J A M M U   &   K A S H M I R

2 ultras surrender after getting trained in Pak

Srinagar, June 28 Two Kashmiri youths from Kupwara district, after receiving arms training from across the LoC, have surrendered before the Army on their return from Pakistan via Kathmandu.
An Army officer displays the election card issued by the Pakistani authorities to one of the two Kashmiri militants, Manzoor Ahmad Lone and Nazir Ahmad Lone, who have surrendered before the Army after their arrival in Kashmir from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir via Nepal, during an interaction with mediapersons at the Badami Bagh Army Headquarters in Srinagar on Wednesday. — PTI photo

‘Bureaucrats misleading CM on upgrading of medical college’
Jammu, June 28
Expansion cum upgradation of the Jammu Medical college for providing facilities to patients on the pattern of AIIMS has again faced a hurdle after a team of experts from the Union Health Ministry objected to the site where the state government planned to raise separate complexes.

2 ultras surrender after getting trained in Pak
Tribune News Service

Srinagar, June 28
Two Kashmiri youths from Kupwara district, after receiving arms training from across the LoC, have surrendered before the Army on their return from Pakistan via Kathmandu. They were motivated to get arms training and good returns before ex-filtration in north Kashmir and returned after a gap of five years, as they were presented before media persons here today.

The Army seized Pakistani passports issued to them and air tickets on which they had travelled from Karachi to Kathmandu. The two youths are Manzoor Ahmad Lone, son of Habibullah Lone from Trehgam village and Nazir Ahmad Lone, son of Abdul Ahad Lone from Rismigund in Kupwara district of north Kashmir. While Nazir Ahmad Lone of the Al Barq outfit travelled from Karachi to Kathmandu on May 15, Manzoor Ahmad Lone of the Tehreek-e-Jehad outfit travelled on June 10 last.

Brig A K Rathee, in Kupwara told media persons here that after reaching Kathmandu the youths crossed over to India by taking the Gorakhpur-Delhi-Jammu-Srinagar route. They had with them passports issued by the Pakistan’s government. One such passport clearly showed Kupwara as the birthplace of the individual. Brig A K Rathee added it showed that militants were also being facilitated in acquiring Pakistani passports.

The youths would be handed over to the civil administration, Brig Rathee said. He held the facts revealed that due to increased vigilance of LoC and intensive operations in hinterland by the security forces, the infiltration became difficult and the militants were infiltrating into Jammu and Kashmir via Nepal. “Thereafter, possibly, they are provided with weapons in the valley by various tanzeems (outfits) operating in the valley”, Brig Rathee stated. He added that Nepal was also being used as a route of infiltration into Jammu and Kashmir and added it would be recommended to be taken up with Nepal.

Revealing his experiences, Nazir Ahmad Lone, who had joined the Tehreek-e-Jehad, said that he had crossed over in 2000 after being motivated to get arms training and considerable monetary benefits. It was merely because of the poverty that he joined the ranks, he admitted. The realisation came only when “we found that it was not ‘azaadi ki jung’ but ‘jung for daulat’, he added. They had been motivated to cross over by Choudhary Jalaluddin of the area, whose nephew had then returned from across the LoC, Nazir commented. Nazir Ahmad and Manzoor Ahmad could not elaborate further reasons behind being motivated by Choudhary Jalaluddin. Nazir Ahmad added that after receiving arms training for three months at an undisclosed camp, they had decided to return and surrender. Being in the know of the government’s policy on rehabilitation, Nazir Ahmad pointed out that they conveyed to their parents, which helped them to surrender before the Army.

The other youth, Manzoor Ahmad Lone, who crossed over to PoK in 2001, said that he was trained in AK rifles, pistol and grenade but had to spend over five years there. “I was in touch with my family”, who had informed him about the surrender policy as he had conveyed to them about his plans to surrender on return. The militant leaders had asked them that they would be contacted when they reached Kashmir, for further action to operate in the valley.

‘Bureaucrats misleading CM on upgrading of medical college’
Our Correspondent

Jammu, June 28
Expansion cum upgradation of the Jammu Medical college for providing facilities to patients on the pattern of AIIMS has again faced a hurdle after a team of experts from the Union Health Ministry objected to the site where the state government planned to raise separate complexes.

The committee suggested to the state to submit another proposal.

After the first project was submitted by the state government it was scuttled by the expert committee on technical grounds.

The state authorities are to submit another project under which complex for providing superspeciality medical facilities for patients admitted to the departments of cardiology, cardio thoracic would be started.

Under the plan the Department of Anaesthesia also will be set up in the new complex which is to be built, if cleared by the Union Health Ministry, within the premises of the Chest diseases hospital adjacent to the medical college.

The project was estimated to cost Rs 120 crore. The state government has already released its share of Rs 22 crore for the project.

However, delay in the start of the project is said to have increased its cost by 20 per cent. A few Congress MLAs, belonging to Jammu, today expressed dismay over the way the upgradation of Jammu Medical college was kept under wraps all these years when the expansion of Srinagar Medical College, the plan for which was submitted three years after the submission of the Jammu plan, had been cleared by the expert committee.