Jammu, May 17
Cutting across party affiliations, prominent political leaders today turned up to attend the Pahari conference held at Rajouri. They vowed to intensify the struggle for getting ST status to the Paharis.

Notwithstanding opposition by Gujjar-Bakerwal leaders, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) chief Saif-ud Din Soz along with Lok Sabha member from Jammu-Poonch segment Madan Lal Sharma attended the conference and assured to recommend the case for ST status to the Centre.

Gujjars-Bakerwals have been opposing ST status for Paharis and their leaders had advised the Chief Minister and the PCC chief not to attend the conference.

Pahari leaders of all parties, including the Congress, National Conference and the BJP, shared a common platform on the issue and asserted to take up their battle to the logical end. Although no senior leader of the principal opposition party - the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) - was present, a large number of second rung PDP activists attended the function.

Speaking on the occasion, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah assured to take up the case before the Centre for granting ST status to the Paharis. He, however, made it clear that granting ST status would not mean that the rights of other reserved communities would be snatched. He said the government would aggressively pursue the case and hoped that their long pending demand would be fulfilled.

Similarly, PCC chief Saif-ud Din Soz also endorsed the demand of the Paharis and assured them that their case would be taken up before the ministry concerned at New Delhi for earlier redressal.

He, however, cautioned the people against nefarious designs of the divisive forces that were trying to divide society on the issue.

Buoyed up over the turn up of leaders of all political parties in the conference, Mushataq Ahmed Bukhari, vice-chairman of the Pahari Advisory Board, said the meeting had substantiated their argument that their demand was just and genuine. “Leaders of all political parties have come on a single platform to give a message that the Paharis are united on the issue,” he said over phone, asserting that the Paharis would also take up their case before the Union Government.

“There is no logic to deny us our legitimate right as four successive Chief Ministers had endorsed our demand of granting ST status and now the ball is in the Centre’s court,” he said and also exuded confidence that with the assurance of Congress leaders, the Paharis were hopeful that the decision in their case would be taken soon. 

Srinagar, May 17
Days after the Army killed 11 militants during Operation Thunder Strike,it busted a hideout in North Kashmir’s Handwara area in Kupwara and recovered a huge quantity of arms and ammunition today.

Army soldiers display arms and ammunition seized from a militant hideout at an Army base in Sahrifabad, Budgam. The cache was seized during a search operation in Kupwara district on Monday. Photo: Amin War

The hideout was located in the Haphruda forests.

“Operation Thunder Strike was launched by our forces in the Rafiabad forest and the adjoining areas in Handwara on May 5. Due to inclement weather and a harsh terrain and people living on the fringes of the forest , our troops exercised utmost restraint. Till now, we have killed 11 militants, a majority of them being foreigners. Yesterday, our troops busted a hideout leading to the largest recovery of weapons this year.” Srinagar- based defence spokesperson Lt-Col JS Brar said here today.

“So far, we have recovered 22 AK rifles, including one modified, one rocket-propelled grenade, one 60 millimetre mortar, seven pistols, three 303 rifles, seven radio sets and one night vision goggle, besides over 100 grenades, mines and other war-like things”, he added.

Terming the ongoing operations as a major success, he also said the nefarious designs of the militants to disrupt peace in Kashmir would be defeated.

Jammu: The security forces on Monday busted an Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) hideout in the general area of Dhera Ki Gali in Rajouri district and recovered a huge cache of arms and ammunition from the spot.

During a joint search operation of the police and 48 RR of the Army, one Pakistan made pistol with magazine, three RPG cells, four UBGL cells, two Chinese grenades, one AK magazine, 125 AK rounds and 10 detonators were recovered from the spot, a police spokesperson said. The militants, however, managed to flee before the arrival of the security forces.

The spokesperson further said immediately after getting the information about the presence of some terrorists, the area was completely cordoned off. After the recovery of weapons, the security forces cleared the area and opened it for vehicular movement. 

Jammu, May 17
Students protesting against setting up of police post at the University of Jammu were today lathicharged by the police when they were demonstrating in front of the administrative block.

