LARGEST CIRCULATED ENGLISH FORTNIGHLY OF J&K
April 1st--May 31st, 2001
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News Briefs
KS CorrespondentGujjars demand political reservations JAMMU, Apr 8: Gujjars are bitter
over Centre's role in ignoring them despite the fact that they constitute
one-fourth population of the J&K State. These observations were made
by J&K Gujjar United Front, a front-ranking organization of Gujjars
here at a press conference. The Front leaders made a scathing attack on
NC government and blamed it for opposing a private member's bill aimed
at granting political reservations to the Scheduled Tribes in the State.
The bill had been moved by Mr Harsh Dev Singh, Panthers Party MLA. Mr Anwar
Choudhary, GUF leader said Gujjars had more representation during Congress
regime in the state legislature, when they had 9-10 berths. Now Gujjars
had only two MLAs, he added. Criticizing the role of State government,
the Gujjar leader raised doubts over cabinet committees on Gujjars and
Bakarwals.
Militants kidnap three youths
in Dharmsal
RAJOURI, Apr 1: Three youths
identified as Subash Kumar, Babu Ram and Bachan Singh, all residents of
Gala Morh in Dharamsal area of Rajouri were kidnapped by Jehadists. They
had gone to Pinga Gala forest for cutting woods around noon. The kidnappings
have caused scare among the Hindus living in this area.
Is Dr Abdullah preparing
for retirement?
SRINAGAR, Apr 4: Whey was ruling
National Conference in a hurry to pass the bill entitling former chief
ministers privileges, which will make even the princes envy. This has led
to speculation in the political circles that Dr Abdullah is preparing for
some sort of voluntary retirement. The Bill passed by the State Legislature
today entitles former chief ministers such facilitie a car, 250 litres
of petrol per month, medical facilities, accommodation, a yearly Rs 35,000
for furnishing of residence, Rs 48,000 per annum for telephone, Rs 1500
per month for power tariff, a personal assistant, a special assistant and
two peons. The Bill will add an annual expenditure of Rs 1,10,23,200 to
the state exchequer. The Bill will also benefit Syed Mir Qasim and Mr GM
Shah, the only surviving chief ministers of the State.
Prof Ravinder Kumar passes
away
NEW DELHI, Apr 6: Prof Ravinder
Kumar, the noted historian passed today after a brief illness. He was 68.
He is survived by two daughters. Dr Kumar was an emigre Kashmiri, whose
forefathers had migrated from Kashmir to Lahore. Specialist on the social
consequences of colonial rule in India, Prof Kumar served as chairman of
Indian Council of Historical Research. His last engagement was as director
of Nehru Memorial Library, where he served for almost seventeen years.
Prof Kumar subscribed to Left
Congress views and his book 'The Making of Modern India' bore deep
imprint of it. Displaced Kashmiris remember him for participating in a
seminar on Kashmir, where he was a panelist alongwith late Giri Lal Jain
and Hon'ble Minister Murli Manohar Joshi.
Two Sikhs beheaded in Surankote
JAMMU, Mar 16: Terrorists remain
unrelenting in their attacks on Sikh community members. Chittisinghpora
and Mehjoor Nagar massacres were intended to generate enough fear and scare
in the Sikh community, holding on in Srinagar as the only non-Muslim presence.
If the reports reaching here are any indication, then it looks the Sikh
community has already made up its mind on the magnitude of the challenge
and the response to it. Was the beheading of the two Sikhs recently in
Surankote a similar message delivered by Jehadis to Sikhs living in Poonch?
On
the morning of March 16, two bodies, identified as that of Lakhbir Singh,
R/o Digwar and Mohan Singh, R/o Malla Khori Nar were recovered from Lassana
forest area by some villagers. The two had been abducted four days back.
According to the Police, Mohan Singh and Lakhbir had left Jammu for Poonch
on March 8 by bus to visit their ancestral houses in the village and meet
their family members. They were still putting up in the villages, while
the youth were staying in Jammu in rented accommodation. Mohan Singh and
Lakhbir had migrated from Poonch several months ago following issuance
of threats by terrorists.
The
bus left the two youth at Rajouri only. From there they boarded a truck
which dropped them at Dundak bridge. It was extremely dark. Reports said
some locals affiliated to Lashkar-e-Toiba kidnapped the youth, a few kms
away from their village. The youth were brutally tortured by militants
and beheaded in captivity, in the forest belt. The bodies were later thrown
on the road side.
