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Unrest in Valley
Bandh supporters lash commuters with stinging weed
Pak troops shell six Indian posts
Poonch encounter: Major, two jawans injured
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LeT ultra nabbed in Patnazi
Register before undertaking yatra, shrine board tells pilgrims
‘Lamhaa’ arouses no curiosity in Jammu
People come out of a Cineplex in Jammu on Friday after watching movie ‘Lamhaa’, which is based on the turmoil in Kashmir. Tribune photo: Anand Sharma
A jawan stands guard at the deserted Jehangir Chowk in Srinagar
on Friday. Photo: Amin War
Turmoil hits tourism hard
Consumer Forum
CBI probe sought into missing girls’ case
Police fails to make headway
Ultra gives Punjab cops the slip
Ex-councillors meet power department’s chief engineer
Orientation meet for bankers held
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State Cong leaders summoned to Delhi
Dinesh Manhotra Tribune News Service
Jammu, July 16 After consulting Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) chief Saifuddin Soz, who has been constantly sounding the party leadership about the prevailing situation, Deputy Chief Minister Tara Chand was also summoned to New Delhi. While some senior leaders of the state are camping in Delhi, others have been directed by the party to reach the National Capital. The Deputy Chief Minister reached New Delhi last evening by a special chopper and held discussions with the party leadership. He informed it about the present situation in the state in general and the Valley in particular. Sources in the Congress said due to factionalism in the state Congress the local unit had failed to even adopt a clear line on the prevailing situation. Instead of presenting a unanimous approach to deal with the situation, the state leaders had been speaking in different tones and the party was in a total mess as far as the policy to deal with the prevailing situation in the Valley was concerned. It was all due to groupism that a faction in the Congress did not attend the important all-party meeting convened by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah to discuss the situation in the Valley. Although both rival groups have been giving excuses, the party high command has taken a serious note of the failure of the state unit to evolve a consensus on the vital issues. Sources in the party said the Congress high command had made it clear that the functioning of the government, especially to deal with the law and order situation in the Valley, should not be affected due to infighting in the party. It was on the insistence of the high command that leaders of both factions decided to work jointly with regard to the situation in the Valley. The Deputy Chief Minister visited the house of PCC chief Saifuddin Soz in Delhi and later both leaders jointly met with senior party functionaries there. The sources further informed that after holding consultations with the PCC chief and the Deputy Chief Minister, the Congress leadership had decided to call senior leaders of the state to get their views on the present situation. Some senior Congress leaders were already camping in New Delhi to inform the party leadership about the ground situation in the Valley.
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Bandh supporters lash commuters with stinging weed
Srinagar, July 16 The stone throwers, who are out to attack vehicles plying on the roads to enforce the strike call given by the hardline faction of the Hurriyat Conference led by Syed Ali Shah Geelani, have adopted a new and deadly way to ensure that no driver dares to ply his vehicle. They stop the vehicles, force the passengers and the drivers to get down and lash them with the ‘stinging nettle’. The stinging nettle (Urtica dioica) is a hairy weed, which contains some toxics and is highly allergic, and after it touches the body of a human being the hairy substance on it injects the chemicals into the human body immediately, producing red and painful blisters and swelling on the area. Doctors say that the weed is so allergic that if the amount of chemicals injected into the body of the humans exceeds a certain limit it could result into their death. Many victims of the dangerous weed, who were attacked at various places, had to take medical consultation to get rid of the allergy caused due to the weed. “We were on our way to Baramulla from Srinagar when some stone throwers stopped our vehicle near Delina and asked us to get down. As soon as we got down they forced us to remove our shirts and lashed us with the ‘stinging nettle’. Soon everybody was screaming in pain and we had blisters all over our bodies,” said Umar Mustaq. He said even children and women were not spared. The driver of the vehicle was also lashed with the weed. “They asked me that when there was a shutdown why was I driving my vehicle? They beat me up, removed my clothes and lashed me with the ‘stinging nettle’. My entire body seemed to be on fire. When they allowed us to go, I straightaway headed for hospital where doctors gave me two injections and some medicines,” said the driver. “The weed is highly allergic and some people could suffer cardiac arrest due to its chemicals. In the past few days, we have been treating patients who were lashed with the weed,” said a doctor at the government district hospital, Baramulla. The police says that it has reports of ‘stone throwers’ resorting to lashing passengers and drivers with the ‘stinging nettle’ and it is in the process to identify them and take legal action against them as the weed could prove to be lethal for some people. |
