BSF personnel interact with Pakistani Rangers at the Indo-Pak border in the R.S. Pura sector of Jammu on Thursday. People from both side of the border assembled here to pay their respect at the tomb of Sufi saint Saiwali Pir Baba, which is situated on the Indian side. — PTI

118 security men punished for rights violations: CM
Jammu, March 4
As many as 118 officials of security agencies have been awarded different punishments for the alleged human rights violations in Jammu and Kashmir, Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed said today.

Rights violations: Unified Command meets
Jammu, March 4
With the Opposition National Conference having launched an attack on the PDP-led coalition government on the issue of human rights violations in the Kashmir valley, the Chief Minister, Mufti Sayeed, today convened an emergency meeting of the Unified Command here to check such aberrations by the security forces.

Over 4.5 lakh visit Vaishno Devi
Jammu, March 4
Over 4.62 lakh pilgrims from various parts of the country have visited Vaishno Devi since January. There has been an increase of over 1.10 lakh in the number of pilgrims compared to the corresponding period last year when over 3.51 lakh had darshan at the holy cave officials of the Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board, said here today.

• Vaishno Devi shrine board counter opened at airport
  
  
  
  

Jammu, March 4
The Congress president, Ms Sonia Gandhi, is not touching Jammu and Kashmir during her countrywide roadshow election campaign although the BJP has succeeded in persuading the RSS-backed Jammu State Morcha (JSM) not to split the party’s vote bank by fielding its candidates in the Lok Sabha elections.

Ms Sonia Gandhi was currently on a two-day roadshow in the neighbouring Himachal Pradesh, but has reportedly been advised not to organise such public contact programmes here because of security reasons.

The Deputy Chief Minister, Mr Mangat Ram Sharma, who is a senior Congressman, confirmed that Ms Sonia Gandhi so far had no plans to come here. Other senior leaders would handle the party’s election campaign in the state.

Mr Sharma said Ms Gandhi had already addressed a public meeting here and also visited Srinagar recently.

On the other hand, the ruling coalition partners — the Congress and PDP — have so far failed to reach an understanding on the sharing of seats.

The PDP is adamant not to offer even a single seat out of the three to the Congress in the Kashmir valley. It wants that the Congress should not look towards the seats in the valley where the PDP has a potential to defeat the National Conference but concentrate on the three seats of Jammu,Udhampur and Ladakh.

The Congress is insisting that it should be allowed to contest the Baramulla seat so that it can mark its presence in the Kashmir valley.

However, refusal of certain senior Congressmen, including Dr Karan Singh, to contest from J&K, has made the mood of the BJP upbeat. Dr Karan Singh has reportedly been asked by the party leadership to contest from Udhampur, which he represented earlier in Parliament, but he is reluctant to do so.

The Congress is expected to go in for a choice from among the second rung of its activists to contest the election from Jammu and Udhampur.

Having split the vote bank of the BJP during the last Assembly elections by fielding its candidates as rebels, the RSS-backed JSM has this time decided to support the BJP, whose prestige was involved, particularly here and at Udhampur.

The BJP has decided to field Mr Chaman Lal Gupta, minister of State for Defence, from Udhampur and the state BJP chief, Dr Nirmal Singh, from Jammu.

The rapprochement between the BJP and JSM has come due to the efforts put in by two top RSS leaders, Mr Suresh Suri and Mr Dinesh Kumar, who recently visited here and made leaders of both parties sit together. The RSS leaders, who campaigned for the JSM in the Assembly elections, will this time support the BJP. The JSM activists have also reportedly decided to seek vote for the BJP nominees.

Although Dr Farooq Abdullah and his son, Mr Omar Abdullah, president of the National Conference, have so far been saying that they will have no truck with the NDA this time, but there are indications that behind-the-scene efforts were being made by certain senior leaders for the return of the NC in the NDA fold.

The presence of Dr Abdullah in the recent public meeting of the Haryana Chief Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, at Jhajjar and Mr Omar Abdullah’s participation in the rally of Mr Parkash Singh Badal at Ludhiana is being seen by observers as a step in this direction.

Jammu, March 4
Notwithstanding the setback it received from the split in the People’s conference, the All-Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC) headed by Maulvi Abbas Ansari has no plans of pulling out of the dialogue with the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr L.K. Advani. The next round of talks is expected to be held towards the end of this month.

