tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-75171627427119950152023-11-16T05:00:28.311+13:00Ahmed Ali FayyazJournalist
based in Srinagar/Jammu,
Jammu & Kashmir State
(India)Ahmed Ali Fayyazhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09315496293788942599noreply@blogger.comBlogger1308125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7517162742711995015.post-90098340451467571182017-03-17T16:29:00.000+14:002017-03-17T17:34:07.192+14:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 22pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">PDP in
power but contesting elections in worst ever conditions</span></b></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Tassaduq’s entry raises PDP’s stake; Jamaat’s
boycott in South Kashmir, Gujjar-Shia vote in low-turnout polling in Central
Kashmir pivotal</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Ahmed Ali Fayyaz</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">________ </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Jammu, Mar 16: The fact that the principal opposition
parties National Conference (NC) and Congress have combined and fielded their
senior most leaders in the State in 1:1 arrangement in the by-elections on two
important Lok Sabha seats in Kashmir valley reveals the seriousness of the
interim exercise being held in two years of the general elections. Remarkably,
the ruling PDP-BJP coalition in contrast has harnessed two greenhorns, both
junior most in the ranks, in the election that would definitely have a bearing
not only on the Lok Sabha elections of 2019 and Assembly elections of 2020 but
also on the Mufti dynasty’s grip on the single largest party.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Farooq Abdullah, the State’s highest profile political
leader, who lost his 35-year-long career’s first election to then PDP candidate
Tariq Hamid Karra in 2014, is yet again NC’s candidate in
Srinagar-Budgam-Ganderbal seat. With the support of Congress, he is in the fray
against PDP’s Nazir Ahmad Khan. On Congress ticket, Khan had given a tough
fight to NC’s Chief Ministerial candidate Omar Abdullah in the Assembly
elections of 2014 in Beerwah. Less than a month ago, Khan shifted from Congress
to the PDP. His father Sarfaraz Khan had won from Beerwah on PDP’s ticket in
2002 and later served as a Minister in Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s Council of
Ministers.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">With one difference, there is an identical contest in the
South Kashmir seat, comprising Anantnag, Kulgam, Pulwama and Shopian districts.
While the opposition has fielded the Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee
chief Ghulam Ahmad Mir, who has served as a Cabinet Minister twice and in the
post-2002 era lost only once from his home segment of Dooru, PDP’s Mufti
Tassaduq is just three-month-old in the party. Unlike Nazir Khan, he however
has the distinction of being the former Chief Minister and the PDP founder
Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s only son.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Tassaduq was basically an accomplished cinematographer in
United States of America before he shot into prominence with his Bollywood magnum
opus ‘Omkara’. Hardly anybody knew him in Jammu and Kashmir until the day he
attended his father’s funeral in January 2016. Being baptized into politics
with his maiden election, Tassaduq would arguably hold the key to the Mufti
dynasty’s influence over the party. His victory could pave his way one day to
the hot seat of power but his defeat, in the most hostile ambience, could not
only cause fissures in PDP but also lend superiority in the coalition to BJP
that would find it easier to accomplish its political agenda in Jammu and Kashmir.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">“We have never before contested any election in such a
hostile atmosphere but we are still hopeful that our arch rival NC has little
capacity and cadre to make inroads in South Kashmir”, said a senior PDP leader,
insisting to be anonymous. “Notice that Mehbooba Ji gave a crushing defeat to
NC in the Assembly by-election (in Anantnag) last June”.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Ghulam Ahmad Mir, contrarily, claims that with the NC
support---as also possible support from the CPM MLA Mohammad Yousuf
Tarigami---he would win “hands down” this time in South Kashmir. “They have
killed and left injured most of the 90-odd people in South Kashmir in the last
8 months of turmoil. That’s fresh on everybody’s mind. They are being despised
for their saffron label and being bedfellows with BJP and RSS. Besides, their
government has failed on all fronts---governance, development, employment,
restoration of peace. Who on earth will come out to vote for them?”, Mir
asserted.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">That is not the PDP’s only problem in the current situation.
Factionalism seems to have touched its zenith as the family coterie in which
Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti’s mother, maternal uncle Sartaj Madni and brother
Tassaduq are the most important characters, has emerged as a parallel power
centre. A number of the senior leaders have been heard whispering against
Madni, Peerzada Mansoor and the all-important Works Minister Naeem Akhtar.
Estranged Minister Maulvi Imran Ansari’s MLA uncle Maulvi Abid Ansari has
publicly assailed Akhtar for “presiding over mischiefs” when the young Shia leader
failed to get a portfolio of his choice in the recent reshuffle.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Even as the most important of the estranged leaders, Syed
Altaf Bukhari, has been lately inducted back into the Cabinet and given a
prestigious portfolio, MLAs Javed Mustafa Mir (Chadoura), Abdul Majid Paddar
(Noorabad) and Mohammad Ashraf Mir (Sonwar) are still perceived to be upset as
none of them has been brought back as Minister. Mehbooba had dropped them when
she succeeded her father in April 2016. Even late Mufti’s loyal Abdul Rehman
Veeri has gone into hibernation after his prestigious Works portfolio was
shifted to Akhtar. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Two more of the PDP’s MLAs, namely Mohammad Khalil Bandh
(Pulwama) and Abdul Rahim Rather (Kokernag) are also known to have shown little
enthusiasm in mobilising their cadres after announcement of the elections. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Possessing impressive organisational capacities, Mehbooba,
nevertheless, is expected to keep her flock together and make it deliver.
Significantly, it remains to be seen whether she would give in to Imran
Ansari’s pressure and give him a better portfolio or stand firm to keep her own
prestige. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">In South Kashmir, much would depend on Jamaat-e-Islami’s
behaviour as its cadres this time around would not find it easy to tilt the
balance in PDP’s favour as they are known to have done with 70-80% boycott and
20-30% voting in almost all elections after 1998. NC’s traditional bête noire,
Jamaat, though not contesting elections after 1989, has a substantial
concentration in Pulwama, Shopian and Kulgam districts. “It will be seen as
open treason this time. None of us will turn out to cast a vote”, said a senior
Jamaat leader, though he disputed claims that his party had supported PDP in
several elections post-1990.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">In the Assembly elections of 2014, PDP had won 11 seats
while as NC and Congress had bagged two each in South Kashmir. CPM retained its
one-odd seat of Kulgam. NC had fared slightly better in its traditional bastion
of Central Kashmir as it had retained 7 seats against equal number by PDP. PDF
Chairman had retained his seat in Khansahab. Like Tarigami in South, Yasin is
expected to support the NC-Congress alliance in Central Kashmir.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">This time around, in Central Kashmir, the opposition is
chiefly relying on a substantial committed chunk of Gujjar and Shia voters who,
in defiance of the separatists’ boycott calls, have the history of turning up
at polling station ahead of all. As Ansari’s Shia followers are still undecided
but pretty upset, both factions of the Aghas of Budgam are known to be the NC
supporters. In Kangan and Ganderbal, besides in two segments in Budgam, the
Gujjar vote being mobilised by senior NC leader and MLA Kangan Mian Altaf Ahmad
could be pivotal for Dr Abdullah whose mother was also Gujjar.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Even as much would depend on the actual turnout---expected
to be 20-25% in Central Kashmir and 15-20% in South Kashmir---Dr Abdullah,
defeated by then PDP’s Karra in 2014, has clearly better prospects in Srinagar.
It is an irony that this time Karra would be campaigning for Dr Abdullah. In
the thick of last year’s turmoil, he had quit PDP for what he called
“brutality” of security forces. He has lately joined Congress.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">PDP’s significant advantage is that this party currently is
ruling the State in partnership with BJP and controlling the official
machinery.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">END</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">[STATE TIMES]</span></div>
</div>
Ahmed Ali Fayyazhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09315496293788942599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7517162742711995015.post-18202657490490444672017-03-17T16:26:00.002+14:002017-03-17T16:26:22.637+14:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">8 VCs’
appointment to be kept in abeyance</span></b></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;"> Ahmed Ali Fayyaz</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">________ </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Jammu, Mar 16: Election Commission of India has decided not
to quash the appointment of the 14 activists of PDP, BJP and Peoples Conference
as Vice Chairpersons of different Public Sector Undertakings, boards and
corporations even as that of the eight appointees from Central and South
Kashmir would be put in abeyance on Friday.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Highly placed sources told STATE TIMES that ECI has not
fully endorsed the opposition National Conference’s complaint that the orders
of appointment issued after announcement of the polling schedule was directly a
violation of the Model Code of Conduct. However, on a report submitted by Jammu
and Kashmir Chief Electoral Officer Shantmanu, ECI has decided to put in
abeyance the appointment of the eight PDP and BJP activists who are permanent
residents of Central and South Kashmir.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Shantmanu is understood to have been called for a meeting on
several election related issues including the NC’s complaint against
appointment of the 14 ruling coalition activists as Vice Chairpersons of PSUs. On
Friday, NC’s complaint would be disposed of in his presence in New Delhi.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Those who would not be allowed to hold office and function
as VCs include Gulzar Ahmad (Jammu and Kashmir Industries Limited), Ataullah
Samnani (J&K Minerals Limited), Parvez Ahmad (J&K State Road Transport
Corporation), Nazir Ahmad Itoo (J&K Cements Limited) and Muntazir Mohiuddin
(J&K Cable Car Corporation) all PDP besides Khalid Jehangir (J&K
Projects Construction Corporation) and ‘Dr’ Ali Muhammad (SICOP) of BJP and
Rashid Mehmood (J&K Agro Industries Development Corporation) of PC.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">END</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">[STATE TIMES]</span></div>
</div>
Ahmed Ali Fayyazhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09315496293788942599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7517162742711995015.post-5942221171201959882017-03-17T16:21:00.002+14:002017-03-17T16:21:30.889+14:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 20pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Farooq,
Ahmad Mir to be opposition’s joint candidates in Kashmir</span></b></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">NC-Congress stitch alliance for Srinagar,
Anantnag Lok Sabha seats; Tassaduq Mufti, Nazir Khan are PDP’s candidates</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Ahmed Ali Fayyaz</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">________ </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">JAMMU, Mar 14: With the Election Commission of India on
Tuesday issuing notification for by-election in the Central Kashmir Lok Sabha
seat, principal opposition parties National Conference (NC) and Congress have
decided to contest jointly in order to defeat the ruling PDP candidates in both
the seats of Srinagar and Anantnag. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Both the opposition parties on Tuesday held separate
meetings before cobbling an alliance at a joint meeting held secretly at a
private residential house in Rajbagh area of Srinagar. While as the NC team
comprised General Secretary Ali Mohammad Sagar and former Ministers Choudhary
Mohammad Ramzan, Sakeena Itoo and Nasir Aslam Wani, the Congress party was
represented by the Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee president
Ghulam Ahmad Mir, former Minister Taj Mohiuddin besides MLA Devsar Mohammad
Amin Bhat and MLA Sopore Haji Abdul Rashid.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Well-placed political sources revealed to STATE TIMES that
later in the afternoon, Ghulam Ahmad Mir drove straight to the NC patron Dr
Farooq Abdullah’s Gupkar Road residence where he held a closed-door meeting
with him. It was also joined by NC’s acting president and former Chief Minister
Omar Abdullah.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">The most significant development of the day, according to
sources, was that the two parties’ top brass decided to contest the by-election
jointly on both the seats. Notwithstanding the NC patron’s reluctance, it was
decided that Dr Farooq Abdullah would be the two parties’ joint candidate from
Srinagar while as Ghulam Ahmad Mir would be the alliance’s candidate in Anantnag.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Polling is scheduled to be held for the Central Kashmir
seat, comprising 15 Assembly segments of Srinagar, Budgam and Ganderbal
districts, on April 9. In the South Kashmir constituency, comprising 16
Assembly segments of Anantnag, Pulwama, Kulgam and Shopian districts, polling
would be held on April 12. The interim election has become necessary when PDP’s
South Kashmir Lok Sabha member Mehbooba Mufti took over as Chief Minister
following her father Mufti Mohammad’s death and the Central Kashmir Lok Sabha
member Tariq Hamid Karra quit the PDP for what he called “brutality” of
security forces, both in 2016.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Earlier on Tuesday, NC’s Core Group meeting was convened at
Dr Abdullah’s residence. It was attended by Dr Abdullah, Omar Abdullah, Abdul
Rahim Rather, Choudhary Mohammad Ramzan, Ali Mohammad Sagar, Mohammad Akbar
Lone, Sakeena Itoo and Khalid Najeeb Suharwardi. Only one member, namely Surjit
Singh Salathia, was absent.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">According to sources, Dr Abdullah expressed reluctance to
contest the elections, arguing that he was now too old to run from one segment
to another and was also not in the best of his health. He proposed that someone
young like the party’s familiar spokesman Junaid Azim Mattu or Salman Sagar
must be fielded against PDP’s green horn Nazir Ahmad Khan from Central Kashmir.
However, most of the Core Group members insisted that none other than Dr
Abdullah should be the party’s candidate. Their second favourite was senior
leader Abdul Rahim Rather.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Leaders present in the meeting maintained that “nothing” was
decided. They said that it was left to Dr Abdullah to decide whether NC should
go it alone or form an alliance or seat-sharing with Congress. Selection of the
candidates, as usual, was also left to Dr Abdullah. However, subsequent
developments led to cobbling of an alliance between the two parties which in a
coalition ruled the State from 2009 to 2014 but contested the Assembly
elections of 2008 and 2014 independently.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">“It was almost decided that NC’s Dr Abdullah would be the
alliance’s candidate in Central Kashmir and the Congress State chief Ghulam
Ahmad Mir would be the joint candidate in South Kashmir. However, an
announcement could be made at a press conference in Srinagar tomorrow”, said a senior
political source privy to the day’s developments. He said that J&KPCC had
previously submitted a panel of three names —Ghulam Ahmad Mir, Peerzada
Mohammad Sayeed and MLA Shangus Gulzar Ahmad Wani —to the AICC high command. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Late on Monday evening, PDP’s Political Affairs Committee
selected Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti’s brother Tassaduq Mufti as the ruling
coalition’s candidate in South Kashmir. A fresh entrant, Nazir Ahmad Khan, who
lately shifted from Congress to PDP and gave a tough contest to NC’s Omar
Abdullah in Beerwah segment in 2014, would be the PDP-BJP alliance’s candidate
in Central Kashmir.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">In the general Lok Sabha elections of 2014, PDP had
contested independently and bagged all the three seats in Kashmir. Later, in
the Assembly elections in 2014, PDP and NC had won 7 seats each in Central
Kashmir while as an independent candidate, PDF chairman Hakeem Mohammad Yasin
had been returned from Khansahab. In South Kashmir, PDP had bagged 11 seats
while as NC and Congress had won 2 seats each. CPI(M) State Secretary Mohammad
Yousuf Tarigami had been returned for the fourth consecutive term from Kulgam. Even
as they have yet to announce their decision, both Yasin and Tarigami are likely
to support the NC-Congress candidates in the current election.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">END</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">[STATE TIMES]</span></div>
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike></div>
Ahmed Ali Fayyazhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09315496293788942599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7517162742711995015.post-16297452549791649692017-03-17T16:17:00.002+14:002017-03-17T16:17:22.884+14:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Thousands
gather to disrupt Army operation in Pulwama</span></b></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">3 militants, civilian killed during 2
encounters; doctors certify Pulwama civilian's body had no injuries, no
fractures</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Ahmed Ali Fayyaz</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">_______ </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">JAMMU, March 9: Amid intense stone pelting and pro-Pakistan
slogans from unruly crowds, Police and security forces on Thursday killed two
Kashmiri militants of Lashkar-e-Tayyiba in a fierce encounter at Padgampora
village in South Kashmir's hypersensitive Pulwama district even as a civilian
succumbed to a gunshot injury outside the hamlet and another civilian was found
dead in mysterious conditions.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">A number of residents, speaking on condition of anonymity to
STATE TIMES, insisted that a civilian driver Jalal-ud-din of Tahab died
"after he was hit in his head with a stone or a gun by security
forces". They alleged that he was the second civilian, after 18-year-old
Aamir Nazir Wani of Begam Bagh, who was killed by Police and security forces
after two militants were killed in an encounter at Padgampora.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Valley's separatist leadership alleged that the Police and
security forces had for the first time on Thursday translated the Indian Army
chief Gen Bipin Rawat's February 16th threat into action and killed two
civilians in cold blood. It called for a total shutdown in Kashmir to protest
the killings on Friday.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Director General of Police Dr Shesh Pal Vaid, however,
dismissed the allegation as "totally incorrect" and told STATE TIMES
that it was nothing but part of propaganda to defame the Police and security
forces. He, as well as DIG South Kashmir Swayam Prakash Pani, maintained that
the Police and security forces "despite high provocation" observed
maximum restraint while conducting the operation and dealing with the hostile
crowds outside. They said that the Police and security forces conducted a
"completely neat and clean operation with total professionalism".</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">"Someone from the crowds fired on our boys and two of
them had a narrow escape. With gunshot injuries, we have rushed them to
hospital. Around a dozen of our men were injured in stone pelting", DGP
said. "Clearly some terrorists had mixed up with the stone pelters".</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">DIG Pani said that head constable Khalid Hussain with
gunshot injuries was rushed to Srinagar and admitted to Army's 92 Base Hospital
while as SPO Manzoor Ahmad was under treatment at District Hospital Pulwama.
