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Two
injured, tension in Mahore Excelsior Correspondent JAMMU, Dec 2: Militants executed yet another massacre of minority community members after Prime Minister’s unilateral decision of cease-fire during the holy month of Ramzan to bring peace and tranquility in the State. This time militants gunned four children, including three girls of minority community and wounded two others. The grue-some incident occurred at village Sharju More, five kilometers east of Mahore town in Udhampur district on Friday night. Fear gripped minority community following the incidents and security arrangements have been strengthened in the entire Mahore tehsil. Giving details of the incident, an official spokesman said that at about 2020 hours on Friday a group of militants, believed to be foreign mercenaries, came to the house of Gyan Chand, 53, at village Sharju Morh who is a Village Defence Committee (VDC) member. Militants first lobbed grenade on the house and then broke open the door. Before Gyan Chand could retaliate, militants entered into their house and resorted to indiscriminate firing on the family members who were sitting in the room. Militants continued indiscriminate firing on family members including minor children for more than half an hour resulting in on spot death of four children. The deceased have been identified as Hoshiar Singh, 14 son of Gian Chand, Pinki Devi, 12, daughter of Gian Chand, Darshana Kumar, 10 daughter of Gian Chand and Anju Kumari, 3, daughter of Chain Singh. Gian Singh son of Jeet Ram and his son Yog Raj have received severe injuries. They have been admitted in the Primary Health Centre, Mahore and their condition was stated to be stable. Sources said that militants had been threatening members of the minority community, particularly the Village Defence Committees (VDCs) members following their relentless efforts to contain militants’ activities. Killings of the family members of the VDC members was seen to be an attempt of the militants to threaten those civilians who have launched a war against them. Soon after getting the information about the killings, army jawans and Special Task Force jawans led by the senior police and army officers rushed to the spot and shifted the injured to the hospital. Army and STF have launched a massive search operation to eliminate the militants involved in the inhuman act. Keeping in view the fear which gripped the minority community following killings of four children by the militants, the authorities have deployed additional forces at some sensitive areas to frustrate any more designs of militants. In the morning, Commandant Indian Reserve Police (IRP) IV battalion Raghubir Singh rushed to the spot alongwith re-enforcement. He said an IRP post at Chajru was the first to reach the spot and have launched a massive search operation to track down the militants and eliminate them. Though no militant out-fit has so far claimed responsibility of the inhuman act it is believed that foreign mercenaries were involved in executing this massacre. It is believed that it was attempt of some militants who want to derail the peace process by resorting to the cowardly act of selective killings of minority community. It is worthwhile to mention here that militants have so far killed 16 persons belong to the minority community after announcement of the Prime Minister to stop operations against militants in the holy month of Ramzan. In the intervening night of November 22 and 23, a group of militants had struck at two places on Jammu-Srinagar National Highway and killed five truckers including belonging to minority community. The incidents took place at Sher-Bibi and Khanpura areas of Banihal. Just after three days, on November 25, militants kidnapped six persons of minority community from Tali Mohalla near Ikhalha village under the jurisdiction of Kishtwar Police Station of Doda district. Militants killed five of the hostages while the sixth somehow managed to escape. |
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Pushp Saraf ISLAMABAD, Dec 2. As we return to this capital city of Pakistan this evening after an extensive tour of "Azad" Kashmir, along with the Hurriyat Conference leader, Mr Abdul Gani Lone, we are greeted with the news that Pakistan has ordered its "armed forces deployed along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir" to "observe maximum restraint in order to strengthen and stabilise the ceasefire". Though the military establishment is not willing to acknowledge it in so many words, the announcement is an obvious response to the Indian initiative. There is a sense of satisfaction among us, the majority of the members of the marriage party of Mr Lone’s son, who had stayed back in the hope of seeing what was once part of the undivided State of Jammu and Kashmir. I must say the hope has been fulfilled because the Pakistan