Srinagar, July 1
The death toll in Baramulla reached four today, as Amir Rashid, who was hit by a bullet on June 29, succumbed to his injuries at a Srinagar hospital, official sources said.

Defying curfew, hundreds of people came on the roads, as the body of the youth was led to the burial ground. The state government seemed to have admitted that the death of another youth, Fayaz Ahmad Gojri, in firing by CRPF personnel yesterday was avoidable, as a case of murder was registered against them. The government also asked the CRPF authorities to hand over the guilty jawans for interrogation. The government swiftly announced to remove CRPF battalions from Baramulla and bring units of the Jammu and Kashmir Armed Police to replace them.

Angry protesters later today waylaid an Army ambulance at Palhalan, about 30 km from Srinagar, and burnt it. Officials said none travelling in the vehicle was hurt. The ambulance was on its way to Baramulla.

The government’s censure against the CRPF has not really been welcomed by the paramilitary authorities, which said they were a convenient scapegoat for the state administration to assuage public anger. A senior official said the state officers never expected them to open fire irrespective of the provocation. Last year, the Amarnath land controversy, too, the CRPF’s aggressive tactics had invited flak from the state administration and its then IG SK Jain was transferred.

Amid prevailing tension, the curfew remained in force in Baramulla and Sopore and there was some let-up in violence today. Srinagar was largely quiet.

The valley adhered to the strike call by the Hurriyat faction headed by Syed Ali Shah Geelani and a majority of shops were closed. However, a few shops were open even in the Lal Chowk area, indicating the restlessness in the trading community over the incessant strikes called by separatists, more so at a time tourists’ arrival perk up their earnings. The three-day strike call would end tomorrow. 

Udhampur, July 1
The security forces gunned down three militants of the Laskher-e-Toiba (LeT) in the Kulhand area of Doda district this evening. The slain militants were active in this belt for the past some months and had let loose a reign of terror.

Giving details about the encounter, DIG, Doda-Ramban range, Hemant Kumar Lohia told The Tribune that a search operation in the Nalsu forest area near Kulhand was started around 3 pm on specific information about the movement of some suspects in this belt. During the search operations, the militants, who were hiding in a house, attacked the security forces. However, they were killed in the ensuing gunfight.

Though the identity of the slain militants is yet to be established, initial reports said they were locals. According to documents seized from their possessions, they were identified as Rehamatullah, Bilal and Abu Mouja. All slain militants were from the LeT and active in this belt for the quite some time.

Unconfirmed reports said an Army deserter Zafarullah, who had left the Territorial Army in March this year, was also killed in the encounter. However, the police did not confirm the death of Zaffarullah.

According to official sources, the security forces were chasing this militants’ group for the past three days. This afternoon, residents of Kulhand informed them about the movement of the militants in this belt. It was all due to the help from the locals that the security forces started the search operation and successfully eliminated the three militants in a three-hour long gunfight.

Srinagar, July 1
A day after ordering to withdraw the CRPF from violence-gripped Baramulla when a youth was killed in firing from its personnel, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said today that there would be no “free hand” for security personnel and they would be prosecuted if found using force unnecessarily.

In a candid conversation with some journalists on the sidelines of the pristine Nigeen Club, which he inaugurated after it had gone into disuse for 20 years due to militant violence, Omar said the security forces would have to show greater accountability. “There should not be use of arms without the presence of a magistrate. It’s a legal obligation, which is not practised. But I would ensure it is,” he said.

The Chief Minister though also sympathised with the police and, especially, CRPF personnel and said they faced stones from crowd almost everyday. “Their names are announced from mosques and their families always lived with apprehensions,” he said.

Terming “unnecessary” the loss of four lives, all killed in police and CRPF firing to control violent mobs, in Baramulla in the past three days, he said the provocation behind the agitation was motivated. They should have checked the antecedents of the woman, whose allegation that cops sought sexual favours from her to release her husband arrested in a kidnapping case, and her husband, he said.

The turns of event following her allegation suggested that she levelled the charges more out of desperation than anything else.

Asked about the disappearance of a youth from the Army custody at Larkipora in Dooru, he said he had taken up the matter with the General Officer Commanding of 15 Corps and asked the police to use sniffer dogs to see if they could find the trails of the youth. Basharat Ahmad Bhat was called on June 27 by 36 Rashtriya Rifles unit stationed there in connection with a case and his family said he was never seen since. The Army said they had released him.

Omar also ticked off separatists for calling strikes frequently. “If they think I am guilty, they should think of means to punish me. Strikes harm the common man depending upon tourists to earn his livelihood more than me,” he said without naming any organisation or person. His or his government’s work was not hampered by strikes, but it was the poor who suffered, he said. 

