Jammu, April 20
While the Army has taken in hand repair of the border fence damaged by heavy winter snow, in Rajouri-Poonch belt, it may take another one-and-a-half month to start work in Kupwara-Baramula area.

Defence Ministry sources said Army experts were not in a position to assess the extent of damage caused to the border fence in the Kupwara sector where several areas on the LoC were still buried under 15 to 18 feet deep snow. Between 30 and 40 per cent damage is estimated.

Sources said in the Uri belt, between five and 10 per cent damage had been caused to the barbed wire fence and repair work in this sector had been completed.

According to these sources, border areas in Chowkibal, Tangdhar, Furkinwale Gali and its adjoining belts were still under 15 to 18 feet deep snow. “No repair work is possible till the snow melts and it may take another month for the belt to be free of snow,” they said.

Between Shahpur and Saujia in Rajouri belt, repair work of the border fence has been completed and there are some patches in Poonch sector where restoration work is not over yet.

Sources said the Defence Ministry had directed the Army engineers and soldiers to take in hand the repair of border fence on a “war footing”. Even in areas where the work is likely to be taken in hand after a month 10 per cent resources in the shape of barbed wire, construction material including poles and cement have been made available in advance.

A senior Army officer told this correspondent here today that if the entire border fence in the Baramula-Kupwara sector was damaged by snow “it would be a collosal loss.”

He said since fencing of the LoC had been completed a year ago the unprecedented heavy snow had been “our maiden experience.” He said field reports, collected during last year, had revealed that fencing and installation of censors on the LoC and the international border had been instrumental in reducing the level of infiltration of armed militants from across the border.

The Defence Ministry sources said “it is because of the importance we attach to the fencing project that orders have been issued to troops to treat fence repairing as an emergency project.”

The ministry has also asked the border guards to plug those stretches of the international border in the Akhnoor sector in Jammu which had not been so far fenced. And in several pockets in Akhnoor sector labourers had started digging pits for raising the eight feet high barbed wire fence.

The Army engineers have also been asked to devise the plan for further fortifying the fence so that it did not collapse if the border belt witnessed heavy snowfall in future.

Jammu, April 20
A Pakistani woman, who travelled to Jammu and Kashmir in the inaugural bus service from Muzaffarabad to Srinagar on April 7, and has now resorted to legal recourse to reclaim the property that her father had left in the Kashmir valley in 1949 when he migrated to PoK, has sounded warning bells for those who were allotted evacuee properties after the country Partition.

The incident has created fear among the allottees residing in the evacuee properties for the past 58 years as the bus service has opened the door for their eviction in case of claimants coming here from Pakistan or the PoK areas.

Thousands of persons were allotted the evacuee properties after they migrated here from Pakistan in 1947. However, unlike other parts of the country the Jammu and Kashmir Government continues to officially maintain the evacuee properties.

A sword was hung over the heads of the allottees by the then National Conference government that introduced in 1982 the Resettlement Bill in the legislature seeking to restore the evacuee properties to the genuine claimants who returned here from Pakistan. The Bill was passed by the two Houses, but is currently challenged in the Supreme Court.

The issue was politicised by the Congress and the BJP during the elections in 1983 when the former managed to sweep the Assembly poll in the Jammu region by highlighting the disadvantages of the Bill. Hundreds of families, particularly in the Jammu region, face uncertainty because of the legislation.

Initially, the coalition government headed by Chief Minister Mufti Sayeed tried to dispel the apprehensions that starting the bus service would not affect the allottees. However, the action of the Pakistani woman, Fareeda Ghani, who has filed papers to reclaim her three properties in the valley, has created a peculiar situation.

Such happenings are not new in the state. A Pakistani national, who crossed into Poonch district from across the LoC, filed his papers for contesting the last Lok Sabha elections from the Jammu-Poonch constituency. However, a special scrutiny of his papers was held following media reports about his nationality and the Election Commission debarred him. However, the state government has not so far taken any action to either push him and his family members back or detain them for overstaying in India without valid documents.

Meanwhile, taking a serious note of the Pakistani national reclaiming her property, the state BJP has described it as a conspiracy hatched by the Congress-supported PDP to alter the demographic landscape of Jammu.

The vice-president of the BJP, Prof Hari Om, today expressed fear that those who were settled on evacuee properties in 1947 might get ousted once the visitors from PoK started reclaiming the properties they had left back during Partition.

