The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

	Pak brutality in Poonch BJP state chief slams Centre’s soft Pak policy Tribune News Service Jammu, January 9 BJP state president Jugal Kishore Sharma has condemned the killing and decapitating of two Indian soldiers by Pakistani troops in the Krishna Ghati sector of Poonch district yesterday. In a statement issued here, Sharma said the act of beheading one of the Indian soldiers and carrying away his head was inhuman and an extreme act of disrespect to the dead. “It is also against the international laws and the United Nations terms and conditions for treating enemy soldiers during war time. It is astonishing that even in the absence of war, such violation of international military decorum has taken place,” he said. Hitting out at the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre, Sharma said it was because of the inconsistent and soft policy of the Centre that such acts took place repeatedly and the culprits didn’t get punished. “After every such act, the Union Government declares that the matter will be taken up at the highest level with Pakistan but no follow up has ever been seen, which encourages the enemy designs,” Sharma said. Referring to peace talks with Pakistan, Sharma said talks and bullets do not go together and the time had come when the Centre should reconsider its policy on Pakistan. “It is unfortunate that the incident took place when the Interior Minister of Pakistan has concluded his visit to India recently for the so-called peace talks and a cricket series was also played between the two countries,” he said. Demanding a review and revision of the policy towards Pakistan and taking up the issue of violation of international military norms with the Government of Pakistan, Sharma said had the UPA not debated from the firm stand taken by Atal Behari Vajpayee-led NDA government, such a situation would not have arisen. Meanwhile, activists of the Bhartiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) and Duggar Manch held a protest here today. The protesters burnt Pakistani flags to protest against the barbaric killing of two Indian jawans. The Duggar Vikas Manch strongly condemned the double speak on part of Pakistan.
	Border residents appeal for restraint Tribune News Service Srinagar, January 9 As hostilities between the Indian and Pakistan armies across the Line of Control (LoC) have taken a new turn in the past few days, border residents have appealed to the two countries to maintain restraint. “We want peace to prevail across the LoC as we know its value,” said Minister for Public Health Engineering Taj Mohiuddin. “Prior to the ceasefire in 2003, we had witnessed mayhem. During the cross border skirmishes, we lost many lives. Many people were injured and hundreds of residential houses were also razed to the ground,” Taj said. Taj is also a senior Congress leader and represents the border constituency of Uri, which has been witnessing frequent ceasefire violations since October 16. He said the residents were praying for peace to prevail. “We pray for peace and simultaneously we appeal for restrain as people living on the LoC suffer from the cross-border shelling,” the minister said. The Indian Army had yesterday said the Pakistani troops crossed the LoC in Poonch sector and killed two Indian soldiers. Two days prior to the cross-LoC intrusion in Poonch, Pakistan had alleged that one of its soldiers was killed and another was injured in the Haji Pir sector in Uri when the Indian troops crossed the LoC. Both the countries have denied conducting these raids across the LoC. Residents of Uri said they were not prepared for the ceasefire violations. “During 1990s, we had underground bunkers and whenever there was firing on the border we would take refuge in them. But now no house has any such bunker as they were razed to the ground when the earthquake hit the region in 2005. In case the border tension escalates, where will we go?” asked a resident of Garkote, Uri, a village close to the LoC.
	Lt Gen Parnaik briefs Governor Jammu, January 9 Lt Gen KT Parnaik, GOC-in-C of the Northern Command, briefed Governor NN Vohra about yesterday’s incident on the Line of Control at the Mankot sector in Mendhar tehsil of Poonch district, in which two jawans were killed and two others injured. A meeting is likely to be held in this regard between the Governor and the Army Commander in the next few days.
	News Analysis Frustrated Pak Army attempts to kill ceasefire, dialogue Arun Joshi Tribune News Service Jammu, January 9 Deeply frustrated over its inability to deal with the home-grown terrorists on its soil, the Pakistan army has resorted to atrocious cross- LoC raids and brutal killing of Indian soldiers. Two vicious objectives are very clear in the brutal killing of two Indian soldiers in the Krishna Ghati sector in Poonch district on Tuesday: the Pakistani army wants to do away with the ceasefire gift that the two armies had given to each other on the Muslim festival of Id-ul-Fitr on November 26, 2003. At the same time, it is aiming at puncturing the Indo-Pak dialogue. In 1999, it intruded into Kargil heights, and then enacted 26/11. Above all, all this aims at reigniting militancy in Jammu and Kashmir, which suffers the most when hostility characterises the relationship between the two nuclear-powered neighbouring countries in South Asia. Yesterday’s intrusion was different from the infiltration that is usually undertaken by terrorists trained and armed by Pakistan to escalate the level of violence in the state. This time Pakistani soldiers were deep inside the Indian territory and that too with a sinister design, which they cruelly manifested by beheading two soldiers and mutilating their bodies — something that India has conveyed both in military terms and diplomatically on Wednesday that it was “unacceptable” and could lead to serious ramifications. There is nothing else that can explain the brazen ceasefire violation and the killings and mutilation of the bodies of Indian soldiers. As usual, Pakistan has denied having resorted to this atrocity, but the facts speak louder than the denials. Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has also spoken loudly against the ghastly incident, for he knows that peace in Jammu and Kashmir would turn fragile if such incidents took place on the borders. He, as head of the government in the state, had inherited a paradox in Indo-Pak relations. On the one hand, there was peace on borders because of the ceasefire agreement of November 2003 and on the other, he is aware that any deterioration in the relations between India and Pakistan would bring him back to his initial days as Chief Minister when 26/11 had overshadowed the relations between India and Pakistan. There is almost a complete consensus among all political groups and a section of the separatists that when India-Pakistan standoff is in news, the worst sufferers are the people of this border state. It was because of this fear that Omar offered his instant reaction on Twitter: “Violation of ceasefire is bad enough, to resort to mutilating soldiers is unacceptable in any civilised society”. He also made it clear how he read this raid by Pakistani soldiers: “Clearly someone up in the chain of command wants to do everything to derail any dialogue between the two countries.” “That having been said ceasefire must hold else infiltration will shoot up manifold under cover provided by firing”. His apprehensions are also shared by the Army Generals here. They apprehend that the extremely upset Pakistani army, unable to deal with the terrorism within the country, is trying to shift focus to its eastern borders and provoke India in a bid to bring down the edifice of the ceasefire. During the pre-ceasefire days, exchange of fire between the two sides had displaced more than one lakh population. Farmers could not tend to their fields, and tensions were at an all-time high on borders. It was only after the ceasefire that the LoC and international border in Kashmir stayed calm, despite some of the ceasefire violations by Pakistan from January 2005 onwards. The holding of the ceasefire on the LoC had enabled the local governments to focus on development and other welfare measures for the people. And if the ceasefire is violated in such a brutal manner by the Pakistan army, the civilian works would get affected too. So, Pakistan would have contributed to the instability in Jammu and Kashmir. More consequences will follow: infiltration that sustains militancy would bring back some of the bad days in Kashmir and the Indian Army would have to respond to the situation. It cannot afford to send mutilated bodies to the families of soldiers.
	2 pilgrims killed, 21 hurt in road accident in Katra Our Correspondent Katra, January 9 Two Vaishno Devi pilgrims were killed and 21 others were injured, 16 of them critically, when a Katra-bound bus overturned near Nomai on the Katra-Jammu highway today. Reasi District Magistrate Nirmal Sharma said a bus carrying pilgrims, who were on their way to Jammu after paying obeisance at the Vaishno Devi cave shrine, met with the accident near Nomai while the driver of the bus was trying to negotiating a sharp curve. The dead have been identified as Romesh Kumar (25), a resident of Chandi Morh, Pouni, and Divash Ram Dhati (25), a resident of Bhopal. “The vehicle skidded off the road. We are investigating the case. All the injured persons were provided first aid at the accident spot before being shifted to GMCH. All the injured belong to Bhopal and are related to each other,” said Reasi SSP Thakur Raghuvir Singh. Meanwhile, the traffic on the highway was disrupted for more than an hour during the rescue operation at the accident site.
	Governor condoles deaths Jammu, January 9 Governor NN Vohra has expressed concern and grief over the loss of life and injuries to many pilgrims. The Governor expressed solidarity with the bereaved families and prayed for speedy recovery of all those injured in the accident. On his directions Dr Mandeep K Bhandari, Additional Chief Executive Officer, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board, rushed to Katra Hospital and personally supervised the treatment and evacuation of those seriously injured to hospitals at Jammu. The Deputy CEOs and other senior officers of the Shrine Board supervised the rescue operation at the accident site, in cooperation with the civil and police authorities.
	Employees’ stir continues for second day Tribune News Service Srinagar, January 9 The pen-down strike called by the Joint Consultative Committee (JCC), an amalgam of various government employees’ bodies, continued to affect work at the offices across the state for the second consecutive day on Wednesday. While frequent strikes and protest programmes called by the employees are making locals suffer, the JCC defended the same while urging people to cooperate with them. “We don’t want to make people suffer but the government is forcing us to resort to the path of agitation. We appeal to the civil society and the people in general to pressurise the government so that the agreement made with us is implemented properly,” said JCC leader Farooq Trali. Following a series of protests and strikes by the employees last year, the government had reached an agreement with the JCC wherein the employees were assured that a decision on their demands would be announced by September 30. After the deadline was not met, the JCC resumed the protests, saying the government had failed to fulfil the promises made to them. Besides calling for frequent protests from October last year, the JCC observed a strike on November 6 and 7. The amalgam also held rallies in December across the districts of the state to press for their demands. Even as the government had recently urged the employees to resolve the issues faced by them through talks, the JCC had rejected the same, saying that previous attempts to meet their demands through negotiations had failed. Meanwhile, work at the government offices continued to remain affected due to today’s strike. Trali said the employees also staged protests outside their respective offices throughout the course of the day. He said JCC leader Khurshid Alam was scheduled to lead a procession from Sher-e-Kashmir Park here tomorrow. Trali said another JCC leader Abdul Qayoom Wani would lead another protest in Jammu to present memorandums at the offices of Divisional Commissioner. While the three-day long strike is scheduled to end tomorrow, the JCC has already warned that it would call for an indefinite strike if the government continued to “ignore” their demands. The employees’ demands include release of arrears recommended by the Sixth Pay Commission, enhancement of retirement age from 58 to 60 years, removal of pay anomalies and regularisation of daily wagers and casual workers working in various government departments. The other JCC demands are inclusion of five years of contractual service of Rehbar-e-Taleem (ReT) teachers in the service book and regularisation of education volunteers after seven years of service.