Jammu, May 10
Taking serious cognizance of a bloody clash between Gujjars and the police at Belicharana, near here, yesterday, Labour and Employment Minister Surjeet Singh Salathia today ordered a probe into the incident.

Salathia has sought the report by tomorrow evening which would be put up to CM Omar Abdullah.

The Labour Minister, accompanied by senior civil and police officials today visited Belicharana to take stock of the situation.

At least six persons, including SP South Mubasir Latifi, two cops and three Gujjars had sustained injuries in the clash yesterday when the police had tried to evict around 50 nomadic families from government land allegedly encroached upon by them.

Salathia assured immediate relief to the aggrieved Gujjar families.

“DIG Jammu-Kathua range AQ Manhas and DC Jammu Dr Bhandari and have been asked to conduct the inquiry into the incident and they would submit the report to me by tomorrow evening,” Salathia told The Tribune.

More than 35 hutments of Gujjars were burnt in the incident and the poor nomads having small children were rendered without shelter and food, said the Labour Minister, adding that the DC, Jammu, has been asked to provide immediate relief to the aggrieved families.

Flour, rice, tents, utensils and water tankers have already been provided to the affected families to cope up with the situation, he said.

Srinagar/Baramulla, May 10
Non-existent a year ago, the small in-patient facility at the Police Hospital in Srinagar is packed to capacity these days. It’s full of chronic addicts, who have been lucky to survive the lethal impact of medicinal opiods and solvents, being abused indiscriminately in the valley.

Others have not been that lucky, with hospitals across Kashmir reporting a rise in the number of sudden, unexplained deaths of people with opiod abuse history. Only three days ago, one such death, of a 17-year-old Rashid Sheikh, was reported from Baramulla.

Health experts explain the situation as a “drug epidemic” and say if urgent measures are not taken to block the availability of drugs like cannabis, brown sugar, medicinal opiods and solvents, the valley might witness many more sudden deaths.

Currently, 20 per cent people between 18 and 35 years in rural areas alone are said to be abusing drugs. The figure emerged from a recent joint drug de-addcition camp organised in the Baramulla and Anantnag segments, where 400 and 523 persons, respectively, disclosed their substance abuse history and sought help.

Of these, 90 per cent said they were abusing medicinal opiods like pentazocine (high-intensity pain killer used in labour) and buprenorphine (used mainly to ease pain in cancer patients) in solid and injectible forms. The remaining were either on cannabis or opium and brown sugar.

Doctors call a 20 per cent lifetime prevalence of drug abuse alarming, and say actual figures should be much higher. They are concerned about the recent phenomenon of volatile substance abuse like boot polishes, glue, fluid eraser and other solvents that can kill at any time.

These are freely available, says a patient at the police hospital, who has been under treatment for three months. He began with using tablets, and switched over to medicinal opiods, consuming 30 to 40 bottles of cough syrups a day. He is now off drugs but says village youths are abusing drugs, easily available during election time.

Doctors say Kashmiris use drugs mainly as a coping mechanism and not for pleasure. But the situation now has gone out of hand and would have to be tackled on a war footing.

Dr Arshad Hussain of Psychiatric Diseases Hospital in Srinagar explains the drug epidemic stage, saying that “when drug abuse starts claiming lives in a community, it means an epidemic is on and it is urgent to detect and treat cases.”

In the past, drugs were mainly abused by people with mental health problems, but that phase was over now, with addicts abounding across the spectrum.

Earlier, the UN Drug Control Programme put the number of addicts in Kashmir at 60,000, excluding 4000 women.

With the problem worsening, the police has started cracking down on cannabis and opium cultivators in Baramulla and Anantnag. They have already cleared 700 acres under opium cultivation in these areas and have shut down several small-scale cottage industries processing opium into brown sugar.

“But the problem will be finally solved only when the drug control and excise departments wake up to its urgency. We also need more de-addiction centres. Currently, we have only two at Srinagar and Baramulla,” says Muzaffar Khan, a clinical psychologist at the police hospital.

