Jammu, December 10
Union Minister of State in the PMO Prithviraj Chavan stated today that India
was not satisfied with the action initiated by Pakistan against terror outfits like
Lashkar-e-Taiba.

Addressing mediapersons here today, Chavan said: "Unless Pakistan stops all training camps, stops funding terror organisations and their various agencies give us confidence that they are serious, we will not believe them."

He said as a measure of goodwill, Pakistan must hand over the criminals, who are India's citizens, wanted for a crime against humanity and involvement in terrorism, which have been committed here and against whom legal proceedings are on.

"This is a very emphatic demand by our government," he said. India had also given ample evidence against the criminals sought from Pakistan.

Regarding the government's plans to deal with terror, he said a major package for modernisation of the police force--under which it would be provided with latest weaponry--- was being considered while the process to set up a federal investigation agency would soon be set rolling.

Upbeat over the victory of the Congress in three states, Chavan said the people had voted for development and rejected divisive politics and hoped that the people of Jammu and Kashmir would also follow suit.

The BJP had tried to raise the issue of terrorism by releasing various ads on the poll-eve in various states, but the people's verdict was a slap on the face of all those who attempted to communalise the Mumbai terror attack.

He said the people wanted the BJP to stand with the Congress shoulder-to-shoulder and fight terrorism.

Chavan complimented the people for expressing resounding faith in the democracy and turning out in large numbers to exercise their franchise in the state.

He claimed that only the Congress could provide secular leadership and rapid economic growth to the strife-torn state.

He exhorted the people of Jammu region to decisively vote for development, employment, industrialisation and redressal of long-pending issues of backwardness. He said the Congress was expecting to form the government on its own.

He said the final attempt was being made to persuade the Congress rebels to withdraw from the poll fray.

Jammu, December 10
The BJP has brought about remarkable change in its strategy of the campaign for the state, keeping in mind the debacle of its issue on terrorism in recent poll results of five states.

It was the local issue of development which paved way for its success in both Madhya Pardesh and Chattisgarh but cost it dearly in Delhi, Rajasthan and Mizoram.

The agenda of terrorism which the BJP hoped to cash in on the Congress after the 26/11 terrorist attacks in Mumbai went simply kaput. Now the party is avoiding the issue in its campaign.

The change in the BJP’s stance appeared more conspicuous on Wednesday morning, when Arun Jaitley, national general secretary of the BJP and, MP came to address press personnel in Jammu.

He spoke on discrimination with Jammu and delimitation but did not echo a single word on terrorism unless mediapersons began poking him for the same.

He had no way out but to admit that terrorism was not a state but a national issue and, all political parties needed to unite on it.

But he also reiterated that since terrorism was a sensitive issue, so its significance could never be underestimated and, the BJP stood by that from the very beginning.

Replying to Pakistan’s repeated denial of receiving any evidence of its involvement in Mumbai terror attack officially from India, he said, “The entire world was a witness to the photos of the terrorists being splashed on TV along with the details which explained their connection with the soil of Pakistan. Soon, Pakistan will also get evidence from India as well.”

Jaitley urged voters to stand united in favour of the BJP as he said that the party will emerge as the voice of people of Jammu, and will do possible to amend delimitation recommendations and imbalance of power in Jammu.

He also threw the gauntlet at the Congress saying, “The BJP will never forge an alliance with parties who talk of self rule, autonomy and discrimination of Jammu, but can the Congress, who has always acted as a tail of Kashmir-centric parties, make such a claim?”

He called Article 370 as Nehruvian blunder. “History proved that Pandit Nehru and Sheikh Abdullah created blunders with article 370, while Shayama Mukherjee and Pt Prem Nath Dogra were right in their assertion. We do not have legislative strength to amend it but our political resolve will continue to remain firmer,” he averred.