“We do not want to be blamed for scuttling the dialogue despite the fact that the commitments made by the Centre, in the first round of talks, were not fulfilled, said the APHC former Chairman, Prof Abdul Gani Bhat.

Professor Bhat told this correspondent today that “in response to our suggestion for changing the political and security scenario in Jammu and Kashmir, the central team led by Mr Advani had accepted the need for releasing all political detainees and withdrawing POTA, the Disturbed Area Act and the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act.”

When reminded that more than 40 detained persons had been released during the past over one month, Professor Bhat said “most of them were neither political activists nor separatists.”

He said many Kashmiri youths continued to languish in various jails in the country under POTA and the “draconian” laws were yet to be withdrawn.

The APHC leader said: “We are for continuing the dialogue, but in order that the talks reach the logical conclusion The Government of India has to fulfil its commitments which could ensure a change in the situation.” He said an end to human rights violations was “our first priority for keeping the dialogue process on.”

The Jammat had yesterday sacked Mr Geelani’s trusted aide and chief of the JeI’s political bureau Ashraf Sehrai.

Jamaat chief Syed Nazir Kashani sent a notice to Mr Geelani last evening directing him to explain his position within a week on the formation of a new party based on Jamaat cadres, party spokesman Zahid Ali said here today.

In the notice, Mr Geelani, who is a part of the Jamaat’s 25-member Majlis-e-Shoura (advisory council), was asked to explain why he was issuing statements against the organisation in violation of the party’s discipline.

Mr Geelani, being the member of the Jamaat’s Majlis-e-Shoura should abide by the constitution and the traditions of the party and not indulge in activities which may mislead the people, Mr Ali said.

He said the notice was issued on the basis of reports that Mr Geelani was holding meetings with members of the JeI with the intention of floating a new party.

Of these, 200 persons were killed in Kashmir division and 188 in Jammu division, the Chief Minister told the state Assembly in a written reply.

The troops guarding the LoC detected a group of militants entering into the Indian side in Panjani nullah in the Mendhar area of Poonch district in the wee hours of morning today and cordoned off the entire area, the sources told PTI here.

Militants started firing when security forces asked them to surrender, they said, adding that the Army retaliated killing three militants in the gunbattle, which was still on when the reports last came in.

Two AK rifles, three magazines, some ammunition and incriminating documents were seized from the slain militants, the sources added.

Meanwhile, militants today abducted two conductors of a passenger bus and a truck in Rajouri district of Jammu and Kashmir, the sources said.

Mohmmad Tawfeeq and Abdul Ahad were abducted by militants from Darikot village in the Manjakote forest belt early this morning, they said. The two vehicles were going to Rajouri.

The militants took the duo to the upper forest areas, the sources said, adding that villagers and drivers of the vehicles informed the police and security forces in the area.

A combing operation was launched in the area to track down the militants and rescue the two conductors, they added.

SRINAGAR: The Border Security Force today foiled an attempt by militants to carry out an explosion targeting security forces by the time detection of a powerful improvised explosive device (IED) in the Tral area of Pulwana district in south Kashmir, a BSF spokesman said.

A road-opening party of a BSF battalion detected the IED, weighing 3 kg, on the roadside near Sherabad village this morning, the spokesman said.

Jammu, March 4
The Jammu and Kashmir Assembly today referred to a select committee the private members Bill seeking to restrict the size of the ministry to one-tenth of the total strength of the elected members of the state legislature. The Bill was moved by Mr Abdul Rahim Rather (National Conference).

The Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Mr Muzaffar Hussain Beig, offered to refer the Bill to a select committee.

Mr Rather criticised the coalition government for inducting 39 members in the ministry while ordinary people and employees were being denied their dues.

He said beside the jumbo sized Council of Ministers, many other functionaries had been granted the status of minister and the total number as such coming to 58.

Mr Rather said while the government refused to enhance the remunerations of about 500 doctors which would involve Rs 2 crore annually, the huge size ministry was costing the exchequer about Rs 5 crore.

He pointed out that by inducting more ministers, the PDP led coalition would not become stable.

He accused the Congress of indulging in double standards as the party supported the 15 per cent restriction on the size of the ministry at the national level, but had got many inducted in the ministry in J & K.

Ms Mehbooba Mufti (PDP), daughter of Chief Minister Mufti Sayeed, was heard saying that J & K was enjoying a special status under Article 370. Mr Rather said that a backward state like J & K could ill afford to have a jumbo ministry with a huge financial burden in view of its precarious financial position.

