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Terror attacks in Jammu shatter peace at regular intervals
Jammu bursts into anger, BJP calls for bandh
NC leaders condemn attacks
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Omar pays tributes to Army, police martyrs
Families of Hiranagar attack victims demand justice
Congress, PDP condemn attacks
Sense of insecurity among panchayat members: Mir
Five acquitted in J&K sex scandal case
Seal Gulmarg hotels sans sewage treatment plant: HC
Shopian killings: 12 record
statements
Setting up unit in J&K has proved fruitful for us: Cadila
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Terror attacks in Jammu shatter peace at regular intervals
Jammu, September 26 On May 14, 2002, Pakistani terrorists attacked an Army camp in Kaluchak in Samba district and killed 31 people, three Army personnel, 18 family members of Army men and 10 civilians. The dead included 10 innocent children. The three terrorists, again in Army combat fatigues, first attacked a tourist bus coming from Himachal Pradesh before storming the Army's family quarters located on the main road. At least 47 others, including 12 Army personnel, 20 Army family members and 15 civilians, were wounded. The three terrorists, who were neutralised, were identified as Abu Suhail of Faisalabad, Abu Murshed, alias Mohammed Munir, of Gujranwala and Abu Javed, alias Amzad Salam bin Mohammed Gisha, of Gujranwala, all in Pakistan. On May 11, 2008, when the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly was going to the elections, Pakistani terrorists struck in a big way at Kaily Mandi in the garrison town of Samba on the Jammu-Pathankot highway. They killed six people, including a politician, his wife, two soldiers, a woman and a senior photo-journalist of a local daily, besides injuring six others, two of them critically. In the encounter that lasted over 12 hours, security forces eventually killed two militants using heavy mortar after rescuing five people, who were held hostage by the terrorists in a house. They entered Indian territory from the Bainglad area close to the international border in the Samba sector. Barely three months after the Kaily Mandi attack, another group of three ‘fidayeens’ killed 11 persons, including three Army jawans, one of them a JCO, and five civilians in the Chinore area near Bantalab in Jammu on August 27, 2008. Three militants were killed while six others, including three Army personnel, two civilians and a woman, were injured in the attack. The terrorists infiltrated from the Kanachak sector, hijacked a load-carrier auto carrying Gujjars along with their milk containers at Gadla and travelled more than 15 km before barging into a house at Chinore, taking hostage nine persons, including four children and three women. The ancient Raghunath temple in the heart of the city was attacked twice in 2002, on March 30 and then on November 24, killing 11 people and 14 people, respectively. On January 3, 2004, armed terrorists attacked the Jammu railway station, killing half a dozen people. |
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Jammu bursts into anger, BJP calls for bandh
Jammu, September 26 Charging the Centre and the state government with propagating pro-militant policies, the state unit of the BJP today called for a Jammu bandh on September 27 in protest against the terrorist attack. A decision to this effect was taken in a meeting held at the party headquarters under the leadership of state president Jugal Kishore Sharma. Condemning the terrorist attacks, the state BJP president said it was a total failure on the part of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, which had adopted a soft approach towards Pakistan during the last nine years. He said the National Conference-Congress coalition government in the state was equally responsible as the Chief Minister had been demanding revocation of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act and withdrawal of the Army. He said government functionaries had been encouraging those elements which had been levelling flimsy charges against village defence committees and demanding that those should be disbanded. BJP Legislature Party leader Ashok Khajuria, national executive member Nirmal Singh and state general secretary Ashok Kaul also spoke. Earlier, a team of BJP leaders visited Hiranagar and Samba for an on-the-spot assessment of the situation and interacted with the local people. They visited the family of shopkeeper Suresh Kumar at Hirangar to express sympathies with the bereaved family and attended when the last rites of constable Pardeep Singh were performed at Birpur. Meanwhile, a large number of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha activists led by Yudhvir Sethi and Ravinder Raina held a protest against the terrorist