Srinagar, July 15
The high court today ordered the arrest of all four suspended policemen in the rape and murder case of two Shopian women and asked the special investigating team (SIT) to collect their blood samples for DNA tests to find out if they could be involved in the crime, a possibility that the Jan commission had suggested in its final report.

The Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Barin Ghosh and Justice Mohammad Yaqub Mir asked the Central government for a speedy narco analysis test of the accused cops when the SIT informed it that there was a long queue for tests in the CFSL, Gandhinagar, where this facility is available.

Four policemen, including the then Shopian SP Javid Iqbal Mattoo and DSP Rohit Baskotra, besides the SHO and investigating officer, are being kept at a police facility in Humhama on the outskirts of Srinagar for questioning and could be formally arrested anytime now. The court also ordered that no lower court would grant bail or any other relief to the accused and would send any such request to the high court.

The high court has taken a strong stand against the accused cops after their names cropped up for bungling in the case and removing the evidence, which could have helped track the culprits. In its previous hearing on July 4, the Division Bench had ordered exhuming of the women’s bodies, a narco analysis of the cops and ordered the government to bring IG Farooq Ahmad to head the SIT. The court fixed the next hearing for July 23.

The Chief Justice also asked the people of Shopian to call off their 47-day-long protests and strike and assured the women’s family that they would go to the bottom of the matter and “bring the culprits to the justice”.

Justice Ghosh gave credit to the peaceful protests for the progress in the case and asked the people to cooperate with the investigating agency. The government has suspended seven cops and doctors so far and shunted top police officials, including DG, CID, Ashok Bhan to relatively insignificant posts for their mishandling of the case.

Jammu, July 15
Rajni Bala, in her late 20s, had never been inside a police post. She had never imagined in her worst dreams that just 30 hours after she would deliver a baby, she would be kept in a room of a police post.

Instead of being surrounded by relatives to celebrate the birth of a son, she had to spend three nights in a room of the police post as the hospital from where her newborn son was allegedly stolen had no place for her. A woman Sub-Inspector is heading the post.

Devoid of care and basic humanity to take care of a woman who was undergoing the mental agony of losing a baby, the hospital authorities allegedly even told her to look for the baby in dustbins and toilet.

It was only today after a media outcry and protest by her relatives that she was shifted to a special room in the hospital. But the ordeal of losing her sons and living in a police post room is set to haunt her all life. “I am the most unlucky mother on this earth because I nourished my son for nine months in my womb and I lost him just after delivery. No one can understand the pain I am suffering now,” said a wailing Rajni.

“When I came to know that my son was missing, we all went out and searched for him in every corner of the hospital. We searched him even in dustbins, toilets, washbasins, but he was not there,” she said.

Blaming the hospital management, Rajni said, “I have lost my baby due to the utter negligence of the hospital staff. When I asked them about the whereabouts of my baby, they simply denied any knowledge about the baby. And they even told me to find him in dustbins or toilets and not disturb them.”

Worse, she was allegedly told to move out. “We all were searching the baby and when we came back, my bed was occupied by another patient, despite the fact that my medical report, my cloths and medicines were on the bed,” she said.

“They treated us as if we have lost some commodity, which can be purchased from the market. But l will not leave the hospital till we recover the baby,” said her mother-in-law Asha Rani.

“The police and the hospital authorities are compelling me to leave the hospital. Police personnel have been asking me to go home and they will hand over the baby to me as and when he is recovered,” she said. “But I wont go,” Rajni added.

This was the second son of Rajni. The first one is one-year-old. Her husband, Sunil Sharma, is an employee with a private college in Kathua. He and other relatives are searching the baby on their own.

Jammu, July 15
Minority communities in the state are unhappy over the non-inclusion of any of their members in the recent Cabinet expansion. Not a single member from among the Sikhs and the Kashmiri Pandits was inducted into the Cabinet.

National Sikh Front president Kulwant Singh Bhatti condemned the NC-Congress coalition government in the state for ignoring the minorities while expanding the Cabinet.