Srinagar, July 1
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has urged the 13th Finance Commission to be generous in supporting the trouble-torn state, where people suffered a lot during the past two decades of violence leading to institutions performing much below par.

He was addressing a meeting with the Finance Commission led by Vijay Kelkar and its members at the SKICC here today.

The Chief Minister said due to the trouble, the administration, which was expected to attend to the issues of governance and fulfil the day-to-day needs of the people, had to devote most of its resources, time and energy in dealing with separatism, militancy and terrorism. “It will not be an exaggeration to say that while the administration geared up to face new and difficult challenges, it faltered when it came to dealing with the issues of development and delivery of public services,” he said.

Omar added that the government was confronted with a greater challenge and “that is to do extra so as to make up for the lost time and opportunity”.

Referring to the Amarnath land agitation last year, the Chief Minister said it completely crippled normal life for nearly three months and led to economic losses running into hundreds of crores. The other losses for example in education, services, image and reputation were difficult to quantify, he added. That was followed by the seven-phased Assembly elections and another spell of five-phased Lok Sabha elections, leaving the state with less economic activity for seven months, Omar pointed out.

Omar referred to various priority areas seeking a generous support from the Finance Commission, which included hydel power generation, tourism, forest, ecology and environment, health and education, Infrastructure and communication, Sixth Pay Commission and security-related expenditures.

Elaborating on the security-related expenditures, he said due to violence and terrorism security became the highest concern and everything became subsidiary it. “The non-plan expenditure on security-related initiatives has to be compensated as under the present dispensation it is not being met under the Security Related Expenditure (SRE) reimbursed by the MHA. This is a very legitimate charge, which we would urge the Finance Commission to incorporate in its award,” Omar stated.

On power generation, the Chief Minister said it was a matter of urgent nature to turn around the fortunes of the state. This sector, he said, would make sufficient energy available not only to the state, but also to the rest of the country and have a multiplier effect on the growth of industry, tourism and services sector.

Jammu, July 1
BJP state spokesperson Ramesh Arora in a statement took strong note of the role of a particular national electronic channel for initiating advance discussion in public on the report of Justice MS Liberhan Commission about demolition of Babri Masjid and the responsibility thereof.

The report has been handed over to Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and the same is yet to be tabled before both houses of the Parliament and is to be discussed there along with the Action Taking Report (ATR). Arora said it was the prime responsibility of the media to observe self-contained restrictions over their working so that the government might not get opportunity to curtail the rights of media on the pretext of controlling irresponsible, misguiding and provoked practice.

Arora said the commission had worked on the dictates of the Congress-led government and had furnished delayed report after 17 years, which it was supposed to be furnished in three months of the occurrence.

“The report has been leaked intentionally to a particular channel which has deliberately started public discussion to get mileage over other channels and to defame the BJP and its leaders. Everybody is aware about the role of this channel. The channel has tried to declare leaders like LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharti, Ashok Singhal and Mulayam Singh, besides other organisations like Shiv Sena, responsible for the demolition and have declared them culprits. Such type of reporting cast aspersion over the working of media. Media-related bodies and associations should come openly against such practice in order to protect the credibility of the working of media,” he said. 

Jammu, July 1
Protesting against ‘harassment’ by the officials of the Sales Tax Department, as many as 500 truckers went on an indefinite strike last night, badly affecting the supplies of essential commodities.

“Instead of penalising retailers, who deliberately reflect lesser amounts in their bills (of various merchandise being brought into the state in trucks) to save sales tax, the truckers are held responsible and penalised by the Sales Tax officials at the Lakhanpur toll post,” said Mukesh Vaid, president of the J&K Goods’ Transport Association.

Though the retailers reimbursed the penalties, the practice caused hardships to the truckers, he added.

Why the truckers should be compelled to make payment for the tax amount at the Lakhanpur toll post?, he asked.

“We want that the officials concerned should directly penalise the retailers instead of causing inconvenience to the truckers,” he added.

Vaid further said unless the government abolished the practice of penalising the truckers they would not call off their stir.

Jammu, July 1
The Jammu Municipal Corporation (MC) has decided to start night patrolling to make the ban on polythene bags more effective in the city.

Though the polythene bags have disappeared from the market, at some places the ban is still being flouted by some shopkeepers and rehariwallas.

While explaining polythene as a nuisance for society and a big hurdle in keeping the city neat and clean, Dr Anwar Choudhary, Health Officer of the MC, said after permission from Municipal Commissioner Mubarak Singh, the MC Health Wing would depute a team under the supervision of the food and sanitation inspectors to keep a vigil on violators during evening hours.

