New Delhi, March 24
As the worldwide drug trade has witnessed a phenomenal rise of an estimated $800 billion per annum, larger than the oil business and second only to arms trade, the militancy-infested Jammu and Kashmir has emerged as a major source of illegal drug supply in India during the past few years.

This has been revealed by the Indian Law Institute (ILI), the apex body of judicial research in India, in its special volume brought out on the occasion of its golden jubilee celebrations and presented to President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam at the concluding function here last week.

“Kashmir is considered to be one of the biggest centres for the production of ‘charas’ from hemp plant and with the ever-increasing demand of narcotics in the international market, more and more persons have come to engage themselves in its cultivation. Men of power and prestige have joined the trade, estimated to be worth millions every year,” says Abdul Latif Wani of the department of law in the University of Kashmir in his paper published in the volume.

Wani’s research on “trafficking in narcotics: economic returns and fortunes” indicates that the billions of dollars yielded from the drug trade mainly goes in the kitty of international criminal syndicates or some individual traffickers but the enormous profits from it was the strong motivation for the involvement of different groups in it.

“The prospect of huge profit in the business have encouraged smuggling in India also through North-West Frontier Province from Pakistan via the borders of Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab and Rajasthan and then further transactions to Europe from Delhi and Mumbai,” he says.

India is emerging as the major transit point for drugs smuggled from Pakistan mainly because there is a vast difference in their prices in the two countries. While a kg of heroin in Pakistan fetches only Rs 30,000, it is sold for Rs 1 lakh in Delhi and Rs 2 lakh in Mumbai.

But at the international level the price is mindboggling as in the procures market 1 kg of heroin fetches $1 lakh and in the street markets it is sold for $10 lakh in New York, according to his study.

Jammu, March 24
To quell communal violence, the authorities today imposed curfew in the border town of Mendhar in the Poonch district. Army and the Central Reserve Police force CRPF have been called out to help the civil authorities in restoring peace.

Earlier, the police fired into the air and burst teargas shells to disperse mobs belonging to the two communities.

The town, which is at a stone’s throw distance from the Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) Line of Control, has been witnessing communal clashes for the past three days following attempts of an influential person belonging to one community to encroach on a piece of land belonging to Mahesh Chander. The authorities demolished the illegal structure near the bus stand leading to protests by the other community.

The situation was stated to be tense. Army and the CRPF were patrolling the streets. A flag march was organised in the morning to make both communities relent.

The dispute started earlier in the week when a local Congress leader allegedly tried to grab the land near the bus stand. However, the other group resisted the move leading to clashes which took a communal turn.

Some miscreants belonging to the majority community allegedly attacked houses of the minority which was resisting encroachment on the land.

Communication with the town snapped as telephone cables were damaged at many places.

(PTI adds) two groups clashed on March 22 near a bus stand in the town when some people tried to raise a structure on a land belonging to Mahesh Chander, a BJP activist, official sources said. People, including a Deputy Superintendent of Police, were injured in the incident.

The authorities here had last night demolished the “illegal” structure near the bus stand which allegedly was raised by Mehboob Ahmed.

Curfew was clamped this morning to prevent any untoward incident and the police along with para-military troops were deployed, they said. Army has also been alerted. 

Srinagar, March 24
About 2000 persons including women and children, from Kargil are stranded here for the past 20 days following unprecedented snowfall.

Meanwhile, traffic was restored on the Kargil-Dras road which remained closed for a week following more than five feet of snowfall.

Official sources said 120 persons from Kargil, Dras and other areas who were among more than 2,000 stranded passengers since March 1, were airlifted in an AN-32 aircraft yesterday. Similarly, 90 passengers, stranded at Kargil, were brought here in two sorties. Air service remained suspended after the Kashmir Valley and Kargil had heavy snowfall last week.

However, there are 2,000 passengers still stranded here, passenger Ghulam Ziauddin said.

He said out of the 2,000 stranded passengers, 1,830 have confirmed air tickets from here to Kargil.

No flight was operated today, he said, adding the Indian Air Force was operating its AN-32 service twice in a week.

About 300 passengers are also stranded at Kargil.

It is said Dras, the second coldest place in the world after Siberia, recorded more than five feet of snowfall last week leading to closure of the Dras-Kargil road. More than four feet of snow was still on the roads. However, the local administration cleared the snow on the road and traffic resumed on March 22.

The Kargil-Panikher road remained closed due to heavy snowfall. The report said the Kargil-Zanaskar road, which was closed in December last year, also remained closed because of more than six feet of snowfall.

The report said the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) and other agencies, responsible for the maintenance of the 434 km Srinagar-Leh highway had not resumed snow clearance operation after heavy snowfall last week.

The snow clearance operation will be resumed only after there is no danger of avalanche, official sources said.

The highway was closed on November 15 last year after heavy snowfall at Zojila, Sonamarg, Zero Point and Pandrass.

About 3,000 trucks carrying essential commodities and 300 other vehicles with passenger, reached Srinagar early this morning after traffic was resumed on the 300 km long Srinagar-Jammu highway after remaining suspended for 12 days.

