Painthal (Reasi), June 24
As many as 26 passengers were killed and 40 others injured when a passenger bus in which they were travelling in skidded off the road and fell into a gorge near Painthal on the Udhampur-Katra road this morning.

An injured passenger being shifted to Jammu’s GMC hospital. Tribune photo:  Inderjeet Singh

With a capacity of 39 passengers, over 70 persons were crammed in the ill-fated bus, which was on its way to Udhampur from Katra town.

Reasi SSP Anand Jain said 26 passengers died on the spot and injured had been shifted to hospitals. The driver of the vehicle reportedly lost control of the bus as it developed some technical snag. A probe has been ordered into the accident.

Ashok Kumar of Painthal village, an eyewitness, told The Tribune that while crossing through a narrow stretch, the bus, which was running smoothly on the left side, started crawling towards the right side, and within seconds fell into the gorge.

Hari Lal Patel, a native of Allahabad (UP), presently putting up at Panthal, said bodies of the majority of passengers sitting on the front side of the vehicle were badly mutilated due to impact of the accident. Impact of accident can be gauged from the fact that the bus was completely damaged after straightway hit with the rocks. Locals immediately swung into action and started the rescue operation. The injured were shifted to the Katra hospital, where doctors stated the condition of five as critical and referred them to the GMC, Jammu.

Later in the afternoon, Deputy Chief Minister Tara Chand accompanied by CAPD Minister Surjit Singh Slathia, Lok Sabha member Ch. Lal Singh, Jammu Divisional Commissioner Dr Pawan Kotwal and Reasi DC Sanjeev Verma visited the spot.

Painthal (Reasi), June 24
Traffic cops today faced the wrath of people, who were infuriated over repeated road accidents in the Jammu region. As soon as the people came to know about the accident killing 25 passengers near Painthal, a group of youths resorted to shouting slogans against the traffic policemen deployed on the Katra-Udhampur road. As the strength of the slogan-shouting youths swelled, the traffic policemen being chased by the youths fled.

Though the youths alleged that overloading was the main cause of today’s accident, some elders pointed toward the condition of the road. They specially mentioned the stretch from the Painthal police check post toward the turn for the waterfall. They said the deplorable condition of the narrow stretch was the main cause of the accident.

Ajay Kumar of Bagtha village, whose brother was also injured in the accident, said the authorities had ignored the area.

When Deputy Chief Minister Tara Chand visited the spot today, people raised the issue of the condition of the road and strict checking of the passenger vehicles. They alleged that there was no check on driving by minor children.

Jammu, June 24
One-and-a-half-year-old Karan of Chandrakote had a miraculous escape in the Katra bus accident even though his parents and grandparents were critically wounded. Karan’s parents have been admitted to the Government Medical College (GMC) Hospital today along with other injured in the accident.

Karan’s father Des Raj, mother Shanto Devi, grandfather Abhay Chand Rana and grandmother Misro Devi, all residents of Chanderkote, were seriously injured.

Des Raj, in a semi-conscious state, kept asking the doctors and mediapersons about his son. “We were coming from the Vaisno Devi shrine after paying obeisance. Karan was in my lap when the accident happened at Painthal,” said Des Raj. While heartrending scenes were witnessed as the kith and kin of the injured assembled in a large number in the hospital, poor arrangements at the hospital to meet such exigencies were exposed.

The injured had to wait for hours lying on stretchers for getting ultrasounds done, whereas the doctors too were overburdened. Due to a heavy rush of patients, one of the two ultrasound machines went out of order.

As the hospital is running short of paramedical staff, security guards of a private agency moved stretchers carrying the injured. This caused inconvenience to the patients while they were being shifted from one place to another for medical tests. Volunteers from the city and nearby places did a remarkable job. Many relatives of the wounded also came forward to render help.

Krishan Singh, a resident of Reasi, was among the first to help the injured, who were without any attendant. “The body of my cousin, Shamsher Singh, who was admitted to ward No. 1, was sent home this morning. He got injured in an accident at the Salal Hydal Project and breathed his last in the night,” he revealed. He added, “Here, I saw the injured coming without any attendants. I planned to stay for some time and help them.”

“The condition of the injured is normal except for Poonam, who has suffered a head injury and is on the life support system. The names and whereabouts of at least three patients are still unknown,” said Dr Kavi Raj, CMO. 

Jammu, June 24
Two persons were killed and seven others were injured in Jammu province in accidents daily this month alone. Buses, mostly private, were involved in more than 95 per cent of the accidents.

