Talks with Pak only after it stops shelling: George

AHMEDABAD, Oct 31: Defence Minister George Fernandes today said talks with Pakistan can only be resumed if it refrains from cross-border terrorism and shelling along the Line of Control (LoC).

No serious dialogue with Pakistan is possible until it desists from its policy of creating disturbances in India, he told a press conference here.

Pakistan has been indiscriminately shelling without a break in the areas along the LoC for over a decade. The shelling by different kinds of weapons have been claiming two lives every three days, he said, adding that Islamabad should realise that the existing hostilities were neither in its nor India’s interests.

Stating that India has received a proposal for resumption of talks from Pakistan’s military ruler Gen Pervez Musharraf, the Defence Minister said even if it is held, it will not serve any purpose because Pakistan, besides having betrayed India’s trust, has not given up its penchant for indulging in cross-border terrorism by pushing mercenaries into Indian territory.

To a query whether India would have any reservation in holding talks with a military regime which had captured power in Pakistan after throwing out a democratically-elected Government there, Fernandes said this was of no consequence because we still maintain diplomatic ties with Pakistan. In Burma it is the military junta which is in power and we are having a State to State relation with that country.

The Defence Minister also ruled out India intervening in any way to save Pakistan’s deposed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who was at present under the protective custody of the Army.

Asked what was the response of Indian Government to a letter written by Nawaz Sharif’s son appealing India to save his father, Fernandes said in this situation, what can we do?

To questions about the ISI activities and fencing along the International Border, he said both the Defence and Home Ministries would have to coordinate things to tackle the ISI menace and also to have the fencing done on the International Border with Pakistan which extends from Jammu to Kutch.

Asked whether he still held the view that the Kargil misadventure was the handiwork of Pakistani Army and that the Nawaz Sharif Government was in the dark about it, Fernandes said the recent development in Pakistan does not need any further corroboration. (PTI)

Medicare stands paralysed
Administration serves final notice on striking doctors

Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, Oct 31: The Medical College administration today served a final notice on the striking junior doctors to return to duties by tomorrow or get ready to face disciplinary action as indefinite strike of the doctors entered into sixth day throwing the medicare out of gear.

Official sources said the Medical College Principal today met Commissioner-cum-Secretary Health and Medical Education Mr S S Billoria to review the situation arising out of indefinite strike by the junior doctors in support of their demands, which had already been rejected by the administration describing them as ‘unjustified and illegal’.

Following the meeting, the College administration served a final notice to the representatives of junior doctors calling upon them to resume their duties by tomorrow. Otherwise, the notice said, the administration might be forced to take action against the striking doctors which include suspension from the services.

Sources said the administration has prepared a list of about a dozen representatives of Joint Action Committee (JAC) of junior doctors against whom action will be taken at the first instance if they don’t resume their duties tomorrow. They said the administration was finding it difficult to ascertain representatives of the junior doctors as in every meeting with administration, the JAC deputes different doctors for negotiations.

On the other, the JAC is scheduled to hold its general body meeting tomorrow morning to review the latest situation. The JAC will decide whether to go ahead with the agitation or suspend it. The JAC is demanding an apology from Pharmacist Jatinder Shastri and his shifting from Orthopedics Department besides upgradation of emergency.

Medical College sources said Shastri has already given an undertaking that he was ready to apologise to Dr Tahir Hussain ‘in the interest of ailing community’. Besides, administration has shifted the Pharmacist to Medical Superintendent’s office. As far as upgradation of emergency was concerned, the authorities said they were more interested in it than junior doctors.

As such, the sources said, there was no justification of junior doctors’ agitation. The administration also alleged that a section of junior doctors was playing in the hands of ‘vested interests’, who want to settle their personal scores with the authorities by continuing with the agitation. The JAC, however, denied the charges.

Meanwhile, working in the Medical College and its associated hospitals remained affected for sixth successive day today resulting into migration of more patients from the hospitals. Despite today being Sunday, the senior doctors were seen taking rounds of Wards and Emergency to maintain medicare facilities.

‘Stop package, streamline system’
Kashmir producers demand CBI inquiry

Excelsior Special Correspondent

SRINAGAR, Oct 31: A many more heads are expected to roll in Doordarshan’s multi-crore "News & Current Affairs Scandal" on Kashmir as a number of Srinagar-based private producers are now openly demanding a thorough investigation into the ommissions and commissions of senior officials by a credible and independent agency like Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI).

Highly-placed sources at New Delhi disclosed to EXCELSIOR that the new Union Information & Broadcasting Minister Mr Arun Jaitly was likely to visit Kashmir in the first week of November. His agenda would be to explore the prospects of a qualitative and quantitative improvement of the programmes produced and telecast by Doordarshan Kendra (DDK) Srinagar.

