|
|
|
|
|
Sopore encounter on; Major, jawan injured
Avalanche tragedy: Bodies of 6 soldiers flown to Kolkata
Opposition corners Cong over panchayat issue
|
|
|
|
Omar to continue to press Centre for AFSPA revocation
No second term for BJP state president
Ravi-Tawi canal project victim of political rivalry
Kashmiri folk song to resonate in MTV series
Leh gets some respite from cold
|
|||||||||||
|
Sopore encounter on; Major, jawan injured
Srinagar, December 19 One Army officer and a soldier were also injured in the encounter and had to be airlifted to the Srinagar-based Army headquarters where they are being treated. Both the Army personnel were hit in the leg by militant bullets. The injured Army officer, who was shot in the leg early in the morning, holds the rank of a Major and was on deputation with the Army’s special counter-insurgency unit Rashtriya Rifles, an Army officer said. The encounter began on Tuesday morning in Saidapora village near Sopore town when militants fired upon soldiers and policemen who had sealed off the area after receiving specific input about the presence of militants there. Five militants were confirmed as killed in the gunfight on Tuesday evening when the operation was suspended upon nightfall. Hundreds of security personnel, however, cordoned off the village to prevent any militant from escaping the encounter site. The Army officer confirmed that a total of six bodies of militants had been recovered from the encounter site. The officer said it had been confirmed that one of the slain militants was a local resident of Sopore while the identity of other five militants was yet to be established. A police official said one of the slain militants had been identified as Athar Yousuf Dar, alias Naveed, a resident of Bismillah Colony of Sopore town, which is a few minutes’ walk from the encounter site. Dar’s body was handed over to his family and the funeral was offered last night. A local resident said the town observed a shutdown “in favour of the militants” after “announcements were made on loudspeakers last night”. The Army officer said the operation was still on in the area and intermittent firing was going on from the encounter site. There was a possibility that one more or at the maximum two militants were still holed up, he added. This was the third encounter within a week’s time in and around the Sopore town, which has been a longtime stronghold of militants. In the earlier two encounters, two foreign militants and a local militant had been killed on Thursday. |
|
Avalanche tragedy: Bodies of 6 soldiers flown to Kolkata
Jammu, December 19 On December 16, an avalanche had claimed the lives of six soldiers while one had gone missing. This morning the bodies of six soldiers were flown from Leh to Kolkata in an Army Aviation aircraft. Despite vagaries of weather, the Army troops today conducted searches in the Hanif sub-sector to trace the missing soldier identified as Sepoy Hetia of Assam but success eluded them till reports last poured in this evening, said a senior Army officer. The officer said due to bad weather the Army could not launch aerial searches in the affected area today. He also disclosed that bodies of six soldiers were flown from Leh this
morning to Kolkata in a service aircraft. The bodies have reached Kolkata and they will be further flown tomorrow to airports nearest to their native places in Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur and Mizoram, he said. The soldiers who lost their lives in the avalanche have been identified as Sepoy P Singh, Sepoy Sameul, Sepoy Kipbarlang, Sepoy Kalita, Sepoy Boro and Sepoy Neloni, all soldiers of 1 Assam Regiment, which is part of the 102 Siachen Brigade located at altitudes of around 15,000 to 16,000 feet above sea level. Siachen Glacier in Ladakh region is known as the highest battlefield in the world where Indian and Pakistani troops are posted throughout the year to protect their respective positions. |
|
Opposition corners Cong over panchayat issue
Jammu, December 19 This visit has also provided an opportunity to opposition parties to corner the Congress for enacting a drama on the issue of panchayat empowerment. It was a coincidence that when YC activists were staging a protest against Omar, the latter along with Rahul Gandhi was studying the success of self help groups at Amethi which is Rahul’s parliamentary constituency. State president of the Youth Congress Shahnawaz Choudhary, while trying to downplay Omar’s visit to Amethi with Rahul Gandhi, said the campaign for the empowerment of the panchayats would continue and intensify in the coming days. “The Chief Minister’s visit to Amethi has no politics. Actually, the Chief Minister was very particular about studying the functioning of self help groups so Rahul Gandhi had taken him along,” Choudhary said. He made it clear that the Congress was committed to extending the 73rd Amendment of the Indian Constitution to the state. Reacting strongly to Omar’s “tour” to Amethi with Rahul Gandhi, chief spokesman of the state unit of the BJP Jatinder Singh said on the one hand, the Congress has been blaming the Chief Minister for adopting delay tactics in implementing the 73rd Amendment, on the other hand, party (Congress) leadership has failed to take a tough stand on the issue. “Rahul’s failure to persuade Omar Abdullah and the National Conference to implement the 73rd Amendment is a clear indication that the Congress is just staging a drama on the issue,” he said. He added, “The coalition government is surviving only on the Congress’ support.” “The failure to implement the 73rd Amendment in the state reflects that the present Congress leadership is ready to sacrifice its own agenda for power,” he said. Panthers Party leader Harsh Dev Singh said Rahul’s visit to Amethi with Omar Abdullah had exposed the double standards of the Congress. “On the issue of the 73rd Amendment, the Congress is claiming to be in collision course with Omar Abdullah but the leader of the same party is touring with the Chief Minister,” he said and added that the Congress could not befool the people any more. |