Government has been generous in not imposing any travel restrictions. Mr Lone’s son, Sajjad, married Asma, the daughter of Jammu-Kashmir Liberation Front chairman Amanullah Khan, on November 19, and since then there have been a series of celebrations here. There is insistence in Pakistan’s statement that the leaders of the Hyrriyat Conference should be involved during "Ramzan" itself to prepare ground for the commencement of the "tripartite negotiations" between Pakistan, India and the Hurriyat Conference. Pakistan has said that the leaders of the Hurriyat Conference should be allowed to visit Pakistan "for consultations during Ramzan" and that the Indian Government should invite them during this holy month itself for the negotiations which can be held "immediately after Ramzan." None of us here has a clue as to how this will happen. But we do admire the gutsy and statesman-like performance Mr Lone has put up so far. We have conflicting reports here about what the Hurriyat leaders back home are saying about Mr Lone’s visit; I am avoiding all reference to that in the absence of the details. But, I will put it on record that Mr Lone has been consistent in telling all, whether they are members of the bar associations of Rawalpindi and Muzaffarabad, or the militant organisations of all hues that they should respond to Mr Vajpayee’s ceasefire. This is a remarkable job for any Kashmiri leader to do it on the Pakistani soil. "If it is a bluff call it," Mr Lone has repeatedly told his audience, "but don’t jump to any conclusion without giving peace a chance". He has faced uncomfortable queries from pro-Pakistan elements but has stood up to them bravely instead of skirting the real issue, that is finding a solution to the Kashmir problem and restoring peace in the sub-continent in the wake of the threat of the nuclearisation. It takes guts in this land to tell the foreign mercenaries to confine themselves to their own territories and do not interfere in the Kashmir valley. He repeated his appeal umpteen times to heed to the offer of the ceasefire even after the United Jihad Council of all militant organisations had strongly condemned a similar assertion by a Srinagar-based Hurriyat Conference leader earlier. It is not that Mr Lone is saying that he alone can deliver the goods. He is maintaining that it has to be a collective effort to which the Hurriyat Conference and all others have to contribute. "But we must respond to the ceasefire offer". For the sake of effect, he repeats a Kashmiri proverb which says that if a person is telling a lie than one must visit his house to find out the truth. "Don’t pre-judge the offer without giving it a try", he has kept on saying. In Mirpur, I was surprised when Mr Lone described Sheikh Abdullah as the tallest leader of Kashmir. "I opposed him all through but even a tall leader of his stature could not solve the problem. Now that there is no one like him, we should get together and find a solution," he says amidst thunderous applause. I have seen Mr Lone, as a young leader, taking on the Sheikh in his heyday but that had amounted to virtually breaking his head against a strong wall. Today, he spoke like a much-matured politician out to share his experience with all those affected by the Kashmir problem with a view to bring about peace in the sub-continent while respecting the dignity and honour of the people of Jammu and Kashmir as it existed in 1947. Having been a witness to his bold utterances from close, I am not at all surprised by a comment in a leading English newspaper in Tamil Nadu, which has been picked up by the prestigious weekly, The Friday Times, here that: "There has been a wedding diplomacy, too. Mr Abdul Gani Lone, one of the Hurriyat leaders, seems to have done a splendid job conveying the sentiment in the Valley and New Delhi to the leaders in Islamabad." Yes, splendid, indeed, it has been, as it has been free from personal prejudices and remarkably honest. For instance, he made his remark against the intervention of foreign outfits in the Valley at a reception hosted by the Jamaat-e-Islami ("Azad" Kashmir) which is closely identified with its namesake in the Valley. It was a sentimental visit for many of us to Mirpur. Raja Khalid Akbar, son of the late Raja Mohammad Akbar, the celebrated journalist of the undivided Jammu and Kashmir who started the popular Urdu newspaper, "Sach", kept on rubbing his eyes in disbelief saying: "I can’t believe that I would see ever you on this soil." Purely out of emotions, he gets us repeatedly photographed. In a function, where I am also called upon to speak, I use the opportunity to tell the audience that my esteemed father, Mr Om Prakash Saraf, and Judge Harbans Lal, a leader of the Mirpuri community in Jammu, wanted to come to Mirpur recently to attend a function in memory of Raja Mohammad Akbar, but that was not possible because of the time taken in preparing the