The administration, including the Transport Department officials and the police, seems to be at their wits end to prevent the accidents. There is no check on rash driving, wrong overtaking, high speed and drunken driving. Many accidents like today’s near Katra has failed to evolve a prevention mechanism. There is no periodical check of the road worthiness of the buses and the skills of the drivers.

News of all accidents reported this month reveal 47 persons lost their lives, while 164 were injured in Jammu province.

Twenty persons drowned in the Chenab near Prem Nagar on June 7. The same day, seven persons were killed and 59 others were injured in separate accidents elsewhere. It included a head-on collision between two buses near Bali Nullah Morh.

A person was killed and 17 were injured in various accidents on June 13. Sixteen pilgrims were injured in Reasi on June 11.

Many of the injured are left incapacitated for life and dependent on others. The government gives a compensation of Rs 50,000 to Rs one lakh in major accidents like the one that occurred near Katra today. However, those killed in minor accidents rarely get any compensation or justice. No driver involved in any bus accident has been severely punished this year.

Private bus drivers are found driving rashly on Kathua-Jammu and Katra routes.

Srinagar, June 24
Gunmen fired upon an escort vehicle of the DIG, South Kashmir, in Shopian last night, leaving constable Mohammad Maqbool injured in his right arm. With the situation in Shopian continuing to be tense, militants seemed to be taking benefit from the lack of order prevailing in the town as they targeted the senior official’s escort. Policemen and security personnel have been coming under attack by crowds since the bodies of two women were found on May 30. 

The town remains shut in protest and the Majlis-e-Mushawarat (coordination committee), a group formed by locals to organise the ongoing protests, yesterday warned the government that they would resort to extreme measures if the guilty were not arrested by June 29.

Though a damning report by the one-man judicial commission against police, doctors and forensic officials and the government’s swift action seemed to have had a calming influence on agitating people yesterday, many fear that protests headed by people with extremist and separatist leaning could be intensified to embarrass the government.

The committee said it was not satisfied with the suspension of guilty officials and they should instead be prosecuted and arrested so that the culprits for the rape and murder of two young women could be identified and punished.

JAMMU: With the Amarnath yatra picking up momentum the Army today averted a major tragedy by seizing 3 kg of high-intensity explosives from the Raipur Domana area this morning. Official sources said troops of 93 Field Regiment led by Col AK Raina seized the explosives kept in two packets of 1.5 kg each around 6.40 am.

Srinagar, June 24
APHC chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq has threatened to launch a comprehensive mass agitation in case the Centre did not take any concrete steps by July 13 to prevent Shopian-like incidents and pave the way for resolving Kashmir. It had earlier proposed a five-point formula, including the revocation of special powers to security forces and withdrawal of troops for preventing such incidents that could lead to an everlasting solution to the Kashmir issue.

Addressing a congregation at Shopian, the Mirwaiz said protest demonstrations would continue until those found guilty in the rape and murder of two women were punished. The Mirwaiz had been under house for the past 23 days since the Shopian incident while several other separatist leaders, including hardline APHC chairman Syed Ali Geelani spearheading the agitation were under detdintion.

During his day-long visit to the area Umar Farooq met the affected families and and sympathised with them.

He alleged that the mainstream parties were politicising the issue and dared them to pass a resolution in the State Assembly for the revocation of special powers to the security forces.

He rejected the interim report of the Enquiry Commission into the alleged rape and murder of two women and sought an independent inquiry into the incident.

The Mirwaiz also referred to the earlier incidents of alleged rape and mass killings at the hands of security forces over the past 18 years like those in Kunanposhpora, Pathribal, Chhattisinghpora, Gowkadal and Hawal.

Jammu: It’s hardly a ride of 14 km and some trekking from the model town of Sunder Bani, around 80 km from Jammu, to a cluster of hilly villages in the upper Kangari panchayat nearing the actual line of control, which are yet to be electrified. As per the records, these villages enjoy the status of ‘forward villages’, yet they lag behind even officially classified backward villages of the areas in terms of economic development.

With sunset, life comes to a stand still, either fire in the hearths or flickering mud lamps here and there hint that people do live here. Having approached everyone ranging from government officials to politicians, people have accepted darkness as part of their destiny.

For getting wheat grinded, one has to trek several kilometres down to flour mills. Schoolchildren try to finish their schoolwork in the morning or afternoon, whereas elders too try to finish household chores before the fall of dusk.

