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BJP demands Omar’s resignation
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Locals have little hope
Old woman meets delegation, pleads for grandson’s release
No day curfew in Poonch, continues in Mendhar
Violence, a bid to create Muslim-Hindu tension
Militants cash in on Valley unrest
Bodies of 2 ultras recovered
Seminar on Kashmir conflict at Jammu varsity
Konkan Railway engineers call off stir
Governor briefed on road projects
Punjab police nabs KZF militant
Regularisation of GMCH staff sought
Army holds medical camp
Science exhibition at DIET
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Visit of all-party delegation
Srinagar, September 20 He said his party was of the view that the unrest in Kashmir showcased discontent among the common masses due to the “promises broken” by New Delhi. “We have proposed that autonomy is the best possible solution to the problem. The state is an integral part of the country. But the fact is that the way autonomy was eroded from the state unconstitutionally led to widespread discontent among people here,” Rather said. He said now it was time the Indian government restored the autonomy. But if “anyone comes out with a solution that is acceptable to all, the NC will welcome it”. The government should hold talks with the people from all shades of life, including the separatists, he added. The Congress leaders, who met the delegation, were led by Pradesh Congress Committee chief Saifuddin Soz. “We shall work to generate consensus to have peace with dignity for the people of Kashmir. We should reach out to civil society for peace and development,” Soz said. The PDP delegation was headed by senior party leader Dilawar Mir. The party, however, expressed anguish that it was given only 15 minutes to put forth its viewpoint. “We did our best to raise important points. We asked the all-party delegation to go to hospitals, visit district headquarters and also the families of 107 persons killed in the current unrest,” Mir said. He said the state government had failed on all fronts and it had no right to remain in power. CPM state secretary MY Tarigami, during his meeting with the delegation, said, “There is serious need for a significant political initiative to resolve the Kashmir problem, as ignoring or overlooking the nature of the present crisis will be ruinous.” Chairman of the J&K People’s Conference Sajad Lone in a statement reiterated the importance of the Kashmir situation to be seen and addressed in the light of the political contours of the issue that had remained unresolved for decades. Various other leaders, including coordinator of the All-Party Sikh Coordination Committee Jagmohan Singh Raina and other Sikh leaders, could not meet the delegation due to the prevailing situation. |
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BJP demands Omar’s resignation
Srinagar, September 20 While putting forth his party’s stand on the issue, state vice-president of the BJP Sofi Mohammed Yousuf said, “The state government has totally failed. Over 61 per cent people voted in the elections and they had great expectations, but the two-year rule of the state government has failed to deliver. Taking moral responsibility, the Chief Minister should resign.” The BJP held the separatist leadership in Kashmir responsible for the deaths that had taken place in the Valley for the past three months. The party also demanded jobs under SRO 43 for next of kin of those who died in the unrest. The party reiterated its stand that Jammu and Kashmir was an integral part of the country. Chairman of the Democratic Party (nationalist) and minister for Agriculture Ghulam Hassan Mir told the visiting delegation that it should hold talks without any precondition. “A political solution is required and there must be no preconditions for the talks with anyone,” he said. The chairman of the People’s Democratic Front Hakeem Yaseen reminded Union Home Minister P Chidambaram about his earlier remarks on Kashmir in which he had said the Kashmir problem was a unique issue and needed a unique solution. |
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Security beefed up for all-party delegation’s visit
Jammu, September 20 “We have made adequate security arrangements and the police has been keeping a round-the-clock vigil,” Jammu SSP Basant Rath told The Tribune. Adequate security has been deployed in the districts to avoid any untoward incident, he added. The 38-member delegation would be kept at Hotel Ashoka, where the police today made all security arrangements deploying cops, including female cops, said sources. Furthermore, the police has intensified patrolling and random checks in and around the temple city. Multi-tier security has been deployed in and around the venue of the all-party meeting scheduled to visit the
city tomorrow, added the sources. They added the Special Operations Group today sanitised the entire area near Manda Wildlife sanctuary, close to the venue. |
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Locals have little hope
