Army jawans carry their colleague, injured during a gun-battle between militants and security forces in the forest area at Ladoo Pampore in district Pulwama, 28 km from Srinagar. Tribune photos: Amin War

Srinagar, October 6
In yet another show of their might in the summer capital, militants injured two BSF personnel and a couple of civilian bystanders in a grenade attack at Lal Chowk this afternoon.

Unidentified militants lobbed a grenade into a stationary BSF vehicle, in which the jawans were sitting, and fled. A BSF official identified two jawans as Om Prakash and Shambhu Sharan Singh. The condition of one of them is stated to be critical.

Although the BSF is not deployed in law and order duties, its men had come to the commercial hub of Srinagar to make some purchases, police sources said, when they were targeted by militants.

The particular locality near the clock tower is full of police and CRPF men and the attack today only highlighted their growing audacity.

With this attack, they have targeted police and security personnel five times in Srinagar in the last 12 weeks, - a frequency unseen for last many years - and left eight persons, seven police and CRPF personnel and a woman civilian, dead.

The bloodiest and most powerful attack came on September 12 when a powerful IED planted in a stationary car ripped apart a police bus, killing three cops and a woman.

Jammu, October 6
The Jammu Joint Students Federation (JJSF) today alleged that books being issued to the first-year students in college library are outdated.Students boycotted their classes and held protest against the college administration at Government Gandhi Memorial (GGM), Science College. The students garohed the office of the college principal for more than one hour.

Sahil Choudhary, a student leader, said: “Due to the lack of books in college library, they are giving us old and outdated books. All books are of old edition.”

He said the students were facing this problem from many days but the college administration was not serious about this matter.

Partap Singh Jamwal, state vice-president of the JJSF, warned the administration to take quick action and solve their problem within two days.

Meanwhile, principal of GGM Science College has assured the students that their demands will be fulfilled soon. 

Udhampur, October 6
After exposure of the scam in the ration meant for Below Poverty Line (BPL) people by the crime branch of police, Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution (CAPD) minister Qamar Ali Akhoon along with senior officers of the department today checked the stock in depots located in remote areas of Udhampur and Reasi districts.

After checking the stocks at Mahore, Basantgarh, Latti and Reasi, the minister interacted with people and listened to their problems.

A delegation that called upon the minister at Udhampur pointed out that a large number of undeserving persons have been included in the BPL list and it was time to single out such persons so that the deserving lot could be included in the category.

MLA Udhampur Balwant Singh Mankotia and MLA Chenani Krishan Chand stressed on the need of re-verification of the BPL list so that the deserving people could avail the take benefits.

People also demanded that there should be proper checking of ration record of private depot owners who have been charged with selling the stock meant for BPL people in the open market.

The group also demanded that ration should be directly supplied to the districts from the departments concerned.

Later, the minister announced that just like the Village Education Committees, the CAPD department had also decided to constitute Village Vigilance Committees (VVCs) to monitory the supply and distribution of ration.

He said the proposed VVCs would maintain a strict vigil on distribution of ration in their respective villages and prevent black-marketeering. 

Srinagar, October 6
The Central team led by Cabinet Secretary KM Chandrshekhar reviewed the security scenario in the state at a meeting with senior police and security officers here today. Union Home Secretary GK Pillai was also present in the meeting held at the SKICC.

An official spokesman said the meeting was attended by Chief Secretary SS Kapur, Financial Commissioner (Home) Sameul Vergheese, DGP Kuldeep Khoda, GoC 14 Corps, GoC 15 Corps, GoC 16 Corps, Jammu Divisional Commissioner Pawan Kotwal, Kashmir Divisional Commissioner Naseem Lankar and other senior civil and police officers.

Earlier, the team on the second leg of its tour to the state held meeting with all deputy commissioners, principal secretaries and commissioner-cum-secretaries of various administrative departments. The team, after its two-day visit, later returned to the Union capital this afternoon.

The deputy commissioners in the meeting highlighted the achievements registered in their respective districts and problems confronting the people. The issues discussed in the meeting include land acquisition for various development projects, four-laning of the Jammu-Srinagar highway, R&B, water supply, NREGA, education, PMRP, JNNRUM, development of infrastructure and other projects.

KM Chandrashekhar described the deputy commissioners as main driving force for speeding up the work on all development projects going on in the state in various sectors. He impressed upon them to ensure tangible and visible change in the state so that the fruits of development reach to the common people.

Chief secretary SS Kapur expressed his gratitude for evincing a positive appreciation of the demands and issues raised by the officers of the state during the two-day meeting. He assured the team on behalf of the state administration that all efforts would be made to achieve the targets fixed for various schemes.

