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Meeting reviews cases of detainees
Azad’s condition for talks with Jehadi
Demolishing barriers in education
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31 SPOs joined militant ranks
Ludhiana couple found dead in Pahalgam hotel
Couple among three killed in J&K
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Meeting reviews cases of detainees
Jammu, March 16 Besides senior police CID functionaries from the state, the meeting was attended by the Special Secretary, Ministry of Home, Dr Raj Gopal, the Joint Secretary on Kashmir, Ms Mitali Sen Gawai, the Inspector-General of the BSF and the Inspector-General of the CRPF. Official sources said the meeting made a preliminary review of cases of political detenues. The first round of talks was held in the Civil Secretariat where the Chief Secretary, Mr Vijay Bakaya, was also present. Later, the Central team had a luncheon meeting with the Chief Minister, Mr Ghulam Nabi Azad, at his official residence. According to the official sources another review meeting was to be held in Delhi before the government sanctioned the release of some of the detained people. The issue of release of political detenues was raised in the Assembly on Thursday during question hour. Mr Ali Mohd Sagar of the National Conference wanted to know whether the government contemplated the release of political detenues for which a commitment had been made by Mr Manmohan Singh during the recent roundtable conference held in Delhi. Mr Azad said the review of cases of those detenues against whom there were no charges of involvement in heinous crimes was being carried out shortly. He said the Prime Minister’s commitment on the matter would be honoured. He announced that before March 30, the review exercise would be completed and those deserving to be set free would be released from detention. All-Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC) leaders had expressed their dismay over the delay on the part of the government in fulfilling their (APHC) demand for the release of political detenues. A senior APHC leader told this correspondent today: “when we met Mr Manmohan Singh on September 5 we had submitted several demands and suggestions, including the demand for setting free political detenues.” He said the Prime Minister had agreed to order review of their cases and so far nothing had been done. Indications are that between six and 12 detenues would be released by the end of this month. |
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Azad’s condition for talks with Jehadi Council chief
Jammu, March 16 Mr Azad, who was replying to supplementaries during question hour in the Assembly, said that the Centre and the state government were ready for talks with separatist leader. Syed Ali Shah Geelani, who refused to participate in the recent roundtable conference convened by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at Delhi. He made it clear that talks would be held with militants only after they laid arms. The Chief Minister hoped that Mr Geelani would participate in the second roundtable conference being organised by the Prime Minister at Srinagar in May. Mr Azad, while inviting all groups for talks, made it clear that the government would order ceasefire by the security forces only after the militants laid arms. Mr Ali Mohammad Sagar (NC) and Mr Usman Majid (Ind) pointed out that Salahuddin, who had influence over the militants, arrested in Pakistan was recently and then released. The Indian government should take the initiative for a dialogue with him. Mr Azad said that terrorists should realise the change in the attitude of the Pakistan’s President General Pervez Musharraf, and abjure violence and participate in the talks. He said initially there were apprehensions among a section of hardliners that the Prime Minister in view of visit of the US President George Bush convened the roundtable conference. However, these apprehensions have been removed as the second roundtable conference. was being organised and as such it had no connection with the visit of Mr Bush. The roundtable conference at Delhi provided the first ever opportunity to all parties to put forth their viewpoint on the Kashmir problem under one roof. He said there was no question of going back on the process of taking confidence-building measures (CBMs) initiated in 2000. Effort was being made to make Jammu and Kashmir and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) a free-trade zone. Mr Azad said that process of identifying the detainees against whom there were no serious criminal offences has been started and some of them might be released by the end of this month. Mr Sagar said that India should take the advantage of the change of mind of General Musharraf and take steps for solving the problem. To the main question of Mr Sagar, Mr Azad said that the government would hold a dialogue with all political parties, separatist leaders and militant organisations provided they laid down arms and abjure violence. He said Mr N.N. Vohra, centre’s interlocutor to look after the progress of talks. There has been good impact of the dialogue process. The incidents of violence have decreased considerably and there had been no incident of unprovoked border firing in the recent past. Overall incidents of human rights violations have come down considerably in the past several years due to controlled operations and other measures taken by the government. The Chief Minister said 39 political activists were killed in terrorism-related violence last year. As against 517 civilians killed last year, the number was 18 till February 15 this year. 13 security and policemen have been killed in the period in current year against 244 in the last year.
