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PDP for ‘balanced’ seat-sharing with Cong
Former CM, Malik fail to appear in court
Srinagar airport road blocked
for hours
Mother kills son, daughter
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Two LeT militants killed in encounter
Srinagar, March 12 At least three persons, including two militants of the Lashkar-e-Toiba outfit, were killed in separate incidents in Jammu and Kashmir since yesterday, while the security forces busted a hideout and seized arms and ammunition in Pulwama district. 
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PDP for ‘balanced’ seat-sharing with Cong
Jammu, March 12 The PDP leadership, according to party sources, has conveyed to the Congress that besides Bhaderwah Assembly seat one seat in the Legislative Council and one in the Rajya Sabha would also be left for the Congress. Neither for the Council nor for Rajya Sabha seat the PDP will stake any claim and this way sharing of seats would be balanced. The Congress so far has not accepted PDP suggestion as majority of its legislators are for contesting at least one of the three seats in the valley. Congress seems to field its candidate from Rafiabad from where its candidate had lost by 632 votes in 2002 Assembly poll. In the election Mr Abdul Gani Vakil of the Congress polled 10944 votes against 11576 votes polled by National Conference candidate, Dilawar Mir. The situation at present seems to have changed. Mr Mir has resigned from the National Conference and Mr Vakil has already been elected to the Legislative
Council. The PDP is not prepared to leave Rafiabad seat for the Congress on the plea that Mr Mir has been elected to the Assembly from this constituency four times in a row and he had, even, won the seat when he was a Janata Dal candidate. As far as Pattan seat is concerned the PDP’s claim for fielding Maulvi Iftikhar Hussain Ansari is based on the analogy that in 1996 and 2002 elections he had won from the constituency with a comfortable majority though he was then a National Conference candidate. The
Maulvi, the PDP circles argue, had resigned from the NC to join the PDP and in 2002 poll he had defeated the Congress candidate by 2184 votes. Similarly PDP leadership is keen to field its candidate from Sangrama from where PDP candidate, Ghulam Nabi
Lone, had been elected in 2002 poll. He had defeated the NC candidate by 1059 votes. The PDP has almost finalised names of Maulvi Ansari for Pattan and Mr Dilawar Mir for Rafiabad but the decision on Sangrama is awaited because there are three leaders aspiring for the ticket. They include, Mr Javed Beg, founder member of the PDP and President of its youth wing, Mr Basharat Ahmed and Mr Mushtaq Ahmed, Zonal President. It is clear whether there would be a smooth seat-sharing between the PDP and the Congress the National Conference has decided to field its candidates in all four
constituencies. Provincial President of the National Conference, Ajay Sadhotra said here today that “we plan to field party candidates from all four seats but no decision has been taken on the candidates were to be given ticket.” He said after the notification for the bypoll was issued NC high command would finalise names of candidates. In 2002 Mr Mohd. Aslam Goni of the National Conference had lost to Mr Mohd. Sharief Niaz from Bhaderwah by 6827 votes indicating that the Congress was well entrenched in the constituency which could make Mr Azad’s task easy. It is not known whether the NC will field Mr Goni again or give ticket to a weak candidate to ensure a cakewalk win for the Chief Minister. If this was done it would indicate the National Conference was keen to mend fences with the Congress for sidelining its main political rival the PDP. Senior Congress leaders are said to favour Mr Niaz’s berth to the Upper House so that its plan of replacing Mr Abdul Rashid Dar as chairman of the council was
executed. In that case the Congress would install Mr Niaz as the chairman of the
Legislative Council. |
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Former CM, Malik fail to appear in court
Srinagar, March 12 The court had issued non-bailable warrants (NBWs) against 24 accused, including Shah, Geelani, Malik and Khan. Additional Judge Asmat Hussain also took strong notice of the absence of the accused from the court despite NBWs being issued to them and posted the next hearing of the case on April 13. Mr Geelani’s counsel, Arshad Andrabi, filed an application before the court seeking exemption from appearance of the Hurriyat leader for his old age. Mr Andrabi pleaded that as Mr Geelani was 77, he should be exempted from personal appearance. He also stated that of the more than 100 accused in the case, as many as eight of them, including Qazi Nisar, Abdul Ghani Lone, Hilal Beigh and Omar Mukhtar, have since died and several others became old. The court reserved the decision on Mr Geelani’s application till the next hearing. Incidentally, Malik is away in Pakistan to attend a three-day international conference on Kashmir organised by Pugwash, a European Nobel prize-winning think-tank engaged in finding solution to issues in South Asia, at Islamabad from Friday. The case related to the organising of “anti-India rally” at the Iqbal Park here on August 20, 1987 by the erstwhile Muslim United Front (MUF). It was alleged that the leaders resorted to contempt of the Indian Constitution and the national tricolour was also set on fire. The police later registered a case against more than 100 persons, accusing them of anti-national activities. The court in January issued summons to 24 persons in the case.
— UNI |
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Srinagar airport road blocked
for hours
Srinagar, March 12 Official sources said miscreants tried to set the Abu Bakr Mosque on fire at Habib Colony, Hyderpora, in the uptown Barzulla area here last night. The miscreants had desecrated the holy Quran and set on fire the furnishings of the mosque, the sources said. Eyewitnesses said when the muezzin went to the mosque to call for Fajr (morning) prayers, he noticed that the leaves of the holy Quran were scattered on the floor and the furnishings had been burnt down. As he made the announcement on the public address system, thousands of people came to the mosque and began protesting. However, the fire had not spread and the mosque was safe, the sources said. Later, the people took to streets in protest against the incident forcing the closure of the busy Srinagar airport road for hours. The sources said the agitated people dispersed after they were pacified and assured by senior civil and police officials, who immediately rushed to the area, that the miscreants would soon be nabbed and action taken against them. The police has registered a case and begun investigations.
— UNI |
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Mother kills son, daughter
Srinagar, March 12 They said the infant boy, Owais Ahmed, died a week ago and after some days her three-year-old daughter, Shahnaza, also died under similar circumstances. The police said Shahnaza had complained of acute pain and was rushed to the Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS), Soura, here where she died. The doctors in their report had stated that the child died of poisoning, they added. The two deaths within a week raised doubts among the villagers who complained to the police to investigate the matter. The police said investigations revealed that the mother had poisoned the children. The mother, at present in custody, admitted to having committed the crime. However, her third child, six-year-old Shani, survived the “poison attack”, the police said.
— UNI |
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Two LeT militants killed in encounter
Srinagar, March 12 Two unidentified militants of the Lashkar-e-Toiba outfit were killed in an encounter with security forces at Lowarka in Manjakote sector of Rajouri district today, police here said. Two AK rifles, four magazines, and a wireless set were recovered from the site of encounter. A hideout was busted by the security forces in a residential house at Naristan in the Tral area of Pulwama district today. The recoveries made from the hideout included four magazines, 120 cartridges, four 52-mm mortar bombs, two UBGL grenades, eight hand grenades, one ruck-sack, two blankets and two Arabic coins, a Defence spokesman said here. |
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