Yes it’s possible, even after Terra Naomi shed her tears at Gulmarg !
In an ecological massacre, 100,000 conifer trees felled in a Kashmir jungle
AHMED ALI FAYYAZ
ARIZAL, (Beerwah), Jan 30: In clear absence of a political and bureaucratic will, successive governments in Jammu & Kashmir have done nothing substantial to effectively curb the menace of timber smuggling, particularly in Kashmir valley, in the last few decades. Unlike Police and civil administration, equally sensitive Forest sector has witnessed hardly any replenishment of skilled and technical manpower in the last 25 years. Consequently, most of the Valley’s sylvan cover stands exposed to the never-controlled activities of thousands of timber smugglers. SPSP Range of the notorious Pir Panjal Forest Division, in Beerwah area of Budgam district, is a typical example of near-total collapse of the official machinery. YouTube’s American sensation Terra Naomi had shot her latest hit on global warming and ecological degradation in the adjoining Gulmarg range of PP Division in December last.
With an extensive grid in the “liberated zone” of Arizal, a cluster of four particular villages of Sutharan, Chhill, Brass and Drung has emerged as the “Mandi” of timber smugglers in upper Beerwah in the last 20 years. Every second inhabitant here has adopted timber smuggling as profession. Nothing, in fact, without reason. One doesn’t need four eyes to learn that the politicians’ and the officials’ claims of curbing the menace of timber smuggling is invariably for the consumption of few people in the capital cities of Srinagar and Jammu.
Call it surrender or manpower deficiency, Forest Department has a total of eight unarmed officials to check the activities of 300 timber smugglers---all of them armed with lathis, chains and axes--- of Sutharan area. Results are obvious: Over 200 attacks on Forest and Forest Protection Force (FPF) officials in the last 12 years.
Forester Farooq Ahmed of Zanigam was gunned down for taking on the smugglers in 1995. Forest Guard Abdul Rehman of Sonpah village was hacked to death with axes for the same “crime” in October 1997. Hardly anybody has had to suffer for three of such broad daylight murders in the last 12 years. Thousands of reports of illegal felling of trees stand registered in the files of PP Division but few of the smugglers have been arrested. Even the orders of detention under PSA, issued by District Magistrate of Budgam, have been implemented in breach in case of the well-connected smugglers of Beerwah-Khansahab belt.
Bashir Ahmed of Arizal is among the few timber smugglers who were arrested under PSA and detained in a Jammu jail. It took him just Rs 50,000 and two months to return back to the business. Lateef Pathan of Hillmanz hamlet happens to be among very few who failed to get his detention quashed.
For the first time in nearly 20 years, senior Forest officials, led by none other than Minister incharge Forest and Environment Mian Altaf Ahmed, toured through this “liberated zone” in the middle of last year. Residents insist that no PCCF, CCF or CF had ever visited SPSP range ever since the outbreak of armed insurgency in 1989. With the confirmation of departmental sources, they claim that timber smugglers have felled over 100,000 green conifer trees, approximately valued at Rs 1,000 Crore, in different compartments of SPSP range alone in the last 20 years. Rs 3,000 stands as the “rate” for permitting a tree of any size and age in the vast Beerwah-Arizal-Raithan belt. “Just last week, Forest Guard Arshid sold off such a tree in full knowledge of residents, close to Army’s post at Raiyar”, local sources revealed.
Forest Minister Mian Altaf himself spotted ponies carrying loads of illegally felled timber without any fear from the authorities. He got nearly a dozen of the smugglers arrested and their ponies, alongwith timber, seized. Barely 40 minutes after the Minister’s departure, some 200 timber smugglers and their family members, all armed with lathis and axes, stormed the newly created FPF camp, beat the Forest and FPF officials to the pulp, tied them to trees and structures with ropes and got all the detainees rescued. They looted not only the timber seized but also a quantity of what the officials had earlier seized from other areas. Entire drama occurred in close vicinity of a Police camp, specially laid for “protection” of the forest officials.
And when SPSP Range Officer, Aijaz, threatened to uproot the empire of timber smugglers last fortnight, they lost not a minute to teach him a lesson. With 18 stitches on his head, the poor Bollywood hero has been battling for life at Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Science (SKIMS) Soura. None of the senior officers has bothered to even visit him at the hospital.
In days of the murderous attack on RO, Government has ordered removal of the DFO PP Division and posted two “incharge DFOs”---- one at the divisional headquarters at Budgam and another at the “Special Forest Division Tangmarg”. But the “remedial measure” has been patently adhocist. A senior official, posted at Tangmarg, has been put on a substantive vacancy of ACF in the parent PP Division and asked to report to a far junior “incharge DFO” at Budgam. “Government has not created any Special Forest Division at Tangmarg. There is no such DFO or staff at Tangmarg. Tangmarg continues to be the headquarters of Gulmarg Range in PP Division”, said a senior official of Planning department in Civil Secretariat.
“It is not very difficult to take on these timber smugglers. All 400 of them live in four particular villages and operate with nearly 300 horses in the two most endangered blocks of Zoogu and Ringzabal”, said a junior official of SPSP Range. He added: “It is a well connected network. Their money goes to top corridors of power. But, let it be clear that entire network is limited to officers, very senior officers, and, to the best of our knowledge, none of the politicians is a beneficiary, at least in this area”. According to him, transfer of officers every three and six months, without any obvious reason, had “far more between the lines”. Posting of local ROs and Foresters, according to him, was akin to handing over everything to the thief.
“We are running acute shortage of technical staff. PP is one of J&K’s largest divisions spread between Sangarwani in Pulwama district to Khag in Budgam district to Kreeri in Baramulla district. Everybody in the division has four-fold, five-fold responsibility. We still seized 10 vehicles and 325 horses, with huge quantity of timber in the last 6 months of my posting”, outgoing DFO of PP Division Wali Mohammad Ganai said. According to him, skeletal Forest and FPF staff had neither any arms and ammunition nor adequate number of vehicles and communication equipment. There were no funds, either. On the other hand, smugglers are always armed and enjoy support from “powerful people”.
“Forest Department has witnessed last recruitment of Assistant Conservators of Forest and Range Officers 15 to 25 years ago. There is no scope of recruitment of B Sc and M Sc Forestry candidates in the current process of Public Service Commission as it has allowed nearly 10,000 ordinary graduates of different non-Forestry subjects to appear in the competition for 30-odd vacancies of ACFs. FPF was created in December 1996 but no Deputy Directors (DDs) or Assistant Directors (ADs) have been recruited in the last over 13 years”, another official of over 30 years service record observed. He added: “Every incoming and outgoing Forest Minister will keep saying that Government is doing this and that to save our forests. Fact of the matter is that nobody is doing anything. There’s no political or bureaucratic will”. According to him, timber smuggling was “Rs 2,000 Cr a year” business in the state.
END
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Top HuM ultra Basharat Saleem killed?
AHMED ALI FAYYAZ
SRINAGAR, Jan 30: Harkat-ul-Mujahideen’s top wanted militant, Bashrat Saleem Sheikh, is believed to have died in a fierce gunbattle in the most disturbed Sopore township in north Kashmir late tonight.
