Forester alleges ‘assault’ by Minister’s PA over eviction drive

Forest Minister: ‘Nobody can stop our eviction drive. We are soon proceeding against ex-Ministers and bureaucrats who have grabbed forest land’

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz
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SRINAGAR, Nov 27: While complaining that a Minister’s private assistant provoked the people and obstructed the Forest Department’s drive to retrieve 400 kanals of the forest land  in Pulwama district, a Forester on Friday filed a complaint for registration of FIR against the Minister’s aide who, in turn, claimed that FIR of molestation was being filed against the official.

The incident of altercation was received from Nichen Dajan village of Sangarwani range of Pulwama district where Forest Department has launched a major drive of eviction to retrieve 400 kanals of its demarcated land that has been grabbed and encroached upon by the residents in the last several decades.

“I was on the job with about 20 officials and labourers. We were fencing the land already demarcated. Suddenly one Junaid Ahmad Lone, who is said to be Finance Minister’s PA, reached there with a Police posse. He provoked the people for an assault on us and on his instigation they looted our posts and pillars. Some of them were damaged. Junaid Sahab abused me. He hurled abuses on PCCF and DFO and slapped me when I refused to take his order to stop the eviction drive. He tore off my uniform and left me injured”, Forester Mohammad Kabir complained.

Kabir later approached Police Station Rajpora and lodged a complaint, seeking registration of FIR with the charges of assault on a public servant and obstructing him from discharging his duty.

Junaid Ahmad Lone, on the contrary, claimed that he did not lead or carry out any assault on Kabir or any other Forest official.

“For the last 20 days, residents approached Finance Minister and MLA Rajpora (Haseeb Drabu) with the request that there should be some relief and concession to those who had this land in their possession without question from Forest Department for decades. They pleaded that they had their houses and orchards on this land since long. We requested DC Pulwama and DFO Shopian to suspend the drive till there was some reconciliation with the people. On my Minister’s direction, I visited the spot in the company of a Police party and just requested them to suspend the drive till DC and DFO arrive on the spot. They didn’t listen to us and we went back”, Junaid told STATE TIMES.

Junaid attributed political motives to Kabir’s complaint and pointed out that he was a neighbour and relative of the Opposition National Conference’s defeated candidate and former Minister Ghulam Mohiuddin Mir of Muran. He claimed that in fact a number of women after today’s incident lodged a complaint of molestation against the same Forest official.

Minister incharge Forest Bali Bhagat asserted that “nobody on earth” could stop his department’s eviction drive and that it would be carried on with more intensity and force from tomorrow. “The Minister’s PRO has done hooliganism and it will not be tolerated. I have directed my department to file FIR against him and action will follow under law. I have been told that the FIR has been registered”, Mr Bhagat told STATE TIMES on telephone from New Delhi.

“We have already retrieved 14,000 kanals of the grabbed forest land. We are now identifying the former Ministers, politicians and bureaucrats who have grabbed the forest land and we are soon proceeding against them. Nobody is going to stop this drive”, Mr Bhagat asserted.

DFO Shopian Feroz Ahmad Chaket said that his Range Officer Nawab Ahmad Magray reached the spot within 15 minutes. DFO himself reached there in about one hour. He dismissed Junaid’s version as a “concocted story” and said that “not a single man or woman” approached them with a complaint of assault or molestation against any Forest official. He said that after Kabir got first aid, he was directed by higher ups to lodge a complaint with the Police.

Conservator of South Circle Syed Farooq Gilani as well as DFO Shopian Feroz Ahmad Chaket asserted that there was “absolutely no dispute” on title or ownership of the land being vacated in that area. “Forest land is properly demarcated and our demarcation posts are intact since decades. We are retrieving the same land and fencing it for a CAMPA closure. We have clear-cut instructions from CM’s Secretariat and Forest Minister to retrieve the grabbed forest land at any cost and not to succumb to pressure from any quarter”, Conservator Gilani told STATE TIMES.

DFO said that his staff resumed the eviction drive immediately after the “assault” on the Forester. “We can’t suspend our drive as there is no dispute over the title. Besides, snowfall can take place any time”, DFO asserted.

