Doda, August 31
Not just contaminated water, but also an improper use of funds meant for the development of Doda district as well as the absence of qualified doctors have contributed to the outbreak of gastroenteritis that has affected 1,750 persons in the district and the surrounding areas so far.

State Health Minister Sham Lal today alleged that Rs 15 crore meant for providing drinking water had gone missing. The Public Health Engineering Department was to utilise Rs 26 crore for the purpose.

A furious Sham Lal Sharma, on a visit to the district to meet the gastroenteritis patients, said the Health Ministry should not be blamed. “Doda district got Rs 26 crore for urban development and supply of potable water a few years ago. Only Rs 11 crore has been spent so far. Where is the rest of the money?”

Sham Lal blamed the Public Health Engineering (PHE) Department for providing unsafe piped water, mainly within municipal limits.

“Why contaminated water was being supplied ?. Accountability has to be fixed,” said the minister, and maintained that he had written a letter to the PHE Minister and Chief Minister Omar Abdullah in this regard.

Sham Lal termed the outbreak of the epidemic as a war-like situation. The minister also lashed out at young doctors who were not willing to work in the remote areas. “Lately, 466 doctors were appointed for Doda district, but only 145 had joined duty. The rest of them are not willing to serve in remote places and they have taken the matter to court,” the minister said citing manpower shortage in hospitals.

While the administration terms the situation “under control”, the disease is having its impact in its second week also and fresh cases are being reported from adjacent places like Ramban and Banihal. The Education Department has declared vacation in all schools for the next three days.

The minister along with the senior staff of the department flew to Doda this morning and took stock of the situation. However, the PHE Minister has not visited the place so far and the senior engineers of the department have been avoiding telephone calls.

A team comprising three experts from the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry also visited the water treatment plants. However, the team members did not speak to the media maintaining they were not authorised to do so.

“Traces of human excreta were found in the samples collected from water,” said Medical Superintendent of the hospital Dr Mohammad Fareed Bhat. He added that “more than 50 per cent of the patients who visited the hospital so far belong to Doda town and the rest of them to the peripheral areas. They use water directly from the water bodies. Teams of the Health Department are now making people in these areas aware about the disease, as most of the waste flows into these water bodies during the rainy season.”

“Now, there are only 142 patients in the hospital as others have been discharged,” Bhat said. “We have roped in doctors from Jammu and other stations and they have been handling the situation properly ,” he added.

District Development Commissioner Farooq Ahmed Khan said Doda town had witnessed population explosion in the past few years as people from the peripheral areas had migrated to the district due to a spurt in militancy-related incidents and other reasons. “However, like other infrastructure, more water treatment plants were not set up. So it was found that untreated water was being supplied to houses and the reservoirs had not been cleaned for years.”

“There are 2,000 legal water connections and 6,000 illegal connections in the town,” he said. He added, “For the time being, the sources of water have been chlorinated.” 

Jammu, August 31
With diseases like diarrhoea, cholera and gastroenteritis spreading at a rapid pace in the hilly areas, Opposition parties have taken the government to task for its failure to control the epidemic.

The Panthers Party has blamed the Health Department for this while the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) said it was a total failure on part of the government as many departments were responsible for the outbreak of the epidemic in most hilly areas.

Panthers Party chairman Harsh Dev Singh and MLA Ramban expressed concern over the outbreak of diseases like diarrhoea, cholera, gastroenteritis, conjunctivitis, eye flu, dengue, apprehensions and malaria in various parts of the state and the apathy of the Health Department to deal with the situation.

He said the situation was worse in the remote hilly areas with hardly any sign of the Health Department or any response given by it to the repeated complaints of the public for provision of basic healthcare facilities.

He said most rural areas were deprived of even basic health facilities. He said the health centres and dispensaries, if at all existing in the rural areas, had become defunct due to non-availability of doctors and life-saving drugs.

Flaying the government for making tall claims, he said the image of ministers of the ruling coalition was not compatible with their public pronouncements. He flayed the Health Minister for his ribbon-cutting obsession rather than visiting the rural areas afflicted with the disease.