travel documents. I paid tributes to the late Raja Mohammad Akbar on their behalf. Since there was repeatedly emphasis on the Line of Control and misplaced India-bashing, I merely made an observation that "my experience as a reporter of long standing tells me that human values erase all lines drawn on the basis of religion, power and terrorism." There was a resounding applause which I can still here as an affirmation that nothing can divide the people if they wish to stay together. In Muzaffarabad, I am exposed to at least two more dimensions of the Kashmir problem. One is that the pro-Kashmiri and pro-Pakistan sentiments is fierecely divided in the town, which is the base camp of all militant organisations. It was evident at the public meeting addressed by Mr Lone where the slogan of Kashmir’s merger with Pakistan was met with a vociferous counter-slogan of its total independence. Mr Lone took strong exception to the organisation of the meeting in a closed hall, instead of at an open venue. "If you do not want the Kashmiris to listen to me, don’t harass them, take on me, if you have guts," he dared the local authorities. The hall was overflowing and there were repeated demands that the meeting should be held in the open. The other diemension I had a personal feel of for the first time was that there are thousands of Kashmiri refugees ("the victims of the India-Pakistan confrontation’, as Mr Lone described them) languishing in the camps here. So far I was exposed only to the miseries of the Kashmiri Pandit migrants back home. I sincerely wish that the Central Government’s initiative and Pakistan’s response today brings back cheer in their lives. |
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‘Hurriyat
representative of Valley alone’ From Ahmed Ali Fayaz SRINAGAR, Dec 2: Organiser of United Kashmir Peoples National Party (UKPNP), Mumtaz Khan, today claimed that the separatist amalgam, All Parties Hurriyat Conference, had no right to project itself as the representative of the whole Jammu & Kashmir. While stressing on softening of borders and opening of Srinagar-Muzaffarabad Road, he asserted that "Pakistan-sponsored militancy" had brought about nothing but total destruction for Kashmiri people. After detailed meetings with several separatist leaders, the Canada-based young leader — who is actually a resident of Rawlakote in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir — told EXCELSIOR, in an exclusive interview, that his party would reshape its political agenda vis-a-vis Kashmir. During his first ever visit to Srinagar, Mumtaz Khan met the Hurriyat chairman Professor Abdul Gani Bhat, Jamaat-e-Islami chief Ghulam Mohammad Bhat, noted political activist and intermediary Fazal-ul-Haq Qureshi and others. Khan said that his passage to Kashmir had opened his eyes as he had observed that only a miniscule section of the population was votary of the armed struggle which, according to him, had been completely hijacked by Pan-Islamist groups "funded and organised by Pakistan". He observed that even the Hurriyat Conference had only nominal support of the Valley’s population as it had been "completely isolated" by the people of Valley. He remarked that Hurriyat was the alliance of some Srinagar-based parties and pointed out that it had no representation from Jammu, Ladakh, PoK, Gilgit "and other territories forcibly annexed by Pakistan." "Hurriyat has failed to get a single representative even in PoK. Hence it has exported a Valley resident, namely Yusuf Naseem, and appointed him as its leader across the LoC", Khan said and added that the valley’s separatist political alliance was only "a small but misleading component of the greater struggle for Jammu & Kashmir’s total independence". He said that statements and actions of all Hurriyat leaders during the last eight years had established nothing but the fact that it was "simply playing in the hands of Pakistan". He said that the Valley’s separatist leaders must take moral responsibility for the killing of 70,000 Kashmiris during the last 12 years for they had not acted an inch beyond "his master’s voice" and they had failed to explain to the people that gun culture carried for them nothing other than "total destruction". "Militancy has shattered everything at home. It has isolated us at all international political and diplomatic forums and we have been ostracized as terrorists", he said. According to him, Pakistani Army’s Kargil misadventure was "the last nail in the coffin". Mumtaz Khan said that his party had been struggling for the total independence of all the territories of undivided Jammu & Kashmir. "We have been struggling politically and diplomatically but the military dimension of the movement has botched up everything", he said. Khan claimed that after the induction of "alien, fundamentalist elements" in Kashmir’s militancy and the Kargil catastrophe in May-July last year, the