|
|
Omar to continue to press Centre for AFSPA revocation
Sheeri (Baramulla), December 19 “I believe that the basis of our argument (on the AFSPA revocation) is logical and that makes sense. Year on year if you have such a steady decline in militancy, the need for the Army to operate in those areas will almost be eliminated. Clearly, the possibility of the AFSPA revocation is there. I will continue to press the case for the revocation of the AFSPA and I hope it should meet some success,” the Chief Minister said. Omar admitted that not much progress had been made on the issue which he would have liked. “The fact is while there has been considerable support by various quarters in the Government of India and there is no secret that the Army is extremely reluctant to contemplate or consider the partial revocation of the AFSPA. But I have always maintained that if something is worth doing, then it is worth pursuing and because you did not have an overnight success does not mean that you should shelve your efforts. So my efforts will continue,” he said. Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde had recently stated that the AFSPA could not be revoked from the state. Shinde’s statement had drawn criticism from almost all mainstream political parties of the Valley. On the ongoing Sopore encounter, the Chief Minister said these encounters were a necessity. Omar termed the encounter a “success” and termed such operations a “necessity”, which would continue until militants kept infiltrating from across the Line of Control. On infiltration, Omar said he was not in a position to give the exact number of militants who had sneaked into the Valley. |
|
Delhi Gang-rape
Jammu, December 19 Chief Minister Omar Abdullah favoured chemical castration of rapists. “Chemical castration at the very least,” Omar wrote on micro-blogging site Twitter after one of his followers asked him about the action against the accused in the gang-rape case in New Delhi. The Jammu and Kashmir State Commission for Women (JKSCW) has written to the state government, requesting for bringing a Bill in the state legislature to amend the law to protect women and girls apart from strict action against rapists. Hundreds of students along with teaching staff, especially women from Government Degree College, Samba, assembled at the college premises and marched towards the national highway. Raising slogans against the culprits who were involved in the crime, the students demanded that the accused be tried on a fast-track basis and “exemplary punishment” be awarded to them so that nobody dares to commit such crime in near future. They also expressed sympathy with the victim and demanded amendment in the existing laws to incorporate necessary provisions to protect women and girls from such crimes. “It is high time for the entire society to work in close coordination for bringing suitable amendment in the existing laws to protect women from various crimes like rape, torture, domestic violence and gender inequality,” said Nitika Sambyal, a student. Another student said, “We are also human beings and you need to treat us as humans. It is a matter of our fundamental rights. This incident has brought a sense of insecurity among women.” Chairperson of the JKSCW Shamim Firdous said, “It is a highly unfortunate and condemnable incident that has shaken the entire country. Rape should be considered equivalent to murder and murder charges should be slapped against the perpetrators of such crime. There is an urgent need to bring suitable amendments in the existing laws to take strict action against the culprits.” A total of 277 rape cases were reported in the state in 2011 while the number of such cases was 245 in 2010. In 2011, the government had said a total of 1,326 rapes cases were registered in the state since 2006. |
|
No second term for BJP state president
Jammu, December 19 Sources in the BJP said the high command had taken a serious note of Manhas’s activities who has been trying to get another term as the state president. “Two days ago, a senior leader of the party categorically told Manhas that there was no chance of his continuation as the
state president so there was no reason for him to indulge in such pressure tactics,” a senior BJP leader told The Tribune on the conditions of anonymity and added that after being snubbed by the high command, Manhas had virtually surrendered. Sources said the two candidates, Kavinder Gupta and Jugal Kishore Sharma, were in the fray for the state president post but the former was emerging
as a frontrunner. Gupta is the former mayor of the Jammu Municipal Corporation while Sharma is the BJP leader in the Assembly. The sources said although Sharma was in the fray for the post of the state president, he was more interested in getting mandate from the Jammu-Poonch Lok Sabha seat in the coming elections. “Kavinder and Jugal belong to the same faction in the party so there is a possibility that at the eleventh hour one of them would withdraw his claim in support of another,” a source said and added that the chances of Kavinder becoming the state president were bright due to his non-controversial character and his proximity with the Sangh Parivar. “The high command has made it clear that ‘one person one post rule’ would be implemented in the state so anyone who becomes the state president would not be considered for the party mandate in the coming Lok Sabha elections,” the source said and added that the decision of the party had changed the situation in favour of Kavinder, who is not aspiring for the party mandate. |
|
|
Ravi-Tawi canal project victim of political rivalry
Jammu, December 19 Official sources said the project, which was shelved after heated arguments between Minister for Finance Abdul Rahim Rather and Minister for Irrigation and Flood Control Taj Mohiuddin during the Cabinet meeting here on Monday, could end in a fiasco as it had exposed chinks in the armour of the alliance partners. Rather belongs to the