The authorities allowed one-way traffic from Jammu to Srinagar this morning, Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Police (Traffic) Mohammad Amin Shah told UNI.

However, a report from Penthal said hundreds of Border Security Force (BSF) vehicles left Kashmir for Jammu despite one-way traffic restrictions on the highway, leading to traffic jam.

Mr Shah said 3,000 trucks, loaded with vegetables, eggs, chicken, goat, sheep and other essentials reached Srinagar late last night and this morning. The vehicles left Jammu yesterday at 1630 hours after the landslides and shooting stones were cleared from the highway, the only road linking the Kashmir valley with the rest of the country.

He said another 300 vehicles, carrying passengers, also reached Srinagar.

We allowed more than 2,000 trucks and other passenger vehicles to leave Jammu this morning for Srinagar, he said adding some of them have crossed Penthal, the most trouble spot on the highway.

He said only one-way traffic will be allowed on the highway daily till the damaged portion is totally repaired. — UNI

Jammu, March 24
The Ladakh Union Territory Front (LUTF) and the Congress-led coalition government in Jammu and Kashmir are at loggerheads on the issue of the latter "trying" to grab control over the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC) by nominating its own party members in the elected body that looks after development of the frontier area.

The government recently nominated four Congress activists as members of the LAHDC with voting rights and LUTF leaders point out that decks have been cleared for the nomination of three more members.

This will dilute the very purpose for which the council was established after a long-drawn struggle of the Ladakhis.

The LUTF alleges that the Congress is trying to split the front that had become all powerful in the area by sweeping 24 of the 26 seats of the LAHDC during the elections in 2005. Only two seats went to the Congress.

Thupstan Chhewang, member of Parliament and leader of the LUTF, said the victory of the LUTF indicated that the people of the area, who had been struggling for union territory status for Ladakh for the past 50 years, were sentimental to this demand.

Tsring Dorje, chairman of the LAHDC, told this correspondent that the government was creating hurdles in providing funds to the council. “Throughout the year we cried for additional funds for various development works, but a grant of Rs 10 crore has been allocated this month at the fag end of the financial year when most parts of Ladakh are buried under snow and no development activity can be undertaken.”

He said the government rejected the panel which the LAHDC had submitted for appointment of the deputy commissioner of Leh.

The deputy commissioner by virtue of being the chief executive officer of the council is a key functionary.

He said Rigzin Zora, power minister, who had won the assembly election as a nominee of the LUTF, had now started supporting the Congress.

Chhewang said the LAHDC was not being given financial and legislative powers even in matters under its charge. It did not get its quota of central funds sanctioned under various schemes, especially in social sector.

On one occasion the state government had even transferred the funds sanctioned by the Planning Commission for Leh under the Border Area Development Programme (BADP) for some other place.

While participating in the recent meeting of the working group on centre-state relations, Chhewang pleaded for union territory status for Ladakh as "we" feel that "our" interests will be best served if we are free from the clutches of a "puzzled and self-absorbed" leadership.

He says: “We want a direct contact with New Delhi. To our ill luck, the situation has only been worsening in recent years. Now and then there are efforts by the state government to undermine our authority. After a sustained struggle, we won the right to form the LAHDC to manage our affairs in Leh. The LUTF that controls the LAHDC regards its formation as a step towards realising the goal of union territory.”

Chhewang warned that a hideous bid was being made to split Buddhists and Shias of Ladakh by injecting communal virus and making light of their age-old ethnic and linguistic affinity. “Our leaders have confined their prime concerns to the Kashmir region which happens to be their electoral constituency,” he alleged.

He said being a trans-Himalayan territory, Ladakh deserved particular attention, which was possible only if it was governed directly. "We are concerned about our survival because most of our leaders sitting in Srinagar distrust us completely and have made it known through their actions.”

Justifying the claim for union territory, Chhewang said Lakshadweep, Daman and Diu and Nicobar Islands were made union territories because of their isolation from the mainland and similar was the case with Ladakh that remained cut off for seven months.

The only difference was that instead of sea "we are separated by the snowbound Himalayas and our border touching China and Pakistan”.

Jammu, March 24
Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad yesterday exhorted financial institutions to accomplish the responsibility of making self-employment schemes viable and profitable by lending liberal and easy loans to unemployed educated youth. He said banks and financial institutions had to play a major role in employment generation.

Reviewing the progress of financial institutions of the state on providing loan assistance to unemployed youth under various self-employment schemes, the Chief Minister urged the banks to process the loan cases of unemployed youth expeditiously and complete the process under the single window system.

He advised self-employment sponsoring agencies to formulate the projects based on local available raw material so that industrial units did not face any problem of raw material.

Azad said financial institutions and the employment department would function in various districts jointly to make lending and recovery a success.

He asked banks and other financial institutions to initiate measures for approval of loans of unemployed youth at tehsil level and facilitate them at their doorsteps. This would go a long way in motivating them to take advantage of various schemes launched by the government for their upliftment.