Udhampur, June 8
The PDP today organised a massive demonstration against the state government at Banihal to lodge protest against the failure of the Congress-NC coalition regime to protect the dignity and lives of innocent citizens.

A total shutdown was also observed in Banihal in response to a call given by the PDP, supported by the Beopar Mandal, Banihal town.

The demonstration which passed through different areas later turned into a rally which was addressed by senior PDP leaders.

Today’s strike call was given against the increase in the cases of human rights violations during the past five months.

Shouting slogans against the coalition regime for its failure to contain atrocities by the security forces, PDP activists led by senior leaders demanded immediate scrapping of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) and handing over internal security to the state police.

Addressing the gathering, district PDP president Abdul Ahad Wani expressed grave concern over the killing of innocent people in the state in general and the Kashmir valley in particular.

He regretted that the new regime in the state had miserably failed to safeguard the life and dignity of common citizens.

The killing of innocent people at the hands of security forces had been going on unabated and the coalition regime had been helplessly watching such inhuman acts.

He recounted the number of incidents during the past five months in which innocent people were killed at the hands of the security forces.

PDP leaders lambasted Chief Minister Omar Abdullah for his failure to contain right violations in the state.

“During the past five months, nothing concrete has been done by the ruling coalition except for promises”, a senior party leader said and warned that the PDP would not remain a mute spectator to such inhuman incidents.

Srinagar, June 8
The strike on the call by Syed Ali Shah Geelani in the Kashmir valley, more so in Srinagar city, has virtually turned the summer capital into a garbage city with heaps of unattended garbage seen in every nook and cranny of the city.

The strike entered the eight day today. Though the Srinagar Municipal Corporation (MC) has appealed to the locals to help keep the city clean, there has been a lackadaisical response from the residents.

Streets, lanes and bylanes within and around the city stink as heaps of garbage could be seen lying everywhere.

Areas such as Jawahar Nagar, Wazir Bagh, Rajbagh, Khanyar, Dalgate, Rambagh, Sanat Nagar, Hyderpora, Channapora, Bohri Kadal, Babademb, Gojwara and Nowhatta present a dingy look.

“During summer, garbage starts stinking as soon as it is thrown by the roadside. Now, it has been lying over here for the past one week. This is unhealthy and can lead to serious diseases,” says Abdul Rahim, a Wazir Bagh resident.

Ghulam Jeelani, a resident of Hyderpora, says, “Except an appeal by the Mayor via media, we have not found any municipal employee in our area in the past one week. Cooperation from locals comes later and the first step has to be taken by the MC.”

“We are living in the technological age, but as far as garbage collection in Srinagar city goes, the government is still following the traditional methods. It has never bothered to collect and dispose of garbage in a scientific manner,” says Gulnaz Akhter, a postgraduate student.

Khwaja Farooq Renzu, Municipal Commissioner, holds the Achan-Eidgah “land mafia” responsible for the mess.

“The Achan land mafia is a big problem. It is also eyeing our land. They hire stone throwers and do not allow municipal vehicles to unload garbage. How can the MC vehicles go and dump garbage again,” Renzu said.

He said Achan, the only dumping unit, caters to 68 wards of Srinagar city and “on an average five truckloads of garbage come from each ward.”

He said 5,000 MC employees had not responded to the strike call and are attending to their work.

“There were problems in some chowks and garbage lifting machines were stoned,” the Municipal Commissioner said. He, however, termed the situation better this time as compared to last year.

Premnagar (Doda), June 8
Though authorities are yet to officially confirm the death of passengers who were travelling in the minibus that plunged into the Chenab, families to two Army jawans perished in the tragedy that struck Thathri and Prem Nagar areas of Doda district.

Satyadevi, wife of Army jawan Bishamwar Nath of Hanija village, was travelling along with her three children in the minibus.

The mother and children had reportedly drowned. Similarly, Kirna Devi, wife of another solider Kashmir Singh of Chariya village, was also drowned in the river along with two children.

Neither the civil administration nor the Army authorities had so far confirmed the death of family members of the two soldiers in the tragedy.