He said that the state government had allowed these visitors to stay here beyond April 21 while they were supposed to return to their native land as part of the second trip of the bus service.

Srinagar, April 20
Having sought permission to send gift packs of Kashmir apple to Pakistan leaders by the first bus to Muzaffarabad, fruit traders have welcomed the Indo-Pak joint statement on allowing movement of trucks across the LoC to boost trade. The permission was, however, not granted when the first bus carrying Muzaffarabad-bound passengers was flagged off here by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on April 7.

“Our demand to send gift packs to Pakistan leaders was not accepted,” said Ghulam Rasool Bhat, president of the J&K Fruit and Vegetable Growers-cum-Dealers Association, at Baramula. He, however, added the decision of the two leaders, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, would boost the economy of the state by throwing open a vast market to the valley’s fruit which could reach the markets in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Arab countries on lesser freight and in lesser duration.

Not only the Kashmiri apple, but other fresh fruit, including cherry and pear, and delicacies like saffron and honey are among the products having a great demand outside valley. A number of dry fruits like Kashmir almond and walnut are also exported from here. There is also a great scope for the export of apricot, special produce from the Ladakh region of the state, Bhat pointed out. Of the over 12 lakh tonnes of produce, 40 per cent could be exported with the opening of this road to trade, he said. Describing the move to allow trade on this traditional road as appreciable, Mr Bhat said it would benefit those dependent on the fruit business. He said over 6 lakh families in depended upon fruit industry.

Srinagar, April 20
Two weeks after the first bus carrying passengers for Muzaffarabad on the Jhelum valley Road was flagged off, the second batch of passengers would be leaving here tomorrow by the bus under adequate security.

While 30 passengers, five of them on their return journey, are expected to board the bus here tomorrow, an equal number of passengers belonging to “divided families”, would be arriving here from PoK, DIG Police, Kashmir, Mr H.K. Lohia said here. There are some passengers on their return journey from Muzaffarabad tomorrow, who had left by the first bus on April 7. Of the 49 persons who made it on the first day, 30 arrived here from Muzaffarabad and 19 others left Srinagar for Muzaffarabad on April 7.

Four militant groups, which have repeatedly warned passengers against boarding the bus, had claimed responsibility for the attack on Tourist Reception Centre on the eve of the flagging off of the bus. The entire complex, where the Muzaffarabad-bound passengers had been lodged, was gutted in the exchange of fire between militants and security forces on April 6, hours before Prime Minister Manmohan Singh flagged off the bus from the nearby SK Cricket Stadium.

In view of the threats from militant organisations, adequate security arrangements have been made for smooth run of the bus carrying passengers to the LoC in Uri sector tomorrow, DIG Police Mr Lohia told The Tribune here today. All arrangements have been made and tickets issued to the prospective passengers. Two of the passengers from here may not board the bus tomorrow, as the old couple had made a plea on the ground that their only daughter could not stay back alone as she did not have the requisite permit. Some other prospective passengers, who have arrived here from different parts of Jammu region, have been lodged at a safe place, the police said.

The four militant outfits, Al Nasireen, Save Kashmir Movement, Al-Arifeen and Farzandan-e-Millat in a joint statement on April 2 had issued a warning to prospective passengers on the first bus to Muzaffarabad. Stating that the beginning of this bus service was “not a solution to the Kashmir problem”, the spokesman had also faxed a list of the passengers cleared for the first bus. These outfits again issued warning to the prospective passengers with their list and residences, against boarding the second bus, which led to security arrangements on the occasion. 

Srinagar, April 20
Two persons, including mother and son, were killed and nine others injured in an explosion in Sopore town of Baramula district, while a dead body was recovered in Pulwama district today.

A police spokesman said here that two persons, including a woman, were killed and nine others injured when militants hurled a grenade at Ashpeer crossing in Sopore town this morning. The grenade exploded on the road side, causing injuries to 11 persons, of whom two succumbed to their injuries, while being shifted to hospital. They were identified as a 22-year-old Noor Mohammad Changa and Raja Begum.

The body of an SPO, Ali Mohammad Shah, was recovered from near Khanqah Awantipora village in Pulwama district this morning. The SPO had been kidnapped by unidentified militants, the police said.