The minister who would be accompanied by the Prasad Bharati Chief Executive Officer and Directors General of DD and All India Radio, would also review the laying of HPTs, LPTs and VLPTs in all the three regions of the border State.

Sources said that Mr Jaitly’s maiden visit to Srinagar was being conducted amid serious allegations of corruption and malpractices which resulted in DD’s total failure in the most sensitive sphere of countering Pakistani propaganda on Kashmir, over the last several years. There is wide impression from New Delhi to Srinagar that money has been the first and last qualification for getting DD’s high-budget commissioned programmes and the producer’s profile or media background has never been assessed by the authorities. Thanks to the system, almost all the programmes commissioned for the specific purpose of "telling truth on Kashmir" have contained drab descriptions of the Valley’s birds and flowers.

Interestingly, the specially commissioned news and current affairs programmes have been invariably on the low quality VHS, Hi-8 or U-matic format even as the same have been allotted for Betacam. Low quality formats are permissible in DD and other television channels in very rare cases like capturing of an unforeseen live incident. It has been observed that even the off-beat stories on drainage and environment (which have otherwise no room in the anti-militancy programmes) have been shot on VHS and telecast by DDK without any objection.

A delegation of private producers explained a sordid but startling episode to the Joint Director (News) and Controller of Programmes on Kashmir Mr Anurag Mishra who concluded his 4-day assessment tour in Valley today. The moment Mr Mishra arrived on October 28, militants fired a series of rifle grenades on the Secretariat. Those killed in the incident were not ministers, bureaucrats or the so-called Indian agents but three junior employees. All the three were poor Kashmiri Muslims going to perform afternoon prayers on the Secretariat lawns. DD’s commissioned news capsule that evening ensured that nothing of the sort was telecast as it could annoy militants and their mentors across. As the bereaved families mourned the deaths unsung, DD opted to go soft and still the producer of the commissioned capsule bagged a sum of Rs 75,000 for innocuous stories for four dull minutes.

A delegation of the private producers complained to EXCELSIOR that their meeting with the visiting New Delhi team was sabotaged by some officials who invited selectively those people who carried the given assignment of misleading Mandi House by false praises and distortion of facts. Consequently, the unsatisfied New Delhi team took another meeting with producers, writers and artistes today. The delegation pointed out that 95% of the people who attended the "sponsored meeting" at DDK on Friday, were Government employees, a many of whom have been operating as "producers".

The delegation impressed upon the I&B Ministry’s new leadership that the special package as announced by Mr Pramod Mahajan be stopped till the identification of real and bonafide private producers by way of a CBI inquiry.

Partial restoration of telecom, rail links
3,000 feared killed, millions remain homeless in Orissa

BHUBANESWAR, Oct 31: Millions of people remained homeless and some thousands may be dead in the century’s worst cyclone that ripped through coastal Orissa even as the state today began inching towards normalcy with partial restoration of communication and rail links.

Some unconfirmed reports spoke of about 3,000 people being killed but Chief Minister Giridhar Gamang refused to hazard any guess on the magnitude of casualties.

Gamang, who made an aerial survey of the worst-hit districts, told reporters that 172 people were killed in Kendrapara, Cuttack and Khurda districts, with 150 of them in coastal Kendrapara, which bore the brunt of the super cyclone, alone.

At least 25 lakh houses were either totally destroyed or damaged, according to initial estimates.

Gamang said ten districts suffered extensive damage with Kendrapara and Jagatsingpur bearing the brunt of the cyclone. A huge sheet of water covered almost entire Kendrapara and Jagatsingpur which were hit by ten-metre high tidal waves whipped by the gale packed with windspeed of 300 km per hour.

The cyclone, which originated from the gulf of Thailand, weakened today into a depression and was centred 120-km of Bhubaneswar. It was moving away at a slow pace, a Calcutta report said quoting Met office.

Gamang said since communication links with majority of the ten districts of Kendrapara, Jagatsingpur, Balasore, Bhadrak, Jajpur, Puri, Cuttack, Khurda, Mayurhanj and Keonjhar remaining severely disrupted even 48 hours of the disaster, an exact picture of the casualty was not available as yet.

However, telecom links between four major cities of Orissa, including the state capital, and the rest of the country were restored with the activation of an emergency satellite telephone in Bhubaneswar.

Train services were restored between Bhubaneswar and Vishakhapa-tanam and Sambalpur following repair of tracks between Khurda road and the Orissa capital, said a Delhi report.

Air services between Bhubane-swar and the rest of the country, however, remained stalled but could resume tomorrow, a Calcutta report said.

Paradip port, which was initially feared to have been severely hit, had not suffered major damage with all ships inside the port harbour and most of the cranes and other equipment in place, Minister of State for Surface Transport Devendra Pradhan said in New Delhi.

