Jammu, May 26
Much to the relief of the railway officials and over 10,000 passengers stranded at the Jammu railway station due to violence in Punjab, the train services resumed this evening with three trains packed with passengers leaving Jammu.

It was an end to the sufferings of the passengers, who spent nights in the open on the platform amid rodents and mosquitoes with stench emanating from open urinals at the overcrowded railway station. Though the Railways and the civil administration had been trying their best, an effective disaster management plan to meet such exigencies was missing.

The Railways had even ran out of cash required for refunding cancelled tickets. ATM counters too had gone dry multiplying the miseries of the stranded passengers.

Divisional traffic manager Ashok Sharma said the Banaras-Jammu, Tata-Moori express and the Jammu Mail with thousands of passengers left the station this evening. After receiving a green light from Punjab and other states, the Railways announced that all trains scheduled for the night and later would leave on time.

Railway officials said security arrangements had been made for a safe journey, while they hoped violence would not resurface. The Railways has suffered an estimated loss of over Rs 100 crore. “We would be making an assessment of the loss, including burnt coaches of a train in Jalandhar, once the services are restored,” said Ashok Sharma.

Jammu, May 26
The state government has started diverting the Tawi water toward the Ranbir canal to ensure that farmers of the Jammu region get 700 cusecs of additional water.

Addressing a press conference here today, Minister for PHE, Irrigation and Flood Control Taj Mohi-ud-din said, “All arrangements have been finalised and we have started diverting the Tawi water toward the Ranbir canal. The additional water would be used for irrigation purpose in the highland areas of the Tawi and RS Pura. I must alert farmers to get ready for paddy sowing.”

He said, “As per the Indus Water Treaty with Pakistan, we can use 1,000 cusecs of water. We started the project and now we are diverting the Tawi water for irrigation purposes. This water would be used to irrigate 85,000 hectares in the Jammu region. We would provide additional 700 cusecs to the farmers.”

Taj said in year 2004 the Punjab government had passed an Act cancelling all Acts of water sharing with other states, due to which our Shahpur Kandi canal was also affected.

“When we pursue the Punjab government it starts work on the project and then abandons it,” the minister said.

“Punjab passed an Act to quash all its water sharing agreements with other states and due to which we were also affected,” Taj said.

He said the state had suffered a loss of Rs 1,550 crore due to the backtracking of the Punjab government. He added the state was coming up with a 5.5 km tunnel from the Thein dam up to Basantpur and through the tunnel the state would get its share of water to irrigate 1.33 lakh acres. The state would also generate 35 MW of electricity from the power project.

Meanwhile, the minister said the government would soon come up with a lake on the Tawi, whose water would be used for irrigation purposes and to promote water tourism in Jammu.

Jammu, May 26
Looking at the miseries being faced by the stranded passengers at the Jammu railway station, various good Samaritans have come forward for their help and have organised free langers (community kitchens) for them.

As soon as the news spread that the passengers at the Jammu railway station were stranded, following the cancellation of their trains due to the ongoing turmoil in the neighboring state of Punjab after the shootout at a gurdwara in Vienna in Austria, various organisations had come forward for their help.

VHP state president Rama Kant Dubey said the VHP also organised its langer and medical camps outside the railway station.

Stranded passengers were also seen helping the organisers in whatever way they can. “We had come on pilgrimage to Vaishno Devi but for the past two days we are stuck here as our train was cancelled. However, some volunteers came to help us and we all decided to extend our help by cutting vegetables and cleaning utensils,” Jamuna Devi of Bikaner in Rajastan said.

“Every year we have been organising Bhandara for the pilgrims, but this is a different situation. We got a call from the administration that over 12,000 passengers were stranded at the railway station and they require our help. We hired the people and immediately organised the community kitchen here,” Sham Lal, who has established a community kitchen here, said. “The people of Jammu are really helpful. They have come forward to help us in this hour of need,” Vikas Mahajan of New Delhi said.