Health experts also want the unauthorised sale of prescription drugs to be made a cognizable offence. These days, a Re 8 strip of medicinal opiods is being freely sold to addicts for Rs 200. It’s a problem no politician is openly discussing.

Srinagar, May 10
On Mother’s Day, mothers of people who have disappeared during the decades-old turmoil gave vent to their emotions while seeking to know the whereabouts of their dear ones. Their eyes became moist when some of them demanded that the government should at least provide clues to the graves of their sons.

Taking part in the monthly sit-in under the banner of the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP), many mothers could not control their tears when they came to know that today (Sunday) is Mother’s Day.

“Mother’s Day is a special occasion but for those whose sons are around. We are those ill-fated mothers who have lost everything. Our demand is that we should be provided the whereabouts of our sons which would be a great gift for all of us,” says Parveena Ahangar, president of the APDP.

Although, most of these mothers believe that they have lost their sons forever, there are some who feel that their dear ones are languishing in jails. “We expect the government to provide clues about our sons who are behind the bars,” say the anguished mothers.

Parveena and others like her said that there was no use in pursuing disappearance cases of their dear ones if there is no action at the end of the day. “I fought for 13 years but to no avail. The file sanctioning compensation in my favour has been missing since 1997 and since then there has been no clue,” says Parveena.

She laments that the State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) is “powerless” and is not able to provide relief to families who have suffered during the conflict period.

“We neither want compensation in the form of money nor jobs under the SRO-43. We just demand that our dear ones should be handed back to us,” say the mothers in one voice.

They say they are suffering on account of psychological trauma and have also fallen prey to various ailments. “Most of us have to feed four or five children and the trauma of losing dear one haunts us all the time,” say the unfortunate mothers.

Jammu, May 10
Urmila Prasad (34), wife of Ashok Prasad of Nagpur, was found hanging from the ceiling fan of a hotel in the Gumat area this afternoon, at around 12.30 pm.

The police said a suicide note was also recovered from the deceased wherein she had stated that none should be held responsible for her death.

“In the suicide note the deceased had stated that after her death her body should be handed over to her husband and the hotel bill should be paid after selling her Mangalsutra,” the police added.

Sources said, the deceased who had a daughter, had come from Nagpur to pay obeisance at the Mata Vaishno Devi Temple and was returning to their native place via train yesterday.

However, she had a quarrel with her husband at the Jammu railway station from where she dodged her husband and checked into a hotel in the Gumat area, they added.

This afternoon when the hotel staff did not get any call from Urmila’s room, they became suspicious and informed the police, which broke open the locks to find the woman hanging from the ceiling fan of the hotel room, they said.

The body was later shifted to Government Medical College for autopsy.

Udhampur, May 10
As the atrocities being committed by the militants cross all limits, woman folk in violence-plagued areas of the state have now started daring terrorist threat to protect their dignity and honour from the gun-totting youth.

One month back it was Shah Bano, who had shown courage in the Bhaderwah area and had lodged complaint against four Laskhar-e-Toiba (LeT) men for raping her. Now, Shama (22) and her mother Taja Begum (60) became a source for inspiration for other women who have been silently bearing the brunt of the atrocities of militants.

Knowing that opposing dictates of militants is like inviting death, but these bold women have displayed courage to set example for other victims to follow. Although, militants have killed family members of Shama, including her husband and mother, yet she has not shown any sign of weaknesses and vowed to take revenge.

As the threat looms large, police parties have been deputed to protect the girl from the wrath of militants. We have deputed our parties to the spot and every possible help would be provided to the traumatised girl, who has lost her family in the militants’ attack, SSP Reasi Anand Jain told the Tribune.

Many victims fearing reprisal from terrorists do not come forward and lodge a complaint. Two months back a case came to light where a woman on gun-point was forced to marry a Harkat-ul-Jehadi Islami militant. But now, the situation seems to be changed as the victims have been boldly coming forward.

Earlier, it was one Shah Bano (31), tribal Gujjar woman from Bhaderwah, who has not only dared militant threats, but also ensured that the police register a rape case against the four LeT militants.

