Jammu, September 22
Keeping in view the Ayodhya verdict on September 24, the state government has not only put in place peace committees in the communally sensitive areas, but has also upped the ante against mischievous elements.

“Besides putting in place peace committees in sensitive areas, the Jammu and Kashmir Police has conducted a detailed exercise to keep a check on troublemakers and ensure the maintenance of the law and order on September 24,” IGP, Jammu zone, Ashok Kumar Gupta said.

All SSPs, SPs, SDPOs and SHOs have been asked to keep a watch on mischievous elements, he said.

The IGP, who was in Doda, said he was personally visiting all the sensitive places across the Jammu region.

“We are constantly monitoring the situation and the law-breakers on the day may also invite legal action under the Public Safety Act (PSA),” added Gupta.

In violence-hit Poonch district, Deputy Commissioner KL Khajuria, who had already constituted 26 public committees in as many zones of the district, today reviewed the situation in a meeting this evening.

On September 15, three persons were killed and several others were injured in the police firing. Headed by 26 liaison officers, the public panels will ensure peace in their respective areas. The public committees comprise prominent and respectable citizens from various communities, including Hindus and Muslims, who will monitor the situation on September 24. The Poonch DC, who had the contact numbers of liaison officers, will be directly talking to these panels. If warranted, action would be immediately taken by the district administration.

In the communally sensitive Rajouri, Deputy Commissioner GA Khawaja convened a meeting of prominent citizens belonging to various communities this evening. He urged them to ensure peace and order on the day of the Ayodhya verdict. The DC has constituted peace committees in all seven tehsils of the district and people have been urged to keep their cool and maintain the law and order on the day, said a source from the Rajouri DC office.

Khawaja has also urged the members to accept the court verdict with an open mind and not to get carried away by emotions, added the source. The police has also done its spade work in Ramban, Kishtwar, Doda, Reasi districts.

Meanwhile, appealing to Poonch and Rajouri residents for maintaining peace, Jammu Kashmir Pahari Peoples’ Movement today alleged that there were few elements in the district administration averse to peace process who have been ignoring workers of the movement in the area.

Chief executive of the organisation Shahbaz Khan in a statement apprehended that some anti-social elements may affect the Allahabad High Court’s verdict on Babri Masjid on September 24.

“We should not give ear to them and foil their nefarious designs,” Khan said, appealing residents of Poonch and Rajouri to respect the court verdict and maintain peace in the area.

Srinagar, September 22
Life remained paralysed across the Kashmir valley with the curfew in force, while one person injured in clashes in Budgam district nine days ago succumbed to his injuries at the She-re-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) here today.

The curfew was relaxed in parts of Srinagar, Kangan, Ganderbal Pulwama and Awantipora towns in phases this afternoon.

The police said Sajad Ahmad Pandit of Shiekhpora in the nearby Budgam district succumbed to his injuries today. He was injured in clashes between protesters and the police at Humhama on September 13. With this, the death toll in the ongoing trouble in Kashmir has gone up to 108 since June 11 when a teenager, Tufail Ahmad Matto, a Class XII student, died after being hit by a tear gas shell.

The police lobbed tear gas shells and fired in the air to disperse demonstrators in Pulwama in South Kashmir,who were throwing stones at the security forces this morning. However, there were no reports of any injury or damage, sources said. In view of the improvement in the situation, the authorities decided to give a relaxation in the curfew from 2 p.m to 6 p.m. which passed off peacefully.

There were reports of demonstrations in Anantnag town in South Kashmir during the curfew relaxation yesterday, leading to a shutdown.Residents alleged that police personnel supported by counter-insurgents damaged some shops and windowpanes of houses in the town.The residents were forced to remain indoor during the three-hour relaxation.

As per the calendar of protests issued by the hardline faction of the Hurriyat Conference led by Syed Ali Geelani, people had been asked to observe a normal working day today. But, the authorities, having launched a strategy to counter the protests, brought the entire Valley under the curfew with relaxation in phases in various parts.