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Pak troops shell six Indian posts
Jammu, July 16 “The Pakistan troops resorted to an unprovoked fire on at least five of our posts, firing rockets, mortars and small-arms fire, forcing us to retaliate,” Brigadier General Staff of 16 Corps, Brig Satish Dua said. A flag meeting was held today and we lodged a protest with our counterparts, he added. He described it as a clear case of ceasefire violation. Defence sources, however, said as usual Pakistan remained in a denial mode and attributed the misadventure to subversive elements. “They also indulged in the blame game accusing us of starting the fire,” they added. The sources said around 9.30 pm yesterday the Pakistan troops opened fire on five Indian posts along the LoC in the Krishna Ghati (KG) sector of Poonch. “In fact, they opened a heavy fire in Jhalas and the KG sector in a bid to push terrorists but our troops retaliated and foiled their designs,” they added. The heavy fire continued till 11.30 pm and then the Pakistan troops resorted to an intermittent fire till late in the night before guns fell silent on both sides, said the sources. They said the Pakistan Rangers opened indiscriminate firing from their forward posts of Daaku, Battal, Roza and Pimple and targeted the Indian forward posts of Kranti, Kirpan, Ghora and Nangi Tekri in the KG sector. The sources attributed the major violation to Pakistan’s wrong notion that the Army might have pulled out its troops from these five posts to beef up the siege around Beri Rakh forest in the Mendhar sector where an operation had been going on since July 13 to hunt down the terrorists. They used heavy machine guns, rockets, mortar shells and we retaliated with small-arms fire, said a senior Army officer. Besides small-arms fire, the Pakistan troops in total fired 26 rockets and 22 mortars at our posts but there was no casualty or injury to anyone on our side, he added. Though the Pakistan Rangers also violated the ceasefire in RS Pura sector last night, the BSF tried to downplay the incident. The Pakistan Rangers resorted to an unprovoked firing at the Kharkola post near Hansu Chak. “We can’t say for sure whether the Pakistan Rangers resorted to fire, but of course a few rounds were fired to which we didn’t retaliate,” said a BSF spokesperson. After the fresh violations, the troops of 122 BSF are on a high alert. |
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Poonch encounter: Major, two jawans injured
Jammu, July 16 While Major Amit Kumar was killed and six soldiers, including Colonel Ajay Katoch, were injured on the first day of the encounter on July 13, the total number of inured soldiers went up to nine today. Two terrorists have been gunned down since then. “Major Jatinder Shekhawat and two soldiers Bhanu Pratap and Narinder Singh were injured this morning in a gun-battle with the terrorists,” the Brigadier General Staff of 16 Corps, Brig Satish Dua, said. They had been evacuated to a military hospital, he added. Defence sources said when troops of 37 Rashtriya Rifles were conducting an operation around 4.30 am, militants fired at them inviting a retaliatory fire by the soldiers. However in the gun-battle, Major Shekhawat, Naik Narendra Singh and sepoy Bhanu Pratap were injured. The sources said the operation was on to track down the rest of the terrorists in this forest belt close to the Line of Control (LoC). “General Officer Commanding 16 Corps Lt-Gen Rameshwar Roy is personally supervising the operation,” the sources said. Going by their guerrilla warfare tactics, the terrorists appear to be from the Lashkar-e-Toiba, they added. |
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LeT ultra nabbed in Patnazi
Jammu, July 16 The determination of the security forces bore fruit when the team today apprehended a close accomplice of Isaq Bhatt, named Nazir Ahmed (22) in Patnazi. He had been active since 2009. The forces seized one AK rifle, two magazines along with 50 rounds of AK ammunition. Till reports last came in, a major administrative base of the LeT was busted in the remote areas of Uttreni in Thatri. The seizures included one .303 rifle with a magazine and 14 rounds of ammunition, two 500 litres of water tanks, five blankets, two cylinders, 300 kg of ration along with utensils and terrorist propaganda material.