entire international opinion had turned in India’s favour. "I have travelled throught the world and observed that Pakistan is under tremendous pressure for three particular things: Sign CTBT; respect LoC; and, wind up militant organisations", Khan said and sounded hopeful of a "significant change" in the next six months. He said that, of late, even the military leadership in Pakistan had realised that further sustenance and expansion of Jihad would crumble that country economically and, consequently, the whole nation of Pakistan would disintegrate. Khan asserted that, as a matter of fact, Pakistan had forfeited its locus standi on Kashmir 53 years ago when, contrary to Congress, Muslim League had stressed that Maharajas not people would decide the future of India’s princely states. Later, Pakistan sent in tribesmen and even when a Plebiscite Commissioner was about to reach Srinagar during the Pakistan Premier Mohammad Ali Bogra’s period, Pakistan spoiled the whole thing for itself. "Clearly, her gameplan is to annexe Kashmir. Those highlighting the factor of Azadi (in the current armed struggle) are either mistaken or the masters of hypocricy", he said. As regards the lasting solution to the Kashmir problem, Mumtaz Khan said that first of all there should be an open interaction between all political parties of the undivided territories of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh. India and Pakistan must hold bilateral talks; border hostilities and militancy should be wound up; there should be a free interaction between the cultural activists of all parts of Jammu & Kashmir and, simultaneously, Srinagar-Muzaffarabad Road must be thrown open for legitimate traffic of civilians from both sides. He claimed that to a large extent, the Kashmir crisis was the result of one particular factor that people of India-held Kashmir were totally blind to the people of Pakistan-held Kashmir and vice vesa. That situation, he asserted, was the real stuff for politicians who were thriving on Kashmiri peoples’ blood. Khan also said that Pakistan and militants must seize the opportunity and respond positively to the ceasefire of Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee. |
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Crores swindled on
name of Dal Excelsior Correspondent JAMMU, Dec 2: The Vigilance Organization in a swift action today apprehended 17 persons which included three Assistant Executive Engineers and five Junior Engineers of Lakes and Waterways Development Agency for questioning. The arrests have been made in connection with the investigation of cases registered by the Vigilance Organization recently. The Vigilance Organization had registered seven FIR cases in police station of Vigilance Organization Kashmir under various provisions of Prevention of Corruption laws. The Vigilance Organization had received persistent reports alleging that funds in crores have been swindled by the officers and officials of Lake and Waterways Development Agency earlier known as Dal Development Authority. The reports alleged that in the name of save world famous Dal Kashmir, the officers had in pursuance of a criminal conspiracy resorted to large scale bunglings/irregularities in the name of execution of large number of works relating to beautification of Dal. The Vigilance Organization had conducted through preliminary enquiry into the allegations in a recent period. The enquiries prima-facie established the allegations which led to the registration of the cases in the Vigilance Organization immediately after registration of FIR cases swung into action and seized most of the records from various offices of LAAWDA. In the course of investigation, the records were put to thorough scrutiny by a team of experts which established that the officers of LAAWDA had indulged in various corrupt practices to loot the state exchequer. The investigation disclosed that the records had been tampered with so as to avoid detection of bunglings. Crores of rupees had been misappropriated/embezzled in the execution of various works which included deweeding/skimming, civil work of Northern Foreshore Road, Nallah Amir Khan, Mechanical Works and purchases etc. The investigation of these cases which is almost complete now in a short span of time has prima-facie established the allegations and therefore to minimise the chances of destruction of vital evidence relating the case by the accused officers the Vigilance Organization apprehended Altaf Ahmad Bhat, AEE, Shafat Hussain Qadeeri, AEE, G L Churas AEE and five Junior Engineers namely Zahoor Ahmad, Mukhtar Ahmad Buch, Altaf Hussain Mir, Imtiyaz Ahmad Ganai and Javed Ahmad Lone. Besides the above public servants, the Vigilance Organization for the first time affected the arrests of 11 civilians who mostly include suppliers and the contractors. The investigation had prima-facie established their involvement in the criminal conspiracy hatched by the officers of LAAWDA to defraud the state exchequer for their ulterior motives. |
