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Shopian probe panel
Azad assures strict action in Shopian case
Poll Debacle |
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Start Amarnath yatra by June 15: Samiti
Strike call against PC’s visit fails
HC upholds BSF head constable’s demotion
SIM Card Scam
Fencing Scam
Administrative reshuffle in JMC
112 Pak devotees reach Katra
Tribune Impact
Woman, son injured in acid attack
16 hurt in bus mishap
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Shopian probe panel
Srinagar, June 11 The demonstration, coinciding with the visit of Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram, was organised by the Shopian Coordination Committee (SCC), constituted by locals soon after the incident took place on May 30. Slogan-shouting protesters, including the family members of the deceased women, demanded the inclusion of HCBA members in the Justice Muzaffar Jan Commission probing the Shopian incident and action against SSP Javid Iqbal, who was transferred from the town to Ramban yesterday. A high-level delegation of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), headed by vice-chairman Bashir Ahmad Bhat, also joined the demonstration and a sit-in outside local Jama Masjid. Meanwhile, teachers as well as the non-teaching staff of University of Kashmir under the banners of the Kashmir University Teachers Association (KUTA) and the Kashmir University Ministerial Staff Association (KUMSA) staged a demonstration in the university campus against the Shopian incident. The protesters demanded action against ‘culprits’ and wanted repeal of ‘draconian laws’. The protesters raised slogans and demanded action against people involved in ‘rape’ and ‘murder’ of two Shopian women. They demanded stern action against ‘killers’ and raised slogans against a New Delhi-based news channel accusing its Srinagar-based reporter of ‘biased’ reporting. Government employees also staged a demonstration in the Lal Chowk area and demanded action against the ‘killers’ of Asiya and Neelofar. Meanwhile, the Qayoom faction of Employees Joint Action Committee (EJAC) has said that if action was not taken against the security personnel involved in the incident the employees would be forced to launch an indefinite strike.
— PTI |
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Azad assures strict action in Shopian case
Jammu, June 11 He said: “The Shopian incident is unfortunate and the government should take stringent action against the culprits. But political parties and separatists should not play politics over the dead bodies of the two women.” He assured that he would make sure that the guilty in the case would be punished. He also termed the menace of women involving in terrorism-related activities in the Poonch-Rajouri region as a dangerous proposition. He said: “The women are being used by terrorists in the Poonch and Rajouri areas as they are neither doubted nor checked by security personnel. But this development can lead to a big tragedy in future, so the women of the area must be counseled well on this matter.” Azad supported the notion of women empowerment for the development of the country. “The country is leading towards women empowerment. Country’s President Pratibha Patil, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and now Speaker of the Parliament Meera Kumar are all women. The Congress would do its best to give 33 per cent reservation to women in both Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha.” He said women were participating more and more in the development of the country. He said it was the women activists who were running the real show in his Health Ministry under the health scheme ‘Asha’ at village-level throughout the country. He also addressed various social, political and economic heads, including Congress MLAs, MLCs and other senior Congress leaders, at Jammu Club. He said funds meant for the welfare projects did not reach to masses and get distributed by people holding the purse strings. He also said if politicians and bureaucrats who have made the diversity of culture and religion as a curse instead of blessings stop doing so then 95 per cent of communal incidents in the country would come to an end. |
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Poll Debacle
Udhampur, June 11 The meetings were convened by Manohar Lal, north zone in charge of the party, on the direction of the high command. The meeting at Jammu was convened to ascertain reasons for the defeat of the party candidate from the Jammu-Poonch LS seat, while meetings at Batote and Udhampur were held to identify the causes of the party’s debacle on the Udhampur-Doda seat, which was considered as a “safe” seat for the BJP. BJP sources said at Batote, party workers belonging to a particular faction maintained a silence but another group, which supported Dr Nirmal Singh, alleged misappropriation of funds by the faction. They also alleged that senior leaders, including some sitting MLAs, had sabotaged the prospectus of the party candidates both in Jammu and Udhampur. A senior leader told The Tribune that some workers asked Manohar Lal to compare the performance of the party in the Assembly elections with the just-concluded Lok Sabha poll. They alleged that senior party leaders, including a majority of the sitting MLAs, deliberately adopted a lacklustre approach during the campaign to ensure the defeat of the party candidates. |
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Start Amarnath yatra by June 15: Samiti
Aerial survey by
Vohra Srinagar: Governor NN Vohra carried out an aerial survey of the treks leading to the holy cave shrine via Baltal and Pahalgam today. This survey was carried out in order to assess the situation and extent of restoration work on the two treks to the cave, which had witnessed snow and rains last week.