Jammu, May 26
Violence in Punjab and Haryana following the killing of a sect leader in Vienna has caused a loss of nearly Rs 140 crore in trade to the state.

Since Lakhanpur bordering Punjab is the state’s only trade corridor with rest of the country, the routine business between the state and the rest of the country suffered a setback after the road and rail traffic was suspended following widespread violence.

According to Ram Sahai, president of the Chamber of Commerce and Industries (CCI), Jammu, as many as 1,300 to 1,400 trucks moved to Punjab and back as a matter of routine.

“As many as 600-700 trucks used to enter Punjab, while the same number of goods carriers entered the state on a daily basis. But due to traffic disruption there was no trade between the two states,” Sahai said. He added that it was difficult to comment on as to which trade had suffered the maximum loss.

Besides, the supply of the Food Corporation of India and the Steel Authority of India coupled with the supply of cement, fertilisers and other goods was also disrupted as the northern railway was forced to suspend its services after a Jammu-bound train was torched by protesters in Punjab yesterday.

The railway authorities said they had not yet estimated losses accrued to trade dependent on the Railways.

“We are relieved that things have returned to normal. Otherwise, we would have faced a dearth of essential commodities in view of a breakdown in supply,” said Kamal Gupta, a leading businessman. He added “in the view of disruption in transportation services, rumours start doing rounds and people resort to black marketeering and hoarding.

“Similar views were echoed by Ankush, a chemist. “We make transactions on a routine basis. Had conditions failed to improve, it would have certainly made patients and their wards panicky.” 

Jammu, May 26
Amir Ali, a resident of Watergam village in Baramulla district, was a worried man today as he could not catch a train to Delhi to travel further to Aligarh and might miss his exams. Amir is a student of Aligarh Muslim University.

Amir along with many of his batch mates belonging to the Kashmir valley had come to their native places during preparation holidays, but now on their way back to Aligarh Muslim University train services were suspended following turmoil in Punjab.

“We were scheduled to leave for Aligarh on Sunday evening, but when we reached the railway station we were informed that our train had been cancelled due to violence in Punjab,” Amir said.

He said, “Now, we are worried as our exams are scheduled for next week and if we do not reach there in time our efforts of whole year would go waste.” Amir was not the only one, thousands of stranded passengers were worried about getting back home.

Nikhil Sharma, a resident of Indore, who was to get married next week, was a worried man, as his train was also cancelled.

“We had sworn to go to Mata Vaishno Devi before the marriage of my son, as he was born after seven years of our marriage,” Yogesh Sharma, father of Nikhil, said.

He added, “He is scheduled to get married next week and we are stuck here. We don’t know what to do as even no bus service is available.” Prakash Kumar, a BSF jawan, was equally worried, as he had also come on a pilgrimage to Mata Vaishno Devi along with his family and had to join duty on Friday.

Srinagar, May 26
The magisterial inquiry into the unnatural death of an auto-dealer, which kept parts of Srinagar on the boil as his family members held the police responsible for it, has held an inspector guilty for calling the deceased to the Special Operations Group’s (SOG) office to sort out a civil issue as he had no business doing so.

But whether the officer was responsible for Manzoor Ahmad Beg’s death or not is subject to a comprehensive postmortem report which is awaited, deputy commissioner Meraj Ahmad Kakroo told The Tribune today.

Kakroo said their probe had established that Inspector Khurshid, who was posted in the SOG, the anti-terrorism squad of the state police, had called Beg. Beg’s body was dumped outside a hospital by unidentified persons on May 18 and he was declared dead.

His family members alleged that SOG personnel had picked him up and tortured him as they sided with another person with whom Beg had a monetary dispute. “Whether the inspector is responsible for Beg’s death or not would take some time. But he certainly did wrong by using his position to get into a dispute of civil nature,” he said

The city had witnessed protests over the issue. The accused official was immediately placed under suspension even as senior officials said the police had nothing to do with Beg’s death. Though a conclusive postmortem report is still awaited, the cause of his death is said to be brain hemorrhage and no external injury was found on his person.