PDP general secretary Balbir Singh, while expressing concern over the outbreak of epidemic in the hilly areas, said the government had failed completely. “It is not a failure of one department. A number of government agencies have been involved in providing basic amenities to the public and all have failed to perform their duties,” he said. He regretted that such diseases had been spreading due to supply of contaminated drinking water but no step had been taken to provide potable water hitherto.

Srinagar, August 31
Hardline Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani today said the ongoing protests could be reviewed and a dialogue with the Centre initiated, if it fulfilled five preconditions.

Addressing a press conference at his Hyderpora residence here, the 81-year-old separatist said he was "responding to the willingness shown by Indian leadership to engage in a dialogue with the Jammu and Kashmir leadership".

Geelani stuck to his stand that India must consider Jammu and Kashmir issue as an international dispute, but refrained from repeating his ususal demands about implementation of UN resolutions and involvement of Pakistan in talks.

The other preconditions are "demilitarisation to be monitored by some credible agency; the Prime Minister should publicly assure and ensure that henceforth no killings or arrests shall take place"; unconditional release of youths and political prisoners before Eid and withdrawal of cases against them; revocation of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act and the Public Safety Act and punishing those responsible for killing of people during recent protests.

"If implemented on ground in both letter and in spirit, these measures would facilitate the creation of a conducive atmosphere enabling the Jammu and Kashmir leadership to meet, consult and consolidate public opinion for the peaceful resolution of the Kashmir dispute in accordance with the democratic principle of right- to self-determination," he said.

He said "the minimum necessary conditions" must be met without any delay. However, Geelani said, if government "fails to fulfil these minimum necessary conditions required for peace immediately, the programme of ongoing mass protests would be intensified." Geelani had earlier this month issued an appeal to the youths not to indulge in violence after massive protests in the Valley.

Geelani refused to take questions, saying "I will answer questions next time". — PTI

Srinagar, August 31
A major encounter was underway in the Bandipora area between the Army’s elite commando group and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militants, which claimed the life of a security officer besides injuring three others. The police in the Adhwatoo area of Bandipora spotted the LeT militants, who managed to sneak in through Gurez sector in north Kashmir, and then the Army was called in, official sources said. The ensuing gunbattle that has been raging for nearly 20 hours near Viji Nallah resulted in the killing of a Junior Commissioned Officer (JCO) Naib Subedar Mahindra Kumar of Six Para, besides injuries to three others, they added. The encounter is still on. 

Meanwhile, the Army today said Pakistan was trying hard to push in a large number of trained militants into Indian territory before winter.

“During the season, they try to push in the maximum number of militants.Many infiltration attempts would be made, but we are fully prepared to thwart any such plans,” the PRO of the Srinagar-based 15 Corps, Lt-Col JS Brar, said here today.

Earlier addressing a press conference, Brigadier Sunil Vaze of the 79 Mountain Division, whose troops eliminated nine infiltrators in a two-day-long encounter on the LoC in Uri, said: “Allnine militants who were equipped with the latest navigational equipment and had a huge number of arms and ammunition were killed in the encounter”. He said the Army had been keeping vigil on the movement of the militants and as soon as they crossed the LoC, they were asked to surrender. However, they opened fire. The troops returned the fire and killed all nine militants. 

Jammu, August 31
The All-Jammu and Kashmir ST/SC Students’ Federation today condemned the attitude of Bashir Ahmed Naz, vice-chairman of the Gujjar-Bakerwal Advisory Board, for neglecting students of the community.

While addressing a press conference at the University of Jammu, state president of the federation Haq Nawaz Choudhary said despite highlighting the problems being faced by Gujjar-Bakerwal students due to non-availability of the boarding facility in colleges and at university, Naz had done nothing.

Choudhary criticised the Tribal Affairs Department for non-disbursal of scholarships among the students. The federation members said a private building should be rented out for accommodating about 200 students of the community by September 30. He warned that if the demand was not fulfilled, the students would gherao the vice-chairman of the advisory board at his residence on October 1. 

Jammu, August 31
The Army today organised a human rights camp at Gundna village in Doda district.