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Demolishing barriers in education
Jammu, March 16 This was stated by the Vice-Chancellor of the Jammu University,
Prof Amitabh Mattoo, while talking to mediapersons here today. He said that a team from Lahore University of Management Sciences is coming here in May to sign the MoU.
Prof Mattoo along with a 10- member team of the university returned here on March 14 after a six-day visit to Pakistan and Mirpur in the Pakistan occupied Kashmir. The team met
Prof Aftabh, Vice-Chancellor of Lahore University, and also visited Leads University, Lahore. He said that deliberations were held to work out modalities for signing the MoU with various universities of Pakistan and PoK with regard to student and faculty exchange programmes; opening of study centres at Lahore and
PoK. Prof Mattoo hoped that a new era of cross-Line of Control education linkages would begin on both sides. He said that a need for greater and effective role of universities in the peace process and the areas of mutual interest, including early warning systems for earthquakes, disaster management, cooperation for improvement of quality teaching-learning, research and practice in higher education institutions, opening of trade between the two countries for economic prosperity of the region, were also discussed. The team also met President Pervez Musharraf, foreign minister of Pakistan,
Mr Khurshid M. Kasuri, Prime Minister of PoK, Mr Sikandar Hayat Khan and other prominent members of Pakistan's civil
society. Prof Mattoo said that people in Pakistan and PoK also have a desire for peace and an end to violence. The Jammu University team during their stay in Pakistan also participated in the workshop on "Prospects for self-governance in Jammu and Kashmir and present status of cooperation and communications across the LoC" organised by PUGWASH conferences on science and world affairs. Replying to questions, Prof Mattoo said that the roundtable conference convened by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the one organised by PUGWASH at Islamabad have their own importance. Certain separatist leaders attended the conference organised by
PUGWASH. |
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31 SPOs joined militant ranks
Jammu, March 16 This was stated by the Chief Minister in a written reply to Mr Jugal Kishore (BJP) in the Assembly today. Cases have been registered against these persons and a couple of them have either been arrested or were killed in encounter with the security forces.Terrorists snatched weapons of 282 police personnel against whom disciplinary action had been taken. The Chief Minister said among the 54 persons, who escaped from police custody, eight were Pakistan nationals and one was Afghan. Twentyfive persons have been re-arrested. In another written reply to the member, the Chief Minister said 17 civilians and security personnel were killed in militancy related incidents in Jammu city during the past two years. Fiftyseven persons, including 49 civilians and eight security personnel, were injured in these incidents. No person involved in these incidents has so far been arrested and two of the seven cases have been closed as “untraced”. In a written reply, the Chief Minister informed Mrs Shanti Devi (PDP) that as many as 471 cases of rape had been registered in the state during the past two years. While 241 cases of rape were registered during 2004, 230 cases were registered in 2005. No accused had been punished by the court so far in these cases. The Chief Minister said in a written reply to Mr Abdul Gani Malik (NC) that as many as 5,664 vehicular accidents, killing 884 persons, were registered during 2005. During the current year 318 road accidents were registered up to January in which 114 lives were lost. |
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Ludhiana couple found dead in Pahalgam hotel
Srinagar, March 16 It said Pankaj Kumar Jain and his wife Poornima arrived here from Ludhiana yesterday and straightway headed for Pahalgam. The couple checked in King’s Palace hotel there and after some sightseeing came back to their room, the police added. However, the hotel staff got suspicious in the morning as the couple did not open the door or contact the room service. The hotel staff then contacted the local police and it was decided to break open the door. On opening the door, the couple was found dead, the police said, adding that the cause of the death was believed to be “gas leakage” from a room heater.
— UNI |
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Couple among three killed in J&K
Srinagar, March 16 He said militants entered the house of Abdul Gani Malik at Shaja Cahrala under Thathri police station and fired upon inmates with automatic weapons. Malik and his wife, Shamima Begum, died on the spot, he said. A spokesman said the body of Liaqat Hussain was recovered from Kadder village in Kulgam.
— UNI |
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Jammu, March 16
