New Delhi, April 2
The recent infiltration bids in Jammu and Kashmir came in for some surprise for security agencies when they found Muzamil, one of the main LeT mastermind of the Mumbai terror attack, as the brain behind large-scale intrusion from PoK.

Security agencies monitoring wireless intercepts along the LoC tracked a conversation where Muzamil was asking Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Sallahuddin to push a large number of militant cadres into the state. The terrorists later spoke to Hizbul chief Syed Sallahuddin -- a conversation intercepted by security agencies — asking him to prepare some of his men to be ready for large-scale infiltration into the valley.

The border in North Kashmir has witnessed large-scale infiltration in the last fortnight which includes the one that led to a fierce encounter at Kupwara leading to the killing of 18 LeT militants. Eight soldiers of the Army's para commando unit, including a Major, were also killed during the encounter.

Muzamil is one of the hardcore terrorists with very good knowledge of topography of Kashmir. Besides several suicide attacks, he is also wanted in connection with masterminding the Akshardham temple attack in 2002 at Gujarat.

His sudden surfacing on the terror network of Jammu and Kashmir has belied the claim of Pakistani authorities that he had been detained during a special operation following the 26/11 terror attacks in Mumbai.

Security agencies have also seen an increase of wireless traffic between terrorists in Kashmir and their handlers in PoK thus breaking the three-month-long lull after 26/11. Muzamil, alias Yusuf, whose real identity was yet to be established, has been seen as the brain behind the large-scale infiltration bids from across the border, official sources said, adding that the new strategy adopted this time was to push in more and more terrorists before the snow melted at the passes.

The sources said the Mumbai mastermind, who is among the 38 persons named in the chargesheet filed in the 26/11 attack, had held a meeting with other terrorist groups, including Harkat-ul-Mujahideen and Jaish-e-Mohammed, earlier last month despite the fact that these two outfits belong to a different sect of Islam. — PTI 

Marh, April 2
BJP leader and film actor Shatrughan Sinha addressed an election rally at Gajasoo village of the Marh Assembly constituency, where people waited for him in scorching sun, sitting on ground without any tent or cover over their head.

BJP candidate Leela Karan Sharma, for whom the star campaigner was called, was conspicuous by his absence along with other MLAs, though Ashok Khajuria, state party president, and MLA, Marh, Sukvinder Chaudhary were present at the rally. People gathered and stood wherever they got place, as soon as Shatrughan arrived.

Thanking villagers for waiting for him in blistering weather, he implored them in his inimitable style saying, “I have started my campaign for the Lok Sabha elections from this holy city of temples instead of from my own seat Patna Sahib.”

Taking a dig at the slogan of his own party in the last general elections, “India Shining”, and the Congress slogan “Jai Ho”, he said, “It is the continuous plundering that has increased 20 per cent poverty in the country. Forty-seven per cent of the country’s population is still starving in comparison to 27 per cent in South African countries. Unless we rid our country of poverty and provide peace and prosperity to people, we have no right to raise such slogans.”

Striking a chord with the rural flock, he said, “Seventy-five per cent of the population, which lives in villages, gets merely 25 per cent of health related and other facilities, whereas 25 per cent of urban population gets 75 per cent facilities in all sectors. We will have to overcome these discrepancies.”

Shatrughan steered clear of insinuating any particular community for perpetrating terrorism in country as he said, “The terror fear is pervading all around. It is security forces that are shielding us. But I do not associate any religion with terrorism, as terrorists do not have any religion.”

Jammu, April 2
Taking cognizance of the malpractice of his ministers and sitting legislators, who have engaged staff of the Legislative Assembly Secretariat for their official and personal works in utter violation of constitutional provisions, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah today took up the matter with Speaker Mohammed Akbar Lone.

The Tribune in its columns had reported yesterday that most of the ministers and legislators of the NC-Congress coalition and even some former legislators had engaged over 40 employees and officials of the Assembly Secretariat for their official and personal works.

“I have taken up the matter with the Speaker and now he will initiate necessary action,” Omar Abdullah told The Tribune here today.

“Since it’s the prerogative of the Speaker and being Chief Minister of the state I don’t think I have an authority to intervene in the affairs of the Legislative Assembly,” he added. Meanwhile, no formal order had been issued till this evening from the office of the Speaker to recall Assembly Secretariat employees and officials engaged by the coalition ministers, legislators and former legislators, official sources said.

Jammu, April 2
Governor NN Vohra and Chief Minister Omar Abdullah have greeted people on the auspicious occasion of Ramnavami, the birthday of Lord Rama. In his message Governor Vohra said Lord Rama epitomized righteousness and the spirit of sacrifice, adding that his message of love, truth and social justice, would guide humanity till eternity.

The Governor wished the people a very happy Ramnavami and prayed for brotherhood, harmony, peace, progress and prosperity in the state.

In his message Chief Minister Omar Abdullah wished the people a very happy Ramnavami and prayed for lasting peace, progress and prosperity for the state.

Jammu, April 2
NC provincial president Rattan Lal Gupta today nominated block presidents for Kathua, Billawar, Basohli, Udhampur, Reasi, Ramban, Kishtwar and Doda districts in Jammu province.