attacks. They burnt an effigy of Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif amid slogan-shouting against the UPA and Pakistan. Meanwhile, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) supported the Jammu bandh call given by BJP. National ABVP vice-president Narinder Singh pointed out that terrorists were infiltrating through illegal means while the state government had legalised infiltration of terrorists in the state through its controversial surrender policy. The Jammu and Kashmir Democratic Front also condemned the terror attack and flayed the state government for its failure to check the activities of terrorists. The Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee condemned the terrorist attacks. Its leaders said the unprovoked terrorist attacks were engineered by Pakistani agencies to sabotage the scheduled meeting of the Prime Ministers of India and Pakistan aimed at normalisation of relations, which was most unfortunate and unwarranted. Condemning the attacks, Janta Dal United chief coordinator Rajinder Sharma urged the government to take some effective to restore the confidence of the people. Rajouri: State BJP vice-president Vibodh Gupta condemned the gruesome attack on the police and the Army in Samba and Kathua areas of Jammu. He demanded that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should call off his meeting with his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif in New York in the wake of twin terror strikes in the Jammu region. Condemning the attacks, he said Pakistan was continuing its strategy to strike at will through the proxy war. |
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Jammu, September 26 Those who condemned the attacks included Surjeet Singh
Slathia, Harbans Singh, Rattan Lal Gupta, Sheikh Bashir Ahmad, Babu Ram Paul, Brij Mohan Sharma, Kashmir Singh, Satpal
Lakhotra, Govind Ram Sharma, Bimla Luthra, Gurdeep Singh Sassan, Jugal
Mahajan, Vijay Lakshmi Dutta, Dharamveer Singh Jamwal, Chander Mohan Sharma, Rajesh
Bakshi, Taranjeet Singh Tony, Muhammad Ayub Malik, Ch Arshad, Ch Haroon, Surinder Singh
Bunty, Rakesh Chib, Iqbal Wani, Rohit Bali and Pankaj Kohli. — TNS
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Omar pays tributes to Army, police martyrs
Jammu, September 26 The Chief Minister described the sacrifices of the security forces personnel as the highest degree of commitment towards the country, symbolising bravery and patriotism. He condemned the terrorist acts and termed them as cowardice and inhuman. Omar visited the Hiranagar Police Lines to lay wreaths on the bodies of the martyrs. He also met the family members of the deceased who had arrived at the Police Lines, consoled them and conveyed his solidarity and sympathy to them. Earlier, he chaired a high-level meeting of the police and civil administration here to receive a first-hand appraisal of the ground situation and the attacks. Deputy Chief Minister Tara Chand, provincial president of the National Conference for Jammu Devender Singh Rana, Principal Secretary, Home, Suresh Kumar, DGP Ashok Prasad and other senior police and civil officers attended the meeting. The Chief Minister visited Hiranagar and inspected the police station which was raided by the terrorists. He went to the house of Suresh Kumar, who was killed in the attack, met the bereaved family and conveyed his sympathy to it. Omar also visited the Samba Army camp and paid tributes to the Army personnel who lost their lives in the terrorist attack. He interacted with Army officers and conveyed his condolence to them. He prayed for peace to the departed souls. Maj Gen Balbir Singh briefed the Chief Minister about the attack. The Chief Minister also visited Government Medical College and Hospital, Jammu, to enquire about the status of those injured in the militant attacks at Hiranagar and Samba. |
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Families of Hiranagar attack victims demand justice
Jammu, September 26 The attack also shattered the dreams of three families which lost their breadwinners. One of the victims, Shiv Kumar, a constable from Kootah village who was gunned down by the militants, has five sisters and a four-year-old daughter. Suresh Kumar, alias Kalu, a shopkeeper, who was killed in the attack, was also the lone breadwinner of his family and is survived by his wife and a three and a half year old daughter. Special Police Officer Mukesh Kumar, who had joined the Police Department six months ago, was the youngest among his four siblings, including two sisters and brother. Soon after the news about the killings spread in the town, the family members of the victims and villagers rushed to the spot. The family members of the deceased were inconsolable. While shifting the bodies of the deceased, which were lying in pool of blood, to a nearby hospital, the families demanded justice in the form of strong action against the terror perpetrators in Jammu and Kashmir. Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, who arrived in Jammu from Srinagar in the afternoon, paid tributes to the police and Army martyrs who were killed in the militant attacks at Hiranagar and Samba. |
