Srinagar, June 18
The annual Amarnath yatra formally commenced at the holy cave shrine in the upper reaches of Pahalgam, where the Governor Lt-Gen S. K. Sinha (retd) led devotees to offer prayers today.

Over 25,000 yatris left the base camps of Pahalgam and Baltal on the first day of the yatra this morning, officials of the Shrine Board here said. They included 6200 pilgrims who left base camp at Nunwan near Pahalgam on the first leg of their holy visit to the cave shrine, 48 km away. Another fresh batch of 19100 left Baltal on their first scheduled yatra this morning. More than 10,000 pilgrims had already forced their way to the yatra from Pahalgam and Baltal yesterday, a day before the scheduled commencement of the yatra.

Going by the number of yatris today, it has been more than the specified number, which does not allow more than 5000 pilgrims on each of the routes to the cave. The number of yatris who had darshan at the holy cave today was yet not available.

A large number of devotees chanting religious hymns thronged the shrine in long queues, who had left the base camp at Baltal, early this morning to the holy cave at a height of 3952 metres.

The fully formed magnificent Shiv Lingam inside the sanctum sanctorum presented a unique sight quenching the spiritual thirst of devotees. It was for the first time that the mechanism devised to enable darshan from the second grill was adopted after the grill has been installed for longevity of the ice lingam.

The Governor later visited Baltal and discussed yatra arrangements with officers connected with the conduct of the pilgrimage and local workers engaged in providing various services. Shahjehan, a local leader and contractor, told him that they kept waiting for months for the yatra as this was the main source of their sustenance.

After darshan at the cave shrine, the Governor flew to Chrar-e-Sharief and paid obeisance at the shrine of Sheikh Noor-ud-Din Noorani. 

Jammu, June 18
The state wing of the BJP has denounced the statement of the deputy Chief Minister Muzaffar Hussain Baig in which he had said that his party was “blackmailed” by two ministers of the Congress for the allotment of forestland to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) for the construction of pre-fabricated structures.

State BJP vice-president Hari Om in a statement has asked the Congress to snap all its ties with the PDP and to stop construction work on the Mughal Road.

Hari Om said: “The opening of the Mughal Road would not be in the best interest of the country as it would meet the demands of the separatist groups in the Kashmir valley.”

“The construction and reopening of the Mughal Road would pose a danger to wildlife and harm bio-diversity. It would also help the protagonists of Greater Kashmir to achieve what they could not during the past 60 years because Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and her security advisers had stopped the project, as they thought the road’s construction would help Pakistan establish its control over the Poonch-Rajouri areas.”

He said the road’s construction would pose a great security threat to the country.

He said, “Reopening of the Mughal Road would be a victory for Pakistan who have been striving to de-link the Muslim-majority areas of Jammu and Kashmir from India.”

It is pertinent to mention here that the deputy Chief Minister, while commenting on the controversy of the land transfer to the SASB, had said that his party was blackmailed by two Congress ministers to transfer the forestland to SASB or the construction work on the Jammu-Srinagar Mughal Road would be suspended.

Srinagar, June 18
The leaders of two divergent factions of the All Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC) finally agreed to meet here tomorrow to work out the future strategy on the issue of the government transferring 800 kanals of forestland to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) in Pahalgam and Baltal.

The hardline and moderates, led by Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, respectively, would hold one-to-one meeting at former’s residence here tomorrow. The moderates on Monday had constituted a three-member committee comprising Shabir Ahmad Shah, Nayeem Ahmad Khan and G.M. Hubbi to consult leaders of various organisations on working out a future strategy.

Yesterday, the Geelani faction decided in a meeting agreed to having a meeting with Mirwaiz to discuss the issue. The faction already took to streets for the last couple of days protesting the land transfer. Geelani has termed the transfer of forestland as constitutional and morally incorrect.

While the separatist organisations are already up in arms against the transfer of forestland, it has stirred up a hornet’s nest within the mainstream parties.

Snubbing the Congress, PDP senior leader and Deputy Chief minister Muzaffar Hussain Baig admitted that the party had been “blackmailed” by the Congress. 

Jammu, June 18
Despite the defence ministry’s foolproof claims of securing the 778-km Line of Control (LoC), the measures to check the cross-border infiltration along the LoC remain “porous”.