Srinagar, September 20 “The situation has worsened since the delegation decided to come to Kashmir. For the past two days there has been no relaxation in the curfew and people have been forced to stay indoors,” said Touseef Mir, a local resident. He said the visit would have been successful had it come with a proposal to ease the tension. “The delegation has come here to listen to the mainstream parties, whom it has met earlier in New Delhi. When there is no shift in the stand of the Centre, how do you expect the tension to ease,” said Parvez Shagoo, a student of Kashmir University. A resident of Kupwara district told The Tribune on phone that some residents of the district were stopped by the police when they were on their way to meet the delegation. They were told that they would be allowed to go only if they put forth what the police wanted. “We preferred to return rather than to speak what the police wanted us to tell the delegation,” said the caller from Kupwara. “We want the right to self determination. If they accept the five points given by Geelani, the things could ease. We have already rejected the autonomy, self-rule, job or any economic package. People are not sacrificing lives for these things,” said a resident of a downtown locality. |
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Old woman meets delegation, pleads for grandson’s release
Eighty-year-old Bibi Jan, a resident of frontier village of Langate, came along with Independent MLA from Langate Sheikh Abdul Rasheed and others to meet the delegation. She broke down while narrating her woes. “My son went to Pakistan in 1990, leaving my grandson, Sameer Ahmed Mir, who was only two, with me,” Bibi Jan said. She said eversince her son crossed the LoC, she had been facing problems. “My house in the village was destroyed by the security forces. I was forced to shift to Sopore with my grandson,” she informed. Bibi Jan said while facing hardship, she ensured that her grandson, who is now 22, got quality education. “A few days ago, the police came to my house and took him away, saying he was part of a stone-throwing group. The police demanded a bribe of Rs 20,000 to release him. I somehow managed the money and gave it to the cops,” she added. She alleged though she paid the money, her grandson was not released. Now, the police officer concerned was asking her to give him a plot in the Bangus valley that she owned. “This is the situation here. The government should respect the sentiments, sacrifices and sufferings of the people. Kashmir is a dispute and the government should accept it and should respect our human rights,” said Rasheed. He said despite being an MLA he was stopped 26 times yesterday while he was on his way to Srinagar. “If this is the situation for an MLA, you can imagine what the common man must be going through,” he added. |
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No day curfew in Poonch, continues in Mendhar
Jammu, September 20 “Going by the improvement in the situation, a relaxation in the curfew is being given in Poonch town and now it (curfew) remains in force from 10 p.m to 5 a.m,” Poonch Deputy Commissioner KL Khajuria told The Tribune. “In Mendhar, we relaxed the curfew from 4.30 p.m to 7.30 p.m today and so far no untoward incident has been reported”, he added. The curfew was clamped in both towns last week after the alleged burning of a holy book in the US had triggered violent protests. The violence on September 15 in Mendhar had left three killed and several others injured in police firing. “Though there has been an improvement in the law and order situation and adequate security forces have also been deployed in the sensitive areas of the district, I have constituted 26 public committees in as many zones of the district to ensure that peace is not disturbed in the district”, said Khajuria. The sole motive was to ensure peace and at the same time respond quickly to the redressal of grievances in every zone and thereby remove the possibilities of providing any room to the mischievous elements to exploit the situation, he added. “By tomorrow evening, the lists containing names of liaison officers and members in all the 26 public panels along with their telephone numbers will be made available to me”, said the Deputy Commisioner. He added the panels would be directly monitored by him. “I personally talked to the people in the Mandi and Loran areas, who liked the endeavour”, he said, adding that apart from liaison officers, the panels would be having prominent citizens from different communities. They would be purely non-political committees, he said and added that the panels would also ensure a way out to positively channelise energy of youths in the district. The government has already ordered a high level probe into the Mendhar killings and booked a Sub-Divisional Police Officer (SDPO) along with five security men in connection with the firing. |
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Violence, a bid to create Muslim-Hindu tension