When
parents of the deceased did not hear anything from Mohan Singh they informed
the police. Some villagers had spotted the bodies but were too scared to
lift the bodies. Other reports said though security forces and police were
informed but they made no effort to carry out a search operation. When
people persisted with protests, the police recovered and identified the
two dead bodies.
The
brutal manner and the circumstances in which two Sikh youths were murdered
led to tension in Poonch town. People raised slogans against State government
charging it with failure to protect Sikhs' carnage.
Hurriyat leader's son involved
in a scam
JAMMU, Apr 9: The Vigilance
Organisation, Kashmir today arrested Nasir Ansari, son of Moulvi Abbas
Ansar, a Hurriyat leader, and his business partner Wasim Ahmed Chisti for
their involvement in Rs 2-5 crore computers scam. Reports said Nasir Ansari's
firm had supplied substandard Computers to Revenue department, which failed
in one year. The contract was given during Governor's Rule under instructions
from Delhi bureaucrats.
Kashmiri Talent flourishes
in Alien lands
JAMMU, Mar 28: Poet Iqbal once said in a lighter vein to Prem Bhatia, the former Editor-in-Chief of the Tribune, that exile from homeland has given new meaning to the talent of Kashmiris. He argued that had he and Moti Lal Nehru stayed put in Kashmir, Nehru would have been a district level pleader, while he himself would have been a poet known at district level only. These remarks of the famous poet, who often prided in his ancestry from Saproo Pandit family, retain relevance even today. In
the field of languages Braj B Kachru (USA), Aga Shahid Ali (USA), ML Raina
(Chandigarh), Suvir Koul (Delhi) etc have carved out a niche for themselves.
The latest to join this club is Hari Kunzru, a 31-year old Kashmiri, who
holds British citizenship.
Hari
Kunzru, working as a Journalist for wired magazine and the Daily Telegraph
suddenly shot into prominence, when he landed a massive contract worth
$ 12.5 million for a two-book deal following the draft of a novel he submitted
less than a month ago. The books are yet to be published. Hari secured
$ 750,000 for the American rights (Dulton-a division of Penguin) and $
50,000 for the European rights from Hamish Hamilton (Penguin). The draft
manuscript was submitted to publishers in the first week of March 2001.
Three days later he received the first offer. Three publishers competed
in the British auction for the book. Without concealing his joy, Kunzru
remarked, "I never expected anything like this and I'm overjoyed. I just
hope the positive reaction from the publishers will translate into a positive
reaction from the public". Johnny Geller of Curtis Brown, an agent for
the book commented, "This book has become a phenomenon. It has really caught
the imagination of the book world and everybody wants to publish it. More
popular fiction may have made more money but this is a huge payment for
a literary novel. The book itself is accessible, funny and a great story."
Kunzru, whose manuscript became the subject of a transatlantic bidding
war, has been quoted as having said that Hollywood filmmakers had expressed
a lot of interest in buying the rights.
The
draft manuscript is entitled "The Impressionist," which Kunzru describes
as "Midnight's children meets Tom Jones". It is his third attempt at writing
a novel. Set in the 1920s, "the Impressionist" is the story of a half English
illegitimate child who is disowned by his Indian family. The child travels
to UK, where after getting trained as an anthropologist he moves on to
Africa.
Hari
Kunzru, who lives in South London belongs to the distinguished Kunzru family.
He was born to a Kashmiri father and English mother. His father Dr Krishan
Mohan Nath Kunzru, an Orthopaedician migrated from Agra to London in the
mid 1960s. Hari was educated at Bancroft School in Woodford Green and later
at Wadham College, Oxford. Hari's illustrious grand-father, late Hriday
Nath Kunzru was a leading legal luminary and a celebrated name in India's
anti-colonial struggle. Great institution builder, HN Kunzru helped set
up Sapru House (Indian Council of World Affairs) for the research scholars
from the country and abroad.
HN
Kunzru loved his homeland and his community immensely. Every year he would
visit Kashmir and stay with Sapru family. His concern over discrimination
meted out to his community after 1947 in Kashmir was more genuine then
that expressed by many of his other colleagues. HN Kunzru's ancestors had
also migrated around the same time as Nehrus'. As the surname indicates,
this distinguished family migrated from Kunzar, a village in the Tang Marg
area of North Kashmir.