The recent incident of a Poonch lady eloping with her lover to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir by crossing the LoC and again returning back to the Indian side few months after has raised may eyebrows.

“If a lady and her lover, without any training, can cross the LoC, then question arises that are we in a position to stop trained infiltrators from entering into India,” said a senior police officer in Poonch requesting anonymity.

“We have in place various mechanisms to stop any sort of infiltration; we have placed motion sensors, heat detectors, light flairs and various other such devices so as to caution the troops on any sort of movement on the LoC,” he said.

“Above all, we have the barbered fence, that was erected at a cost of Rs 300 crore, then how was it possible for a lady and her lover to deceive the security agencies,” he asked.

According to intelligence inputs, hundreds of trained men across the border were waiting for a chance to cross over the LoC.

Meanwhile, Jammu-based PRO of the ministry of defence Lt-Col S.D. Goswami accepted the weak links and said, “There are weaker links in the fence which the infiltrators may try to exploit.”

He said, “To further strengthen those weaker points we have electrified the fence.

But in military we believe that no obstacle is insurmountable and everything has to be supported by the fire power.”

Srinagar, June 18
Defence Minister A.K. Antony visited troops deployed on Line of Control in Kupwara and Baramulla, the defence ministry said in a statement today.

On the last day of his two-day visit, Antony interacted with soldiers at the LoC and then addressed a gathering of theirs in an Army garrison in Baramulla. His interaction with media was limited to a conference with a few agencies, officials said. Antony wanted to have a first-hand feel of the ground situation in the valley and see if more packages could be announced for the local populace before the elections.

The defence ministry had recently upped the rents by several folds for lands occupied by the Army for its use. The Army and paramilitary forces have also vacated all public utility buildings like those of schools and hospitals, which was a long-standing demand of the locals. As the ground situation in the valley has improved considerably, the central government is mulling whether troop deployment could be eased. "We understand the inconvenience that stern security measures cause to the masses but militancy had tied our hands. As things have changed for better we are deliberating if things could be eased up a bit," officials said.

Army Chief Deepak Kapoor, Lt -Gen P.C. Bhardwaj, GOC-in-C, Northern Command accompanied Antony on his visit which was marked by the maiden flying of the defence minister in Alh Dhruv, a special helicopter.

During his address to more than 700 defence personnel, Antony said the "anomalies in the sixth Pay Commission were being looked into".

Jammu, June 18
Even as a three-tier security has been put in place for the annual Amarnath pilgrimage, the Jammu railway station, where a majority of pilgrims disembark for taking the onward journey, seems to have been left vulnerable to untoward incidents.

The railway station, which has been witnessing a huge rush for the last couple of months, only has a metal detector and a scanning machine in the name of security gadgets.

The policemen deployed at the station seem to have adopted a lax approach. There is a passage next to the metal detector and commuters skip the detector in front of the cops. Also, not all passengers drop their luggage at the scanning counter. Many of them take their luggage in and the policemen on duty do not bother to stop them.

The Tribune correspondent saw at least 10 passengers entering into the railway station complex without getting their luggage checked, while the cop on duty was busy puffing a cigarette along with his colleague.

All 16 close circuit TV (CCTV) cameras installed at the station are lying defunct for quite sometime now.

“Even when these cameras were operational they were of hardly any use since the personnel deployed for monitoring them were unaware of the nuances of the job. A qualified individual, who is aware of the key locations and time, is required for the monitoring purpose. Also the cameras installed at present have become outdated,” said a police official, who was earlier posted at the railway station, on the condition of anonymity.

Sources said two of the CCTV cameras had stopped working when the Jammu railway station was struck by militants in January, 2004. “The police did not get a single clipping of the incident,” he added.

The seriousness of the situation can be gauged from the fact that nobody is bothered to check travel tickets or platform tickets of the persons visiting it. “We came here to see off our friend who is leaving for Jamshedpur. We did purchase platform tickets as we know nobody asks for it here,” said a group of teenagers at the station. While SSP, crime and railways, was busy in a meeting, deputy SP M.H. Shah could not be contacted for comments.