NC while Taj is a Congress minister. “The project has been put on hold following political rivalry between the two ministers. The Law Ministry would now seek a legal opinion from the Solicitor General and Attorney General of India, as sought by the Finance Minister, prior to the start of work on the project,” a source said. The sources said the project, which would mitigate the irrigation problem of thousands of farmers in the Kandi belt, was unlikely to be an immediate reality as both the ministers were at loggerheads. Taj, who was in New Delhi, told The Tribune that the Finance Minister had been opposing the project from the beginning. “The project has been shelved because of the Finance Minister’s ego. When he (Rather) was the Law Minister, he had then raised objections over the project. After the legal opinion from the former Solicitor General and former Chief Justice BN Khare, the objections raised by the Law Ministry were cleared so that the state didn’t had to face legal impediments from the Punjab Government while executing the project. Despite all efforts, he is still creating hurdles,” Taj said. He hoped that the Law Ministry would soon seek a legal opinion from the Solicitor General and Attorney General of India and the matter would be sorted out in the next 15 days. “We will again bring the project to the Cabinet and it will definitely be a reality in future. The Punjab Government has terminated the agreement signed with Jammu and Kashmir. We can now go ahead with the construction work on the canal,” the minister said. Official sources said though the Irrigation Department had received the initial amount for the project to be completed with an estimated cost of nearly Rs 600 crore, it was still waiting for the financial concurrence from the Finance Department. The Finance Department, while raising some queries, had sought a fresh legal opinion from the Solicitor General and Attorney General of India to avoid any legal problems while executing the project. The Finance Minister was not available for comment. In February 2010, the Cabinet had accorded in principal an approval to the construction of a canal from Basantpur to upstream of Ranjit Sagar Dam near Satwain village in Kathua district. Jammu and Kashmir is being denied its 20 per cent share of power and 1100 cusecs of water from the dam by the Punjab Government. The project holds great significance for southern districts of the state as it would irrigate nearly 1.33 lakh acres in three districts of Jammu province for which the 82 km canal and 500 km tributaries were constructed 30 years ago. |
|
|
Kashmiri folk song to resonate in MTV series
Srinagar, December 19 A city-based music composer, Muzaffar Ahmad Bhat, is now hoping to take the Kashmiri music to an international level by recording a folk song in a “western style with a Kashmiri tinge” for the next season of MTV Coke Studio Season 4, a television series featuring live music performances. Bhat has chosen a popular folk song, ‘karsa myon nyai andey’, which has been sung by many local singers in the past, for the Coke Studio recording. The song is etched in the realms of Kashmir’s history and is believed to have been compiled and first sung by a woman, nearly 500 years ago, who later became Kashmir’s last queen - Habba Khatoon. “My proposal has been approved and my composition will be a fusion of traditional Kashmiri and modern music,” Bhat told The Tribune. Bhat, who also works as an associate professor at Women’s College, Srinagar, says this is his attempt to introduce the Kashmiri music to an international audience. Coke Studio has revolutionised the folk music culture in the subcontinent by infusing the works of local artists with modern musical instruments and western genres. The leap to the international music studio, a first for a Kashmiri song, is sure to provide fresh blood to the local industry which has failed to move outside the mountains of the Valley in the last several decades. The folk and traditional music of Kashmir, much celebrated locally, briefly went into oblivion when militancy erupted in the region in 1990. The comeback was made in recent years but failed to get young ears. Some of the popular Kashmiri lyrics and notes have been used by Bollywood, including in a song (bhumbro bhumbro sham rang bhumbro) in Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s Mission Kashmir and more recently in ICICI Bank advertisement (hukus bukus). Meanwhile, Bhat has composed the dummy recording for his Coke Studio number but is yet to finalise the singer. He is looking for a voice that would take the song to the next level. lyrical notes
|
|
|
Peer Kho temple in Jammu getting a makeover
Jammu, December 19 The development of the Peer Kho shrine at a cost of Rs 3.50 crore was taken up by the Tourism Department during the last fiscal under Mega Tourism Destination Scheme, funded by the Central Government. The project, which includes the tourism reception centre, dormitory, amphitheatre, parks, walkways, shelter-sheds, bathing “ghat” and view decks on the banks of the Tawi to enjoy the splendorous beauty of Bagh-e-Bahu and the historical Bahu Fort, is nearing completion and is likely to be inaugurated early next year. The development of pilgrim places in the state was getting focused attention, Jora said, adding that the massive infrastructure development programmes had been initiated to provide added facilities to pilgrim tourists coming from within and outside the state. The MLA, Jammu East, Ashok Khajuria, Director, Tourism, Jammu, R S Mehta, and senior officials of the tourism department accompanied Jora during the visit. Shiva Shrine
|
|
|
Leh gets some respite from cold
Leh, December 19 Leh town, which has been witnessing lesser number of visitors due to extreme cold conditions, saw a heavy rush of shoppers today. The night temperature in Leh town continued
to remain below the freezing point. The Meteorological Department, Srinagar, said the minimum temperature recorded last night in Leh town was minus 13°C. |
|
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Letters | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | E-mail | |