Jammu, December 10
Senior BJP leader and candidate from Gandhi Nagar constituency Dr Nirmal Singh has accused the Congress of being “pro-militant and anti-people” thereby, seriously hampering the national interest.

Addressing a series of meetings in the Gandhi Nagar constituency today, Singh said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s Working Groups, which the Congress promised for addressing the grievances of people of state, “turned out to be a ploy for justifying the doles to separatists and militants, while those fighting the Pakistan-sponsored war in Jammu and Kashmir were left in the lurch”.

He said if voted to power the BJP would scrap the recommendations of the Working Groups, which were “militant friendly”, ensure strengthening of Village Defence Committees, regularisation of SPOs and increase in honorarium to Rs 5,000 from existing Rs 3,000.

“Besides, the BJP would also ensure the implementation of SRO 143 in letter and spirit and one job to each family, which is a victim of militancy, and not the perpetrator of militancy.”

Lashing out at the Congress and the NC for their anti-Jammu policies, Singh said the BJP stood for political empowerment of people of Jammu so that the discrimination and injustice against Jammu was undone.

Singh said the Congress and the NC during the past 60 years “have done nothing for the people of Jammu and indulged in lip service only” either it was providing voting rights to refugees or political reservation to Gujjars or Paharis.

He said while the NC used all sections by raising the bogey of autonomy, the Congress indulged in blackmailing the people of Jammu by raising emotive issues.

The senior BJP leader said the party would reserve five seats each for refugees and displaced Kashmiri Pandits and ensure that the right to vote and citizenship was granted to them.

He said that a policy would be laid down for re-employment of ex-soldiers in the government, semi-government and private sector. Besides VAT and sales tax would be abolished on CSD items.

Jammu, December 10
The controversy between the Jammu and Kashmir Gurudwara Prabandak Board (JKGPB) and the District Gurudwara Prabandak Committee (DGPC) may cost dear to the NC Sikh candidate from the Gandhi Nagar Assembly constituency who is banking on Sikh votes of the area.

The Sikh votes have always remained a deciding factor in the poll outcome of the Gandhi Nagar Assembly constituency.

However, following the controversy, the prospect of a Sikh candidate wining the polls from the seat seems feeble.

While in the last Assembly elections the seat was won by Congress candidate Raman Bhalla, who had defeated NC candidate and former minister Harbans Singh, this time to rope in the Sikh votes, the NC has given ticket to T.S. Wazir.

However, Mahant Manjeet Singh, who has a large number of Sikh followers in the state, has appealed his followers to vote in favour of Bhalla.

Though Mahant Manjeet Singh had supported Wazir during Gurudwara Prabandak Board elections, the two developed serious differences when Wazir dissolved the District Gurudwara Prabandak Committee without the consent of the former.

“The appeal by Mahant Manjeet Singh to his followers to support Bhalla is not based on any controversy, but it was in admiration of the fact that Bhalla during his capacity as a minister and MLA in the previous government had done a lot for the area,” Mohinder Singh, spokesman of the Mahant’s Dera Nangali Sahib said.

Udhampur, December 10
Annoyed over the selection of candidates, RSS activists have maintained a distance from the ongoing BJP campaign.

The lacklustre attitude of the RSS cadre has given sleepless nights to BJP leaders contesting elections from various constituencies of the Jammu region.

As a damage-control exercise, BJP leaders have been regularly visiting RSS offices in their respective areas to placate Sangh Parivar activists.

Highly placed sources in Sangh Parivar said that the "over-confident" BJP leadership had ignored the RSS while selecting candidates for most of the seats.

After successfully launching the 63-day-long agitation on the Amarnath land controversy, the RSS had advised the BJP leadership to field fresh faces but the proposal was rejected.

Instead of introducing new faces, all senior BJP leaders themselves jumped into the fray to cash in on the wave created by the Amarnath Yatra Sangharsh Samiti, which successfully spearheaded the land agitation.