They have been protesting under the banner of the Student Scholars’ Committee Against Police Post (SSCAPP) for the past six days. The protesting body consists of members of various students organisations.

The students boycotted classes and rallied towards the administrative block shouting slogans against the establishment of police post on the campus.

“The police lathicharged peaceful demonstrators without any provocation,” said the president of the Progressive Students’ Association. During the lathicharge that followed a scuffle between protesters and police personnel, several students were injured.

Abhisek Koushal, sectary of the National Students Union of India, who was also injured during the lathicahrge, said: “A delegation of students and scholars was peacefully going in the administrative block to ghareo the Vice-Chancellor when the police swung into action.”He added: “Several members of the elected body of Jammu University, JURSEA that is also against the deployment of police on the campus was in meeting with the V-C inside when they were lathicharged.”

JURSEA president Rakesh Chib has strongly condemned the police action and threatened to intensify the stir if their demand was not fulfilled by the varsity administration.

The SSCAPP has decided to continue with its demonstrations till police personnel were withdrawn from the campus. 

Jammu, May 17
The Dalit Sena Jammu and Kashmir has appealed to Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and R&B Minister GM Saroori to intervene in the survey of the Kahara-Jai road near Halaran village in the Inderwal constituency of Doda district.

“Work on the Kahara-Jai road is almost complete up to Halaran. But the work on the road from Halaran to Jai (the area in the Bhaderwah constituency) has not started yet. Even the survey is not getting finalised,” said president of the organisation Anil Kumar Bhagat.

Bhagat demanded that the road from Halaran should directly go onwards to Jai via the lower end of Budhi village and then via Joura Kalan, lower Shamdlian and Ghuroo to connect Jai as it would cause least damage to the forests.

He said the same road map was made by the Economic Reconstruction Agency (ERA) in 1987. “The proposed road will also benefit the ST and SC communities of Kunthal and Suranga villages,” he added.

Bhagat demanded that the road connectivity to Joura Khurd village and Chirrala via Jantron also be sanctioned and work executed on the project.

Jammu, May 17
A man wanted in several criminal cases fired a few shots on a police party, which had gone to arrest him at his house at Layrouth village in Bhaderwah subdivision of Doda district last night.

The police said no one was injured in the incident. Several bullets were fired from a car parked outside his house when the police tried to raid the house, it said, adding “Devender Kumar, who is wanted in a number of criminal cases, fired shots to escape.”“Acting on specific information, a hunt was launched at 11 pm yesterday to arrest the criminal from his house but he managed to flee after firing a number of bullets,” said the police.

SSP, Doda, Parbhat Singh said, “He does not have proper information about the incident.” SHO, Bhaderwah, Tilak Raj Bhardwaj also expressed ignorance about the incident.

Meanwhile, militants fired on the house of a widow at Layrouth village, the second attack on the family after 2004 when the woman’s husband was shot dead by the militants. A group of four militants tried to barge into Guddi’s house. When the family did not open the door, they fired at the house and tried to break a window, the sources said, adding that as the family raised the alarm the militants escaped.

The police has launched a cordon and search operation in the area to track down the militants, they said. Guddi’s husband Sunder Lal was killed by militants in 2004 suspecting him to be an Army informer.

Jammu, May 17
To counter the surrender and rehabilitation policy of the state government to encourage militants in camps in the PoK to return to the mainstream, the Pakistan army is not allowing these ‘misguided’ Kashmir youths to come back. These youths have been getting training in various militant training camps in the PoK.

This was disclosed by a former militant, Mohammad Ashraf, who was arrested on May 10 along with his PoK-based wife, Asima, near the LoC in the Sabjian sector of Poonch district.

“Ashraf has divulged to the police that Pakistan army officers are training militants in the PoK and are not allowing them to return even if they want to do so,” said SSP, Poonch, Manmohan Singh.

“During preliminary questioning, Ashraf revealed that the chief of Hizbul Mujahideen, Sayed Salahudin, also visited three-four times the training camp, which he once headed for a decade,” said the SSP.