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Register before undertaking yatra, shrine board tells pilgrims
Srinagar, July 16
The Chief Executive Officer of the SASB, RK Goyal, has appealed to all yatris, who intend to undertake the pilgrimage, to complete the necessary registration formalities and obtain the yatra permit. Goyal said for the convenience of the yatris the registration facility was available at 121 registration counters established at the designated branches of J&K Bank across the country. The details of the registration counters were available at the shrine board’s website (www.shriamarnathjishrine.com). He clarified that because of the longer distance and travel time along the Sheshnag route the registration of pilgrims, who travel by this route, would be allowed up to August 22, while the registration for pilgrimage through the Baltal route would close on August 23. “As it is the shrine board’s endeavour to provide a hassle-free yatra for all pilgrims, it is the responsibility of every pilgrim to obtain a yatra permit so as to avoid inconvenience or delay on arrival in the Valley,” he said. Goyal reiterated that as a consequence of several new initiatives taken by the board to bring progressive improvement in the yatra management, all registered pilgrims had been provided a free accident insurance cover of Rs 1 lakh. The insurance policy has the provision of free of charge accident insurance cover for every yatri, who possesses a yatra permit. This facility is not available to the unregistered yatris. The CEO said the board had also issued a detailed advisory of do’s and don’ts for the yatris which were printed on the reverse of the yatra permit and also available on the board’s website.
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‘Lamhaa’ arouses no curiosity in Jammu
Jammu, July 16 “And you can’t trust anyone here as well,” concludes Sanjay Dutt, the hero by the end of the movie, which though began with a promising note, ended without a whimper. The Rahul Dholka flick has raised the hope of being the “untold story of Kashmir”. But it says only the much-repeated assertion - Kashmir is being used by all to mint money and for their own political gains. The plot woven around the hero, Sanjay Dutt, an intelligence officer, takes him around meeting and exposing many characters active in the Valley as well as in Delhi and across the border. It just says the separatists are playing into the hands of Pakistan but it is Delhi which can do whatever it wants in the Valley. This is a common perception in the state and nothing “untold and unknown” about it. But will people outside Jammu and Kashmir understand the allegory, is a major point. Many of the viewers today, who know the place, the people and the issue, failed to do so. Set in the Valley, the movie is shot in real locations with a panoramic view of the snow-clad mountains, the criss-crossing Jhelum, the Dal Lake and the crowded streets. But the images are too little and too short. “It was an average film but there was nothing new which we didn’t know. And I feel it was a lot exaggerated. Also, what they showed was not limited to Kashmir. Such people and circumstances are prevalent all over the world,” said Anu Bakshi, a student sharing her disappointment. “I couldn’t understand much. It was so confusing and fast-paced. It ended abruptly without any conclusion,” said another student Heena. The characters as well as the story has been lifted from some real incidents in the Valley as well as in Jammu, especially where one young leader from the Valley organises a rally in the relief camp of Kashmiri Pandits in Jammu. But here is where the biggest goof-up of the movie happens. The plot centres on some big plan of the forces in Pakistan to create a 1989-like lawlessness and pro-Pakistan or pro-azadi situation not only in the Valley but also in Jammu. There plan, which seems to be planned several months in advance, eventually turns out to strike at a rally, which was planned just days before! “I think the movie-maker lost it there,” said Anil Suri, sharing his disappointment over the film. “The big attack being planned was the main peg - the main thrust - but it turned out to be nothing much.” Sanjay Raina, a Kashmiri Pandit, was not happy to see Anupam Kher donning the role of a separatist leader, “He knows the pain of displaced Kashmiri Pandits, yet he accepted the role of a separatist leader.”