He said he had received many complaints from different areas, where shopkeepers were violating the ban during late hours.

Dr Choudhary said, “I am well aware of the fact that in some localities rehariwallas and shopkeepers are still selling products in polythene bags. They are flouting the ban for which they will be punished.”

He further said, “Our department and the MC Enforcement Wing will jointly start night patrolling to make the ban more effective.”

Highlighting the achievement of the MC in imposing the ban effectively, Dr Choudhary said, “Though initially people faced problems due to the stoppage of the use of polythene bags, a majority of them have welcomed our step and are cooperating with us. They also want to get rid of polythene bags completely.”

Warning to the violators, he said anyone found violating the ban would be punished.

Jammu, July 1
The medical re-examination of a former Miss Jammu hangs in balance because of the unavailability of certain scientific equipment in Government Medical College (GMC) here.

Of late the special investigating team (SIT) of the police had moved an application before the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM), Jammu, which in turn had issued a direction to the GMC authorities to constitute a medical board to re-examine the beauty queen.

It may be stated here that a porn CD allegedly featuring former Miss Jammu Anara Gupta had rocked the state in 2004.

“Following court orders, we constituted a three-member medical board comprising Dr Sudha Sharma from the department of gynaecology, Dr Rachna from the anatomy department and Dr Sangeeta Choudhary from the department of forensic medicines. But the unavailability of requisite equipment has delayed the medical re-examination of Anara Gupta,” GMC sources disclosed to The Tribune.

Though we had been trying to get the equipment, we had also asked the SIT to procure them for us to get the job done, they added.

The court has been duly informed about the reason responsible for the delay in conducting the medical examination, they said.

Sources divulged that the medical board would examine certain marks on the body of the former Miss Jammu so as to draw a parallel between Anara and the girl who featured in the porn CD.

Subsequently, the report would be submitted to the court, the sources said.

Recently, the SIT had moved an application before the CJM with a request that it wanted another medical examination of the former Miss Jammu done.

After a minute analysis of the porn CD in question, the SIT had noticed some marks on the body of the girl featuring in the CD and hence it had requested the court to get Anara Gupta medically re-examined, they said.

The SIT was in a fix over contradiction in the reports of two reputed forensic labs of the country.

After the FSL, Hyderabad, had given a clean chit to the beauty queen, the FSL, Chandigarh, in its report had stated that the girl in the porn CD looked like Anara Gupta.

Srinagar, July 1
Four Amarnath pilgrims, including a woman, died of cardiac arrest, raising the death toll during the ongoing yatra to the holy cave shrine in south Kashmir Himalayas to 21, official sources said.

Murli Dhar Bhai (30), a resident of Orissa, died at the Baltal base camp in Ganderbal district this morning, the sources said.

The pilgrim fell seriously ill at Sheshnag, along the traditional Pahalgam cave route, and was airlifted to hospital. However, he suffered a major heart attack and died, they said.

Another pilgrim, Vijay Kumar (55), a resident of Jammu, was taken to the Ganderbal district hospital after he complained of chest pain while returning from the cave shrine. He died in hospital, the sources said.

A resident of Haryana, Manish Jain (36), died at the Army medical camp at Zojibal along the Pahalgam route last evening. Jain fell unconscious after a chest pain and was taken to the Army hospital, where he breathed his last.

A woman pilgrim, Sharmita (45), a resident of Maharashtra, died at the SKIMS hospital here. She was brought to the hospital yesterday from Baltal after she complained of chest pain.

With the death of the four pilgrims, the number of persons who died during the yatra rose to 21. — PTI

Jammu (TNS): Amidst tight security a fresh batch of 1,412 Amarnath pilgrims left the Yatri Niwas base camp this morning for the cave shrine in south Kashmir Himalayas.

A total of 1,412 pilgrims, comprising 282 women, 50 children and 200 sadhus, left the base camp around 5 am in a convoy of 29 buses and 21 light motor vehicles, SP Benam Tosh, security in charge of the Yatri Niwas, said. The yatra was slated to commence from June 7 but it began from June 15 due to bad weather on the upper reaches of south Kashmir Himalayas. 

Jammu, July 1
The Jammu branch of Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) today celebrated CA Day here today as it completed 60 years of its existence.

The occasion was marked by a blood donation camp at the Government Medical College and Hospital, Jammu. ICAI chairman Hardeep Aggarwal of the J&K branch was the chief guest.

As many as 22 members of the association donated blood at the camp. Cultural activities were also organised at the Jammu Club, Jammu, which included distribution of certificates to blood donors. The proceedings were conducted by CA Lalit Kumar Gupta, secretary of the branch. Vote of thanks was presented by vice-chairman of the branch Satish Kumar Gupta.