Tragedy strikes during Kishtwar-Simpthan road widening
7 killed, 8 missing in landslide near Chatroo

Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, May 1: In a tragic incident, seven labourers were killed and eight others went missing when they were hit by a landslide during widening of the Kishtwar-Simpthan road near Kurya bridge, 14 kilometres from Kishtwar town here this afternoon.

Reports said that GREF authorities blasted major portion of the rock to pave the way for widening of Kishtwar-Simpthan road near Kurya bridge, few kilometres short of Chatroo at around 11 am and after about half an hour the labourers were deployed to load the debris in the tippers.

While the labourers were busy in loading two tippers—one of the GREF and another of a private contractor with the debris, huge portion of the steep rock which became loose after the blast, came down all of a sudden burying 15 labourers.

Such a huge landslide it was that 70 feet portion of the road got vanished and a 40 feet high heap of boulders formed at the spot, Additional Deputy Commissioner, Kishtwar, Riyaz Ahmed Zargar, who rushed to the spot shortly after the incident and supervising the operation to recover the bodies till late this evening, said when contacted by the EXCELSIOR.

The co-labourers and GREF personnel were immediately deployed to recover the labourers from the debris but due to huge quantity of accumulated debris only six bodies could be recovered after three hour long operation, he said.

Since the chances of survival of remaining labourers were very bleak and the available machinery was not having the capacity to remove such a huge boulders, the slided portion was blasted following a unanimous decision of GREF authorities and administration.

After the blasting, a body was noticed near the bank of River Chenab which was later recovered raising the toll in the tragic incident to 7. In order to remove the huge boulders to trace out the remaining eight labourers, heavy machinery was brought from the GREF camp situated 40 kilometres away from the spot of incident, the Additional Deputy Commissioner said, adding assistance was also sought from the 11 Rashtriya Rifles (RR) stationed in the nearby area.

However, all these efforts failed to help in tracing missing labourers and in the evening the operation had to be called of till tomorrow morning, Mr Zargar said, adding "we will also seek the help of Army besides locals in tracing out the eight missing labourers".

The bodies of seven labourers were brought to District Hospital Kishtwar and handed over to their respective family members after post-mortem and all other legal formalities.

The deceased have been identified as Mohd Shafi, son of Noor Din of Mali Inderbal, Noor Hussain, son of Mohamdu Wani of Mughal Maidan, Bashir Ahmed, son of Fateh Din of Tregam, Mohd Ashraf, son of Fateh Din of Tregam, Mohd Hanief, son of Jamlu of Drabshala, Mohd Ayub, son of Alim Bakerwal of Kathua and Lal Din, son of Ala Din of Chatroo.

The people, who gathered at the spot on getting information about the tragic incident , alleged that the labourers lost their lives due to the negligence of GREF authorities.

"The GREF authorities should have taken into mind that after every blast the landslides take place", they said, adding "they (GREF) should have not deployed labourers atleast for another half an hour to allow the loose rocks to fall down".

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad expressed profound grief and sorrow over the tragic mishap on the Kishtwar-Chatroo road in which several human lives were lost due to the slipping of huge boulders.

Baglihar Reservoir to start by July 2008
Govt gears up to evacuate Pul Doda families

By Mohinder Verma

JAMMU, May 1: With Baglihar Hydro Electric Project (BHEP) authorities intimating that the reservoir is due to start by July 2008, the State Government has geared up to evacuate 350 families from Pul Doda and complete construction of Khellani and Neeru bridges by June end.

Official sources said that authorities of Baglihar Hydro Electric Project have intimated the Deputy Commissioner Doda, Khurshid Ahmed Bhat that the reservoir of the project is due to start by July 2008 with the result entire Pul Doda town alongwith the portion of National Highway 1B will get submerged.

The latest and final intimation of the Baglihar authorities caught the administration by surprise as not much progres was made so far on the important issues of evacuation of all the 350 Pul Doda families and settlement of compensation claims besides construction of two bridges.

