Jammu, November 16
Faced with prolonged isolation and apparently concerned over its eroding base, the All-Party Hurriyat Conference seems to be inching slowly towards the mainstream agenda about resolution of the problem in Jammu and Kashmir.

Only today, chairman of the moderate faction of the party Umar Farooq was quoted seeking “pre” 1953 plus” status for the state.

Although Farooq has tried to explain the “pre 1953 plus” formula as a starting point in his own way, it does not seem to differ much from the pre-1953 status and greater autonomy advocated by the National Conference (NC) and the “self-rule” proposed by the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).

Umar was quoted having said, his organisation wanted complete devolution of powers like own president and the prime minister as used to be the case before 1953.

Srinagar, November 16
In a fresh spurt of violence 11 persons, nine militants and two soldiers, have been killed in separate incidents in the valley since yesterday while security forces recovered a large cache of arms during searches.

The Army also recovered one 82 mm anti-tank gun, the biggest weapon recovered from the militants during a search operation from the forest area of Haphruda in Kupwara district yesterday.

A defence spokesman said six militants of the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen outfit and two soldiers of 18 RR had been killed in a fierce encounter in the Lolab area of Kupwara district since last night.

Acting on specific information, the troops of 18 RR and 28 RR cordoned off a forest area ensuing the encounter early this morning.

Those killed were identified as Chacha Sajad, district commander of Harkat-ul-Mujahideen for Lolab, Shakeel, Qari Ajmal, Qari Samiullah and Tahir of Jaish-e-Mohammad, all belonging to Pakistan.

A local militant of Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, Firdous Ahmad Dar, alias Zahid, accompanying them was also killed in the encounter, a defence spokesman said.