“It is very unfortunate that the NC-led government had ignored the minorities in the state. It was the NC leadership that during its election campaign had promised to give adequate representation to all sections of society,” said Bhatti.

He said the Sikhs and the displaced members of the Kashmiri Pandit community should have been given proper representation in the Cabinet expansion.

“The hardships faced by the two communities are not new. They are facing hardships since 1947 and the successive state governments had been adopting an apathetic attitude towards the communities,” Bhatti said.

Anil Bhat, a Kashmiri Pandit migrant, said, “Only a member from our community, who had migrated, could know the problems being faced by the members of the community. It was wrong on the part of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah to ignore the community.” “We feel let down by this government,” Bhat said.

Jammu, July 15
The BSF has apprehended three Myanmar nationals from the Indo-Pakistan International Border while they were trying to enter Pakistan, near International Border, in Jammu.

According to BSF spokesman, Jammu, Vinod Sharma, these three were trying to enter Pakistani side, taking advantage of the Tawi from the Makwal sector yesterday.

“The arrested persons have been identified as Gyasuddin (18) and Hussain (19) of Aikop district and Mohammed Saleem (25) of Bichidaon district of Myanmar,” Sharma said. A mobile phone without SIM card and Rs 2,415 in Indian currency were seized friom them,” the spokesman said.

He said on questioning the three revealed that they had left Myanmar two months ago along with a tout named Salam and had paid him 20,000 in Burmese currency. They crossed border through the Madu area in Bangladesh and after sailing for eight hours they crossed to India from Satkira (Bangladesh) and reached Howrah.

He said from Howrah they boarded a Delhi-bound train from where they went to Saharanpur by bus and met Kamal (26) of Nadeem Colony.

“Then they came to Jammu by train and took a room on rent at Nanak Nagar and started working as a casual labourer,” Sharma said, adding that on July 13 they reached Choridak village and moved to border on foot from the Tawi. Here, soldiers of the 141 Battalion, BSF, apprehended them.

He said though their motive of crossing over to the Pakistan was not clear but preliminary investigations revealed that the three tried to cross over for getting some job across the border.

“We have handed them over to Satwari Police Station for further investigation,” Sharma said. Police sources said the three were misguided by touts and were promised a job in Middle East but were dumped in Jammu.

Jammu, May 15
Residents of Purani Mandi, Afghana Mohalla, Chowk Chabutra, Mohalla Paharian, Pacca Danga, Kali Janni, Khilonewali Gali, Kachi Chawni, Parade and Raj Tilak Road today held a protest against the Public Health Engineering (PHE) Department to register their resentment against acute shortage of drinking water.

Led by BJP state secretary Yudhvir Sethi, they raised slogans against the department and minister Taj-Mohi-ud-Din, state Minister for PHE, Irrigation and Flood Control. Sethi said the people of Jammu city were not getting regular supply of drinking water.

Ram Kumar of Purani Mandi said these days when the temperature is crossing 44°C mark the department had failed to ensure its regular supply.

Asha Rani of Kali Jani locality said she made many rounds of the PHE Dept but the officials concerned seemed busy with pleasing the PHE Minister rather than listening to the common man.

An employee of the PHE said the minister was making all efforts to harass the Class IV employees on one pretext or the other. He said the minister, instead of redressing the problems of the common man, was threatening the employees of drastic action, which was shameful on part of such a responsible person.

Meanwhile, the Jammu West Assembly Movement (JWAM) held a massive protest demonstration against the scarcity of potable water faced by the people of the city. The protestors blocked the road at Amphalla, Janipur and the High Court Road.

Sunil Dimple, president of the JWAM, alleged that Chief Minister Omar Abdhullah and PHE Minster Taj-Mohi-ud-Din had failed to keep up their words that the Sitlee Filtration Plant (III) would be started by July 15.

Dimple urged the Chief Minister that the water from the Chinab of Akhnoor should be supplied to the people of Jammu as the Tawi was not meeting the requirements of the people of the winter capital.