A senior Sangh Parivar leader told The Tribune that the RSS had suggested
to the state leadership to field young leaders who were active during the
Amarnath land agitation.

"Instead of accepting this proposal, BJP leaders themselves jumped into the electoral battle without the consent of the RSS leadership", he said

BJP leaders are aware that without support of the Sangh Parivar, it is rather difficult to mobilize the masses.

Interestingly, RSS cadre is working overtime in those seats where the candidates of their choices were given the mandate by the BJP.

"We want to teach a lesson to the arrogant BJP leaders who have grown bigger than the organisation", an RSS worker said, giving the reason for not actively participating in the campaign.

Udhampur, December 10
The PDP has stepped up its attack on its arch rival NC as party candidates are shifting all blame on the latter for the backwardness in the mountainous region of Doda district.

Addressing series of public meetings at Kishtwar today, PDP candidate for Kishtwar assembly segment Sayed Asgar Ali termed NC as “mother of all problems” and exhorted the people to teach a lesson to the NC for backwardness and underdevelopment of the people of Doda and Kishtwar.

Seeking support of the people to fulfil incomplete task of PDP patron Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, Asgar Ali appealed to the people to support the PDP in the elections for lasting peace, prosperity and development of the state in general and backward areas in particular.

He reminded the people about various development projects started in this backward area during the regime of Mufti Mohammad Sayeed.

He regretted that successive NC representatives from this segment had done nothing for the betterment and uplift of the people of the belt.

He further said the successive NC regimes were responsible for the backwardness of Kishtwar and adjoining localities and it was high time a lesson was taught to those who had done nothing except exploiting the people for their political gains.

Srinagar, December 10
Two senior leaders of the moderate faction of the Hurriyat Conference along and a JKLF leader were released here today.

Hurriyat leaders Ghulam Mohammad Hubi and Abdul Manan Bukhari and Sheikh Mohammad Afzal, senior vice-chairman of the breakaway JKLF faction, were released on court orders on the eve of Eid-ul-Azha, the official sources said.

The trio were among nearly 24 senior separatist leaders of both Hurriyat factions and other groups arrested a few months back as part of the government strategy to thwart the anti-poll campaign, they said.

While Hubi and Bukhari were arrested during the agitation over the Amarnath land transfer row in August, Afzal, who was actively involved in the poll boycott campaign, was arrested ahead of the first of elections held on November 17.

All arrested separatist leaders, including JKLF chairman Mohammad Yaseen Malik, Democratic Freedom Party president Shabir Ahmad Shah, Dukhtaran-e-Millat chief Asiya Indrabi, senior leader of hardline faction Ghulam Nabi Sumji and JKLF leader Meraj-ud-din Kalwal were booked under the Public Safety Act.

On December 7, the state High Court also quashed the detention orders of Shabir Ahmad Shah, Asiya Indrabi, Sehrai and Kalwal and asked the government to release them immediately if they were not wanted in other cases.

The government also lifted the restrictions on the movement of Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, chairman of the moderate Hurriyat faction, and he offered Eid prayers at Jamia Masjid yesterday.

Suchetgarh, December 10
In the Suchetgarh Assembly constituency, where the Jat community makes or mars the poll prospects of contesting candidates, almost all major political outfits have fielded Jat candidates.

Interestingly, out of 21 candidates chancing their luck from Suchetgarh, 15 candidates belong to the community.

The constituency having 60,357 electors, out of which Jat community alone has nearly 30,000 votes, would go to polls in the last phase on December 24.

If the Congress has repeated its last-time winning candidate and former minister Choudhary Gharu Ram then the BJP has fielded Sham Choudhary and the NC has given its mandate to Taranjeet Singh Tony.

NC initially had fielded Naresh Choudhary, another Jat candidate, but later party patron Farooq Abdullah had ‘rectified’ the blunder.

Likewise, the PDP has fielded former MP Tarlok Singh Bajwa, while the BSP and the Panthers Party too have preferred Jat candidates in the form of Choudhary Mohan Singh and Ashok Randhawa, respectively.

