Srinagar, March 21
J&K police chief Ashok Prasad on Thursday reviewed a high-level meeting to review the law and order and security situation in the Valley. Sources said the prevailing law and order situation in the Valley was discussed in detail during the meeting. The Director General of Police was given a detailed briefing on the issue.

“The security situation was also reviewed in the meeting,” sources said. The meeting gained significance due to the recent militant attacks in Srinagar which has left six paramilitary troopers dead. The meeting was attended by senior police officers, including the newly appointed Inspector General of Police, Kashmir AG Mir.

Srinagar, March 21
Terming the use of pepper gas as “unregulated and excessive use of force” by security forces in the Valley, human rights watchdog Amnesty International (AI) has urged the J&K government to suspend its use against protesters and called for investigations into the hazardous effects of the gas.

The statement from Amnesty comes just two days after the J&K High Court had issued notices to the state and Central government on March 19 while acting on a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking ban on the use of pepper gas on civilian protesters in Kashmir.

“In view of the recent deaths and harmful effects on bystanders, Amnesty International calls for security forces to suspend the use of pepper gas in Jammu and Kashmir and revert to previously tested and less potentially harmful methods of crowd dispersal until rigorous independent investigations are conducted to assess its (pepper gas’s) effects on the public,” said Shashikumar Velath, Programmes Director at Amnesty International India.

Amnesty International, he said, also asked the Jammu and Kashmir government to conduct a prompt, thorough, independent and impartial investigation into the three deaths that were allegedly caused by the use of pepper gas.

“The J&K government and the police department have clearly not established any guidelines or monitoring on the use of pepper gas. The use of it has been widespread and not subject to assessment,” Velath said.

He said the use of pepper gas in such situations was yet another example of “unregulated and excessive use of force” by the police in J&K.

“Law enforcement in J&K has been using pepper spray, or pepper gas in combination with tear gas or even alone to disperse protesters in various districts in J&K for the past month since the execution of Afzal Guru in Delhi,” Amnesty International was quoted as saying.

Amnesty International, Velath said, urges the police officials to stop using pepper gas as a tool for dispersing large crowds. He asked the Jammu and Kashmir government to establish guidelines and procedures adhering to international standards as laid down 
by the code of conduct for law enforcement officials and UN Basic Principles on the use of force and firearms by Law enforcement officials.

“According to local groups, doctors, lawyers, pepper gas affects bystanders and even people inside homes located nearby where it is used. A private practitioner in downtown Srinagar has treated about 12 cases of children affected by pepper gas. Dozens of more cases have been seen at a nearby government hospital,” he said.

PEPPER GAS use IN KASHMIR

Pepper gas was introduced in Kashmir by the police in 2010 to control the agitating mobs

Experts say pepper gas contains capsaicin, a derivative from capsicum, which is highly irritating

Doctors, while warning about the harmful and hazardous effects of pepper gas, have termed it life-threatening

There was uproar in the state Assembly on March 11 over the use of pepper gas against protesters

The SHRC has issued a preliminary recommendation for suspending the use of pepper gas and had sought an authorisation report of DRDO from the J&K police

On March 19, J&K High Court issued notices to state govt, DGP and Centre on use of pepper gas asking them to file response to a PIL in two weeks

Handwara, March 21
About 250 students at Government High School, Wadipora, in Handwara of Kupwara district are facing a severe space crunch for the past several years. All these students are accommodating in four small classrooms and are forced to huddle together due to lack of space.

A noisy scenario is witnessed in the classrooms due to congestion and students in the back rows 
cannot even listen to the lectures being delivered by their teachers.

“In absence of proper accommodation, we are forced to sit almost on each other in the classrooms. Against a seating capacity of 30 students, more than 60 students are made to sit in a classroom. We feel chocked and often fail to clearly listen what our teachers say,” said Shabir Ahmad, a Class X student.

Local residents said the work on six-room building was started in 2006 and the authorities left the construction halfway.

They said some internal tussle cropped up between the Department of Education and the construction agency and the work was suspended in 2008 and never resumed till date.

“The rooftop of the building has not been completed for more than past six years. Windows and doors are also not in place. The problem of space crunch will be addressed only once the additional rooms come up but the authorities have paid little attention to complete it for over six years. The students are being made to suffer,” said Abdul Rehman, a resident from a nearby village.

Hundreds of students from adjoining villages, including Badarkali, Machipora, Tragpora, Lachipora, Kohipora and Bakiakar, are enrolled at the school.

The local residents are demanding the completion of the additional building at the earliest. They said by ignoring the problem of students, the Department of Education had put their career at stake.