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Curfew reimposed in major towns of Valley
Srinagar, July 16 Major towns of the Valley, including Sopore, Handwara, Kupwara in north Kashmir and Anatnag in south Kashmir, were placed under curfew restrictions to foil any protest march by the separatists against human rights violations. At least 27 persons were injured in clashes between protesters and the police here and elsewhere in Ganderbal and Baramulla areas. According to the police, curfew restrictions were reimposed in north and south zones of Srinagar city, in addition to other major towns of
Sopore, Handwara and Kupwara in north Kashmir. However, the restrictions remained imposed throughout the city and other major towns to foil the APHC
(Geelani) march to Batamaloo here. Four persons, including a woman, were killed in the Batamaloo locality here on July 6 in the alleged firing by CRPF men during clashes, which had prompted the authorities to call in the Army to maintain law and order. The authorities, however, prevented the march to Batamaloo by creating barricades in and around the area and imposing strict curfew restrictions and preventing people’s movement across the city. The Geelani’s faction had also called for a march to the district headquarters elsewhere in the Valley to register their protest against the killings. The APHC chairman, Mirwaiz Umar
Farooq, continued to be under house arrest today also. Meanwhile, the Geelani faction has issued a fresh schedule of protests against the human rights violations in addition to demanding the withdrawal of the troops and the release of political (separatist) prisoners. Several persons were injured at Ikhrajpora here today while the police allegedly used force against protesters. Residents said the police allowed a peaceful sit-in by hundreds of people in the area, but soon after it used force to disperse the protesters. The police lobbed tear-gas shells and
lathi-charged them, leaving several persons injured in the incident, the residents claimed. Tear-gas shells were also lobbed in the Nagabal area of Ganderbal district, near here, to disperse the protesters, reports said. Protests were also held in Baramulla and clashes between the protesters and the police continued for several hours in the morning. The police chased away the protesters by lobbing tear-gas shells and cane-charging them. |
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Turmoil hits tourism hard
Srinagar, July 16 The state government was so much enthusiastic about the inflow of the tourists that it had issued instructions to the officers associated with the tourism industry not to speak anything about tourism
in the state. “We don’t want to comment on the inflow of the tourists, as militants construe it to be normalcy and try to disturb the atmosphere and scare away the tourists,” Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had told The Tribune during an interview in May when questioned about the tourist season. But now the situation is different, the number of the tourists visiting Kashmir has fallen drastically and the past 19 days of violent protests, stone throwing and curfew have seen tourists cancelling their
bookings. For Ghulam Mohammed, a houseboat owner in the Dal Lake, the cancellation of the bookings has come as a severe blow, as after facing a slide in the tourist inflow since 1989, he had taken a huge loan from a bank this year to renovate his houseboat to attract
the tourists. “I am ruined. Around 80 per cent of the bookings have been cancelled and I fear the rest will also get cancelled in the coming days. After facing a dearth of tourists for the past 20 years, this year there was a good response and I had taken a huge sum of money to renovate my boat,” said Ghulam. He said as the tourist inflow had declined and the bookings had been cancelled, he feared he would not be able to pay the loan instalments. Similar is the condition with Showkat Ahmed, who encouraged by the initial good tourist season, also took a loan from a bank and purchased a brand new SUV for the tourists, but now he repents
his decision. “I purchased a Toyota Innova vehicle in the hope of a good return every month. I not only had to save for my livelihood, but also to pay back the instalments. Besides money is also required for its maintenance. But now I feel that the bank will confiscate the vehicle as for the past 19 days I have not been able to earn a single penny and there are no tourists left in the Valley,” said a dejected Showkat. These are not isolated cases, but thousands of houseboat owners and taxi operators in the Valley
are facing a similar situation due to the turmoil.