The village committee and local NGOs also participated in the camp that was organised for the first time in the area.

It was conducted as part of an awareness drive undertaken by the Rashtriya Rifles Battalion located at Arnora in Doda that aims at spreading the message “Army for Human Rights”, and that the Army is the saviour, not violator of human rights.

The Army vowed to give due respect to the rights of locals and said no human rights would be violated. The Army also apprised the locals of the provisions of the “Right to Information Act”.

The event would go a long way in assuring the locals of the positive intent of the Army and the NGOs as well. It will also help the Army in improving methodology for conducting counter-terrorism operations without causing inconvenience to the public.

The camp received a positive response, both from the locals and the civil administration.

The villagers were pleased to see the new approach of the security forces. Both village committee and NGOs were all praise for the drive conducted by the Battalion to create bonhomie and generating goodwill among the locals.

Jammu, August 31
The Jat Kalyan Sabha has demanded the inclusion of Jats in the OBC list of the state.

Addressing a function organised in connection with the arrival of leaders of the All-India Jat Arakshan Sangharsh Samiti here, samiti president Choudhary Yash Pal Malik supported the demand of the sabha for including Jats in the OBC list.

He said the Jats had been given the OBC status along with Lubanas in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Uttrakhand and Delhi, but had been excluded from the list in Jammu and Kashmir.

Sabha president Choudhary Dewan Singh threatened to adopt an agitation path, block roads and gherao the Secretariat,if the government failed to grant them the OBC status. 

Srinagar, August 31
Apprehending trouble following yesterday’s clashes in which one youth was killed in Anantnag and five others were injured here, the curfew was imposed in most parts of Srinagar city and other major towns of the Valley today.

Barring an incident of stone throwing in Kulgam district, the situation across the Valley remained peaceful, a police spokesman said here today.

The condition of a youth, Yasir Rafiq Sheikh, who was admitted to hospital yesterday after being injured in firing by the security forces at Maisuma here, was stated to be critical. Yasir and Ishfaq Ahmad Malik, another youth injured in the firing, are close relatives of JKLF chairman Mohammad Yasin Malik. 

The JKLF and other separatist organisations have condemned the firing.

Meanwhile,the curfew was also imposed in Anantnag and Pulwama towns . An 11-year boy, Irshad Ahmad Parray, was killed and several others injured in the clashes in Anantnag yesterday. Two persons were injured in the clashes between protesters and the police at Chhatpora in Pulwama district last evening when an angry mob attacked a police bunker.

Jammu, August 31
An eerie silence prevailed at the residence of Janak Raj, a PHE employee, in Nai Basti who had gone to Haridwar to immerse his wife’s ashes but returned home after losing three more family members, including a son and sister-in-law, in a freak road accident near Pathankot.

Eight members of the family were returning from Haridwar after immersing ashes of Janak Raj’s wife Devo Rani. “Janak Raj, who is in the hospital, also lost his son Pankaj Kumar, his sister-in-law Beena Devi and another relative Manga, who was driving the ill-fated van,” a neighbourer said.

“My wife died a few days ago after she slipped in the house and sustained a fatal injury but we had never dreamt in our wildest dreams that such a tragedy would strike the family,” he added.

Janak, along with another son Suresh Kumar and three relatives, has been taken to the local government medical college from the Pathankot Civil Hospital.

The family is poor and there is none to look after them, so we request the authorities concerned and our Revenue Minister Raman Bhalla who is the representative of the Gandhi Nagar constituency to provide some relief to the grief-stricken family, neighbourers said.

Three of the family, viz, Beena Devi, Pawan Kumar and Manga were killed on the spot while five others sustained serious injuries when the vehicle rammed into a stationary truck on the NH-1 near Pathankot this morning.

The accident took place when one of the tyres of the van burst and the vehicle went out of control.

Jammu, August 31
A Hizbul militant, who had surrendered along with his wife and three children on August 28 in Poonch, was brought to the Joint Interrogation Centre (JIC) at Miran Sahib near here today.