DGP said that DH Pulwama had certified that the civilian Jalal-ud-din had no
injuries on his body. He claimed that Aamir, who was among the stone pelters,
had got fatally hit "by a stray bullet". "We are not responsible
for their death", DGP asserted.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Medical Superintendent DH Pulwama Dr Abdul Rashid Parra
corroborated DGP's statement and said: "Jalal-ud-din was brought dead. A
team of about 6 doctors headed by Dr Mir Mushtaq examined his body. It had no
signs of life. We performed artificial resuscitation but it didn't work. Then
we conducted ECG. It was totally flat. Thereafter we conducted head-to-toe
examination of the dead body. We observed that it had absolutely no external
injuries including bullet or pellet injuries. We then used X-ray to check if
there were any fractures or internal injuries. We found none and declared him
brought dead".</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Dr Parra said that the team of doctors had no means to
ascertain where the civilian had died and how. "The prople in a surcharged
atmosphere took away the body and did not let us conduct a detailed autopsy to
ascertain the cause of death. We can do it only with the permission and request
of the family concerned", Dr Parra said. He believed that the cause of
death could be "most probably cardiac arrest" but maintained that the
actual circumstances leading to the civilian's death could be ascertained only
through a detailed investigation.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">"If we have no hesitation in saying that we received 3
patients with gunshot injuries and 7 with pellet injuries, what should make us
tell a lie to please anyone. We don't act under any influence, fear or
intervention from any quarter. The fact is that there were absolutely no
injuries or fractures ", Dr Parra said.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Earlier two local militants of LeT were killed in the fierce
gunfight. DIG said that Jehangir Ganai of Koil was killed during last night but
Mohammad Shafi Shergujri was eliminated in the afternoon on Thursday. He said
that SSP Pulwama Mohammad Rayees Bhat got Shergujri's wife and son and they
requester him through PAS of a bulletproof bunker to come out and surrender
before the SSP. But even after the family made repeatedly requests, Shergujri
refused to come out. Thereafter he was killed in exchange of gunfire.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Shafi Shergujri of Bandarpora was a top wanted LeT militant.
NIA had carried out different raids to arrest him as he was wanted in a
fidayeen attack in Udhampur. According to NIA, Shergujri had helped Pakistani
militant Naveed and his associates to reach Samroli Udhampur where they carried
out a fidayeen attack on a BSF convoy. Naveed was later arrested in the same
area.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Shergujri's militant brother Aadil Shergujri had been killed
by security forces in an encounter in Lelhaar village of Pulwama last year.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Meanwhile, one militant of Hizbul Mujahideen was killed in
Bandipora in an encounter with forces, while as an army Major was injured late
on Thursday.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">The militant has been identified as Mushtaq Ahmad of
Bandipora. He was killed when police and army laid a checkpoint outside police
station Bandipora following specific inputs.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">“During the checking, a militant travelling in a vehicle
opened fire in which an army Major of 14 RR was injured. The militant was
killed in retaliatory fire,” police said.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">END</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">[STATE TIMES]</span></div>
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike></div>
Ahmed Ali Fayyazhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09315496293788942599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7517162742711995015.post-76126713276495229782017-03-17T15:41:00.002+14:002017-03-17T15:41:14.599+14:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Centre
bracing up for another turbulent summer; sending 12,000 CRPF men to Kashmir</span></b></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Ahmed Ali Fayyaz</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">_______ <span style="margin: 0px;"> </span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Jammu, Mar 8: Perturbed over sustained threats to peace,
including terror attacks and mob violence, Government of India are sending
fresh deployment of 120 companies of the paramilitary Central Reserve Police
Force (CRPF) to Kashmir.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Sources in Union Ministry of Home Affairs told STATE TIMES
that the fresh paramilitary deployment would start arriving in and taking
positions mainly in the hypersensitive Srinagar, Anantnag, Pulwama, Kulgam,
Shopian and other sensitive districts from next week.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">The fresh deployments to assist the Jammu and Kashmir Police
and Army in conducting counterinsurgency operations and addressing law and
order issues are being briefed about revised Standard Operating Procedures
(SOPs) and equipped with arms and ammunition. Its arsenal would hold some
freshly introduced variants of tear smoke and improved shotguns which would be
subjected to final testing and demonstration probably on Monday next.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Incharge DG CRPF Sudeep Lakhtakia, according to sources,
would visit Srinagar on Sunday. Union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi would
personally follow the CRPF chief early next week before the new deflectors and
a new variety of tear gas is introduced to deal with the law and order
problems. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Centre is said to be perturbed over the failure of the
PDP-BJP coalition to restore sustainable peace in Kashmir valley even as
intensity of the over four-month long turbulence after the militant Burhan
Wani's death in an encounter last year has remarkably reduced. Parallel to
violent demonstrations and the crowds disrupting scrores of security forces
operations in the last two years, militants have regained their lost ground in
many parts of Kashmir valley.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Reports available with the Centre, according to sources,
indicate coordination between the separatist demonstrations, mob attacks and
terror strikes in the middle of current year. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">While as State government claims to be preparing for holding
Panchayat elections in April, Election Commission of India is likely to take a
final call with regard to holding by-election for the two Parliamentary seats
of South Kashmir and Central Kashmir in the next couple of days. Requirement
for security forces deployment could increase accordingly in the Valley.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">END</span></div>
</div>
Ahmed Ali Fayyazhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09315496293788942599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7517162742711995015.post-74256171196977814132017-03-17T15:34:00.002+14:002017-03-17T15:34:32.956+14:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 28pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Policeman,
2 militants killed in Tral encounter</span></b></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: #c00000; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Gunfight ends amid intense stone pelting and
clashes</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Ahmed Ali Fayyaz</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">_______ </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">JAMMU, March 5: Twenty-hour-long joint operation by Army and
Police concluded with the death of two militants of Hizbul Mujahideen and a
Police constable at Haffu Nigeenpora village of Tral in South Kashmir’s Pulwama
district on Sunday.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">IGP Kashmir Syed Javaid Mujtaba Gillani told STATE TIMES
that two militants and a constable got killed in the gunfight that began on
Saturday evening and ended late on Sunday night. He identified the slain
constable as Manzoor of SOG Tral who was a resident of Salamabad Uri. IGP said
that Police and security forces had specific information about the presence of
two militants and both of them were killed in the fierce gunbattle.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">While as the local militant was identified as Aaquib Maulvi
of the nearby Hayena village, his Pakistani associate was code-named as Usama.
Two rifles, including an INSAS believed to have been snatched away from a CRPF
personnel last year in South Kashmir, were recovered from the site of the
encounter.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Officials said that three CRPF personnel and Major Rishi of
RR 42 Bn sustained injuries during the encounter. They were rushed to hospital
and were all reportedly out of danger.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">The house of a carpenter Mohammad Ramzan, in which the
militants had taken shelter, was razed to rubble with IEDs and it caught fire.
IGP said that the local militant’s body was recovered but the Pakistani
militants was badly charred and not yet recovered from the debris. He said that
Aaquib gave a long and tough fight but was ultimately gunned down.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Sources in Tral said that Aaquib’s body was handed over to
his family members late on Sunday night and his funeral rites would be
conducted amid tension at his village on Monday. “Some restriction are already
in place but there will be no curfew”, IGP said.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">This newspaper obtained the recording of a telephonic
conversation between Aaquib and his local commander Riyaz Naikoo. Aaquib is
heard seeking apologies of his commander who in turn asks him to take care of
Usama and make attempts to come out of the cordoned house and try to escape.
Aaquib tells Naikoo that the people outside have engaged forces in intense
stone pelting<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>and clashes and there was
no chance for the duo to escape.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">The audio clip confirms presence of two militants---Aaquib
and Usama---inside the house. Naikoo asks him to fight valiantly and cause
damage to Army while attempting to escape. The conversation seems to have
occurred at the sunset on Saturday.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">For the whole day on Sunday, hundreds of people gathered
outside the fully cordoned and emptied village and engaged Police and the CRPF
outer ring in intermittent clashes apparently helping the holed up militants to
escape.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Unconfirmed reports said that there was a concealed hideout
under the house which helped the two militants to remain under cover for over
24 hours.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">END</span></div>
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike></div>
Ahmed Ali Fayyazhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09315496293788942599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7517162742711995015.post-9953695735336349162017-03-17T15:29:00.002+14:002017-03-17T15:29:58.210+14:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Delhi’s
premium on treason and separatism goes meteoric in BJP rule</span></b></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: #c00000; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Kashmiri separatists get top government jobs
for their own children through backdoor; Ministerial cars, VVIP treatment,
prize postings, PG seats at will </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">STATE TIMES REPORT</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">_________ </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">JAMMU, March 5: Leading
national daily The Times of India has uncovered how Mehbooba Mufti’s PDP-BJP
coalition in Jammu and Kashmir has, in its latest, appointed pro-Pakistan
hardliner Syed Ali Shah Geelani’s grandson Anees-ul-Islam as Research Officer
in Sher-e-Kashmir International Conference Centre (SKICC) at a time when the
separatist leader had enforced over four-month-long violent and turbulent
shutdown in the Valley. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Suggestions of quid pro
quo, apparently spread by the beleaguered BJP are wrong at its face because Mr
Geelani continues to be unrelenting in keeping the Valley turbulent and shut.
His audacious inspiration is wooing scores of young boys to join the terror
camp, kill others and get themselves killed. Ideally, Islamabad not New Delhi
should have footed the bills and added comfort to Mr Geelani’s life. That’s
what the neighbouring country has been doing without break since 1990. For now,
it appears that both Islamabad and New Delhi are partners in the joint venture
of taking care of everybody who spits on the idea of India, throws a stone or a
grenade, fires a bullet, raises a banner or shouts a slogan against India and
in favour of Pakistan.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">What The Times of India
story has skipped is all the more shocking. The post of Research Officer at SKICC
had been specially created by then Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s close
relative, Shahnawaz Shah, in 2003. In the autumn of 2016, Shahnawaz was elevated
to the rank of Manager when at a senior level between the separatist and the
pseudo-separatist mainstream leaders it was decided to appoint Geelani’s
grandson as Research Officer. It was felt that the pay scale and the grade
given to Mufti’s relative was not commensurate with the ‘taller’ Geelani’s
relative. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Under orders of the top
echelons of PDP-BJP government, Secretary Tourism was forced to upgrade
Research Officer’s pay scale to the pay scale of Tehsildar, BDO, General
Manager DIC and other Kashmir Administrative Service (KAS) post’s pay scale of
Rs 9300—Rs 34,800 with grade pay Rs 4,800. The idea is to elevate him to grade
pay of Rs 6,600 (Deputy Secretary to Government) in the next few years and then
induct him into Technical Quota of KAS. In the following years, he would become
Deputy Commissioner, Director and then rise to the rank of
Commissioner-Secretary and Principal Secretary to Government---all through
backdoor.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Under the plan, MBA was
fixed as essential qualification for Research Officer. It was decided that in violation
of the Cabinet Order of 2010, which makes service in SKICC pensionable, Secretary
Tourism would not refer the vacancy to Public Service Commission (PSC) and
instead conduct the appointment clandestinely through a selection to be made by
a committee of his trusted subordinates and headed by him. To cut down the
number of the candidates, cut-off for shortlisting was raised to 75% marks as
the candidate to be favoured had 76% marks. The “result” was completed on
November 30, 2016 but neither published in any newspaper nor posted on SKICC or
Tourism department’s website. All the high-merit candidates, who had performed
exceptionally well in interview, including a pass-out of SKUAST Jammu who had
84% marks, were dropped and Geelani’s grandson selected.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">On the same day i.e.
November 30, 2016, the blue-eyed boy was called to SKICC. Senior officials
facilitated his joining and greeted his family as the mission assigned to them
was accomplished. Thirty-one candidates, many of them having far greater merit,
kept shuttling between their homes and SKICC to learn about the “result”. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">“It was on December 25 that
we came to know that some Anees-ul-Islam had joined as Research Officer about a
month back as we all had been kept in the dark”, said a candidate from Handwara
who has 79% marks in MBA. When the dropped candidates failed to get injustice,
one of them emailed a detailed complaint to ACB Srinagar of Central Bureau of
Investigation (CBI). On February 3, he was notified by Google that his mail had
failed in delivery.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">If sources privy to the
process are to be believed, Anees-ul-Islam’s CID verification was returned with
“positive” remarks from a top office and did not, like other cases, go to the
field. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">The story of granting
extraordinary favours and privileges to the India-bashers in J&K does
neither start nor end here. Previously too, one of this hardcore separatist’s
sons was sent for a Forestry training course for which only the in-service
candidates were entitled. On completion of the course, then Forest Minister of
Dr Farooq Abdullah’s National Conference government, Peerzada Ahmad Shah made a
plan to appoint the separatist leader’s son as “Assistant Director Forest
Protection Force” on adhoc basis. The idea was to ostensibly engage around 155
youths, including the Minister’s own daughter, on temporary basis and
subsequently regularise them against posts of Range Officers and post them as
“incharge DFOs”.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Following its exposure in
The Indian Express, a number of candidates raised protest and knocked at the
doors of J&K High Court. Shortly after this plan failed, same blue-eyed boy
and the top separatist leader’s son was inducted on a better position in
Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Science & Technology (SKUAST).
Another top separatist leader’s brother-in-law was inducted into Technical
Quota of KAS and posted on prize positions as HOD while as his senior are still
six levels lower to him.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Yet another top separatist
leader’s son was granted a contract for supplying computers to the Revenue
Training Institute Srinagar in violation of all rules and procedures. Sometime
later, his failed rivals filed a complaint that the supplier had been allotted
exorbitant rates and he had supplied computers of inferior quality. State
Vigilance Organisation conducted a preliminary verification and found the
charges true. FIR was lodged and the supplier arrested. The case is reportedly
still under investigation.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Another separatist leader’s
wife enjoyed prize postings and promotions, both in NC-Congress coalition and
the PDP-BJP regime. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Top bureaucrats on
condition of anonymity confirm that the separatist leaders have also been
getting prize postings for their relatives besides government contracts and
supply orders, admissions in prestigious schools and colleges with intervention
of government functionaries. At Srinagar airport, officers and security staff
are seen arranging for their boarding cards, business class seats and
hospitality in VIP Lounge with pride. Much has been already written about the
beacon light and hooter-fitted Ministerial cars, escort Geeps and PSOs provided
to the separatist leaders mostly during Vajpayee or Modi government. They even
raise palatial residential and commercial constructions without even bothering
to apply for a building permission.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">While the poor Kashmiris
remain engaged with different things from stone pelting to studies, the
separatist’s children and relatively get passports on priority when their
masters in Pakistan allot then a particular quota of MBBS and BDS seats in
different Pakistani medical colleges every year. Government has reports that
the separatists often sell these seats to different clients for anything
between Rs 10 lakh to Rs 30 lakh with fear of action from the government.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">The wife of a former
‘Commander-in-Chief’, who is now a separatist leader, works as Public
Prosecutor. A young KAS lady officer married a commander-turned-separatist
activist a few years back for the premium and glamour attached to separatism. A
few years from now, she will be a Deputy Commissioner or Secretary in Home
Department and thus custodian of all the State secrets.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">On the pattern adopted in
case of Geelani’s grandson at SKICC, Hizbul Mujahideen and United Jihad Council
chief Syed Salahuddin’s son was a few years back appointed as Manager in
Entrepreneurship Development Institute that was attacked and left devastated in
two <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">fidayeen</i> strikes last year. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Admittedly, in a democratic
country like India, Geelani’s and Salahuddin’s sons cannot be punished for
their relationship to the separatists and militants and they are very much
entitled to everything from government jobs to prize postings. However, the
process becomes fishy and scandalous when it is held clandestinely and
surreptitiously and due right is brazenly denied to meritorious and poor
candidates who repose faith in democracy and legitimacy of the Indian systems
and institutions.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Even in the case of the
latest appointment at SKICC, national security has been brazenly compromised as
the VVIPs who regularly attend meetings and conferences there include Prime
Minister of India, Union Home Minister and heads of security and intelligence
agencies. Chief Minister and top Army, paramilitary, intelligence, security and
Police officers attend Unified Headquarters meetings at SKICC. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Thus the country’s most
sensitive State has been reduced to a ‘Banana Republic’ as the most meritorious
and those identifying themselves with India fail to get even an inferior
government job and keep shuttling between their homes and government offices
till they cross their age bar. Irony is that much of this self-defeating policy
has been introduced, pursued and promoted during the BJP regime. Interestingly
when the party’s firebrand spokespersons are embarrassed on national
television, they invariably say: “You don’t know how much of it we have
withdrawn from the separatists. We can’t disclose it publicly”!</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">END </span></div>
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike></div>
Ahmed Ali Fayyazhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09315496293788942599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7517162742711995015.post-25038638886999852062017-03-02T17:01:00.002+14:002017-03-02T17:01:43.015+14:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Police
fail to trap handlers of cross-LoC arms smuggling</span></b></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #7f7f7f; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Ahmed Ali Fayyaz</span></b></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">______</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">JAMMU, March 1: Even after taking into custody the driver
and recovering arms and ammunition from his truck, Police in North Kashmir have
failed to trap handlers of the cross-LoC arms smuggling.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">In its Tuesday issue, STATE TIMES had exclusively reported
that Police had arrested a driver of cross-LoC trade and recovered arms and
ammunition from his truck that had been smuggled into the Valley from PoK by a
militant network.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">While a senior Police official was returning from New Delhi,
an officer of the rank of additional SP, according to well-placed authoritative
sources, made a plan to trap the receivers of the arms and ammunition at a
particular spot on Srinagar-Baramulla highway on Tuesday evening. The detained
driver of truck No: JK03B-1586, namely Irshad Ahmad Mantoo of Buchpora Kulgam,
communicated to the consignees to reach a particular spot to receive the
Chinese pistol, some ammunition and two hand grenades, which had been smuggled
into the Valley through cross-LoC trade earlier.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Even as the receivers reached close to the spot, they
probably got suspicious about the Police surveillance. They diverted their
vehicles and sped away in a style that Police got no chance to chase or open
fire on them. Sources insist that the handlers or their authorised agents
managed to escape successfully. None of the people involved in the networking
of arms smuggling could be arrested or trapped in the raids carried out at
several places in Kulgam area of South Kashmir.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">None of the Police officers agreed to speak in confirmation
or contradiction to the reports available with STATE TIMES.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Sources said that one Chinese Pistol with two magazines and
14 rounds of ammunition, four AK magazines with 120 rounds of ammunition and
two Chinese hand grenades were recovered from the camouflaged cavity that had
been created on the truck for the purpose of concealing the arms and ammunition
smuggled in from PoK through cross-LoC trade.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Investigation is underway to find out how much of arms and
ammunition had been already smuggled in by a formidable terror network and how
many vehicles and drivers were involved in it. Sources said that the detained
driver has spilled the beans and identified many of his contacts but Police are
still investigating about their antecedents, whereabouts and hideouts. His call
details and other means of communication and interaction with the arms
smugglers in Kashmir and across the LoC are being scanned in detail.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">While the Kashmiri drivers carry goods of the zero-tariff
cross-LoC barter trade after crossing the LoC to the Trade Facilitation Centre
Chakothi for onward trans-shipment to PoK, the drivers from across the LoC
similarly deliver goods at TFC Salamabad, Uri. Goods as well as the drivers and
their vehicles are thorough scanned manually and electronically at both TFCs,
one controlled by the Pakistani customs authorities and another by the Indian
customs and immigration authorities. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Case FIR No 07/2017 under section 7/25 of Indian Arms Act
and section 13 of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act has been registered in
Police Station Uri and the investigation has been assigned to a special
investigation team.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">END</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">[STATE TIMES]</span></div>
</div>
Ahmed Ali Fayyazhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09315496293788942599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7517162742711995015.post-71075941423537271912017-03-01T15:38:00.003+14:002017-03-01T15:38:44.264+14:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Arms
smuggled into Valley through cross-LoC trucks</span></b></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: #c00000; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;"><i>Driver held with loaded pistol; Police launch
series of raids in South Kashmir to break the terror network</i></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Ahmed Ali Fayyaz</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">________ </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">JAMMU, Feb 28: Following inputs from a Central intelligence
agency, Police have arrested a driver, seized from him a loaded pistol and
launched a series of raids in South Kashmir after learning that militants have
been smuggling in arms and ammunition through the cross-LoC trade trucks from
Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Highly placed authoritative sources confirmed to STATE TIMES
that Baramulla District Police on Tuesday intercepted a truck on
Srinagar-Muzaffarabad highway and took its driver into custody for sustained
interrogation. One Chinese pistol with ammunition was recovered from the truck.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">A resident of Kulgam area, the driver is believed to have
been engaged by a formidable militant organisation for smuggling of arms and
ammunition from PoK. Sources said that the detained driver spilled the beans
and exposed several of his contacts. His interrogation was still
inconclusive. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Different Police teams swung into action under supervision
of DIG North Kashmir, Nitish Kumar, and IGP Kashmir, Syed Javaid Mujtaba
Gilani, for arresting the militants and their over-ground workers involved in
smuggling of arms and ammunition through cross-LoC trade from Muzzafarabad.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">It was not immediately clear how much of arms and ammunition
had been already smuggled into the Valley and how many drivers had been engaged
by the militant organisation.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Officials are baffled how the network of smugglers has
succeeded to carry arms and ammunition as every single item is thoroughly
scanned and checked at the Trade Facilitation Centre Salamabad, Uri, before
trans-shipment to the trucks of the Kashmiri drivers. It was not immediately
clear if transfer of the incharge of TFC last week was in any way linked to
smuggling of the arms from across the border.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Interestingly, Police have learned that several of the
militants, who were killed in encounters or arrested in the last six months,
had travelled to Pakistan on valid Indian Passports rather than crossing the
border with the help of conventional infiltration guides.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">In 2014 and 2015 cross-LoC trade had been suspended for
several weeks following recovery of narcotics from some trucks arriving in from
Muzzafarabad.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">The barter system of cross-LoC trade between Pakistan and
Indian administered Jammu and Kashmir commenced on October 21, 2008, towards
the end of a turbulent summer in Jammu and Kashmir during which Kashmiri
traders called for a march to Muzzafarabad when some people in Jammu threatened
to block supplies to the Valley. Previously, India and Pakistan had inaugurated
cross-LoC travel through Uri in valley and Chakan-Da-Bagh in Jammu on April 7,
2005.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Currently trade through Uri (Baramulla) and Chakan-Da-Bagh
(Poonch) is being handled four days a week as around 100 trucks are permitted
from each side. Volume of the zero-tariff barter trade is being estimated at Rs
2000 crore from Indian side and Rs 1700 crore from Pakistani side in the last 8
years.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">END</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; margin: 0px;">[STATE TIMES]</span></div>
</div>
Ahmed Ali Fayyazhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09315496293788942599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7517162742711995015.post-8896632022371587402017-02-24T09:34:00.000+14:002017-02-24T09:34:06.000+14:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 22pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Maj
critical; 3 soldiers, woman killed in Shopian terror strike</span></b></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #254061; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Army chief flies to
Srinagar, CM asks two Ministers to attend wreath-laying ceremony</span></i></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Ahmed Ali Fayyaz</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">______ </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">JAMMU, Feb 23: While a critically wounded Major is battling
for life at a Military Hospital in Srinagar, three soldiers and a civilian
woman got killed and five soldiers, including a Lt. Colonel, sustained injuries
in the current year’s first terror strike on security forces in Jammu and
Kashmir, on Thursday in Shopian area of South Kashmir.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Highly placed authoritative sources told STATE TIMES that a
unit of Rashtriya Rifles swooped on Kungnoo village in Shopian district in the
wee hours on Thursday after learning about the movement of some militants.
