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CPI supports ANC’s call for neutral observers
Paharis seek ST status, block highway
Poonch bypoll to witness triangular contest
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With few jobs, qualified engineers drive cars in J-K
Militant violence registers decline due
to increased vigil Qaumi Ekta Diwas held at Leh 3 soldiers die in road accident Lashkar militant killed
in encounter 1 killed as marriage function turns bloody Illicit timber seized
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CPI supports ANC’s call for neutral observers
Srinagar, November 28 With a majority of its members favouring participation in the elections, the Working Committee of the ANC had on November 18 last proposed to hold meetings with all mainstream political parties to build a national consensus on independent observers. “The committee had decided to hold such meetings to build a national consensus for the need of appointing independent observers to oversee elections as the people of Jammu and Kashmir had lost faith in the conduct of elections after 1977,” a ANC spokesman said here today. The spokesman said the Communist Party of India (CPI) had endorsed the ANC proposal with the assurance from CPI general-secretary A. B. Bardhan, to senior working committee member Muzaffar Shah in New Delhi recently. It was the first meeting of the ANC leadership with any of the mainstream political parties. Shah apprised Bardhan of the ANC’s resolve to invite 400 observers from within and outside the country, if the government failed to do so. The spokesman added that the list of observers proposed by the ANC included former Prime Ministers, eminent Parliamentarians, jurists, academics and media personalities. Bardhan also assured Shah that his party would pilot this initiative from various platforms, as it would go a long way in restoring the image and credibility of the electoral process in the eyes of the people of Jammu and Kashmir. The ANC favours tripartite dialogue to resolve the Kashmir issue.
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Paharis seek ST status, block highway
Rajouri, November 28 In this border township the strike call given by the Pahari Welfare Forum, did not evoke much response.The protesters headed by Muhammad Aslam Mirza, district president of the forum, just blocked the Abdullah Bridge disrupting traffic on the Rajouri-Poonch highway for over two hours. Pahari leaders, including those from different political parties, accused the successive governments and all major political parties, including the National Conference and the Congress, of deceiving them for 35 years and decided to field their "own Pahari” candidates for the coming election to take the fight of getting ST status to a logical conclusion. The leaders alleged that some political leaders were trying to create a wedge between Gujjars and Paharis for political gains. "Though the present government created a special board (Pahari Advisory Board) headed by the Chief Minister himself for redressal of our grievances and to give us ST status, even that has failed to address our grievances," said a Pahari leader. Meanwhile, in Poonch,the strike call given by the Paharis evoked a good response and all commercial and educational institutions remained closed. |
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Poonch bypoll to witness triangular contest
Rajouri, November 28 This becomes clear on the last day of withdrawing nomination papers.None of the eight candidates in the fray withdrew his papers. Here the contest seems to be among NC's Aijaz Jan, Congress candidate Jehangir Mir and Congress rebel-turned independent Yashpal Sharma. The other candidates here include three independent candidates, Shah Muhammad Tantrey, Nissar Hussain Shah, and Iftikhar Hussain Bazmi ; Pradeep Kumar Sharma of the BJP and Janak Singh of the All-J&K Kissan Mazdoor party. Though the Congress tried its best to persuade Yashpal Sharma, its former state general secretary to withdraw his candidature from the byelection, he refused. It had even posted its two members of Parliament, Madan Lal Sharma, Chowdhary Aslam, an MLC Arvinder Singh Micky, besides minister of state for public health engineering (PHE), irrigation and flood control Romesh Chander Sharma who tried to persuade the rebel candidate to withdraw in favour of its official candidate but they failed to convince him to withdraw. Political analysts feel given that Yashpal did not withdraw his nomination papers, in all probability the election is going to be a triangular contest with Yashpal playing a spoilsport to the prospects of Congress winning the seat. They maintained in such a situation, NC Aijaz Jan who is making efforts to retain the seat held by his father Ghulam Muhammad Jan who died a few months ago necessitating the byelection. Yashpal told The Tribune on phone from Poonch there was no going back from this position and he would not deceive people of Poonch who had reposed faith in him. "This is people's decision and I will not let their trust down", Sharma said. Meanwhile, sources said Election Commission observer W.L. Hangshing, who is to monitor expenditure by the candidates during the election, had reached Poonch today.
