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Congress to focus on unemployment
Harkat area commander killed in Doda 7 Bangladeshis held near Indo-Pak
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| Self-immolation bid by rights activist foiled Srinagar, February 21 The Jammu and Kashmir police today detained a militant-turned-human rights activist for attempting to set himself ablaze near the Lal Chowk, the nerve centre of the city, official sources said. 
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Congress to focus on unemployment Srinagar, February 21 Talking to media persons here this morning, the AICC General Secretaries, Ms Ambika Soni, and Ghulam Nabi Azad, who is also the state PCC chief, said any decision on the selection of candidates would be taken only after the notification for the Lok Sabha elections was issued. Mr Azad said taking into consideration the number of coalition partners in the state government led by Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, it would not be possible for all to contest all constituencies in the state. “some parties will contest and others will support them”, Mr Azad said in reply to a question. The Chief Minister has already indicated that the PDP and the Congress would jointly contest forthcoming Lok Sabha elections. Senior leaders formally launched the election campaign from Tujjar Sharief near Sopore, 60 km North of here in Baramula district. The party has also chalked out several programmes at district level to formally launch the campaign in the state. Ms Sonia Gandhi who had already visited the state thrice since the last Assembly elections, is also expected to join the campaign in the first week of March. Replying to a question about Priyanka Gandhi joining the party, Ms Ambika Soni said the party was looking for the youth leaders to achieve its goals for the welfare of the country. She said 22 such leaders had already joined the party for its secular character. Asked about the Congress inability to attract film and sports stars like the BJP, Ms Ambika Soni said we have our own policies and programmes which we follow. We don’t need people from outside. Blaming the BJP for alienating the Kashmiris from the mainstream over the decades, Mr Azad pointed out that the ongoing Indo-Pak peace process coupled with the APHC-Centre dialogue, was the outcome of the Congress efforts. He said the coalition arrangement with a slogan of “healing touch policy”, common minimum programme and other measures were laid down by the Congress and that were being received well at the ground level. Ms Ambika Soni said the Congress stood for the unity of secular forces under the leadership of Ms Sonia Gandhi. She said there was a total alliance in most parts of the South, including Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. The alliance with secular parties, including the CPM was in the final stage of distribution of seats to fight successfully against the BJP and its allies. On the betterment of situation in Jammu and Kashmir, Ms Ambika Soni said the NDA government was “wrongfully” claiming the credit for it as it was the Congress initiative to restore confidence among the people of the state. “It was the BJP which only till last year were talking about ‘aar paar ki ladaayi’ (final war) but the Congress in all fora, including Parliament, contended that dialogue is the only way to resolve the issues,” she added. “Today, they (BJP) are talking about resolving all issues through a dialogue process. We welcome the change in their mindset,” the Congress leader said. She said the employment generation scheme implemented by the Congress government in Maharashtra would be implemented on a nationwide scale if the party came to power at the Centre. We are drafting a programme under which every family in the country will have at least one earning member and it will be included in the party’s manifesto which will be finalised in a few days, she said. A special programme for farmers of the country would also be formulated so that their condition is improved as well. |
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Harkat area commander killed in Doda Jammu, February 21 Acting on a intelligence input about the presence of militants, security forces launched a search operation in the Kishtwar area of Doda district and asked militants to come out after zeroing in on a hideout, the sources said. Militants opened fire on the troops, who retaliated, and in the ensuing gunbattle one top militant was killed while others managed to escape. The slain militant, identified as Gulam Mohmmad of Pasarkut village in Doda, was a self styled-area commander of HUJI in the Kishtwar area, they said, adding that
Gulam, a Pakistan-trained militant, was active for the past five years and was instrumental in two massacres and several attacks on the security forces. Meanwhile, troops busted a hideout in the Mendhar area of Poonch district early today and recovered six hand grenades and a huge quantity of ration and edible items, they said. One more hideout was busted in Thanamandi forest of Rajouri district by troops last night and mortar shells, 500 rounds of AK rifles and huge ration was recovered. Another hideout was busted in the Manuwali area of Poonch district early today and six hand grenades, two plastic explosives, 35 kg
atta, 12 kg maize, 7 kg rice, 7 kg mustard oil, 10 kg onion, four kg sugar, 10 blankets, 40 litres of kerosene oil, stoves and other items were recovered from there. SRINAGAR: Three militants, including a self-styled district commander of
Al-Badr outfit were killed in an encounter with security forces, while ultras killed a former associate in Kashmir Valley over night, a police spokesman said on Saturday. The distict commander of
Al-Badr outfit Ishfaq Ahmad Rehmani, alias “Nazir Vikas’’ was killed along with two of his associates — Shafqat Hussain Malik and Saifullah Poonchi — in a fierce gunbattle in the Bijbehara area of Anantnag district in South Kashmir, the spokesman said. He said a residential house where the three militants had taken shelter was also damaged in the encounter, which lasted several hours. A huge cache of arms and ammunition were recovered from the slain militants. In another incident, the spokesman said militants abducted a released militant Abdul Rashid Khanday from Danyapora village in the Kokernag area of Anantnag this morning and later hanged him to death in a nearby field. His body was recovered by police and a hunt has been launched to nab the militants.
— Agencies |
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7 Bangladeshis held near Indo-Pak
border Jammu, February 21 A group of seven Bangladeshis were trying to cross over to Pakistan along the international border (IB) in Chilyari border outpost (BOP) in Samba belt of Jammu district around 5 a.m., they said. Observing the movement of the exfiltrating group, alert BSF guards challenged them, the sources said, adding that they tried to escape but were later overpowered near zero line. During the preliminary inquiry, the Bangladeshis revealed that they had crossed over into India from the Indo-Bangla border and reached here via Delhi in a train, the sources said.Nothing incriminating was found from the exfiltrators, they added. — PTI |
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Self-immolation bid by rights activist foiled Srinagar, February 21 Mohammad Ahsan Antoo, who heads the Human Rights Forum, appeared near the Court road this afternoon with a blanket wrapped around his body. As he doused himself with kerosene and tried to set himself ablaze, the police took him into custody, the sources said. He had threatened self-immolation in protest against the killing of a civilian Abdul Rashid, allegedly by activists of the Ikhwan, the pro-government counter-insurgency group at Narbal on Tuesday and failure of the police to arrest the killers.
— UNI |
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