The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

	Hurriyat constituent groups to meet today Tribune News Service Srinagar, April 30 Having accepted the fresh invitation for talks with Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, the moderate faction of Hurriyat Conference is holding a meeting of its constituent groups here tomorrow to discuss the agenda and composition of its delegation. The Mirwaiz-led APHC is scheduled to have second round of talks with the Prime Minister in New Delhi on Wednesday, though it is yet to consider its participation in the second roundtable conference to be held here on May 25. The APHC chairman, Mirwaiz Omar Farooq told The Tribune here that a meeting of the leaders of the constituent groups would be held here on Monday to decide on the agenda of meeting with the Prime Minister. The meeting scheduled to be held at the party’s headquarters at Rajbagh would also decide on the constitution of the delegation. The meeting with the Prime Minister has come after a long wait following their first meeting in September last year. It bears significance in view of the second roundtable conference here for which all the separatist groups have been invited. The first such meeting held in New Delhi on February 25 was not attended by any of these groups. When asked about Hurriyat’s participation in the second roundtable to be held here on May 25, the Mirwaiz said that the issue could be considered later. He, however, added that the “APHC has made it abundantly clear that it would not be a part of the crowd”. He indicated that the outcome of the May 3 meeting would help the APHC to consider further developments. Former chairman of the moderate faction of APHC, Abdul Ghani Bhat said that the May 3 meeting with Dr Manmohan Singh is part of a dialogue process. “It has nothing to do with the next roundtable” to be held here, Mr Bhat pointed out. He said that the APHC believed in dialogue process and it was only because of that it had meetings with the governments of India and Pakistan during the past couple of years. It had first held talks with the NDA government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee, where his deputy, L.K. Advani played the key role. With other CBMs between India and Pakistan, and the opening of the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus service, a five-member APHC delegation led by the Mirwaiz visited Pakistan in July last year. During their visit the APHC leaders, including the chairman, Mirwaiz Omar Farooq, Mr Bhat, Moulvi Abbas Ansari, Mr Bilal Lone and Fazal-ul-Haq Qureshi and the JKLF chairman, Mohammad Yaseen Malik held meetings with the Pakistan President, General Pervez Musharraf, Prime Minister and other leaders in Pakistan and PoK.
	Rs 171 crore for school buildings in state Tribune News Service Srinagar, April 30 The central government has released Rs 171 crore for building 5000 schools in Jammu and Kashmir in next two years. Chief minister Ghulam Nabi Azad stated this at a public meeting at the concluding function of “Education for All week” at Kangan near here yesterday. Mr Azad said the Centre had decided that by 2020 nobody in the country should be illiterate and several schemes had been launched to achieve this goal. He said the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and Total Literacy Campaign form part of this strategy to spread education every where in the country. He asked the youth to receive education for getting government jobs and spreading enlightenment in society. Referring to the second roundtable conference scheduled here, Mr Azad appealed to such parties who had not attended the first round-table to participate in this conference keeping in view the present scenario. He said this would go a long way for better progress and prosperity of all three regions of the state. Regarding corruption, the Chief Minister said that his government had launched a drive to eradicate this menace from society and sought cooperation of people for its success. He said while filling nomination papers from Bhaderwah he had told a public gathering that “people who are against corruption should vote for me and those who want it vote against me”. He said going by the poll results I am happy that people have over supported my drive against corruption. Mr Azad said the present UPA government headed by Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh was keen to develop the basic infrastructure in Jammu and Kashmir. He said the Prime Minister accorded status of national highway to the Srinagar Leh road last week. Saying that he himself was heading the committee that forwarded its recommendation in this regard, he said this would usher development in this far-flung area. Mr Azad said 450 development works were being taken up from May 15 on double shift basis so that these are completed within scheduled period. Earlier the Chief minister also inaugurated the 132/33 KV Grid Station at Kangan that is expected to help provide improved power supply to the area. The work on the 20 MVA capacity grid station started in 2001 and Rs 5.90 crore have been spent on it till end of March last. The grid station becoming functional it would help overcome the shortage of power supply during any breakdown. Minister for Power, Nawang Rigzin Jora, local MLA Mian Altaf Ahmad, and other senior officers were also present on the occasion.