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With few jobs, qualified engineers drive cars in J-K Jammu, November 28 But being in Kashmir he has to be content with being a constable/driver with the Jammu and Kashmir Police. Ashraf's is not an isolated case, but an example of the growing unemployment among the educated and professionally qualified youth in the state, particularly in the Kashmir valley. Recently, Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said he could hardly do anything about the problem of unemployment in Kashmir which is too complex. Azad said there was a notion that employment meant government job only. He said the state government was too overstaffed and there hardly was any scope for further recruitments. "Ëven if I recruit 50,000 more, that is not going to solve the problem. We need to create avenues for employment and also focus on self- employment," he said. He revealed that last year the government had decided to authorise deputy commissioners to fill 35,000 vacancies of class VI cadre in their districts. For the 35,000 vacancies there were 3.5 lakh applicants, most of them graduates and post-graduates and a few doctorates. Problem of unemployment is too serious in the Kashmir valley because people there avoid sending their children out, either for education or for jobs. Like Ashraf, who did his engineering with first class, there are many others, graduates and post-graduates doing petty jobs. He said he felt better off with a salary of Rs 13,000 than his brother, who is also an engineering graduate but sitting idle at home. He said there were scores like him who had got themselves recruited constables in the police. Some of them were even law graduates and quite a few were post-graduates. This was confirmed by a senior police officer also. He said recruitment in the police was relatively simpler and moreover it is mainly the police which needed people these days in Kashmir. People in Kashmir have mostly preferred to stay back there only.The two decades of militancy isolated them further. While youth from other regions like Jammu and Ladakh have been moving out to other places across and outside the country, Kashmiris stay put in their home. With the result they stay idle hoping against hope that some day the government might launch a special recruitment drive. The educated unemployed youth are potential fodder for the militancy also. Local recruitments which had declined for some time are learnt to have increased once again. Unemployment is considered one of the major factors. "Although unemployment is not directly responsible for militancy, it can always work as a contributory factor," said a senior police officer. He said since there was not much possibility of any outside investments in the valley and with declining number of government jobs, the only option was to motivate the educated and qualified youth of Kashmir to move out to different parts of the country.
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Militant violence registers decline due
to increased vigil Jammu, November 28 With violence coming down, political activity by mainstream political parties, the National Conference, the Congress and the People's Democratic Party, has increased. Nearly 2200, big and small, rallies were organised in this year so far in different parts of the valley, where the participation of public was very encouraging. Against about 3,500 incidents of violence related to militancy in 1990, there were only 1,000 incidents reported this year. This, the security experts maintain, has been possible due to consistent anti-militant operations by the police, para-military forces and armed forces. However, there is no scope for complacency either as the incidents of violence do take place regularly with casualties as well, and the forces remain the target. In fact, the number of security personnel killed in 2007 so far is more than that of in 1990. While 94 security personnel were killed in 1990, the number this year was 97. This is again because of presence of more security forces now than in 1990. But in other spheres incidents have shown a substantial decline. Like the number of civilians killed has come down by 80 per cent. While 914 civilians were killed in 1990, only 153 persons were killed this year. The number of policemen belonging to the J&K police killed has also come down by 50 per cent from 34 in 1990 to 17 this year. Firing by militants and bomb blasts by them, the two main bench marks of the presence of militancy in a particular area, have also come down substantially. The firing incidents have come down by 70 per cent from 671 in 1990 to 183 in 2007. The number of bomb blasts has come down by 95 per cent from 1,000 in 1990 to 50 this year. This is the reason number of civilian casualties has come down. Senior officials associated with the security of the state maintained that pressure not only needed to be maintained, but also mounted to consolidate the gains. They warned that in case the situation was allowed to relax, it could help militants to regroup. Moreover, the officials pointed out, this could not be done when the state was scheduled to go for elections only next year. The security agencies are quite apprehensive about the election time. Going by the previous record in 1996 and 2002, incidents of violence
