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Amandeep’s Murder
Mother to fight for justice
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Police maintains numero uno position in sports
16 named PIOs under RTI Act
Muslims too against inter-caste marriages
Monkey Menace
Maharaja Hari Singh’s only statue is in Jammu
Warm response cheers Pak wrestlers
Rock Fest tomorrow
JAMMU DIARY
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Amandeep’s Murder
Jammu, September 29 Amandeep Singh, son of former MLC Deepinder Kour, was murdered on August 29 allegedly by Jatinder Singh, alias Raja (28), son of an influential businessman, Choudhary Nagar Singh. An aspiring management graduate, 27-year-old Amandeep Singh, was also in the business of cable TV network. The eyewitnesses, including Deepinder Kour and her elder son, Sandeep Singh, say that they saw Jatinder Singh firing at Amandeep after which he and his accomplice fled on a Maruti Swift car. Though Jatinder Singh and Amandeep were childhood friends, they studied in different institutions. While Amandeep gradated and was pursuing MBA, Jatinder was looking after his father’s business as could not continue his studies after failing in the matriculation examination. After the incident, the police arrested the accused, Jatinder and Royal Singh, son of Manjeet Singh of Dalpatian Mohalla, and recovered two country-made revolvers from their possession. Amandeep died the next day at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital in New Delhi. The case took an interesting turn when on September 18, the state government ordered the suspension of three senior police officers - SSP Jammu Manohar Singh, SP City (South) Mumtaz Ahmed and SDPO Gandhi Nagar Jaswant Singh Katoch - for destroying evidence in the case. Prior to this, DIG Jammu Kathua Range Farooq Khan had ordered the suspension of SHO Gandhi Nagar Sultan Mirza, sub inspector Satnam Singh, and havildar-cum-munshi Talib Hussain involved in the tampering of evidence. “The forensic science laboratory submitted a report to the police saying that no bullet was fired from the weapon provided to the FSL, which proves that the weapon was changed,” an officer said. The DIG then constituted a new SIT headed by SP Ramban Mubassir Latifi. Its members include Onkar Singh, deputy director prosecution (regional police headquarters); Abdul Rouf Lone, DSP Armed police control room; and HS Gill, DYSP CID (CI) Jammu. DIG Farooq Khan under whose supervision the SIT is working, said, “I have no exact figure but a very huge sum was involved in tampering the evidence. Money has played a major role. The exact amount and the officers to whom it was paid and the persons who made the payment would be known soon”. Meanwhile, Deepinder Kour said, “Jatinder himself chose to kill Amandeep so as to threaten his rivals. He knew that his father was an influential man and would get him out of all this as he had done in earlier cases”. “The court had ordered the security wing of the police to provide us with security, but no security was provided to us,” said Sandeep Singh. After Amandeep’s mother raised suspicion over the investigations under the then SSP Manohar Singh, she lodged a complaint after which the new SIT was constituted. The SIT came to know that the weapon of offence was changed as the weapon sent to the FSL was an old and rusted pistol which was not in a condition to fire. The new SIT is trying to find out the original weapon of offence and has been conducting raids at various places, but so far it has attained no success. However, in a late last night development, the SIT arrested the three police officials -Manohar Singh, Sultan Mirza and Satnam Singh. |
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Mother to fight for justice
Jammu, September 29 The murder of Amandeep Singh, the younger son of former legislature Deepinder Kaur, has been in news for the past almost one month, but for the first time the mother spoke to The Tribune and narrated the chain of events before the crime. “On August 29, we all were sitting in the lobby as a guest had arrived and we were discussing some family issue. It was around 5:30 pm when somebody knocked the gate and shouted for Aman,” said Deepinder Kour with tears rolling down her cheeks. She said as Amandeep went to open the gate, she along with the guest and her elder son followed him. “There were two boys standing outside. One of them was Jatinder Singh, alias Raja, son of Nagar Singh, who had a country-made pistol in his hand, and the second boy was holding a revolver. Raja shot at my son and both of them fled the spot,” she said. As the bullet hit Amandeep in the stomach, he fell on the ground and was lying in a pool of blood, she said, adding that all family members managed to put him in a car and rushed to GMC where he was operated upon for several hours and later kept in the ICU. “As his condition worsened, we rushed him to Sir Ganga Ram Hospital in New Delhi where he died at 8:30 pm. When we were on way to GMC he was conscious. He told us that the person who shot him was Jatinder Singh, son of Nagar Singh,” she said. Both of them were childhood friends, but later developed some differences as Jatinder was used to liquor to which Amandeep opposed. “Prior to this incident Amandeep was in stress. After our repeated questioning, he told us that his life was under threat as Raja wanted him to abandon his cable business in Sainik colony otherwise he would be killed,” she said