He added Ashraf also revealed that the Pakistan army and Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) officials were jointly running the militant training camps in the PoK.

The SSP said, however, Ashraf did not know the designations or names of Pakistan army officers, who were directly involved in training the militants.

The former ultra also disclosed that most of the youngsters getting training in PoK camps wanted to return home, but the Pakistan army trainers were not allowing them.

It may be stated here that in 1999, when Ashraf was 15 years’ old, he, along with 24 youths, crossed the LoC via the Poonch sector to undergo arms training in the PoK.

On May 10, Ashraf, along with his wife Asima, succeeded in reaching this side of the LoC and was caught by the Army and handed over to the Poonch police.

At present the former militant has been kept in the Joint Interrogation Centre (JIC), Jammu, where the police is trying to extract more information from him, said the SSP, who was in the city to attend a meeting.

Jammu, May 17
A high drama was witnessed at a house in Trikuta Nagar near Garden Estate this evening when a heavily drunk labourer climbed up the roof of the three-storey house to commit suicide by jumping from it.

The incident came to light when the owner of the house, Poonam Verma, noticed the man on the roof. She immediately called her husband Randhir Verma, who called up the police.

A police party led by SHO, Trikuta Nagar police station, Abid Rafiqi reached the house and tried to convince the labourer to come down. But the drunk man did not heed to his advice. He was carrying an iron rod and a brick.

After the SHO’s efforts proved futile, a fire engine was pressed into service. Around 5:20 pm a fire engine reached the spot and rescued the man. He was taken to police station and was identified as Parmeshwar Singh, a resident of Jharkhand.

Rafiqi said, “The report of his medical examination is yet to be received. But the man seemed to be under the influence of liquor.”

Jammu, May 17
Harsh Dev Singh, working chairman of the Panthers Party and former Education Minister, has flayed the large-scale “arbitrary” and “whimsical” transfer orders of lecturers and principals being issued by the Department of Higher Education.

While terming the large-scale transfers as a flagrant violation of all norms, he said the orders were being issued in bulk and all existing guidelines were being flouted with impunity. He said not only were the transfers being effected in a clandestine manner by the department,but also the most irregular aspect was that the transfers were being effected along with posts. He said the phenomenon was not only a gross irregularity, but it had also adversely affected the functioning of rural colleges.

He said posts of lecturer had been fixed and assigned to each college by virtue of a Cabinet order having been passed in pursuance of the creation of posts for each individual college by the Planning Department and after due concurrence accorded by the Finance Department. He said that transfer along with posts, therefore, was not only violative of the Cabinet decision, but also constituted an irregularity in terms of the financial code. He said it was the height of anarchy that decisions of the Cabinet were being overruled and superceded by government departments for extraneous considerations.

Seeking immediate cancellation of all transfers made along with posts and all diversions of posts from various rural areas colleges to city colleges to serve individual interests, Singh sought a probe into the matter. He urged the Chief Minister to enforce the transfer policy as recommended in the Prime Minister’s “Working Group on Good Governance” and to curb the transfer industry with a heavy hand. 

Jammu, May 17
The Additional Sessions Judge, Jammu, rejected the pre-arrest bail application of Sadhu Ram, father-in-law of the deceased, who was married to his son Rattan Chand five years back and was subjected to harassment and cruelty for not bringing dowry as per their demand.

The Judge, while rejecting the bail plea, held that “the woman was harassed to such an extent that she could not bear it and was forced to commit suicide. Ordinarily, a woman will not end her life unless circumstances force her to take the extreme step. Since the case is at the initial stage of investigation and evidence so far collected sufficiently proves the involvement of the accused in the commission of offences, the grant of bail in anticipation of his arrest is not made out.”

The police version narrates that on April 9, 2010, a written complaint was lodged by the father of the deceased that his daughter married to Rattan Chand, son of Sadhu Ram, was subjected to extreme cruelty for bringing insufficient dowry. The woman had told her father that her father-in-law Sadhu Ram was demanding more dowry.