Gilani added that his department had already made it clear that the land with old residential houses would be touched in the secondary phase. “As of now, we are only clearing the land converted into orchards and encroached in recent past. Entire grabbed land in Compartment No: 24 falls in that category and shall be got cleared of all encroachments. We have already retrieved 300 of the 400 kanals of it”, Gilani said.

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Minister among 5 gets fresh demolition notices in Srinagar

Special Tribunal gets 6 complexes sealed in Rajbagh, Jawahar Nagar

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

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SRINAGAR, Nov 26: While as five highly influential persons, including a Cabinet Minister of Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s government, have received fresh notices asking them to demolish unauthorised structures in the uptown, Special Tribunal has got six commercial complexes sealed in the posh areas of Rajbagh and Jawahar Nagar.

The Minister, according to well-placed sources, has secured building permission for a commercial building. However, allegedly with connivance of the Enforcement Wing of Srinagar Municipal Corporation, the space reserved for parking has been converted in another business establishment and a separate structure has been raised on the same in violation of rules. Violations of larger intensity have been reported in four more high profile cases in Srinagar.

In a related development, Chairperson of Special Tribunal Mrs Sonali Kumar, has on the last weekend issued orders for sealing six commercial complexes, mostly raised in violation of rules and norms in the posh neighbourhoods of Rajbagh and Jawahar Nagar. These include the business complex of the wife of a senior SMC official who has served as Chief Enforcement Officer.

Commissioner SMC Showkat Ahmad Zargar confirmed to STATE TIMES that six commercial complexes have been sealed under orders of Special Tribunal earlier this week. “Yes I have issued the orders under section 19 of the Municipal Act in follow up to the order of Chairperson of Special Tribunal. These structures have been sealed under law”, Mr Zargar said.

Sources revealed that Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed had personally taken a serious notice of the illegal building permissions and No Objection Certificates issued in the last several years to the commercial complexes of influential businessmen and politicians. These buildings have choked the city’s arteries and the massive traffic jams witnessed in Srinagar are widely attributed to the same. Three of such complexes on Rajbagh side, close to Abdullah Bridge, have come up in violation of rules and norms as no space has been provided for parking of the vehicles of the shopkeepers and visitors to these establishments near Hattrick Point.

During his recent visit, Chief Minister had been invited by one of the well-connected owners of a commercial complex possibly to impress the authorities. However, sources said, Chief Minister asked officials to see if there was any case pending against the businessman in any court or Tribunal. “As soon as he learned that a case, seeking compounding of irregularities, was going on in Special Tribunal against the same businessman, Chief Minister cancelled the programme od paying a visit”, said an official source.

A squad of 50 Policemen, headed by a Dy SP, has been constituted by the authorities for demolition of the unauthorised structures in Srinagar.

Significantly, major business establishments raised by seven highly influential businessmen around Dal Lake have been sealed under orders of a Division Bench of Jammu and Kashmir High Court. Under the court orders, LAWDA officials involved in permitting these structures in violation of rules and in contempt to a PIL under progress in the High Court, have been identified and attached.

State Vigilance Organisation has also initiated preliminary inquiries with regard to their assets “disproportionate to their known sources of income”. Incumbent Vice Chairman LAWDA Sarmad Hafeez has issued clear-cut instructions to seal and demolish all such structures that have come up in the last several years in violation of rules around Dal Lake.

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3 militants, civilian killed in fidayeen attack in Tanghdar

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

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SRINAGAR, Nov 25: Three militants and a civilian, who was working as a contractual employee with Army, died in a failed fidayeen attack on the administrative base of a battalion in Tanghdar, close to the LoC, in Kupwara district on Wednesday.

Defence sources told STATE TIMES that a group of three unidentified militants sneaked into the rear base of 3/1 GR after cutting the Concertina wires early in the morning. The heavily armed militants using AK-47 rifles and UBGLs targeted different barracks including a generator room and a small fuel storage. However, the quick reaction team retaliated effectively and killed all three of the militants around the base in Darshak forest cover.

Tanvir Ahmad Sheikh s/o Munir Ahmad Sheikh of Tanghdar, working as a contractual employee for operation of the generator with Military Engineering Service, also got killed. Three Army vehicles, a fuel dump, four barracks and the generator room were damaged in the fire during the fierce gunbattle.

