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PDP chief Mehbooba files nomination
Mufti
pitches in for daughter Differences
surface between Cong, PDP |
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Ambika Soni accused of misleading
people Militant
among 4 killed in Kashmir 4
killed as bus falls into gorge
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PDP chief Mehbooba
files nomination Srinagar, April 12 After filing her nomination papers for Anantnag constituency of south Kashmir today, the 45-year-old Ms Mufti said that she would represent her people at the national level. The Anantnag constituency of south Kashmir comprising Anantnag and Pulwama districts will go to the poll in the third phase on May 5. Ms Mufti, a household name in the politics of south Kashmir over the past seven years, was first elected to the state Assembly as Congress candidate from her home constituency of Beijbehara in Anantnag district in 1996. She resigned from the Congress and the Assembly in July 1998, and launched the PDP with her father, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed. Having been elected to the State Assembly in the 2002 elections from Pahalgam constituency, Ms Mufti lost the Lok Sabha election to Mr Omar Abdullah of the National Conference from Srinagar in 1999. Talking to mediapersons after filing her nomination papers at Anantnag today, the PDP president reiterated her party’s stand on the restoration of peace and stability in the state. She claimed that the performance of coalition government led by the PDP would be duly reflected in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections. She added the election of her party candidates would not distance them from the people. She was accompanied by senior party leaders and ministers including Tourism Minister Ghulam Hassan Mir, Abdul Aziz Zargar, Syed Bashir Ahmad and Abdul Gaffar Sofi. Ms Mehbooba Mufti was among six candidates including the opposition National Conference candidate, Dr Mehboob Beigh who filed their nomination papers from Anantnag today. Dr Mehboob Beigh, who represents Anantnag constituency in the State Assembly is also provincial president of the National Conference. With this the total number of candidates who filed their nomination papers from Anantnag so far has gone up to seven. Others included Sofi Mohammad Yusuf (BJP), Sanjay Saraf (Lok Jana Shakti), and two Independents, Peer Abdul Majeed and Ghulam Rasool Malik. The former union minister of state for Home, Mohammad Maqbool Dar, had filed his nomination papers as an Independent candidate on Saturday last. Dar was elected as Janta Dal candidate from Anantnag Lok Sabha constituency in 1996 defeating his Congress rival, Taj Mohiuddin, while National Conference had not contested. |
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Mufti pitches in for daughter Srinagar, April 12 The Chief Minister flew from Jammu to reach his hometown Anantnag on the occasion, after a three-day tour of Poonch and Rajouri districts in the Jammu region, attending election meetings. During the election meetings in Rajouri and Poonch he was accompanied by the AICC General Secretary, Mr Ghulam Nabi Azad, campaigning for the Congress candidate, Mr Madan Lal Sharma. Mr Sayeed did not visit Baramula when his party’s candidate, Mr Nizamuddin Bhat, filed nomination papers for the first phase on March 27. He had, however, later addressed various election rallies in Baramula and Kupwara districts of the Baramula constituency. He also addressed a number of election meetings in interiors of Kupwara district. The Chief Minister was also away on the occasion of the filing of nomination papers of the PDP candidate, Mr Ghulam Nabi Lone, from the Srinagar constituency at Budgam last week. Mr Mufti Sayeed addressed a workers rally at Anantnag after the filing of nomination by Ms Mehbooba Mufti, a party spokesman said. Addressing the rally, he said the process of dialogue and reconciliation facilitated by his government would be taken further to usher Jammu and Kashmir in an era of lasting peace and development. He said the positive change in the situation witnessed in the state today was the outcome of an overwhelming desire of the people for peace. He complimented the people for voting for a change and said it had to be carried forward. He said the ensuing Parliamentary elections would provide an opportunity for the people to endorse policies of the people. |
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Differences surface between Cong, PDP Jammu, April 12 Things are heading towards a climax with the Finance Minister, Mr Muzaffar Hussain Beig, who is considered as adviser tank of the Chief Minister, Mr Mufti Sayeed, asking the Congress yesterday not to dance to the tunes of Delhi and instead represent aspirations of the people of Kashmir. The minister, while addressing an election rally in the border town of Uri in Kashmir, said the tie-up between the PDP and the Congress would continue only if the latter respected the aspirations of the people, whom it was representing. Political observers visualise this as an attempt of Mr Beig to project the PDP as the real representative of the people of Kashmir. Certain senior Congress leaders have not liked the outburst of Mr Beig at the time when there was need for cohesiveness among the coalition partners in view of the elections. They pointed out that instead of targeting the Congress, which despite being the larger partner in the coalition had accepted Mr Sayeed as the Chief Minister, Mr Beig should have directed his attack on the National Conference. Interestingly, Mr Beig was lambasting the Congress almost at the same time in one corner of the state while Mrs Ambika Soni, General Secretary of the