Even after the repeated efforts, Bano cannot forget that evening of August 9, 2008, when the four LeT militants barged into her house in the Bhaderwah heights. After having food they took her to a nearby hideout and outraged her modesty.

The gruesome incident came to fore when the news of arrest of Imitiyaz, an area commander of LeT spread in the area. The victim’s husband immediately approached the police station and informed about the rape.

The police later asked him to bring his wife for identification parade where she identified Imitiyaz. Bano on seeing Imtiyaz lost her cool and started thrashing him and later broke down.

Besides Imtiyaz, Bano had also named other LeT militants, including Ashiq Hussain, alias Abu Umair, Mohammad Ashraf, alias Abu Jehadi, and Mudassar Hussain, alias Abu Furqan, who she said had also committed rape.

Jammu, May 10
Gujjars of the state have strongly condemned the action of the officials of the state police and the forest department against the ‘atrocities’ against the Gujjars at Belicharana in Jammu yesterday. The Gujjars today demanded dismissal of the officers of the police and the forest department who allegedly set ablaze more than 50 houses of the nomad community and looted the property worth lakhs at Belicharana village on the banks of river Tawi.

The community alleged that the brute use of force at an isolated place was cruel, ruthless and inhuman act and speaks in volumes about highhandedness of government against landless nomadic and tribal groups of the state.

In a statement issued here today, Haji Shamsher Ali Boken, president, Jammu and Kashmir Gujjars Bakerwal Joint Forum, demanded a judicial probe into the incidents and sought the intervention of President Pratibha Patil in the matter.

He said the Scheduled Tribes (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act 2006, gave rights to nomadic groups cultivating forest land, adding that they have sent a communication addressed to the President where under they have demanded constitutional right on forest land in the state.

The clash between the police and the members of the nomadic tribe broke out yesterday afternoon when officers of the Social Forestry Department, led by DFO Rupe Avtar Kour, reached the spot and asked to vacate the land.

Gujjars refused to vacate the land; “Later the police used heavy force against Gujjars and evacuated 50 families and 500 livestock by burning down their houses and injuring 30 persons, including females,” Boken said.

He alleged that even the children were not spared and the police misbehaved with the female members of the community which was painful and intolerable.

Jammu, May 10
Justice Muzaffar Hussain Attar of the J&K High Court has allowed the criminal transfer application filed by Chandan Mitra, a Rajya Sabha MP, and Anil Bhat, a columnist, and ordered the transfer of the complaint filed against them from Srinagar to Jammu, with a direction to conduct trial within a reasonable time.

Chandan Mitra is the Editor-in-Chief & MD of The Pioneer, a daily published from New Delhi while Anil Bhat is a columnist of the newspaper.

On September 22, 2005, an article “The Tip Of Jahadi Iceberg’ written by Anil Bhat was published in The Pioneer based on information collected by Anil Bhat from an Islamabad -based website called “Weekly Urdu Press Review”.

Complainant Ghulam Nabi Shaida, Editor, Printer & Publisher of “Wadi Ki Awaz”, Srinagar, sent a legal notice dated Oct 3, 2005, stating that defamatory material had been published in the newspaper which caused great deal of injury and demanded Rs 4 crore as damages.

A complaint came up filed before the Judicial Magistrate, Srinagar, in which warrants for appearance of Chandan Mitra and Anil Bhat were issued on Oct. 6, 2005.

Chandan Mitra and Anil Bhat sought transfer of the criminal complaint from Srinagar to any court at Jammu as they apprehended danger to their lives if they are required to appear before the court at Srinagar, especially as Anil Bhat was a former spokesman for the Ministry of Defence as well as the Army during militancy and has been writing extensively on national interest and integration as also against terrorism in all parts of India.

While allowing the transfer application the court observed that “the apprehensions of the petitioners do make out a case for transfer of complaint. This petition is, accordingly allowed. The petitioners will pay Rs. 5000 to the complainant and each witness of the complainant on every date of hearing. 

Jammu, May 10
The state Power Development Department is taking various steps to meet the gap between the generation and consumption of the electricity in the power-starved state.