Informed sources told Early Times that Sopore Police, CRPF and troops of Rashtriya Rifles 22 Bn swooped on the house-cum-restaurant of one Bashir Ahmed Sheikh at New Colony Sopore, late this evening immediately after receiving specific information that Sheikh’s militant son, Basharat Saleem, was present there. As troops and Police maintained a tight cordon and evacuated almost all the civilians from the adjoining houses, one militant, believed to be none other than Basharat Saleem Sheikh, ran away and took shelter in a nearby house.
While troops and Police were preparing for a late night strike, the holed up militant lobbed three grenades and set the house on fire. Troops directed heavy gunfire in retaliation. There was no evidence of the militant’s being alive at around midnight when the house perished fully in the blaze.
IGP Kashmir, Farooq Ahmed, confirmed that the holed up militant lobbed two or three grenades and thereafter set the house on fire. He said that the operation was underway as there was no evidence of the militant’s being dead or alive.
Basharat, according to informed sources, is a dreaded and top wanted militant of Harkat-ul-Mujahideen who is believed to have played key role in reviving militancy in Sopore town and its outskirts in the last six months. Last year Police had arrested his 50-year-old mother, Naseema, with the claim that she was intercepted and apprehended while carrying cash of Rs 50,000 and a grenade for two militants of Harkat-ul-Mujahideen. However, she had been later set free on bail by a court.
Even as IGP Kashmir claimed that the militant strike at Lalchowk in Srinagar on January 6th was “exclusively a Lashkar-e-Toiba operation”, sources in north Kashmir insisted that Basharat Saleem and his Harkat-ul-Mujahideen group had planned and executed it in coordination with Lashkar. Two militants, one civilian and one Police driver had died in that gunbattle which turned into a Fidayeen operation overnight.
In recent weeks, Sopore and its outskirts have witnessed a series of militant strikes on soft targets, CRPF and Police. At least two of such attacks came directly on Police Station of Sopore. One of the outgone SP Abdul Waheed Shah’s PSOs had also died in the firing attack. Thereafter, Government created a special Police District at Sopore and posted Mohammad Altaf Shah of KAS Batch 1999 as the new SP.
END
AHMED ALI FAYYAZ
SRINAGAR, Jan 30: Harkat-ul-Mujahideen’s top wanted militant, Bashrat Saleem Sheikh, is believed to have died in a fierce gunbattle in the most disturbed Sopore township in north Kashmir late tonight.
Informed sources told Early Times that Sopore Police, CRPF and troops of Rashtriya Rifles 22 Bn swooped on the house-cum-restaurant of one Bashir Ahmed Sheikh at New Colony Sopore, late this evening immediately after receiving specific information that Sheikh’s militant son, Basharat Saleem, was present there. As troops and Police maintained a tight cordon and evacuated almost all the civilians from the adjoining houses, one militant, believed to be none other than Basharat Saleem Sheikh, ran away and took shelter in a nearby house.
While troops and Police were preparing for a late night strike, the holed up militant lobbed three grenades and set the house on fire. Troops directed heavy gunfire in retaliation. There was no evidence of the militant’s being alive at around midnight when the house perished fully in the blaze.
IGP Kashmir, Farooq Ahmed, confirmed that the holed up militant lobbed two or three grenades and thereafter set the house on fire. He said that the operation was underway as there was no evidence of the militant’s being dead or alive.
Basharat, according to informed sources, is a dreaded and top wanted militant of Harkat-ul-Mujahideen who is believed to have played key role in reviving militancy in Sopore town and its outskirts in the last six months. Last year Police had arrested his 50-year-old mother, Naseema, with the claim that she was intercepted and apprehended while carrying cash of Rs 50,000 and a grenade for two militants of Harkat-ul-Mujahideen. However, she had been later set free on bail by a court.
Even as IGP Kashmir claimed that the militant strike at Lalchowk in Srinagar on January 6th was “exclusively a Lashkar-e-Toiba operation”, sources in north Kashmir insisted that Basharat Saleem and his Harkat-ul-Mujahideen group had planned and executed it in coordination with Lashkar. Two militants, one civilian and one Police driver had died in that gunbattle which turned into a Fidayeen operation overnight.
In recent weeks, Sopore and its outskirts have witnessed a series of militant strikes on soft targets, CRPF and Police. At least two of such attacks came directly on Police Station of Sopore. One of the outgone SP Abdul Waheed Shah’s PSOs had also died in the firing attack. Thereafter, Government created a special Police District at Sopore and posted Mohammad Altaf Shah of KAS Batch 1999 as the new SP.
END
8 officials to check 300 timber smugglers in Beerwah
Forest machinery fails in Budgam as it has no staff, arms, vehicles, funds
AHMED ALI FAYYAZ
ARIZAL, (Beerwah), Jan 30: In clear absence of a political and bureaucratic will, successive governments in Jammu & Kashmir have done nothing substantial to effectively curb the menace of timber smuggling, particularly in Kashmir valley, in the last few decades. Unlike Police and civil administration, equally sensitive Forest sector has witnessed hardly any replenishment of skilled and technical manpower in the last 25 years. Consequently, most of the Valley’s sylvan cover stands exposed to the never-controlled activities of thousands of timber smugglers. SPSP Range of the notorious Pir Panjal Forest Division, in Beerwah area of Budgam district, is a typical example of near-total collapse of the official machinery.
With an extensive grid in the “liberated zone” of Arizal, a cluster of four particular villages of Sutharan, Chhill, Brass and Drung has emerged as the “Mandi” of timber smugglers in upper Beerwah in the last 20 years. Every second inhabitant here has adopted timber smuggling as profession. Nothing, in fact, without reason. One doesn’t need four eyes to learn that the politicians’ and the officials’ claims of curbing the menace of timber smuggling is invariably for the consumption of few people in the capital cities of Srinagar and Jammu.
Call it surrender or manpower deficiency, Forest Department has a total of eight unarmed officials to check the activities of 300 timber smugglers---all of them armed with lathis, chains and axes--- of Sutharan area. Results are obvious: Over 200 attacks on Forest and Forest Protection Force (FPF) officials in the last 12 years.
Forester Farooq Ahmed of Zanigam was gunned down for taking on the smugglers in 1995. Forest Guard Abdul Rehman of Sonpah village was hacked to death with axes for the same “crime” in October 1997. Hardly anybody has had to suffer for three of such broad daylight murders in the last 12 years. Thousands of reports of illegal felling of trees stand registered in the files of PP Division but few of the smugglers have been arrested. Even the orders of detention under PSA, issued by District Magistrate of Budgam, have been implemented in breach in case of the well-connected smugglers of Beerwah-Khansahab belt.
Bashir Ahmed of Arizal is among the few timber smugglers who were arrested under PSA and detained in a Jammu jail. It took him just Rs 50,000 and two months to return back to the business. Lateef Pathan of Hillmanz hamlet happens to be among very few who failed to get his detention quashed.
For the first time in nearly 20 years, senior Forest officials, led by none other than Minister incharge Forest and Environment Mian Altaf Ahmed, toured through this “liberated zone” in the middle of last year. Residents insist that no PCCF, CCF or CF had ever visited SPSP range ever since the outbreak of armed insurgency in 1989. With the confirmation of departmental sources, they claim that timber smugglers have felled over 100,000 green conifer trees, approximately valued at Rs 1,000 Crore, in different compartments of SPSP range alone in the last 20 years. Rs 3,000 stands as the “rate” for permitting a tree of any size and age in the vast Beerwah-Arizal-Raithan belt. “Just last week, Forest Guard Arshid sold off such a tree in full knowledge of residents, close to Army’s post at Raiyar”, local sources revealed.