A panchayat meeting was convened where the victim woman informed people assembled there about physical assaults on her and the demand for dowry by her husband as well as father-in-law. On the intervention of the panchayat the matter was mutually settled. But on April 9 he came to know that his daughter, unable to bear harassment by her husband and father-in-law, committed suicide.

According to the police, the arrest of the accused is sine qua non for the purpose of just investigation. 

Srinagar, May 17
Mystery shrouds the death of Abdul Rahim Gujri, 30, whose body was brought to his home village of Rohama in the Rafiabad area of Baramulla district yesterday. The body was found in Delhi after the youth went missing while accompanying his cousin on way to Aligarh last week.

The death sparked protests in Rohama village after the family alleged a foul play by the Delhi police. A post-mortem has been conducted and the reports are awaited.

Meanwhile, PDP leaders -- former minister Mohammed Dilawar Mir and MLA Nizamudin Bhat -- have demanded a probe into the incident. They said Abdul Rahim Gujri, a barber, along with his cousin Parvez Ahmad Gujri, left for Aligarh to see their sister, who is studying there in a centre for physically challenged. According to Parvez, before reaching Delhi Rahim mysteriously went missing, they said, adding Parvez informed the police. After two days the Delhi police informed Parvez that Rahim was found at the Delhi Railway Station but when Parvez reached the police station he found Rahim dead.

The PDP leaders said the state and Central governments had failed to create a sense of security and confidence among Kashmir youths who had been victimised and tormented to death out side the state on several occasions.

The two PDP leaders and Minister of State for R&B Javaid Ahmed Dar, who represents the Rafiabad constituency, were among those who visited the residence of Gujri.

Srinagar, May 17
The state secretary of the CPM, MY Tarigami, has alleged that people were fed up with promises and rhetoric and urged the government to stand up and act.

Addressing a convention of the Kisan Tehreek at Kokernag in South Kashmir today, Tarigami observed that insufficient allocation for agriculture and allied sectors had led the state to be dependent on massive imports of foodgrains and other essentials, besides affecting the livelihood of millions of people engaged directly or indirectly in agriculture, horticulture and related sectors.

Tarigami held that successive governments had ignored the agriculture sector, resulting in the ever-increasing deficit of foodgrains in the state. He regretted that the benefits of both central and state schemes had not reached the farmers due to their faulty implementation. Negligent and unplanned agriculture policies had subjected the farming community to deep economic crisis and disgust, he added. He also expressed concern over the rise in the prices of essential commodities like food items.

Speaking on the occasion, general secretary of the Kisan Tehreek, G.N.Malik, said people in the rural areas, especially in the Kandi belt, continued to suffer due to lack of basic amenities like ration, LPG, kerosene, safe drinking water, education and health care facilities. He criticised the government’s decision to increase the electricity tariff by 14 per cent in the domestic category and 17 per cent in the commercial category. 

Srinagar, May 17
A delegation of 15 officials of the Afghanistan Government are visiting the valley to learn horticulture techniques and also participate in a two-week international training programme on ‘Advanced Cultivation Techniques of Temperate Horticultural Crops’ being organized by the Central Institute of Temperate Horticulture (CITH), Indian Council of Agricultural Research, that began at Rangreth today. Minister for Health, Horticulture and Floriculture, Sham Lal Sharma inaugurated the programme.

Welcoming the delegates, the minister said it was an honour for the country and especially the state to hold such prestigious training programmes for foreign nationals. He hoped that it would go a long way in exchanging the technologies on horticulture.

Sharma also stated that India and Afghanistan had age-old relations and had helped each other on many fronts. He said the new era of mutual understanding with Afghanistan has begun and India was extending all possible assistance in re-building of the militancy affected nation. The minister said agro climatic conditions of Jammu and Kashmir and some parts of Afghanistan were identical and the valley could take benefits from crop cultivation from it.

He also stressed the need for developing a joint mechanism for boosting to horticulture activities in the valley with active participation of Afghanistan.