adding that she advised him to lodge a police complaint but he refused fearing the worst, she said. Deepinder said from the beginning she doubted the investigations being
carried out by the then SSP Manohar Singh. “He came to our house and asked us that two bullets were fired, but we being the eyewitnesses told him that only one bullet was fired, we knew he was out to fudge the case to benefit the accused,” she alleged. She said the weapons seized by the police were the original weapons of offence, but they might have been changed during the course of shifting it to forensic science laboratory from the police station. Deepinder, who is an advocate, is committed to take the case to its logical conclusion and would make sure that the culprits are punished as per the law. “I have hope from the new investigation team and the steps taken by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah. Though I cannot get my son back, I will make sure that the guilty are punished,” she said with a commitment on her face. |
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Police maintains numero uno position in sports
Srinagar, September 29 During the past two decades of violence and its fight against militancy, the police has lost 889 policemen and 468 SPOs. For the first time, the police began a commemoration tournament after inspector Mushtaq Ahmad Baba lost his life in a militant attack at Regal Chowk, Srinagar, on October 31, 1997. Thus, Mushtaq Memorial Football Tournament was named after him, which began in 1998. The tournament began at the all-India level in 2001 and was named as the “J&K Police Martyrs Memorial Football Tournament”. At present, the Police Sporting Wing is nurturing 16 teams, including two teams of women, apart from adventure sports like mountaineering, white water rafting, water and snow skiing, stated the director-general of the police, Kuldeep Khoda. The police distinguished itself by hosting seven All-India Police Games allotted by the All-India Police Sports Control Board, New Delhi, within a span of nine years from 2000 to 2009. It is also organising the 10th All-India Police Lawn Tennis Championship at Jammu from November 23 to November 27. The police organised the 8th All-India Police Water Sports Championship at the Dal Lake, Srinagar, from June 2 to June 8, 2009, where the J&K Police Water Sports team bagged the Kayaking and Canoeing Championship. It had so far secured 13 gold and three silver medals in different tournaments, Kuldeep said. Its achievements include scaling of the Kolhai Peak (17,770ft) by its 18-member police mountaineering team on August 12 this year. The mountaineering team performed rescue duties during the Amarnath Yatra and rescued a number of old age and sick pilgrims. The Water Sports Team secured silver medal in the Second International White Water Rafting Championship held at Sonmarg beating top international countries. Achievements
International level
National level
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Jammu-Pathankot highway
Jammu, September 29 Despite the dilapidated condition of the bridges over rivers and seasonal nullahs, about two lakh vehicles ply on the highway everyday. The agencies responsible for the maintenance of the highway that links the state with the rest of the nation, seem to be waiting for any major catastrophe before bracing up for remedial measures. Although work on some new concrete bridges to replace the existing ones is in progress, the same is going on at a snail’s pace. Govind Ram of Ghagwal village on the highway said despite extending the deadlines many a times, the construction agencies had not completed the work of widening of the road for the past eight years. “Everyday accidents occur on the highway that has a number of diversions and potholes. But no one seems to be bothered’’, Govind added. Echoing similar views, Sandeep Sharma of Kathua feared that two bridges on the Khadeju nullah were about to collapse any
