Jammu, February 19
The People’s Democratic Party (PDP), the main ally of the Congress-led coalition government in Jammu and Kashmir, has hailed the ongoing Indo-Pakistan peace process at the US-Islamic World Forum being held in Doha.

“Realising the futility of confrontational stances, India and Pakistan, who traditionally have been hostile to each other, are determined now to resolve their problems through dialogue, reconciliation and understanding to deal jointly with the most compelling issues of militancy, poverty, ignorance, illiteracy, repression and economic deprivation in the region,” PDP president Ms Mehbooba Mufti said in her address at the 4th US-Islamic World Forum today.

After the PDP raised the issue of demilitarisation and protection of human rights in Jammu and Kashmir in the recently held state Assembly Budget Session, the party president gave credit to the “contemporary visionary leadership in India and Pakistan” for initiating and pushing ahead the dialogue and peace process to resolve the issues between them.

According to the party’s statement issued here, Ms Mufti, Lok Sabha member from Anantnag, expressed hoped the other strife-ridden areas of the world would take a cue from India and Pakistan once the two neighbours would accomplish the task of peacefully resolving their problems including the Kashmir issue which previously has been viewed as dangerous flash point in the region.

She, however, added — “I am afraid that there are a very few chances of success for a peace and reconciliation process if an effort is made by the outside elements to nudge it without carrying along the affected people”.

Ms Mufti said exactly the same was happening in Iraq, Afghanistan and in the West Asia today, where the USA and its allies were “trying to bulldoze the public opinion and the sentiment, to enforce their writ for strategic political and economic gains”.

The Lok Sabha MP from Anantnag said, while pointing to the South Asian region, that India, a home to the second largest Muslim population in the world, has fortunately remained unaffected by the surge of fundamentalism witnessed in the Arab and Islamic world.

Referring to the conflict between Islam and the West, Ms Mufti said these were, of course, tense times. But, she said it is better to think in terms of powerful and powerless communities, the secular politics of reason and ignorance and universal principle of justice and injustice, than to wander in search of vast abstractions that may give momentary satisfaction but little self-knowledge or informed analysis.

“Efforts are being made by various western powers to dominate cultures and resources in the developing countries and it has fuelled most of the conflicts globally,” she said.

The Muslim community, Ms Mufti said, must try to find a space in “the secular world order that exists”. “We must see the clear message in the recent American elections that virtually withdrew the mandate from George Bush to pursue his war in Iraq,” she said.

Ms Mufti also emphasized that, in order to provide a platform for a purposeful debate between the west and the followers of Islam, there has to a level of playing field.

Jammu, February 19
The Panun Kashmir Movement (PKM) yesterday said the Prime Minister’s initiative of “Working Groups” at different levels to resolve the Kashmir issue had not yielded positive result in regard of the Kashmiri Hindus who had migrated out of the valley during past 17 years.

“We do not want to return to our homes as atmosphere prevailing there (in the valley) is still hostile to us,” PKM general secretary Upinder Kaul said at a press conference here.

Even after one year of the formation of these working groups, he said, the displaced community had not received any attention by the government concerned.

Reiterating the demand for a separate Working Group to address the Hindu migrants, woes Mr Kaul said efforts of the government “to eulogise the separatist forces in the state of Jammu and Kashmir also is an issue of serious concern”.

He said annual report of the J-K State Human Rights Commission recently released had also not dealt with the subject of displacement, human rights abuses and appalling situation of the camps of the displaced community.

Mr Kaul stated the current issue of demilitarisation in Kashmir valley was raked up by many political parties like the People’s Democratic Party “under the pressure of Pakistan”.

“We (PKM) have been watching the recent development on Kashmir with keen interest, and these developments at regional, national and international levels have a bearing on the fate and future of the displaced Kashmiri Pandit community,’’ he said. 

Custodial killings ‘tarnish’ police image
Tribune News Service

Jammu, February 19
Incidents of custodial killing of innocent persons in the Jammu region have put the police in the dock.

Two incidents of killing of innocent youths in one week, in Rajauri and here, have tarnished the image of the police that already was blurred due to a string of such happenings in the Kashmir valley.

These incidents have also caused embarrassment for the Congress-PDP coalition government that had promised ‘zero-tolerance’ towards incidents of human rights violations.

However, chief minister Ghulam Nabi Azad was prompt in ordering action against the guilty cops who have been arrested and suspected.

Not many incidents of human rights violations were so far reported in the Jammu region, concern was being expressed over the killing of two youths.

Teenaged boy Tarsem Lal had died due to torture by the police on Saturday, says a preliminary report. Doctors, who conducted a postmortem examination of the body, have reportedly confirmed his death due to torture.

Tarsem Lal, against whom there was no case, was reportedly picked up from his home at 9.30 am and his body was placed quietly in a sub-district hospital of the area a hour later.

Cops of the Satwari police station, near the airport, initially tried to sell the theory that he had died due to some fits. However, the senior officers retracted when the incident was followed by large scale violence in the Makwal area.

Similarly, the police tried to hush up the custodial killing of a year old boy, Showkat Ahmed, in Rajauri two days earlier on Wednesday last, but finally five cops were when violence broke out in the area.

Protests by relatives of the disappeared persons of Kashmir that are slated to be organized tomorrow in at Delhi are bound to cause further embarrassment for the government. The state government has already ordered a judicial enquiry into incidents of fake encounters and disappearances.

Incidentally, these protests in the national capital have been timed during the visit of Pakistani foreign affairs minister Khurshid M Kasuri. He has also invited separatist leaders, including hardliner Syed Ali Shah Geelani, for a meeting at Delhi.

Srinagar, February 19
Two persons lost their lives accidentally and another attempted suicide in YJR Kashmir valley since yesterday.

At least 16 persons were injured in different road accidents across the valley, the police said. Of them 15 were injured when two buses had a head-on collision near Dawlatabad, Qazigund, on the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway. A motorcyclist was injured when his motor cycle skidded off the road at Aishmuqam in Anantnag district.

An employee of the Electrical Department, Farooq Ahmed, fell down from an electric pole at Khush Roi Kalan village, in the Sirigufwara area of Anantnag district. He succumbed to his injuries while being shifted to hospital.

One carpenter, Raghber Singh, a son of Raten Singh from Charwan, Amritsar in Punjab, presently at Uri, died under suspicious circumstances after returning from a gurdwara near the Sang bridge in Uri.

One person attempted suicide by consuming some poisonous substance in Anantnag and has been referred to Srinagar for treatment.