“We have been admitting it from the day one that the inspector did a wrong thing by interfering into what was essentially a civil issue. But we do not think he tortured him to death,” a senior official said.

The deputy commissioner said the SOG was meant to fight militants and not to solve monetary problems between people. “Let the postmortem report come and see we can fix the criminal liability for his death,” he said.

Jammu, May 26
Showing the way to their counterparts in neighbouring Punjab, who indulged in vandalism and arson following attack on head of a Dera sect at a gurdwara in Vienna, resulting in his death, nearly 500 followers staged peaceful protest demonstrations at RS Pura and Bagh-e-Bahu today.

As many as 400 followers of the Dera leader took out a peaceful protest rally at RS Pura this morning. However, they demanded that the culprits should be hanged to death. “We want that the assailants responsible for the heinous act should be awarded exemplary punishment, if possible a death sentence,” Mohan Dass, a follower, said.

The government should ask its counterparts in Austria to take stern action against the assailants, who in their mindless act attacked Dera leader Sant Ramanand and Sant Niranjan Dass, he added.

To ensure that the protests do not take an ugly turn, Jammu SSP Manohar Singh had deputed a strong posse of police personnel to RS Pura, which has a strong following of the Dera sect. At Kalka Colony in the Bagh-e-Bahu area, here, around 100 followers took out a protest rally. After staging a protest demonstration they dispersed off peacefully, a police officer said.

Meanwhile, the All Jammu and Kashmir Guru Ravi Dass Sabha has also demanded stern action against the culprits. Addressing mediapersons here today, Sabha convener Pira Ditta asked the government to take up the issue with the Austrian government on priority so as to ensure severe punishment to the assailants.

If the government failed to ensure action against the assailants, then we would be forced to intensify our agitation in the state, he said.

Srinagar, May 26
Tension ran high in downtown as protests broke out over the death of a youth, who was seriously injured on last Friday when a teargas shell fired by the security forces hit him.

Arif Ahmad of Safa Kadal succumbed to his injuries today and hundreds of people took to streets to protest his death. Police officials said at least 20 persons, including several policemen and CRPF personnel, were injured as angry crowds threw stones at them.

A large number of people participated in the burial at Eidgah. A teargas shell fired by the security forces to disperse protesters after the Friday prayers had hit him in the face. Hurriyat leaders were quick to condemn his death and said it was another act of brutality upon innocent masses by “occupying forces”. The police took several separatist leaders into preventive custody when they were on their way to attend his last ceremonies.

Srinagar, May 26
The current economic meltdown might have left the private sector with uncertain times and lakhs jobless, but the Army recruitment programmes are registering an upswing in the number of hopefuls.

Brig KD Malhotra, Deputy Director-General, Recruitment (J&K and Punjab), said today said on the sidelines of a recruitment rally, which attracted close to 9000 youths since it began on May 22, said security of government job had been a major attraction for the young. “We have seen a renewed interest. More people are coming for being officers as well as jawans,” he said at Jammu & Kashmir Light Infantry’s regiment headquarters.

Officers responsible for recruitment had another reason to feel satisfied as the youth in the valley had begun responding enthusiastically to recruitment in the Army. “Not long back, we would have 2000-3000 men coming for recruitment rallies. But we received over 16,000 of them in such a rally in Baramulla in February. The ongoing recruitment drive has been very successful as well. So these are very positive signs,” Brig Malhotra said.

And hundreds of youths present shared his optimism. Earlier, they would turn up for recruitment in the Army as a last resort for a job in a region where the government is the only job provider, now there was a positive feeling about being in the Army. “Militants and violence have devastated our life in rural area. Whatever we get, we owe to the government and the Army. We youth should be a part of it,” Abdul Hamid Khan, a resident of Budgam, said.