Without getting into contact with any militant, the security forces were
returning to their camp around 0200 hours when the militants in ambush near Mool Chitragam
ambushed their cavalcade. A red-colour Tata Sumo vehicle suffered the brunt of
the militant strike even as they targeted all the four vehicles.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Three soldiers got killed and five others, including one Lt.
Colonel and one Major, were injured. The civilian driver of the Tata Sumo
sustained minor injuries. All the injured were airlifted and rushed to 92 Base
Hospital in Srinagar. Late on Thursday, doctors attending on the injured
soldiers said that all of them, excluding Major Amardeep Singh, were stable.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Dr Anand, a neurosurgeon was flown from Command Hospital of
Udhampur to Srinagar where the Army doctors were also joined by Dr Arif and Dr
Yousuf of Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS). One of the
three doctors told STATE TIMES that Major Amarjeet’s condition was “extremely
critical” even as the best possible medical treatment was provided to him on
time. He said that the team of three neurosurgeons removed the badly damaged
parts of the brain area and carried out other surgical procedures. However, the
blood pressure of the officer was not stabilising to the satisfaction of the
doctors.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Three soldiers killed in the ambush were identified as Lance
Naik Ghulam Mohi-ud din Rather, Sepoy Vikas Singh Gurjar and Sepoy Sreejith. While
as Ghulam Mohiud-din, a local soldier, would be laid to rest in his ancestral
village, bodies of two more soldiers would be despatched by a special airplane
for last rites in their respective places of residence on Friday.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Sources said that 50-year-old Taja Begum w/o Ghulam
Mohiuddin was hit by a stray bullet that pierced a glazed window and left her
dead inside her home, close to the site of encounter.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">In the evening, Chief of the Army Staff Gen Bipin Rawat flew
from Delhi to Srinagar to take a review of the latest obtaining security
scenario, militants’ and the peoples’ behaviour and the security forces’ coordination
with Police and intelligence agencies. A major counterinsurgency operation,
according to sources, was being planned to flush out militants in
Shopian-Kulgam-Pulwama belt of South Kashmir.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Gen Rawat would be among the senior Army, Police and paramilitary
forces officers to attend the wreath-laying ceremony of the three soldiers at
headquarters 15 Corps at 0830 hours on Friday. Director General of Jammu and
Police Dr Shesh Pal Vaid would be represented by IGP Kashmir Syed Javaid
Mujtaba Gillani and other senior officers as he would not be able to fly to
Srinagar and reach there at 0830 hours.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Sources revealed to this correspondent that Chief Minister
Mehbooba Mufti, on way to Saudia Arabia from New Delhi for a pilgrimage (Umrah)
called Chief Secretary B.R. Sharma and asked him to communicate to two Cabinet
Minister, namely Minister of Law and Rural Development Abdul Haq Khan and
Minister of Agriculture Ghulam Nabi Lone Hanjura, to attend the wreath-laying
ceremony of the three soldiers at Badami Bagh cantonment on Friday morning.
Both the Ministers are currently in Kashmir.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Meanwhile Hizbul Mujahideen has claimed responsibility of
the attack and claimed that five soldiers were killed and several others
injured in the successful ambush.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Residents said that the funeral prayers and other last rites
of the woman were conducted peacefully but hours after that clashes occurred at
several places between the demonstrators and security forces. They alleged that
the soldiers roughed up civilians and caused extensive damage to over a dozen
civilian vehicles parked on the streets.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">END</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">[STATE TIMES]</span></div>
</div>
Ahmed Ali Fayyazhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09315496293788942599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7517162742711995015.post-23772554557974619822017-02-21T07:48:00.000+14:002017-02-21T07:48:33.384+14:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Basharat back to office but Imran’s uncle attacks Naeem,
Mansoor</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Tassaduq and some officials resolve part of the portfolio crisis
in PDP; Mehbooba may add some Class-3 portfolios to contrite Ministers </span></i></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Ahmed Ali Fayyaz</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">________ </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">JAMMU, Feb 20: Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti’s crisis
managers on Monday deflated the balloon of a revolt within to some extent as
Basharat Bukhari withdrew his resignation and joined as Minister of
Horticulture even as the second fuming Minister, Imran Raza Ansari, went ahead
with his schedule of pilgrimage in Iran and Iraq.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Mollified by CM’s brother Tassaduq Mufti and some senior
Government officials who acted as interlocutors, Basharat in the morning drove
to Ms Mufti’s Wazarat Road residence and held his second hour-long meeting with
her. Sources privy to the development told STATE TIMES that Basharat made his
last-ditch efforts to get some “face saving portfolio” but Chief Minister
remained unmoved and made it clear that she would redress the grievance of the
two Ministers only after the Parliamentary elections if they withdrew their
resignations and accepted the portfolios assigned to them.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">According to these well-placed sources, Chief Minister would
consider adding some “class-3” portfolios like Culture and Hospitality &
Protocol to the two Ministers later this year. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Later, Basharat drove to the Civil Secretariat and joined
his duty as Minister of Horticulture. In Monday’s issue, STATE TIMES had
exclusively reported that Basharat had returned to Jammu and he was likely to
surrender and join as Minister of Horticulture. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Even as a number of Ms Mufti’s emissaries, including her
confidantes Waheed-ur-Rehman Parra and Saadut Hussain, called on Imran Ansari,
arranged his meeting with Chief Minister and urged him to withdraw his resignation
on Saturday and Sunday, he is said to have emphasised that he could not go
against the aspirations of his Shia followers. On Sunday, he left for Iran
along with his family.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Sources in bureaucracy said that Chief Minister did not
forward Ansari’s resignation for acceptance to Governor as PDP was keen not to
lose him out to National Conference or Congress. For now, Imran Ansari, whose
father late Maulvi Iftikhar Hussain Ansari deserted NC in 2005 and remained in
PDP until his death in 2014, is the only Shia face in the principal ruling
party. However, sources insist, Chief Minister has said repeatedly that she
would not succumb to ‘pressure tactics’ in any circumstances. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">With the attempts of reconciliation still underway, Imran’s
uncle and PDP’s MLA from Zadibal, Maulvi Abid Hussain Ansari, has mounted
scathing attacks on Ms Mufti’s confidantes Naeem Akhtar (Minister of R&B)
and Peerzada Mansoor Hussain (Vice Chairman Khadi and Village Industries Board),
holding them responsible for creating current crisis in the party. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">A national daily quoted Abid to have dismissed Akhtar as
“saboteur”. “I have understood that Naem sahib doesn’t work for the interest of
party but is hell bent at the behest of some agency to destroy PDP to the
core,” Abid is reported to have told The Economic Times and offered him
challenge to contest an election against him. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">“I will leave my assembly seat and leave Kashmir, if Akhtar
manages to get 200 votes against me,” Abid, who represents a Shia dominated
constituency, has said. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">“You cannot ask an MLA to gather people when there is a
function in Srinagar and prefer Naem when it comes to portfolios,” said Abid.
According to him, there was anger against Akhtar within the party but only few
would dare to speak openly about this as they feared retribution from the
powerful Minister. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Abid is reported to have said that Akhtar had been “imposed”
on the cadres. According to him, he was an MLC and had never contested any
election and as such he had no constituency or public commitment. Abid has said
that Akhtar should have no problem with a portfolio like Imran’s Youth Services
and Sports and demanded that Akhtar’s all-important R&B portfolio be given
to Imran who had to reach out to large number of people.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">In an interview to Current News Service, Abid is reported to
have called Mansoor “black-mailer”, “back-biter” and “BJP man” and held Akhtar “responsible
for present disorder” in PDP. He is quoted to have said that the PDP would be
decimated in the forthcoming Lok Sabha by-elections for which Naeem Akhtar and
Mansoor Hussain would be responsible.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">“I was shocked when Chief Minister appointed Mansoor as Vice
Chairman of KVIB. This man in league with Naeem Akhtar sowed the seeds of
animosity that led to the ouster of Altaf Bukhari, Javaid Mustafa Mir, Abdul
Majeed Padder and Muhammad Ashraf Mir from the Council of Ministers. Mansoor
knows the job well how to widen wedge between party legislators and workers,”
CNS quoted Abid.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">According to Abid, Mansoor was “an ordinary employee at
SKIMS” and he had by manipulation risen to a position “where he is draining the
state exchequer”. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">“Currently, he is handling KVIB and soon people will see how
scams will surface there,” he reportedly said and added that Mansoor and Akhtar
had brought the party “on the verge of destruction”.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">“Naeem and Mansoor are calling shots in the party and it is because
of them that Imran was not allocated a new portfolio. Neither of them can
compete with Imran who has a great stature. These men will feel the heat when
Srinagar will go for polls for the Parliamentary seat,” Abid has reportedly
said.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Abid alleged that Akhtar had ruined the Department of
Education and claimed that the employees celebrated his removal. “Mark my
words, like employees from Education department now the contractors and the PWD
employees will hit the roads and blame Akhtar for mess which he is going to create
in the department,” Abid has said.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">“Our Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti feels that both Naeem
Akhtar and Mansoor are assets for the party, though we have repeatedly informed
her about their anti-party activities. Time will soon come when she will
realize and show them the door,” Abid has reportedly said.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">“Akhtar spends much time with non-party men. He is always
surrounded by sycophants and mostly he is busy in appeasing BJP men. Till date,
he has never solved the problem of any PDP worker” he has said.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="background: white; margin: 0px 0px 16px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Efforts to seek reaction from Akhtar and Mansoor
failed as their phones and WhatApp did not respond to calls from this
newspaper.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="background: white; margin: 0px 0px 16px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">END</span></div>
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike>[STATE TIMES]</div>
Ahmed Ali Fayyazhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09315496293788942599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7517162742711995015.post-87000170421436197592017-02-20T09:57:00.000+14:002017-02-20T09:57:29.602+14:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 20pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Bukhari,
Ansari meet Mehbooba; stand-off over portfolios continues</span></b></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">CM asks disgruntled Ministers to attend office,
tells them ‘pressure tactics’ wouldn’t make her bow; Basharat Bukhari likely to
surrender, returns to Jammu; Imran Ansari off to Iran on pilgrimage with family</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Ahmed Ali Fayyaz</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">_________ </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">JAMMU, Feb 19: The
situation created by resignation of the two disgruntled Ministers of PDP took
another dramatic turn on Sunday as Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti asked Syed
Basharat Bukhari and Imran Raza Ansari to “immediately” attend their offices in
Civil Secretariat while making it clear that their “pressure tactics” would not
make her bow. After the two Ministers called on the Chief Minister separately
in Srinagar, an apparently submissive Basharat Bukhari returned to Jammu but an
unyielding Imran Ansari proceeded to Iran on a scheduled pilgrimage with his
family.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Highly placed sources in
the political establishment told STATE TIMES that after separate meetings with
the emissaries, Basharat Bukhari called on the Chief Minister at her Gupkar
Road residence on Sunday and discussed with her the situation created by
reshuffle of portfolios immediately after the Amirakadal MLA and former
Minister Syed Altaf Bukhari’s induction as the new Cabinet Minister for
Education on Friday. Sources said that Ms Mufti and Mr Basharat held a
closed-door meeting for about one hour.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Previously, late on
Saturday night, Imran Ansari drove to Ms Mufti’s residence and remained
closeted with her for about one hour.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Sources privy to the
deliberations said that Ms Mufti assured both the disgruntled Ministers that
she could consider their request “favourably” but not before they return to
their work at Civil Secretariat and attend the official functions. She is said
to have asked them both to return to their offices “immediately” and refrain
from creating any crisis for her government and party at the crucial time
before the Panchayat and Lok Sabha elections. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Basharat, according to
sources, maintained that “a coterie of the defeated MLAs within the party” had
been hatching up conspiracies against him and it had finally culminated into an
“embarrassing situation” as his key portfolio was replaced by the one which,
according to him, was not very important.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Even as Basharat did not
name any of the “conspirators”, a whisper campaign in the estranged camp is
currently mounting against Mohammad Sartaj Madni and Peerzada Mansoor Hussain
who are said to have influenced reshuffle of the portfolios. Madni is Ms
Mufti’s maternal uncle while as Mansoor has been her close aide since the
PDP-Congress government took over in 2002. In 2014 Assembly elections, they had
lost to Congress candidates in Devsar and Shangus constituencies respectively.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Ansari, according to
sources, whined that a “suitable portfolio” had not been allotted to him
despite “assurances” from Chief Minister. People close to him insist that Ms
Mufti had decided to allocate “CAPD and another portfolio” to Ansari but when
the allotment was made public, he found his old portfolio intact. Like
Basharat, Imran Ansari is said to have been assured by Ms Mufti that she would
redress his grievance after he resumes his work at office.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">According to knowledgeable
sources, initially both the disgruntled Ministers laid a condition that they
would return to Civil Secretariat only after “suitable portfolios” would be
assigned to them. However, after the meeting on Sunday, Basharat conveyed
indications of submission. In the afternoon, he returned to Jammu in an Air
India flight that also had on board Secretary Tourism Farooq Ahmad Shah.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Basharat Bukhari and Imran
Ansari reached Srinagar airport separately but almost simultaneously. Along
with his family, Ansari left directly for New Delhi wherefrom he is scheduled
to fly to Iran for a 10-day-long pilgrimage. He would also visit some Shia
shrines in Iraq.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">“The stand-off is
continuing. On Monday, CM is likely to take her call on the resignations. We
are sure Basharat will surrender and withdraw his resignation”, said an
influential Minister of PDP who asserted that any change of portfolios at this
stage would make CM’s position “weak and awkward”. “It will create more problems
than solve. It can open Pandora’s box. Some MLAs have already given negative
reactions”, he said. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">In the reshuffle on Friday,
Basharat lost out his key portfolios of Relief and Rehabilitation to Abdul
Rehman Veeri whose all-important portfolio of Roads and Buildings was assigned
to the influential PDP leader Naeem Akhtar. Akhtar’s equally important
Education portfolio was allocated to the fresh entrant Altaf Bukhari who was
the only Minister inducted in the Cabinet. Altaf had impressively functioned as
Minister for R&B in late Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s government in 2015. He was
among the four Ministers — two Cabinet Ministers and two Ministers of State—of
the Mufti Sayeed government who were not taken by Ms Mufti, in April 2016. On
getting the “insignificant” Horticulture portfolio on Friday, Basharat was
quick to tender his resignation.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">PDP’s first time MLA from
Pattan and a Shia leader Imran Ansari was known to be dissatisfied with his
portfolios of Youth Services & Sports and Information Technology from day
one. He and his supporters claim that Chief Minister had assured him “a
suitable portfolio” in a possible reshuffle “in near future”. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Saturday and Sunday
witnessed a flurry of activity as the coalition’s crisis managers swung into
action to pacify the two disgruntled Ministers. On Friday itself, both Basharat