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Arms, explosives haul in RS Pura; 3 ultras escape Excelsior Correspondent JAMMU, Dec 2: In a major success, RS Pura police recovered a large quantity of arms, ammunition and bombs from near a religious place at village Badyal Qazian in Chakroi area of RS Pura tehsil this afternoon. However, three militants instrumental in smuggling the arms consignment from across the border managed to escape. Police sources said a tip off was received from some civilians this afternoon that three-four mysterious bags were seen lying in a village close to a religious site (dargah of a Pir Baba) at Badyal Qazian near Chakroi. Immediately after getting a report, a police party from RS Pura sub division led by DySP Pritam Singh rushed to the village alongwith re-inforcement of police and security forces, cordoned off the area and launched a search operation. Searches continued for a couple of hours during which the police party succeeded in effecting recovery of the arms consignment but couldn’t trace the three militants, who had reportedly infiltrated into Indian territory from across the border overnight. Recovery made from the spot included two AK-56 rifles, their seven magazines and 200 rounds, four Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), one buoynet, two electronic detonators and personal belon-gings of the militants like three Khan dresses, three pairs of shoes, two shoes, three jerseys, 30 meters plastic ropes, five water proof jackets and two track suits. Recovery was made at 1530 hours. Sources said the recovery of three pairs of shoes and three shawls was an example that the militants, who had smuggled the arms and explosives consignment from across the border, were three in number. They had dumped the consignment at a field and had to pick it up at an opportune time. Security forces and police have launched a massive search operation in the village to apprehend the militants but the latter remained elusive so far. Police said the militants appeared to be Pakistanis and activists of Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) outfit. Recovery of the arms consignment also indicated that Pakistan army was going ahead with infiltration of militants and smuggling of weapons despite the cease-fire announced by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee. |
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Ceasefire a chance for Pak to end international isolation BARODA, Dec 2: Union Home Minister L K Advani today said India’s initiative of declaring a unilateral ceasefire in Jammu and Kashmir during Ramzan was a good opportunity for Pakistan to end its international isolation and develop friendly ties with India. "India’s unilateral ceasefire initiative has been welcomed by all major powers and has received good response in the international arena", Advani told PTI at the civilian Harni Airport here before his departure for Anand to attend a function there. ‘If Pakistan utilises this opportunity to end cross border terrorism it could become a turning point in the history of both the countries’, he said. Pakistan had earlier missed the chance provided by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s visit to Lahore by sending forces into Kargil last year. Now this is another chance which should be considered by Pakistan seriously to put an end to cross border terrorism to help in resumption of the stalled bilateral talks, he said. ‘India and Pakistan should live in a friendly manner which will be beneficial for both the countries as a large amount of our resources are diverted to defence’, Advani said. ‘The acceptance of our demand of ending of cross border terrorism by Pakistan would help in the resumption of the dialogue in settling all disputes’, the Minister said. The impact of the Ramzan ceasefire was evident in Jammu and Kashmir, "where people are happy, moving freely and fearlessly and doing their jobs", Advani said. He said according to a report from Jammu most of the firing zones, along the International Border and Line of Control, have not witnessed any firing by Pakistani Rangers for all these days. "People along the border are heaving a sigh of relief as the Pakistani firing and shelling has come down considerably", Advani said adding "silence prevails today even in the constant shelling zones of Poonch and Rajouri. The Minister said Pakistan should now in keeping with the spirit of Shimla and Lahore declarations put a stop to terrorism and develop friendly ties with India. Referring to the recent violence, he said the security forces were duty bound to prevent killings and infiltration by militants, though they had been instructed not to initiate unprovoked firing. The whole world has recognised terrorism as a crime and was isolating the countries supporting terrorism, he said. "Pakistan has also realised that it has been isolated. The neighbouring country resorted to a proxy war as it had realised its inability to defeat India in direct wars", Advani said. (PTI) |