Jammu, July 15
A relay fast launched by leaders of the Internationalist Democratic Party (IDP) in garrison town of Samba entered fifth day today. The IDP had been demanding a judicial probe into the killings of peace activists Hoshiar Singh and his wife Shashi Bala by terrorists on May 11 last year.

Senior IDP leaders Man Singh and Chattar Singh continued the chain-hunger strike today. However, the IDP today served an ultimatum on the government to order the judicial probe and identify the killers and their motive.

The party leaders had submitted a memorandum to Chief Minister Omar Abdullah yesterday, requesting that probe as promised by the previous coalition government and then MP Farooq Abdullah be initiated within one month.

A delegation of prominent citizens of Samba comprising Ved Prakash, Subash Singh, Lt. Col (retd) Karan Singh and Subhash Singh today met Samba MLA Yashpal Kundal, who assured full cooperation to the IDP leaders.

Senior advocate of the state high court Shabir Ahmed Salaria also participated in the hunger strike and assured full support.

Srinagar, July 15
State Congress president Saifuddin Soz has regretted the views expressed against him by a union minister and senior party leader that had appeared in a section of the Press here.

“The statement gives an impression that I was behind the stories that got published in a section of the Press suggesting the role of the senior leader in destabilising the Congress-NC alliance,” Soz said in a statement. He categorically denied that he had spoken to anybody in the media “regarding warming up of the person towards PDP to destabilise the NC-Congress coalition. I have no knowledge about the background of these stories,” he stated. Though Soz did not name the party leader, it referred to union minister Ghulam Nabi Azad’s recent statement.

“A two-page document full of ire against my person (his ghost writer going to the extreme in slander) is unbecoming of a senior leader,” the PCC president said.

“What the leader had spoken to groups of people during his long tours of the state recently and the leaks of his speeches is now public knowledge. All stories on that tour appeared in various newspapers. As for the particular stories, against which he directed his ire and extreme anger against me, the names of journalists had also appeared and the truth could easily be nailed if he had tried to do so,” Soz stated.

Soz said: “If he is prepared to nail the truth and proves my involvement, I will apologise publicly. The mediapersons in the length and breadth of the state know me for not saying anything off the record. There was absolutely no justification for the leader to lose his cool and go to the extreme of indecency, unnecessarily.”

Referring to the induction of seven Congress ministers into the Cabinet, he said it was the party high command that had approved the list.

Meanwhile, senior PCC leaders, including Mohammad Muzaffar Parray, senior vice-president, Bashir Ahmad Magrey, Gulam Nabi Monga and Abdul Majid Padder, all vice-presidents, here expressed solidarity with Soz for his “incessant efforts to invigorate the Congress at all levels”.

Jammu, July 15
Peeved at what he claimed a “raw deal” followed by “unwarranted” remarks by NC president and Union Minister for New and Renewable Energy Farooq Abdullah, Sajjad Ahmed Kichloo, party MLA from Kishtwar, felt that none had the authority to show him the door.

On July 12 Farooq had reportedly said in Banihal that party Legislators, who had been threatening to part ways with the NC after they were excluded from the recent Cabinet expansion, were at liberty to go ahead with their decision.

Exclusion of Kichloo from the State Cabinet came as a rude shock to people in his Assembly constituency, where a string of protests had been going on since Omar inducted 13 new faces in his Council of Ministers on July 11. The district unit of the party had also resigned in protest.

“My family has a long association with the NC from the past six decades and my grandfather was closely associated with Late Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah. Hence, question of quitting the party doesn’t arise at all,” scion of Kichloo family said.

“Since 1975, the people of Kishtwar stood by the NC through thick and thin. Now, if Dr Farooq Abdullah says that Legislators disappointed over their exclusion can leave the party then it’s really unfortunate,” he added.

“Kichloo family has pruned the NC with its blood and is one of the founder members, so how can I leave the party,” he said.