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Srinagar, September 26 Condemning the attacks, Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee president Saifuddin Soz said it was a heinous crime and expressed the hope that the marauders did not go unpunished. “It is really very unfortunate that the conspirators of the attack from Pakistan are not on the same page with Nawaz Sharif. It is also an indication that the conspirators have decided to derail talks between India and Pakistan,” Soz stated. He added that it was a message to Nawaz Sharif that such activities had to be crushed with an iron hand. “Pakistan should know that such terrorist activities cannot go hand in hand with its desire to promote cordial relations with India,” he added. Condemning the attacks, PDP patron and former Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed said it was an assault on the interests of Jammu and Kashmir and its people. Addressing a one-day convention of party office-bearers of the Kashmir province, he said violence had only complicated the Kashmir issue and such insane attacks needed to be stopped in the interest of the state. Mufti said it appeared that the attack looked deliberately timed to sabotage the meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Nawaz Sharif, but it was a matter of relief that Manmohan Singh was going ahead with this important engagement. He said such incidents had proved a hurdle in the past in carrying forward the peace process that was started in 2003. He said it was heartening to see the two leaders rise above the serious event and not be provoked to cancel the meeting. He said the attackers had put the statesmanship qualities of the two Prime Ministers to severe test, but uninterruptible continuation of talks would be the best response to elements that had made sabotaging of the peace process their mission. He expressed the hope that the talks would send a strong message to everybody that the peace process would be revived, irrespective of such grave incidents, and would not be allowed to become a hostage to events triggered by hawkish and inimical forces. — TNS |
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Sense of insecurity among panchayat members: Mir
Rajouri, September 26 Speaking exclusively to The Tribune Shafiq Mir said, “A sense of insecurity has prevailed among the elected grassroot representatives of the panchayats in Jammu and Kashmir due to the increasing attacks on security forces.” “Successful infiltration from across the border has once again put this democratic institution to a grave risk,” Mir said. He added, “Sarpanches and panches are the soft targets of militants and they have been attacked a number of times before. Six panchayat members were killed and over a dozen injured.” “We are pleading for security from the past one year, but unfortunately the government is not serious about our plight and is unaware about the gravity of the situation,” Mir said.
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Five acquitted in J&K sex scandal case
Chandigarh, September 26 Those acquitted included Sabeena and her husband Abdul Hamid, accused of running a brothel, Hilal Ahmed Shah alias Aijaz, Absar Ahmed Dar and Aijaz Ahmed Bhat, accused of sexually exploiting the victims. The victims had taken a U-turn and had denied to the court that they ever knew Sabeena, the alleged kingpin, and said they were never forced into prostitution. These victims had even denied being exploited by the accused. The sex scandal had hit the headlines after a pornographic MMS was circulated in Jammu and Kashmir. The police had filed a case and started an investigation that allegedly revealed that Sabeena was supplying girls to officials in the state. One of the alleged victims was a minor. Later, the case was handed over to the CBI and transferred to the Chandigarh court in 2006 by the apex court. The accused in the sex case included former J&K minister Ghulam Ahmed Hassan Mir, Independent MLA and former minister Raman Mattoo, BSF DIG KC Padhi, former J&K Additional Advocate General Anil Sethi, DSP Mohammad Ashraf Mir, Iqbal Khandey, hotel owner Riyaz Ahmed Kawa, Sabeena, her husband Abdul Hamid, Shabir Langoo, alleged middlemen Shabir Ahmed Laway, alias Shabir Kala, Mehrajuddin Malik, Masood Ahmed, Mohammad Yusuf Mir and Abdul Hamid Bullah. The CBI had filed separate charge sheets against accused Hilal Ahmed Shah, alias Aijaz, Absar Ahmed Dar and Aijaz Ahmed Bhat. There were nine cases registered against the accused and three of these were decided today, with the court acquitting the accused in all cases. Sabeena and her husband Abdul were the accused in all cases. The accused had been acquitted in three cases last year. Three other cases were pending in the CBI court. |
