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Baramula tense after ‘fake encounter’
Cops term operation clean
Srinagar, September 11
Several persons, including police officials, were injured in Baramula district today when the police had to resort to use of force to contain a large number of people who were protesting against an alleged fake killing of a youth.

Portion of Dogra-era palace collapses
Jammu, September 11
Preservation of the historical palace complex here is nobody’s priority. One of the finest portions of the palace with minute wall paintings built in mid-1850s has collapsed. The Public Works Department today deployed untrained workforce to remove debris of the two- storeyed building.
A view of the heritage palace complex of Dogra rulers in Jammu A view of the heritage palace complex of Dogra rulers in Jammu on Tuesday.
— Tribune photo by Anand Sharma


YOUR TOWN
Jammu
Srinagar


EARLIER STORIES

 

BJP for salary hike, modern weapons for VDC members
Udhampur, September 11
Charging the Congress-led coalition regime with adopting indifferent attitude towards Village Defence Committees, fighting militants in mountainous areas, state unit of the BJP today threatened an agitation if salaries of VDC members were not released.

Boat Tragedy
Failure to fish out bodies upsets residents
Udhampur, September 11
Tempers are running high in Sheraj belt of Ramban and Doda districts as authorities have failed to fish out the bodies of two female students who had drowned in the Chenab on Monday when the boat, in which they were crossing the river, capsized.

Practise Kashmiriyat, Sinha to youth
Srinagar, September 11
Governor S.K. Sinha today exhorted youth to be in the vanguard for practising and propagating ideals of Kashmir heritage. Presiding over the centenary celebrations of J&K Scouts and Guides on the Kashmir University campus this afternoon, the Governor said amity, brotherhood and peace were the hallmark of the heritage of the valley.

Grenade smuggling: Girl taken for interrogation
Jammu, September 11
Nahida, a student of law college, has been shifted to the joint interrogation centre here for questioning by various intelligence agencies in the alleged case of smuggling grenades by her.

Kabuli joins PDP
Srinagar, September 11
Senior politician and former MP Abdul Rashid Kabuli announced his decision to join the Peoples Democratic Party here on Sunday, in the presence of PDP patron Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and president Mehbooba Mufti.

Jammu bandh today
Jammu, September 11
The Vishwa Hindu Parishad and other organisations have called Jammu bandh tomorrow in protest against the demolition of the mythological “Ram Setu”.





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Baramula tense after ‘fake encounter’
Cops term operation clean
Kumar Rakesh
Tribune News Service

Srinagar, September 11
Several persons, including police officials, were injured in Baramula district today when the police had to resort to use of force to contain a large number of people who were protesting against an alleged fake killing of a youth.

The police and the Army had killed two suspected militants in Handwara yesterday, but the people took to streets claiming that one of the slain men, Mohammed Ramzan Shah, was not a militant but a student who had gone to Handwara to meet his aunt.

The entire city remained tense throughout the day and security forces lobbed tear-gas shells and fired shots in the air to disperse the mob.

Kashmir IG S.M Sahai told The Tribune that the circumstances in which the two persons had been killed pointed at the involvement of Ramzan in militancy. "The other slain militant (Abu Imran Sindhi) is a Pakistani and his presence with him on the spot proves his involvement," he said. The police had recovered one AK-47 rifle and a pistol from the encounter site yesterday.

According to sources the deceased were from LeT.

However, Ramzan’s family members told mediapersons that he was a second-year student of Sopur Degree college and had just appeared for exams.

His brother Khurshid Ahmed said he had left for his aunt's place on Sunday morning. "He was picked by the forces and killed in cold blood," they said.

However, Handwara SP Haseeb Mughal told The Tribune that there was no protest in the village, where the encounter had occurred and the surrounding areas as the people were aware that it was a clean operation. "We evacuated the villagers on Sunday evening and the encounter continued throughout the night after which we recovered the two bodies. The villagers had even seen the two moving together earlier," he said, adding that the people in the hometown of Ramzan were agitating as it had come as a shock to them that he was a militant.

The SP added that Mohammed Maqbool Shah, the owner of the house in which the militants had taken shelter, today deposed before the chief judicial magistrate that the two had forcibly entered his house. There is no protest in the entire Handwara as the locals know the facts. Even one of our men sustained injuries in the encounter and he is still in the hospital, said the SP.

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Portion of Dogra-era palace collapses
S.P. Sharma
Tribune News Service

Jammu, September 11
Preservation of the historical palace complex here is nobody’s priority.

One of the finest portions of the palace with minute wall paintings built in mid-1850s has collapsed.

The Public Works Department today deployed untrained workforce to remove debris of the two- storeyed building.

This resulted in further damage to the walls bearing colourful miniatures. The collapse came a few days ago following heavy rain.

While the Jammu and Kashmir government had committed to preserve the heritage of the Dogra rulers, their old palaces of archaeological importance have been crumbling one after another.

A committee headed by Dr M.S.Randhawa in the early 1970s had recommended steps for the preservation of the palace complex and developing it as cultural centre.

The committee set up by PWD minister Gulchain Singh Charak recently to suggest measures to preserve the palace complex has failed to do anything concrete.

The palace which has collapsed was an architectural marvel and its walls and ceilings were decorated with colourful paintings. Some palaces were built by Maharaja Gulab Singh around 1830s and his work was carried forward by his son Maharaja Ranbir Singh who succeeded him after his death in 1857.