Jammu, October 6
Week, frail, old and illiterate Baldev Raj squatted in the deserted OPD of Government Medical College (GMC), Jammu, is waiting for medicos’ strike to get over since yesterday. He has come all the way from Bakhar village of Sunder Bani tehsil in Rajouri district for the treatment.“I come here for the check up every month,” he said, adding that he will prefer to go back if the situation remained the same.

“We came here from Ramban yesterday for our mother’s treatment, but due to the ongoing strike we had to spend night on a nearby temple premises,” Vikas Shan said.

The distressed patients and their attendants have been looking forward that the stalemate between protesting medicos and state government ends and the hospitals start operating as normal.

Though the state government has warned to invoke the Essential Services Maintenance Act against the protesting doctors, they were seen defiant for the second day.

The protesting doctors continued with their strike, affecting the routine functioning in all district, sub-district hospitals, primary health centres, community health centres, besides GMC hospital and its associated hospitals.

In the GMC, the striking doctors took out a rally. Addressing the protesters, leaders of the Doctors Joint Action Committee (DJAC) exhorted that they won’t step back till all of their demands were met with.

“Earlier, the government had sought deadline of September 30 and had to defer our strike twice. Now the government is seeking more time just to keep the issue lingering,” they said.

Dr Satyainder Singh, convener of the DJAC, said: “B grade specialists and assistant surgeons are also supporting the agitation of junior doctors as most of our demands that have not been addressed since long are common.”

He said several doctors’ associations in the Kashmir region had also decided to go on strike from October 9. 

Jammu, October 6
The Second Additional Sessions Judge Vinod Chatterji Koul today adjourned the pre-arrest bail application of prominent businessman Choudhary Nagar Singh and his two brothers — Ujagar Singh and Rakesh Singh — till October 8.

The trio had been evading arrest since it allegedly splurged cash to change the course of investigation by fudging evidences in the Amandeep murder case so as to save the main accused Jatinder Singh, aka Raja, son of Nagar Singh. Although the prosecution represented by special public prosecutor Advocate Sunil Sethi wanted arguments in the case, absence of Nagar’s counsel Advocate MA Goni and subsequent plea by his assistant counsels was conceded by the court, said sources.

Assistant counsels submitted before the court that since Advocate MA Goni was not in the city and would return tomorrow evening, two days extension should be given to them. Subsequently, the court adjourned the case till October 8.

Sources said the Special Investigation Team (SIT), which had prepared a strong case to oppose the bail application, had submitted a detailed report to the public prosecutor.

The prosecution, however, filed objections opposing the bail application on the grounds that despite repeated summons and subsequent arrest warrants, the accused, allegedly involved in changing the course of investigation by using money, remained at large.

The SIT has already established prima-facie involvement of Nagar and his brothers in fudging evidences, said sources. Earlier, the weapon of offence - a countrymade pistol having a double trigger - was allegedly replaced to save Jatinder Singh, aka Raja.

Meanwhile, Municipal Magistrate today sent arrested ballistic expert of the FSL, Sarwar Hussain Bukhari, and constable Raj Singh in 10-day judicial remand. They were shifted to District Jail Ambphalla from Gandhi Nagar police station.

The Special Investigation Team had yesterday raided a house at Tali Morh and seized a car containing secret documents of Nagar Singh besides a laptop belonging 
to him. 

Jammu, October 6
Irked by the indifferent attitude of the state government, employees of the Jammu and Kashmir State Road Transport Corporation (SRTC) have decided to approach the chairperson of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi to apprise her of their “genuine demands”.

“The state government does not seem to be moved by the plight of its employees, so we have decided to constitute a team that would meet the UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi,” said Ashok Mehra, president of the SRTC Employees’ Union.

He said if the UPA president does not give them a patient hearing, they would hold similar protests outside the Parliament house in 
New Delhi.

As many as 4,316 SRTC employees have been protesting for the past 42 days while demanding the release of their pending salaries and implementation of recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission. “More than 21,000 families are directly affected by the strike. A majority among us are the sole bread-winners in the family, yet the government is paying no heed to our demands,” Mehra said.

On the other hand, the government claimed that the corporation has surplus staff and asked the employees to avail benefits of the Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS); and the department has received around 4,000 applications seeking VRS.

“The department is thinking to give VRS to as many as 900 employees, so we decided to submit our resignations en masse,” Mehra said. He added that if the state and the central government failed to fulfil their demands, they would proceed on hunger strike.

“If the government wants to give us VRS, it should give us the benefits of the Sixth Pay Commission from 2006. So, we submitted our resignations en masse,” said Paramjeet Singh, general secretary of the Union.

Anoop Kannaw, managing director of the SRTC, said the department does not have enough funds to pay the pending dues of the employees in one go and had offered the employees the salary of four months on Eid, which they refused.

Meanwhile, 69 employees of the SRTC courted arrest today. They were, however, released in the evening.