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Insurance can’t be claimed when driver is minor
DS Chauhan
Jammu, July 16 The complainant’s car, (HR-26X-4125), insured with National Insurance Co Ltd, met with an accident on Nov 5, 2006, at Faridabad. At the time of the accident, the complainant’s minor son, Prinkal (17), was driving the car. An FIR was also registered against Prinkal, who was driving without holding a driving licence. The insurer, National Insurance Co Ltd, repudiated the “own damage claim” lodged by the complainant stating that the insured failed to exercise a reasonable care in the matter of fulfilling the condition of the policy regarding the use of the vehicle by a duly licensed driver and the breach on the part of the insured concerning the policy conditions regarding the holding of a valid licence by the driver. The forum, while dismissing the consumer complaint, observed: “The perusal of the FIR reveals that on May 11, 2006, Prinkal was driving the vehicle in a very negligent manner and hit a guard, fracturing his both legs. The date of the accident in the complaint has been shown as November 5, 2006, whereas the FIR reveals it to be May 11, 2006. “This is a disputed question, which has not been clarified by the complainant. The disputed factual questions are not to be adjudicated in the consumer forums, as the proceedings before the forum are essentially summary in nature. On this account, the complaint stands dismissed.”
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CBI probe sought into missing girls’ case
Jammu, July 16 While BJP state secretary Sunil Sharma has been camping at Gulabgarh, former convener of the Amarnath Yatra Sangharsh Samiti Leela Karan Sharma has demanded a CBI probe into the case. Sharma announced that he would reach Kishtwar to mobilise the masses to take the agitation to its logical end. “Without handing over the case to the CBI the truth will never be ascertained, as the police in connivance with politicians has been trying to hush up the matter,”
he alleged. He said the “false” Shopian case was handed over to the CBI when the Kashmir leaders had blamed the CRPF. He further said the case was proved to be wrong and was fabricated to malign the image of the security forces. The samiti leader aired apprehension that the girls might have been kidnapped and later thrown into the Chenab after being molested at the police station. “Two girls, Sapna and Sangeeta, were coming home with their relative when a police constable of Paddar police station forcibly took them there and they later went missing,” he added. Demanding a CBI probe into the case, Sharma warned that any attempt to hush up the case would prove counter-productive as society would not tolerate it. He blamed the police and demanded a strict action against those involved in committing this heinous crime. |
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Police fails to make headway
Jammu, July 16 The Army divers were today again pressed into service to trace the girls from the Chenab, but their efforts proved futile. SDPO, Kishtwar, ML Thakur said, “Nine Army divers were today pressed into service to trace the girls, but to no avail.” He further said they had earlier used locals for the purpose but they also failed. The girls’ kin had lodged a protest against the police demanding the suspension of the SHO. To pacify the protesters, the police had lodged an FIR against the Gulabgarh SHO, Farooq Ahmed Wani, who had been attached to the District Police Lines (DPL), Kishtwar, for dereliction of duty. |
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Ultra gives Punjab cops the slip
Jammu, July 16 Sources said acting on a tip-off that the accused was hiding at his residence in Sector 11, Nanak Nagar, the Punjab Police team searched his house but could not find him as he escaped before the police reached. ML Kaith, Gandhi Nagar SDPO, told The Tribune that they had no information about the operation launched by the Punjab Police to nab the militant. “The accused is wanted in the Pathankot bomb blast case and our teams always accompanied the Punjab Police on raids,” Kaith added. |
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Ex-councillors meet power department’s chief engineer
Jammu, July 16 The former councillors stressed the need for improving the power supply as the frequent and unscheduled power cuts coupled with humid and sultry weather conditions had been causing a lot of inconvenience to the residents. It was also emphasised that the old transformers should be replaced with high-capacity new transformers as the existing transformers could not bear the load during peak hours. During the meeting, the former councillors drew the attention of the Chief Engineer towards the need for replacing the worn-out electric poles in some parts of the old city, as these poles were posing threat to the lives and properties of the residents.
— TNS |
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Orientation meet for bankers held
Jammu, July 16 ML Sukhdeve, Chief General Manager, NABARD, appreciated the contribution of the banks in providing credit to the agriculture and rural sectors in the state. Sukhdeve said, “The increased involvement of banks in credit support, branch expansion, opening of no frill accounts and in development initiatives has benefited the farmers.”
— TNS |
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Jammu, July 16