Forest Minister Mian Altaf himself spotted ponies carrying loads of illegally felled timber without any fear from the authorities. He got nearly a dozen of the smugglers arrested and their ponies, alongwith timber, seized. Barely 40 minutes after the Minister’s departure, some 200 timber smugglers and their family members, all armed with lathis and axes, stormed the newly created FPF camp, beat the Forest and FPF officials to the pulp, tied them to trees and structures with ropes and got all the detainees rescued. They looted not only the timber seized but also a quantity of what the officials had earlier seized from other areas. Entire drama occurred in close vicinity of a Police camp, specially laid for “protection” of the forest officials.
And when SPSP Range Officer, Aijaz, threatened to uproot the empire of timber smugglers last fortnight, they lost not a minute to teach him a lesson. With 18 stitches on his head, the poor Bollywood hero has been battling for life at Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Science (SKIMS) Soura. None of the senior officers has bothered to even visit him at the hospital.
In days of the murderous attack on RO, Government has ordered removal of the DFO PP Division and posted two “incharge DFOs”---- one at the divisional headquarters at Budgam and another at the “Special Forest Division Tangmarg”. But the “remedial measure” has been patently adhocist. A senior official, posted at Tangmarg, has been put on a substantive vacancy of ACF in the parent PP Division and asked to report to a far junior “incharge DFO” at Budgam. “Government has not created any Special Forest Division at Tangmarg. There is no such DFO or staff at Tangmarg. Tangmarg continues to be the headquarters of Gulmarg Range in PP Division”, said a senior official of Planning department in Civil Secretariat.
“It is not very difficult to take on these timber smugglers. All 400 of them live in four particular villages and operate with nearly 300 horses in the two most endangered blocks of Zoogu and Ringzabal”, said a junior official of SPSP Range. He added: “It is a well connected network. Their money goes to top corridors of power. But, let it be clear that entire network is limited to officers, very senior officers, and, to the best of our knowledge, none of the politicians is a beneficiary, at least in this area”. According to him, transfer of officers every three and six months, without any obvious reason, had “far more between the lines”. Posting of local ROs and Foresters, according to him, was akin to handing over everything to the thief.
“We are running acute shortage of technical staff. PP is one of J&K’s largest divisions spread between Sangarwani in Pulwama district to Khag in Budgam district to Kreeri in Baramulla district. Everybody in the division has four-fold, five-fold responsibility. We still seized 10 vehicles and 325 horses, with huge quantity of timber in the last 6 months of my posting”, outgoing DFO of PP Division Wali Mohammad Ganai said. According to him, skeletal Forest and FPF staff had neither any arms and ammunition nor adequate number of vehicles and communication equipment. There were no funds, either. On the other hand, smugglers are always armed and enjoy support from “powerful people”.
“Forest Department has witnessed last recruitment of Assistant Conservators of Forest and Range Officers 15 to 25 years ago. There is no scope of recruitment of B Sc and M Sc Forestry candidates in the current process of Public Service Commission as it has allowed nearly 10,000 ordinary graduates of different non-Forestry subjects to appear in the competition for 30-odd vacancies of ACFs. FPF was created in December 1996 but no Deputy Directors (DDs) or Assistant Directors (ADs) have been recruited in the last over 13 years”, another official of over 30 years service record observed. He added: “Every incoming and outgoing Forest Minister will keep saying that Government is doing this and that to save our forests. Fact of the matter is that nobody is doing anything. There’s no political or bureaucratic will”. According to him, timber smuggling was “Rs 2,000 Cr a year” business in the state.
END
Forest machinery fails in Budgam as it has no staff, arms, vehicles, funds
AHMED ALI FAYYAZ
ARIZAL, (Beerwah), Jan 30: In clear absence of a political and bureaucratic will, successive governments in Jammu & Kashmir have done nothing substantial to effectively curb the menace of timber smuggling, particularly in Kashmir valley, in the last few decades. Unlike Police and civil administration, equally sensitive Forest sector has witnessed hardly any replenishment of skilled and technical manpower in the last 25 years. Consequently, most of the Valley’s sylvan cover stands exposed to the never-controlled activities of thousands of timber smugglers. SPSP Range of the notorious Pir Panjal Forest Division, in Beerwah area of Budgam district, is a typical example of near-total collapse of the official machinery.
With an extensive grid in the “liberated zone” of Arizal, a cluster of four particular villages of Sutharan, Chhill, Brass and Drung has emerged as the “Mandi” of timber smugglers in upper Beerwah in the last 20 years. Every second inhabitant here has adopted timber smuggling as profession. Nothing, in fact, without reason. One doesn’t need four eyes to learn that the politicians’ and the officials’ claims of curbing the menace of timber smuggling is invariably for the consumption of few people in the capital cities of Srinagar and Jammu.
Call it surrender or manpower deficiency, Forest Department has a total of eight unarmed officials to check the activities of 300 timber smugglers---all of them armed with lathis, chains and axes--- of Sutharan area. Results are obvious: Over 200 attacks on Forest and Forest Protection Force (FPF) officials in the last 12 years.
Forester Farooq Ahmed of Zanigam was gunned down for taking on the smugglers in 1995. Forest Guard Abdul Rehman of Sonpah village was hacked to death with axes for the same “crime” in October 1997. Hardly anybody has had to suffer for three of such broad daylight murders in the last 12 years. Thousands of reports of illegal felling of trees stand registered in the files of PP Division but few of the smugglers have been arrested. Even the orders of detention under PSA, issued by District Magistrate of Budgam, have been implemented in breach in case of the well-connected smugglers of Beerwah-Khansahab belt.
Bashir Ahmed of Arizal is among the few timber smugglers who were arrested under PSA and detained in a Jammu jail. It took him just Rs 50,000 and two months to return back to the business. Lateef Pathan of Hillmanz hamlet happens to be among very few who failed to get his detention quashed.
For the first time in nearly 20 years, senior Forest officials, led by none other than Minister incharge Forest and Environment Mian Altaf Ahmed, toured through this “liberated zone” in the middle of last year. Residents insist that no PCCF, CCF or CF had ever visited SPSP range ever since the outbreak of armed insurgency in 1989. With the confirmation of departmental sources, they claim that timber smugglers have felled over 100,000 green conifer trees, approximately valued at Rs 1,000 Crore, in different compartments of SPSP range alone in the last 20 years. Rs 3,000 stands as the “rate” for permitting a tree of any size and age in the vast Beerwah-Arizal-Raithan belt. “Just last week, Forest Guard Arshid sold off such a tree in full knowledge of residents, close to Army’s post at Raiyar”, local sources revealed.