Since only two months have been left for settlement of all the vital issues, the Deputy Commissioner, Doda, Kursheed Ahmed Bhat today called an emergency meeting of Chief Engineer, PDC, BHEP Chanderkote, Assistant Commissioner Revenue, OC 114 RCC (GREF) and other officers to take final decisions and set deadlines for expeditious settlement of all issues.

Several issues relating to payment of compensation for structures at Pul Doda, execution of construction work of remaining portion of realigned Khellani-Galginder road, speeding up of pace of construction of bridges at Khellani and Galginder by putting in place triple shift mechanism, complete evacuation of Pul Doda dwellers and progress on construction of bridges at Prungal and Marsu were discussed in detail.

In view of the urgency involved in the matter, the Deputy Commissioner directed the Collector, Baglihar Hydro Electric Project to camp in his (Deputy Commissioner) office from today itself till the payments in respect of all the structures are made to all the 350 families of Pul Doda as well as land owners of Khellani-Galginder road.

The deadline for completion of work on Khellani and Neeru bridges was fixed as June 2008 so that road connectivity to several areas which will get snapped with the submersion of National Highway 1B could be maintained.

It is worthwhile to mention here that entire Pul Doda was declared ‘unsafe’ due to the Baglihar hydro electric project several years back but the State Government failed to formulate any concrete plan for the rehabilitation of families of the area till this year.

Recently, Commissioner Secretary, Revenue, Masood Samoon, on the directions of Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad visited Pul Doda and discussed the issue with Deputy Commissioner, authorities of Baglihar Hydro Electric Project and representatives of Pul Doda people.

Later, he directed the Deputy Commissioner to prepare a comprehensive package for immediate rehabilitation of Pul Doda families. He also directed PDC to provide sufficient funds to Collector BHEP enabling him to provide compensation for the structures at Pul Doda.

It was only after his directions that the settlement of issues of urgency gained some momentum.

Handwara gunbattle ends with death of soldier, 2 militants
Protest over civilian's killing

Excelsior Correspondent

SRINAGAR, May 1: Even as the four-day-long operation of Rashtriya Rifles in Tsoornar forest area of Handwara has ended today with the death of two militants and one soldier, residents of another village in Handwara today staged a demonstration and alleged that troops of Rashtriya Rifles 06 Bn had killed an innocent civilian in custody.

Reports from Handwara added that dead body of a mentally deranged youth, namely Mushtaq Ahmed Mir S/o Ghulam Mohammad Mir R/o Shaldora Fulmarg was spotted and recovered today in Hafruda forest area. He had disappeared in mysterious circumstances from his home during the night intervening April 4th and 5th and his family members had lodged a missing report with Police Station Vilgam on April 11th.

After the dead body was recovered today, a group of people leveled allegations that Mushtaq Ahmed Mir had been taken into custody by a patrol party of RR 6th Bn when he had moved out of his home on April 5th. Even as the family members said that they had "simply filed a missing report" and had not directed their suspicion on anybody, some residents insisted that the family had lodged a specific complaint against the local camp of RR 6th Bn. Defence authorities maintained that no party of Armed forces had picked up or detained anybody for questioning on April 4th/6th. They said that Mir was an innocent civilian and there was no reason for Army or paramilitary forces to take him into custody.

Reports said that 200 to 300 people gathered in Mir's village and leveled allegations that the youth had been detained and killed by Army in custody. They forced shutdown in Handwara area and insisted on taking the dead body to DC Kupwara in a procession. Ding-dong clashes took place between the demonstrators and Police for over an hour. Police swung into action with use of force and prevented the procession from heading for DC's office.