While as JCO, VK Reddy, sustained a gunshot wound, Deputy Brigade Commander Col SK Soul got a superficial injury. “Colonel has a minor injury and he is OK after the first aid. JCO has been airlifted to 92 Base Hospital in Srinagar where he is stable”, said an official.

Wednesday’s strike on the rear base of 104 Brigade was a repetition of the May 31, 2015, fidayeen attack by militants of Jaish-e-Mohammad on the same Brigade headquarters at Tanghdar in which all four of the militants had been killed and a civilian had also died during the encounter in Bakhiya hamlet outside the base. Like in that attack, Jaish-e-Mohammad has claimed responsibility of Wednesday’s fidayeen strike in Tanghdar.

Defence sources said that the three militants killed in the operation did not carry any identification cards or documents, though all of them were believed to be Pakistani nationals. “They seem to have infiltrated into the Valley in the last 24 hours. It was certainly a freshly inducted group of the militants wearing combat fatigue”, an official source said.

While as the militants’ bodies were buried by the local Auqaf at Baghibela, the civilian was laid to rest in his ancestral graveyard.

Defence spokesman at headquarters 15 Corps said in a statement that the Army foiled “an attempted suicide attack” and killed three terrorists in an alert and swift response. “The terrorists had tried to sneak into an Army Camp in the early hours today firing indiscriminately which resulted in the killing of one civilian and injuring an Army personnel. The terrorists were effectively intercepted by the Army's Quick Reaction Teams which hemmed the terrorists in a cordon”. He said that three weapons were recovered from the militants killed in the encounter.

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CM’s hometown becomes Pakistan at militants’ funeral

Mufti’s house in Bijbehara attacked by demonstrators; Pak flag hoisted

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

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SRINAGAR, Nov 24: Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani’s call for shutdown evoked a lukewarm response in Kashmir Valley on Tuesday even as his followers held a big pro-Pakistan show in Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s hometown of Bijbehara, in Anantnag district of South Kashmir, at the funeral of the three Hizbul Mujahideen militants.

Members of a guerrilla group constituted in the current year in Bijbehara, the three young militants---Aadil Ahmad Sheikh, Tanveer Ahmad Bhat and Sartaj Ahmad Lone----had been killed by Police and Army in a gunbattle in Tantraypora (Siligam), in Aeshmuqam area of Anantnag-Pahalgam belt, on Monday.

Business establishments, shops and passenger transport remained closed in some areas but many markets in Srinagar and other major towns in the Valley functioned as usual. With a partial shutdown, even the passenger transport operated in many areas, excluding in Anantnag, Kulgam, Bijbehara and Mattan where almost all the shops were shut and transport was off the road.

Independent sources, as also officials who insisted to go anonymous, told STATE TIMES that over 5,000 people attended Sartaj Lone’s funeral procession at Wopzan, on the outskirts of Bijbehara. The only brother of three sisters, Lone is said to have joined militancy just 10 days ago. The gathering shouted anti-India, pro-Azadi and pro-Pakistan slogans at the slain militant’s funeral.

Sources said that a bigger pro-militant, pro-Azadi, pro-Pakistan and anti-India show was held at Bijbehara. Tanveer Ahmad Bhat, who had joined militancy, allegedly with the killing of a civilian Javed Ahmad Sofi on March 22, 2015, was a resident of Baba Mohalla, where Chief Minister Mufti has his ancestral house. Mufti’s brother and other relatives continue to live in the same neighbourhood known for the revered shrine of Sheikhul Aalm Sheikh Nooruddin Noorani’s disciple Baba Naseebuddin.

Civil administration and Police had tried to manage all the three militants’ funeral late last night. Even the two Bijbehara militants’ bodies were carried for burial. However, sources revealed, some of the separatist leaders asked the families by telephone to conduct the funeral at 10.30 a.m. on Tuesday. Government’s political leadership asked the Police to allow the funeral with any peaceful demonstration and desired that no restrictions be enforced to prevent the peoples’ participation.

However, limited restrictions were put in place in some towns and villages in the adjoining Kulgam and Pulwama district to ensure that the separatists did not carry a big rally to Bijbehara.

