Jammu, October 25
Due to a sudden increase in terrorism related incidents, more than 38 families have migrated to “safer” places in the Rajouri, Udhampur and Doda districts.

It is learnt that the migration was on in the past couple of days when terrorists struck at various places in these districts.

The highest number of migrations have been reported from the border district of Rajouri where terrorists were on a killing spree. They have targeted Hindu families around the Buddhal town.

A few migrations have also been reported from the Gool and Khahs areas. The migration was not confined to Hindus, but many Muslims have also moved to safer places.

The massacre of 10 persons belonging to two Hindu families near Buddhal has triggered fresh migration.

Although Buddhal was also an unsafe place as terrorists have been striking there at their will residents of villages around there have started migrating to the town.

There is general complaint that the state government has hardly done anything to infuse a sense of security among the scared residents of these villages. Relief department was also not providing any sort of help to the affected families.

Initially, a large number of families from the three districts had migrated here when terrorism started in the state in 1989. However, allegations of the state government discriminating between them and the migrants from the Kashmir valley went unheard at the highest level.

The migrants from these districts were camping on the banks of the river Tawi in huts as the state government refused to provide them any accommodation or facilities as were being given to the migrants of the valley.

The atmosphere was emotionally surcharged today — the tenth day of the 10 massacred persons. A former minister and BJP leader, Prof. Chaman Lal Gupta, who participated in the rites of those massacred, accused the state government of having failed to contain terrorism.

He alleged that the state government was more worried about providing relief and compensation to the kin of terrorists who get killed during encounters with security forces and has no policy to rehabilitate the victims of militancy.

Srinagar, October 25
The Indian Air Force (IAF) carried out “under-slung operations” by its MI-17 helicopter to transport bulldozer of Border Roads from Uri and Uroosa, where a portion of the road has been damaged due to the recent earthquake. The operation in the extreme precarious terrain and weather conditions was carried out by the pilots to accelerate the rehabilitation process in the affected areas near LoC, defence spokesman said here today.

Heavy landslides on NH-1A had cut off the road link after Uri due to which the entire relief operations for the earthquake victims have been disrupted. The Border Roads decided to tackle the landslides from both the ends to speed up the road clearing process. But there was no bulldozer at the western end Hence, they requested the IAF to help in transporting the bulldozer by air.

In an innovative manner, two bulldozers were dismantled thereafter each part was tied under slung to the MI-17 Helicopter and airlifted by carrying out sorties from Uri to Uroosa which is one of the most affected and unapproachable village near LoC.

The availability of these bulldozers has been of immense help to the road-clearing parties and they have been successful in connecting these villages to the rest of the country, the defence spokesman said.

Jammu, October 25
Mr Ghulam Nabi Azad, Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, is said to have conveyed to UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi that he was not keen to replace Mufti Mohammad Sayeed as the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir under the power transfer agreement.

sources close to Mr Azad said the Union Minister has taken seriously a warning from an astrologer that Mr Azad can get killed by militants in case he takes over as Chief Minister.

Another astrologer friend of Mr Azad, who is settled abroad, has also conveyed to the Union Minister that the current phase was not auspicious for him (Azad) for taking over as Chief Minister. The astrologer has told him that he should wait for sometime.

Jammu, October 25
Nearly 27 tremors with epicentre in Jammu and Kashmir and the neighbouring Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) in the past 18 days have triggered hysteria among people.

The quake of October 8, that claimed 1300 lives in J&K and nearly 60,000 in the PoK have made people panicky. A small rattle makes people run out of houses. Doctors say that a large number of people suffering from the fear of earthquake have reported in the hospitals in the past few days. The number of such cases was higher in the Kashmir valley.

Except the past two days, tremors have been felt in one or the other part of the state after October 8 when the quake of the highest magnitude of 7.6 rocked here. As many as eight quakes have hit the state after that, while the number of quakes in PoK was 19 in the past 18 days.

The Pir Panjal mountain range that stretches between J&K and PoK was the epicentre of 19 tremors in these days. These tremors were of the magnitude ranging from 4.7 to 5.3 on the Richter scale.

The most recent tremors were felt here on Saturday last when the epicentre of the quake was recorded 8 km North of Shopian in the valley. Its magnitude was 4.8 on the Richter scale. A day earlier, a quake of 4.9 magnitude was recorded 6.9 km North-East of Chandru in J&K.