Forest Minister Mian Altaf himself spotted ponies carrying loads of illegally felled timber without any fear from the authorities. He got nearly a dozen of the smugglers arrested and their ponies, alongwith timber, seized. Barely 40 minutes after the Minister’s departure, some 200 timber smugglers and their family members, all armed with lathis and axes, stormed the newly created FPF camp, beat the Forest and FPF officials to the pulp, tied them to trees and structures with ropes and got all the detainees rescued. They looted not only the timber seized but also a quantity of what the officials had earlier seized from other areas. Entire drama occurred in close vicinity of a Police camp, specially laid for “protection” of the forest officials.
And when SPSP Range Officer, Aijaz, threatened to uproot the empire of timber smugglers last fortnight, they lost not a minute to teach him a lesson. With 18 stitches on his head, the poor Bollywood hero has been battling for life at Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Science (SKIMS) Soura. None of the senior officers has bothered to even visit him at the hospital.
In days of the murderous attack on RO, Government has ordered removal of the DFO PP Division and posted two “incharge DFOs”---- one at the divisional headquarters at Budgam and another at the “Special Forest Division Tangmarg”. But the “remedial measure” has been patently adhocist. A senior official, posted at Tangmarg, has been put on a substantive vacancy of ACF in the parent PP Division and asked to report to a far junior “incharge DFO” at Budgam. “Government has not created any Special Forest Division at Tangmarg. There is no such DFO or staff at Tangmarg. Tangmarg continues to be the headquarters of Gulmarg Range in PP Division”, said a senior official of Planning department in Civil Secretariat.
“It is not very difficult to take on these timber smugglers. All 400 of them live in four particular villages and operate with nearly 300 horses in the two most endangered blocks of Zoogu and Ringzabal”, said a junior official of SPSP Range. He added: “It is a well connected network. Their money goes to top corridors of power. But, let it be clear that entire network is limited to officers, very senior officers, and, to the best of our knowledge, none of the politicians is a beneficiary, at least in this area”. According to him, transfer of officers every three and six months, without any obvious reason, had “far more between the lines”. Posting of local ROs and Foresters, according to him, was akin to handing over everything to the thief.
“We are running acute shortage of technical staff. PP is one of J&K’s largest divisions spread between Sangarwani in Pulwama district to Khag in Budgam district to Kreeri in Baramulla district. Everybody in the division has four-fold, five-fold responsibility. We still seized 10 vehicles and 325 horses, with huge quantity of timber in the last 6 months of my posting”, outgoing DFO of PP Division Wali Mohammad Ganai said. According to him, skeletal Forest and FPF staff had neither any arms and ammunition nor adequate number of vehicles and communication equipment. There were no funds, either. On the other hand, smugglers are always armed and enjoy support from “powerful people”.
“Forest Department has witnessed last recruitment of Assistant Conservators of Forest and Range Officers 15 to 25 years ago. There is no scope of recruitment of B Sc and M Sc Forestry candidates in the current process of Public Service Commission as it has allowed nearly 10,000 ordinary graduates of different non-Forestry subjects to appear in the competition for 30-odd vacancies of ACFs. FPF was created in December 1996 but no Deputy Directors (DDs) or Assistant Directors (ADs) have been recruited in the last over 13 years”, another official of over 30 years service record observed. He added: “Every incoming and outgoing Forest Minister will keep saying that Government is doing this and that to save our forests. Fact of the matter is that nobody is doing anything. There’s no political or bureaucratic will”. According to him, timber smuggling was “Rs 2,000 Cr a year” business in the state.
END
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Govt has no political eye on its Agri face
Most of the co-operative banks, agriculture bodies manned by DCs, GMs
AHMED ALI FAYYAZ
SRINAGAR, Jan 28: With most of the political appointees of the previous PDP-Congress government ruling the roost in key financial institutions, Omar Abdullah-led National Conference-Congress coalition government has failed to find its own political incumbents for a number of co-operative banks and agriculture related corporations.
Provincial level Jammu Central Cooperative Bank (JCCB) is the one-odd bank in the cooperative centre that has held elections and got its board of directors, including Chairman, elected through a democratic process since the day NC-led coalition government assumed office in January last year. Its Chairman is known for his affiliation to the Chief Minister’s party and he is holding the distinction of being one-odd political eye on the government’s entire agriculture and cooperative face.
JCCB’s half counterpart in Kashmir, State Cooperative Bank Ltd, as well as the state-level Land Development Bank have been directly taken over by respective Ministers. While as LDB happens to be a state level financial institution for development of orchards, State Co-operative Bank stands spread over Srinagar, Budgam, Ganderbal, Leh and Kargil districts. Now PDP’s MLA from Lolab, advocate Abdul Haq had functioned as its Chairman in the previous coalition regime.
Even as Minister incharge Co-operative, Dr Manohar Lal, has been declared as the State Cooperative Bank’s ex-officio Chairman, it is practically under total command and control of a General Manager, known for his dubious distinction of being the only under-Matric bank executive in Jammu & Kashmir. He has been adjusting his political affiliation according to the parties in power.
Top position of Chairman has also been lying vacant after resignation of the previous regime’s political appointees in Baramulla Central Co-operative Bank and Anantnag Central Co-operative Bank, JCCB’s half-counterparts in Valley, operating in North Kashmir and South Kashmir respectively. In absence of the fresh incumbents coming from the Omar Abdullah-led coalition government and the cooperative society elections being nowhere around the corner, both these banks are being run by General Managers, though Deputy Commissioners of Baramulla and Anantnag happen to be the ex-officio Chairpersons.
Formerly Governor’s advisor, H H Tayyabji, functioned as Chairman of J&K State Agro-Industries Development Corporation till January 5th 2009. It worked under the stewardship of its former Managing Director, Dr Ghulam Nabi Qasba, till he was removed to an insignificant posting in October 2009 and the Board of Directors was reconstituted. Minister for Agriculture, Ghulam Hassan Mir and senior KAS officer, Mohammad Aslam Laigaroo, who were both among the prominent faces of the PDP-Congress government, are now holding the top positions of Chairman and MD, respectively, in the corporation.
Yet another official, namely M S Qasba, who stands posted as Director of Horticulture, has been holding the charge of the MD of J&K Horticulture (Planning & Marketing) Corporation. Congress leader and Minister of Horticulture, Sham Lal Sharma, has been functioning as its Chairman.
Though it has not apparently ruffled any feathers in the state bureaucracy, senior IAS officer Iqbal Khanday’s dramatic return to the mainstream power corridors and his appointment as Principal Secretary Agriculture Production has not been taken well by either of the coalition partners, particularly NC. Asserting his authority, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had marginalized Khanday, and few others, on account of their “PDP tag” last year. In days of his treating the Government’s orders of sparing a Rural Development professor at IMPA (for drafting so-called Employment Policy) with contempt, Khanday was recalled and given a prize posting.
A many of the NC Ministers and legislators have been heard openly berating Khanday’s rehabilitation as, according to their apprehensions, it would completely neutralize their party’s control over the key Agriculture, Horticulture and Co-operative sector which has been all-important in the Valley.
This vital sector, which remained under one NC’s Minister’s control in Dr Farooq Abdullah’s government in 1996-2002, has today five Ministers in Ghulam Hassan Mir, Sham Lal Sharma, Aga Syed Ruhullah, Dr Manohar Lal and Aijaz Ahmed Khan. Green hand Ruhullah alone belongs to the Chief Minister’s party.