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Pak bows to world pressure,
announces ISLAMABAD, Dec 2: Bowing to international pressure on Pakistan to respond positively to India’s unilateral ceasefire declaration in Jammu and Kashmir, Islamabad today announced that its armed forces would observe "maximum restraint" along the Line of Control. "With immediate effect the Pakistan armed forces deployed along the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir will observe maximum restraint in order to strengthen and stabilise the ceasefire," Foreign Secretary Inamu Haq announced at a press conference here. Pakistan had been at the receiving end for not reciprocating New Delhi’s Ramazan ceasefire offer in the State with the US and other key countries firmly telling Islamabad to avail of this opportunity to break the stalemate in Indo-Pak ties. Haq, however, said Pakistan expected India to "reciprocate this initiative and cease firing across the LoC." India’s suspension of military operations against the separatists in the State would be "meaningful only if it is combined with a purposeful dialogue" for a peaceful settlement of the Kashmir issue, he said. He said Pakistan was prepared to enter into a meaningful dialogue with India to address the Kashmir issue "in conformity with the UN Security Council resolutions, Principles of Justice, international law and the past agreements between the two countries. Haq proposed that Hurriyat Conference, an umbrella organisation of 23 separatist groups in Jammu and Kashmir, should hold talks with India and Pakistan separately to pave the way for three-way talks. He extended invitation to the Hurriyat executive committee to visit Pakistan during the month of Ramazan to prepare the ground for three-way negotiations and urged India to do the same to settle the Kashmir issue peacefully "in accordance with the will of the people of the State." Haq urged the Indian Government to allow Hurriyat leaders to visit Pakistan for consultations. He also said that India should allow the United Nations military observers to monitor the LoC. "Stabilisation of the ceasefire along the LoC would be facilitated by impartial monitoring." Haq reiterated Pakistan’s commitment to "respect and support the Kashmiri’s inherent right of self-determination." (PTI) |
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Govt ready for talks with militants: Fernandes GUWAHATI, Dec 2: Defence Minister George Fernandes today said the Centre was ready to hold talks with any militant outfit of the country but there would be no compromise with outside forces. "Our doors are always open for misguided youths of our country who have been led astray but we will not talk with Pakistan unless the ISI stops aiding and abetting terrorism," Fernandes told reporters after delivering the second Lachit Barphukan Memorial lecture here. After Kargil, there could be no compromise on the country’s security and all help to terrorists must stop "before we can have talks with them," he said. Asked about the spurt of killings in Assam, Fernandes said the matter had been already raised in Parliament and Home Minister L K Advani would soon make a statement on this. Fernandes said activities of the insurgents passed through several phases of ups and downs and this period was witnessing a spurt in their activities. Assam Governor Lt Gen (Retd) S K Sinha, who was also present on the occasion, said the recent incidents of violence were desperate acts by the ULFA and their targetting a particular community indicated the ISI’s involvement. Asked whether the killings were political in nature in view of the forthcoming Assembly polls in the State and whether the Minister would take the responsibility of the killing as the Army was operating in the State under the Unified Command, Fernanded replied, "the Army is apolitical. Do you want me to take the responsibility?" On reports that the State Government was unhappy with the functioning of the Army in the State, both Assam Governor and the State’s Agriculture Minister C M Patowary who were present, said there was no "truth in these reports and the Unified Command was functioning smoothly." Earlier, the Defence Minister, who arrived on a day’s visit to the State addressed troops at Narangi Cantonment and called on the Governor at the Raj Bhawan. Addressing the troops, he lauded the role of the armed forces who were performing their duties with great patriotic zeal and dedication. Fernandes urged the troops to keep working for the welfare of the armed forces. (PTI) |