Jammu, September 20 Engineered by outsiders enjoying the patronage of separatists, the Mendhar violence was an act to create communal tension between Muslims and Hindus in the border town, said official sources. “In fact, some outsiders enjoying the patronage of separatists, who had mingled with the crowds, had opened fire with an intention to target Maulana Mohammed Ayub, priest of Jama Masjid at Mendhar bus stand, but the bullet missed the target and hit a shop’s shutter,” they said. Subsequently, there was a stampede and mischievous elements in the crowd resorted to pelting of stones, in which Mendhar SDPO Vivek Gupta was hit. As soon as the SDPO fell down, his bodyguards also opened fire, said the sources. “Maulana Mohammed Ayub played a positive role in defusing the tension, but yes, the matter (of being fired upon from the crowd) is under investigation,” said a senior official. No doubt, one of the SDPO’s bodyguards, Rajesh Kumar Sharma, who belonged to Ari, had also opened fire but he was not the only one to do so. All of the SDPO’s
bodyguards had opened fire, he said. “On the day of violence in Mendhar, some individuals were seen for the first time and it seems they had come from outside,” he said, and added that the police had booked 45 persons so far. The sources said Maulana Mohammed Ayub and another priest of Jalal Chowk mosque, Mohammed Sultan, were leading the procession. In the subsequent chaos, a mob went on the rampage setting ablaze government vehicles and offices. They told TNS that three days after Janmashtami, the police had seized an anonymous letter from the Mendhar Dak Bungalow containing inflammatory remarks against Maulana Mohammed Ayub. “In the letter, the priest had been threatened with dire consequences because there had been initial objections to a procession (Shobha Yatra) from a particular area on the eve of Janmashtami,” the sources said. The priest had been asked to quit the mosque and had been threatened by the anonymous writer. However, the priest strongly contested the letter and the religion of the writer, saying he trusted Hindus living in the area and they could not write such a letter. “The priest had bluntly told the administration at a meeting last evening that the letter might have been the work of certain elements who wanted to create a Valley-like situation in Mendhar,” they added. |
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Militants cash in on Valley unrest
Srinagar, September 20 Even as Army chief Gen VK Singh has admitted that the infiltration from across the border has increased in the past three months, sources in the Army said militant leadership across the border was trying to exploit the situation and trying to send maximum number of trained militants to the Valley. “They (Pakistan) think that the entire attention is towards the current unrest, nobody would notice what they are doing, but the Indian Army is ever alert to foil any such attempts by them,” a senior officer said. As per the figures available so far in September, the Army has gunned down over 30 militants in the Valley. Today itself, two militants were killed in an encounter with security forces in Bandipora district. “On September 16, the Army killed six militants in Kashmir. In an ongoing operation, over 30 militants have so far been killed,” Srinagar-based defence spokesman Lt-Col JS Brar said. He said while 15 militants were killed on the Line of Control, 17 others were killed in the hinterland. “The militants who were killed were carrying large quantity of war-like stores, including AK assault rifles, hand grenades, radio sets, sophisticated satellite communication equipments, maps and algorithms,” Brar said. He said the operations to eliminate militants were conducted in a ‘professional and surgical manner’ wherein no collateral damage had occurred. “This has been another blow to the militants design in the valley,” Brar said. |
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Bodies of 2 ultras recovered
Srinagar, September 20 The decomposed bodies of the two militants were found at Rautagali near the Line of Control in the Karnah sector of the frontier district of Kupwara last evening, a police spokesman said. Two AK assault rifles, nine hand grenades and three UBGL grenades were recovered from the slain militants whose identity and group affiliations could not be ascertained. Both the militants were believed to have been killed in gunbattles with the security forces while trying to sneak into India from across the border. The spokesman said a security force jawan was injured in a gunbattle with militants in Dangerpora village in Sopore, 55 km from here. The gunfight took place when the security forces launched a search operation to nab the militants hiding in the area. The security forces recovered two AK assault rifles, two magazines, 60 rounds, a wireless set and three kg of explosives during searches at Govindnar in the Gurez sector, the spokesman said. He said the police arrested Mohammad Sharief during search operations at Khoura Khari village in Ramban district and seized Rs 20,000 of the hawala money.
