Jammu, October 5
The security forces have heaved a sigh of relief with the start of harvesting of maize crop in the border areas of Poonch and Rajouri districts.

According to the police, tall maize plants would invariably impede anti-infiltration operations. And infiltrators would hide themselves in the maize fields soon after entering into the Indian territory from across the LOC.

The police said in May last farmers had been advised not to sow maize in areas close to the border and in the fields adjacent to the security pickets and the vital link roads as they could create impediments in the anti-insurgency operations.

However, farmers had sown maize in such areas forcing the civil administration to carry out reaping of unripe maize crop in various areas in August last.

According to the police, the entire harvesting operation will be completed within the next 10 days which could facilitate the troops in carrying out effective operations against the militants.

Those farmers whose unripe maize crop was destroyed for security reasons were to be paid compensation.

However, the farmers said since the compensation amount was meagre “many among us were unwilling to allow unripe maize crop to be reaped.

Since Poonch and Rajouri are called maize bowl of Jammu and Kashmir it is as good as a cash crop for the farmers in the otherwise backward area.

On several occasions in the past five years the Army authorities sought the help from the civil administration in persuading the farmers against sowing maize in areas frequented by infiltrators.

The state authorities campaigned for removing maize from areas vulnerable to rebel attacks but the success of such campaign remained limited.

A senior police officer said with the start of the harvesting of maize crop the level of infiltration from across the LOC was expected to further fall. In addition, to militants may not be able to established temporary hideouts within the villages after the reaping of maize crop.

Jammu, October 5
Admitting that displaced Kashmiri Pandits are living in appalling conditions at migrant camps, leader of the visiting Pakistani media delegation Imtiaz Alam has said people of the majority community in the valley have to devise ways for their return.

“We saw that the conditions in which they are living are deplorable,” Mr Alam, who along with other members of the delegation visited one such camp here yesterday, said.

“People of the majority community have to devise ways of their return,” he said while at a meeting organised by the Action Committee for Return of Migrants and the Jammu and Kashmir Institute for Peace, Justice and Democracy last night.

“Some migrants who met us showed reluctance to return to Kashmir and advocated a separate homeland for the community in the valley,” Mr Alam said.

On the normalisation of relations between India and Pakistan and restoration of peace in Jammu and Kashmir, SAFMA general secretary said the journalistic fraternity of Pakistan would play its “possible” role in this regard.

“People in India are fortunate enough that they are living in a free and democratic set up while we are under dictatorial rule in Pakistan,” he said.

On growing fundamentalism in Pakistan, he said the conservative educational set up in the country is one of the causes for it. “But now situation is changing there too and we are also trying to switch over to democratic set up, he added.

Mr Alam, however, said, “the Press is not totally controlled by the government in Pakistan and the English press and news channels are much free than the Urdu Press, which is conservative.”

“We do not represent the entire Press of Pakistan and cannot find answers to the volley of questions being asked at one meeting alone,” he said, reiterating that SAFMA would continue its efforts in normalising relations in future also.

Dr R.L. Bhat, a columnist, made it clear that under the prevailing situation Pandits could not return to the valley as “Kashmiriyat” had died down.

Maj-Gen R.S. Jamwal (retd) said Kashmiri Pandits can be accommodated anywhere in the vast country but “they are living at migrant camps. — PTI