Gupta has converted all party units of Jammu province into election units for the LS poll and nominated all party MLAs and candidates, who had contested the last Assembly elections as the persons in charge of their respective Assembly segments.

He has further directed all district presidents and block presidents of Jammu province to coordinate with their counterparts in the Congress so as to ensure the victory of Congress candidates Madan Lal Sharma and Lal Singh from the Jammu-Poonch and Udhampur-Doda LS seats, respectively.

Jammu, April 2
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah felt today situation was not ripe for resuming talks with Pakistan in the backdrop of the Lok Sabha elections, Pakistan’s lukewarm response to 26/11 and its internal strife.

Omar said, “We expect Pakistan to implement its commitment on war against terror and bring the culprits of 26/11 to justice.”

“Moreover, Pakistan needs to crack down on these terror forces, which have unleashed a rein of terror on its own soil,” he said while fielding media queries here this afternoon.

On the Union Home Ministry’s advisory, which has put senior state leaders like Farooq Abdullah, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Omar Abdullah himself on the terrorists’ hit list, he said from time-to-time the government reviewed security situation and wherever required necessary changes were made.

“I lived with assassination attempts, but it does not worry me from mingling with people. And I would continue to do so,” he said. He added that infallible protection was in the hands of the almighty.

No special arrangements had been made for me, but security of Ghulam Nabi Azad, Farooq Abdullah, Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, Mehbooba Mufti and other senior leaders was reviewed regularly.

On terror threats to disrupt general elections vis-à-vis increase in infiltration attempts on the LoC, Omar said we neither underestimated nor exaggerated the threats. We hold regular conversations with two GOCs of 15 Corps and 16 Corps.

On Varun Gandhi’s hate speech, Omar said he should now face the law, but felt Varun did not threaten national security and a law other than the NSA could have been invoked to deal with him.

Earlier, veteran Congress leader Govind Ram Sharma and dissident leader Choudhary Talib Hussain joined the NC.

Jammu, April 2
A number of candidates appearing in the Kashmir Administrative Services exams suffered a jolt when Justice Nirmal Singh of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court has dismissed a batch of writ petitions filed by Arjun Singh and others involving similar nature of controversy.

Justice Nirmal Singh held that the government was right in its decision to fix a cut-off date as far as the minimum age was concerned for making selection to a post under the state.

The J&K Public Service Commission vide a notification dated December 30, 2008, had invited applications for the J&K Combined Competitive (Preliminary) Examinations, 2009 for direct recruitment on 398 posts in three different services i.e., administrative, police and accounts. The eligibility criteria was that a candidate should possess bachelor’s degree and even the candidates having appeared in BA exam and awaiting results were eligible subject to having cleared the said degree at the time of appearing in the main examination.

The age criteria was that a candidate should be 21 years of age and should not be 35 years as on January 1, 2008. The fixation of the minimum age of 21 years as on January 1, 2008, was challenged in a batch of petitions. It was argued that the respondent state arbitrarily prescribed the minimum age limit by fixing a particular cut-off date. And it was not in the interest of those students who were not 21 years of age as on January 1, 2008, but attained this age even one day after the cut-off date and were also fulfilling the educational qualification criteria.

The high court, while dismissing the batch of petitions, observed that “the candidates seeking appointment/direct recruitment to these three services, thus, shall have to fulfil the conditions of eligibility in terms of Rule 5 of SRO 387 as far as educational qualification, minimum and maximum age limit are concerned. The petitioners, in the case in hand, who admittedly have attained the minimum age after the cut-off date in the impugned notification, cannot, by any stretch of imagination, be said to be eligible for applying for the services in question, and thus, their candidature cannot be directed to be considered by the commission.”

The court, holding the petitions as not maintainable, held that “the commission shall not be under any obligation to accept the candidature of those candidates whose application forms stand accepted in view of the interim directions passed by this court in some of the writ petitions. The said application forms shall also be deemed to have been rejected.”

Jammu, April 2
The Education Department has issued a series of orders for revamping the system at the elementary and secondary levels in the state. These measures include conducting the class VIII examination at the district level and of and classes V and III at the zonal and cluster levels, respectively.

Minister for Education and Public Enterprises Peerzada Mohammad Sayeed said institutional plans regarding unit-wise distribution of syllabus should be available in all educational institutions. Besides, maintenance of lesson diaries indicating salient features of a topic by subject teachers of class V to class X should be checked by heads of the institutions daily and also by the inspecting officers, Peerzada said.

He said it would be mandatory for the school headmasters to take at least one class daily to serve as a model for transaction of curriculum for other teachers.

He said remedial teaching registers should be maintained by the subject teachers to be open for inspection by the inspecting authorities, besides starting KG classes in all schools.

Jammu, April 2
Various issues regarding developmental activities undertaken by the Jammu Municipal Corporation (MC) were discussed at a meeting of the 34th Finance and Planning Standing Committee held on the MC premises today. The meeting was chaired of Deputy Mayor Dharamvir Singh Jamwal.

