Srinagar, July 2
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad has said that infiltration bids by armed militants have increased during the past three months and hoped that Pakistan President Gen Musharraf would not allow it to continue as committed by him.

Inspecting truck terminal, custom and immigration sites at Salamabad, near Uri, on the road to Muzaffarabad yesterday, ahead of the opening of trade link across the LoC, the Chief Minister stressed the need for creating peaceful atmosphere for making trade relationship work.

He said the state government had taken up the work of creating necessary infrastructure at Salamabad to facilitate trade. However, it was unfortunate that some elements were busy vitiating the atmosphere by resorting to violence.

He was accompanied by Minister for Animal Husbandry Taj Mohi-ud-Din, Divisional Commissioner Kashmir Basharat Ahmad Dar and other senior officers.

“Opening of trade route between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad shall prove a landmark for Jammu and Kashmir,” Mr Azad said.

He added that Kashmir had suffered a lot during the past 58 years and now both countries were thinking of strengthening their economy through trade and commerce.

Therefore, the time had come for elements of terror to close their shops and allow people living on both sides on the LoC to prosper.

Mr Azad told mediapersons that at one of the meetings between India and Pakistan it was decided that representatives of the Chamber of Commerce from Jammu and Kashmir and PoK would interact with each other to work out the modalities for starting trade between the two sides.

He said six months ago a list of over 70 tradesmen of the state was forwarded to Pakistan authorities for clearance and the response was awaited.

He said they expected that a group of tradesmen and businessmen would first arrive from PoK. However, neither did any group arrive from here, nor their names received.

He held that Kashmir fruits, handicraft, shawls, saffron, and other goods had world market and tradesmen were keen on exporting these through the route.

He said the trade would not only strengthen the economy of the two countries but also change overall economical scenario of the state.

Srinagar, July 2
Four Pakistani infiltrators were among the five militants killed in Jammu and Kashmir since last evening, an official spokesman said today.

Two days after eight infiltrators were killed near the Line of Control (LoC) in Kupwara district, troops foiled yet another incursion bid today when they killed four foreign Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) militants in the Gulmarg sector of Baramulla district of north Kashmir, an Army spokesman said.

He said the alert troops noticed a heavily-armed group of infiltrators sneaking into the Indian side from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) in Baramulla district at 4 am.

On being challenged, the intruders opened fire on the troops which was effectively retaliated, the spokesman added.

In the ensuing gunfight, he said four infiltrators, all foreigners and belonging to the Pakistan-based JeM militant outfit, were killed.

The spokesman said four AK-56 rifles, 20 magazines, 300 rounds, two wireless sets and 16 hand grenades were seized from the possession of the slain ultras.

This was the third infiltration attempt foiled by troops in the past one week.

Earlier on June 30, eight infiltrators were killed near the LoC in the Keran sector in Kashmir’s Kupwara district.

Eight AK-47 rifles, 29 magazines, 478 rounds, 28 hand grenades and five radio sets besides large quantity of food items were seized from the possession of the slain intruders.

On the intervening night of June 25-26, troops had foiled a major incursion bid when they gunned down four militants in the Machil sector of Kupwara district.

More than 30 infiltrators have been killed in northern Kashmir immediately after they crossed the LoC from PoK in the recent past.

Officials said more than 2000 militants, majority of them Kashmiris, were waiting across the LoC to infiltrate into India.

Militants have also made several attempts to smuggle in arms and ammunition from across the border.

However, due to tight security measures, the militants have dumped arms and ammunition near the border in specially-built hide-outs.

Security forces have busted a number of such hide-outs and seized war-like stores, comprising assault rifles, hundreds of grenades, rockets and explosive material, including RDX.

The official spokesman said the security forces shot dead a militant, Mudassir Mehboob, during an encounter at Sedeve village in Shopian area of south Kashmir’s Pulwama district last night.

An AK rifle, two magazines, two hand grenades and 56 rounds were seized from the encounter site, he added.

The spokesman said militants exploded the joint residential house of Syed Habib, Mohammad Shafi and Parvaiz Ahmad Shah at Kanipora village in the frontier district of Kupwara last night. The house was completely damaged due to the blast, he added.

In another incident, militants set ablaze the house of Abdul Rashid Sheikh at Thathraka village in Doda district today.

Militants kidnapped three villagers from Soni Panara village in Basantgarh tehsil of Udhampur district in Jammu region early today, but set them free unharmed after sometime, the spokesman said.

The militants snatched six 303 rifles with as many magazines and 227 rounds from six Village Defence Committee members of the same village.

The police was investigating the matter and a massive hunt has been launched to nab the militants, he added.

Meanwhile, the Jammu and Kashmir police arrested five “fake” militants, who had been extorting money from the villagers in different areas of Thanna Mandi area in Rajouri district.

These ultras, arrested during raids in the area last evening, have been identified as Zafar Khan, Sajjad Ahmed, Mohammad Hanief, Nissar Aslam and Mohammad Shafiq.

The sources said a case has been registered against them.

They had extorted money from a number of villagers impersonating as militants, they added. — UNI

Jammu, July 2
With the “work culture” of Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad having received a drubbing in the vital Department of Roads and Buildings (R&B) where several projects have failed due to rampant corruption and indiscipline among engineers, the Jammu and Kashmir Government has prepared a policy paper to remove the rot.

The 19-page policy paper prepared by the R&B Minister, Mr Gulchain Singh Charak, admits that “the rot set a few years ago has crippled the department. Technical, financial and administrative lawlessness is widespread, efficiency has gone down and the quality of works has become a casualty”.

The minister has pointed out in the official document that “the chief engineers are clueless about the situation or are shy to admit the ground realities. They have not come out with concrete suggestions for improving the work culture in the department.

It may be too much to assume that the present set-up, without appropriate remedial measures, can stand up to the gigantic task that the government has envisaged for the development of the state’’.

Mr Charak today said not only would the engineers be made accountable for the works, but the MLAs and MLCs of the respective areas would also function as watchdogs to keep an eye on the quality of works.

In a critical study of the department carried out by Mr Charak out during the past about seven months, he has pointed out that there were many instances of works having been taken in hand without administrative or technical approval. In many cases the execution of work was taken up without a proper survey, drawings, designs and estimate.

‘‘A number of projects have failed or faulted due to the engineers not adhering to the basic technical requirements’’.

He pointed out that there was no effective mechanism to check pooling of rates by contractors. Neither had the department evolved ways and means to prevent unscrupulous contractors from bidding. ‘‘Such contractors have neither been penalised nor blacklisted which was a serious reflection on the working system’’, he said.

The minister also pointed out that glaring financial irregularities had become so common in projects that even the effectiveness of internal auditing had come under doubt. This had resulted into losses running into crores of rupees.

“It is rare to see chief engineers and superintending engineers exercising control over their subordinates. The scenario reflects that the seniors shirk their responsibilities leaving the junior officers to play the role for which they neither have experience nor competence”.

The remedies proposed by the minister to put the R&B department back on rails, include making technical, financial and administrative discipline obligatory, devising training programmes need for educating engineers with the latest technologies and applying modern management techniques in the execution of projects.

Mr Charak claimed that most of the rot had crept into the department during the central rule when the Governor was not answerable to anyone. Terrorism was also to be blamed for inefficiency in the department.

He said the system of double shift in the execution of development projects introduced by Mr Azad had started showing results as round-the-clock work was going on, particularly in the projects in remote areas.