“In spite of repeated representations to the officials concerned, the work on the school building has not been resumed,” said Ghulam Nabi, a local village elder.

The school was established in 1984 as a primary school. Zonal education officer Rajwar Hanifa Khanday said she had already apprised the chief education officer, school education director and Kupwara DC about the accommodation issue.

“I am hopeful that construction work on the school building will be resumed soon and students’ problem gets addressed,” the zonal education officer said.

Srinagar, March 21
With unpaid electricity bills having reached a whopping Rs 190 crore mark, the Power Development Department (PDD) has devised a new strategy of blacklisting power defaulters by pasting their names at local residential mosques.

In many parts of Srinagar and Budgam districts, the Power Development Department has pasted posters on local mosques and even conveyed to their heads that the names of power defaulters in each locality should be made public. It supposedly 
will work as an embarrassment to many such domestic consumers.

Downplaying the criticism that such a strategy will lead to social outcasting of power defaulters, PDD Chief Engineer Muzzafar Matoo said the department was left with no other option but to make the names of defaulters public since they were not paying bills despite repeated pleas.

“Yes, it will definitely bring embarrassment to people, especially among neighbours. But then each neighbourhood should know who is paying the bills and who is not,” Matoo added.

Official statistics reveal that most of these power defaulters owe money to the department for past few years.

“We have taken the step in extreme cases where pending bills amount to Rs 30,000 and above,” Matoo said.

Some residents are aghast over the strategy terming it “discriminatory”, especially when big power defaulters are public departments, commercial establishments, security forces and even ministers.

“We think that the common man is being made a scapegoat in this. The issue of big names surfacing in power default which was admitted even by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah is being deliberately ignored. It is always the common man who is penalised by making them to pay taxes and bills. Let the PDD make the bureaucrats and ministers pay their electricity bills first,” Dilshad Ahmad from Natipora in Srinagar said.

The PDD has curtailed and even snapped power supply in some areas where a majority of households have not paid their bills.

“The PDD has failed to make people pay tariffs and now it is punishing other people who pay power bills by snapping power supply to the whole area. This is really condemnable,” Muzaffar Beigh, a resident of Mehboob Colony in Nowgam said.

The Power Development Department (PDD) Chief Engineer said the power supply to entire localities would not be snapped from now onwards. The consumers, he insisted, who have not paid their bills will not be supplied power anymore. 

Srinagar, March 21
Seven persons were injured in road accidents in the Valley, police said. A Tata Winger collided with a Maruti Alto and another Maruti car at the main market in Safapora of Ganderbal last night as a result of which six persons were injured.

The injured were identified as Hilal Ahmed Hazari of Gratbal Safapora, Jehangir Ahmed Jan, a resident of Tressa Safapora, Mohammad Ahsan Ahanger, a resident of Safapora, Malik Zadi, a resident of Ajas Bandipora, Ghulam Mohammad Bhat of Tressa Safapora and the driver Mushtaq Ahmed of Pehlipora in Safapora.

"All the injured were shifted to the Sub-District Hospital, Kangan for treatment," the police said. A case has been registered in this regard.

In another accident, a Wagon R hit and injured a seven-year-old boy Qamil Zahoor, a resident of Trajbal in Charar-e-Sharief at Trajbal, Budgam.

The injured was shifted to hospital for treatment. A case has been registered. —TNS

Srinagar, March 21
University of Kashmir (KU), south campus, celebrated World Arbor Day, in collaboration with Divisional Social Forestry Department, at Anatnag on Wednesday.

University of Kashmir and Social Forestry Department have decided to make Khanabal-Pahalgam (KP) Road greener by planting pine tree seedlings along the road.

On the occasion, senior functionaries of the district administration, University of Kashmir, Social Forestry Department and members of trade association, KP Road, were present.

Sixty volunteers of the National Service Scheme (NSS) wing, south campus, University of Kashmir, took active part in the plantation drive and each one planted five to seven seedlings.

Around 500 pine tree seedlings were planted.

The Social Forestry Department will be planting around 3,000 trees on an important tourist road of the district from Khanabal to Mattan.

The south campus will organise another plantation drive on April 1, at High Ground Fatehgarh.

Srinagar, March 21
After achieving the feat of issuing a record number of 61,500 passports during the year 2012, Regional Passport Office, Srinagar, has issued around 7,700 passports to Hajj applicants since January this year.

Regional Passport Officer Firdous Iqbal said to facilitate Hajj 2013 aspirants in particular, Passport Office, Srinagar, made all possible efforts to issue the maximum possible number of passports.

“The passport office remained operational even on holidays, including Saturday and Sundays, to meet the rush,” he said.