Notwithstanding the tactical restrictions, sources said, around 10,000 people participated in the joint funeral of the two Bijbehara militants who were buried in a local ‘martyrs graveyard’. SSP Ananatng Abdul Jabbar said that around 7,000 people attended the funeral and about 10% of them as usual indulged in stone pelting. He claimed that nobody was injured in the clashes.

After the funeral concluded, demonstrators resorted to intense stone pelting on Police and paramilitary deployment. Some of them hoisted a Pakistani national flag on Mufti’s house followed by stone pelting on the premises. Even in the funeral procession earlier, participants carried pro-Pakistan flags and shouted pro-Pakistan, pro-Azadi, pro-militant and anti-India slogans.

Residents said that the Police guards fired some shots in the air and a reinforcement forced the demonstrators disperse. However, SSP Anantnag insisted that only a couple of the ‘stunt grenades’ were used and the guards did not fire a single gunshot. He said that the house on which some people installed a Pakistani flag was situated in the rear side of Mufti's house. Police brought it down and the crowd dispersed.

Traffic on Srinagar-Jammu highway remained disrupted and suspended for about three hours but restored in the afternoon.

A three-member delegation from Hurriyat (G), comprising Ghulam Nabi Sumji, Mir Hafizullah and Bashir Ahmad Qureishi, attended the funeral and addressed the gathering. Militant-turned-politician Zaffar Akbar Bhat too delivered a fiery speech, making frontal attacks on Chief Minister. “This is not the Mufti who has acquired a degree in Islamic jurisprudence from a Daar-ul-Uloom. He has a degree only from the RSS headquarters of Nagpur”, the Police-protected separatist Zaffar Bhat said.

The key address to the gathering was delivered by Geelani on telephone from his Hyderpora residence in Srinagar. “Our youth are sacrificing for a great cause so we need to protect their sacrifices. The pro-India politicians are only prolonging our way to freedom. The three martyred youth have sacrificed their lives for Islam and freedom from India. We must honour their sacrifices,” he said. “Rigid and stubborn policies of Indian rulers are forcing our beloved youths to abandon their colleges and universities and they are taking the path of armed struggle”, Geelani said.

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Hizb group of Chief Minister’s hometown wiped out

3 militants killed in Anantnag, one more in Kupwara encounter 

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz
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SRINAGAR, Nov 23: Set up in Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s hometown of Bijbehara, a fresh group of three Hizbul Mujahideen militants was wiped out by Jammu and Kashmir Police and Army in a gunbattle on Monday in South Kashmir’s Anantnag district.

Inspector General of Police Kashmir, Syed Javaid Mujtaba Gilani, told STATE TIMES that the operation was launched by Police and security forces on specific information about the presence of three militants received by Police from its sources in the afternoon. Anantnag District Police and troops of a unit of Rashtriya Rifles 3^rd battalion participated in the operation. According to the tip off, three militants were hiding at Tantraypora hamlet of Siligam in Mattan area of Anantnag district.

IGP said that all three militants got killed in the encounter that started after they opened fire and refused to respond to offers of surrender. They were later identified as Tanvir Ahmad Bhat s/o Mubarak Ahmad Bhat of Baba Mohalla Bijbehara, Adil Ahmad Sheikh s/o Fayaz Ahmad Sheikh of Sheikh Mohalla Bijbehara and Sartaj Ahmad Lone s/o Ghulam Mohammad Lone of Wopzan Bijbehara.

Three AK-47 riffles, one pistol and one UBGL were recovered from the site of the encounter.

IGP said that the three slain militants were part of a six-member group of Hizbul Mujahideen set up in Bijbehara area in the current year. “We have eliminated three of them and search is underway for remaining three of them”, IGP said.

According to Police records, Aadil Sheikh was involved in the killing of Constable Arif Nazir Khan of Police Station Bijbehara on 16th June this year. With that action, he had joined Hizbul Mujahideen. Tanveer Ahamd Bhat, who lived in Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s neighbourhood of Baba Mohalla and belonged to a business family, was involved in the killing of a civilian Javed Ahamd Sofi alias Waza son of Mohammad Ismail resident of Bijbehara on March 22, 2015. He too had joined militancy with that very strike. Sartaj Ahmad Lone had joined militant ranks just 10 days ago.