Bukhari and Imran Ansari, flew to Srinagar on a Go-Air flight that had on board
also Minister of State Asea Naqash, PDP MLC Javed Mirchal, CM’s close aide and
Secretary Sports Council Waheed-ur-Rehman Parra. Chief Minister flew to
Srinagar alongwith Sartaj Madni, on a scheduled programme, in the State
aircraft.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">On Saturday forenoon,
Minister of Education Altaf Bukhari, Minister of Law & Rural Development
Abdul Haq Khan, PDP MLC Yasir Rishi, PDP General Secretary Rafi Ahmad Mir and
Peerzada Mansoor Hussain flew from Jammu to Srinagar on an IndiGo flight.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">After a series of
deliberations with Chief Minister in Srinagar, the PDP crisis managers called
on both, Basharat Bukhari and Imran Ansari, separately. First of all, Sartaj
Madni called on Bukhari and Ansari. Later on Saturday, Altaf Bukhari and Rafi
Mir called on them jointly. Peerzada Mansoor Hussain formed the third
delegation. Finally the fourth delegation comprised MLC Yasir Rishi and
Waheed-ur-Rehman Parra.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">It was late on Saturday
night that Imran Ansari drove all the way to CM’s residence and held an
hour-long meeting with her. On Sunday, Basharat Bukhari held a similar meeting
with Ms Mufti at her residence. Around the same time, CM’s relative and
Minister of Haj & Auqaf Syed Farooq Andrabi, PDP’s MLC Khursheed Alam and
MLA Abbas Wani also landed in Srinagar. On another flight, they were followed
by Minister of R&B Naeem Akhtar, PDP’s MP Nazir Ahmad Laway besides DGP Dr
Shesh Pal Vaid who were all reportedly on different missions. Minister of
Revenue Abdul Rehman Veeri too arrived in Srinagar by an afternoon flight.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">In the last flight from
Srinagar, Minister of Education Altaf Bukhari and Congress leader Sachin Pilot
were the only politicians, besides Imran Ansari and his family, travelling
directly to New Delhi. Last to fly in the State aircraft from Srinagar was
Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">END</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; margin: 0px;">[STATE TIMES]</span></div>
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike></div>
Ahmed Ali Fayyazhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09315496293788942599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7517162742711995015.post-11681554009655086812017-02-18T16:51:00.003+14:002017-02-18T16:51:51.823+14:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 22pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Basharat,
Imran ‘resign’ as allocation of portfolios triggers typhoon in Mehbooba’s Govt</span></b></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">One Minister upset over insignificant portfolio, another
Minister senses ‘conspiracy within’, writes letter to CM</span></i></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Ahmed Ali Fayyaz</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">____________</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">JAMMU, Feb 17: Induction of the PDP heavyweight Syed Altaf
Bukhari back into Cabinet after his virtual suspension for over ten months,
followed by resultant reshuffle of portfolios among five Ministers on Friday,
triggered a major crisis in the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as two
Cabinet Ministers —Syed Basharat Bukhari and Imran Raza Ansari—tendered their
resignation. Some MLAs of the PDP earlier stayed away from the swearing-in
ceremony.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">The Government chose to remain mute but well-placed
political and bureaucratic sources maintained that Basharat sent a written and
signed communication to Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti complaining to her that
the change of his portfolio from Revenue to Horticulture was the culmination of
a "protracted conspiracy” against him within the party. He is said to have
asserted that his continuation in the Council of Ministers in the current
circumstances would be very difficult and he, as such, should be relieved of
his responsibility as a Minister.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Sources confirmed that Basharat’s letter reached the Chief
Minister and she would deal with it "as per her own wisdom and judgment".</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Even as many of the politicians and bureaucrats insisted
that Basharat resigned for losing out a prestigious portfolio and getting an
insignificant one, participants of the swearing-in ceremony told STATE TIMES
that the Minister was visibly incensed and returned in a huff as the security
staff at Raj Bhawan entrance did not allow in four of his guests who did not
carry any invite for the ceremony. He turned back in protest along with PDP’s
Rajya Sabha member Fayaz Ahmad Mir.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Dozens of attempts to speak to Basharat failed as he did not
respond to phone calls from this correspondent. His phone was found
continuously “busy”. However, a television network and a Srinagar-based news
agency claimed to have accessed the Minister. They reported that the Minister
confirmed his resignation and having written a letter to the Chief Minister.
The letter reportedly detailed a sequence of the "conspiracies"
against the Minister. Basharat is PDP's MLA from Sangrama (Baramulla) in his
third successive term after a stint as MLC. He was Minister of Law in Mufti
Mohammad Sayeed's Cabinet.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">In quick succession, reports said that PDP's first term MLA
from Pattan (Baramulla) and Minister of Youth Services and Sports, Information
Technology and Technical Education, Imran Raza Ansari, too resigned from the
Cabinet. Even as there was no official confirmation to it, Ansari’s family
sources told STATE TIMES that he had tendered his resignation around 5.00 pm.
However, sources in CM’s bureaucratic and security detail insisted that Ansari’s
resignation had not reached to the Chief Minister till late on Friday evening.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Since his induction into the Cabinet, first by late Mufti
Mohammad Sayeed in March 2015 and later by Ms Mufti in April 2016, Ansari is
known to have been dissatisfied over allocation of an “insignificant portfolio”
to him. Some political sources insist that he had been lately assured that the
Chief Minister would redress his grievance and allot an important portfolio
(CAPD) to him on the day of Altaf Bukhari’s induction. He was reportedly upset
when the allocation of portfolios was made public on Friday. However, Ansari
was not reachable for confirmation.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Significantly, a number of the PDP’s “angry and
disappointed” MLAs were conspicuously absent at the swearing-in ceremony
earlier. They included MLA Chadoura Javed Mustafa Mir, MLA Noorabad Abdul Majid
Paddar and MLA Sonwar Mohammad Ashraf Mir who were Ministers in Mufti’s Council
of Ministers but were, along with Altaf Bukhari, not taken by Mehbooba Mufti
last year. Ashraf Mir was reportedly in Mumbai or Bengaluru. PDP’s Kokernag MLA
Abdul Rahim Rather was also absent.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Reports said that Rather and Paddar had conveyed their
"disappointment and displeasure" to Chief Minister while complaining
that “all the defeated candidates” had been rehabilitated and given status of a
Minister or Minister of State but the winners had been exposed to embarrassment
within their respective constituencies.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">The crisis in the PDP has sprouted days before Ms Mufti is
leaving for Umrah in Saudi Arabia with a heavy family entourage including her
mother, sister and other relatives. One of the bureaucrats of her Government
returned on Friday after making necessary arrangements for the CM’s pilgrimage
in Saudi Arabia.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">END</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">[STATE TIMES]</span></div>
</div>
Ahmed Ali Fayyazhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09315496293788942599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7517162742711995015.post-60816299540966803002017-02-13T06:59:00.001+14:002017-02-13T06:59:39.069+14:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 20pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Kulgam
tense after 4 militants, 2 civilians, 2 soldiers died in gunfight</span></b></div>
</span></span>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;"><i>Gun salute, Pak flags mark militants’ funeral
as thousands gather for demonstration; 18 civilians, 3 soldiers injured</i></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Ahmed Ali Fayyaz</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">________ </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">JAMMU, Feb 12: In the
current year’s fiercest encounter in Jammu and Kashmir, four local militants,
two civilians and two soldiers got killed in Kulgam —one of the politically
hypersensitive zones in southern Kashmir on Sunday.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Director General of Police,
Dr Shesh Pal Vaid, told STATE TIMES that the operation was launched jointly by
Kulgam District Police, Rashtriya Rifles 1<sup>st</sup> battalion and CRPF 18<sup>th</sup>
battalion on specific information regarding the presence of a group of
militants at Nagbal Frisal in Kulgam district late on Saturday night. During
the operation, a fierce encounter took place in which four terrorists of
Lashkar-e-Tayyiba and Hizbul Mujahideen, besides two soldiers and two civilians
got killed. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">IGP Kashmir, Syed Javid
Mujtaba Gillani, said that three militants managed to escape from the cordoned
house and others holed up in the hideout attempted to escape while directing
heavy gunfire on the Police and security forces. Two soldiers, identified as
Raghuvir Singh and Bandoriya Gopal Singh, got killed in the nightlong gunfight
while as three more soldiers sustained injuries. IGP said that the house-owner
Ashfaq Majid Rishi got killed in the cross-firing as he could not be evacuated
successfully. Later, during a clash between the local demonstrators and the
security forces, one more civilian, namely Mushtaq Ibrahim Itoo s/o Mohammad
Ibrahim Itoo of Hatigam, Srigifwara, got killed.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">IGP said that an
investigation had been launched into the circumstances that led to the death of
the second civilian during the course of a clash. He said that 18 civilians
sustained injuries during the clashes. Out of them four had been referred to
SMHS Hospital, Srinagar. Doctors at SMHS said late on Sunday night that a
civilian, Danish Nazir of Frisal, reported for treatment with a gunshot injury.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">The militants killed in the
encounter have been identified as Farooq Ahmad Bhat s/o Abdul Gani Bhat r/o
Chak Dasand [initially identified as Farooq Ahmad Dar s/o Mohammad Yousuf Dar
r/o Arreh], Mohammad Younis Lone s/o Ghulam Qadir Lone r/o Hawura (Hizbul
Mujahideen], Mudasir Ahmad Tantray alias Aasim s/o Mohammad Akbar Tantray r/o
Redwani and Vakil Ahmad Thokar s/o Mohammad Ahsan Thokar r/o Hadigam.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Officials said that two AK
rifles, two pistols and one INSAS rifle, believed to be one of the weapons
snatched away from Police at different places last year, were recovered from
the site of the encounter.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Commander of Sector-1 of
Army, Brig R. Chakravarty held a press conference to claim that the forces made
every possible attempt to evacuate the house owner but failed as the militants
did not listen to appeals to surrender and come out. He said that large number
of people gathering around the encounter sites and clashing with the forces was
continuing to be a major problem. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Sources said that one of
the four militants had lately joined militancy as he had disappeared from his
home on January 14<sup>th</sup>. Others had been reportedly active in
Anantnag-Kulgam belt in the last two years. Younis Lone, according to Police
records, stood booked in four FIRs including one murder and one attempted
murder.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">While the troops withdrew
and carried all the four militants’ bodies to a Police post at Wanpoh, hundreds
of residents of about a dozen surrounding villages gathered at the encounter
site at Pandit Mohalla, Nagbal, and began clashing with Police and security
forces amid anti-India and pro-<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Azadi</i>
slogans. During this clash, one demonstrator, Mushtaq Ibrahim Itoo, sustained
critical injuries and later died at a hospital.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Officials as well as the
civilians from the tense Kulgam belt told STATE TIMES that thousands of people
attended the four militants’ and the two civilians’ funeral prayers at
different places. They were all buried in their respective residential
villages. The participants waved Pakistani flags and shouted anti-India and
pro-<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Azadi</i> slogans. In the evening, at
least two armed militants appeared at Redwani and paid gun salute to the two
militants buried in the village graveyard.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">There was no official
announcement of curfew but residents said that nobody was being allowed to move
around and it was a curfew-like situation in a vast area. While as the
separatists have called for total shutdown in Kashmir on Monday, sources said
that the hardliner Syed Ali Shah Geelani was likely to extend the call for
shutdown for one or two days.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">END</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; margin: 0px;">[STATE TIMES]</span></div>
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike></div>
Ahmed Ali Fayyazhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09315496293788942599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7517162742711995015.post-41819262180928975052017-02-09T00:36:00.000+14:002017-02-09T09:08:47.778+14:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Mehbooba
wants them as Range Officers, her Govt wants them as Forest Guards</span></b></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Lal Singh’s ‘Rehbar-e-Janglaat’ scheme is a shot in the leg for
Forestry graduates as a woman with Ph D will be paid Rs 5,000/month for 5 years
and thereafter regularised as Forest Guard</span></i></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #666666;">Ahmed Ali Fayyaz</span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #666666;">_______ </span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #666666;">JAMMU, Feb 8: Forest Minister Choudhary Lal Singh
seemed to be doing a great favour to both, his departments</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #666666;"> </span></span><span style="color: #666666;">as well as the 500-odd unemployed Forestry
graduates, on January 30 as he was seen insisting Chief Minister announce in
her speech in the Assembly the much-hyped ‘Rehbar-e-Janglaat’ scheme. “I am
coming to that. I am coming to Rehbar-e-Janglaat”, Chief Minister retorted and committed
on the floor of the House that her Government would soon engage “all the highly
educated Forestry graduates against the vacancies in the Forest Department”.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #666666;">Even as Ms Mufti’s Ministers later assured the
unemployed Forestry graduates that the PDP-BJP coalition was going to end their
decade-long trauma and they would be absorbed in the Forest Department
(Territorial) and 10 related departments as Range Officers (ROs), STATE TIMES
has learned that the ‘Rehbar-e-Janglaat’ scheme is nothing but death without
poison for the unemployed Forestry graduates.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #666666;">Chief Minister is perceived to be reasonably compassionate
and in favour of recruiting all the unemployed youths with B. Sc Forestry, M.
Sc Forestry and Ph. D Forestry on the positions commensurate with their high
qualification and technical training. Knowing that there have been no technical
recruitments, with just a few exceptions, in Forest sector in the last 32 years
in Jammu and Kashmir and all the qualified officers recruited before 1990 are
going to retire in the next few years, Chief Minister reportedly wants the
unemployed Forestry graduates appointed as Range Officers, Assistant Directors
in Forest Protection Force and equivalent posts in State Forest Corporation,
Wildlife Protection and other related departments.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #666666;">However, enquiries by this newspaper revealed that
Forest Minister Lal Singh actually wants to engage an army of Forest Guards
with qualifications ranging from Matriculation to Doctorate in Forestry against
paltry remuneration of Rs 5,000 a month for 5 years. Thereafter, they will be
‘regularised’ as Forest Guards [Rs 5200 —Rs 20,200; Grade Pay Rs 1900]. This is
equal to a junior assistant and just a minor level above the class 4</span><sup><span style="color: #666666;">th</span></sup><span style="color: #666666;">
Orderly and Chowkidar. Range Officers’ pay scale is Rs 9,300—Rs 34,800; Grade
Pay Rs 4280.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #666666;">Officials in the office of Principal Chief Conservator
of Forest (PCCF), A.K. Singh, disclosed to this newspaper that Forest Minister
has recently requisitioned compilation of a list of all Forest Guard vacancies.
</span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #666666;">“As of now, Minister wants to engage 500 or 600 people
with qualification of Matriculation, 12</span><sup><span style="color: #666666;">th</span></sup><span style="color: #666666;"> Pass and Graduation/PG in
Forestry as need-based Forest Guards who would be subsequently regularised as
Forest Guards after 5 years. There’s no plan of recruiting anybody as Range
Officer or ACF for which the Forestry graduates are qualified and trained. They
are just misleading these people with their lies”, said a senior officer on
condition of anonymity. He said that no vacancy was referred to PSC and no
steps were afoot to fill up vacancies of Assistant Directors in Forest
Protection Force or Managers in State Forest Corporation. These have been lying
in limbo for decades.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #666666;">Commissioner-Secretary Forest Mohammad Afzal Bhat has
no hesitation to put himself on record. “No, the Government, as of now, has no
plans of appointing any of the Forestry graduates as Range Officer, ACF or
equivalent. We are just working on so-called Rehbar-e-Janglaat scheme that has
been in fact submitted by PCCF some years ago. We have further submitted it to
Finance Department. The only vacancies available with us are of Forest Guards.