These villages include Gordhi, Gidhpur, Upper Powal, Ghai Panyas and some households in Madyal. While most of the forward villages along the actual line of control have been electrified, these villages are devoid of even electric poles or solar lights in the age of information technology. When this correspondent visited Gidhpur village, a group of students -- Pinki, Priya, Vishal, Kulwant and Rohan -- were burning the midnight oil, literally speaking.

Soon, villagers started pouring in to tell their grievances. “We don’t get kerosene oil regularly for lanterns. When a lantern burns in someone’s house, children from the neighbouring houses come and sit in the lamp light to do their schoolwork,” the villagers maintain.

“We are being deliberately being victimised politically. In this panchayat, the houses that are well lit got electricity only 10 years back after Vaid Vishnu Dutt, BJP MP, allocated Rs 10 lakh for the same,” said a panch of the village, Bhim Sen.

“Incidents of snakebites occur quite frequently these days. In the name of health care facilities, a sub-centre operates from a rented accommodation, while the road from Tok-Banyard to Meenka Mahadev is in pathetic condition,” he revealed. He added, “The only middle school in the area having 150 students has three rooms, that are being used as office and kitchen for midday meals and a store for worn out furniture, respectively.”

He said: “Students have to sit under the open sky to attend classes on sunny days, whereas on a wet and windy day they take off from the school.” He added, “Recently, we got two water tanks, but in the absence of water supply people are bound to drink brownish water stagnant in seasonal rivulets.”

The villagers rue that the adjacent Bajawain village is officially backward, but it enjoys all basic amenities unlike their villages. They demand the ‘backward’ status for their villages also.

Repeated attempts to contact local MLA Radhay Sham Sharma proved futile. 

Jammu, June 24
Following a huge rush of devotees at Baltal, the Amarnath yatra was suspended from the Yatri Niwas base camp here this morning.

“Because of a large number of devotees stranded at the Baltal transit base camp, the Amarnath yatra from Jammu was suspended this morning,” SP Benam Tosh, security in charge of the base camp, told The Tribune.

No batch of pilgrims was allowed to leave for Baltal from here this morning, he said, adding that the pilgrimage was likely to be resumed tomorrow but after getting a go-ahead from the counterparts in the Kashmir valley.

Tosh said around 500 pilgrims were lodged at the Yatri Niwas while others continued to pour in. However, more than 2,500 pilgrims had been left stranded at various lodging centres in the temple city due to the suspension of the yatra.

Similarly, more than 15,000 pilgrims were stranded at the Baltal base camp, forcing the authorities to suspend the yatra temporarily. Till now, nearly 70,000 pilgrims had paid obeisance at the Amarnath cave shrine.

The annual pilgrimage from the traditional route of Chandanwari has not been started as yet because of the accumulation of snow on the route.

SRINAGAR: A joint team of the state government and the shrine board has completed its two-day assessment visit to the highly critical stretches of the track between Wavbal and Poshpathri falling in the yatra route from Pahalgam and submitted its report.

The team, comprising the board’s CEO BB Vyas, Divisional Commissioner Masud Samoon and IG B, Srinivas, reviewed the snow-clearance works. A top official said Governor NN Vohra, who is also the board’s ex-officio chairman, was likely to make a formal announcement regarding the opening of this traditional route for the yatra in a day or two.

In order to expedite snow clearance, especially the need to carve out a bypass track over the snow avalanche near Mahagunas Top, the board has pressed into service additional labour to supplement efforts of the Pahalgam Development Authority which has the responsibility to clear and operationalise the track between Pahalgam and the holy cave.

The team, however, has said only a limited number of physically fit yatris who follow the advisories on clothing would be allowed from Pahalgam. The old and children will be advised not to undertake the yatra in the interest of their safety and security.

Jammu, June 24
Even as reverse countdown has started for the much-awaited cabinet expansion, the NC has almost finalised its seven candidates while ruling alliance partner the Congress still hasn’t opened its cards completely on the “lucky eight”.

Under mutual understanding between the two alliance partners, the NC would be inducting seven of its legislators while the Congress would have eight legislators in the expanded council of ministers that would eventually take the total strength of the Omar’s ministry to 25. Reliable sources told The Tribune that Chief Minister Omar Abdullah in consultation with party president Farooq Abdullah and general secretary Sheikh Nazir Ahmed has finalised six party legislators.

They include Choudhary Mohammed Ramzan, Mustafa Kamal (Farooq’s brother), Sakina Itoo, Sajjad Ahmed Kichloo and Mir Saifullah while discussions was on to decide about the seventh candidate, they added.