Iqbal said his office organised maiden passport mela on March 9 and 10 and 414 passports were issued during the two days, despite all odds and abnormal situation in the Valley.

Iqbal said all efforts were made, in coordination with the agencies concerned, to continue regular Srinagar-Muzaffarabad weekly bus service via Kaman Post Crossing Point.

Srinagar, March 21
The summer capital of the state lost its oldest man, Muhammad Siddiq Parray, at the age of 106 today.

Parray, was a resident of Sonawar area of the city and had lived through the times of two Dogra Maharajas, Pratap Singh and Hari Singh, an official said. He said the deceased was witness to a century of Kashmir’s tumultuous political history. Parray had also penned his yet-to-be-published book, in which he had depicted the political and social life of Kashmir during the past century.

Parray passed away at the Shivpora residence of his eldest son, Ghulam Qadir, when his children, grand children and great-grand children were on his bedside, the official said. He is survived by six sons and three daughters, five of whom are settled in the United States of America, where he himself spent many years. Parray had served in the Revenue Department of Kashmir and also remained the PRO to the Financial Commissioner. He retired in 1963 as the Office Superintendent of the Revenue Training College.

Srinagar, March 21
The continuous house arrest and the imposition of restriction on the activities of Hurriyat Chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq have been condemned by the heads of various Indian Muslim Organisations and educational institutions.

In a statement issued here today , an All-party Hurriyat Conference (APHC) spokesman said these heads had condemned the government for imposing restrictions on the political, religious, and social activities of Farooq.

The government has placed Mirwaiz under house arrest in Delhi and later at his Nageen residence soon after Afzal Guru was executed at Tihar Jail on February 9, 2013.

The All-party Hurriyat Conference spokesman said the leading figures who denounced the restrictions laid on the activities of Mirwaiz included head of Darul-uloom Deoband, Moulana Mohammad Salim, General secretary of All-India Muslim Personal Law Board, Moulana Syed Mohammad Wali, Head of Dar-u-uloom, Lucknow, Syed Mohammad Hassan Nadvi and Shahi Imam of Delhi’s main Jamia Mashid, Moulana Syed Ahmad Bukhari.

“These prominent religious figures have jointly expressed concern and denounced the government-sponsored restrictions laid on the social, political and religious activities of Mirwaiz Umar”, he said.

“These luminaries have also condemned the overall repression on Kashmiris by the government. They said imposing curfews and laying restrictions on activities of Kashmiris was unacceptable and unjustified. The scholars said the government had violated the basic human rights and religious freedom of people and leaders, both”, the spokesman claimed.

He said religious heads had urged the government authorities to lift the restrictions laid on the activities of Mirwaiz and have demanded the release of other of Hurriyat leaders and hundreds of youth who had been incarcerated by the authorities since the protests began in the wake of Afzal Guru’s hanging.

“The heads of Muslim organisations further demanded that the government should restore the basic human rights of Kashmiris with immediate effect, adding that the government should desist from violating the basic social, religious and political rights of Kashmiris in the future”, he claimed.

Srinagar, March 21
An employee of General Reserve Engineer Force (GREF) was found dead in Leh on March 19. Police said Premnath Goswami, No GS 169043 of GREF, who was deployed for security duty at Sumoor Dett, Ladakh, died on March 19. “Inquest proceedings under Section 174 of the CrPC have been initiated in this regard,” police said.

Man arrested with 129 bottles of Rexcof

During patrolling at main bazaar, Pattan, the police recovered 129 bottles of Rexcof from the possession of Barkat Ali Miya, son of Mohammad Maqbool, a resident of Miya Mohalla, Pattan, Baramulla. The accused was arrested and a case has been registered in this regard.

Woman charred in Srinagar

A woman, Baranti Jena, wife of constable SK Jena of 4th Bn BSF, residing at BSF Camp Panthachowk, Srinagar, sustained serious burn injuries while she was filling oil in kerosene heater. The injured was shifted to 92 Base Hospital for treatment, where she succumbed to her injuries. Police has initiated inquest proceedings under Section 174 of the CrPC in this regard.

Drug peddler held

The Baramulla police has arrested a drug peddler and recovered 129 bottles of Rexcof (banned drug) from his possession. A police spokesman said during the patrolling in main bazaar Pattan last night, police apprehended Barkat Ali Miya, son of Mohammad Maqbool resident of Miya Mohalla, Pattan in Baramulla district and recovered liquid Rexcof from him.

“A gang of drug peddlers is active in the area and the main peddler has been arrested. More arrests are likely to be made in coming days,” he said.