We have worked out that after 5 years, we will be having 1000 to 1200 vacancies
of Forest Guards. Under Rehbar-e-Janglaat scheme, we are planning to engage
Forestry graduates and above as ‘Rehbar’ and they will be regularised as Forest
Guards after 5 years. For 5 years, they will be paid Rs 5,000 per month”, Mr
Bhat told STATE TIMES.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #666666;">“This is Mehbooba Government’s shot in our leg. It
would be less cruel if she sprays bullets and shoots us dead. This is the death
without poison”, said a 39-year-old unemployed youth who has completed B. Sc Forestry,
M. Sc Forestry and Ph. D in Forestry from the year 2000 to 2010. “How can we
work at a place where our illiterate Orderlies and Chowkidars will take Rs
20,000 to Rs 30,000 a month and we will be paid Rs 5,000? Besides, people like
me will have to be in regular service for just 15 years”, he added.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #666666;">Commissioner-Secretary Forest Mr Bhat maintained that
under the existing recruitment scheme only Forest Guards and Foresters in
non-gazetted and ROs Grade-I and Assistant Conservators of Forest (ACFs) in
gazetted are directly appointed by Services Selection Board and J&K Public
Service Commission respectively. RO Grade-II vacancies are fully reserved for
promotion of in-service Foresters. “We have inadequate number of vacancies of
Foresters and RO Grade-I. So we have decided to engage them as Forest Guards. Right
now the ball is in the court of Finance Department. If there’s a direction from
the top, Finance Department in coordination with Planning Department can formulate
an innovative scheme”, Mr Bhat asserted.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #666666;">One of the retired bureaucrats said that the Government
could re-organise Forest and Forest-related departments at ACF and RO level. “They
can create fresh posts as per the latest requirement. There has been a
reorganisation for the comfort of PCCFs, additional PCCFs, CCFs and CFs but in
the last 60 years there has been no reorganisation in these departments at ACF
or RO level”, he explained. “It is a totally man-made crisis. J&K is a
Forest state and currently we need technically trained and highly qualified
staff. Currently we have ROs, DFOs and CFs who are totally illiterate in
Forestry. Some of them are matriculates. Some have graduation in Arts. And,
they too are all retiring in next three years”, he added.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #666666;">The ‘beneficiaries’ of Mehbooba Government’s largesse
will pathetically include Massarat Aziz who has a graduation, post-graduation,
a PG diploma and Doctorate in Forestry. Born and brought up in Habbakadal,
Srinagar, Massarat is married and settled in Jammu. Currently she works on a
temporary arrangement as Technical Assistant in the Government of India-regulated
Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) in
Forest Department for remuneration of Rs 13,500 a month. Under Lal Singh’s
scheme, she will be engaged as temporary Forest Guard, paid peanuts of Rs 5,000
a month for 5 years and thereafter regularised as Forest Guard. Her classmates
of different Indian states by then would become Professors in Agriculture
universities.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #666666;">“I had a passion for Forestry. My brother is also a
Forestry graduate. Out of my four sisters, one has Ph. D in Horticulture and is
now working as Gazetted officer in Agriculture Department. Another sister has M.
Sc in microbiology and works in Saudi Arabia. Another sister is a doctor at
SMHS Hospital in Srinagar and yet another sister is an advocate. Among them
all, I am the least earning”, Massarat told STATE TIMES. </span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #666666;">“We had high hopes from a lady Chief Minister. But her
Minister and bureaucracy have been extremely cruel to us. We can only curse
them and our bad luck”, said another female with post-graduation in Forestry.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #666666;">END</span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: #7f7f7f; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; margin: 0px;">[STATE TIMES]</span></div>
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike></div>
Ahmed Ali Fayyazhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09315496293788942599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7517162742711995015.post-68369355411937203282017-02-04T10:00:00.001+14:002017-02-04T10:00:25.270+14:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 22pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">PDP-BJP
coalition’s another dubious first: CAG report not tabled in House</span></b></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">House Committee reports, annual reports of
commissions were also not tabled in House; Cabinet kept 17 important Bills
pending</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Ahmed Ali Fayyaz</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">________ </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">JAMMU, Feb 3: Cabinet spokesperson and Minister of Education
Naeem Akhtar’s claim that the Presiding Officers adjourned the Legislature’s budget
session <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">sine die</i> a week before the
schedule only after ascertaining that “no more important business was still pending”,
appears to be remarkably far from truth.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Sources in the Cabinet disclosed to STATE TIMES that the
draft of as many as 17 important Bills was supposed to be approved by the
Cabinet on February 1<sup>st</sup> at 3.00 pm. All these Bills would have come
up for consideration and passage in Legislative Assembly, followed by Legislative
Council, on the next four days of the Business. Even the Cabinet meeting, of
which the agenda had been circulated, could not be convened as Chief Minister
Mehbooba Mufti diverted to a party function in Jammu and conveyed her
reluctance to chair the same at Civil Secretariat in the afternoon on Wednesday.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">“Immediately after the Opposition created ruckus in both
Houses of Legislature over the Speaker’s announcement that he would examine the
records and expunge if there was anything objectionable in the CM’s Monday
speech, it was made clear to both the Presiding Officers that the CM was no
more interested in continuation of the session”, sources in the Cabinet said.
Taking a cue, Speaker of Legislative Assembly and Chairman of Legislative
Council adjourned the session <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">sine die</i>,
leaving much of the scheduled business unfinished.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">The Budget had been already passed but none of the
legislative businesses could be conducted. Even the Question Hour on many days
of the session remained completely disturbed.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">The Bills which failed to pass through legislation include
replacement of J&K Panchayat Raj Ordinance of 2016 which authorises Chief
Electoral Officer to conduct Panchayat elections in absence of the State
Election Commission. The Commission has not been constituted in Jammu and
Kashmir till date. “Since the Ordinance has enough time to expire on completion
of six months, we will be able to hold the Panchayat elections in March-April
as per the powers given to CEO by the Ordinance”, said a Minister.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Sources in the bureaucracy revealed that the 17 Bills which
remained pending for legislation included some of the very important laws.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Even as a motion was adopted by so-called voice vote amid
bedlam in the Assembly on Wednesday, none of the Financial Committees like
Public Accounts Committee, Estimates Committee and Public Undertakings
Committee, could be constituted. Secretary Assembly Mohammad Ramzan agrees that
these are statutory panels and need to be constituted with all nominations by
the Legislature. He, however, added that Assembly went by the practice of last
several years whereby respective political parties submit names of their
legislators and the Speaker constitutes the committees accordingly. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Even the all-important annual audition reports of
Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) were not tabled in Assembly or
Council this time. Secretary Assembly said that it was second time in his
memory that such businesses remained unfinished and the reports, including the
CAG report, were not tabled. He said similar situation occurred once when
Ghulam Nabi Azad was Chief Minister and due to a pandemonium, the Budget
session was adjourned <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">sine die</i> in
advance by Speaker Tara Chand in 2007 or 2008. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">However, former Secretary of Law and Legislative Council,
Mohammad Ashraf Mir, asserted that it was for the first time that the CAG
reports, besides other annual reports, were not tabled in the Legislature in
Jammu and Kashmir.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Secretary Assembly admitted that none of the Assembly’s own
House Committee reports or those of J&K State Public Service Commission,
J&K State Vigilance Commission, J&K Accountability Commission, J&K
State Human Rights Commissions, annual reports of important PSUs and the CAG
reports could not be tabled even as all these were ready and available with the
Assembly and the Council Secretariat.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Under Article 148 and 149 of the Constitution of India, all the
Central reports of CAG have to be tabled in the Budget session of the
Parliament and all the State reports in respective State Legislatures. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">While the Principal Auditor General (PAG) of Jammu and
Kashmir, Mr Huveda Abbas, is currently with a UN audit in United States of
America, the Accountant General and incharge PAG, K Subramanium, said that as
per the rules and the procedure, he had submitted the CAG reports to Governor several
days before the commencement of the Budget session in December 2016.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">“Since the State Legislature under rules is the first
audience, none of the CAG reports can be made public or published until the
same are tabled in the House. Now this has to be done in the next session.
Thereafter, these reports will be discussed for remedial actions by the Public
Accounts Committee”, Mr Subramaniam told STATE TIMES.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Officials in PAG’s office said that the CAG reports
submitted by them had been long back approved by the Governor and forwarded to
Assembly and the Council Secretariats through Finance Department. “These could
have been tabled any day in the last one month of the session. We fail to
understand why the Government waits for the last day of the session”, said an
officer.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">END</span></div>
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike>[STATE TIMES]</div>
Ahmed Ali Fayyazhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09315496293788942599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7517162742711995015.post-44432111156795443192017-02-03T09:01:00.003+14:002017-02-03T09:01:55.246+14:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Delhi’s
darling Lisa Curtis tipped to be Trump Govt’s Assistant Secretary of State
South Asia</span></b></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Expert on India-Pakistan matters and
terrorism, Curtis, who was recently in J&K, is strongly supported by the BJP
top brass including PM Modi and Ram Madhav</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Ahmed Ali Fayyaz</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">________ </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">JAMMU, Feb 2: Strongly favoured by Prime Minister Narendra
Modi’s party and the Government, New Delhi’s trusted diplomatic darling and the
high-profile South-Asia expert, Lisa Curtis, is tipped to be the Trump
Government’s Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs. Her
appointment, according to highly placed diplomatic sources in New Delhi, is
likely to be announced “within a few days”.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Sources disclosed to STATE TIMES that during her recent
visit to India, when she also visited Jammu and Kashmir, Curtis met with top
functionaries of the Modi Government and the BJP top brass. Those campaigning strongly
but silently for her appointment include the party’s all-important General
Secretary and an architect of the PDP-BJP Government in Jammu and Kashmir, Ram
Madhav. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">“Curtis has a strong support from South Block to the National
Security Council. We believe that the Indian diplomacy managers have campaigned
for her appointment as Assistant Secretary South Asia. What Robin Raphel (1993)
was to Pakistan, Lisa Curtis is to India”, said a senior diplomatic source. He,
however, put in a caveat that her appointment was yet to be approved by the new
Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">A conservative Republican activist, Curtis was reportedly
part of the electoral campaign for Donald Trump in the US.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Immediately after the Republic Day ceremonies in Jammu,
Curtis met with Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, Deputy Chief Minister Dr Nirmal
Singh and a number of BJP leaders. She also visited Udhampur and held an
extensive interaction with senior Army officers at headquarters of Northern
Command. Sources said that the Government also arranged her visit and meetings
with victims of the cross-border shelling on this side of International Border
and LoC.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Curtis also flew to Srinagar and Gulmarg where, according to
well-placed sources, she also met with a top separatist leader with the consent
and knowledge of the Centre and the State Government. However, she did not make
any such meeting public through social media.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">A frequent visitor to J&K, Curtis is a Senior Research
Fellow in the Asian Studies Center of the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis
Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy at The Heritage Foundation,
in the United States of America. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Curtis regularly travels to the South Asia region to
participate in conferences. She<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>has
contributed chapters to books and academic journals, including a chapter on
India in “Population Decline and the Remaking of Great Power Politics,” edited
by Susan Yoshihara and Douglas A. Sylva (Potomac Books, 2011) and an article on
Pakistan’s foreign policy in Contemporary South Asia (June 2012).</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Before joining The Heritage Foundation in August 2006,
Curtis worked for the U.S. government on South Asian issues for 16 years. From
2003 to 2006, she was a member of the professional staff of the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee, where she was in charge of the South Asia portfolio for
the chairman at the time, Senator Richard Lugar, the Republican representative from
her State of Indiana.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">From 2001 to 2003, Curtis was the White House-appointed
senior adviser to the Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian affairs,
where she helped develop policy to manage Indo-Pakistani tensions. Before that,
she worked as an analyst for the Central Intelligence Agency and, in the
mid-1990s, served as a diplomat in the U.S. embassies in Pakistan and India.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">In her numerous speeches at international conferences,
besides her articles, interviews and panel discussions on the world’s top
television channels, Curtis has unequivocally supported the Indian point of
view on Pakistan, Kashmir and terrorism. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">In a recent article, Curtis argued that the Chinese promised
investment on China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) had boosted Pakistan’s
confidence and spoiled prospects of a dialogue between Islamabad and New Delhi.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">“The issue of China and its role in the Indo-Pakistani
dispute was raised in a panel discussion on Wednesday at The Heritage
Foundation. In that discussion, I mentioned India’s concern that China’s
promised $46 billion investment toward CPEC projects in Pakistan has boosted
Islamabad’s confidence in its regional position and discouraged it from
engaging in dialogue with New Delhi. I further noted that Washington must
convince Beijing that if it wants to see the Islamist extremist threat
diminished in South Asia, it must convince Islamabad to crack down on terrorist
proxies that attack India”, Curtis wrote in her widely read article.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Curtis also supported India’s surgical strikes on the
Pakistan-administered terrorist bases across the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir
immediately after the<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> fidayeen</i> attack
on an Indian Army camp in Uri in September 2016.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">“The Indian strikes demonstrate the Modi government’s
unwillingness to merely absorb Pakistani provocations. The attack in Uri on
September 18 was the second major Pakistani provocation in the space of nine
months. In early January, a Pakistan-based terrorist group, the
Jaish-e-Mohammad, attacked the Indian air base at Pathankot, just days after
Prime Minister Narendra Modi reached out to Pakistan by paying a goodwill visit
to Lahore. The Uri attack appeared to show Pakistani willingness to up the ante
in order to draw international attention to Kashmir at a time when civil protests
had been wracking the region”, Curtis wrote in another article.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">END</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; margin: 0px;">[STATE TIMES]</span></div>
</div>
Ahmed Ali Fayyazhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09315496293788942599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7517162742711995015.post-20548184782419351472017-02-02T07:55:00.001+14:002017-02-02T07:55:02.730+14:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">PDP’s
yet another supreme sacrifice for the coalition with BJP</span></b></div>
<span style="color: #c00000; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">CM eats the humble pie, escapes to Gulmarg for
snow carnival as business terminated dramatically in both Houses of Legislature</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Ahmed Ali Fayyaz</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">________ </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">JAMMU, Feb 1: Six days ahead of the schedule and without any
consultation with the respective Business Advisory Committees, the budget
session in both Houses of the Jammu and Kashmir Legislature was dramatically
terminated on Wednesday even as the Leader of Opposition Omar Abdullah claimed
on Twitter that the Presiding Officers had received the signal from the
Government. This brings to an end high drama in the Legislature over the Chief Minister
calling the anti-370 forces as “anti-national” and Speaker Kavinder Gupta
saying that he would expunge the adjective not palatable to the BJP from
Mehbooba Mufti’s speech.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">There has been no confusion or ambiguity over the fact that
no political party other than the BJP and its Sangh Parivar constituents has
been vociferously struggling for abrogation of the Article 370 of the
Constitution of India and other statutory provisions that grant and guarantee
special status to Jammu and Kashmir in the dominion of India. Obviously, the
Chief Minister and the coalition partner labelling the “forces weakening the
Article 370” as anti-national has come as a major embarrassment for the BJP,
unluckily ahead of Assembly elections in UP, Punjab and some other States.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Sensing the political deficit, BJP demonstrated tremendous
alacrity in media management—it succeeded in playing down the news on TV and in
newspapers. It also managed a damage-control action from the Speaker in a
desired manner. On Tuesday, Speaker obliged a BJP MLA with his assurance that
he would examine the records and expunge from Chief Minister’s speech if there
was “anything like anti-national”. His disposal of the BJP MLA’s complaint
stirred a hornets’ nest. The Opposition argued it was tantamount to censuring
the CM who had lost the moral standing to act as the head of the Government.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">In the thick of the hullabaloo, as the Opposition pressed
hard that Chief Minister should make a clarification, own or discard what she
had said about the anti-370 forces on Monday, Speaker attempted to douse the
flames. He said that he had examined the record. “It appears that there was
nothing wrong in her intention”, Speaker said without regard to what over 30
cameras had recorded live on Monday. Omar posted relevant part of the video of
Mehbooba Mufti’s speech on his Twitter handle, making BJP’s position awkward before
a larger audience. He has over 16 lakh followers on Twitter.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Speaker made an unsuccessful attempt to divert the slur to
the Kashmiri separatists who, he said, used to exploit things to perpetuate
disturbance in the Valley. It was not digestible for the Opposition and media
as it is the BJP, not the Hurriyat or any other separatist organisation, that
has been gunning for Article 370. In the video Mehbooba is clearly heard and
seen as saying that nothing was “as big an anti-national act as weakening Article
370”. She makes her contention absolutely clear that when some forces speak or
act against Article 370, the separatists on the prowl in Kashmir exploit it to
disrupt peace and create disturbance.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">In the videos through internet, Mehbooba endorses Omar Abdullah’s
apprehension and assures him that her Government would leave no stone unturned
to protect Article 370 and 35-A in the judiciary. She seeks NC’s and other
opposition parties’ help in the Legislature to safeguard the State’s special
position. This was enough to reclaim a part of the base lost in Kashmir in the
last around two years.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">However, the BJP lost no time to turn the tables. It
succeeded to project that Speaker had expunged the “anti-national” remarks and
admonished the Chief Minister. It ruffled a many feathers in the PDP but the
party thought it opportune to surrender as it has been reduced to the weakest
possible position and, for now, is left with no pigeons in its basket. The
party’s crisis managers believe that any confrontation with the BJP could make
it lose power at a time when the tempers at home were running terribly high
over PDP’s failure to realize a single “pro-Kashmir” promise of the Agenda of
Alliance. The other day only, Prime Minister’s office made it clear that the
Centre was not going to hand over any of its hydroelectric power projects in
Jammu and Kashmir.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Chief Minister’s continued absence from the Legislature for
two eventful days, her party’s Ministers and MLAs being mute to the Opposition
pandemonium and the BJP’s triumphant tones have significantly added to the
PDP’s troubles and trauma. It remains to be seen if some ground could be
reclaimed with some pro-people measures and decisions like providing jobs to
the unemployed youths on the fast track and unleashing a visible developmental
initiative across the Valley.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">END</span></div>
[STATE TIMES]</div>
Ahmed Ali Fayyazhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09315496293788942599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7517162742711995015.post-67018441668218716062017-02-02T07:48:00.003+14:002017-02-02T07:49:47.180+14:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 20pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Speaker’s
3 statements in 3 hours make CM’s position more awkward</span></b><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">BJP high command wants Mehbooba to make ‘clarification’; no
official release from Assembly Secretariat, Information Department</span></i></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Ahmed Ali Fayyaz</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">_______ </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">JAMMU, Jan 31: Speaker Kavinder Gupta’s treatment to Chief
Minister’s speech in Assembly, in reaction to the BJP MLA Rajiv Jasrotia’s
objection to a part of her statement, has obviously made Ms Mehbooba Mufti’s
position awkward in the State Legislature as well as the Government. The first
casualty on Tuesday became a scheduled Cabinet meeting which was cancelled even
after circulation of the agenda.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">In her key speech on the grants of her departments, Mehbooba
had, for the first time during PDP’s coalition with the BJP, labelled the
votaries of the abrogation of Article 370 as “anti-national”. According to her
it was the “biggest anti-national act” to seek abrogation of Article 370 that
grants special status to J&K in the Constitution of India and serves as a
link between the State and the Centre.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">With elections in some crucial States drawing nearer,
Mehbooba’s remarks are understood to have come as a major embarrassment for the
BJP. Since decades, BJP has been the key sponsor of the movement for abrogation
of Article 370. It is also alleged to be behind two writ petitions against the
State flag and Article 35-A. Apparently under the instructions of his party
high command, Jasrotia sought expunction of CM’s “anti-national” remarks,
asserting that the BJP, the erstwhile Jan Sangh leader Syama Prasad Mookerji
and the MLA’s own family had struggled and given sacrifices for abrogation of
Article 370.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">“How could we all be anti-national?” Jasrotia asked on the
floor of the Assembly. He urged Speaker to order deletion of CM’s remarks.