time. “In that case, the entire Kathua would be cut off”, he said. Sandeep admitted that both bridges were being replaced by concrete structures. He, however, apprehended that it would take another couple of years for their completion. The bridges near Chadwal and Dayalachak on the Ujh and another near Samba on the Basanter, wear the same look as they too are without fencing and sidewalls. “In the absence of streetlights, it is further becoming a complicated task for the drivers to negotiate during night hours”, said a medical shop owner of Dayalachak village. An official of a construction agency said no repair work on the existing bridges was being undertaken. “We have been told to construct all new bridges on this 104-km highway. The existing bridges would be either abandoned or razed,” he said. The official, however, said for the convenience of the general public, especially drivers, some sand bags had been put along the edges of the bridges wherever the railings and fencings had broken. |
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16 named PIOs under RTI Act
Jammu, September 29 The Act was recently passed by the state legislature after making certain amendments to bring it almost on a par with the RTI Act in vogue in the rest of the country. Gazzanfar Hussain, special secretary in the Home Department, is the only IAS officer who has been nominated PIO as the remaining 15 officials belong to the Kashmir Administrative Service (KAS). They include G A Khawaja, R K Pandia, M Y Shoru, Abdul Majid Mir,R K Koul, Zafar Ahmad Bhat,Parshotam Kumar, Ravinder Gupta, R L Vishan, Rita Parimoo, Altaf Hussain, Arif-ullah, Abdul Rashid Parray, Inderjeet Singh, and Zafar Ahmad. Under section 4 (a) of the J&K RTI Act, every public authority has to maintain all its records duly catalogued and indexed and, subject to the availability of the resources, computerised and connected through a network all over the state on different systems so that access to such records is facilitated. Meanwhile, the Department of Posts has authorised the Gandhinagar and Jammu Tawi Head Post Offices to receive applications for seeking information under the RTI Act. |
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Muslims too against inter-caste marriages
Mendhar (Poonch), September 29 According to Hindu religion, while Brahmans cannot marry Rajputs, Shatriyas, Vaishyas and Shudras and can tie a knot with the Brahmans only. Interestingly, the rigid caste system prevail in Muslims too and takes a notable stand against inter-caste marriages in this border township. The couple wishing to tie the knot has to face the music. Most of the times, many simply give up. The inter-caste marriages among Chauhan, Manhas and Manyal to Qureshi, Teli and Khokhar Rajputs are not welcomed here. “It is not that the caste system is rigid among the Hindus, but even in our area, it is deep-rooted among us also,” said Tehseen Ahmed, a resident. “Inter-caste marriages hardly materialise in our society because of social stigma associated with them. There have been cases where the couple has to take extreme steps on not being allowed to marry,” added Ahmed. “Caste polarisation, which I find in Rajouri and Poonch, has rarely been seen elsewhere. Leave aside the inter-caste marriages, there are problems within the sub-castes of a particular caste among the Muslims,” said Zaffar Chowdhary, a resident and a journalist who has worked on the identities of Rajouri and Poonch. It is not only that the rigid caste system affects marriages, but it influences the social relations between people belonging to different castes. “It is very unfortunate that even as our Prophet has clearly said that those who believed in caste system or propagated such things were not Muslims. People still believe in caste system and take it very seriously. It is we the priests as well as the politicians who are responsible for dividing people on caste lines for our own petty benefits”, said a local priest asking not to be named. “However, I do feel that education can enlighten the minds of people. The caste system will ultimately go away from our society with people getting educated,” added the priest. |
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Monkey Menace
Sundrani (Udhampur), September 29 Earlier, the menace was confined only to villages located on the banks of the Jajjar and the Tawi, but now the situation has changed with 80 per cent of the Tikri block of Udhampur district comprising over 35 villages of Reasi and 30 villages of Ramnagar and three panchayats of Chenani, are confronting with this problem. All efforts of the authorities, including hiring some experts from outside the state, have failed to provide relief to inhabitants. As traditional farming has become impossible due to the infiltration of a large number of monkeys, the authorities have decided to train the farmers to cultivate only those crops which are not destroyed by monkeys. On the one hand, farmers have been asked to shift to alternative crops while on the other the forest department has decided to grow fruit trees in the forest areas so that monkeys do not infiltrate into the populated areas in the search of food. Although protecting people from simians is a job of the wildlife department, its