SP Handwara, Dr Haseeb Mughal, told EXCELSIOR that Mir's family members had submitted a report and it had been mentioned by them in Daily Diary Report No: 11 of 11-04-2008 at Police Station Vilgam that Mir was mentally deranged. He said that some local women had informed Police after they had spotted Mir's nearly decomposed body in the forest area yesterday. DDR, according to SP Handwara, mentioned that Mir had left his home at 8.30 p.m. and had not returned. He said that samples were collected today and a post mortem was conducted by a team of doctors. The post mortem report was expected in a couple of days.

Meanwhile, informed sources said that in all two militants and one soldier have died in the 4-day-long gunbattle between militants and security forces in Tsoornar forest area in Handwara. As already reported, Commanding Officer, Col A K Sharma, and another soldier had sustained injuries in the beginning of the operation on Monday. Later one of the holed up militants got killed. On third day of the operation yesterday, one soldier and one more militant got killed.

A Defence spokesman, meanwhile, said that after the unfortunate incident of a live fuse exploding in the hand of a teenager at village Pahloo on 14 Apr 2008, the Army took the initiative of announcing 24 x 7 helpline whereby all sightings for stray ammunition could be reported. Announcements were also made in the affected villages asking residents not to tamper with any unidentified object.

Consequently, one bomblet was reported by Abdul Salaam Haji S/o Abdul Nazar of village Sombran on the 29th of Apr 08. However when the bomb disposal team of the Army went on the spot the villagers also pointed out additional 14 bomblets and one shell of the Bofors gun. That such a large quantity of ammunition suddenly appeared at the edge of the village clearly brings out the fact that aim of sale to unscrupulous scrap dealers who continue to operate in the area offering a high price for the lives of the innocent people of villagers around Khundru.

The Army again implores all inhabitants of the area to refrain from this high risk venture and to hand over all unidentified objects at the nearest Army camp.

HC rejects CBI probe in Chopras murder
*Court to monitor investigations

Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, May 1: In a much publicized Chopras murder case, Justice Hakim Imtiyaz Hussain of State High Court today rejected the plea for investigation through Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and directed the Special Investigation Team (SIT) to proceed with the case expeditiously.

The cement tycon Rajinder Bhushan Chopra, his wife Madhu Chopra, daughter Saloni Chopra, servant and driver were brutally murdered on September 18, 2006 at their residence in Trikuta Nagar.

After going through the case dairies, the Court observed: "The investigation of the case is at a most crucial stage and to interfere with it at this stage, to stop it or to handover it to some other agency including CBI, will adversely effect the progress of the case. The Court has found that SIT has got vital clues which may help to solve the case".

The Court in these circumstances directed SIT to proceed with the case and expedite the investigation, which may be completed within a period of 3 months.

"Keeping in view the nature of the act committed and the sensation the case has created, this Court will monitor the investigation being conducted by the SIT", Justice Imtiyaz Hussain said and directed the SIT to submit weekly progress report of investigation to the Registrar Judicial of High Court for placing the same before the Court for perusal and appropriate order.

According to the police diaries, soon after the murders, SHO Trikuta Nagar, Inspector Mohd Rafiq Manhas started investigation. However, there was no trace of the accused.

In these circumstances, a Special Investigation Team (SIT) of 11 Gazetted Police Officers and one IPS officer of the rank of SP was constituted. The team worked on various possible grounds and examined more than 150 suspects. They looked into every possible reason for the murder of Chopras which covered the business aspects as well as personal rivalry.

After thorough investigation, the SIT came to the conclusion that the crime was committed by the members of Pardhi Tribe of Madhya Pradesh. Later, some arrests were made and suspects were put to multiple rounds of polygraph, brain mapping and narco analysis test conducted at FSL Bangalore.

From these tests, it has been found that 8 members of Pardhi Tribe had committed this gruesome act. It has also been found that suspects were engaged by a criminal from Katra, who instigated/guided them in the matter.

During investigation, the SIT, which is presently headed by SP Operations, Jammu, found no sign of any forced entry into the house from where around Rs 55 lakh cash was found missing. It also came to fore during the investigation and questioning of the arrested persons that the tribe don’t take the gold jewellery lying in the temples and gold ornaments from the females.