Kichloo reminded Abdullahs (Omar and Farooq) about their promises made by them before the people of Kishtwar that he would be given a Cabinet berth in the NC government.

To a query, he said he talked to Omar but the latter simply expressed regrets over his exclusion, saying that he deserved a place in the Cabinet but could not be included.

Jammu, July 15
The police today seized 275 more tins of adulterated desi ghee from a godown in Patoli and detained another person, who was later released. Since raids started yesterday, so far the police has confiscated about 600 tins of adulterated desi ghee.

Official sources told The Tribune that acting upon a tip-off a police team conducted raids in the Patoli Brahmana area of Domana and seized three truckloads of adulterated ghee yesterday.

During the raids, the police had arrested Naresh Kumar of Datyal village in Akhnoor, who was putting up in Shiv Nagar of Domana area, and Tarsem Lal Sharma of Patoli Brahmana.

Sources said their sustained questioning led to seizure of 275 tins of adulterated ghee from a godown in Patoli this morning. Prabhu Dayal of Patoli was arrested, but was released later, the sources said.

A senior police officer confirmed the raids saying though the police today confiscated 275 tins of adulterated ghee, it expected more seizures in the next few days. Today, the seized consignment had labels of well known brands like Kohinoor, Anmol and Kalash, he said.

The duo, Naresh Kumar and Tarsem Lal Sharma, had been working for a Delhi-based trader Jagmohan Singh, he said.

A case under Section 420, RPC, and 3/7 of the Essential Commodities Act had already been registered, he added. 

Srinagar, July 15
The ruling NC and separatists have hailed the resuming of dialogue between leaders of India and Pakistan during the ongoing meet in Egypt. Welcoming the talks, APHC chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq said it was important to settle the Kashmir issue for better relations between the two countries and to ensure peace in South Asia.

An executive committee meeting of the Hurriyat Conference presided over by the Mirwaiz at the party headquarters here today said participation of the “pro-movement” (separatist) leadership in the dialogue process was important. This would pave way for the success of the dialogue process, he said.

The APHC has already forwarded a five-point programme to the Centre to pave way for a meaningful exercise for the resolution of Kashmir issue. The programme includes revocation of special powers to the security forces, withdrawal of troops and release of all those detained.

Secretary general of the NC Sheikh Nazir Ahmad, welcoming the talks between the leaders of India and Pakistan in Egypt, said that stronger relations between the two countries were necessary for the Kashmir resolution.

He said a huge amount of money was being spent by the two countries on defence alone, which could be diverted for progress and prosperity of the people.

The NC leader also expressed concern over the recent statement of BJP leader Chaman Lal Gupta regarding Martyrs’ Day in Kashmir.

Srinagar, July 15
The police has busted a Lashkar-e-Toiba module in Srinagar and arrested two overground workers, who were intending to carry out a major strike in Srinagar city. In another case, the police arrested four persons, who were part of a gang which threw grenades on police stations and security forces recently.

The police arrested Fayaz Ahmad Bhat of Kishtwar, an employee of Central University office at Hyderpora, and Mohammad Yusuf Panchoo of Banihal, a released militant of the LeT. They confessed to their involvement in the grenade blast in Dalgate, which killed one person last month. The money, Rs 25,000, seized from their possession was to be used in terrorist activities in Srinagar city.

In another case, the police received a tip-off regarding the presence of two overground workers of LeT in the Maisuma area. Both OGWs were arrested and a grenade was seized from their possession, police sources said.

They were identified as Bashir Ahmad Dar of Sopore and Manzoor Ahmad Rana of Handwara. On their disclosures, Nisar Ahmad Bhat of Sopore and Farooq Ahmad Rana of Handwara, were arrested. The group disclosed that they were behind the grenade throwing incidents on police stations in Sopore and Baramulla and the grenade explosion in Gow Kadal and Jahangir Chowk in Srinagar city. The police seized a Pika gun, four rifle grenades and 100 AK 47 rounds.