	Centre creating confusion on Siachen: Rajnath Jammu, April 30 BJP President Rajnath Singh today accused the Centre of “creating confusion” over the withdrawal of troops from Siachen. Talking to media persons just after addressing a public rally here, Mr Rajnath Singh said the Centre should not decide to withdraw troops from Siachen unilaterally and the Army must be taken into confidence before taking any step in the direction. The decision on Siachen should not be taken in a hurry as it was a matter directly related to the national security. Reiterating his party’s stand, the BJP President said at a rally that the special status given to Jammu and Kashmir through Article 370 “must go” as it had proved meaningless in all aspects, particularly in terms of development of the state. He said for abrogation of Article 370, the demand should come from the people of the state as they had got just nothing out of it but more hardships. There were no basic amenities like water, electricity and roads and the infrastructure development in the state was also absent. Accusing the Congress of messing up the Kashmir issue, he said the issue was the creation of Jawaharlal Nehru. “Had he not taken the issue to the United Nations, the problem would not have arisen,” he said. He accused former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi of not utilising the opportunity of making 90,000 Pakistani soldiers as prisoners of war as tool to force Pakistan to withdraw its troops from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. To a question of participation of the Hurriyat Conference and other separatist groups in the round table conference, Mr Rajnath Singh said the Centre should not talk to the Hurriyat unless it dropped its agenda of advocating tripartite talks on Kashmir in which Pakistan should be a party. The BJP President also urged the Centre not to hold talks with Pakistan until it stopped cross-border terrorism. Mr Rajnath Singh asked the political parties and separatist groups, advocating ‘self-rule’ in Jammu and Kashmir, to define what they mean by ‘self-rule’. He condemned the killing of Indian telecom engineer K. Suryanarayan by Taliban militants in Afghanistan. He expressed deep sorrow over the incident and charged the Centre with inaction. “Had the government taken action in time this unfortunate incident could have been avoided,” he said. — UNI
	Kashmir issue to be discussed with PM on May 3: APHC Our Correspondent Jammu, April 30 Leaders of the All-Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC) plan to discuss various solutions that could settle the Kashmir issue during their meeting with the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, in Delhi on May 3. “We expect that during the meeting the two sides discuss ways and means for resolving the Kashmir issue,” said a senior APHC leader, Prof Abdul Gani Bhat, yesterday. In reply to a question, he said during his one-month stay in Pakistan he had already dropped hints of possible solutions to the problems and “on my return I did the same in Delhi”. He said the right quarters in Islamabad and Delhi are aware of “what we have in our mind and we now want the Prime Minister to be aware of it”. Prof Bhat said, “If the Prime Minister was in a good mood and prepared to listen to us our discussion could cover the demand for self rule or self governance and demilitarisation.” In reply to another question he said, “The APHC leadership has other solution also which we would discuss during our meeting with Dr Manmohan Singh.” He said, “We are prepared to discuss anything that pertains to the Kashmir issue. Our meeting with the Prime Minister could be significant provided Delhi was prepared to listen to us.” He said though the question of “our participation in the second roundtable conference, scheduled to begin in Srinagar on May 25, depends on the decision of the executive committee, we could be motivated to join the meeting if our discussions with the Prime Minister were allowed to be Kashmir centric.”