He, however, said a survey launch, two deep sea trawlers and 50 fishing boats from Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh which had moved towards Paradip port, were reported to have been washed away.

Gamang said Paradip port continued to remain under water but there was no exact information about human casualties.

Gamang said he had requested the Centre to send a naval ship from Vizag for rescue operations in Paradip.

Some 5000 troops, including engineers and medicos, who had fanned out to cyclone-hit areas carrying makeshift bridges, rescued several marooned people perched on rooftops and high grounds.

However, IAF aircraft and helicopters and navy ships carrying food packets and other essentials failed to reach the affected areas for the second day today because of inclement weather even as most of the areas continued to go without electricity and drinking water.

Gamang said Air Force helicopters had started arriving this evening to airdrop food packets.

A team of PTI correspondents, who managed to reach Jaleswar in Balasore district, saw all the inhabitants of 15 villages marooned, the misery compounded by incessant rains and onrush of flood water.

Ten districts including Bhuban-eswar were still without power supply. Essential commodities in the state capital were in short supply with prices skyrocketing.

An all-party meeting convened by the Chief Minister last night had requested the Centre to set up an Orissa disaster cell at the Prime Minister’s office to coordinate relief and restoration work. A Central team would visit the state soon.

Gamang said the Centre was requested to provide dry food for at least three days for the people in the affected areas.

He said he had asked his counterparts of West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar, Maharashtra and Karnataka to rush relief.

The AIR and Doordarshan went off the air since Friday following collapse of the transmission towers in Bhubaneswar, he said.

The state’s southern district of Ganjam was devastated by a cyclonic storm on October 17-18 and the Centre had provided Rs 200 crore as ways and means advance and Rs 50 crore as advance plan assistance. (PTI)

Sacrilegious act in Rajouri
Two more army soldiers succumb; toll five

Excelsior Correspondent

RAJOURI, Oct 31: Two more army soldiers, injured in yesterday’s encounter with militants at Faisalabad, succumbed to their injuries today taking death toll on army side to five. A same number of militants were also killed in the encounter.

Official sources said Sepoy Babu Victor and Sepoy T K Reddy, who were seriously injured while fighting bravely with the militants in an encounter at Faisalabad in Surankote tehsil of Poonch district last night, succumbed to their injuries in the hospital today. Their bullet-riddled dead bodies were shifted to an army camp and will be transported to their native State tomorrow morning.

Lt Col Ajit Bhandarkay, who was leading the operation, had also died alongwith Naik Gulzar Singh in the fierce gun-battle at Faisalabad which lasted six hours. Another soldier Pardeep Kumar was killed in another encounter at Malhan, an area adjoining to Faisalabad, in Surankote tehsil.

In all, five militants were eliminated by the troops in both the encounter. Three militants were killed in Faisalabad encounter while two militants were gunned down in Malhan gun-battle. All the slain militants were foreign mercenaries, Pakistanis and Afghanis.

Sources said the five casualties on army side were due to the fact that troops made a determined attempt to save civilian casualties as the area was densely populated. However, one civilian was killed and two others were injured in the encounter. The deceased was identified as Aqab Ahmed and injured as Altaf Hussain and Mohd Amin. Condition of the injured was stated to be stable in the sub district hospital of Surankote, where they have been admitted.

There were reports that atleast three militants had managed to escape during the Faisalabad encounter. Additional troops, which reached the spot immediately after the encounter, have again cordoned off the area and launched a fresh search operation to eliminate the remaining militants. Operation was going on in the area when the reports last came in.

Meanwhile, tension gripped Rajouri for a while when a youth Zulfikar torched some pages of a holy book of his own community at a graveyard in the town. People started protesting against the sacrilegious act.

However, Rajouri police led by SHO Mr Haq Nawaz swung into action and arrested the boy from the spot. He was being interrogated to know his motive behind the incident. A case against him has been registered at Rajouri police station for further investigations.

In another incident, a majority community family comprising four members exfiltrated to Pakistan from village Parham in Nowshera tehsil of this district in the wee hours of this morning.

Chingus police noticed the family missing on being informed by the local people. Police was investigating.

Reports said exchange of firing between Indo-Pak troops continued in Bhawani area of Nowshera sector but there was no casualty.

India seeks last set of Bofors papers

NEW DELHI, Oct 31: The Indian Government has written to the Swiss Government urging for early despatch of the last set of documents in the Bofors case.

In a communication sent recently through diplomatic channels, the Government is believed to have assured the Swiss authorities that the documents being sought would not be used for political purposes and that they would be used only for purposes for which they were being sought.

The letter is understood to have told the Swiss Government that the papers would be basically to prosecute those suspected to be involved in bribery and corruption in the gun deal.