failure has forced the forest, horticulture and rural development departments to come together to deal with the problem. “Farmers of Udhampur just want to get rid of monkeys”, block development officer Udhampur Bansi Lal said and informed that in every meeting, villagers had been raising this issue. “Keeping in view the emergent situation, we have decided to devise a new strategy to implement various programmes for the betterment of the rural areas”, he said and disclosed that under the NREGA scheme people had been allotted jobs to plant sapling of fruit trees in the forest areas. Under the guidance of DFO Naveen Shah, a comprehensive plan has been formulated to grow fruit trees in the forest areas. Over 1 lakh sapling of fruit trees especially of berry would be planted in different areas of Udhampur. “We have decided to introduce aloe vera farming in those areas where monkeys have made traditional farming impossible”, Bansi Lal said and informed this experiment had proved a success in some affected areas. Instead of going for traditional farming like growing food grains, farmers had been asked to cultivate aloe vera and plants of citrus family as monkeys did not touch such crops, he added. |
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Maharaja Hari Singh’s only statue is in Jammu
Maharaja Hari Singh, who was instrumental in signing the instrument of accession with the Indian union, was born on September 23, 1895, to Maharaja Amar Singh. He became the king of the state in 1925 after the death of his uncle Maharaja Pratap Singh. Maharaja Hari Singh was responsible for brining various reforms in the state. He introduced the Jabbri Taleem (compulsory primary education) in the state. He also introduced laws prohibiting child marriages and did various reforms for the marginalised community of the state. For the past more than 48 years after his death on April 26, 1961, the state has ignored him and not a single memorial has been erected for the last ruler of the state. But thanks to efforts of the Duggar Vikas Manch, an amalgam of various Jammu-based social organisations, that forced the administration to come up with the first-ever statue of the late Maharaja in the state on the Bahu road in Jammu. The first statue of the Maharaja was unveiled early this year by the mayor of the Jammu Municipal Corporation. “It is very unfortunate that it took more than 48 years for the state government to come up with a statue of Maharaja Hari Singh,” said Dineshwar Singh Jamwal, convenor of the manch. He said the reason why the successive state governments were shying away from erecting a statue of the Maharaja was his hostile attitude towards the Indian National Congress and close friendship between Sheikh Abdullah and Jawahar Lal Nehru. After Partition of the country in 1947, the Maharaja tried to maintain an independent status, but after the invasion by Pakistan in October 1947, he acceded the state to India on October 26, 1947. “Despite his conviction towards people of the country and the state, they forgot what he did and nobody was bothered to erect his statue, so we fought and finally succeeded in forcing the authorities to erect a statue of the Maharaja,” Jamwal said. “We have been demanding the authorities to declare the name of that road as the Maharaja Hari Singh road,” Jamwal said. State BJP president and MLA Ashok Khajuria termed Maharaja Hari Singh a great secular leader and held a conspiracy behind not erecting a statue of his in the state. “Maharaja Hari Singh was a great secular leader whose contributions towards the country and the state cannot be ignored. It is very unfortunate that it took so many years to make his statue in the state,” Khajuria said. |
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Warm response cheers Pak wrestlers
Katra, September 29 “I cannot describe in words the affection and love given to us. It was beyond expectation,” said Khawaja Flahudin Naik, assistant coach of the Pakistani team while leaving Katra. He said it was high time that people from both nations came forward and strengthened mutual ties notwithstanding other factors. “How long can politicians from both the countries snub the emotions of people?” he questioned while pointing out similarities between the culture of Lahore and Jammu. “Katra was like home for me, as the dress, culture and language are almost the same”, he observed. Echoing similar sentiments, Mohammad Ali, the only Pakistani wrestler who won his bout, recollected how spectators cheered him when he defeated his Indian rival Naresh Kumar. “At one time, I could not fathom whether I was at home or outside,” he said. The coach of the Pakistani team Mohammad Shafiq opined that such events should be held on a regular basis. “We share a common culture and heritage, therefore we should use these events to strengthen mutual ties,” he said. |
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Patnitop lacks basic facilities