Following an improvement in the situation, the authorities relaxed the curfew in the East, West and South zones of Srinagar from 3 p.m , a police spokesman said. He added that in Ganderbal and Kangan, it was relaxed from 12 noon to 2 p.m, which was later extended till 4p.m. In Awantipora and Pulwama, the relaxation was given from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.

Jammu, September 22
Apprehending large-scale rigging in the elections to the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC) scheduled to be held on October 16 in Leh district of the Ladakh region, the state BJP today cautioned the administration and the election authorities to ensure conduct of free and fair polls to the hill council.

Addressing a joint press conference, BJP State president Shamsher Singh Manhas and former patron of the Ladakh Union Territory Front (LUTF) Thupstan Chhewang said administration in Leh appeared to be working in tandem with the Congress and the NC to create situations in favour of their candidates since the LUTF has recently merged with the BJP and it has caused ripples in the camps of the ruling alliance.

“We have also fears that the ruling alliance may influence the election authorities against our candidates,” Chhewang said.

“There have been instances where the state machinery is making attempts to prepare ground to let other candidates win unopposed,” he said.

He pointed out that Stanzin Takpa, who is the proposer for candidate Tsering Namgial from the Lingshet constituency in Leh, has been missing and was unable to appear for scrutiny which was scheduled to take place on September 21.

“This is a very serious happening which is seemingly done just to facilitate the candidate from the other group win unopposed,” he said and asked the Election Commissioner to take serious note of it.

Chhewang narrated the incident which took place in the Timgmasgang constituency where the efforts were made to stop candidate from filling the nomination form but due to personal interference by him such nefarious efforts were stopped.

Udhampur, September 22
To prevent any breach of law and order after the verdict on the Babri Masjid is out on Friday, the respective civil and police administration of Udhampur, Reasi, Doda, Kishtwar and Ramban districts have advised people of their areas to exercise utmost restraint whichever way the verdict goes.

Hectic parleys are on between the administrative heads of all these districts with representatives of all communities as part of the government’s exercise to prevent any backlash from the section of public that may perceive the verdict contrary to their expectations. In the meetings held on the issue so far in all the areas, the administration has been impressing upon the public representatives to keep the rumour-mongers at a distance.

Even as the administration has claimed to have elicited a positive response from the public representatives, but still it is not leaving anything to chance. Therefore, heavy deployment of the police has been planned on the coming Friday. As of now, no preventive arrests have reportedly been made.

Sources in the police said this had been done to preempt any move that may be exploited by the vested interests to incite the public.

DC Ramban KB Magotra told The Tribune over phone that the first meeting of the newly constituted 50-member Citizens Advisory Council (CAC) in which public representatives were asked to convey to members of their respective communities not react emotionally to the verdict and take law into their hands. In the meeting, the representatives assured full cooperation in maintaining communal harmony and peace, he claimed.

Magotra, however, said the demand of representatives that there should be no deployment of the police was politely turned down on the grounds that it would be there only as a precautionary measure.

As part of this exercise, as many as 158 meetings have been organised between the police and public representatives in all parts of Doda district, said Prabhat Kumar, SSP, Doda. He added that such measures apart, the police would be deployed in full strength in the district.

In this area, once a hotbed of militancy, the police patrolling had been intensified to keep a close watch on the separatists as well as anti-social elements. Almost similar arrangements had been put in place in the neighbouring Kishtwar district. The dialogue with the public representatives was also being organised in Udhampur where patrolling by the police had been stepped up.

A meeting with representatives of all sections of society for the purpose was also organised today at Reasi under the chairmanship of the District Development Commissioner (DDC), Reasi, PK Pole. He exhorted those present to act as eyes and ears of the administration and bring any information about those planning to disturb peace and harmony. The timely feedback would go a long way in ensuring a peaceful atmosphere. SSP Ananad Jain also asked the representatives to be extra vigilant.

The Civil Defence wardens have been asked to remain alert in their respective areas in Udhampur district to keep an eye on the potential mischief- makers.