END
Most of the co-operative banks, agriculture bodies manned by DCs, GMs
AHMED ALI FAYYAZ
SRINAGAR, Jan 28: With most of the political appointees of the previous PDP-Congress government ruling the roost in key financial institutions, Omar Abdullah-led National Conference-Congress coalition government has failed to find its own political incumbents for a number of co-operative banks and agriculture related corporations.
Provincial level Jammu Central Cooperative Bank (JCCB) is the one-odd bank in the cooperative centre that has held elections and got its board of directors, including Chairman, elected through a democratic process since the day NC-led coalition government assumed office in January last year. Its Chairman is known for his affiliation to the Chief Minister’s party and he is holding the distinction of being one-odd political eye on the government’s entire agriculture and cooperative face.
JCCB’s half counterpart in Kashmir, State Cooperative Bank Ltd, as well as the state-level Land Development Bank have been directly taken over by respective Ministers. While as LDB happens to be a state level financial institution for development of orchards, State Co-operative Bank stands spread over Srinagar, Budgam, Ganderbal, Leh and Kargil districts. Now PDP’s MLA from Lolab, advocate Abdul Haq had functioned as its Chairman in the previous coalition regime.
Even as Minister incharge Co-operative, Dr Manohar Lal, has been declared as the State Cooperative Bank’s ex-officio Chairman, it is practically under total command and control of a General Manager, known for his dubious distinction of being the only under-Matric bank executive in Jammu & Kashmir. He has been adjusting his political affiliation according to the parties in power.
Top position of Chairman has also been lying vacant after resignation of the previous regime’s political appointees in Baramulla Central Co-operative Bank and Anantnag Central Co-operative Bank, JCCB’s half-counterparts in Valley, operating in North Kashmir and South Kashmir respectively. In absence of the fresh incumbents coming from the Omar Abdullah-led coalition government and the cooperative society elections being nowhere around the corner, both these banks are being run by General Managers, though Deputy Commissioners of Baramulla and Anantnag happen to be the ex-officio Chairpersons.
Formerly Governor’s advisor, H H Tayyabji, functioned as Chairman of J&K State Agro-Industries Development Corporation till January 5th 2009. It worked under the stewardship of its former Managing Director, Dr Ghulam Nabi Qasba, till he was removed to an insignificant posting in October 2009 and the Board of Directors was reconstituted. Minister for Agriculture, Ghulam Hassan Mir and senior KAS officer, Mohammad Aslam Laigaroo, who were both among the prominent faces of the PDP-Congress government, are now holding the top positions of Chairman and MD, respectively, in the corporation.
Yet another official, namely M S Qasba, who stands posted as Director of Horticulture, has been holding the charge of the MD of J&K Horticulture (Planning & Marketing) Corporation. Congress leader and Minister of Horticulture, Sham Lal Sharma, has been functioning as its Chairman.
Though it has not apparently ruffled any feathers in the state bureaucracy, senior IAS officer Iqbal Khanday’s dramatic return to the mainstream power corridors and his appointment as Principal Secretary Agriculture Production has not been taken well by either of the coalition partners, particularly NC. Asserting his authority, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had marginalized Khanday, and few others, on account of their “PDP tag” last year. In days of his treating the Government’s orders of sparing a Rural Development professor at IMPA (for drafting so-called Employment Policy) with contempt, Khanday was recalled and given a prize posting.
A many of the NC Ministers and legislators have been heard openly berating Khanday’s rehabilitation as, according to their apprehensions, it would completely neutralize their party’s control over the key Agriculture, Horticulture and Co-operative sector which has been all-important in the Valley.
This vital sector, which remained under one NC’s Minister’s control in Dr Farooq Abdullah’s government in 1996-2002, has today five Ministers in Ghulam Hassan Mir, Sham Lal Sharma, Aga Syed Ruhullah, Dr Manohar Lal and Aijaz Ahmed Khan. Green hand Ruhullah alone belongs to the Chief Minister’s party.
END
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
First time in Valley: No Tricolour at Lalchowk
Total shutdown, clashes with Police run parallel to colourful R-Day parades in Kashmir
AHMED ALI FAYYAZ
SRINAGAR, Jan 26: Notwithstanding colourful Republic Day parades at all district headquarters and major towns across the Valley, National Conference-led coalition government today achieved a dubious distinction as, for the first time in the last 20 years of the political turmoil, there was no unfurling of the national flag at Lalchowk. In response to a call from different separatist organizations, Kashmir observed near-total shutdown and groups of youngsters clashed with Police and paramilitary forces at several places in the summer capital and few other towns.
Hoisting the Tricolour on occasion of the R-Day at Lalchowk, nerve centre of the Valley’s trade and business, has gained considerable symbolic and psychological significance ever since BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi led a caravan of his party activists from different Indian states “to conquer Srinagar” in January 1992. Notwithstanding unprecedented tension, paramilitary forces had hoisted the national flag on the historic Lalchowk’s Clock Tower in 1990 and 1991. They did it with Joshi’s controversial morale boosting in 1992 and without that thereafter.
Most of the business centres at and around Lalchowk---Palladium Cinema, Punjab Hotel (twice), Gujarat Hotel (twice), Budshah Hotel, Standard Hotel, Taj Hotel---perished in the wake of guerrilla strikes and gunbattles between militants and security forces. Notwithstanding extreme hostile conditions, hoisting of the Tricolour never stopped on the Indian Independence Day (Aug 15th) and Republic Day (Jan 21) at Lalchowk in the last 20 years of turmoil.
With Police and security forces ironically enforcing Hurriyat’s and different militant outfit’s call of ‘civil curfew’ under the label of security arrangements for the ceremonial R-Day functions, there was near-total shutdown in entire Valley. Even the youngsters who used to play cricket on public parks and streets in the last over 10 years as pastime were nowhere visible in the capital city.
Even as there were no concertina wire barriers, excluding those in close vicinities of Bakhshi Memorial Sports Stadium---venue of the main R-Day function in Kashmir---, CRPF columns kept Lalchowk out-of-bounds for residents of Srinagar and did not allow any civilian movement through it. While returning from Divisional Commissioner’s R-Day at home at SKICC, none of the mediapersons, including this correspondent, were allowed to walk or drive through Lalchowk by the whitle blowing soldiers. Who or what they were protecting was not clear. Unusually, the monumental Bajaj Clock Tower was without a Tricolour atop it. And, as usual, the clock was asleep with both, hour and minute, hands paralyzed.
In a quick reaction to media reports, a Government spokesman issued a “clarification” from the seat of power in Jammu to offset the impression that the official machinery had surrendered before saboteurs and bought the piece. He sought to make it clear that hoisting of the national flag at Lalchowk was “never a state function”. ‘The local commandants of the Paramilitary Forces posted around Lal chowk have been hoisting the flag at Lal chowk on their own and this time the CRPF decided not to do it which was also their internal decision”, he said in the press release.
The spokesman further said that the State official function in Srinagar has always been held at Bakshi Stadium, Srinagar. “Today also the State official function was organized at Bakshi Stadium, where the Republic Day celebrations were held in tandem with the traditions and with the participation of nearly 8000 people. The State official functions were also held across the state at all the District head-quarters, Sub Divisional and Tehsil levels peacefully with great fervor and active participation of the public”, he asserted.