In neck-and-neck fight of the 2002 edition, Congress’ Choudhary Gharu Ram had secured 11,344 votes defeating the then BJP candidate, R.S. Chib, by a thin margin of 137 votes. Chib had secured 11, 207 votes.

Though the constituency close to the International Border has nearly 8,000 voters of Poonchi Brahmins and 5,000 voters of Chib Rajput community, yet the Jat community had always played a major role in deciding the winning candidate.

Villagers in this border constituency identify themselves with Jat leaders and hence this time around almost every party has given tickets to Jat candidates, Sarvottam Singh, a local said.

If villagers were to be believed, two factors - Amarnath land agitation and anti- incumbency against Congress - would surely impact the outcome of results here.

Kiriyan (Kathua), December 10
A cluster of nine villages, which remains cut off from the rest of the state by a seasonal rivulet of the Ravi near here, have pinned their hopes on the ongoing Assembly elections.

For the past six decades, residents of these villages cast their votes hoping that the candidate whom they are voting for would get a bridge constructed over the rivulet. However, their hope has not turned into reality.

This time too, they are expecting that their demand of a bridge over the rivulet would be met with the formation of the new government in the state.

Falling under Kathua district, residents of these villages have to cover nearly 35 km to reach the district headquarters from a motorable road via Punjab. Interestingly, the neighbouring state’s Pathankot distritct is just 15 km from these villages.

The villages are Ramnagar, Kiriyan, Gandyal, Deviya, Mehra, Pucca Jhumber, Bawe Da Dera, Dittu Da Dera, Bohr Wala and Jhumber. All of them fall under the jurisdiction of two panchayats - Kiriya and Gandyal.

Sarpanch of Kiriya panchayat Rajesh Sharma said a bridge would end their alienation forever. About 8,000 inhabitants of these villages promised time and again by different candidates in the poll fray to construct the bridge after coming to power, only to be ditched later.

According to him, a 3-km bridge was needed to connect these villages with the NH-1, which would reduce the distance to Kathua town for them to a mere 9 km.

The villagers cross the rivulet, which receives water during the monsoon, on foot. No vehicle can be driven on the dry bed of the rivulet since it is full of pebbles, stones and boulders. The motorable road that passes through Punjab is also in a bad shape and needs urgent repair.

“We often use this route to shift our patients and market our crop,” he said, adding that the officials at toll-tax barrier do not allow them to cross it smoothly.

Their other demand is for the establishment of a public health centre. The villagers said there was no institute for providing any emergency medical aid to the patients of the villages.

The positive aspect of being near Punjab was that parents could send their wards to public schools located near Pathankot. However, this is restricted to a handful of affluent families.

A farmer, Prithviraj, with four acres of land said since landholdings were small, they did not find much return. Besides, overhead costs were much.

He said the construction of the bridge would curtail expenditure on marketing the agricultural produce.

Karamchand, another farmer from the area, said the state government must offer more grants for development activities in these villages to end their alienation once and for all.

Kathua, December 10
Even as various political parties are indulging in blame game over the Amarnath land row, the issue doesn’t seem to figure among the electorate’s agenda ahead of the polling to the district’s five constituencies on Saturday.

Kathua, which apart from Jammu and Samba districts witnessed violent protests during the Amarnath land agitations, will be the first to go to the polls among them.

However, as they say public memory is short, the Amarnath land stir has become a thing of the past and the people here are now talking about the issues concerning their day-to-day life.

Ranjit Singh Sambyal, a chemist, in Kathua said: “We are of the view that there will be no takers for the tickets of the Congress and the PDP from the district. However, everything has effortlessly calmed and people are attending the rallies of all parties putting aside all incidents of the past.”