The state was rocked twice on October 12 when quakes of 4.6 and 4.3 magnitude rocked 2.8 km South-West of Lundarwan and 1.6 km South of Qasaba Naubag, respectively.

The intensity was 4.8 on the Richter scale when epicentre of the quake was 8.2 km West Panzgram on October 10.

Seismic activity disturbed the entire J&K and PoK the most on October 8 when beside the main killer earthquake, eight other smaller quakes ranging between 5 and 4.5 on the Richter scale rattled the earth. Seven of these quakes had epicentre in the Pir Panjal mountains.

The North West Frontier Province (NWFP) of Pakistan witnessed 86 quakes in the past 18 days.

Srinagar, October 25
With its experience of rehabilitation of quake and tsunami-affected people in Gujarat and parts of the south, the Mata Amritanandamayi Math plans to adopt a few villages in Uri, one of the worst-quake-affected areas near the LoC in north Kashmir. It also plans to take rehabilitation programme to PoK on the other side of the LoC that faced major brunt of earthquake on October 8.

Sadhu Abhayamrita Chaitanya of the Math told The Tribune here today it had approached the state government for permission to adopt two or three villages in Uri. He said that there was positive response from the Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir, to whom the proposal had been submitted. Response of the villagers in Uri sector visited by a team of the math, was also positive, he said adding people knew that there was “no intention other than service to the mankind”.

Delhi ashram of the math would be care of the rehabilitation and reconstruction programme in Uri area, Chaitanya said. Identification of villages to be adopted would be finalised soon, he said.

On details of the experience in Gujarat and tsunami-affected areas, Math representative said that it had already experience of adopting three villages in quake-affected Bhuj area that was close to the epicentre in Gujarat.

There had been Rs 100 crore project in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Sri Lanka and Andaman and Nicobar, one of the largest projects in the reconstruction, which had increased to estimated Rs 200 crore project. Almost 50 per cent work had been completed so far, while the remaining would be completed during the next six months.

As a first step to provide aid to the quake affected people of Uri, over 1000 blankets and winter clothing were distributed among villagers. The affected villages visited by the team of the Amritanandamayi math included Sultandhaki, Basgaran, Dachi and Lagama. The math also plans to concentrate on the psycho-social counselling of the victim in the area, that was necessitated due to the death of many members in many households. Those surviving, mostly children were to be provided with such an assistance so that they did not face mental pressure and depression.

Srinagar, October 25
A bridge on the Sindh river, 85 km from here, on the strategic Srinagar-Leh highway was inaugurated by Lieut-Gen K.S. Rao, Director-General of Border Roads Organisation (BRO), at Sonamarg today.

The bridge at a height of 2650 metres from sea level has been constructed at a cost of Rs 2.60 crore, the work on which was started in August 2001 and completed last month.

Its construction would ease traffic on the highway to the frontier cold desert region of Ladakh that remains cut off from the rest of the world by road surface for six months of winter every year.

With the constant increase of traffic to the region every year, the road is under upgradation to the national highway double lane specifications. This road is the only surface link and major lifeline for the survival and economic development of people of Ladakh and for the security forces. This road also provides link to the pilgrimage base of the Amarnath shrine at Baltal and facilitates tourism by providing a direct link to Sonamarg.

Poonch, October 25
Even as troops made the border meeting camps for the divided families along Indo-Pak border in Jammu and Kashmir operational, Pakistan today stopped setting up such camps on the other side.

“Contrary to Indian’s operational border camps for providing medical aid to the divided families on forward posts along the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan stopped such work on its side today,” top army sources said.

The Pakistan Army, which was engaged in the setting up of such camps at Kanch post in the Tetrinote belt of its side, stopped the work and uprooted tents and other things and took them back, they said.

“The joint relief and rescue operations along the LoC and meeting of divided families would now be decided on October 29 at the External Affairs Ministry level,” they said, adding therefore the commencement of operations had been stopped.

The Indian Army has already set up three medical-cum-relief centres along the LoC at Kaman (near Aman setu in Uri), Teetwal (Tangdhar) and Chakan-da-Bagh (Poonch) as per the decision of the ministry of External Affairs to benefit quake affected people living across the dividing line.

“We have completely set up this cross-border meeting camp along the LoC in Poonch that includes 10-bed emergency hospital, 100 ward hospital, meeting place for dividing families, media centre and relief centre.” — PTI