Reports gathered from different sources said that over a dozen civilians and Police personnel sustained injuries in ding dong clashed that marred the R-Day fervour in the capital city as also in the north Kashmir towns of Sopore and Baramulla. Though the number of stone pelting youth was not legion, their slogan shouting and clashes with Police and paramilitary troops froze the capital city for the whole day. Stone pelting has been a usual feature of anti-Government and anti-national demonstrations since June last year but an unusual manifestation on the R-Day which used to witness simply a shutdown in the last over a decade.
Reports said that during a clash with Police, a group of youth attempted to hoist a Pakistani flag in the downtown interior of Habbakadal. Maisuma, Gawkadal, Habbakadal, Fatehkadal, entire Nallal Mar Road from Khanyar to Cement Bridge, Safakadal, Nawakadal, Nawab Bazar and Batmaloo were the major trouble spots as the groups of masked youth maintained stone pelting with anti-India and pro-Azadi slogans and Police/ CRPF retaliated with firing of tearsmoke canisters and baton charge.
Authorities still looked upbeat as militants could not cause any major or minor disturbance to sabotage the R-Day celebrations anywhere in the Valley. Ceremonial parades and cultural programmes went on smoothly at the fortified venues at all the 10 district headquarters and other major towns where officials of different government departments and organizations had arranged modest attendance of select individuals, including activists of some pro-India political parties. Students of different government and private schools besides the artists of Information Department and Cultural Academy performed in the colourful cultural programmes at Bakshi Stadium in Srinagar and other district headquarters.
END
Total shutdown, clashes with Police run parallel to colourful R-Day parades in Kashmir
AHMED ALI FAYYAZ
SRINAGAR, Jan 26: Notwithstanding colourful Republic Day parades at all district headquarters and major towns across the Valley, National Conference-led coalition government today achieved a dubious distinction as, for the first time in the last 20 years of the political turmoil, there was no unfurling of the national flag at Lalchowk. In response to a call from different separatist organizations, Kashmir observed near-total shutdown and groups of youngsters clashed with Police and paramilitary forces at several places in the summer capital and few other towns.
Hoisting the Tricolour on occasion of the R-Day at Lalchowk, nerve centre of the Valley’s trade and business, has gained considerable symbolic and psychological significance ever since BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi led a caravan of his party activists from different Indian states “to conquer Srinagar” in January 1992. Notwithstanding unprecedented tension, paramilitary forces had hoisted the national flag on the historic Lalchowk’s Clock Tower in 1990 and 1991. They did it with Joshi’s controversial morale boosting in 1992 and without that thereafter.
Most of the business centres at and around Lalchowk---Palladium Cinema, Punjab Hotel (twice), Gujarat Hotel (twice), Budshah Hotel, Standard Hotel, Taj Hotel---perished in the wake of guerrilla strikes and gunbattles between militants and security forces. Notwithstanding extreme hostile conditions, hoisting of the Tricolour never stopped on the Indian Independence Day (Aug 15th) and Republic Day (Jan 21) at Lalchowk in the last 20 years of turmoil.
With Police and security forces ironically enforcing Hurriyat’s and different militant outfit’s call of ‘civil curfew’ under the label of security arrangements for the ceremonial R-Day functions, there was near-total shutdown in entire Valley. Even the youngsters who used to play cricket on public parks and streets in the last over 10 years as pastime were nowhere visible in the capital city.
Even as there were no concertina wire barriers, excluding those in close vicinities of Bakhshi Memorial Sports Stadium---venue of the main R-Day function in Kashmir---, CRPF columns kept Lalchowk out-of-bounds for residents of Srinagar and did not allow any civilian movement through it. While returning from Divisional Commissioner’s R-Day at home at SKICC, none of the mediapersons, including this correspondent, were allowed to walk or drive through Lalchowk by the whitle blowing soldiers. Who or what they were protecting was not clear. Unusually, the monumental Bajaj Clock Tower was without a Tricolour atop it. And, as usual, the clock was asleep with both, hour and minute, hands paralyzed.
In a quick reaction to media reports, a Government spokesman issued a “clarification” from the seat of power in Jammu to offset the impression that the official machinery had surrendered before saboteurs and bought the piece. He sought to make it clear that hoisting of the national flag at Lalchowk was “never a state function”. ‘The local commandants of the Paramilitary Forces posted around Lal chowk have been hoisting the flag at Lal chowk on their own and this time the CRPF decided not to do it which was also their internal decision”, he said in the press release.
The spokesman further said that the State official function in Srinagar has always been held at Bakshi Stadium, Srinagar. “Today also the State official function was organized at Bakshi Stadium, where the Republic Day celebrations were held in tandem with the traditions and with the participation of nearly 8000 people. The State official functions were also held across the state at all the District head-quarters, Sub Divisional and Tehsil levels peacefully with great fervor and active participation of the public”, he asserted.
Reports gathered from different sources said that over a dozen civilians and Police personnel sustained injuries in ding dong clashed that marred the R-Day fervour in the capital city as also in the north Kashmir towns of Sopore and Baramulla. Though the number of stone pelting youth was not legion, their slogan shouting and clashes with Police and paramilitary troops froze the capital city for the whole day. Stone pelting has been a usual feature of anti-Government and anti-national demonstrations since June last year but an unusual manifestation on the R-Day which used to witness simply a shutdown in the last over a decade.
Reports said that during a clash with Police, a group of youth attempted to hoist a Pakistani flag in the downtown interior of Habbakadal. Maisuma, Gawkadal, Habbakadal, Fatehkadal, entire Nallal Mar Road from Khanyar to Cement Bridge, Safakadal, Nawakadal, Nawab Bazar and Batmaloo were the major trouble spots as the groups of masked youth maintained stone pelting with anti-India and pro-Azadi slogans and Police/ CRPF retaliated with firing of tearsmoke canisters and baton charge.
Authorities still looked upbeat as militants could not cause any major or minor disturbance to sabotage the R-Day celebrations anywhere in the Valley. Ceremonial parades and cultural programmes went on smoothly at the fortified venues at all the 10 district headquarters and other major towns where officials of different government departments and organizations had arranged modest attendance of select individuals, including activists of some pro-India political parties. Students of different government and private schools besides the artists of Information Department and Cultural Academy performed in the colourful cultural programmes at Bakshi Stadium in Srinagar and other district headquarters.
END
After Cabinet, Cong factionalism delays Chairmen appointments
Illiterate leaders arranging fake qualification certificates from BOSE
AHMED ALI FAYYAZ
SRINAGAR, Jan 25: Process of the appointment of political heads in nearly a dozen autonomous bodies, including boards and corporations, has been suspended due to the swelling factionalism in Congress party in Jammu & Kashmir. Omar Abdullah-led coalition government’s act of appointing heads for three of such bodies from National Conference (NC) alone on January 19th is being widely interpreted in the state as an official confirmation of the internecine squabbling in the ruling coalition partner headed by Prof Saif-ud-din Soz.
With only few of them eying the two Cabinet berths and equal number of vacancies in Legislative Council, most of the NC and Congress leaders looking for “accommodation” in the coalition government have intensified lobbying in order to lay their hands on the “headless” bodies and undertakings. Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s PDP-Congress coalition had previously shared these political appointments and granted the status of Ministers of State to many of the elected legislators so as to give them the sense of accommodation. In the wake of a country-wide controversy later, Government had also gone for necessary legislation on the pattern of the UPA Government at the Centre to keep a large number of these undertakings outside the ambit of the law governing office of profit and disqualification of the legislators.