JK Police identifies culprits
aiding terrorism in Jammu
JAMMU, Apr 7: Terrorists and
their sympathizers in local media and among so-called human rights groups,
NGOs have been engaged in a psy-war against the army. Terrorists have been
using fatigues of Indian security personnel to conduct massacres and torture
people. Subsequently, political mileage is sought to be extracted by implicating
army. Another ploy is to attract internationalglare
by falsely accusing army of indulging in custodial killings and kidnappings.
From time to time many would be terrorists have been disappearing regularly.
Their family members of the terrorists have been including them in the
'Missing Persons' category. This is being done with a two-fold purpose--logistically
it gives good leverage to the terrorist in operating and secondly attributing
the disappearance to some foul play by Army puts Army on defensive. The
Army, so far has been slow in countering the psy-war.
Punjab
Police nabs keylink:
Two
recent operations mounted by Kathua Police and Punjab Police throw enough
light on how internal subversion aids the terrorist campaign in J&K.
On
April 1, Punjab Police arrested one Mehmood-ul-Haq, a militant alongwith
three other Harkat-ul-Mujahideen militants from Jammu--Sher Khan, Gouri
Khan and Danish alias Dagga Khan from Batala town. Alongwith them, one
Manjit Singh alias Fauji of Babbar Khalsa International (BKI), who was
working as a conduit with Jammu-based militants, has also been arrested.
Twenty-five
year old Mehmood, who hails from Behrot area (Thannamandi) of Rajouri was
a M.Phil student of Urdu in Jammu University. He suddenly disappeared from
his house on January 21. His family members and relatives were well aware
of his contacts with militants. They deliberately instigated the people
to shift the blame of Haq's missing on Special Operations Group (SOG).
People of Palangar had resorted to violent agitation in Rajouri alleging
his arrest and custodial killing by SOG. The instigated mob ransacked an
Information Department office and several government buildings in Rajouri.
A NC leader, as per one report had also joined the protest.
During
interrogation, Mehmood and his associates revealed that the driver of a
Congress leader in Doda and a senior doctor had helped them forge links
with Sikh militants so that militancy was revived in the border areas of
Punjab. They also said that a hotel in Jammu, was being used as a 'control
room' by ISI sleuths.
As
per police sources, Mehmood-ul-Haq has confessed his links with several
top militants of Hizb and Harkat-ul-Mujahideen. With the help of Sher Khan,
Haq came in contact with Bashir Ahmed of Kathua a truck driver and Manjit
Singh 'Fauji'. Bashir was engaged in smuggling arms and explosives in his
truck from Punjab to border districts of Jammu and vice versa. Other three
militants--Sajjad Hussain (of Bhaderwah), Mohd Din (Samba) and Mohd Yousaf
were already in contact with Bashir. Mohd Din used to smuggle arms consignment
from across the border in his home district. Police sources added that
Mehmood in his confessional statement revealed that his brother, Abdul
Qayoom, working as ASI of Armed Police helped Mehmood and his group several
times in smuggling of weapons and carrying out their subversive activities.
Qayoom, suspended sometime back for his links with militants had been reinstated
for want of sufficient evidence against him.
Cong-I
leader implicated:
Sajjid
Hussain, a front ranking militant had been working as a domestic servant
in the house of a Congress leader and former MLA Gh. Qadir in Bhaderwah.