The palace housed the office of the director of information and public relations till recently.

Pandit Shiv Kumar, who takes care of a temple within the complex, said roof of the first floor collapsed around midnight.

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BJP for salary hike, modern weapons for VDC members
Tribune News Service

Udhampur, September 11
Charging the Congress-led coalition regime with adopting indifferent attitude towards Village Defence Committees (VDCs), fighting militants in mountainous areas, state unit of the BJP today threatened an agitation if salaries of VDC members were not released. VDC members of about 24 villages of Arnas, Reasi and Mahore have been demanding salaries. They are also demanding modern communication equipments and sophisticated weapons.

Addressing a meeting at Arnas in Reasi district, BJP president Ashok Khajuria expressed surprise over conditions of VDC members fighting militants. He regretted despite assurances the government had done nothing to ameliorate lot of those who had frustrated designs of anti-national forces. He alleged the ruling coalition had been trying to demoralise nationalist forces in the state.

Khajuria,interacting with VDC members, assured their problems would be brought to the notice of the authorities. He also demanded sophisticated weapons and modern communication equipment for VDC members .

Lone BJP MLA Jugal Kishore assured VDC members to take up this issue in the Legislative Assembly.

A large number of VDC members turned up to highlight problems faced by them.

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Boat Tragedy
Failure to fish out bodies upsets residents
Tribune News Service

Udhampur, September 11
Tempers are running high in Sheraj belt of Ramban and Doda districts as authorities have failed to fish out the bodies of two female students who had drowned in the Chenab on Monday when the boat, in which they were crossing the river, capsized.

Irked over the decision of the authorities to slow down the operation to retrieve the bodies of the girls, students of higher secondary school, Assar, along with the local residents lodged a protest and demanded that the operation to fish out the bodies should be continued. Residents demanded that some teams of experts should be called for the operation.

Three students, Anchal Singh, Desa Devi and Asha Devi, had drowned in Chenab.

While the authorities managed to fish out he body of only Anchal Singh, rescue teams failed to retrieve bodies of Desa Devi and Asha Devi (both 17 years old).

This morning a team of state police started search operation but failed to locate the bodies of the girls.

Police divers also conducted search but in vain. Although no official statement has been issued, the rescue operation was reportedly stopped as the chances of recovering the bodies were very remote.

Meanwhile, residents of the area are annoyed over the non-serious attitude of the state government.

They are blaming state government and power development corporation for the tragedy as the government had promised in July 2006 to build a bridge on the river but nothing has been done so far.

Activists of BJYM also staged a demonstration at Assar.

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Practise Kashmiriyat, Sinha to youth
Tribune News Service

Srinagar, September 11
Governor S.K. Sinha today exhorted youth to be in the vanguard for practising and propagating ideals of Kashmir heritage.

Presiding over the centenary celebrations of J&K Scouts and Guides on the Kashmir University campus this afternoon, the Governor said amity, brotherhood and peace were the hallmark of the heritage of the valley.

Sinha said people of Kashmir were inheritors of glorious past and had maintained brotherhood during the most testing times and hoped they would send this message to the whole country, in fact to the whole world. He said the scouting movement too stood for brotherhood and peace and it was good this activity was gaining momentum in Kashmir like other parts of the country.

In this era of globalisation, the Governor observed that along side physical activities the youth of Kashmir would continue to equip themselves with knowledge and face the world with more confidence.

'It is equally important to build character by adhering to values of humanity', he maintained and hoped the youngsters of today would become proud citizens of tomorrow.

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Grenade smuggling: Girl taken for interrogation
Tribune News Service

Jammu, September 11
Nahida, a student of law college, has been shifted to the joint interrogation centre (JIC) here for questioning by various intelligence agencies in the alleged case of smuggling grenades by her.

She was arrested last week by the special operation group (SOG) while she was carrying eight grenades and one under barrel grenade launcher (UBGL) here from the border town of Surankot in Poonch district.

After initial interrogation, the SOG has now shifted her to the JIC where sleuths of the state CID, intelligence bureau, army intelligence and other agencies will question her.

Nahida is a student of the local law college run by a Cabinet minister. Her father is a head constable in the main police control room here.

Meanwhile, the police is learnt to have questioned two more girl students of the same college.

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Kabuli joins PDP
Tribune News Service

Srinagar, September 11
Senior politician and former MP Abdul Rashid Kabuli announced his decision to join the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) here on Sunday, in the presence of PDP patron Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and president Mehbooba Mufti.

A spokesman of the PDP here said Kabuli described the PDP as the sole political party which had envisaged the holistic development of Jammu and Kashmir. He said the PDP facilitated the peace process between India and Pakistan.

Sayeed observed that Kabuli being an active politician of the state would work for the empowerment of people, a PDP spokesman added.

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Jammu bandh today
Tribune News Service

Jammu, September 11
The Vishwa Hindu Parishad and other organisations have called Jammu bandh tomorrow in protest against the demolition of the mythological “Ram Setu”.

The VHP and the Bajrang Dal today called five- hour bandh here from 6 am to 11 am to protest against the decision of the Centre to build the Sethusamudram project to create alternative shorter route for ships to cross the Gulf of Mannar by demolishing the structure.

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