While the locals confirmed that the two Army jawans had lost their families in the accident, the civil authorities, however, said they had reports that the family of one solider was washed away.

“So far, we have received missing reports about 19 passengers, including the family of an Army jawan deployed outside the state,” Deputy Commissioner, Doda, Sherif-ud-Din told the Tribune.

He said the flow of water had been slowed down from the reservoir of the Dul Hasti hydroelectric project and the teams of divers had been searching the bodies from Prem Nagar to Assar.

The Deputy Commissioner, however, refused to confirm the death of all missing persons before the bodies were retrieved.

He said though the teams of divers had been pressed into service to retrieve the bodies, not a single body had been recovered.

Hoping against hope, families of the missing passengers have been camping on the bank of the Chenab in search of the bodies of their dear ones.

“We have not lost hope so far,” Rajesh Singh, relative of Vipan Singh, told The Tribune. Vipan, an employee of the Fire and Emergency Services, along with his pregnant wife Sangeeta was returning home at Kahila Thathri after a medical checkup at Doda.

Srinagar, June 8
Former Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed has urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to relieve the security forces of internal security duty and scrap the AFSPA to ensure peace in Kashmir.

He said he had been stressing the revocation of the AFSPA which armed the security forces against any actions that they took.

In his letter to the Prime Minister, the PDP patron said people of the state had rejected violence as an option to resolve political issues.

“They opted for democratic means and participated overwhelmingly in the successive elections since 2002”, with the hope that their trust in the democratic system would bring them relief in their day-to-day lives and also a long term way out of the turmoil, the Mufti said.

He said that the current situation in the valley was of utmost concern for everybody, adding that the effort that had gone into creating a new atmosphere of peace, reconciliation and resolution in and around J&K seemed at a real risk of going waste unless immediate retrieval was made.

“Kashmir which has constantly been sending out messages of peace and goodwill finds itself in the corner, unaddressed and uncared for. More than 60 unarmed and peaceful demonstrators were gunned down in last year’s protests in Kashmir.

“Excesses and atrocities are once again becoming the hallmark of state administration which is finding itself incapable of responding to the situation.

It is not just the security forces who find themselves secure under the cover of AFSPA but it seems the mindset of the civilian administration too is governed by this Act as is obvious from the current crisis around the brutal murder of two young women in Shopian town of Kashmir”, the Mufti stated.

Mufti Mohammad Sayeed lamented that laxity had crept into the effort after 2006. “Unfortunately, not much happened by way of a response from the Government of India. Our assessment of the situation and apprehensions of a slide back, in absence of a pro active follow-up, have unfortunately come true in a form that is disturbing and equally unfortunate”, he stated in the letter.

He added that the two-member team constituted by the university to probe the matter was also working on the issue.

Srinagar, June 8
As the probe into the “rape” and suspicious death of two women begins looking for the accused after the registration of an FIR yesterday, the police is in overdrive to find out the identity of people whom they were likely to have met on the fateful evening of May 29.

That is their best hope to solve the case which has become an albatross around the government’s neck.

The police said it was looking for suspects among women’s acquaintances as much as those facing media and public scrutiny, like cops or troops.

Two sisters-in-law, Neelofar and Asiya Jan, had left for their orchard, around 2 km from their residence in Shopian town, sometime around 5 pm and were next seen dead in a nullah that runs along the locality they lived in.

Such is the distrust of the government in Kashmir, fuelled by vituperative propaganda of separatists who find in every crisis an opportunity to target the security forces, that already contradictory versions of the events have emerged.

Neelofar’s husband and Asiya’s brother, Shakeel Admad, told the police that the two women carried no mobile phone when he first went to the cops on Friday, reporting their disappearance.

However, Neelofar’s brother reportedly claimed that her sister told them over the mobile that she was being chased by troops, not identifying the organisation, and she would come home soon. She never came.

Locals in Shopian allege that their clothes were partly torn and their bodies bore injuries, hinting that they were raped.

Police officials in private briefings refute the charge and show photographs of the bodies at the time of recovery.