Even as a number of militancy related incidents and encounters have occurred in South Kashmir on right side of Srinagar-Jammu highway in the last three years, it was after several years that a gunbattle took place and three militants died in the encounter on the left side of the highway, on Khannabal-Pahalgam Road, perceived to be free of militancy.

Clashes in Anantnag

Bodies were handed over to the families in the evening amid spontaneous shutdown in Khannabal-Mattan-Bijbehara belt.

Reports from Anantnag said that hundreds of people came out of different villages. They boarded vehicles and while shouting pro-Azadi slogans attempted to march to Siligam. However, Police swung into action and foiled their attempted to gather in Bijbehara and Mattan areas. Thereafter, several groups of the demonstrators resorted to intense stone pelting and traffic came to a halt on the highway.

Traffic was reportedly diverted and restored after clashes for about two hours. Sources said that funeral prayers of the three militants would be held at Bijbehara at around 10.00 a.m on Tuesday. 

Geelani calls shutdown

Chairman of Hurriyat Conference’s radical group Syed Ali Shah Geelani paid tributes to the slain militants in a statement and called for shutdown in Kashmir valley for Tuesday. Chairman of Hurriyat’s moderate faction Mirwaiz Umar Farooq too paid tributes to the three militants in a separately issued statement.
 
Meanwhile, Defence spokesman said that in the Army’s 10-day-long operation in Manigah forest area of Kupwara, one militant died today in an encounter. He said that the operation would continue until remaining two to three militants of the group would be neutralised. One unidentified militant’s body with an AK rifle was spotted and recovered on November 10 in the same area. He was believed to have died of severe cold. Later a Commanding Officer of a battalion also died and a soldier sustained injuries in another encounter in Manigah.

The spokesman said that a Lieutenant Colonel and a soldier, who got injured in an encounter in the same area on Sunday, were stable at Army’s Base Hospital in Srinagar. Lt Colonel has been hit in his jaw.

Militant group Lashkar-e-Tayyiba had last evening claimed that Lt Colonel had been killed in the encounter. However, spokesman of the outfit today withdrew the claim and said that the officer was injured and alive. 

“All the militants who were involved in the encounter with Indian army will be awarded Rs 25 lakh each. The army Lieutenant colonel has been injured, not killed,” LeT spokesman Dr Abdullah Ghaznavi said in a statement e-mailed to STATE TIMES. He said that the outfit’s leadership had appreciated the guerrilla warfare strategies of the new LeT commander Abu Musa in Kashmir.

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From Legislature to High Court, officials dole out lies on Dal conservation

Not a penny released to LAWDA till Nov 18 when Rs 15 cr was authorised under pressure of High Court

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz & Samaan Lateef

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SRINAGAR, Nov 21: Contrary to the claims made by bureaucrats and officers of the State Finance Department (FD) and Housing & Urban Development Department (HUDD) before Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Council (LC) and Jammu and Kashmir High Court (HC), Government has not released even a penny either for conservation of the world-famous Dal Lake or for operation and maintenance of the Sewage Treatment Plants in the current financial year till November 18 when authorisation of a Rs 15 crore central fund was issued under pressure of the High Court.

Pulling up the officials on Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday, a Division Bench of HC, comprising Mr Justice Hasnain Massodi and Mr Justice Ali Mohammad Mir, has directed Commissioner-Secretary HUDD Bipul Pathak and Commissioner-Secretary FD Naveen Choudhary to cause their personal appearance on next Thursday and explain why the Government had failed to provide necessary funds to LAWDA for the lake’s conservation and maintenance and operation of STPs.

The DB’s order came in the wake of the conflicting claims of different Government functionaries---some claiming that the money had been provided on time as usual and others insisting that nothing had reached the LAWDA.

In a significant development, STATE TIMES learned from well-placed sources that even on October 21, 2015, Secretary HUDD Bipul Pathak claimed in a meeting of the LC’s Public Assurances Committee, headed by Chairperson Dr Shehnaz Ganai, that he had released an amount of Rs 16 crore to LAWDA “only yesterday”. All the senior officials and bureaucrats of HUD attended the meeting in which Vice Chairman LAWDA Sarmad Hafeez, then on election duty in Bihar, was represented by incharge VC and Commissioner of Srinagar Municipal Corporation Showkat Ahmad Zargar.