As per the officials of the department, there has been a large gap between the production and the requirement of the electricity in the state and to meet the gap, unscheduled power cuts are imposed on the state.

“The total production of electricity in the state is between 1,300 to 1,400 MW, whereas the total requirement of the state is around 1,800 MW.” chief engineer, maintenance and repairs, PDD, Ajay Gupta told The Tribune.

He said the department was meeting the requirement by curtailing around 40 per cent of the power supply to different areas of the state.

The power consumption of the Kashmir valley as compared to the Jammu region is also higher while Jammu gets only 500 MW of the total production of the power, the rest goes to the Kashmir valley.

“The daily requirement keeps on fluctuating, during these days when the summer season has started the electricity requirement in Jammu is 800 MW, however, due to the deficiency of power we are able to supply only 500 MW.” Gupta said.

The daily electricity quota of the state from the Northern Grid to meet the deficiency of power also keeps on fluctuating as these days the state is drawing less power from the Northern Grid.

“The daily allotment of electricity from the Northern Grid keeps on fluctuating and it is not fixed, these days due to some problem the quota has been reduced.” said another officer of the PDD.

In order to meet the daily requirement of electricity, the department has been imposing unscheduled power cuts on the residents of the Jammu region on which the residents are very irked and at various occasions they come on streets to protest the power cuts.

But the department says they don’t have another option as there is a major gap between the production and the requirement of the electricity in the region.

Srinagar, May 10
Sikhs in Kashmir have expressed concern over the dislocation of members of the community from the Swat and Buner areas of Pakistan under threats from the Taliban.

In a statement here today, Jagmohan Singh Raina, coordinator, All-Parties Sikh Coordination Committee, said by levying Jaziya or protection tax militants in Pakistan had hit Christians and Hindus also. Lakhs of Muslim had also migrated from the Swat and Buner areas.

The Sikh community of the Kashmir valley appreciated the ‘fatwa’ issued by Mufti Azam Mufti Bashir-ud-Din against the Taliban to desist from imposing Jaziya, Raina said. 

Srinagar, May 10
Former Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed has urged the political leadership of India and Pakistan to reinforce the resolve to work through peaceful and inclusive means toward the resolution of the Kashmir issue taking into account the just concerns and genuine aspirations of its people.

Addressing an election rally in Kupwara to canvass support for PDP candidate Mohammad Dilawar Mir, he said people had been suffering the disastrous consequences of turmoil for around two decades. 

“They now want to breathe in an atmosphere of dignified peace away from the scourge of violence and intimidation of all sorts,” he said. He added that during the PDP-led coalition government between 2002 and 2005 the party worked tirelessly toward healing physical, psychological and emotional wounds. 

He added that while ensuring a relaxed security environment, the PDP-led government had strived toward giving good governance, ensuring political stability and fulfilling expectations of the people in all the regions and sub-regions of the state.

“The PDP’s mission is to fully restore honour and dignity to peole and remove political uncertainties engulfing them for the past six decades,” he said. The Mufti added that the political and democratic forces in the state should assert themselves as a matter of right and not a concession.

PDP president Mehbooba Mufti, while addressing an election rally in the Rafiabad area of the Baramulla constituency, said her party government not only inculcated a sense of security among people, but also sparked political, economic and social activity on a phenomenal scale across the state.

She said the party’s agenda was based on the fundamental principle of bringing sustainable peace, political stability and economic renaissance to Jammu and Kashmir.

Mehbooba sought the youths to play a crucial role in shaping up a politically emancipated and economically vibrant state.

She said the state’s youth had great expectations from the PDP as the party had represented their just concerns and aspirations. 

Durbuk, May 10
India may have moved onto savvier technologies after the mobile phone revolution happened over a decade ago, but the first thing hundreds of villages spread across the huge swathes of Leh demand from their leaders is a mobile connection.

When Congress leaders went campaigning in the Durbuk block a few days back, residents of Laga village reminded them of their promise before the previous elections to provide them with mobile phone connectivity. “A mobile phone connection is like God for us.