Jammu, September 29 There is no tourist complex or board to give information about various spots or lodging facilities. Due to this, many tourists end up being victims of commission agents who take confused tourists to some select hotels and do not inform them about other lodging facilities. Another problem is the absence of a bank or an ATM. Tourists find themselves in a fix in case they require immediate cash. Amit Bhalla of Gurdaspur says, “Like others, I do not carry much cash while travelling, as ATMs are available throughout the country. But I had the shock of my life when I could not find an ATM in the entire hill resort. I had to catch a taxi at night and travel to Batote, a town 12 km from Patnitop, to withdraw money”. Besides, there is not even a single chemist shop or medical centre in Patnitop. Tourists have to rush to a nearby town in case of an emergency. It is surprising that the place, which boasts of beautiful huts and resorts, do not have basic facilities. Mohammad Akram Malk, CEO, Patnitop Development Authority, said, “I am aware of these shortcomings. I will raise these issues with the Chief Minister soon. An ATM, a tourist and a medical centre will be the priorities”. |
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Rock Fest tomorrow
Jammu, September 29 “The day happens to be World Elders Day and young performers will visit Old Age Homes in the day to entertain them with music,” said press secretary of the band Pallavi Sharma. “Disha for the first time has tried to supplement and compliment individual artists and bands by providing them training, instruments and even financial support,” she said. “We are targeting an elite English-speaking audience. It would comprise plus 2-level students of public schools, colleges and university, Army officials and their families, young bureaucrats, academicians and business men,” she said. “A wide variety of musical performances ranging from Deep Purple, Judas Priest, Led Zapplin to Michael Jackson, Tom Petty, Aqua, Sting and Celine Deon would be staged,” event organizer Sumit Sharma said. |
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JAMMU DIARY
It seems that journalists have got tired of the daily press conferences held by umpteen student organisations at Jammu University these days. Mostly held in the lawns of the canteen, popularly known as ‘Sharma’s Café’, hardly any reporters come to attend them. It is only newspaper photographers or cameramen of cable TV channels who reach there, sip cold drinks and munch snacks before leaving with a press release. Such mini press conferences can be seen on the lawns at the same time. The same bunch of photographers and cameramen take turns to cover them one by one. These student originations too derive satisfaction by finding their statements in newspapers next day or clips on cable TV. Quality has certainly suffered in competition with quantity as every small group of students has carved out an organization, which has pushed the main objective of welfare of students on the back burner. Wastage of water
The Public Health and Engineering (PHE) Department has recently announced a hike in water tariff to make people stop wasting water. This measure was necessary to make people aware about the importance of water. Irony of the matter is that residents of the areas in facing a water crisis fully understand the importance of water but where people get plenty of water twice or thrice a day, they waste it ruthlessly as taps keep running for long. Let us see if the hike helps the PHE Department meet its objective. Beggars have a
field day
As the entire Jammu city is engulfed in a mood of festivity, beggars are having a field day, attired as various deities. They go all out to make people shell out money in the name of these deities.
Irritated by their habit of chasing people, Ritu Kour, a resident of Jammu, said: “They have just become a nuisance in the city as they don’t leave without taking alms.
They keep clutching on to your clothes till you part with money. In a way they exploit the religious sentiments of people. (See picture) Photojournalists, who thronged Vivekanand Stadium, Katra, to cover ‘Mission Dosti wrestling contest’ had tough time. Photojournalists had to crawl to click photographs of grapplers as they were not allowed by the spectators to stand. As the organisers had not made any arrangement for the photojournalists to cover the event, they had to move near the ring to click photographs. As soon as the photographers reached near the ring, over-enthusiastic spectators who were gathered there in hundreds used abusive language against them. The organisers were helplessly watching photojournalists crawl to perform their
duty. (Contributed by Seema Sharma, Sunaina Koul, Tejinder Singh Sodhi and Dinesh Manhotra) |
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Jammu, September 29