Of these, 44 belonged to the Border Security Force, 47 to the Central Reserve Police Force and 27 to the police, he told the Legislative Assembly in a written reply to a question.

Observing that the state government was committed to safeguarding human rights of its residents, he said there had been some allegations of violations in the past few years.

The Mufti said since the assumption of office by his government there had been decline in complaints or allegations of human rights violations in the state.

The government had all along been issuing directions to all operational agencies to uphold the constitutional rights of individuals while fighting militancy, he said, adding stress was being laid on people-friendly operations.

Denying that Jammu and Kashmir was topping the list of violations, he said as per the National Human Rights Commission report for 2001-02, the state does not figure at the top.

Jammu, March 4
With the Opposition National Conference having launched an attack on the PDP-led coalition government on the issue of human rights violations in the Kashmir valley, the Chief Minister, Mufti Sayeed, today convened an emergency meeting of the Unified Command here to check such aberrations by the security forces.

Besides the GOCs of 16 Corps and 15 Corps, the Deputy Chief Minister, Mr Mangat Ram Sharma, Chief Secretary S.S. Bloeria, Financial Commissioner (Home) S.D. Singh, Director-General of Police Gopal Sharma and senior officers of the BSF, the CRPF, the Intelligence Bureau and other intelligence agencies were also present at the meeting.

The Mufti, who chaired the meeting, took a serious view of any human rights violations and stressed the need for checking such aberrations. He said that no opportunity should be given to the enemies of peace to exploit the situation.

He said a message should go down the line that such violations would not be tolerated because such things negate the appreciable work done by the Army, the para-military forces and the police.

The Chief Minister suggested that the Army should be transparent in making public the action taken against those found guilty of indulging in such violations. This would make an impact among the common people. Collateral damage should be prevented during any operation, he said.

The Army officers maintained that except for some stray incidents, there were no human rights violations and the issue was being used as propaganda.

The Army officers pointed out that only 18 complaints of human rights violations had been received since last year and an enquiry was going on into the complaints. They said about 1,380 complaints had been received since 1990 when militancy began here. Out of these 1,312 were found to be false. Action had been taken against 25 officers.

The Opposition parties, particularly the National Conference, by criticising the government on the issue of “increasing” human rights violations, have made it clear that this will be the main plank of their electioneering during the coming Lok Sabha poll. The PDP of the Mufti had also used the same weapon against the previous NC government during the Assembly elections.

The recent killing of five civilian porters hired by the Army during search operations at Bandipura added fuel to the fire. The Deputy Prime Minister, Mr L.K. Advani, had convened a meeting of top Army officers at which they were advised that soldiers should honour human rights. The Army chief, Gen N.C. Vij, also flew to Bandipura to take stock of the situation.

Earlier in the morning, the Union Home Secretary, Mr Anil Baijal, called on the Chief Minister and reviewed the security scenario. The Additional Secretary (Kashmir Affairs) in the Home Ministry, Mr Rakesh Huja, was also present at the meeting.

Mr Baijal appreciated the functioning of the security forces and the police in the state and also reviewed the implementation of the package provided to the state by the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

There has been an increase of over 1.10 lakh in the number of pilgrims compared to the corresponding period last year when over 3.51 lakh had darshan at the holy cave officials of the Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board, said here today.

During February this year as many as 2,08,310 devotees visited the shrine as against 1.67 lakh in the same month last year.

Now 9,000 to 10,000 pilgrims are daily reaching the base camp at Katra for onward journey to the cave, the officials said.

Apart from carrying out several beautification and development works the shrine board has opened a new ‘bhojanalay’ at Katra to cater to pilgrims visiting the registration, enquiry and reservation counters and those staying at the Niharika complex base camp at Katra.

Jammu, March 4
The Governor, Lt-Gen S.K. Sinha (retd), today inaugurated an information and assistance counter of the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board (SMVDSB) at the airport here.

The Governor, who is also the chairman of the SMVDSB, said the counter would provide ample information to people who came from outside for the pilgrimage.

He said the Vaishno Devi pilgrimage had given a boost to the economy of the Jammu region. Booklets about the pilgrimage would also be available at the counter.

The Governor said the number of pilgrims to the shrine had increased manifold. As many as 5.4 million pilgrims had come last year. The SMVDSB had undertaken many development works in the area, including the setting up of a university.