“Shadow of the land row was nowhere to be seen in the Assembly elections, coming only after two months from the former, displayed the dynamics and vivaciousness of the great Indian democracy,” Adarsh Malhotra, a professor in Government Degree College, said.

The intensity of the agitation had forced, among others, BSP's Som Nath Manjotra and Panthers Party's Ravinder Pathania, trying their luck in the Assembly elections.

While several independents and rebels from many parties like the Congress had jumped into the fray on the premise that it was opportune time to reap dividends of the popularity they had gained following participation in the land row agitation.

Shashi Bhushan Gupta, a trader at Rajbagh, felt that the issue was associated with the faith and the elections were a process to elect a government that would look after their needs.

Jammu, December 10
Undeterred with the election outcome of the five states where her party could not do well, BSP supremo and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati today said if voted to power her party would provide reservation to the socially and economically weaker section of the society.

Addressing a largely attended public rally in Jammu, she urged the people of the state to vote for her party candidate as her party if voted to power would bring development to the doorsteps of the people.

In her effort to woo the “upper castes” and to repeat the social engineering concept in the state, BSP supreme assured that BSP would provide reservation to the socially and economically weaker sections of all castes.

Buoyed over by its success in Uttar Pradesh, BSP for the first time fielded a large number of “upper caste” candidates in Jammu province to woo voters of all castes.

“BSP is not against any caste. Some political groups have launched malicious campaign against the BSP as the party has been emerging as a strong force in the country. We have successfully implemented social engineering concept involving people of all sections of society”, she said while highlighting achievements of the BSP government in Uttar Pradesh.

She asked the people to help form a BSP government in the state for the development and uplift of downtrodden and poor sections of all castes.

Mayawati said her party would bring to an end an “era of exploitation, backwardness and neglect”.

Pointing towards miseries of the weaker sections in the country, Mayawati shifted all blames on the Congress and the BJP. Mayawati lashed out at both parties for furthering interests of capitalists and big industrialists and ignoring wishes and aspirations of the weaker section of the society.

“The BJP, the Congress and some other political parties have been getting huge donations from big industrial groups and they when voted to power, form their economical policies to benefit those capitalists and big industrialists.” she said.

Today’s rally is being considered as a moral booster for the BSP in Jammu, Kathua and Sambha district.

Although the party has so far failed to emerge as the front-runner in most of the seats, but in some of the seats it has been giving a tough fight to the BJP, the Congress and the NC candidates.

The BSP, which is contesting all 37 seats in Jammu region and hopes to make a dent in the electoral fortunes of the Congress and the BJP, would usher in a new era of progress and development, Mayawati promised.

Jammu, December 10
Mr Justice J. P. Singh of the J&K High Court allowed the petition of Javed Iqbal Khan, an alleged overground hardcore Jaish-e-Mohammed worker, while quashing the Jammu DM’s order dated October 27, 2007, and directed the state to set the petitioner free if not required in any other case.

Counsel for the petitioner questioned his detention under the J&K Public Safety Act. The petitioner was in police custody under Sections 307/121-A/120-B/212, RPC; 7/25 Indian Arms Act & 4/5 ESA at Janipur police station when the DM directed his detention on the ground that in the event of his release on bail or otherwise, he was likely to revive his anti-national activities, posing a serious threat to security.

While allowing the petition Mr Justice J. P. Singh observed that "the petitioner does not appear to have been supplied the whole material relied upon by the district magistrate at the time he had contemplated the petitioner’s detention. All that the petitioner is shown to have been supplied is only grounds of detention. The petitioner is right in complaining that the non-supply of material relied upon by the DM has deprived him of the constitutional right to make an effective representation against his detention.”

The HC further held that “the detention records, however, do not contain any material on the basis of which may be inferred that there was any likelihood of the petitioner reviving anti-national activities on his release on bail or otherwise

The DM does not appear to have applied his mind to go through the material placed before him. All this demonstrates that the detention order is arbitrary and is, therefore, liable to be quashed.