It was mainly due to the list of the nominees failing to reach Chief Minister Omar Abdullah from the Congress that expansion of the Council of Ministers had been delayed in the state for over six months. In the wake of considerable criticism of inaction and ‘lack of coordination among the ruling partners’ heaping up on the head of the government, Omar Abdullah had finally extorted a list of nominees from the Congress high command and filled up all but two vacancies in his Council of Ministers in July 2009. Congress MLA from Surankot, Choudhary Mohammad Aslam, and the NC MLA from Handwara, Cowdhary Mohammad Ramzan, have been the potential contenders for the two vacant berths, though neither of them has been lucky enough to get inducted.
Even after the Government ordered three of such political appointments on January 19th, nearly 20 aspirants in the two coalition constituents have intensified lobbying for the stewardship of the autonomous bodies and undertakings. While as NC’s MLA from Habbakadal, Shameema Firdaus, was appointed as Chairperson of the headless State Commission for Woman, same party’s Mushtaq Ahmed Bukhari was appointed as Vice Chairman of J&K State Advisory Board for Development of Pahari Speaking People. NC’s MLA from Kalakote, Rachpal Singh, was appointed as Vice Chairman of the newly created J&K State Advisory Board for Develoment of Kissan.
With Ms Firdaus becoming the supreme head of the women’s statutory body, that had been headless since the day of Dr Girija Dhar’s resignation seven years ago, Bukhari and Singh would have Chief Minister as the Chairman of their respective boards. All three were declared of the status and protocol of a Minister of State. If sources in the government are to be believed, Bukhari’s accommodation has irked aspirants like the much alienated NC stalwart Mirza Abdul Rashid and the party’s third time MLA from Karnah, Kafeel-ur-Rehman.
Activity is more visible in Congress which has staked its claim on more than half of such autonomous bodies but failed to forward a list of its official nominees to the Chief Minister, mainly due to factional bickering in the party. Analysts believe that with certain changes in the organizational structure, where the buzz word these days is “one man one post”, both the patrons of the warring factions, namely Prof Soz and Ghulam Nabi Azad, would get their share.
Even as the eligibility criterion has been lowered and Higer Secondary (10+2) still stands fixed as minimum academic qualification for all these political appointments in the autonomous bodies, patrons in the Congress are reliably understood to be promoting few of their illiterate protégés.
Early Times has learned from well-placed authoritative sources that one of such illiterate aspirants from South Kashmir has, of late, succeeded in obtaining a fake Class 12th pass qualification certificate purportedly issued by J&K State Board of School Education. A senior Congress leader is believed to have put in a word for this fraudulent process as he appears to be keen to elevate the defeated candidate of Assembly Elections to the coveted position of Chairman of J&K State Handicrafts (Sales & Exports) Corporation with the status of a Minister of State.
In case matters are resolved and a consensus achieved in Congress, Government is expected to appoint Chairpersons for Advisory Board for Development of Gujjar and Bakerwal, Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and Other Backward Classes Development Corporation, J&K State Handicrafts (Sales & Export) Corporation, J&K State Khadi & Village Industries Board, SICOP, SIDCO, HPMC, JAKFED and J&K State Handloom Development Corporation.
END
Illiterate leaders arranging fake qualification certificates from BOSE
AHMED ALI FAYYAZ
SRINAGAR, Jan 25: Process of the appointment of political heads in nearly a dozen autonomous bodies, including boards and corporations, has been suspended due to the swelling factionalism in Congress party in Jammu & Kashmir. Omar Abdullah-led coalition government’s act of appointing heads for three of such bodies from National Conference (NC) alone on January 19th is being widely interpreted in the state as an official confirmation of the internecine squabbling in the ruling coalition partner headed by Prof Saif-ud-din Soz.
With only few of them eying the two Cabinet berths and equal number of vacancies in Legislative Council, most of the NC and Congress leaders looking for “accommodation” in the coalition government have intensified lobbying in order to lay their hands on the “headless” bodies and undertakings. Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s PDP-Congress coalition had previously shared these political appointments and granted the status of Ministers of State to many of the elected legislators so as to give them the sense of accommodation. In the wake of a country-wide controversy later, Government had also gone for necessary legislation on the pattern of the UPA Government at the Centre to keep a large number of these undertakings outside the ambit of the law governing office of profit and disqualification of the legislators.
It was mainly due to the list of the nominees failing to reach Chief Minister Omar Abdullah from the Congress that expansion of the Council of Ministers had been delayed in the state for over six months. In the wake of considerable criticism of inaction and ‘lack of coordination among the ruling partners’ heaping up on the head of the government, Omar Abdullah had finally extorted a list of nominees from the Congress high command and filled up all but two vacancies in his Council of Ministers in July 2009. Congress MLA from Surankot, Choudhary Mohammad Aslam, and the NC MLA from Handwara, Cowdhary Mohammad Ramzan, have been the potential contenders for the two vacant berths, though neither of them has been lucky enough to get inducted.
Even after the Government ordered three of such political appointments on January 19th, nearly 20 aspirants in the two coalition constituents have intensified lobbying for the stewardship of the autonomous bodies and undertakings. While as NC’s MLA from Habbakadal, Shameema Firdaus, was appointed as Chairperson of the headless State Commission for Woman, same party’s Mushtaq Ahmed Bukhari was appointed as Vice Chairman of J&K State Advisory Board for Development of Pahari Speaking People. NC’s MLA from Kalakote, Rachpal Singh, was appointed as Vice Chairman of the newly created J&K State Advisory Board for Develoment of Kissan.
With Ms Firdaus becoming the supreme head of the women’s statutory body, that had been headless since the day of Dr Girija Dhar’s resignation seven years ago, Bukhari and Singh would have Chief Minister as the Chairman of their respective boards. All three were declared of the status and protocol of a Minister of State. If sources in the government are to be believed, Bukhari’s accommodation has irked aspirants like the much alienated NC stalwart Mirza Abdul Rashid and the party’s third time MLA from Karnah, Kafeel-ur-Rehman.
Activity is more visible in Congress which has staked its claim on more than half of such autonomous bodies but failed to forward a list of its official nominees to the Chief Minister, mainly due to factional bickering in the party. Analysts believe that with certain changes in the organizational structure, where the buzz word these days is “one man one post”, both the patrons of the warring factions, namely Prof Soz and Ghulam Nabi Azad, would get their share.
Even as the eligibility criterion has been lowered and Higer Secondary (10+2) still stands fixed as minimum academic qualification for all these political appointments in the autonomous bodies, patrons in the Congress are reliably understood to be promoting few of their illiterate protégés.
Early Times has learned from well-placed authoritative sources that one of such illiterate aspirants from South Kashmir has, of late, succeeded in obtaining a fake Class 12th pass qualification certificate purportedly issued by J&K State Board of School Education. A senior Congress leader is believed to have put in a word for this fraudulent process as he appears to be keen to elevate the defeated candidate of Assembly Elections to the coveted position of Chairman of J&K State Handicrafts (Sales & Exports) Corporation with the status of a Minister of State.