The councillors raised the encroachment issue and the House was informed that shopkeepers continued to encroach upon roadside despite efforts by the MC Enforcement Wing to discourage them. It was decided that the anti-encroachment drive should be accelerated and a heavy fine imposed on encroacher.

The councillors also raised the issue regarding the number of court cases pending in various courts since long, due to which occupants of shops and residential accommodations were not paying rent dues, thus causing loss of several lakhs to the MC.

The councillors also suggested that the rent of shops and residential accommodations be enhanced by 20 per cent as the same had not been revised for several years.

The Finance and Planning Standing Committee also took a serious view of unauthorised hoardings on shop front and rooftops and decided to levy charges on hoardings at shop fronts that were beyond 75 per cent of the shop length and three feet width at the rate of Rs 300 per square foot for extending the hoarding space.

Udhampur, April 2
A team of the State Vigilance Organisation (SVO) yesterday caught Swaram Singh, girdawar, and Vijay Kumar, patwari, Kothdi, Udhampur district, while accepting a bribe of Rs 5,000 for issuing revenue documents.

Rattan Singh of Kothdi, Udhampur, lodged a complaint with the Vigilance Organisation, Jammu, that one of his relatives, Naseeb Singh of Kothdi, intended to sell a piece of land measuring 2 kanals, 8 marlas out of khasra No 161 at Kothdi. The complainant representing Naseeb Singh approached patwari Swaram Singh for the issue of necessary revenue documents. Swaram Singh after taking a bribe of Rs 1,700 from the complainant issued false revenue documents of the land.

When the complainant came to know that Swaram Singh had issued false revenue documents, he again approached him. Swaram Singh, meanwhile, was promoted as girdawar and he directed the complainant to approach present patwari Vijay Kumar for the preparation of genuine revenue documents. He further demanded Rs 1,000 from the complainant as he would have to vet the documents later on.

The complainant approached patwari Vijay Kumar for getting the genuine revenue documents in February. The patwari had not issued the documents till date and had been demanding Rs 5,000 as bribe. The vigilance registered a case and a team of SVO officials caught the girdawar and the patwari while accepting a bribe of Rs 1,000 and Rs 4,000, respectively, from the complainant.

Udhampur, April 2
The security forces gunned down three terrorists of the Laskhar-e-Toiba (LeT), including one self-styled district commander, in Sadhwa village of Kishtwar district today. The slain militants were part of the group that had engaged the security forces in a fierce gun battle on March 14 and later escaped after a day-long encounter.

The killing of the three militants is being considered a big success, as the security forces have been alerted following intelligence reports about the nefarious designs of the terrorists to disrupt the Lok Sabha elections. Following inputs from intelligence agencies, the security forces have already started “search-and-destroy” operations in the mountainous belt of Doda and Kishtwar districts.

DIG, Doda-Ramban range, Hemant Kumar Lohia told The Tribune that various teams of security forces were chasing militants, who escaped after the March 14 encounter from the area.

“This morning, we received information about the presence of these militants in Sadhwa village. The police and the Rashtriya Rifles (RR) launched a joint operation in the area”, he said.

He added during the four-hour long gun battle the three militants were killed.

Reports said the militants were roaming in the Keshwan area of Kishtwar district for the past three days. This morning, the militants took shelter in a dhok (a hut constructed to store grass and feed for cattle) in Sadhwa village. Locals informed the police at the nearby post immediately. As the strength of policemen in the post was less, a message was flashed to the district headquarters about the presence of the militants. Before the additional force reached, the police had cordoned off the entire area and engaged the militants in a gunfight.

Although the police did not disclose the identity of the slain militants, sources said the killed terrorists included self-styled LeT commander Yosuf Ahmed, a local militant. Yosuf had managed to give the security forces a slip during the March 14 encounter.

The identity of the other militants, according to sources, had been established as Rafiq and Karamat Ullah. Some arms and ammunition were also seized from the site of the encounter.

Meanwhile, a joint team of the Rashtriya Rifles and the local Police apprehended three LeT overground workers in Bhart of Doda district. The apprehended worker have been identified as Gulam Mohudin Malik, Gulam Qadir, and Noor Mohammed. Around 50 rounds of ammunition of AK 47, one Chinese grenade, two electronic detonators and one radio set were seized from them.

Jammu, April 2
Minister for Tourism and Culture Nawang Rigzin Jora asked Bollywood to come and shoot in the state, as the state offered unmatched locales, which filmmakers would discover only when they come and visit it.

Interacting with Mumbai-based film producer Sunil Kapoor here today, Jora said the state government would provide all possible help to the filmmakers for shooting films in the state.

The minister said besides Kashmir valley, the state was also blessed with other tourist attractions in Ladakh and Jammu regions, which also provided vast and varied potential for film production houses. He added that shooting films in Jammu and Kashmir was much cheaper as compared to that in Europe.

Kapoor informed the minister that his film unit had already started shooting for his forthcoming film “Love in Kashmir” and completed 30 per cent production. He added that he would like to shoot more films in Kashmir. Kapoor said the rest of the shooting would also be done in the valley.

He directed secretary, tourism, Tanveer Jehan to facilitate the film unit by providing boarding and lodging facilities, besides other required support.