The Committee was deliberating on Deputy Chief Minister and Minister of HUDD Dr Nirmal Singh’s assurance regarding Dal conservation to the Congress MLC Ghulam Nabi Monga.

“Fact of the matter is that the senior officials are doling out lies. We have not received even a penny till November 18 when Joint Director (Resources) in FD issued sanction to advance drawal of Rs 15 crore that had been released by Ministry of Environment and Forest of Government of India in July”, an official source revealed. On November 18^th, Mr Pathak has forwarded the communication under No: FD/Res/CSS/NLCP/33/2015-16/513 to Director General Accounts & treasuries.

However, sources made it clear, this particular amount could in no way be utilised for maintenance and operation of STPs which have been shut down as LAWDA has failed to clear liabilities on account of fuel since April this year. “After a great difficulty, some LAWDA officials have motivated a petrol pump owner to continue fuel supplies for some days”.

VC LAWDA Sarmad Hafeez refused to comment or share any information. However, sources in HUDD said that all the Government departments had been authorised to spend 75% of the last financial year’s plan outlay in absence of the release of plan funds. “We fail to understand why HUDD has not received such authorisation and why no funds have been spent out of the annual State Plan in the last 8 months of the current financial year”, said an officer.

Now that High Court has pulled up the officials, it has become clear that the State Plan authorisation has been pending wither with Secretaries or Ministers of Finance or HUDD. It has also become clear that even the National Lake Conservation Plan (NLCP) kitty of Rs 15 crore has remained wrapped either in FD or in HUDD since July this year”, another well-placed officer said.

Union Ministry of Environment had not released any funds out of NLCP in the last two years. An amount of Rs 298.75 crore had been sanctioned for conservation of Dal Lake in 2005. Earlier this year, LAWDA officials pointed out that an amount of Rs 40 crore had been withheld by the Centre though all utilisation certificates had been furnished. They pleaded that the Dal Lake conservation should not be held hostage to non-availability of the UCs of ERA or other wings of HUDD. Thereafter, Union Ministry of Environment released Rs 15 crore and assured that the final instalment of Rs 40 crore would land upon receiving UC of the Rs 15 crore. However, nothing of it reached LAWDA.

Pathak and Choudhary besides Director Planning S.S. Jamwal will explain their respective positives before DB on Thursday. On last Thursday and today, DB did not entertain Additional Advocate General’s claim that funds had been provided to LAWDA. The LAWDA officials contested AAG’s claim, claiming that the funds he was referring to had been released on March 31, 2015, to meet the liabilities of the last financial year.

“It is necessary to direct presence of Commissioner Secretaries of Finance Department and HUDD, as information regarding sanction or flow of funds to LAWDA and inputs on other aspects of the matter are necessary for passing appropriate directions in the matter. We direct their personal appearance on November 26, at 2:00 pm,” court said.

The centre government through its Assistant Solicitor General Showkat Ahmad Makroo said Rs 15 crore out of Rs 40 crore were provided to State government in July 2015 as part of Rs 298.75 NLCP for conservation of the Dal Lake.

Court also directed the State government officials to explain the reasons for delay in release of Rs 15 crore. Besides, they have been asked to explain ways and means to accelerate flow of funds to complete projects likes Rakh-e-Arth housing colony for Dal dwellers, within reasonable time as suspension of the rehabilitation with no plausible reason had severely affected the conservation plan of Dal Lake.

Court also desired Director General of Police take a decision before Nov 26 on installation of CCTVs to monitor the construction works and transportation of building material within and around Dal Lake. It also directed the Inspector General of Police Kashmir to make nakas functional to monitor the transportation of building material for Dal Lake.

On attachment of six lower rung officials for allowing the illegal constructions within prohibited area of Dal Lake earlier this week, the Court rapped the Vigilance Organization Kashmir for “mixing up” the allegations on officers facilitating illegal construction with allegations of accumulation of disproportionate assets by officers. High Court directed the VOK to constitute a separate team of officers to look into the allegations of disproportionate assets and file the compliance report.

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