Srinagar, October 22
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad has appealed to militants to shun violence and adopt democratic methods to work for the development and prosperity of the state.

Addressing Police Commemoration Day at Zewan near here yesterday, the Chief Minister said violence was not akin to temperament of people of Kashmir that witnessed horrible atmosphere in the past 17 years. He said innocent civilians, police and other para-military personnel were killed in the state. Mr Azad said militants were trying to exploit sentiments of people but saner people rejected their ideology.

“The valley of Kashmir which had since times immemorial established its credentials secularism and proved its rich character effectively in 1947 when the whole subcontinent had become a slaughtering place of human lives. Great visionary Mahatma Gandhi detected a ray of hope in this valley”, he said.

The Chief Minister paying tributes to 684 martyrs, who lost their lives in the past year, said the day is coinciding with important festivals like Divali, Jumat-ul-Wida and Id. It makes us realise shocked state of mind of their kith and kin, who might be missing them on these occasions, he added. However, the Chief Minister assured the family members of these martyrs that the people of Jammu and Kashmir and the country were with them to share feelings on these occasions.

Former Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah, Director-General of Police Gopal Sharma, Additional Director-General of Police (Armed) P.S. Gill and other senior police officers, and retired police officers were present on the occasion.

Paying tributes to police martyrs, Director-General of Police Gopal Sharma said this day was celebrated in memory of the police personnel and officers who gave their lives for fighting militancy.

He said 72 officers and personnel had laid down their lives in fight against militancy last year in the state. He added that 11 CRPF and 12 BSF personnel also laid down their lives in fight against militancy in the state last year.

Anantnag, October 22
Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed said today separatist groups will “miss the bus” if they did not realise the importance of developments taking place within and outside the state and chose to “watch as fence-sitters”.

Addressing a public meeting here, he said it was high time for the separatist groups, including the Hurriyat Conference, to recognise importance of the developments taking place, within and outside the state, in the context of the Kashmir issue.

Mr Sayeed, who is also the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) patron, said sensing the public mood they (separatists) must play a participatory role instead of shying away from the dialogue process.

“If they do not realise the importance of these developments and prefer to watch as fence-sitters, I am afraid they will miss the bus,” he added.

The PDP leader said in his meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last evening, he also stressed the need for a fresh initiative to resume the stalled dialogue with the separatist groups to take on board all shades of political opinion in the state for working out lasting and peaceful solution of the Kashmir issue.

Hailing the Prime Minister’s seriousness and sincerity towards a peaceful solution of Jammu and Kashmir’s problems, Mr Sayeed said time had come to consolidate these initiatives by mustering the political will and mobilising public opinion, both within and outside the state.

“Any wrong move or decision by any political group or the party at this crucial juncture would only add fuel to the fire,” he cautioned and reiterated that the PDP would continue to play a pioneering role in facilitating the peaceful resolution of the Kashmir issue through its self-rule formula and at no stage shirk away from any sacrifice for it.

Mr Sayeed is leaving here for the United States on October 28 to attend the 61st United Nations General Assembly in New York. He discussion with the Prime Minister on political scenario of the state and the importance of continuing and consolidating the peace and reconciliation process and returned here from New Delhi this morning.

He said Jammu and Kashmir had pivotal role to play in shaping the subcontinent’s political and economic scenario as it would be a hub of rapid and momentous activity facilitating the region’s economic integration with the world.

The region no longer could afford the conflict that had kept its people away from realising the benefits of peace and global economic integration, the former Chief Minister added.

He said people of Jammu and Kashmir had undergone too much suffering and a great opportunity now was round the corner to rid them of the scourge of violence and give them the much-needed peace and prosperity. — UNI

Jammu, October 22
The PDP, which shares power with the Congress in Jammu and Kashmir, plans to prepare a working paper on self-rule so that suggestions from various political and public circles could be received, leaving scope for amendment to the concept of “apney log, apna raj.”

While giving an indication to this effect, the chairman of the draft committee, constituted by the PDP, Mr Muzaffar Hussain Baig, a former Deputy Chief Minister, has said that after the working paper was finally approved the idea would be brought out in a document.

The general secretary of the PDP, Mr Nizamuddin Bhat, said today: “The draft committee has already received papers on self-rule from several members of the committee, including Mr Ghulam Hassan Mir, and we are in the process of giving a shape to these ideas.”

He said: “Our aim is to adopt the self-rule idea through consensus which could later be debated in the roundtable conferences under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh.”

Mr Bhat said that the Prime Minister had already announced that the government would discuss the self-rule idea. Answering a question, he said the broad contours of the self-rule plan had been formulated and “we have to discuss the implication of each move so that once the idea was implemented it would result in the settlement of the Kashmir issue.”

Mr Mir said: “We have based the self-rule concept on the instrument of accession of the state with India and hence there need not be any misgivings in some political circles.” He said that the emphasis of the self-rule idea was on promotion of regional federalism which, once achieved, could silence those seeking trifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir.

The other main feature of the plan was to seek scrapping of a few central laws extended to the state, which were against the interest of people. And at the same time “we are not for the abolition of the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, the lection Commission, the Auditor and Comptroller General of India in Jammu and Kashmir.”

The plan also envisages that the Governor of the state be elected instead of being nominated by the centre. Mr Muzaffar Hussain Baig said in Jammu recently that the party favoured change in the nomenclature of the Governor to Sadr-e-Riyasat.

However, Mr Bhat said: “A change or no change in the nomenclature of the Governor, we are for a constitutional head of the state who is elected either by the state legislature or by a some fresh electoral college.”

Srinagar, October 22
Leader of Opposition National Conference and former minister Abdul Rahim Rather today joined several thousand people in Badgam district of Jammu and Kashmir to protest the alleged custodial killing of a youth, official sources said.

The demonstration was staged by the residents of Mohandpora and adjoining villages in Pakherpora area of Charar-e-Sharief to demand punishment to the erring personnel involved in the killing of the youth, Maqbool Ahmad Dar, by the Army after his arrest, the sources said.

Maqbool Ahmad Dar was detained by the Army from his Mohandpora residence on Friday evening and died under mysterious circumstances yesterday.

The Army said Dar developed some medical problem during detention and died at Nagam Army camp where he was rushed for treatment but the people of his village accused the Army of killing him during interrogation.

The police and the Army had already ordered separate inquiries into the incident.

Mr Rather, who represents Charar-e-Sharief constituency in the Legislative Assembly, joined the protestors and urged the government to initiate a magisterial probe into the incident to unveil the truth.

“Human rights violations are rampant in the state and the coalition government has miserably failed to put an end to this,” Rather said addressing the protestors.

“We want justice,” shouted the protestors, who later dispersed peacefully after the National Conference leader assured them that he would take up the issue with the Chief Minister.

He also visited the graveyard and prayed for the deceased youth.

Meanwhile, District Development Commissioner, Badgam, Ravi Thasoo said he would conduct a probe into the youth’s killing which sparked off tension in Central Kashmir district.

“I was pained on knowing the death of Maqbool Ahmad Dar in the custody of the Army and have decided to have a magisterial probe to know the cause of his passing away,” Thasoo said.

He assured the people that appropriate action would be taken if someone was found responsible for his death.

The Army has already ordered a court of inquiry into the incident. — PTI