	6 Punjabi youths arrested on abduction charge Jammu, April 30 The police today arrested six Punjabi youths in connection with the abduction of a 15-year-old married girl in Kathua district of Jammu and Kashmir, official sources said. On getting a information that a Punjabi youth along with his five friends, who had abducted and forcibly married minor girl from Jammu district, had threatened the girl’s parents to withdraw the abduction case and abducted the girl again. The police alerted the checkpoint on the Jammu-Pathankot National Highway last night, they said. The police intercepted them near the Nagri checkpost in Kathua district and arrested them. The arrested have been identified as Sukhvinder Singh, Joginder Singh, Shingara Singh, Narayan Singh, Lukhvinder Singh and Lukhbir Singh. The girl has been handed over to parents. They were arrested when they were escaping to Gurdaspur in Punjab along with Jyoti on motorcycles, they said, adding Sukhvinder along the friends, had abducted Jyoti in September last year. — PTI
	BSF tanker kills youth, sparks violent protest Baramula, April 30 Tension prevailed in the Sopore area of north Kashmir’s Baramula district today as violent protests erupted after a water tanker of the Border Security Force (BSF) allegedly ran over a 15-year-old youth, official sources said. At least five policemen were wounded after protesters attacked a police station, they added. The sources said the youth, Nadeem Ahmed Kaloo, a resident of Shalteng in Sopore, was allegedly hit by a speeding BSF water tanker this afternoon. The boy died instantly, prompting the locals to come out of their houses and stage a protest. The protesters, mostly women, turned violent after the police opened fire in the air to disperse them. The police action further agitated the protesters who later took possession of the tanker and set it on fire. Demanding that the errant driver be arrested and punished, the demonstrators also set afire two BSF posts and partially destroyed another located in the area. The personnel of the BSF’s 55 battalion had to flee their posts to escape the ire of the protesters. The demonstrators then attacked the police station and wounded five police personnel. — UNI
	Army convoy attacked, JCO wounded Srinagar, April 30 A Junior Commissioned Officer (JCO) was wounded when militants attacked an Army patrol on the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway today, a police spokesman said. He said militants hurled a hand grenade followed by firing at the Army patrol on the highway near Wanpoh village in the Kulgam area of south Kashmir’s Anantnag district this morning. In the gunfight, a JCO was wounded while the militants managed to escape from the spot, the spokesman said. In another incident, an Army convoy, on its way from here to Jammu, was ambushed by militants at Khanabal in Anantnag district today. Defence spokesman Lt Col V.K. Batra said gunfight erupted between militants and the Army’s area domination patrol at Khanabal. The attack was not on the Army convoy as it had crossed the area before the gunfight erupted, he said, adding that there were no casualties. The militants managed to escape taking advantage of the situation. Meanwhile, the security forces seized two RPG rockets, three boosters and 103 rounds of Pika gun from the Dali Marhote forest area in Surankote of Poonch district last night. — UNI
	Exhibition of books held Tribune News Service Srinagar, April 30 A three-day book exhibition “Zoom in Kashmir” organised by the Department of Libraries and Research as part of the week-long World Book Day concluded here today. The exhibition provided a window into the history of Kashmir as more than 500 books on Kashmir were displayed in the exhibition, some of the books displayed were more than 200-year-old. The exhibition was held to enable younger generation to rediscover Kashmir’s past and present. The Department has been holding inter-college debates and inter-school symposia and taking out rallies in connection with the World Book Day.
	Mine blasts in Pak cause panic Tribune News Service Jammu, April 30 Panic gripped the border areas of Jammu in the Chicken Neck sector of Akhnoor as several landmines exploded across the international border in Pakistan on Friday. The landmines continued to explode for about an hour in the Pakistani territory just near the Indian villages. It is learnt that the landmines exploded due to wild fire in the dried grassland. These landmines were buried by the Pakistani army in the area close to the Indian territory. However, the fire did not spread in the Indian territory. No loss of life or property has been reported.
	Azad takes oath Tribune News Service Jammu, April 30 The Chief Minister, Mr Ghulam Nabi Azad, took oath as a Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) here yesterday. The Speaker, Mr Tara Chand, administered the oath in a simple ceremony at the legislature complex in the morning. Mr Azad has become a member of the Assembly for the first time after winning the byelection from Bhaderwah.