Sources said after completing formalities at Poonch court today, Liaquat Hussain Shah, his wife Khalida Begum and their two-year-old child Saqib were sent to the JIC. However, two other children of Liaquat - Shagufta (8) and Shaista (4) - were handed over to their grandfather.

“After completing legal formalities in Poonch, the couple along with their two-year-old child was sent to the JIC,” Poonch SSP Manmohan Singh told The Tribune.

On August 28, Liaquat, along with his wife and three children, had surrendered before the Army at a forward post in Gantarian in Poonch. Liaquat (35), a resident of Morha Bachai in Surankote, had also brought along one AK-47 rifle, two magazines, 30 rounds, one Chinese pistol with one magazine and six rounds, one hand grenade and a Nokia mobile handset. 

Jammu, August 31
A Special Police Officer (SPO), who had become an eyesore for ultras in Kishtwar district, was killed by militants of the Hizbul Mujahideen at Sounder village last night.

“Masood Ahmed of Sounder attained martyrdom in a brief exchange of fire with the Hizbul Mujahideen militants at Sounder around 9.30 pm yesterday,” SP, Kishtwar, Dr Hasib Mughal said.

An active SPO in his area, Masood was on some specific task and had some inputs about the movement of militants in his area, he said.

Though Masood, too, fired two rounds at the two Hizbul Mujahideen militants, who were roaming near his house, his official weapon (an SLR) developed a snag, said the SP. He added that carrying the gun the SPO jumped out of the window of his house and ran towards a field where two other militants fired at him from a close range.

The SPO had a hold in his area and had been actively working with the Special Operations Group in anti-terrorism operations, said Hasib.

Four Hizbul Mujahideen ultras were involved in the incident, out of which two had been identified as Shabbir and Yasin.

Security forces had launched a combing operation in a forest adjacent to the village to track down the fleeing ultras, he said.

However, sources identified two other militants as Zakir and Junaid.

Jammu, August 31
Following a tip-off by villagers, the Army today seized and then safely defused an IED near a forward post in Poonch district.

Poonch SSP Manmohan Singh told The Tribune that some children spotted an IED, near Kangra border outpost in Poonch, this afternoon and informed the villagers who in turn rushed to the Army post.

The Army men blasted it at a safe place. Immediately, the Army bomb disposal squad reached the spot and defused it. However, a contradictory report said the Army defused three IEDs in the area.

Jammu, August 31
The security forces nabbed a militant sympathiser in Reasi when a hideout was smashed in the Mahore area of the district last evening.

Sources said a joint column of the Army and the police apprehended an overground worker from the Dubri area, 2 km from Shikari in Reasi, last evening. He was identified as Makhin (35), a resident of lower Dubri.

In another incident, the security forces recovered arms and ammunition during a joint search operation from a militant hideout in the Nakka forest area of Gulabgarh in Mahore. The seizures included one UBGL, six UBGL shells, eight rounds of AK -47, one AK magazine etc.

Srinagar, August 31
The Tribune Staff Correspondent Tejinder Singh Sodhi, who was on his way to attend a press conference organised by the Army , was harassed by CRPF personnel and police officers here today.

The auto-rickshaw in which the correspondent was going was stopped by the CRPF men and the reporter forced to come out. When told that he was going on an official work, the securitymen said, “You so-called journalists have spoiled the atmosphere in the Valley.” However, when the correspondent insisted on going to the press conference, he was asked to run and not walk as otherwise he would be thrashed.

As the correspondent ran, he was again stopped by an Inspector of the state police who was sitting along with a DSP in the Lal Chowk area. “Where are you going?,” asked the Inspector. Tejinder replied that he was a reporter and was on his way to cover an Army press conference.

“Tu cheez kya hai. Tu mujhe Army ke naam sai darata hai. (What are you ? You are trying to scare me by the name of the Army. Who the hell are they,” the Inspector said angrily.

When the correspondent said he was getting late for the press conference, the Inspector shouted, “What if I don’t let you go ? I will break your legs.” He also used foul language.

Tejinder requested the DSP to ask the Inspector to let him go, but he did not say anything and it was after a lot of persuasion and humiliation that the Inspector allowed him to go.