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JU seeks police assistance to maintain security in Campus Excelsior Correspondent JAMMU, Dec 2: Following yesterday’s incident inside the Economics Department, the Jammu University has geared itself to strengthen the security in the Campus and strictly check the entry of unwanted outsiders. The University authorities have also sought the assistance of local police to regulate the entry and maintain a strict vigil in the Campus. A meeting in this connection was held today in which Registrar JU Prof Zahoor-ud-Din, Dean Students Welfare Prof N A Ganai and Chief Security Officer Maj Harnam Singh discussed the security scenario of the Campus and chalked out some measures to keep the institution free from any sort of criminal activities. It may be mentioned here that a fresher of PG Economics was yesterday threatened by an unidentified criminal inside the department after which all students of the University boycotted their classes in protest against the incident. The same criminal alongwith some associates had kidnapped the said students on November 18 near the Campus gate but released the latter a few hours later after torturing him severely. Talking to EXCELSIOR, Prof Ganai, said that the University authorities have taken yesterday’s incident very seriously and some important decisions have been taken to regulate the entry inside the Campus. The University authorities have approached the police and sought their help to maintain a strict vigil in the Campus. SP South Mr Sheetal Singh has assured to provide all assistance in this connection, said Prof Ganai. Dean Students Welfare has also instructed the security guards, deployed at the entrance points of the Campus, to down the barriers on the gates after 8 pm to completely check the entry of outsiders and safety of the Campus hostel. Vice-Chancellor Prof R R Sharma and Dean Academic Affairs Prof A N Sadhu could not attend today’s meeting since the former is indisposed for the last few days while the latter is out of station. |
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NEW DELHI, Dec 2: India tonight reacted cautiously to Pakistan’s announcement that its armed forces would exercise "maxi-mum restraint" along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir, saying New Delhi was "evaluating" Islamabad’s statement. "The Government will firm up its stand in consultation with External Affairs Ministry," Home Minister L K Advani told reporters here. Advani said India was "really concerned" over the problem of Islamabad-backed infiltration of militants across the border into India, weapons supply to them and the training camps based in Pakistan. An External Affairs Ministry spokesman said "the Government is studying Pakistan’s statement". Earlier, Pakistan’s Foreign Secre-tary Inamul Haq said in Islamabad that "with immediate effect the Pakistan armed forces deployed along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir will observe maximum restraint." "The Government of Pakistan expects that the Government of India will reciprocate this initiative and cease firing across the Line of Control," he told a press conference. The Pakistani initiative followed India’s unilateral ceasefire in Kashmir which went into effect on midnight Monday. (PTI) |
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Hurriyat Chairman arrives in Delhi NEW DELHI, Dec 2: The chairman of the 23-party Hurriyat Conference Abdul Gani Bhat flew in here today from Srinagar amid indications that he is to have a number of important meeting in the capital on the situation in Jammu and Kashmir. However, when asked if a dialogue with the Centre was in the offing, Bhat maintained "I am not aware of it." Pressed further, Bhat told PTI there could be no solution to Kashmir issue except through talks involving all the concerned parties. This is Bhat’s first visit to the capital since the ceasefire announced by the Centre became operational on November 27. Bhat said Hurriyat has already welcomed the ceasefire offer by the Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and hoped that the call will lead to resolution of the Kashmir dispute. Meanwhile, sources here said that an unofficial intermediatory would be exploring with the Hurriyat prospects of a political dialogue with the Centre. (PTI) |
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Excelsior Correspondent RAJOURI, Dec 2: Militants last night attacked police post of Khadarian in Kalakote tehsil of this district but failed to cause any damage or casualty. Official sources said that some unidentified militants opened firing and launched rocket attacks on the police post late last night. Police personnel fired back forcing the militants to flee after an hour long gun-fight. While fleeing, the militants left behind one telescope, one belt, 90 rounds of Pika and UMG, two IEDs with batteries, 15 detonators, one rocket, some drugs and literature of Lashkar-e-Toiba outfit. |
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