He alleged that the house of former legislator was frequented by a number
of hard-core militants, operating in Doda district Sajjad revealed that
he joined militancy because of financial allurements and at the instance
of Congress leader. He added that Gh. Qadir deputed a senior doctor of
Bhaderwah to accompany him to meet Hizb militant, Majid Dar at Srinagar
in his hideout. Dar took him to Kupwara from where he was taken across
to PoK alongwith a group of 25 militants early last year. A
hotel in Jammu was being used by these militants as a hideout for dumping
arms and ammunition and distributing these to militants operating in Rajouri,
Poonch and Doda districts. The Key ISI man in these activities was one
Major Tariq Ahmed, operating from Sialkot. Police has also identified a
political leader from Rajouri with whom Mehmood-ul-Haque was in regular
contact over phone. Basohli
attack: In
yet another break through, Kathua police worked out the mystery of an attack
on a police matador carrying Rs 1 crore cash at village Marta, Basohli
on March 1 this year. SOG arrested two militants, identified as Muzaffar
Hussain son of Sub-Inspector Nazir Hussain, posted in Police Training School,
Kathua, and Zahoor Hussain son of Head Constable Abdul Husain While Muzaffar
belongs to Basohli, Zahoor hails from Billawar. The two militants involved
in the attack were arrested near the house of a CPM leader in Bhatindi,
while making telephone calls from a PCO. Two other militants arrested were
Shafqat Ali and Shahid Hussain, both hailing from Bhaderwah. Zaheer Abbas
and DK (Code name), involved in the attack are still at large at the time
of filing this report and belong to Doda district. The
two constables injured in the encounter provided valuable leads, leading
to the arrest of Muzaffar Hussain. He spilled the beans and SOG was able
to nab other culprits. Shahid Hussain happens to be a close relation of
a CPM leader, putting up in Bhatindi and had also stayed in his house for
few days. The CPM leader hasn't been arrested so far. The militants involved
in the attack belonged to Harkat-ul-Mujahideen. The kins of two police
officers had followed the matador from Kathua treasury to Basohli and picked
up a wireless set on the way on which they informed the other militants
waiting for the attack. Police also recovered arms and ammunition from
the possession of militants.
JK politicians drag army in
unnecessary controversy
Militancy stunts development
work in the Jammu region
POONCH,
Apr 24: The 10 years old militancy has now begun to cast its evil shadow
over the functioning of Border Road Organisation (BRO) in the Jammu region.
This became apparent when the road construction and maintenance activities
on Surnakote--Poonch road had to be suspended recently due to sustained
terror campaign unleashed by foreign mercenaries against 2000 unarmed local
casual labourers employed in this project. "Till
last year the threats were confined to occasional incidents of intimidation
and confrontation by foreign militants, but in the past three months there
have been serious threats of physicalelimination
of workers coupled with attempts to blow up isolated culverts and construction
equipment lying unattended at the work sites," stated a labourer hailing
from a neighbouring village. Loca sources have revealed that the violent
incidents perpetuated by foreign militants, in the past few months are
due to the simmering discord which has surfaced between the local and foreign
militants over sensitive issues affecting the local population. Targeting
an organisation like BRO by foreign militants is understandable as it is
one of those premiere institutions which is not only involved in the maintenance
and upkeep of thousands of Kms of roads in the Jammu region, but also contribute
significantly to the socio-economic upliftment of the remote and inaccessible
areas by utilisation of local resources and employment of thousands of
local labourers. "BRO
employ 9000 to 10000 local labourers and spends upwards of Rs 5 to 6 crores
each month on its various undertakings like maintenance of roads, construction
of new roads/bridges and snow removal operations in winter months in the
Jammu region alone: actions which are not in consonance with the ideology
of militant groups; otherwise manifested through acts of wanton destruction
of property, killing of innocent civilians and ensuring untold miseries
to the local population by preventing infrastructural development by them",
said an officer on the condition of anonymity. Whatever
may be propagated reasons for their actions, it is apparent that these
foreign militants or hired mercenaries have neither any sympathy for the
poverty ridden poor labourers nor any care for the sentiments of the local
population. By these acts they are simply ensuring their aim of taking
Jammu region back to the medieval times.
It's high time for Indo-Pak
dialogue: RSS
JAMMU: The Rashtriya Swayam Sewak
Sangh today declared that conditions were conducive for an Indo-Pak dialogue
to resolve all contentious issues, including Kashmir. He
indicated that the conversion of the Line of Control (LoC) into the international
border could form basis for the dialogue between the two countries. RSS
spokesperson M.G. Vaidya told newspersons in Jammu on Sunday that the "borders
have become silent and these are sufficient conditions for resuming the
dialogue with Pakistan". He saw no change in the level of militant violence
after the ceasefire announcement. Though
he maintained that the RSS advocated taking back the portion of Jammu and
Kashmir under control of Pakistan, "the ground realities and the US proposal
indicated that talks may be on the basis of conversion of LoC into international
border. Asked
whether the RSS would accept the LoC conversion, Mr Vaidya avoided a direct
answer. He
said that the RSS supported dialogue with secessionists. He said that there
was no harm in sending All Party Hurriyat Conference leaders to Pakistan. Mr
Vaidya said he supported the ceasefire also. He
declared that the RSS supported the trifurcation of the state and disagreed
that any such division of J&K would lead to communal flare-up. "There
have been divisions of the states in the past. Why should there by any
violence?"
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