AICC, was claiming here that relations were excellent between the PDP and the Congress. The bone of contention between the two parties is the diametrically opposite stand taken by the two on the issue of the controversial Daughters’ Bill, that seeks to deny property rights to women marrying outsiders. However, Mrs Soni denied any differences between the two parties on the Bill, saying that she was not a part of the common minimum programme of the coalition. However, observers point out that Mr Beig was spitting venom on the Congress because it backed out on the Bill in the legislative council after fully supporting it in the Assembly earlier. It may be mentioned that the Congress was not only being targeted by the PDP in its election campaign in the valley, but the National Conference as well. However, on the two seats of the Jammu division, Mr Sayeed was campaigning for the Congress. An embarrassment was caused to the Congress when certain leaders of the PDP reportedly accused it of having organised the grenade attack on the election rally of Ms Mehbooba Mufti, president of the PDP, at Uri in which 11 persons were killed and two ministers, including Mr Beig, injured. Mrs Soni told mediapersons here yesterday that no such complaint was made by
Ms Mufti when Mrs Sonia Gandhi had telephoned her from Delhi to enquire about her health after the incident. There is no meeting point between the PDP and the Congress also on the emotional issue of implementation of the recommendations of the Wazir Commission that suggested creation of three new districts and six tehsils in the Jammu division. While the issue has been included in the common minimum programme, the Chief Minister has been saying that the government has no funds to implement the report. |
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Ambika Soni accused of misleading
people Jammu, April 12 Reacting to Mrs Soni’s yesterday’s statement, Dr Nirmal Singh, BJP candidate for the Jammu Lok Sabha Seat, while addressing a series of election rallies today said that the Congress was trying to wriggle out of the controversy that the Bill has kicked up on the eve of the elections. He said that in case the Congress was really serious for an equal status for women; it should get the Bill withdrawn. He accused the Congress of also misleading the people on the issue of implementation of the recommendations of the Wazir Commission. Chief Minister, Mufti Sayeed, was not interested in implementing the report, he alleged. Meanwhile, Prof Varinder Gupta, president of the JMM, in the statement said that by saying that the Bill would be referred to a Select Committee, Mrs Soni has not outrightly rejected the anti-women Bill. Sending the Bill to a select committee would mean that the Congress, had endorsed the stand of the PDP and the National Conference in favour of the Bill. On the other hand, Mr Bhim Singh, Chairman of the Panthers Party, which is a partner in the coalition, has in a statement said that Mr Mangat Ram Sharma, Deputy Chief Minister and a senior Congress leader, was instrumental in getting the Bill passed unopposed in the Assembly. He alleged that the demand of Sheikh Abdul Rehman, state BSP chief, for the setting up of the Chenab Valley autonomous development council was aimed at fragmentation of the Doda district on communal lines and the creation of greater Kashmir. |
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Militant among 4 killed in Kashmir Srinagar, April 12 Militants entered the house of Mohammad Ashraf at Beerwah in the central Kashmir district of Badgam last night and shot him dead, sources said. An encounter took place between militants and security forces at a village in Udhampur district last night during which a Harkat commander Abu Bashir was killed. One AK rifle and other arms and ammunition were recovered from the slain militant. An official spokesman said security forces killed a Lashker-e-Toiba militant Abu Abid, a Pakistani national, at Mandloo Deeda last night. One AK rifle, three magazines, 58 rounds, one grenade and one detonator were recovered from the slain militant. An Special Police Officer Bhim Singh was injured when militants attacked a patrol party at Gool Area in Udhampur district of Jammu region today. The injured SPO was airlifted to GMC hospital Jammu. Security forces gunned down an unidentified militant in an encounter at Churmujroo Beerwah in Badgam district today. He said security forces and police in a joint operation arrested a Jaish-e-Mohammad guide Khani Zaman Khan at Shalnar Ganderbal last night. On his disclosure, forces later raided a hideout and recovered one grenade, one UBGL, 50 rounds and an IED. A Road Opening Party recovered one AK rifle, 15 rounds and a magazine on national highway near Livdoora Qazigund in south Kashmir. They said unidentified persons set ablaze three houses at Doda last night. JAMMU: Militants’ plan to target security forces by triggering an explosion was foiled with the recovery of six kg of RDX filled improvised explosive device (IED) in Doda district of Jammu and Kashmir, official sources said here today. Militants had planted an IED weighing six kg on a road in Banihal area of Doda district with a plan to blow up security force vehicles last night, the sources said. — UNI, PTI |
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4 killed as bus falls into gorge Jammu, April 12 The bus was on its way to Hut Mashka when the driver lost control of the vehicle while trying to negotiate a sharp curve and it rolled down into a deep gorge. Four persons died on the spot and 16 other passengers were injured, the police said. The injured have been shifted to Basohli sub-district hospital.
— UNI |
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