the progress of collection of tariff and the revision of load agreements at a high-level meeting here last evening and cleared 21 micro-hydel projects to overcome the power shortage.
— UNI |
|
2 IOC senior
executives booked Jammu, September 6 “After preliminary investigation the CBI has registered cases against the then Senior Divisional Manager, IOC, (Jammu), Mr P.K. Yadav, Assistant Manager (Sales) Pamposh Wattal and President, Sehkari Bhandar Cooperatives Consumer Store, Sudershan Singh Wazir”, the sources said. Regular investigation will start soon under DSP, CBI, Jammu, Pramod Mudhatkal.
— PTI |
 |
| 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 | |