One of the appellants in the Swiss courts seeking to block the transfer of documents to India had recently appealed to the Swiss Federal Council that the papers should not be sent to India because they would be used for politcal purposes.

Meanwhile, sources said the CBI is preparing to file a supplementary chargesheet in the case against Madhavsinh Solanki, who as External Affairs Minister had allegedly passed on a letter to his Swiss counterpart in the early nineties on behalf of one of the recipients of bribes with the intention of stopping the transfer of documents.

However, there has been no charge of Solanki having received any money in return.

Recently, the CBI filed a chargesheet in the case which was caught in a high-voltage controversy as the agency had named late Rajiv Gandhi as an accused and put his name in column 2 of the chargesheet as he was not being sent for trial.

After the Congress kicked up a storm over the issue within and outside Parliament demanding deletion of Gandhi’s name, Home Minister L K Advani gave an assurance in the Lok Sabha that Government would do what is appropriate taking into account what Sonia Gandhi and Congress MP Mani Shankar Aiyer said in the House. (PTI)

RR, STF nab 4 HM militants in Doda

Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, Oct 31: The Rashtriya Rifles and Special Task Force (STF) in a joint operation today apprehended three militants of Hizbul Mujahideen outfit from Bandas area of Doda and recovered a consignment of arms and explosives from their possession.

A police spokesman said the militants were sleeping in a hideout when a joint party of 8 RR and STF took them by surprise by raiding their hideout and laying a siege of it from all four sides. Militants woke up and made a determined attempt to escape. However, they were apprehended by the security personnel.

They have been identified as Syeed Ullah Ahmed son of Ghulam Ahmed Bhat, a resident of village Dulyog, Gulshan Ahmed Shah son of Bab Din Shah of Chide Barure and Javed Iqbal Bhat son of Mushtaq Ahmed Bhat of Panchora Majwana in Doda.

From their hideout, RR and STF jawans recovered a large quantity of arms and explosives which include two hand grenades, one rocket launcher, one AK-56 rifle, one RPG booster, half kg RDX, one remote control Improvised Explosive Device (IED) and two RPG rounds.

The arrested militants were being interrogated to ascertain their involvement in militant activities and their contacts. All of them were affiliated with Hizbul Mujahideen outfit and were wanted to police and security forces in different cases.

Meanwhile, an encounter took place between militants and security forces in Thathri area of Doda district this evening. The encounter, which started around 1700 hours, continued till 2100 hours. There was no report of any casualty on either side when the reports last came in.

However, reports said that atleast two militants had been trapped in the encounter and were being chased by the security personnel.

Omar for boost to exports

NEW DELHI, Oct 31: An eight-point strategy to boost exports to the United Arab Emirates, including training in foreign trade, utilising India’s excellent facilities to augment cooperation in this sector was outlined by Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Omar Farooq here today.

The strategy outlined by the Minister included increasing exports of information Technology, cooperation in the financial services sector, cooperation in power sector and boosting horticultural exports.

There was need to remove the various bottlenecks in the way of Indo-UAE trade, like restricted or stopped work permits for Indian workers which needs to be tackled appropriately on a Government to Government basis, he told a seminar on ‘Indo-Dubai business opportunities’.

Referring to the virtual ban imposed by UAE on export of Indian drug and pharmaceuticals, he said Indian drugs and pharmaceuticals were second to none in the world in both quality and price.

The Minister said visa restrictions needed to be eased and the UAE authorities ought to issue visas to Indian businessmen on the recommendations of the UAE Chambers of Commerce.

The seminar, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII), was attended by a high-level business delegation from the Dubai Chambers of Commerce and Industry. (PTI)

Pak Navy Chief rules out sabotage in plane crash

KARACHI, Oct 31:Pakistan Navy Chief Admiral Abdul Aziz Mirza today ruled out sabotage or the possibility of an enemy attack in a surveillance aircraft crash that left 21 officers and sailors dead.

There is no possibility of any attack by the enemy, he said, adding that the aircraft was participating in Naval exercises being conducted within our area.

The US-made P-3C plane crashed near the coastal town of Pasni during a Pakistan fleet exercise on Friday. So far only two bodies have been recovered.

A Pakistani Atlantique Navy reconnaissance aircraft was shot down by Indian fighter planes in August, killing all 16 officers and sailors on board.

Pakistan said the Atlantique was on a routine training mission over the southern coastal region. India claimed the Pakistan Navy plane had intruded into its airspace.

The Orion plane was in the same area where similar Naval exercises had been conducted in the past, Mirza told reporters after the funeral prayers for its two officers.

Mirza said an inquiry team was investigating the cause of the crash.

He said most of the officers on board had received training from United States and from various European companies.

Debris from the aircraft was scattered over a large area and unless the plane’s main skeleton is recovered, it will be difficult to arrive at any conclusion, he said. (AFP)

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