In case matters are resolved and a consensus achieved in Congress, Government is expected to appoint Chairpersons for Advisory Board for Development of Gujjar and Bakerwal, Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and Other Backward Classes Development Corporation, J&K State Handicrafts (Sales & Export) Corporation, J&K State Khadi & Village Industries Board, SICOP, SIDCO, HPMC, JAKFED and J&K State Handloom Development Corporation.
END
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Pulwama erupts over civilian’s killing in gunbattle
Residents blame troops, Army calls it ‘death in crossfiring’
AHMED ALI FAYYAZ
SRINAGAR, Jan 24: Death of yet another youth during the course of Army’s counter-insurgency operation in Pulwama district today led to a massive demonstration as the residents of Rajpora area held the security forces responsible for the civilian’s killing in the encounter.
Informed sources in South Kashmir told Early Times that over a specific information regarding the dreaded Hizbul Mujahideen commander Fayaz Pir’s presence with another militant at the village headman Ghulam Ahmed Mir’s house at Kalampora, in Shadimarg area of Pulwama district late last evening, troops of Rashtriya Rifles 44 Bn alongwith a Police party launched a cordon-and-search operation. During the course of operation, a shootout took place in which the house owner’s 36-year-old son, Mushtaq Ahmed Mir, got killed and a soldier sustained injuries.
Sources said that recovery of Mushtaq Ahmed Mir’s dead body sent shock waves around as the family members and other villagers gathered back to raise an uproar. Even as troops prevented their advances to Mir’s house, hue and cry by the residents over the youth’s death disturbed the operation. During the melee, both the holed up militants managed to escape.
Commanders of the operation insist that Fayaz Pir escaped after he was hit at least once in his body. Security forces later called off the operation. They conducted searches with the help of sniffer dogs in two adjoining villages, monitored mobile phone traffic and tracked radio intercepts but failed to get any clue regarding the militants’ new hideout. Two days ago, three holed up militants had similarly managed to escape from a cordoned group of houses at Rampora, near Kaimoh village, in Kulgam district of South Kashmir.
Sources said that troops, Police and intelligence sleuths had put Rajpora and Kaimoh localities under surveillance as they were hopeful that all five of the escapees would be dealt with effectively with the support of residents. Sources said that Police Station Rajpora registered two FIRs on the conflicting versions of the Army and residents of Kalampora village today.
According to the reports received from Pulwama, hundreds of residents of Kalampora and adjoining villages gathered and put up a massive demonstration against Army and Police with the allegation that they had forced Mushtaq Ahmed to enter the militants’ room with a torch against his will and thus got him killed. Some of the residents even asserted that Army had directly fired upon the house owner’s son after sending him with the command of surrender to the militants.
The demonstrators demanded registration of FIR against Army, arrest and suspension of the soldiers allegedly responsible and ex gratia relief, including a government job, to the bereaved family. After a great deal of persuasion by SSP Pulwama, Syed Kifayat Hyder, who was called back from a condolence meeting at his uncle’s home in Srinagar, people of the area allowed post mortem of the dead body at a local hospital. They enforced shutdown in Rajpora-Pulwama belt but conducted Mushtaq Ahmed Mir’s funeral peacefully. Later in the evening, reports said that the dead body was buried amid pro-Azadi and anti-India and anti-Government slogans.
IGP Kashmir, Farooq Ahmed, told Early Times that Police and security forces had launched a manhunt to get Fayaz Pir. He said it was simultaneously being looked into whether Mushtaq Ahmed Mir had been pushed to the death trap by commanders of the operation, as alleged by residents, or he had died in a routine incident of cross-firing between the two sides.
Defence PRO at headquarters 15 Corps claimed in a statement that the allegations of troops having directly killed Mushtaq and that he had been forced to enter the death trap were baseless. He asserted that the civilian got killed in the crossfiring between the militants and security forces.
END
Residents blame troops, Army calls it ‘death in crossfiring’
AHMED ALI FAYYAZ
SRINAGAR, Jan 24: Death of yet another youth during the course of Army’s counter-insurgency operation in Pulwama district today led to a massive demonstration as the residents of Rajpora area held the security forces responsible for the civilian’s killing in the encounter.
Informed sources in South Kashmir told Early Times that over a specific information regarding the dreaded Hizbul Mujahideen commander Fayaz Pir’s presence with another militant at the village headman Ghulam Ahmed Mir’s house at Kalampora, in Shadimarg area of Pulwama district late last evening, troops of Rashtriya Rifles 44 Bn alongwith a Police party launched a cordon-and-search operation. During the course of operation, a shootout took place in which the house owner’s 36-year-old son, Mushtaq Ahmed Mir, got killed and a soldier sustained injuries.
Sources said that recovery of Mushtaq Ahmed Mir’s dead body sent shock waves around as the family members and other villagers gathered back to raise an uproar. Even as troops prevented their advances to Mir’s house, hue and cry by the residents over the youth’s death disturbed the operation. During the melee, both the holed up militants managed to escape.
Commanders of the operation insist that Fayaz Pir escaped after he was hit at least once in his body. Security forces later called off the operation. They conducted searches with the help of sniffer dogs in two adjoining villages, monitored mobile phone traffic and tracked radio intercepts but failed to get any clue regarding the militants’ new hideout. Two days ago, three holed up militants had similarly managed to escape from a cordoned group of houses at Rampora, near Kaimoh village, in Kulgam district of South Kashmir.
Sources said that troops, Police and intelligence sleuths had put Rajpora and Kaimoh localities under surveillance as they were hopeful that all five of the escapees would be dealt with effectively with the support of residents. Sources said that Police Station Rajpora registered two FIRs on the conflicting versions of the Army and residents of Kalampora village today.
According to the reports received from Pulwama, hundreds of residents of Kalampora and adjoining villages gathered and put up a massive demonstration against Army and Police with the allegation that they had forced Mushtaq Ahmed to enter the militants’ room with a torch against his will and thus got him killed. Some of the residents even asserted that Army had directly fired upon the house owner’s son after sending him with the command of surrender to the militants.
The demonstrators demanded registration of FIR against Army, arrest and suspension of the soldiers allegedly responsible and ex gratia relief, including a government job, to the bereaved family. After a great deal of persuasion by SSP Pulwama, Syed Kifayat Hyder, who was called back from a condolence meeting at his uncle’s home in Srinagar, people of the area allowed post mortem of the dead body at a local hospital. They enforced shutdown in Rajpora-Pulwama belt but conducted Mushtaq Ahmed Mir’s funeral peacefully. Later in the evening, reports said that the dead body was buried amid pro-Azadi and anti-India and anti-Government slogans.
IGP Kashmir, Farooq Ahmed, told Early Times that Police and security forces had launched a manhunt to get Fayaz Pir. He said it was simultaneously being looked into whether Mushtaq Ahmed Mir had been pushed to the death trap by commanders of the operation, as alleged by residents, or he had died in a routine incident of cross-firing between the two sides.
Defence PRO at headquarters 15 Corps claimed in a statement that the allegations of troops having directly killed Mushtaq and that he had been forced to enter the death trap were baseless. He asserted that the civilian got killed in the crossfiring between the militants and security forces.
END
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