Srinagar, October 11
Farid Ahmed Gilani, along with his wife, had been forcibly sent across to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) in 1993 for arms training, but today after more than 13 years, he returned with his six small children to restart a peaceful life.

On the night of October 9, troops in the Uri sector of north Kashmir’s Baramulla district apprehended the couple and their six children — four daughters and two sons — when they had crossed the Line of Control (LoC) to enter India.

While his first child Zara is 11-year-old, second daughter Azra is 9, son Ali Raza 7, second son Hassan Raza 5, third daughter Nazia 3 and fourth daughter Tabassum is just eight months old.

Despite being challenged by the Army patrol in the area, the family continued to move into the Indian side. After some time, Gilani surrendered and narrated his tale of more than 16 years in PoK and Pakistan before the Army authorities.

The surrender of the Gilani family comes nearly a week after Maluk Tedua, a resident of Kalaroos in Kupwara, along with his wife Shameema, a PoK citizen, and son Bilal crossed the LoC from the Uri sector, on October 1, where they were apprehended by Army troops. The Army produced the Geelani family before the media at the XV Corps headquarters here today.

Interacting with journalists, Gilani, a resident of Rishigund, Kralapora in frontier district of Kupwara, was asked to go to PoK capital Muzaffarabad in 1993 by two Al Barq militants. Gilani said he agreed to go to PoK after he was allowed to take along his wife Tahira Begum.

His wife was pregnant at that time and after crossing over to Muzaffarabad from Athamuqam in Kupwara district, the couple stayed at Mallik Paiyan refugee camp for some time.

In Muzaffarabad, Gilani said he requested one Farooq to let him off, who after some persuasion, agreed. “I then went to Rawalpindi and after a three-month stay there, came back to Muzaffarabad. Since then I had been living there and worked as an autorickshaw driver. I never wanted to join militancy and desired a peaceful life with my family back in Jammu and Kashmir,” he added. — UNI

Srinagar, October 11
A person was injured in an exchange of fire between militants and security forces in Pulwama district of Jammu and Kashmir, a police spokesman said today.

On a specific information about the presence of militants in the house of Mohammad Ishaq Haji at Haf Shirmal in Pulwama, the police, assisted by the CRPF, laid a cordon around the house last night.

The search party came under fire and an encounter ensued.

The house owner, while fleeing along with the militants, got injured and was hospitalised while the militants managed to escape.

Residents of the village staged a demonstration against the police, alleging that the security personnel shot Haji without any provocation.

There was no firing and Haji was shot after he was brutally tortured by the raiding party, the protesters alleged.

They demanded an inquiry into the incident and punishment to the erring securitymen. — PTI

Srinagar, October 11
Chairman of the Jammu and Kashmir Democratic Freedom Party (DFP) Shabir Ahmad Shah was put under house arrest in Srinagar this afternoon.

Mr Shah told UNI over phone that he was scheduled to visit the house of Irshad Ahmad Lone who had died in a hospital at Delhi allegedly due to torture.

Mr Shah said a large number of police personnel had been deployed outside his Rawalpora residence this afternoon.

He said a senior police officer informed him that he had been put under house arrest. The police used teargas shells and resorted to baton change to disperse demonstrators protesting against the death of Irshad.

About 200 youths took to streets at Chanapora in the uptown this afternoon demanding inquiry into the death of Irshad.

As the demonstrators, raising slogans, reached near Natipora crossing in procession, the police tried to stop them.

They threw stones on the police and passing vehicles, forcing the police to fire teargas shells after lathi charges failed to have any affect.

Shops and business establishments in Chanapora and areas remained closed in protest against the killing of Irshad a local resident.

Traffic on the Sriangar Charar-e-Sharief also remained suspended for several hours. — UNI

Jammu, October 11
The state BJP president, Dr Nirmal Singh, yesterday demanded abrogation of Article 370 which, he said, had not only held J&K aloof from the national mainstream but also deprived the people of even those civil and political rights that were enjoyed in other states of the country.

In a statement here, Dr Singh criticised the statement of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chief, Ms Mehbooba Mufti, that restoration of the Article 370 to its original position would lead to establishment of self-rule in Jammu and Kashmir.

He alleged that the special position of the state had been misused by the Kashmir valley centric rulers. They exercised absolute legislative and executive powers and harm the general, political and democratic rights of the people, he added.

The BJP chief accused the PDP of discriminating against the Jammu region when its leader, Mufti Sayeed, was heading the coalition government. The genuine demands of the Jammu region were ignored.

He said only abrogation of the Article 370 could solve the problems of the people of the state.

Jammu, October 11
A Class IX student of a private school committed suicide by hanging himself here today after he was allegedly humiliated and beaten up by the Principal.

The student has been identified as Jatinder Singh (17). His brother, Amandeep Singh, was also thrashed by the Principal and he has been admitted to hospital for treatment.

The police raided the house of the Principal, Mr Kirtan Singh, but he had absconded.

The police said the Principal beat up the two brothers and did not allow them to appear in the examination as they had not paid the fee.

Angry over the incident, the parents and a large number of people belonging to the Digiana locality blocked the road outside the District Hospital at Gandhi Nagar, but later shifted to the national highway where they placed the body of the boy in the middle of the road, where traffic remained held up for more than two hours. Local leaders tried to pacify them but the body was later shifted to the medical college hospital for a post-mortem examination.

The boy’s father, Gurbachan Singh, who is a driver in the Archaeological Survey of India, alleged that the Principal of the school had been harassing his sons. He claimed that he had told the school authorities that he would pay the fee.

Amandeep Singh said that his brother went inside the house and hanged himself from the ceiling with his turban. He telephoned his father who reached there within a few minutes. The boy was taken to the hospital where he was declared dead.