Speaker responded to him favourably and said that if there was anything anti-national
in CM’s speech that would be expunged. With this, Speaker stirred a cornets
nest as the entire Opposition, led by National Conference MLA and acting
President and the former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, created a ruckus. They
said it was for the first time that a Speaker had expunged a CM’s remarks and
it would tantamount to a motion of no-confidence against the CM.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">The House was adjourned by the Speaker for three times as
the Opposition demanded the “official position” of the Government. It pressed
to know whether the CM had exceeded her brief or the Speaker was wrong in
ordering the expunction.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">On the second occasion, Speaker said he would check the
records and see if there was anything objectionable in CM's speech. On the
third occasion, he claimed that he had not expunged anything from CM’s speech.
He, however, added that Chief Minister herself needed to make necessary
clarification. With nobody from PDP speaking on behalf of the absent CM,
opposition maintained its ruckus and Speaker ordered another adjournment.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Even as a barrage of news stories asserted that Speaker’s
action had triggered a storm in the coalition, mediapersons did not receive any
clarification or official press release on this development either from
Assembly Secretariat or from Department of Information of the State Government.
With the Assembly being in session, such a statement or clarification from any
other forum was unlikely.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Well-placed political sources disclosed to STATE TIMES that
a section of the BJP high command was “pretty unhappy” over Ms Mufti’s label of
“anti-nationals” on her coalition partners. Without speaking to Ms Mufti,
important BJP leaders at the Centre established contact with the State party
leaders and asked them to seek a clarification from Chief Miniter. They made
clear that Ms Mufti should withdraw her phrase of “anti-national” that had made
BJP’s position awkward in several States preparing for Assembly elections.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">However, Ms Mufti, according to sources, declined to make
any statement or clarification pleading that it would erode her credibility and
make the already hostile ground harder for her party in the Valley. “We can’t
be seen as making surrender after surrender to the BJP. We are already in the
eye of a storm and the Panchayat and Lok Sabha by-elections in Kashmir are not
far away”, said a senior PDP leader.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">With no clarification pouring in from Department of
Information, the PDP leader claimed to STATE TIMES that today’s Cabinet meeting
was cancelled only because of the Speaker’s “uncharitable action” and the BJP
building a stand for abrogation of Article 370. He said that
notwithstanding the discomfiture, some leaders in both the parties were in
favour of playing down today’s developments. “We are told that the BJP has
barred its vociferous MLAs, including Ravinder Raina and Rajeev Jasrotia from
making any statement to the Press.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Towards the last moments of Tuesday’s mayhem, Speaker came
out with the third statement. This time around he claimed that he had not
ordered any expunction of CM’s speech. “Let her make a clarification”, Speaker
said. However, rather than going to the Assembly, Chief Minister, who was in
her office, drove straight to PDP’s Jammu office in Gandhi Nagar to attend a
party function.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">The problem for the coalition is that both, Ms Mufti’s
speech as well as Speaker’s verbal order over Jasrotia’s demand, have been
recorded on over 30 cameras. Reports indicate that the Opposition would again
on Wednesday rake up the issue and press hard for PDP’s and BJP’s
clarifications.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">END</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>[STATE TIMES]</span></div>
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike></div>
Ahmed Ali Fayyazhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09315496293788942599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7517162742711995015.post-83106557615434751062017-01-28T16:03:00.001+14:002017-01-28T16:03:15.730+14:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: #c00000; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Loot on Republic Day: Jammu-Srinagar Rs
35,210; Delhi-New York Rs 32,961</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Extortionist
airlines charge Delhi-New York fair for Jammu-Srinagar travel</span></b></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Mehbooba writes to Civil Aviation MinisterRaju, seeks immediate
remedial action</span></i></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Ahmed Ali Fayyaz</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">________ </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">JAMMU, Jan 27: Taking undue advantage of the blockage of
Srinagar-Jammu national highway— the only surface communication link between
Kashmir valley and rest of the country and the world—all the airlines operating
in Srinagar-Jammu-Delhi sector have stupendously raised their fairs, bringing
entire winter sports activity in Gulmarg and Pahalgam to a standstill.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">After three days of total suspension of the operations, all
the 18 scheduled flights operated at Srinagar airport on Friday.<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>However, those lucky to get a ticket for
Srinagar-Jammu had to buy a seat in distress for minimum of Rs 10,000. Even as
the incoming passengers like PDP’s MLC Zaffar Iqbal Manhas and the outgoing VIPs
like Chief Minister’s maternal uncle Sartaj Madni, who flew to Jammu, and
brother Tassaduq Mufti, who boarded the last flight for New Delhi, didn’t look
much perturbed, the ordinary passengers complained that “extortion” by the
airlines had become order of the day in Srinagar-Jammu-Delhi sector.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Informed sources told STATE TIMES that many of the domestic
and international tourists, who had planned to arrive in the Valley for
participation in different snow sports activities in the fourth week of January
have cancelled their bookings. “Even those who had booked their tickets in
advance have failed to arrive in as most of the flights to Srinagar have been
cancelled due to bad weather. With total impunity, the airlines converted the
commuters’ distress into an opportunity to loot. They hiked fairs stupendously,
making them not affordable even for the international tourists, let alone the
routine home travellers”, said a source associated with the tourism industry. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Sources in the Department of Tourism confirmed that a major
winter sports event that was scheduled to be inaugurated at Gulmarg has been
postponed to February 1<sup>st</sup>. Those invited by the Chief Minister’s
office—but later requested to wait for the next invitation— included retired
IAS officer Parvez Dewan who has served as Secretary Tourism in Farooq
Abdullah’s Government and also Secretary Tourism and Chairman-cum-MD of Indian Tourism
Development Corporation before functioning as Advisor to J&K Governor last
year.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">STATE TIMES has learned that the airline companies have
meteorically hiked their fairs in Srinagar-Jammu-Delhi sector immediately after
the highway was closed for traffic due to heavy snowfall and landslides at many
places and many of the flights were cancelled in this sector due to bad weather
and poor visibility at Srinagar airport. Some of the travel operators alleged
that the “artificial crisis” was partly created by different “unscrupulous”
airlines.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">For the only flight between Jammu and Srinagar on January
26, which would leave via Delhi and land in Srinagar at 0950 hours on January
27, Vistara fixed fair of Rs 35,210. This was far higher than different
airlines charging for Delhi-London and equal to the fair for Delhi-New York
travel. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">For its Delhi-London flight No: 571 on January 28, Qattar
Airways fair was Rs 19,005/- For Delhi-New York, its fair was Rs 32,961/- For a
Delhi-New York flight on January 28, Jet Airways offered tickets at Rs 35,291/-
i.e. same as Vistara fixed for Jammu-Srinagar.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">“This is brazen loot and extortion of which State Consumer
Commission and other institutions should have taken serious cognizance. But the
airlines do it with impunity as they don’t have an iota of fear or
accountability from the State authorities. Even the Consumer Commission has
been rendered defunct since last year”, said a tour operator.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Highly-placed sources privy to the development disclosed to
STATE TIMES that Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti took serious notice of the
extortion and sent a communication to the Union Minister of Civil Aviation P.Ashok
Gajapathi Raju requesting him to pull up the extortionist airlines and
discourage them against bringing the tourism industry in the State to a halt. Top
officials were still waiting for a positive response from New Delhi.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Meanwhile, Srinagar-based tour operators complained that
without making the airlines accountable, Directorate of Tourism teams swooped
down on the poor travel agents, seized their documents and directed them to appear
before the authorities in Srinagar. “This is another act of extortion and
blackmailing of the poor tour operators and travel agents. The officers know it
well that it is the airlines in Delhi and Mumbai who raise the rates. Our quota
has been frozen several days back. We have not sold any tickets in the last
four days. Customers are forced by the companies to buy the tickets online
against Rs 14,000 to Rs 40,000 for Srinagar-Delhi”, said a travel agent.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">END</span></div>
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike>[STATE TIMES]</div>
Ahmed Ali Fayyazhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09315496293788942599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7517162742711995015.post-64052069310918262962017-01-23T09:43:00.002+14:002017-01-23T09:43:51.247+14:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Jammu
beating Valley in all PSC selections since 1995</span></b></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: #c00000; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">In the last 20 years, 1080 KAS feeding service
officers have been selected from Jammu against 538 from Kashmir; most of the
top merit positions have been bagged by the Jammu candidates</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Ahmed Ali Fayyaz</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">_________ </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">JAMMU, Jan 22: Attribute it to the unceasing political
strife or whatever, the peaceful Jammu province has not only grabbed almost all
the top merit positions but also stolen a march over the turbulent Kashmir
province in nearly all the selections made by the Jammu and Kashmir Public
Service Commission (PSC) in the last 20 years. This notwithstanding the fact
that Jammu’s population constitutes only 42%<span style="margin: 0px;">
</span>of the State’s total population of 125.41 lakh against Kashmir’s 55% and
Ladakh’s 3%.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">According to the 2011 census, Jammu’s population was 53.50
lakh while as 69.07 lakh people lived in Kashmir and 2.74 lakh in Ladakh. The
population of 125.41 lakh includes around eight to nine lakh non-permanent
residents---including security forces personnel, Pakistani refugees, Central
government employees and labourers living in the State continuously for over 6
months---who are not entitled to State government employment. These in totality
are almost equally distributed between the two principal regions of Kashmir and
Jammu and do not alter the regional population ratio and proportion.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Incredulously for the Valley population, the PSC’s official
statistics indicate that the meritorious candidates from Jammu region have
already dominated the combined competitive services, including Kashmir
Administrative Service (KAS) and Kashmir Police Service (KPS). Even if the
Valley reverses the trend today or some day in future, public servants from
Jammu will continue to grab most of the middle and top rung administrative, Police
and bureaucratic positions for the next over 20 years.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Selections made by the PSC from 1995 to 2014 make it clear
that as many as 1080 candidates have been picked up for KAS from Jammu and just
50% of the number i.e. 538 from Kashmir. Twenty-four candidates have been
picked up from Ladakh. Excluding in 1995, when Rifat Jabeen from the Valley
stood on top of the merit list, all the top positions in the subsequent 8
selections have been grabbed by the candidates from Jammu.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Batch-wise, 159 candidates for KAS have been selected from
Jammu in 1995 against only 98 from Kashmir and 3 from Ladakh. In subsequent
batches, the ratio between Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh regions was 155:58:2 in
1999, 104:30:02 in 2002, 108:28:05 in 2005, 239:152:07 in 2009, 94:92:03 in
2010, 108:32:02 in 2011, 39:25:00 in 2012 and 74:23:00 in 2013. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">The KAS selections for the vacancies notified in the years
2014, 2015 and 2016 are currently in progress and likely to be completed in the
next 6 months.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">In all, 1956 candidates have been selected since 1995 for
the posts of combined competitive services (KAS/KPS), Munsiffs, Assistant
Directors in Economics and Statistics (Planning), Range Officers Grade-I and
Assistant Conservators of Forest (ACF). Of them, the lion’s share of 1291 has
gone to Jammu and Kashmir has got less than 50% i.e only 632 posts. Ladkah has
bagged 33 posts.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">As regards the Munsiff selections, 28 candidates have been
picked up from Jammu, 5 from Kashmir and none from Ladakh in 1998.
Subsequently, 30 candidates have been picked up from Jammy, 14 from Kashmir and
one from Ladakh in 2001, 17 candidates from Jammu, 16 from Kashmir and two from
Ladakh in 2008 and 27 candidates from Jammu, 9 from Kashmir and two from Ladakh
in 2012.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">In the one-odd selection of ADs Planning in 2009, as many as
68 have been picked up from Jammu, 23 from Kashmir and four from Ladakh.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">In the five selections of RO Grade-I and ACF in the last
over 26 years (all made from 2007 to 2013), 41 candidates have been selected
from Jammu, 27 from Kashmir and none from Ladakh.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Even in all the non-KAS selections, with the exception of RO
Grade-I in 2007 and 2013, all the top merit positions have gone to Jammu
region.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Chairman PSC Lateef-uz-Zaman Deva maintained that all the
gazetted posts are in State cadre and none of the selections is made on the
basis of region, religion and other considerations. “This is an open
competition. All the candidates are selected on the basis of their merit in
written and viva voce. It is possible that all the candidates selected belong
to one region and the other two regions draw blank. We will be completely
helpless in that situation”, Mr Deva told STATE TIMES.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">The only relief for Kashmir is that the Valley has grabbed
more IAS/IPS positions than Jammu in the national level selections made by the
Union Public Service Commission from 2008 to 2016. That includes one IAS
topper, Dr Shah Faesal,in 2009 and one runner-up, Athar Aamir-ul-Shafi Khan, in
2016. However, most of them have got either non-J&K states or other Central
services.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">END</span></div>
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike>[STATE TIMES]</div>
Ahmed Ali Fayyazhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09315496293788942599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7517162742711995015.post-44283115604083189352017-01-20T11:35:00.001+14:002017-01-20T23:28:35.955+14:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 20pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Zaira
trolled in 2017, Shameema shot dead in 1993, and the show goes on</span></b></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Over 1,000 Kashmiri women have performed on
screen, stage, radio in last 50 years</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Ahmed Ali Fayyaz</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">________ </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">JAMMU, Jan 19: Around 70 years ago, Radio Kashmir began its
broadcasting history with a Quranic recitation by Begum Akbar Jehan, wife of
late Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah who became the State’s first Prime Minister after
1947. Cinema, then known as Talkies, had already arrived in the Valley.
Television followed in 1972. Breaking societal taboos, the Kashmiri women
grabbed their representation on all the three media and entertainment platforms
besides the stage.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Retired officials of Radio Kashmir, Doordarshan and the
J&K Academy of Art, Culture & Languages believe that the number of the
Kashmiri women who performed in fiction and entertainment, including singing
and dancing, in the last 50 years, could be well over 1,000. Like in other
States, the women performers and entertainers in the Valley were exposed to
threats, attacks and social boycott. Yet those hounded, trolled and intimated
for the “infidelity” are not even in dozens. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Only one female television artiste, namely Shameema Parveen,
lost her life as she was gunned down by unidentified men, widely believed to be
militants, in 1993, in her downtown neighbourhood of Safakadal, in Srinagar.
Unlike the current victim of the social media trolls, who have got till date
the only supportive statement from a separatist women organisation <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dukhtaraan-e-Millat</i>, nobody dared to
raise a question 23 years ago. It was never made clear by Police or
investigated by media as to what precisely led to her assassination but the
artistes’ fraternity continues to believe Shameema had received threats for her
performing in plays on Srinagar Doordarshan.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">In the middle of 1960s, Bollywood director Jagi Rampal,
whose Hindi movie <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Pyaar ki jeet</i> was
an average on box office, was hired by Producer Mansa Ram to make some romantic
films in regional languages. In association with the celebrated Radio Kashmir
producer Pran Kishore and eminent playwright Ali Mohammad Lone, Rampal made the
first feature film in Kashmiri titled ‘<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Maanzi
Raath</i>’. A Kashmiri Pandit artiste, whose name according to her
contemporaries, was Asha Kaul, played the stellar role. Debutant Hafeeza
Kausar, who now lives in United States of America after taking retirement from
Doordarshan, became the first Kashmiri Muslim female actor to perform for celluloid.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">“It was a taboo to sing, dance and act in a film but it was
nobody’s headache. Many of the Kashmiris liked the film which had a powerful
script by Ali Mohammad Lone”, said an old cinema buff who insists to remain
anonymous. Kashmiris had earlier enjoyed Rampal’s ‘<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Pyaar ki Jeet</i>, starring Ajit and Suraya.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">A couple of years later, acclaimed actor-director Balraj
Sahni got his 25-year-old son Ajay, later named as Parikshit, to act as the
protagonist in a biopic on Kashmir’s most popular poet Peerzada Ghulam Ahmad
Mehjoor. Until his death in 1952, Mehjoor is said to have been in touch with
Balraj Sahni. Chief Minister Ghulam Mohammad Sadiq took extraordinary interest
in the story on Mehjoor but he died months before the bilingual film in Hindi
and Kashmiri was screened in Srinagar.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Director of Education in Jammu and Kashmir, Sajida Zamir
Ahmad, who had a passion for theatre, performed as Mehjoor’s mother against
Balraj Sahni, who played the poet’s father. Directed by Prabhat Mukherjee, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Shayar-e-Kashmir Mehjoor</i> was written by
Ali Mohammad Lone. Balraj Sahni, who died in April 1973, also worked on the
film’s screenplay. Another Kashmiri Muslim female artiste, Nabla Begum, was
also given the role of an extra.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Mrs Sajida, who is currently in Jammu, was among the first Muslim
women in Kashmir who did graduation from S.P. College and chose to work as
teacher. She was from a humble background in downtown Srinagar but shot into
prominence with her marriage to the eminent physician Dr Syed Naseer’s brother
Captain Zamir Ahmad who had worked with Peace Brigade against the tribal
invaders in 1947. Sajida’s sisters-in-law Mehmooda Ahmad Ali and Begum
Jalal-ud-din, besides Dr Naseer’s wife Dr Girija Dhar, were famous in the State
in their respective fields.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Radio Kashmir’s propaganda programme “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Wotal Buji</i>” ended immediately after the Indo-Pakistan war ended in
1965. Director of All India Radio, Nand Lal Chawla, flew down to Srinagar to
find a replacement for the chunk. Producers Somnath Sadhu and Farooq Nazki,
besides other officers, proposed a 15-minute daily drama to highlight the developmental
and governance issues. A budding female artiste, Maryam Begum, was chosen to
play the housewife. A day after the first programme went on air, many of the
Radio officers opined that Maryam was “totally unfit” for the role.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">“Sadhu Sahab went to Chawla and insisted that a decision
about Maryam’s replacement be taken after two weeks. Within two weeks, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Zoona Dab</i> became a household name in
entire Kashmir and everybody remained glued to transistors to listen to it
every morning. Sadhu, the family head, was named as Aga Saab and Maryam Ji, the
housewife, as Aga Bai. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Zoona Dab</i> went
on without break for 25 years and became Radio Kashmir’s most popular programme.