This is the first time that Civil Defence wardens were told to assist the administration. Chief Warden, Civil Defence, Surinder Kumar Khajuria, today held a meeting with the public representatives. Prominent wardens, including Swatantra Dev Kotwal, Balveer Singh, Gulam Nabi, Yog Raj, Roop Kour, and Jagdish Bhardwaj assured unconditional cooperation to the district administration.

Jammu, September 22
Infuriated over being ignored by the all-party delegation during its visit to the state, leaders of Ladakh, irrespective of their party affiliations, today warned the all-party delegation against finalising any report before visiting the Himalayan region.“Ladakh is one of the biggest region of the state and ignoring people of the Himalayan belt in finalising report for the solution to the vexed Kashmir problem would prove disastrous for the state as well as for the country,” warned veteran Congress leader and former MP P Namgyal,

“People of Ladakh were kept in dark about the whole exercise,” said Namgyal. He flayed the authorities for totally ignoring the wishes and aspirations of the people of the region.

Namgyal regretted that the Ladakh region was completely ignored in the high-profile exercise. He asserted that the people of the Himalayan region would not tolerate such type of discriminatory policies anymore.

Namgyal informed that the District Congress Committee (DCC), Leh, had passed a resolution on Tuesday to condemn the attitude of the state government for not inviting people of Ladakh in the all-party delegation.

Echoing similar views, former patron of the Ladakh Union Terroritory Front (LUTF) Thupstan Chhewang said ignoring wishes of the Ladakh people was a clear indication of the discriminatory policies being propagated by the state government. Chhewang, who met the delegation with the BJP team, said he was not invited as representative of Ladakh but as a member of the BJP delegation.

Chhewang joined the BJP last week along with other elected members of the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC).

Although Chhewang as member of the BJP delegation had taken up the issue of Ladakh before the all-party delegation, he was of the view that special arrangements should be made by the delegation to visit the Himalayan region. “If it was not possible for the whole delegation to visit Ladakh, representative delegation -comprising some selective members of political parties should be sent to Ladakh to interact with cross sections of the society”, he said.

Congress leader Namgyal said people of Ladakh were united on the demand of granting the Union Territory (UT) status to the region. “We neither want autonomy nor self-rule, our only demand is UT status and we will continue our struggle for it”, he said.

Jammu, September 22
Representatives of various social and political organisations of the Jammu region who met with the visiting all-party delegation last evening, expressed resentment over the decision of some members to meet separatist leaders, especially Sayeed Ali Shah Geelani and Mohammad Yasin Malik.

These organisations blamed Geelani for the present “bloodshed” in the state and termed Yasin Malik as “killer of Air Force men”. A delegation of the Bar Association of Jammu, while interacting with the visiting dignitaries expressed their anguish over the decision to meet separatist leaders.

The Bar Association reminded the visiting delegation about the 2008 agitation for the Amarnath land and warned that if any Kashmir-centric decision would be taken to appease the separatists and other anti-national forces, people of Jammu would launch an aggressive agitation against such attempt.

The association also opposed any move to revoke or repeal the Armed Forces Special Power Act (AFSPA) and cautioned that a campaign against AFSPA had been launched as part of the deep-rooted conspiracy to defame the Army. The delegation sought to draw attention of the visiting leaders towards the Shopian incident in which a vicious campaign against security forces was launched which was later proved fictitious.

Independent MLAs from the Jammu region, Ashwani Kumar and Charanjeet Singh, have also opposed any move to revoke the AFSPA and more concessions to the state.

Interacting with mediapersons, Ashwani Kumar said the people of Jammu would not tolerate any attempt to revoke the AFSPA because this demand has been raised by certain political parties to appease the separatist and other elements.

He said the situation was not conducive for revoking this Act as the security forces had been fighting a proxy war sponsored from across the border. Jammu and Kashmir People Front chief patron Satish Poonchi also expressed anguish over the decision of some members of the all-party delegation to meet separatist leaders.