— PTI |
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‘Kashmir needs political solution’
Jammu, September 20 Addressing mediapersons here this afternoon, Dr Sunilam, a former MLA from Madhya Pradesh and national general secretary of the INSOCO, said an all-party delegation to Kashmir at a time when the Valley had been turned into a jail would not serve the purpose. “Kashmir is a political crisis, but the government is not ready to acknowledge the problem. We feel Kashmir needs a political solution,” he said. Sunilam, however, did not elaborate on the contours of a political solution, which he and the other members of the delegation demanded. “At least 105 persons have died so far and the media has been gagged in Kashmir, but paradoxically there is no initiative by the government to soothe the frayed nerves,” he said. The aspirations of Kashmiris be fulfilled, he added. When reminded about the aspirations of the other two regions of the state, which included lakhs of displaced Kashmiri Pandits, the former MLA said he also stood for their cause and aspirations. “We feel that people-to-people contact, soft borders, releasing political detainees and other confidence-building measures be initiated on a war footing to restore normalcy to Kashmir,” he added. “We also met Governor NN Vohra and conveyed our concerns over the Kashmir situation,” he added. The three organisations had also decided to submit a report to the state and Union governments suggesting the reconciliatory measures for restoring normalcy to Kashmir, Sunilam said. “We will also submit a memorandum to the Prime Minister on the demands that have already been conveyed and submitted to Governor NN Vohra,” he added. He also advocated the repeal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, troop cut and the release of political detainees. These were the pre-conditions for initiating a dialogue and sending an all-party delegation without doing the spade work was not going to help, the former MLA concluded. |
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Seminar on Kashmir conflict at Jammu varsity
Jammu, September 20 In the seminar, deliberations would be made in five sessions on the impact of the conflict on polity, inter-provincial and inter-religious relations, impact on governance and economy, external dimensions of the conflict and effects on specific segments of society. The participants, including university professors, security experts, members of civil society, journalists, economists and representatives of industry and commerce, will discuss and deliberate upon the ongoing conflict in J&K. University of Jammu vice-chancellor Prof Varun Sahni will inaugurate the seminar. The opening remarks will be delivered by CSA president Lt Gen (Retd) VR Raghavan and DSRS director Mohd Monir Alam will give the welcome address. To begin with, the first technical session will be on ‘Conflict overview and Impact on Polity’. Former chief secretary SS Bloeria will speak on ‘conflict overview’, and human rights activist Balraj Puri will deliberate upon the ‘impact of inter-regional relations on politics of Jammu and Kashmir state and vice-versa’. The second session on ‘Inter-Provincial and Inter-Religious Relations’ will be addressed by Prof. Navnita Chadha Behera on ‘the impact on inter-provincial relations’, while Prof Noor Ahmed Baba will speak on ‘Kashmir special status: myth and reality’ and Arun Joshi will focus on ‘impact on inter-religious relations’. In the third session, Prof RL Bhat will focus on ‘impact on economy’ and Vikrant Kuthiala will speak on ‘the impact on commerce and industry’. Dr Ashish Saxena will speak on the ‘impact on governance’. The fourth session devoted for the debates on ‘the external dimensions of the conflicts’. Dr Baljit Singh, will discuss ‘Kashmir conflict: a reflection on competing nationalisms of India and Pakistan’ and Dr Monir Alam will throw light on ‘Pakistan’s policy towards the conflict’. In the last session, which is devoted to the ‘effect on specific segments of society’, Roopali Sharma will throw light upon ‘gender dimension of the conflict’, Dr Javaid Rahi will highlight over the impact of the ‘conflict on Gujjar and Bakerwals’, and Pradeep Dutta, will speak on ‘politics of displacement and trust deficit’. In the valedictory session, Lt Gen (Retd) VR Raghavan will give the concluding remarks.