The investigation also revealed that either the main door of the house was open or somebody facilitated their entry which was supple and quick because deceased could not use his pistol.

R B Chopra was attacked first in order to silence him. This was corroborated by the fact that his limbs were not found tied unlike Saloni Chopra, driver Jagan Nath and servant Sonu.

However, the petitioner Puneet Chopra, son of R B Chopra was not satisfied with the investigation being conducted by the Special Investigation Team and prayed for handing over the investigation to the CBI.

The State Government vide notification dated September 25, 2006 requested the Central Government to entrust the investigation of the case to CBI. After examining the matter, the CBI expressed its inability to take-up the investigation on the ground that the case was local in nature and did not require intervention by the Central agency.

Free accommodation for yatris at Bhawan
Record increase in pilgrimage

By Sanjeev Pargal

JAMMU, May 1: The number of pilgrims visiting the holy shrine of Mata Vaishno Devi has shown a record increase in the first four months this year as compared to previous year.

The rush has been unprecedented from January 1 to April 30 and is expected to go up further during the summer with vacations coming up, official sources said.

According to the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board (SMVDSB), about 18,000 to 20,000 pilgrims are visiting the shrine every day from all parts of the country to pay obeisance.

"During first four months of last year, 15.90 lakh pilgrims had visited the shrine whereas the inflow of pilgrims has shown an extraordinary rise this year and the figure touched 17.82 lakh, thus, showing tremendous increase of 1.92 lakh over last year, Additional Chief Executive Officer, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board, M K Dwivedi said.

Once the summer breaks begin in other parts of the country, huge rush of pilgrims is expected this year. "We cannot rule out 40,000 to 50,000 of pilgrims, visiting every day at Katra base camp to trek 13-kilometers long track after May 20", Mr Dwivedi said.

In 2007, 7.4 million pilgrims had visited the shrine. The number was expected to go up this year.

In April this year, 5.98 lakh pilgrims paid obeisance to Goddess Vaishno Devi as against 5.53 lakh last year while in March the figure was 6.18 lakh as against 4.89 lakh in 2007. In February, the number of pilgrims was down to 2.25 lakh as compared to 2.54 lakh last year while in January 3.40 lakh yatris visited the shrine as against 2.92 lakh last year.

The SMVDSB has, meanwhile, taken up construction work on New Durga Bhawan at Mata Vaishno Devi complex to provide free accommodation to 1500-2000 yatris with latest facilities like bathrooms, lockers, cloakrooms and blankets etc. Existing Durga Bhawan, which provides free accommodation to about 1000 yatris, is being renovated and upgraded to equip it with latest facilities.

The project is likely to be completed within the next two years.

Two dormitories of 300 beds each are being added at Vaishno Devi Bhawan and Adh-Kunwari.

Work on construction of 20-30 new rooms and expansion of ‘Atka’ area at the Bhawan premises has also been planned, sources said.

The SMVDSB has initiated a series of measures to maintain drinking water supply and other eatables all along the 13-km Katra-Vaishno Devi track during heavy rush expected this summer.

Speaker refers cases of 32 MPs to Privileges Committee

NEW DELHI, May 1: Cracking the whip, Speaker Somnath Chatterjee has referred to the privileges committee cases of as many as 32 Lok Sabha members mainly belonging to the Opposition for "disorderly conduct" in the House.

The rare action has been taken by Chatterjee anguished over repeated disruptions in the House and the immediate provocation was the incidents of April 24 which saw opposition members storming the well shouting slogans without paying heed to the chair.

Protest in the House that day was prompted by the NDA agitation against price rise which found its echo in both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha after the opposition members formed a human chain outside Parliament complex to denounce Government’s failure to check price spiral.

Members whose cases have been referred to the privileges committee for "examination, investigation and report" include several BJP members Shahnawaz Hussain, P S Gadhavi, M A Kharabela Swain, Kishan Singh Sangwan and Kiran Maheswari.