Sunil Dimple, president, Jammu West Assembly Movement, while talking to the media after meeting with the delegation said he had opposed any move to repeal the AFSPA and granting of autonomy to the state.

Udhampur, September 22
Senior Congress leader and MLA from the Doda Assembly constituency Abdul Majid Wani today demanded that Women Cooperative Bank’s branches be opened in Doda.

Responding to the demand put up by the deputation of people from Marmat and Bhagwa blocks of Doda, Wani said he would immediately take up the issue with Cooperatives Minister Dr Manohar Lal Sharma in this regard.

Wani further said he would seek setting up of branches of the state Women Cooperative Bank in Bhagla-Bharath, Mohalla-Gundna, Goha-Marmat and Bhagwa-Dessa areas on a priority basis.

The state government and Jammu Credit Cooperative Limited have jointly taken initiatives to empower women by opening Women Cooperative Bank’s branches in rural areas of the state. Reportedly, eight to nine branches of the bank have recently been opened in Jammu and Samba districts, which is providing employment to 40 to 50 females.

“Due to social constraints, poor and uneducated women in backward and hilly areas of Doda district feel reluctant to visit banks as they are dominated by mail staff. Moreover, the Doda constituency has been neglected with regard to the cooperative sector. Even cooperative organisations like JAKFED, super bazar and other cooperative banks have a negligible presence in this underdeveloped area,” said the MLA.

He assured the deputation that once opened the operations of the bank’s branches would not be confined to only semi-urban areas of Jammu and Samba districts. Since more than 70 per cent women are living in rural and far off areas of the state, the prime focus of the cooperative sector bank should be to open sufficient branches in these areas.

Jammu, September 22
Suresh Kumar, a research scholar of the Department of Buddhist Studies, University of Jammu, participated in the 10th annual conference of the Indian Society for Buddhist Studies organised by the Centre for Buddhist Studies, Gujarat Vidyapeeth, Ahmedabad, and presented a research paper entitled: Social Stratification In India: Problems and Redressal.

In his presentation, Suresh highlighted the ill effects of the caste system in the Indian sub-continent in Gandhian and Buddhist perspective.

He opined that in this present era of globalisation, when the world is moving ahead with new inventions and ideas, the country was in the clutches of castes.

Critically rejecting the old notion of relation between the Verna system of the Vedic society, Suresh said that casteism which we find in our country today and centuries ago was based on misrepresentation and misinterpretation of a legitimate and progressive vedic system.

As a solution to this social issue of common concern he appealed to all political, social and religious leaders to come forward and to ensure the participation of the people of the lower castes in social and religious functions and to aware the common masses about this illegal practice.

Srinagar, September 22
Three-month- long protests and the curfew have badly affected social life in the Kashmir valley as people are not able to attend marriages and funerals.

“A few day ago, one of our relatives died in Pulwama, but we could not attend the funeral because of the curfew,” said Surjeet Singh, a resident of Srinagar.

He said though the family of the deceased waited for several hours for all relatives to arrive for the funeral, many couldn’t reach the house.

“The body had to be cremated before the sunset. However, we were not allowed to proceed during the day.So, we left at night and reached the house of the deceased at midnight,” Singh said.

In the Kashmir valley, relatives of a deceased have to first apply for a curfew pass to the District Magistrate, specifying the number of people who can be go to attend a funeral.

“Last week, my father died, but we had to first make arrangements for the curfew passes for a limited number of people and were then able to take the body for burial,” said Khalid Hussain, a resident of the downtown locality of Srinagar.

Even during the day, there are strict curfew restrictions in the Valley. Until last week, people used to travel at night to reach the house of the family of a deceased. Now, people are unable to do so as there is a curfew at night also.

People are also not able to attend marriages due to the unrest. Though many have postponed marriages or shifted the venues outside the Valley, those who cannot afford to do so are facing problems.

“The date for a marriage in our family was fixed six months ago. We had distributed 400 cards,but only 100 guests could attend the function due to the curfew and strikes,” lamented Prithipal Singh, a resident of Baramulla.