Jammu, February 18
Dissensions have surfaced within the Hurriyat Conference headed by Syed Ali Shah Geelani over the agreement reached between India and Pakistan about the reopening of Srinagar-Muzaffarabad road link.

While Mr Geelani has opposed the agreement on the plea that the opening of the road will delay the settlement of the Kashmir issue, leaders of various constituents of the Hurriyat Conference have welcomed the agreement. Those who have supported the road opening programme, include Mr Azam Inquilabi, chief of the Liberation Front, head of the National Front, Mr Nayeem Khan, and Jamait-e-Islami.

Mr Geelani has been advocating the need for the settlement of the Kashmir issue on priority basis and to him the agreement on the reopening of Srinagar-Muzaffarabad road was nothing but a diversion from the core issue.

On the other hand leaders of the rival All-Party Hurriyat Conference, including Maulvi Abbas Ansari and Prof Abdul Gani Bhat, have welcomed the agreement.

This and other allied developments have encouraged the Pakistani agencies to give weightage to moderate in the separatist camp in the Kashmir valley.

This is indicated by the way in which the electronic and print media in Pakistan have given wide coverage to the statements of moderate separatists on the Indo-Pak agreement on the opening of Srinagar-Muzaffarabad road link.

The news bulletins and other programmes telecast by the government-controlled electronic media in Pakistan have given space to the statements of moderate separatists and ignored the reaction from Syed Ali Shah Geelani.

Political analysts here are of the opinion that gradually Geelani, who still commands respect among the gun wielding youths, is losing the patronage of Pak agencies. 

Srinagar, February 18
Much before the formal constitution of civic bodies that went to polls during the past two weeks in Kashmir, the government is faced with the problem of security of the elected councillors and corporators, who have now become militants’ targets. Even as the ruling PDP had made it clear that these elections were not part of a “democratic process” they opposed, security became a problem by the time the process was completed.

As a result of attacks and threats to elected councillors and corporators, more than a dozen other elected members have either sought security or shifted from their places recently. Some of the local vernacular dailies here have carried paid advertisements from such candidates apologising publicly over their decision to take part in the civic polls. Some of these have published their withdrawal and resignation from the membership and the parties they belong to. This, according to observers, was going on the lines of early militancy years when political workers sought public apologies and announced their resignation from the mainstream political parties.

Two elected members have already been killed while several others were injured in these attacks by suspected militants since the completion of the poll process in Kashmir which began here on January 29 last. Those killed included an elected corporator of the opposition National Conference, Mohammad Maqbool Shah of Srinagar Municipal Corporation, and Ghulam Mohiuddin Mir (PDP), councillor to the Beerwah Municipal Committee in Budgam. Many of the 13 PDP members, all of whom were elected unopposed in Beerwah, have “withdrawn”.

One candidate was among six others killed while more than 40 were injured in nearly 20 attacks by suspected militants on those participating in the elections to civic bodies in Kashmir.

According to police officials here, it was difficult to provide security to all the contesting candidates, since their number was large. The number of candidates to the 68-ward Srinagar Municipal Corporation alone was 218. Similar was the case with other 32 civic bodies in the valley.

The situation had taken a new turn when the opposition National Conference president, Mr Omar Abdullah, had threatened the en masse resignation of corporators and councillors, following the killing of its senior member, Mohammad Maqbool Shah. He had also expressed concern over “instructions” to the elected members to report to their respective police stations, if they felt insecure. “How could these members play their role as elected corporators, if they are asked to stay in police stations?” asked the NC leader. The NC got the majority of 41 out of 68 wards in Srinagar Municipal Corporation. The party softened the stand following indications from the higher-ups that adequate security measures were being taken for these members.

Senior police officers here claim that there was a provision to provide one PSO to each elected member. Their security would also be taken care of on the pattern of other protected persons like legislators and senior party workers. The number of newly elected members having shifted from their respective places as a result of the militants’ threats could be about 10 per cent, a senior police officer told The Tribune here. There could be no exact number of those “withdrawing”, as the formal constitution of the corporation and other committees was yet to take place. The “resignation or withdrawal” of the elected members could be only considered when these bodies were constituted, said an official at the Local Bodies Department.

Srinagar, February 18
Hailing the Muzaffarabad bus agreement, the Jamaat-e-Islami has sought a “judicious and everlasting solution to the Kashmir issue in accordance with the aspirations of people of both the regions of Jammu and Kashmir”.

A spokesman of the Jamaat here yesterday demanded Kashmir’s “real representatives” to be included in any dialogue between India and Pakistan to resolve Kashmir. “People of both the regions should be provided with a free atmosphere to negotiate and find out an acceptable solution to this human problem”, the spokesman stated. “Srinagar-Muzaffarabad road can also prove to be important in this direction,” he said. The spokesman held that the resolution of the Kashmir issue would lead to peace in South Asia.

The Jamaat spokesman reiterated its stand on the right to self-determination for the people of Jammu and Kashmir.

Jammu, February 18
A former beauty queen who allegedly figured in a pornographic movie was illegally confined by four police officers, including a Senior Superintendent of Police, a police complaint to a court on today said.

Jammu Senior Superintendent of Police Kamal Saini, an Additional Superintendent of Police, a Deputy Superintendent of Police and an Inspector were responsible for illegally confining Anara Gupta in October-November, said a first information report (FIR) filed in the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate Sanjiv Gupta by the crime branch of the Jammu police.

The FIR was filed under Section 344 of the Ranbir Penal Code- the equivalent of the Indian Penal Code- that is no force in Jammu and Kashmir.

Conviction under this section entails three years’ imprisonment.

“Legal nemesis is catching up with all those who harassed my daughter,” said Anara’s mother Raj Rani on being informed of the FIR being filed.

The police had charged Anara with sleaze after recovering a pornographic CD they said featured the former beauty queen.

A Hyderabad forensic laboratory nixed the police claim, saying Anara did not feature in the CD. Another laboratory in Chandigarh said a girl in the CD “could” be Anara but the Hyderabad facility said it stood by its report.

The police has now sought permission of a subordinate court and the Jammu and Kashmir High Court to withdraw the case they had filed against Anara. — IANS

Srinagar, February 18
Former Hurriyat Chairman and prominent Shia leader Moulana Mohammad Abbass Ansari was put under house arrest and 65 mourners detained as the police fired teargas shells and used batons to foil repeated attempts by Shia community members to take out a procession to mark the eighth day of Muharram here today, official sources said.

Over a dozen persons were also injured in the clashes between the police and slogan-shouting mourners at Lal Chowk, Regal Chowk, Badshah Chowk, Maisuma, Dalgate, Jehangir Chowk, Exchange road and Chattabal in the city, the sources said.

Mr Ansari, who heads Itehad-ul-Muslimeen in the moderate Hurriyat executive, was whisked away by the police soon after he came out of an Imam bara after leading Friday prayers as the authorities apprehended that he might lead a procession in the city in violation of prohibitory orders in force, the sources said. — PTI