Many people in the Valley believed Aga Saab (Somnath Sadhu) was a Muslim. We
were told that when he died, people in some villages conducted for him funeral
prayers”, says Farooq Nazki, who played the domestic help ‘Ramba’ and also
scripted the programme in rotation with with Sadhu and Pushkar Bhan, until he
was shifted to DD in 1972.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Phenomenally popular, Maryam Begum, who sported <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Burqa</i>, till her retirement in Radio
Kashmir, and Pushkar Bhan got the prestigious Padam Shri awards for their
performances in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Zoona Dab</i> in 1974. Nayeema
Mehjoor, who retired as a producer with BBC before joining PDP and taking over
as Chairperson of the State Women’s Commission in the Mufti Government, played
as the Aga couple’s daughter <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Nanna</i>. In
1977, Nayeema played as the queen’s friend in Bashir Budgami’s award winning telefilm
film <i>Habba Khatoon</i> which was also screened at an international film festival in
Prague. <span style="margin: 0px;"> </span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Pioneers like Farooq Nazki, Bashir Budgami and Siraj Qureshi
engaged a number of Kashmiri female actors in their dramas, tele-serials and
telefilms at Doordarshan Kendra Srinagar from 1972 to 1990. While Usha Kaul shot
into prominence in Nazki’s serial “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Shabrang</i>”,
Rita Razdan, Prana Shangloo, Hafeeza Kausar, Nayeema Mehjoor and Gul Afroz
dominated television in Budgami’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Habba
Khatoon</i>.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Gul Afroz and Sayeeda left indelible imprints with their
performances in Budgami’s biopic on the romatic poet Rasul Mir. Later Nabla
Begum, Shabnam Lone, Jai Kishori, Rita Jalali, Bharti Zaroo, Asha Zaroo and others became
famous for their roles in Budgami’s films ‘<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Zameen
chhe asaan</i>” and “<i>Daag</i>”, besides Siraj Qureshi’s “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Arni Maal</i>”. These and other female actors also worked in Nazki’s “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Soda Ta Boda</i>”, the first serial on
Srinagar DD, “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Aab Seemaab</i>”, “<i>Totma</i>”
and “<i>Alaav</i>” which had a powerful script by Farooq Masoodi. Towards 1989, Nirmala Dhar emerged as one of the most sought after actresses. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Finally towards the end of the halcyon years in Kashmir,
Budgami’s satirical drama serial “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Hazaar
Daastaan</i>”, in which his brother and top comedian, Nazir Josh, and Bharti
Zaroo played lead roles as the king and the queen, broke all records of
popularity. “It used to be like curfew. Not a single vehicle would ply.
Attendance at the evening prayers in mosques reduced drastically when <i>Hazaar
Daastaan</i> used to be on air”, said a shopkeeper at Residency Road. He said that
sale of TV sets increased by 1000% because of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Hazaar Daastaan</i> in 1988. Daisy Naqaib, debuted, with the popular
Bharti Zaroo in the same serial. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Until 1990, eminent drama Producer Pran Kishore, who also
remained associated with DD India’s serial “<i>Gul, Gulshan, Gulfaam</i>”, introduced
scores of female artists in radio plays. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Incidents like Srinagar DD director Lassa Kaul’s and
Shameema Parveen’s assassination put the curtain on Radio, TV and film in
1990-93. All the 15 cinema theatres in the Valley were shut down under militant
threats and a campaign by <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dukhtaraan-e-Millat</i>.
In 1994-97, Nazki as Director DDK Srinagar encouraged a number of private
producers to make tele-serials and picturised songs but entire shooting was
held in Jammu as not a single female actor in Kashmir came forward to take an
offer. Finally the production activity revived in a big way when militancy was
wiped out to a large extent in the Valley in 1996 and the militants in following years did not threaten even the young women artistes making video albums throughout the Valley. Thereafter hundreds of young women,
many of them from distant villages, performed in hundreds of serials, films and
picturised songs.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">In the last 10 years, Srinagar DD is believed to have
associated over 500 young female artists in its singing competitions. During
the same period, over a dozen Kashmiri Pandit female artistes got key roles in
Bollywood movies and serials on different entertainment channels.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">END</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">[STATE TIMES]</span></i></div>
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike></div>
Ahmed Ali Fayyazhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09315496293788942599noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7517162742711995015.post-46630752848202935262017-01-18T09:35:00.001+14:002017-01-18T09:38:20.562+14:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Who upset India’s applecart in Kashmir in 2008-16?</span></b></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Ahmed Ali Fayyaz</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">_________</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">JAMMU, Jan 15, 2017: Certainly for the first time, the Jammu
and Kashmir government’s pre-Budget Economic Survey-2016 has attributed all
deficits of growth and other liabilities to the “political strife” that, in a
bold official admission, assumed a menacing dimension in the year 2008 and is
continuing to be unceasing and intractable. Without comment on his millennial
ideas of recovery in the last two — now three — Budgets, one has to appreciate
the State’s failures on the developmental front and resource mobilisation
admitted by Finance Minister Haseeb Drabu even as, to some, it sounds nothing
more than a search for alibi.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Notwithstanding PDP’s passion for the green and the
pen-and-inkpot election symbol left behind by the Hizbul Mujahideen’s chief
Syed Salahuddin, I had never any confusion about Mufti Mohammad Sayeed being a
die-hard Indian patriot and New Delhi’s most trusted politician in Jammu and
Kashmir. “Would you also succeed Farooq Abdullah as Chairman of the Unified
Headquarters and preside over the counter-insurgency operation of the Police
and security forces?”, I asked Mufti at his first press conference as Chief
Minister for which he flew to Srinagar in November 2002. “Yes, I will”, Mufti
retorted, “without any hesitation, but ensure that there’s no human rights
abuse”.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Next month, while we were walking together toward his
helicopter after he addressed the PDP’s first post-victory show at Khannabal,
Mufti slowed down and asked me: “What do the people say now?” Keeping with my
style, I said: “Honestly speaking, many of them feel happy and relieved. But,
quite a number of them have apprehensions that the militants would regroup and
the separatists would find it easy to reclaim their base”. Allaying the
impression, Mufti stopped and said: “I’ll soon wipe them out from the root.
Their game is over”.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">True to his word, and in total contrast to his
soft-separatist rhetoric in statements and public meetings, Mufti wiped out the
core of militancy in the next three years of his coalition rule. Almost all the
top Hizbul Mujahideen commanders, who in the year 2000 had responded to an
Indian initiative and met with Union Home Secretary Kamal Pandey at Nehru Guest
House, were caught alive and killed.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Riyaz Rasool was captured in Soura outskirts and killed near
Zainakote. ‘Operational chief’ Saiful Islam nee Engineer Zaman was captured in
a bank manager’s house, in close vicinity of Mufti’s house in Nowgam, and later
killed at midnight. Commander Masood Tantray was seized in Pampore and
subsequently killed in a fake encounter. Majid Dar and Farooq Mirchal are
believed to have been eliminated by their own organisation. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Even as it was for the first time that a Minister (Dr Ghulam
Nabi Lone) was killed in a fidayeen-type attack inside his guarded house in the
high security zone of Tulsibagh, normalcy had been restored to a great extent
when Mufti cleared out for Ghulam Nabi Azad of Congress in November 2005. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">It is no secret that Mufti did not quit until Congress made
an announcement in New Delhi that Azad had been chosen as leader of the party’s
MLAs. Entire month of October witnessed a flurry of activity from Srinagar to
Delhi. A multitude of Mufti’s advocates pleaded for his continuance in chair
“in the national interest” for the full term of six years with varied
arguments. Retired IB and RAW chief A.S. Dulat, who also served as an advisor
to Prime Minister Vajpayee, wrote an article in The Hindustan Times, while
strongly favouring Mufti’s extension.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">The anti-climax occurred hours after Mufti, having just
returned from Uri alongwith Deputy Chief Minister Mangat Ram Sharma, told the
journalist Pervez Bukhari that he would soon host an Iftar party for the media.
It indicated Mufti’s over-confidence in his continuing as head of the
PDP-Congress coalition government. The journalist at a crowded press conference
at the Banquet Hall had asked Mufti if he was going to step down or continue at
the end of his three-year term that day. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Sonia Gandhi’s decision of inducting Azad as the first
Congress Chief Minister after Syed Mir Qasim’s resignation in 1975 was believed
to be influenced by Rahul Gandhi. Politicians claimed that the National
Conference top brass was also at work through Sachin Pilot, Rahul and others. Amid
speculations that men of consequence in Congress, including Digvijay Singh,
Ahmad Patel and M.L. Fotedar, were strongly in favour of Mufti’s continuance,
even the senior most Pranab Mukherjee in Jammu had given unambiguous
indications that Congress would go by the “national interest”, not the party
interest. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">The valley experienced two more years of peace as Azad began
reviving the “developmental constituency” Bakhshi Ghulam Mohammad had
assiduously created for 10 years and finally abandoned with his resignation as
‘Prime Minister’ under the Kamarj Plan in October 1963. Until June 2007, the
militancy was at its lowest ebb. There was no stone pelting,
separatist-sponsored shutdown or a major demonstration. Peace and development
had decisively neutralised all voices of secessionism and political
instability.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Without appeasement to militants and separatists, and while
loudly speaking against “terrorism”, Azad became the first Chief Minister who
got over a dozen SOG men, including then SSP of Ganderbal Hans Raj Parihar,
booked and arrested for killing five innocent civilians in fake encounters as
“foreign terrorists”. For years, no court granted bail to the accused. Finally,
a catastrophe befell the Valley in June 2007.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">While Pakistan, Hurriyat and the militants had been
forgotten by the Kashmiris, the mainstream politicians triggered an explosion
of regional and communal polarisation — between the Muslim and the Hindu,
between Kashmir and Jammu — for the first time after 1947. Mufti and other PDP
leaders warned Azad publicly that they would withdraw support and bring down
his government if he did not cancel allotment of a piece of land to Shri
Amarnath Shrine Board that had been earmarked in compartment No: 63 of Sindh
Forest for temporary use by the pilgrims. Paradoxically, the allotment had been
recommended and facilitated by none other than the two PDP Ministers, namely
Qazi Mohammad Afzal and Tariq Hamid Karra, </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Undoubtedly, the turbulence in 2008, which later came to be
known as the Amarnath shrine land row, sprouted out of the statements of the
separatist hardliner Syed Ali Shah Geelani, who in the months of April and May
restricted his focus to the “huge number” of the pilgrims allowed to the shrine
cave every year and their polyethylene bags. He contended that it could pose “a
potential threat to the environment and ecology”. Soon some pictures of
“hutments” being raised in the Sindh forest cover appeared in a local
newspaper.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">While the arguments and the counter-arguments were being
traded between the politicians, Governor Lt Gen (retd.) S.K. Sinha’s Principal
Secretary Arun Kumar shot a comment, asking why nobody was concerned over the
large number of the pilgrims going to Saudi Arabia every year. It proved to be
a trigger.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">With every passing day, in the month of June, the coalition
partner PDP increased pressure on Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad to either
cancel the allotment of the 40 hectares of land or face withdrawal of the
support from Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s party that could obviously bring down his
government. Leaders of at least two mainstream parties began buttressing the
separatists’ charge that the Government had planned to set up “Amarnath Nagar”
to make demographic changes in the Valley.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Any politician of Mufti’s stature and experience could have
perceived well the consequences. Cancellation of the allotment could expose
Azad and his party Congress to enormous hostility, not only in their core
constituency in Jammu but also across the country. Azad chose to step down. On
July 7, after a discussion on the PDP’s no-confidence motion in Assembly, he
announced his resignation. Six people had died by that day in clashes and
demonstrations and hundreds had been injured.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Unprecedented for 18 years, the civilian government’s fall
created a mainstream political vacuum and Governor Sinha’s administration found
itself on the receiving end of a 1990-like mass movement in entire Kashmir
valley. For the first time after 1947, it created an equal and opposition
reaction in Jammu, leading to an acute regional and communal polarisation. It
was after 14 years that pro-Pakistan flags and slogans dominated the
demonstrations, the militants and the separatist politicians reclaimed their
ground overnight. In Jammu, all the traditional mainstream leaders went into
oblivion and a right wing advocate emerged as the only representative of the
people. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">The agitation was finally crushed with firing and arrests in
Kashmir and a settlement with the sponsors of a parallel strife in Jammu,
followed by announcement for the Assembly elections. Suddenly all the extremist
forces were marginalised in both, Kashmir and Jammu, and a heavy voter turnout
in the elections made it clear that the real drivers of the turbulence were
within, not outside. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">With little regard to their rhetorical statements made
during the turmoil, the mainstream politicians in the Valley sought vote for
solving the “day to day governance issues” of roads, power, water, health and education.
Immediately after winning the elections, even the top leader Omar Abdullah
began raising “the larger political issues” and calling for “dialogue with
separatists and Pakistan”. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">In presence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress
President Sonia Gandhi, Omar asserted that Kashmir was a “political issue” that
required a “political solution”. This, nevertheless, failed to save him from
attempts of a new “ragda” that unfolded soon with the mysterious death of two
young women in Shopian as the residents alleged that both had been “raped and
killed by Police or security forces”.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Senior State Congress leader and former Union Minister for
Water Resources, Prof Saifuddin Soz, said in a statement that he would take up
the matter of the Shopian “rape and murder” with the Prime Minister. While the
separatists were still struggling to find takers to their allegations of “rape
and murder”, the statement from Prof Soz lent seriousness and credibility to
the public outrage. Clashes and demonstrations ended only when, four months
later, CBI booked about a dozen doctors and lawyers for being “part of a
conspiracy to defame the security forces and destabilise the Government with
false allegation of rape and murder”.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">In the following months and years, almost all those in the
forefront of the Shopian agitation were found indulging in crimes like burglary
and rape. One of the doctors, who had played key role in sending fudged vaginal
smear to the FSL to project it a case of “gang rape”, was caught on camera committing
rape on a middle-aged female patient at his clinic. Another leader of the
agitation was found to have committed rape on a 14-year-old maid who, according
to an uncontested story in Kashmir Images, was passed through abortion at a
clinic in Anantnag. Later, Police arrested the same leader with the proof that
he had broken into his brother-in-law’s jewellery shop and stolen gold worth Rs
60 lakh.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Two more of the ‘leaders’ were known activists of PDP and
NC—one appointed as a prosecutor by Mufti’s government and another by Omar’s
government.<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Again, in the year 2010, attempts were underway with the
beginning of the tourist season to bring down Omar Abdullah’s government. Death
of a teenage student, Tufail Matoo, in Police action against a small group of
demonstrators triggered a major turbulence. Over a hundred people got killed in
Police and security forces firing and hundreds injured. Those killed in the
clashes included PDP’s District Youth President in Anantnag. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Incredibly even the ruling NC’s own activists were found
involved in enforcing Hurriyat’s shutdown calendar. One of such persons smashed
the head of a shopkeeper for defying the shutdown call in Nowhatta area and
left him dead. About a dozen of them attacked and captured a Policeman and left
him almost dead on the highway near Narbal. They were found to be the sons of
the staunch supporters of a National Conference leader and Cabinet Minister in
Srinagar.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">In competition, activists of almost all the mainstream
political parties outsmarted even the separatist hardliners and militants while
levelling allegations, attacking Police and security forces and calling for
“solution of the Kashmir dispute as per the aspirations of the people”—their
euphemism for Azadi. Finally, this theatre of the absurd began fading out only
when Rahul Gandhi made it clear in Kolkata that Omar Abdullah’s government in
J&K would not fall. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">In September, NC’s Member of Parliament Shariefuddin Shariq
was the first to allege that the Police (of his own government) had shot dead
“three innocent civilian youths” in cold blood, near Qamarwari in Srinagar. An
investigation made clear that all the three were active militants carrying
guns. They had shot dead two Policemen and taken away their rifles. One of the
three slain assailants next day turned out to be the MP’s own grandson. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">With the arrival of winter, this time the separatists
disappeared, alongwith their shutdown calendar, for a longer pause.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Like that of the year 2008, which saw the anti-climax in a
successful Assembly election, the summer turmoil of 2010 was followed by the
highest-turnout Panchayat elections next year. The signing off slogans like
‘khoon ka badla June mein lenge’ proved to be hollow as the people of Kashmir
did yet again turn their back on the separatists. Developmental activity went
remarkably up and the Valley witnessed the best of its trade and tourism
seasons in 2011, 2013 and, until the day of floods, 2014.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Much more than the separatists, it were the mainstream
opposition leaders who attempted to create another major turbulence when Afzal
Guru was hanged to death in Tihar Jail in February 2013. Someone demanded
Guru’s mortal remains and someone glorified his death as “sacrifice” and
“martyrdom”. To beat them in the same currency, even Chief Minister Omar
Abdullah warned the Centre that Guru’s death would lead to a fresh spell of
insurgency. It didn’t. Nobody died in protest.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Again, the same year, the mainstream political parties,
including BJP, left no stone unturned to create the stage for a communal
flare-up when six demonstrators got killed during a mob attack on a
paramilitary camp and when, subsequently, at least three persons got killed and
hundreds of shops and vehicles were set on fire on the day of Eid in Kishtwar.