Jammu, June 11 The samiti at its core group meeting convened by Brig Suchet Singh (retd) here today unanimously felt that the yatra should not be postponed further. The samiti urged the SASB and the state government to honour the religious sentiments of devotees and give the much-awaited go-ahead to the yatra, which had already been delayed by a week. The yatra was to begun on June 7, but following the accumulation of heavy snow on the two routes to the cave shrine, it was deferred to June 15. Due to the deferment of the yatra, the business community had already suffered huge losses, said samiti convener Brig Suchet Singh. He added, besides losses to the trading community, pilgrims, who had booked air tickets and hotels in Jammu in advance, were also facing an uncertain atmosphere. The samiti warned the government and the SASB to avoid further delay. Referring to recent incidents in the Kashmir valley, Brig Suchet Singh said, “The government should not allow any attempt to further delay the yatra.” Talking to The Tribune, samiti spokesperson Narinder Singh said the samiti had already conveyed its concern to the board CEO BB Vyas, who assured us of every possible effort to start the yatra by June 15. Meanwhile, the All Jammu Hotels and Lodges Association has also expressed concern over uncertainty over the yatra. Association president Inderjeet Khajuria, while addressing around 300 hoteliers here today, said the uncertainty over the yatra was creating unrest among the devotees, prospective pilgrims, and the business community. |
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Strike call against PC’s visit fails
Srinagar, June 11 With both factions of the Hurriyat Conference disassociating themselves from the strike called by the Dukhtaran-e-Millat, normal activities were seen in the city and elsewhere in the valley. Chairman of moderate Hurriyat Conference Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, however, asked people to observe the week-long protest called by Syed Ali Geelani against the Shopian case. The protest began on Monday. DEM chief Syeda Asiya Andrabi was arrested on Tuesday evening hours after she gave the strike call against the Home Minister's visit. Government offices, banks, and markets were open and public and private transport plied on all routes, officials said. |
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HC upholds BSF head constable’s demotion
Jammu, June 11 Des Raj was serving with the BSF as head constable when pursuant to the findings of and sentence awarded by the summary security force court he was demoted to the rank of constable. He filed a petition seeking the quashing of Commandant 39 BSF’s order of February 17, 1998, besides seeking directions to permit him to perform his duties as head constable on the plea that his trial was in violation of the provisions of the Border Security Force Act and Rules framed thereunder because the respondents had failed to provide an opportunity of hearing and right of cross-examination of witnesses, whose statement had been used against him. Responding to the writ petition, the Union of India submitted that the petitioner absented himself from the BSF campus without permission during night hours of October 30, 1997, and on inquiry it was revealed that after consuming liquor the petitioner had handed over his personal weapon to a civilian, Mohammad Shafiq, and asked him to extort money from people. The high court, while disagreeing with the contentions of the petitioner, observed that “the perusal of records indicates that the Commandant had heard prosecution witnesses in the presence of the petitioner after reading out and explaining the charge to him on November 1, 1997. During the course of the recording of evidence too the petitioner was all along present. During the course of the trial by the summary security force court, he had pleaded guilty to all charges.” Justice JP Singh held that “The accused understood the nature of the charges to which he had pleaded guilty. The summary court had informed the petitioner of the general effect of his pleading guilty and then had accepted and recorded the plea. The petitioner’s writ petition lacks substance and is accordingly dismissed.” |
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SIM Card Scam
Jammu, June 11 Reliance Telecom has already deactivated 36,000 SIM cards, which had been issued in total contravention of the norms. Apart from Reliance Telecom, four other private players in the state were Vodafone, Aircel, Airtel and Tata Indicom. SSP (Crime Branch) JP Singh told The Tribune that four other companies had also ordered internal audit as these had also issued SIM cards without proper verification and in some cases after forging the documents. However, if these companies like Reliance Telecom failed to deactivate SIM cards issued without proper documentation we would be forced to take action under law, he said. It was not possible to check every single SIM card issued by these five companies because they run into lakhs and, hence, “we are going for random checks besides scrutinising customer application forms against which SIM cards have been issued,” he said. The Crime Branch had found that authorised dealers of private cellular companies like Reliance Telecom, Vodafone, Aircel, Airtel and Tata Indicom had issued SIM cards in utter violation of norms threatening the security. Airtel, another big player in the state, too, had deactivated over 10,000 SIM cards in the state, which were issued without proper documentation in 2007. Frequent recovery of Indian and Pakistani SIM cards from the militants and their sympathisers in the state could jeopardise the national security, a senior officer of the counter-insurgency wing of the police said. It may be recalled here that in 2006 a Pakistani terrorist in Kot Bhalwal prison had Indian SIM cards. |