The list also include Chandrakant Khaire, Kalpana Ramesh Narhire (both Shiv Sena), Rattan Singh Ajnala and Sukhdeo Singh Libra (both SAD) as also Tathagatha Satpathy (BJD) and Brajesh Pathak (BSP).

The Speaker referred the matter to the privileges committee yesterday which had also witnessed some noisy scenes during the zero hour prompting chatterjee to observe that it has turned into a "torture hour".

At one point, he had told the agitated Samajwadi Party members that they cannot threaten the chair.

Chatterjee proceeded against Pathak of BSP for his disorderly conduct in the House on April 24 by not allowing Steel and Fertiliser Minister Ramvilas Paswan to give reply to his own supplementary.

Others whose cases have been referred to the privileges committee are Mahavir Bhagora, Ashok Pradhan, Nand Kumar Sai, Shrichand Kriplani, Vijayendra Pal Singh, Ganesh Singh, Faggan Singh Kulaste, Bhanwar Singh Dangawas, Virendra Kumar, Ram Singh Kaswan, Subhash Maharia, Sushila Laxman Bangaru, Dharmendra Pradhan, Ramswaroop Koli, Sukdeo Paswan, Ramakrishna Kusmaria, Karuna Shukla and Nandkumar Singh Chauhan (all BJP).

Sharanjit Singh Dhillon, Paramjit Kaur Gulshan (both SAD) and P P Koya (JD-U).

This is for the first time that the Speaker has taken such a serious view of unruly scenes in the House and is acting tough to send a message that "enough is enough" and discipline and decorum should be maintained at all cost.

His earlier attempts to ensure a "no work no pay" for members could not materialise as it failed to found favour with the floor leaders. (PTI)

MBBS student drowns in Mansar

Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, May 1: A MBBS student of Acharya Shri Chander College of Medical Science (ASCOMS) drowned in Mansar lake this afternoon while taking a bath during picnic.

He has been identified as Abdul Wasid son of Farooq Kathwari, Director (Prosecution), Vigilance Organisation.

SSP Samba Rajinder Gupta, who was camping at the spot, said a group of 10 Medical students of ASCOMS had gone to Mansar for excursion. While taking a bath in the lake, Abdul Wasid drowned around 12.30 pm.

Police parties rushed to the spot and initially pressed local and Civil Defence divers to search the student. Late in the afternoon, Army divers were also called for the search operation and the body was recovered in the evening.

It was handed over to the family after completion of legal formalities.

4 criminals held with weapons

Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, May 1: Police today arrested four criminals along with arms and sharp-edged weapons at Tarlokan Di Chappri in Samba when they were on their way to Chohata Bazar to commit murder of the rival gang.

An Indica car No. 2487 JK02K, being driven by Sumit Singh of Thalora Mandi, Samba was intercepted by police at Tarlokan Di Chappri and four criminals were arrested from it. Sumit Singh, however, managed to escape as the car struck against an electric pole while screeching to a halt.

SSP Samba Rajinder Gupta identified the arrested criminals as Mohitesh Sharma alias Munna of Shakti Nagar, Yogesh Sharma alias David of Thalora, Samba, Sourav Gupta alias Shammi of Nanak Nagar and Rajinder Singh alias Shamboo of Thalora Mandi.

From their possession, police recovered one pistol, one khokhri, one dagger and two tokas. A case has been registered against them under Section 3/25, 4/15 Arms Act and 149 RPC at Samba police station.

Police said the accused had earlier hatched a conspiracy to kill Mohan Cheer before he was arrested by police. Now, Mohitesh Sharma had hired other accused and the gang was planning to kill Vinod Singh alias Benni of Chohata Bazar when they were apprehended.

Police added that all accused were earlier also involved in several crime related incidents at different places.

Yogesh Singh alias David, who was a history sheeter, has been detained under Public Safety Act (PSA).