Srinagar, February 28
The police produced challan against seven personnel of the special operations group (SOG), accused of killing Abdul Rahman Padroo in a fake encounter in the Ganderbal area, in the court of the chief judicial magistrate here today.

All accused, including a former SSP Ganderbal, H.R. Parihar, and deputy SP (operations), Bahadur Ram, who were produced before the court have been remanded in judicial custody till March 8. These accused have been booked under different sections of the RPC pertaining to conspiring to kill, destroying evidence, kidnapping and murder. Others accused were ASI Farooq Ahmad Guddoo, Farooq Ahmad Padroo, Bansi Lal, Zaheer Abbas and Manzoor Ahmad, all constables.

The chief judicial magistrate had referred the case to the principal sessions court. The charges were produced by SSP (South), Srinagar, Uttam Singh, investigating the case of fake killings under the supervision of deputy inspector general, central Kashmir range, Farooq Ahmad.

After the case of fake killings was unearthed in January the Jammu and Kashmir Government ordered an inquiry under the supervision of Farooq Ahmad. Subsequently, five bodies were exhumed from different places in Ganderbal, Sumbal, Ajas and Kangan between February 1 and 3 to carry out the post-mortem examinations and DNA tests. The government is investigating into the killings of five persons in the fake encounters by the SOG men in the Ganderbal area since early last year. They included Abdul Rahman Padroo from Kokernag, Anantnag, who had been missing since December 8, 2006, from Srinagar, Nazir Ahmad Deka from Daksum, Anantnag, Ghulam Nabi Wani, Kokernag, Anantnag, Moulvi Shoukat Ahmad Kataria from Banihal, Doda and Ali Mohammad Padroo, from Anantnag district.

The police investigating into the killings had on February 22 received forensic reports of the DNA matching of Abdul Rahman Paddar and Moulvi Shoukat Ahmad Kataria from the Central Forensic Laboratory, Chandigarh. These reports had established that the two civilians, Abdul Rahman Paddar from Kokernag, Anantnag and Moulvi Shaukat Kataria from Banihal, Doda, were killed in fake encounters.

Jammu, February 28
A large number of passengers who got stranded due to closure of the Jammu-Srinagar highway because of the landslides gathered at the local Air Force station today as the IAF launched “Operation Hamsafar” to ferry them to Srinagar.

The IAF aircrafts made sorties throughout the day from here and Udhampur to carry the stranded passengers to the valley. At least 200 passengers were airlifted in four AN-32 aircrafts from here, while 452 others have been moved to Udhampur for being carried in a larger aircraft.

The stranded passengers had been growing restive as a result of which the state government sought the help of the Army and the IAF for carrying them to Srinagar.

The Army has established a transit camp for these passengers at Udhampur where they were being provided food and medical aid.

Reopening of the 300 km-long Jammu-Srinagar highway has got delayed as the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) personnel could not carry out the operation for clearing the landslides because of the bad weather. Shooting stones and landslides at Panthal have blocked the highway for the past eight days.

An Army spokesman said a BRO task force had been deployed to work round the clock to reopen the highway within the shortest possible time.

Jammu, February 28
For the first time, dissensions have surfaced in the Muzaffarabad-based United Jehad Council (UJC) following Jamait-ul-Mijahideen's announcement that the four-point proposal of Pakistan President Parvez Musharraf on Kashmir was not acceptable to it.

The Jamait-ul-Mujahideen's statement was released within hours of an announcement by UJC chairman Syed Salahuddin in which he expressed his support to Gen Musharraf's proposal, saying that it could be a viable solution to the Kashmir issue.

Salahuddin had issued the statement as chief of the Jehad Council and the way one of its constituents, Jamait-ul-Mujahideen, said that Gen Musharraf's proposal was not acceptable to it indicated that dissensions have surfaced in the amalgam of 13 militant outfits.

Not only this, Salahuddin's statement has received a mixed reaction in the state. While Syed Ali Shah Geelani, considered to be the political patron of Salahuddin, said that those who favoured any other solution other than the right to self-determination were for the status quo in the situation. He reiterated his emphasis on a plebiscite which, to him, could lead to a suitable solution to the Kashmir issue. Against this the APHC leadership has supported Syed Salahuddin's stand on Gen Musharraf's four-point proposal on Kashmir.

Senior APHC leader Bilal Ghani Lone said his organisation favoured Syed Salahuddin's stand. The Awami Action Committee, headed by Molvi Umar Farooq, also has come out in support of Salahuddin's latest statement on Musharraf's proposal. However, Democratic Freedom Party chief Shabir Ahmed Shah preferred to remain silent on the issue.

In fact Salahuddin's recent statement on Musharraf's four-point proposal has evidently brought the UJC in direct conflict with Geelani. Hitherto Geelani had the backing of the Jehad Council, especially Hizbul Mujahideen. Observers here are of the view that the conflict between Salahuddin and Geelani may hasten further isolation of the latter when he had already won the displeasure of Islamabad which had ordered closure of the headquarters of Tehrik Hurriyat conference in Pakistan.

No doubt Pakistan Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has invited Geelani to visit Pakistan for which the invitation letter was delivered to him by Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid M Kasuri during his recent visit to Delhi. Geelani had met Kasuri but had left the meeting in a huff when he found Pakistan unwilling to support his demand for a plebiscite in Kashmir.

It is yet to be seen whether the moderates among the separatists, led by the APHC, succeed in wooing Salahuddin or by another U-turn he (Salahuddin) is back in Geelani's fold.

Jammu, February 28
To pressurise the government for gradual withdrawal of troops and repeal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), all ministers belonging to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the coalition government of Jammu and Kashmir today boycotted the meeting of the state Cabinet convened by Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad to discuss steps for the creation of eight new districts.

This is for the first time that no minister belonging to the PDP attended the Cabinet meeting to protest against the Chief Minister not accepting their party’s demand for convening a special meeting of the Cabinet to discuss the phased pullout of troops and repeal of the AFSPA.

Jammu, February 28
The Jammu police today said it eliminated ''most-wanted LeT commander” Abu Tallah in the Rajwalata forests under the jurisdiction of Billawar police station in Kathua district.

''I am glad to inform you that the terrorist, a Pakistani, who had been active for the past eight years in the Doda area, was killed in an operation in the wee hours today,'' IG (Jammu Range) S.P. Vaid said at a press conference here.

He said the police had got specific information about Abu Tallah, commander of the LeT in Jammu and Kathua districts, who had taken shelter in Safian village.

''The village was cordoned off and two local militants there disclosed during interrogation that Abu Tallah just fled into the forests minutes before the village was cordoned off,'' he said.

The IG said Abu Tallah threw three grenades on the police party during the search operation in the forests and when the cops retaliated the LeT terrorist was killed.

One AK 56 rifle, 32 cartridges, two magazines and one cell phone were recovered from the spot where the terrorist was killed, the IG said, adding that one police constable also received a bullet injury in the leg during the operation.

''Abu Tallah was involved in massacres of minority community in Kulhand village of Doda district and at Basantgarh in Udhampur district in 2006 and also in the incident of firing on the Army at Kalibari in Kathua, in which two jawans were killed and seven injured in 2005.

There were in all five cases registered against Abu Tallah under various sections, including sections 302 and 307, IPC, the IG said.