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Medical teachers go on indefinite strike
Jammu, September 20 In some departments, patients had to wait for doctors as they were attending the meeting of the association, whereas in rest of the departments, doctors served the patients while sporting black badges. Students at both colleges had to return home disappointed. They expressed concern about the completion of syllabus in view of approaching semester exams. “The faculty of GMC and Dental College will continue protesting by sporting black badges. From today onwards, we have decided to suspend the teaching of undergraduate and post graduate medical and dental students indefinitely,” said president of the association Tariq Azad. He said, “The association is forced to take the unpleasant step as only false promises were made.” The demands of the association included benefit of cumulative service, that is service rendered before joining medical or dental college on the analogy of health department, removing disparity in designation and pay structure similar to that in neighboring states or norms of Medical Council of India or University Grant Commission, wherein lecturers who have been placed in the same pay scale as that of assistant surgeons be redesignated as assistant professors. They have also sought time-bound promotions, in accordance with the Dr Sayed Naseer Ahmed Shah’s recommendations made in 1999 for providing fair chances of promotion to all cadres. The association has also been demanding for immediately filling the vacancies in dental college. “For the last 15 years, MTA and medical faculty, Srinagar, have been demanding removal of disparities in existing designations, pay scales and promotional avenues. But nothing has been done so far,” said association secretary SK Bali. “Implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission has further lead to resentment in the faculty in comparison with the doctors of the health department,” he added. |
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Konkan Railway engineers call off stir
Udhampur, September 20 The association had been demanding extension of the contracts of the civil engineers working with the KRCL, as most of them had crossed the upper age limit to be eligible for jobs elsewhere. Other major demand was the immediate revocation of the nationwide
advertisement put out by the KRCL authorities for the recruitment of engineers. The agreement between the striking engineers and the KRCL was reached in the presence of Lok Sabha MP Lal Singh, former minister Jugal Kishore Sharma, and DC Reasi. PK Pole L Parkash, Chief Engineer, (C 1) Head Quarters, led the negotiations from the KRCL side. After getting assurance from the KRCL regarding acceptance of their demands, the association leaders announced that the stir was over. |
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Governor briefed on road projects
Srinagar, September 20 The Governor lauded the significant work being done by Project Beacon and emphasised upon the need for completion of various road schemes in the state within a fixed timeline. He added that all-weather road connectivity was vital for the overall progress and development of the people, to ensure against difficult terrain and geography negatively impacting the pace of growth. This was Brig Rawat’s first meeting with the Governor after taking over as Chief Engineer, Project Beacon, last month. |
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Punjab police nabs KZF militant
Jammu, September 20 Gandhi Nagar SHO Rafiq Manhas confirmed the arrest and said since he was wanted by the Punjab police and a Punjab court had issued non-bailable warrants against the accused, he was arrested today by a team of the Punjab police. It may be stated here that in the recent times, the Punjab police had conducted raids four times at the residence and suspected hideouts of the accused, who had been succeessful in dodging the cops. However, sources close to the family of Pinka said that he along with three others, had been acquitted by an Ambala court in the infamous bomb blast case in which six persons had lost their lives. At present, Pinka was in the real
estate business. |
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Regularisation of GMCH staff sought
Jammu, September 20 “The hospital has invited applications for jobs, but we demand that preference be given to those who have been working in the GMCH for the past more than 10 years on a meagre salary of Rs 1,500 in a time of high inflation,” said Gharu Ram, president of the association, in a press conference here today. “Most of the contractual employees while working in the hospital over the years have become overage. Therefore, they are unlikely to get jobs anywhere else and the government must take this into consideration,” Gharu said. |
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Army holds medical camp
Udhampur, September 20 Doctors of Command Hospital, Udhampur, examined a large number of patients, including women and children from Pathi and adjoining villages. The medical team included a gynaecologist, eye and ENT specialists, a child specialist, a skin specialist and general physicians. In addition to primary health service of specialist doctors, pathological test facility was provided and medicines were distributed by the Army free of cost.
— TNS |
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Science exhibition at DIET
Udhampur, September 20 MLA, Reasi, BR Sharma, District Development Commissioner, Reasi, Pandurang K. Pole were the guest of honour. Besides, SSP, Reasi, Anand Jain; Principal, DIET, Balbir Singh; Chief Education Officer KK Sharma; Principal of Government Higher Secondary School for Boys MM Khajuria and the staff and students of DIET. In all 63 models on various themes prepared by the students of higher secondary, secondary and elementary levels were put on display. |
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Srinagar, September 20