Omar put his put down and did not allow any of the political leaders — notably
the BJP’s top brass from Jammu and Delhi and the separatists from
Srinagar—towards Kishtwar for several weeks. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">In the four years following 2010, the only major threat to
normalcy poured in with the flash floods of September 2014. Like in 2002-08,
Kashmiris forgot about militancy and separatist politics and no major clash or
incident of bloodshed occurred to disturb the tranquillity. Significantly,
death of two civilians during an operation in Sumbal followed by killing of two
young students in Army’s firing at Chhatergam did not shatter the ambience of
peace in the Valley. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Before and after the floods, the year 2014 proved to be
historic as Jammu and Kashmir witnessed the best-held Parliamentary and
Assembly elections. From October to December, hundreds of hugely attended
political rallies took place across the Valley. Colourful banners, buntings and
posters, besides giant hoardings of different political parties— particularly
those of Rahul Gandhi and Narendra Modi—surfaced throughout South Kashmir. None
of these were guarded by Police or security forces and not one was damaged, set
on fire or pulled down anywhere. Around a dozen personnel, including militants,
died but the fidayeen attack on a Police establishment on Baramulla-Uri Road
failed to disrupt the atmosphere for elections.<span style="margin: 0px;">
</span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">The Assembly elections of unprecedented enthusiasm and
participation were conducted in October-December, 2014. For the first time
after 1983, there were no allegations of rigging, other unfair means, no
attempts of intimidation, intervention or coercion by security forces or
partisan role of the polling staff. The results were equally accepted by all
the political parties even as none of them secured majority of 44 seats to form
the Government independently. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Over two months of negotiations between the PDP, that had
won maximum number of seats (25) in Kashmir, and the BJP, winner of 25 seats in
Jammu, culminated into the formation of a coalition Government headed by Mufti
Mohammad Sayeed in March 2015.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Within a week of his taking over, Mufti ordered the release
of Massarat Alam Bhat— driver of the 2010 turmoil. Next month, Alam was
permitted to organise a major pro-Pakistan demonstration in reception of the
separatist hardliner Syed Ali Shah Geelani in front of the office of Director
General of Police and the J&K Police headquarters on the airport road.
While his followers waved hundreds of Pakistani flags, Alam led them with
slogans like “Hafiz Sayeed ka kya paigam, Kashmir banega Pakistan”. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Next day, Alam organised a similar show in Tral on occasion
of the 4th day ceremony of the militant Burhan Wani’s brother, Khalid, who had
been killed in an encounter between the militants and Army on a hill top. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Even as Alam was re-arrested under BJP’s and the national
media’s pressure, his two demonstrations proved to be a turning point.
Thousands of the Kashmiri youths, particularly the College and University
students, began identifying themselves with the separatist movement and looking
for fresh icons. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">The vacuum was filled up by the 21-year-old not-so-famous Burhan
Wani who hogged headlines and dominated media—social as well as the
regular—with his inflammatory statements, videos and interviews. Until his
death in an encounter, Government did not block his access to Internet as he
kept posting threats to Police, announced to establish Caliphate, mobilised and
enrolled youths and even organised cricket tournaments in South Kashmir.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Within a year of the history’s most successful election,
South Kashmir became out of bounds for all pro-India politicians including the
Ministers and MLAs of the ruling party known to be having a soft corner for
Burhan and his organisation. After March 2015, there was not a single
cordon-and-search operation by security forces that was not disrupted by stone
pelting mobs. Over a dozen of the top wanted militants are said to have escaped
under the cover of these clashes. Even civilian casualties failed to restore
order and fear of the forces.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">By the time three militants of Bijbehara area died in an
encounter in Mattan, in November 2015, PDP and NC had completely surrendered
their space to the militants. While as 8,000 to 10,000 residents of Mufti’s
home town of Bijbehara attended the funeral of each of the three militants,
less than 4,000 participated in Mufti’s own when he was laid to rest in January
2016. Even the shops did not shut. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Even after the Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti was returned
from Anantnag in a low-turnout by-election in June, the boiling point of the
much-sustained unrest came with Burhan Wani’s death in an encounter within a
fortnight. It proved to be a volcanic eruption as nearly 90 demonstrators were
killed and thousands injured in the subsequent clashes and protests for 5
months in the Valley. The number of the participants in Burhan’s funeral is
claimed to be between 50,000 and 200,000. This groundswell, Mehbooba recently
admitted in Assembly, had not been imagined by anybody in her party of the
Government. An unprecedented barrage of Pakistani flags all across the Valley
did not subside until hundreds of people---some claim thousands---were
detained. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Police and administrative machinery remained almost
completely crippled for over four months of continued curfew and shutdown. They
fished in the troubled waters but, as on date, the Government has not produced
any credible evidence of Pakistan’s or Hurriyat’s hand in the ‘Ragda-2016’. On
the contrary, every mainstream political party’s subscription to the turmoil is
evident from North to South Kashmir.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">From stone pelting to arson, that damaged hundreds of public
properties, schools and over 15,000 vehicles and caused loss of Rs 16,000 crore
to the State economy, it were the workers of the mainstream political parties
who were openly on the forefront. Family background of the detainees, who
attacked Police stations and looted weapons, makes it all the more clear. Not
surprising if the elected lawmakers of PDP or NC or an independent MLA call
Burhan Wani a “martyr” and his death “sacrifice to the cause of freedom”.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">END</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #558ed5; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">STATE
TIMES Jan 16, 17, 18 (2017)</span></i></div>
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike></div>
Ahmed Ali Fayyazhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09315496293788942599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7517162742711995015.post-18276132446613345282017-01-18T09:19:00.001+14:002017-01-18T09:21:33.713+14:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 20pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">2016
was PDP’s, BJP’s and NC’s creation, not Pakistan’s and Hurriyat’s</span></b></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: #c00000; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Who upset India’s applecart in Kashmir in
2008-16?</span></div>
Part 3<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<br /></div>
<span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Ahmed Ali Fayyaz</span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">________</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">JAMMU: Like that of the
year 2008, which saw the anti-climax in a successful Assembly election, the
summer turmoil of 2010 was followed by the highest-turnout Panchayat elections
next year. The signing off slogans like ‘<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">khoon
ka badla June mein lenge</i>’ proved to be hollow as the people of Kashmir did
yet again turn their back on the separatists. Developmental activity went
remarkably up and the Valley witnessed the best of its trade and tourism
seasons in 2011, 2013 and, until the day of floods, 2014.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Much more than the
separatists, it were the mainstream opposition leaders who attempted to create
another major turbulence when Afzal Guru was hanged to death in Tihar Jail in
February 2013. Someone demanded Guru’s mortal remains and someone glorified his
death as “sacrifice” and “martyrdom”. To beat them in the same currency, even
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah warned the Centre that Guru’s death would lead to
a fresh spell of insurgency. It didn’t. Nobody died in protest.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Again, the same year, the
mainstream political parties, including BJP, left no stone unturned to create
the stage for a communal flare-up when six demonstrators got killed during a
mob attack on a paramilitary camp and when, subsequently, at least three
persons got killed and hundreds of shops and vehicles were set on fire on the
day of Eid in Kishtwar. Omar put his put down and did not allow any of the
political leaders — notably the BJP’s top brass from Jammu and Delhi and the
separatists from Srinagar—towards Kishtwar for several weeks. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">In the four years following
2010, the only major threat to normalcy poured in with the flash floods of
September 2014. Like in 2002-08, Kashmiris forgot about militancy and
separatist politics and no major clash or incident of bloodshed occurred to
disturb the tranquillity. Significantly, death of two civilians during an
operation in Sumbal followed by killing of two young students in Army’s firing
at Chhatergam did not shatter the ambience of peace in the Valley. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Before and after the
floods, the year 2014 proved to be historic as Jammu and Kashmir witnessed the
best-held Parliamentary and Assembly elections. From October to December, hundreds
of hugely attended political rallies took place across the Valley. Colourful
banners, buntings and posters, besides giant hoardings of different political
parties— particularly those of Rahul Gandhi and Narendra Modi—surfaced
throughout South Kashmir. None of these were guarded by Police or security
forces and not one was damaged, set on fire or pulled down anywhere. Around a
dozen personnel, including militants, died but the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">fidayeen</i> attack on a Police establishment on Baramulla-Uri Road
failed to disrupt the atmosphere for elections.<span style="margin: 0px;">
</span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">The Assembly elections of
unprecedented enthusiasm and participation were conducted in October-December,
2014. For the first time after 1983, there were no allegations of rigging,
other unfair means, no attempts of intimidation, intervention or coercion by
security forces or partisan role of the polling staff. The results were equally
accepted by all the political parties even as none of them secured majority of
44 seats to form the Government independently. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Over two months of
negotiations between the PDP, that had won maximum number of seats (25) in
Kashmir, and the BJP, winner of 25 seats in Jammu, culminated into the
formation of a coalition Government headed by Mufti Mohammad Sayeed in March
2015.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Within a week of his taking
over, Mufti ordered the release of Massarat Alam Bhat— driver of the 2010
turmoil. Next month, Alam was permitted to organise a major pro-Pakistan
demonstration in reception of the separatist hardliner Syed Ali Shah Geelani in
front of the office of Director General of Police and the J&K Police
headquarters on the airport road. While his followers waved hundreds of
Pakistani flags, Alam led them with slogans like “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Hafiz Sayeed ka kya paigam, Kashmir banega Pakistan</i>”. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Next day, Alam organised a
similar show in Tral on occasion of the 4<sup>th</sup> day ceremony of the
militant Burhan Wani’s brother, Khalid, who had been killed in an encounter
between the militants and Army on a hill top. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Even as Alam was
re-arrested under BJP’s and the national media’s pressure, his two
demonstrations proved to be a turning point. Thousands of the Kashmiri youths,
particularly the College and University students, began identifying themselves
with the separatist movement and looking for fresh icons. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">The vacuum was filled up by
the 21-year-old not-so-famous Burhan Wani who hogged headlines and dominated
media—social as well as the regular—with his inflammatory statements, videos
and interviews. Until his death in an encounter, Government did not block his
access to Internet as he kept posting threats to Police, announced to establish
Caliphate, mobilised and enrolled youths and even organised cricket tournaments
in South Kashmir.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Within a year of the
history’s most successful election, South Kashmir became out of bounds for all
pro-India politicians including the Ministers and MLAs of the ruling party
known to be having a soft corner for Burhan and his organisation. After March
2015, there was not a single cordon-and-search operation by security forces
that was not disrupted by stone pelting mobs. Over a dozen of the top wanted
militants are said to have escaped under the cover of these clashes. Even
civilian casualties failed to restore order and fear of the forces.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">By the time three militants
of Bijbehara area died in an encounter in Mattan, in November 2015, PDP and NC
had completely surrendered their space to the militants. While as 8,000 to
10,000 residents of Mufti’s home town of Bijbehara attended the funeral of each
of the three militants, less than 4,000 participated in Mufti’s own when he was
laid to rest in January 2016. Even the shops did not shut. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Even after the Chief
Minister Mehbooba Mufti was returned from Anantnag in a low-turnout by-election
in June, the boiling point of the much-sustained unrest came with Burhan Wani’s
death in an encounter within a fortnight. It proved to be a volcanic eruption
as nearly 90 demonstrators were killed and thousands injured in the subsequent
clashes and protests for 5 months in the Valley. The number of the participants
in Burhan’s funeral is claimed to be between 50,000 and 200,000. This
groundswell, Mehbooba recently admitted in Assembly, had not been imagined by
anybody in her party of the Government. An unprecedented barrage of Pakistani
flags all across the Valley did not subside until hundreds of people---some
claim thousands---were detained. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Police and administrative
machinery remained almost completely crippled for over four months of continued
curfew and shutdown. They fished in the troubled waters but, as on date, the
Government has not produced any credible evidence of Pakistan’s or Hurriyat’s
hand in the ‘Ragda-2016’. On the contrary, every mainstream political party’s
subscription to the turmoil is evident from North to South Kashmir.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">From stone pelting to
arson, that damaged hundreds of public properties, schools and over 15,000
vehicles and caused loss of Rs 16,000 crore to the State economy, it were the
workers of the mainstream political parties who were openly on the forefront. Family
background of the detainees, who attacked Police stations and looted weapons,
makes it all the more clear. Not surprising if the elected lawmakers of PDP or
NC or an independent MLA call Burhan Wani a “martyr” and his death “sacrifice
to the cause of freedom”.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>[Concluded]</span></i></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">END</span></div>
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike></div>
Ahmed Ali Fayyazhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09315496293788942599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7517162742711995015.post-6713680713443838472017-01-17T08:52:00.000+14:002017-01-17T08:52:03.160+14:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #c00000; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Iss ghar ko aag lag gayi ghar ke chirag se</span></i></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 22pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Who
upset India’s applecart in Kashmir in 2008—2016?</span></b></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="margin: 0px 0px 13px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">(Part 2)</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Ahmed Ali Fayyaz</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">_________</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Undoubtedly, the turbulence in 2008, which later came to be
known as the Amarnath shrine land row, sprouted out of the statements of the separatist
hardliner Syed Ali Shah Geelani, who in the months of April and May restricted
his focus to the “huge number” of the pilgrims allowed to the shrine cave every
year and their polyethylene bags. He contended that it could pose “a potential
threat to the environment and ecology”. Soon some pictures of “hutments” being
raised in the Sindh forest cover appeared in a local newspaper.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">While the arguments and the counter-arguments were being
traded between the politicians, Governor Lt Gen (retd.) S.K. Sinha’s Principal
Secretary Arun Kumar shot a comment, asking why nobody was concerned over the
large number of the pilgrims going to Saudi Arabia every year. It proved to be
a trigger.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">With every passing day, in the month of June, the coalition
partner PDP increased pressure on Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad to either
cancel the allotment of the 40 hectares of land or face withdrawal of the
support from Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s party that could obviously bring down his
government. Leaders of at least two mainstream parties began buttressing the
separatists’ charge that the Government had planned to set up “Amarnath Nagar”
to make demographic changes in the Valley.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Any politician of Mufti’s stature and experience could have
perceived well the consequences. Cancellation of the allotment could expose
Azad and his party Congress to enormous hostility, not only in their core
constituency in Jammu but also across the country. Azad chose to step down. On
July 7, after a discussion on the PDP’s no-confidence motion in Assembly, he
announced his resignation. Six people had died by that day in clashes and
demonstrations and hundreds had been injured.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Unprecedented for 18 years, the civilian government’s fall
created a mainstream political vacuum and Governor Sinha’s administration found
itself on the receiving end of a 1990-like mass movement in entire Kashmir
valley. For the first time after 1947, it created an equal and opposition
reaction in Jammu, leading to an acute regional and communal polarisation. It
was after 14 years that pro-Pakistan flags and slogans dominated the
demonstrations, the militants and the separatist politicians reclaimed their
ground overnight. In Jammu, all the traditional mainstream leaders went into
oblivion and a right wing advocate emerged as the only representative of the
people. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">The agitation was finally crushed with firing and arrests in
Kashmir and a settlement with the sponsors of a parallel strife in Jammu,
followed by announcement for the Assembly elections. Suddenly all the extremist
forces were marginalised in both, Kashmir and Jammu, and a heavy voter turnout
in the elections made it clear that the real drivers of the turbulence were
within, not outside. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">With little regard to their rhetorical statements made
during the turmoil, the mainstream politicians in the Valley sought vote for
solving the “day to day governance issues” of roads, power, water, health and
education. Immediately after winning the elections, even the top leader Omar
Abdullah began raising “the larger political issues” and calling for “dialogue
with separatists and Pakistan”. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">In presence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress
President Sonia Gandhi, Omar asserted that Kashmir was a “political issue” that
required a “political solution”. This, nevertheless, failed to save him from
attempts of a new “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ragda</i>” that
unfolded soon with the mysterious death of two young women in Shopian as the
residents alleged that both had been “raped and killed by Police or security
forces”.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Senior State Congress leader and former Union Minister for
Water Resources, Prof Saifuddin Soz, said in a statement that he would take up
the matter of the Shopian “rape and murder” with the Prime Minister. While the
separatists were still struggling to find takers to their allegations of “rape
and murder”, the statement from Prof Soz lent seriousness and credibility to
the public outrage. Clashes and demonstrations ended only when, four months
later, CBI booked about a dozen doctors and lawyers for being “part of a
conspiracy to defame the security forces and destabilise the Government with
false allegation of rape and murder”.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">In the following months and years, almost all those in the
forefront of the Shopian agitation were found indulging in crimes like burglary
and rape. One of the doctors, who had played key role in sending fudged vaginal
smear to the FSL to project it a case of “gang rape”, was caught on camera
committing rape on a middle-aged female patient at his clinic. Another leader
of the agitation was found to have committed rape on a 14-year-old maid who,
according to an uncontested story in Kashmir Images, was passed through
abortion at a clinic in Anantnag. Later, Police arrested the same leader with
the proof that he had broken into his brother-in-law’s jewellery shop and
stolen gold worth Rs 60 lakh.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Two more of the ‘leaders’ were known activists of PDP and NC—one
appointed as a prosecutor by Mufti’s government and another by Omar’s
government. <span style="margin: 0px;"> </span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Again, in the year 2010, attempts were underway with the
beginning of the tourist season to bring down Omar Abdullah’s government. Death
of a teenage student, Tufail Matoo, in Police action against a small group of
demonstrators triggered a major turbulence. Over a hundred people got killed in
Police and security forces firing and hundreds injured. Those killed in the
clashes included PDP’s District Youth President in Anantnag. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Incredibly even the ruling NC’s own activists were found
involved in enforcing Hurriyat’s shutdown calendar. One of such persons smashed
the head of a shopkeeper for defying the shutdown call in Nowhatta area and
left him dead. About a dozen of them attacked and captured a Policeman and left
him almost dead on the highway near Narbal. They were found to be the sons of
the staunch supporters of a National Conference leader and Cabinet Minister in
Srinagar.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">In competition, activists of almost all the mainstream
political parties outsmarted even the separatist hardliners and militants while
levelling allegations, attacking Police and security forces and calling for
“solution of the Kashmir dispute as per the aspirations of the people”—their
euphemism for Azadi. Finally, this theatre of the absurd began fading out only when
Rahul Gandhi made it clear in Kolkata that Omar Abdullah’s government in
J&K would not fall. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">In September, NC’s Member of Parliament Shariefuddin Shariq
was the first to allege that the Police (of his own government) had shot dead
“three innocent civilian youths” in cold blood, near Qamarwari in Srinagar. An
investigation made clear that all the three were active militants carrying guns.
They had shot dead two Policemen and taken away their rifles. One of the three slain
assailants next day turned out to be the MP’s own grandson. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">With the arrival of winter, this time the separatists
disappeared, alongwith their shutdown calendar, for a longer pause.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">[To be concluded…..]</span></i></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">END</span></div>
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike>[STATE TIMES]</div>
Ahmed Ali Fayyazhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09315496293788942599noreply@blogger.com0