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Fencing Scam
Jammu, June 11 “A case has been registered against officers of five Engineering Regiment and two private contractors — Anil Gupta and Sunil Gupta - in connection with the scam,” CBI sources said today. Residences of these contractors were also raided and some vital documents were recovered, they said. The Army officers had allegedly conspired with National Co-operative Consumer Federation (NCCF) in 2003-04 when fencing of the International Border with Pakistan was taken up. Because the NCCF’s maximum supply limit was Rs 25 lakh only, a fake firm - Shiva Steel & Wire Industries - was allegedly floated in connivance with the Army officers for supply of barbed wire for fencing the border. According to sources, the order for supply of barbed wire should actually have been placed to SAIL. —
PTI |
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Administrative reshuffle in JMC
Jammu, June 11 Joint Commissioner (Administration) JS Tandon has been transferred and shifted to J&K State Road Transport Corporation whereas Babu Ram, programme officer, ICDS Projects, Doda, has been posted as Joint Commissioner (Administration), Municipal Corporation. Rajesh Gupta, secretary, Municipal Corporation, has been transferred and Suraj Prakash Rakhwal, under secretary to government, Forest Department, has been posted at his place. Charanjit, tehsildar, Relief Commissioner’s Office has been transferred and posted in the corporation. Meanwhile, the JMC will conduct elections for the post of chairman, Health and Sanitation Standing Committee, and chairman, Social Justice Standing Committee, on June 24 as the term of present chairpersons of both these committees expires on June 24. |
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112 Pak devotees reach Katra
Udhampur, June 11 Residents of Katra and officials of the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board (SMVDSB) gave a rousing reception to the Pakistani devotees on their arrival in the holy town. The pilgrims, who straightway reached Katra through the Wagha border, would precede their journey this evening and would pay obeisance at the Vaishno Devi shrine in the morning. Katra SSP Ashok Sharma said the pilgrims from across the border would be provided security cover throughout the 13-km track from Katra to the holy cave. Arrangements have also been made for special darshan for the Pakistani devotees. This is the second batch of yatries from Pakistan during the past two years that has reached Katra to have darshan of Mata Vaishno Devi. |
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Tribune Impact
Jammu, June 11 Informing about the action, joint director, tourism, SK Sahni said, “The minister ordered a prompt action in the case. We investigated the matter and found the Child Labour Act being violated by the contractors. We have not only pulled up the contractors and gave them an ultimatum, but also removed children working at Sanasar lake.” “We have deputed an official of the rank of XEN to keep an eye on the deployment of people for the task. He will ensure the guidelines are followed in this regard,” Sahni added. The Tribune had highlighted in its columns yesterday that children were engaged to clean Sanasar lake in violation of the Child Labour Act. |
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Woman, son injured in acid attack
Jammu, June 11 Official sources said SPO Bhunesh Kumar went to the house of Charanjeet Sharma in the lower Gadigarh area last night and threw acid on his wife Mamta Sharma and 14-year-old son Rajat. Charanjeet was not present at his house at the time of the incident. The duo was rushed to the GMC where their condition was stated to be out of danger. The SPO was arrested and a case registered. A police officer confirmed the arrest and attributed the incident to some dispute between the families. |
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16 hurt in bus mishap
Udhampur, June 11 According to the police, the mishap occurred after the driver lost control of the vehicle while negotiating a sharp curve in the Dab Khalsa area. The police said three families of Jammu were travelling in the mini bus which was on its way to Shiv Khori-the holy cave of Lord Shiva located in Reasi district. |
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