Jammu, June 18
The State Vigilance Organisation (SVO) has booked Aijaz Ahmad Bhat, the then managing director, State Forest Corporation (SFC), Ghulam Hassan Marazi, the then general manager, R&D, SFC, and others for misuse of official position by allotment of contracts of timber extraction in violation of rules, thereby conferring undue benefit to their favourite contractors in 2006-07.

The verification conducted by the SVO into the allegations of irregularities in the allotment of contracts by the management of State Forest Corporation (SFC) revealed that during 2006-07, Bhat in league with Marazi and other SFC officials and contractors fraudulently allotted the extraction work of (standing timber) to the proxy contractors of Shafqat Hussain Sheikh of Bhaderwah, an “A” class contractor. Similarly, extraction work was also allotted by misuse of official position to two influential contractors - Mohammad Shafi and Masood Ahmed - showing them to be under “Amani” category.

The allotment was made by the accused public servants by abuse of their official positions to two relatives and two close associates (drivers), three of whom were registered and one unregistered, of their favourite contractor Shafqat Hussain Sheikh. These included his brother and nephew. Also the influential contractors (1 registered and 1 unregistered) were selected through a pick and choose method despite availability of a number of registered poor/petty contractors falling in 'Amani' category. Also, the quantity allotted was illegally raised beyond the statutory limit of 40,000 cubic feet to confer undue pecuniary benefit upon the contractors and themselves.

The conspiracy to confer illegal benefit started when amendments were made in the 59th meeting of the Board of Directors of SFC on April 6, 2007, vide which the domicile restriction for choosing “Amani” from around the forest area to be extracted was waived off and the quota of allocation to each “Amani” was increased from 20,000 cubic feet to 40,000 cubic feet. The amendments made at the instance of the then SFC, MD, Aijaz Ahmad Bhat, were subsequently misused by him and other employees with criminal intent to confer undue benefit upon influential contractors and favourite proxy contractor Shafqat Hussain Sheikh. 

Rajouri, June 18
Confusion prevails over the death of Kulbir Singh (22), a first-year law student, who allegedly committed suicide by shooting himself with a .303 gun here yesterday.

However, Kulbir’s family claims that he committed suicide, the post-mortem examination report reportedly states it was not a case of suicide.

Sources in the police department said Kulbir, son of Chamial Singh of Jawahar Nagar here, had come back home a few days back.

Kulbir’s family members said they heard gun shots coming from his room at around 1.45 pm. They broke open the door and found him lying in a pool of blood.

Sources further said the .303 gun was issued in the name of Kulbir’s father, Chamial Singh, a senior assistant in the Chief Education Office. Earlier, Chamial used to work as as VDC member and had got a .303 gun issued in his name.

“We immediately rushed Kulbir to the district hospital where doctors declared him brought dead”, a police source said. He further added that a post-mortem examination had been conducted.

Sources in the district hospital claimed that it may not be a case of suicide as Kulbir had been shot at from the back as the bullet had pierced his chest.

“The .303 gun may not be the original weapon of crime as the report indicates that the gun wound was a smaller one,” sources added.

Meanwhile, sources close to the family claimed that it was a case of accidental fire. “The gun went off accidentally, while Kulbir’s sister was trying to snatch the gun from him who was allegedly attempting suicide. Kulbir took this extreme step after a verbal duel with his parents,” sources close to the family claimed.

Rajesh Kumar, SSP, Rajouri, said the police was yet to ascertain whether it was a case of murder or suicide. “We have initiated investigations,” the SSP said.

Poonch, June 18
Residents of the district are a harried lot these days as the power development department (PDD) has started imposing marathon power cuts.

Residents complained that the PDD had failed to provide electricity as per schedule and imposed long power cuts.

They added that as per schedule, the PDD had to impose power cuts for five-and-a-half-hours, but it imposed power cuts for more than 12 hours a day.

Residents complained that not only this, the voltage at which power was supplied, was also very low.

“Monsoon is round the corner and humidity is high, but the PDD imposes unscheduled power cuts. It is difficult to bear this climate. The department supplies power for just 12 hours a day. Even during those hours, the power supply is inconsistent,” complained Bittu Kumar, a resident of mohalla Krishan Hall.

The erratic power supply is also affecting students whose examinations are going on.