have shown an alarming increase in militancy-related violence. |
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Qaumi Ekta Diwas held at Leh Srinagar, November 28 People of Leh expressed gratitude by contributing to the Armed Forces Flag Day Fund to honour martyrs for their supreme sacrifice, as well as to salute the valiant soldiers, sailors and Airmen, serving and veterans. This fund is to be utilised for welfare programmes instituted by the Kendriya Sainik Board at the Centre and Rajya Sainik boards at the state level, for the benefit of widows, disabled soldiers, sailors, Airmen, veterans and their dependents and also for serving personnel, the spokesman said. |
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3 soldiers die in road accident Srinagar, November 28 Official sources said the accident was caused by dense fog which probably had reduced the visibility for the driver.The police said the Army personnel were of Medium Regiment of 38 Infantry Brigade. Dense fog in this period of the year has resulted in an increasing number of road
accidents. The police said 17 persons were injured, three of them seriously, in accidents across the valley today. Understandably, many vehicles meet with accidents
by losing way and slipping off roads. One matador also skidded in Budgam district, resulting in injuries to 14 passengers, who have been hospitalised. Traffic officials said they were contemplating ways to restrain drivers from speeding in the morning when visibility is low. "We will be deploying more staff on the highway to check these cases," an official said. |
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Lashkar militant killed
in encounter Udhampur, November 28 Reports reaching here said on a tip- off on the presence of some suspects in the area, an SoG team launched a combing operation in the village where the militant had reportedly taken shelter. As security personnel zeroed in on the hideout, the militant hiding in a house resorted to indiscriminate firing. According to the police, instead of attacking the hide-out, SoG team deputed some locals to persuade the holed-up militant to surrender, but to no avail. The militant even intensified firing with automatic weapons and lobbed a grenade towards the police party. As efforts to persuade the militant to surrender and capture him alive failed, an assault was launched on the target hideout and the encounter ended with the recovery of the body of the militant. A police spokesman said an associate of the killed militant, who is believed to have been hit in the arm, had escaped. Some arms and ammunitions were also recovered from the encounter site. Srinagar: Two unidentified militants were killed in an encounter with the police and security forces at Chenad in Baramula district yesterday afternoon. Both of them are believed to be Pakistanis and belonged to the Jaish-e-Mohammad, the police here said. Acting on a tip-off on militants, security forces launched a search in the village in the afternoon and an encounter started. Both militants were killed in the encounter and the house of Ghulam Hassan Lone, in which they were hiding, was gutted, the police said. The encounter ensued when the hiding militants opened indiscriminate fire on the search party. The militants while trying to flee from the house and to aid their escape set the house on fire. Rajouri: Security forces foiled an infiltration bid after they gunned down an infiltrator in Sunderbani sector here in the wee hours of the morning. Defence spokesperson said troops of the 18 J & K Rifles under the aegis of Crossed Swords Division and 52 Battalion Border Security Force (BSF) foiled an infiltration attempt in the wee hours of the day in Sunderbani. He said one infiltrator had been killed by the security forces. The operation was still in progress. |
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1 killed as marriage function turns bloody Udhampur, November 28 The deceased has been identified as Om Singh, an employee of the Forest Department. SHO, Ramban, Ajay Jamwal said an open FIR had been registered and some persons had been picked up by the police for questioning. Reports reaching here said two youths got into a heated argument over some trivial issue in a marriage at Mulmula village of Ramban district. The scuffle led to a bloody clash as other people attending the party divided themselves into two groups and attacked each other with stones and lathis. It was only after the intervention of villagers that the warring groups could be pacified, but not before some of them had received severe injuries. All injured where shifted to a hospital where one of them succumbed to his injuries. A police party led by the SHO rushed to the spot and rounded up some persons |
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Illicit timber seized Srinagar, November 28 Two persons were arrested with the recovery of 250 cft of illicit timber of deodar from them, costing about Rs 5 lakh, from Waisa Kawnar in the Handwara area of Kupwara district, the police here said. In another raid 50 cft of illicit kail timber costing Rs 1 lakh was seized from the house of Nazir Ahmad Wani at Waripora, Handwara. However, the accused escaped from the scene, the police said.
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