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Seal Gulmarg hotels sans sewage treatment plant: HC
Srinagar, September 26 The directions were issued today by a division bench of the High Court comprising Chief Justice MM Kumar and Justice Muzaffar Hussain Attar in a public interest litigation (PIL), filed by Mohammad Rafiq Zargar. The PIL had sought the intervention of the courts in safeguarding the eco-sensitive areas of Gulmarg and neighbouring Tangmarg from illegal constructions. “The hotels which have more than 19 rooms and have not installed the sewage treatment plants (STPs) in their establishments till date be sealed,” the court said. It also directed the Pollution Control Board (PCB) to seal hotels which were not complying with Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974, in the presence of the Executive Magistrate. The court also directed the PCB and the government to submit a compliance report on the directions by Saturday. In an affidavit to the court, the Gulmarg Development Authority had said only one hotel had an individual STP in place which was yet to be made operational. The court was also informed by the government that it had suspended operations of seven hotels in Gulmarg. As per rules, all hotels having a capacity of more than 19 rooms are supposed to have an individual STP in case a common sewage treatment plant for hotels is not available. |
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Shopian killings: 12 record
statements
Shopian, September 26 September 28 was the last date for eyewitnesses to get their statements recorded with the Shopian Deputy Commissioner (DC), the inquiry officer of the probe. The process of recording statements started on September 16 and was scheduled to end on September 21. The deadline had been extended in the wake of a 15-day strict curfew imposed throughout the town. “So far, we have recorded the statements of more than 12 persons,” said Shopian DC Bashir Ahmad
Bhat. He refused to give the details of the statements. “I cannot make those public yet. Let the probe be completed first,” he said. He added that the witnesses would be cross-examined and other necessary formalities needed to be followed before the probe could be declared complete.
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Setting up unit in J&K has proved fruitful for us: Cadila
Samba, September 26 “I am happy with the investment in Jammu and Kashmir, where my annual turn over is around Rs 300 crore. I am looking to get more land from the administration here in Samba so that I can expand the industry,” said Rajiv I Modi, chairman and managing director of Cadila Pharmaceuticals Limited. Modi was interacting with mediapersons at the Cadila plant site in Samba, 40 km from Jammu. “I see investing in J&K as part of a nationalistic cause. My father was associated with Jammu and I felt the need to invest here and I am happy with my achievement. Some seven to eight years back, time was different here. But things have changed. I ask other players from the rest of the country to invest in the state as well,” Modi said. He said, “Cadila Pharmaceuticals will dedicatedly follow the philosophy of its founder, I A Modi, to offer quality medicines at an affordable price.” Cadila Pharmaceuticals has around 300 employees at its unit in Samba, out of which around 80 per cent are locals. “Though we are not working on any corporate social responsibility schemes here, we have employed local youth on better salary packages,” he said. When asked whether Cadila would adopt any industrial training institute in Jammu and Kashmir to train youth in pharmaceuticals, Modi replied, “So far there is no request from the state government and if we get it someday, we will surely look into it to help train youth.”
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Terrorism being perpetrated from across the border by Pakistan continues to claim innocent lives and shatter peace and calm across the Jammu region at regular intervals. The brazen attacks in Hiranagar and Samba today, that left behind a trail of death and
destruction
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah paid rich tributes to the police and Army personnel who were killed in terrorist attacks at Hiranagar and Samba in the Jammu region today.
The Chief Minister described the sacrifices of the security forces personnel as the highest degree of commitment towards the country, symbolising bravery and patriotism. He condemned the terrorist acts and termed them as cowardice and inhuman.