“My exams are going on and the department continues to make us suffer especially during these days when we need electricity to study. As power cuts are imposed during night hours, it is impossible to study”, said Deepak Bali, a student of BSc II and a resident of Super Bazaar mohalla.

Repeated efforts to contact local PDD officers proved futile. However, sources in the PDD said though the department resorted to unscheduled power cuts, the problem was from Jammu.

“The PDD resorts to load-shedding in Jammu which suspends the power supply in Rajouri and Poonch when it faces problems of overdraw from the Northern Grid. This bias against Rajouri and Poonch has been going on despite Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad's slogan of “equal share to all regions of the state”, a local officer said on the condition of anonymity.

Srinagar, June 18
After the shooting of a slew of movies in the lush meadows of Kashmir, it's the turn of dry but imposing land of Kargil. A movie made by Mohanlal, a super star of Malyalam cinema, will be shot for 22 days and, an Army official said, its underlying theme, unlike most of the war movies, will be that soldiers whether of India or Pakistan are inherently alike.

The movie, named Kurukshetra, has begun shooting and is being directed by Major Ravi, a successful director in Malayalam industry. The Army, which gave the go-ahead to movie's shooting after clearing its script, officials said this was the first-ever movie to be shot in Kargil, which shot into public memory during the war between India and Pakistan in 1999.

Hrithik Roshan and Preity Zinta-starrer Lakshya had shown some of the heights of Kargil but was not really shot here. Kurukshetra was earlier named Kargil but rechristened itself as its makers believed the former to be a more appropriate name.

The movie shows two forward posts of India and Pakistan separated by a few metres, and there was no exchange of fire between them even during 1999 war. Soldiers from both sides play volleyball in evening with the barbed wire functioning as net. And then things turn nasty not because of soldiers but because of their leaders as the Kargil war breaks.

The valley of Kashmir has also seen the return of movie-makers as violence has come down by several notches. Though several filmmakers arrived here this year, but big names have still not really warmed up to the idea. 

Jammu, June 18
The J&K State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission dismissed an appeal of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) preferred against the award dated October 17, 2005 of the Divisional Consumer Forum, Srinagar, terming it meritless and charged the appellant Rs 4,000 as costs to be paid to the consumer.

G.M.D. Baba, who is an advocate in the Jammu and Kashmir High Court at Srinagar, had installed a telephone (No 245596) at his residence. The telephone remained out of service w.e.f June 23, 2005 to December 18, 2005. During that period, he made a number of complaints with BSNL, Srinagar but the telephone was not made functional.

He filed a complaint before the forum. The BSNL failed to file written version within time and its right was closed. Also no evidence in rebuttal was produced by BSNL. The forum awarded the damages in the sum of Rs 10,000 against BSNL for deficiency in service.

BSNL took number of pleas in the memo of appeal including the one that all the equipments used by the appellant are electronic equipments which are not manually operated and they cannot be faulted as no person can interfere with their functioning.

The commission observed, “The department is not supposed lightly to brush aside complaints made by the general public. The department should always be ready and willing to serve the subscriber promptly. The employees of the telephone department are not masters of the customers. They are in service and their goal must be to serve the customers.”

The commission further held, “The appellant is given two months time to make the payment of the awarded amount by the forum as well as the costs imposed herein, failing which interest shall become payable at the rate of nine per cent on the awarded amount of the forum.”

Srinagar, June 18
About 100 artistes from Pakistan, Egypt, Uzbekistan and Syria would be participating in a three-day international Sufi music and dance festival, being held at the Sher-e-Kashmir International Conference Centre (SKICC), starting tomorrow.

The programme is being jointly organised by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), New Delhi, the Shri Amarnath Shirne Board, and the Jammu and Kashmir Academy of Art, Culture and Languages in collaboration with Doordarshan Kendra, Srinagar, the Tourism and Information Departments, a spokesman here said.

This is for the first time that international famed ‘Qawals’ from Pakistan Amjad Khan Sabri and reputed theatre Group Ajoka Theatre are going to perform at the festival, a spokesman of the Jammu and Kashmir Academy of Art, Culture and Languages said. He added that the event was aimed at encouraging cultural exchanges between various nations and ethnicities of the globe.