Srinagar, July 5
The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has demanded handing over of the Salal Power Project to Jammu and Kashmir to compensate for the huge losses the state had suffered for the past 46 years due to the Indus Water Treaty.

Addressing a party convention in Lolab area of Kupwara district today, the PDP President, Ms Mehbooba Mufti said while the state is generating only 400 MWs of power, National Hydro Electric Power Corporation (NHPC), on the other hand, is generating around 1100 MWs in the state through its two power projects at Salal and Uri which is being exported to other states.

Describing the Indus Water Treaty as discriminatory towards Jammu and Kashmir, Ms Mufti said while the Northern states of India and most of Pakistan is prospering because of the it, Jammu and Kashmir couldn’t even fulfill its minimum power requirement due to the limitations it has over water usage.

She said the Indus Water Treaty signed between India and Pakistan in September 1960 had deprived Jammu and Kashmir of the benefits of its rich water resources. This, she said, was due to the rights over the use of water from the three main rivers Indus, Chenab and Jhelum having been entrusted to Pakistan under the treaty. The treaty, she said, allowed India exclusive rights over the three Eastern rivers — Satluj, Beas and Ravi — for power generation and irrigation which benefit the states of Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh at the cost of Jammu and Kashmir.

Ms Mufti urged the Government of India to consider the demand on priority to facilitate economic development of Jammu and Kashmir, which otherwise was not possible given the present dismal power scenario.

Jammu, July 5
While India is busy taking a series of confidence-building measures (CBMs) aimed at friendly relations with Pakistan, the latter has reciprocated by stepping up terrorist violence claiming innocent lives in Jammu and Kashmir.

The sudden spurt in terrorism related incidents during the past few days particularly in the Kashmir valley indicate that Pakistan’s response was lukewarm towards India’s friendly approach.

Incidents of infiltration of trained terrorists from Pakistan have also increased in the past few days when the snow melted on high mountain passes.

Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf recently reiterated his demand for the de-militarisation of Kashmir and introducing ‘self-rule’ in the state. However, he has taken very little CBMs compared to India. The areas of J&K under the occupation of Pakistan were yet to be granted democratic rights.

Observers believe that Pakistan was perpetuating violence in the valley to focus attention of world community towards the disputed status of Kashmir. They point out that Musharraf should respond positively to the initiative taken by India for easing tension between the two countries.

Life in the valley once again has been thrown out of gear because of increased terrorist violence. Innocent people were caught in the cross fire between terrorists and the Army that was taking extra care to avoid damage to civilian population. However, the damage was unavoidable during the operations in which the terrorists fired on the security forces from residential premises where they manage to get shelter.

Pakistan has been slow in allowing people-to-people contact among the divided parts of J&K where two roads, the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad and the Poonch-Rawlakot, have been opened on Line of Control (LoC). Not a single minister of Pakistan participated in the inauguration of the passenger bus service on the Rawlakot-Poonch route, while UPA chairperson Mrs Sonia Gandhi and Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee, were on the LoC to signal starting of the bus service from Poonch. The Indian reporters based in Islamabad were reportedly not permitted to cover the event on Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) side.

The list of 70 businessmen forwarded by India for a visit to PoK has not been cleared by Pakistan for the past six months. Pakistan has not yet sent the list of the traders who intended to visit Kashmir from across the LoC.

Setting up of the five working groups to deliberate on various contentious issues concerning Jammu and Kashmir is being considered as a milestone. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had announced the setting up of these groups immediately after the recent roundtable conference in Srinagar.

Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad has finalised the names of the group heads after consulting different political parties and also taking into account the opinion of a cross section in the valley.

Jammu, July 5
Hizbul Mujahideen militants kidnapped a Special Police Officer (SPO) from Harni village at Mendhar in Poonch district and mutilated him before murdering him, official sources today said.

Two militants entered the house of a SPO, Tanzeem Ahmed, who had come to his house on leave and forcibly took him to the surrounding forest area, where they tortured him by chopping off his ears, removing his eyes and genitals before they slit his throat.

The body of Ahmed, who was posted at police station Gursai, was recovered from an isolated area at Upper Sarhuti early this morning by local people and the police. It was sent for post-mortem and later handed over to his family for burial.

The police has launched a search operation for the militants involved in the killing. The two militants are believed to belong to the local cadre of Hizbul Mujahideen.

BARAMULLA: Militants attacked three Border Security Force (BSF) pickets in north Kashmir causing injuries to three persons, including a jawan and a woman, official sources said.

They said militants fired a rifle grenade towards the 55 battalion BSF camp near Jamia Mosque at Sopore at 4.30 pm.

However, it missed the intended target and exploded at a distance causing injuries to an elderly woman Jigri and Ali Mohammad. The injured were hospitalised. — UNI