Names of TS Wazir, former minister Ajay Sadhotra, a close confidant of Omar Abdullah and former chief secretary Vijay Bakaya, a Kashmiri Pandit, were also under active consideration, they said.

“We are ready with our list but the Congress still has to decide about its legislators,” said a senior NC leader.

Omar Abdullah presently has nine ministers in his cabinet included six from the Congress.

Finally, the Chief Minister may go for the cabinet expansion in the next few days, he said.

However, sources in the Congress said, out of eight ministerial berths, party would get three of cabinet rank and five of ministers of state.

A senior party leader, who insisted anonymity, said among the probable were Gandhi Nagar MLA Raman Bhalla, Kathua MLA Manohar Lal, veteran leader Choudhary Mohammad Aslam and former minister Aijaz Khan. A hectic behind-the-curtain tussle was also going on between Inderwal legislator GM Saroori and Doda legislator Abdul Majid Wani, he added.

However, two Independents Hakim Mohammed Yaseen and Ghulam Hassan Mir, rebel PDP leader, who raised the Jammu and Kashmir Democratic Party Nationalist, may also find their place in the expanded cabinet because of their proximity with the ruling alliance partners, particularly the Congress.

Jammu, June 24
Satish Kumar, Congress candidate and a councillor from ward number 56, was elected as the chairman of the Public Health and Sanitation Committee and Inderjeet Kaur, another Congress candidate and councillor from ward number 57, was elected as the chairperson of the Social Justice Standing Committee in the elections held at Town Hall today.

It was for the first time in the history of the Jammu Municipal Corporation (MC) that both posts were wrested by Congress candidates unopposed. The elections were held as the tenure of previous chiefs of the committees Jaswant Singh Soodan and Neelam Kumari had ended.

Mayor Kavinder Bhushan Gupta declared the names of the winners. The whole process of elections was conducted in the presence of all councillors from 71 wards and under the supervision of the Mayor and Municipal Commissioner Mubarak Singh. The two Congress candidates were the only ones to have filed the nomination papers on June 17.

Udhampur, June 24
The police arrested a Health Department employee today and seized medicines worth lakhs from his house. The arrested employee has been identified as Shanker Singh, posted as nursing orderly (NO) at Galiyot dispensary in the Panchari block of Udhampur district.

Though the police authorities are assessing the total amount of the medicines seized, sources said the arrested class IV employee had stolen medicines worth lakhs and he used to sell it in the market openly without any fear. Shanker not only used to sell medicines in the open market, he was practising medicine and treating patients of this remotest belt of Udhampur district.

Reports said the Galiyot dispensary is the only medical centre that caters to the need of more than 14 villages in this belt. For the past one year, villagers were not getting even analgesics at this health centre despite that medicines worth lakhs were being supplied in the area “on paper”.

Though the matter was repeatedly brought to the notice of the Health Department, no action was taken. Ultimately, the locals lodged a complaint with the Panchari police which conducted surprise raid on the house of Shanker and seized a huge quantity of medicines.

Srinagar, June 24
The ruling NC and the PDP are engaged in a war of words over the revocation of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) and the withdrawal of troops, while the latter has launched a campaign in support of its demands to pave the way for its self-rule formula.

An NC spokesman asked the Opposition to instead “work for an environment of peace and security”.

The spokesman added it was necessary to ensure human rights of the people. An NC statement issued from the party headquarters here today said a peaceful environment was necessary to prevent the recurrence of imposition of stringent laws in the state. He advised the PDP president to “desist from making the law and order situation complex and instead watch the changing situation”.

The NC spokesman claimed that the PDP was misleading the masses on the issues and blamed former Union Home Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed for the imposition of Central laws in the state. He further questioned why Sayeed had not protested against the AFSPA and demilitarisation during his tenure as Chief Minister for three years between 2002 and 2005.

Addressing a public meeting at Pulwama today, PDP president Mehbooba Mufti said the government tactics to soft-pedal investigation into the Shopian killings had not changed even after the interim report of the Justice Jan Commission. 

Jammu, June 24
The National Students Forum (NSF) today served a two-day ultimatum on the state government and demanded immediate closure of all illegal study centres.

They warned that if the government failed to take immediate action against the owners of these study centres, then students would register an FIR against the owners of these centres and could take law in their own hands.

While addressing a press conference here today, Vikas Sharma, state president of the forum, said the UGC had declared these study centres as illegal and now it was the onus of the government and the police to act against the guilty immediately. — TNS