“Their clothes were not torn. Asiya’s body had injuries on outer parts which I believe were inflicted as her body flowed in water,” a senior official said.

It may be mentioned that their bodies were found separated by over 900 meters along the nullah.

Locals also allege that the water level in the nullah was hardly enough to drown
the women while the police claims that it was receiving a higher flow of water,
especially in the evening, these days owing to melting of snow.

A detailed medical report into the cause of their deaths is still awaited as initial autopsy could not ascertain it.

The confusing signals sent by the government in initial days and the outpouring of public protests against what they believed was the state’s ploy to hide the guilty has sent the cops on the defensive so much so that they refrain from giving out their versions in public.

As a result, he said the human rights situation in the state was fast deteriorating. “It is no wonder that more and more incidents of molestation, rape and murder are being reported,” he added.

Jammu, June 8
The state wing of the BJP has expressed concern over deteriorating law and order situation in Kashmir following the alleged rape and murder of two women in Shopian.

BJP state spokesperson Ramesh Arora said the state government should take serious note of the situation. Leaders like Hurriyat leader Sayeed Ali Shah Geelani and PDP leader Mehbooba Mufti should be severely dealt with as they want to disturb the atmosphere of peace.” Arora said.

He also condemned the attitude of the government led by Omar Abdullah for not having any clear-cut policy.

“This was seen when members of a minority community (Sikhs) were attacked and the BJP state president Ashok Khajuria and vice-president Rajesh Gupta were stopped from proceeding towards Kashmir” Arora said.

He said if the state government wanted to control the situation it should take the assistance of all nationalist elements in the state.

Arora said the time had come when a radical change in the policy was required. “One should realise that the disturbance in Kashmir is a part of conspiracy to disturb the upcoming Amarnath Yatra.”

Arora demanded that the government should call all parties meet to deal with the situation and locals should also be taken into confidence.

But there should be no compromise with the elements, who wanted to spoil the
peaceful atmosphere.

Srinagar, June 8
Major RV Ramani of 23 Punjab was killed in an encounter with infiltrating militants in the frontier district of Kupwara which also left one jawan and three infiltrators dead, the Army said today.

The gunbattle took place when the Army confronted a group of heavily armed militants at Gulab Post, 130 km from here, when they were attempting to sneak into the valley from across the border, Kupwara SSP Uttam Chand said.

The SSP said a massive search operation was launched in the area falling under Hatmullah three days ago following information about a possible attempt by militants to sneak into the valley.

Major Ramani, who hailed from Ahmedabad, was leading an ambush near Jaba Top, which is in Kupwara, to foil the attempts by militants to infiltrate when he and his soldiers came under heavy firing from them.

The Army retaliated and killed two militants, who have not been identified, but lost the officer and a jawan, Jagtar Singh.

A JCO, Sub Kashmir Singh, also received injuries. Another infiltrator was also killed a while later.

Srinagar, June 8
Around two feet of fresh snow has accumulated along various stretches of the tracks leading to holy Amaranth cave shrine via Baltal and Pahalgam sides during the past three days.

While the track and the camp areas at Sheshnag, Mahagunas Top and the Poshpathri are still under thick snow cover, on the Baltal side, the 2-km stretch from Sangam to the holy cave has also come under fresh snow adversely affecting the movement of ponies and pithus on the cave route, a spokesman of the SASB said.

He added that a team of officers and engineers of the Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board (SASB), led by Chief Executive Officer, BB Vyas, extensively air-surveyed the critical patches on the track along both the Chandanwari and Baltal routes this morning.

There were unconfirmed reports of a patch of track having got washed away because of cloud burst over the Pissu Top area. The board is awaiting the factual and official position in this regard, the spokesman said.

The incessant rain and the snowfall have hampered the track clearances, which were in progress all along the route, particularly at the sectors which continue to be under 5 to 6 feet snow cover.

The fresh snowfall has retarded the movement of labourers and other staff engaged on the track clearance and creating other facilities, which are almost complete.

Governor NN Vohra, who is the chairman of the SASB, is scheduled to visit the cave shrine and the two base camps.