We feel we will never get it, however, hard we try,” residents of Laga, Punpun and Nagmo villages, who had collected for a social meeting, told The Tribune. Darbuk is located at 115 km from Leh city.

Tundup Norbu, a 52-year-old farmer, said parents had to travel more than 80 km to speak to their children studying in outside schools over telephone. “Many of us, who could afford to send our children to cities for studies, did not do so due to absence of communication with our children,” Mutup Namgyal, another villager, said.

A ray of hope had emerged two years ago for several villagers when BSNL had installed a tower in nearby Tangste, a village otherwise endowed with a primary health centre, a school and paved roads. But typical of the way of the government functioning, no further progress was made, though the tower remains there.

Most of the region with hundreds of villages falling outside Changla, a pass situated at 78 km from Leh city, suffers similar a fate.

And don’t think that these villages need mobile phones because their more basic wants are fulfilled. In fact, they have reconciled to the fact that in their mountainous and rugged land facilities like the regular supply of electricity is only a dream.

They are supplied power by solar plants and they do not get more than two to three hours of it and, at times, many days go without electricity. They are more thankful to the Army, which has taken several development measures in this border district, than the government for roads and jobs.

Things only worsen as distance increases from Leh city. Konchok Gyaltsen, a Buddhist monk hailing from Chushul, which is around 200 km from Leh, says they live a “medieval” life. Over 900 people here live a secluded life. “I won’t blame the local administration.

Development in our terrain requires investment and the state government is too preoccupied with Kashmir and Jammu divisions to think about us. Our small population is too insignificant in a big democracy,” he says. 

Jammu, May 10
Students of affiliated colleges of Punjab Technical University (PTU) here are a worried lot as the admission for the next year course have started, besides the examination dates of the semester system have been announced this month, but they are awaiting the re-evaluation results for the B Tech I, II and IIIrd year.

The results of the re-evaluation were supposed to be announced four months ago. The students do not know if they would be eligible for admission to the next class in case of I and II year students or for the masters course for the final year students. Also, they do not know if they need to sit in next semester exam, scheduled later this month.

The results are neither available with the colleges affiliated with the university not over the Internet. Parents and their wards have demanded that the university should declare results as soon as possible so that students do not suffer.

The semester examination is scheduled from May 18. We are in dilemma as we see our future bleak. Admission and exams have been announced but we are not sure whether we will get through or not.

We are not able to concentrate on studies, rued students, wishing not to be quoted and added we are being made to suffer on account of the administrative laxity of the university.

The students are in a state of uncertainty and perplexity. There should be a substantial gap between the declaration of results and fresh admissions so that students get substantial time for exam preparation, said parent of a student.

However, registrar of the university based in Jalandhar, Sarojni Goutam Sharda told The Tribune that the results for re-evaluation get delayed every year but students were being entitled to appear in the next semester. Results would be declared shortly. Even if the results get further delayed, students need not to worry as they can sit in the next exam.

Rajouri, May 10
Pakistani troops fired two mortar shells on Makri village in the Jhanghar area of Nowshera sector in this district around 5 pm last evening, Army sources said.

There was, however, no loss of life and property.

“One of the mortars landed near Makri village whereas the other in a nullah of the village.

This is first such ceasefire violation in Makri village after guns fell silent in this area more than five year back due to a ceasefire between the two countries.

Panic gripped the Jhangar area after the residents heard the sound of mortar shell.

Intelligence sources said with snow melting in the higher reaches along the LOC, Pakistan might make such ceasefire violations in the coming days with a view to pushing infiltrators into India. 

Jammu, May 10
Students of government schools in the Jammu region will have to bear the brunt of the scorching heat for a few more weeks as the summer vacation starts there from June 6.

Though the parents of these students have been asking the Directorate of School Education to advance the summer vacation in view of the increasing daytime temperature, the latter is yet to do so. 

However, CBSE schools have already declared the summer vacation from May 2. However, Zahida Parveen Khan, Director, School Education, said: “We would consider declaring holidays in advance if the daytime temperature increases further.”