2 killed in CRPF firing on mob in Sopore

CRPF opened fire when mourners of 2 slain militants torched a Gypsy; Curfew imposed

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

SRINAGAR, Jun 25: Authorities have imposed curfew on Sopore after two civilians got killed and four others sustained gunshot wounds in a mob attack on paramilitary force this evening. Hundreds of residents carrying dead bodies of two militants, who had earlier died in an encounter with security forces, clashed with CRPF in Krankshivan Colony while shouting anti-India slogans, pelting stones and torching a Gypsy. Both factions of the separatist Hurriyat Conference have called for a total shutdown in Kashmir on Saturday and asked people to march to the apple town in a demonstration of solidarity with the bereaved families.

Informed sources in North Kashmir told Early Times that hundreds of people gathered and began shouting anti-India, anti-forces, pro-Azadi and pro-Islam slogans in Krankshivan outskirts of Sopore immediately after a 20-hour-long gunbattle between militants and security forces ended with the death of two militants at 1600 hours today. They formed a funeral procession and carried dead bodies of the slain militants on shoulders towards Chhann Khan bridge. Suddenly there was a clash between some demonstrators and soldiers. Sources said that the demonstrators attacked the CRPF party on duty and also set on fire one Gypsy which was part of the escort of a Commanding Officer.

Thereupon, troops opened fire on the mob. In all, six of the demonstrators sustained gunshot wounds. One of them, namely Shakil Ahmed Ganai S/o Abdul Aziz Ganai R/o Lalad, succumbed to injuries before reaching Sub District Hospital for treatment. Another critically wounded civilian, identified as Firdaus Ahmed Khan S/o Abdul Rashid Khan R/o Ningli, breathed his last when the injured were being rushed to a Srinagar hospital in an ambulance. Officials said that four others were admitted and treated at SMHS Hospital. They said that three of them were stable but one Merajuddin of Tarzoo was battling for life.

Sources said that immediately after the shootout, thousands of residents took to the streets and they staged protest against killing of two civilians in CRPF firing besides killing of two militants in the overnight gunbattle. Reports said that the demonstrators shouted pro-Azadi, pro-Islam and anti-India slogans and resorted to heavy stone pelting on government installations and CRPF camps at several places in the apple town. They also directed an attack on the residence of some Police officers besides Police Station. Hundreds of the angry youth demolished two CRPF bunkers. CRPF soldiers at Iqbal Market opened fire. Reports awaiting official confirmation till late tonight said that two more civilians sustained injuries.

Divisional Commissioner of Kashmir, Naseem Lankar, told Early Times late tonight that District Magistrate of Baramulla imposed curfew restrictions as the situation was threatening to go out of hand in the wake of today’s encounter and CRPF shootout coupled by demonstrations in several localities in Sopore. She said that DC Baramulla, Bashir Ahmed Bhat, SP Sopore, Altaf Khan, and other officials were camping in Sopore and making efforts to restore peace.

Today’s shootout in Sopore took places minutes after DG CRPF Vikram Srivastava, Special DG of CRPF for J&K N K Tripathi, IG CRPF Srinagar P V Krishna Reddy and IG Operations (CRPF) Kashmir, Dr N C Asthana, met Governor, N N Vohra, at Raj Bhawan. Official sources said that During 90-minute-long meeting, DG CRPF briefed the Governor about various aspects of the obtaining security situation in the State. The Governor discussed with Mr. Srivastava some of his concerns about the arising security scenario in the State, taking into account both the internal and external influences and factors.


CRPF spokesman, Prabhakar Tripathi, told Early Times over telephone from Patna that CRPF, Army and Sopore Police had launched a joint operation in Krankshivan Colony after receiving specific information regarding presence of two militants at a hideout. He said that one of the militants was eliminated last evening itself but the operation was frozen for the night. According to him, “somebody from a mob” fired upon CRPF when the operation was underway in the afternoon. He claimed that Inspector Rohtas Singh of CRPF 177 Bn sustained gunshot wounds in this firing. Troops observed restraint for fear of possible civilian casualties and concentrated on the hideout. Inspector Singh was rushed to Srinagar and admitted to Army’s 92 Base Hospital.

Tripathi added that after both the militants got killed, another mob assembled and started stone pelting and demonstrations. He said that during the course of these demonstrations, some “masked men” from the crowd opened fire on CRPF Gypsy and deflated its tyre. Same vehicle was later set on fire by the mob. He said that the CRPF men under cordon of the mob opened fire in self defence in which two persons got killed. He said that he had immediately no knowledge as to how many civilians had got injured in the shootout.

Reports from Sopore said that amid intermittent clashes with Police and CRPF, besides announcements from public address system of local mosques by the residents, authorities imposed curfew and deployed several companies of CRPF and Army to tackle the law and order situation. These reports said that Tehsildar and SDM were forced to take shelter in a house when another mob directed a heavy attack on Police Station.

Meanwhile, both factions of the separatist Hurriyat Conference, headed by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Syed Ali Shah Geelani, have called for shutdown in Kashmir tomorrow. Mirwaiz has asked the people to stage a protest march to Sopore on Saturday while as Geelani has made similar appeal to the Kashmiris for Monday next.

END

Syed Ali Shah Geelani's fresh calendar of shutdowns for June-July 2010

25th June: Shutdown in Jammu & Kashmir

26th June: Hold mass prayers and Qanoot-e-Nazila at mosques

27th June: Write “Go India Go Back” slogans on walls and roads

28th June: Male students to wear black badges on their arms

29th June: Female students to wear black badges on their arms

30th June: Protest demonstrations at mosques between evening prayers

1st July: Women’s march to Pathar Masjid in Srinagar downtown

2nd July: Shutdown

3rd July: Shutdown

9th July: Shutdown

10th July: Shutdown

13th July: Shutdown plus march to two martyrs’ graveyards in Srinagar

3rd July onwards: Indefinite shutdown if Police/forces killed anybody in Kashmir.

[As released by Hurriyat (Geelani) leader and Vice Chairman of Muslim League, Massarat Alam Bhat at a news conference in Srinagar on June 24, 2010]

KASHMIR SHUTDOWNS---2


Courtesy shutdowns, J&K is on verge of economic collapse

General trade alone suffers loss of Rs 40 Cr on each day of Hartal in Kashmir

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

SRINAGAR, Jun 24: If President of Kashmir Traders & Manufacturers Federation (KTMF), Sadiq Baqal, is to be believed, there are around 300,000 shops and various sales units in Kashmir valley. Quoting a survey, he said that 2,35,000 shops had been counted in the Valley two years ago. “In a comprehensive exercise, we have calculated that the Valley’s economy is suffering loss of Rs 100 Crore on each day of shutdown. General trade alone has been suffering loss of Rs 35 Cr to Rs 40 Cr on each day of shutdown”, Mr Baqal told Early Times [www.earlytimes.in].

Leading businessman and President Federation of Chambers & Industries Kashmir (FCIK), Shakeel Qallandar, seconded Mr Baqal and said that each day of a total strike would mean dent of Rs 100 Cr to the state economy. He added that the loss suffered by Kashmir was around 90% and even Jammu division, which rarely observes a shutdown, was being subjected to 10% of the damage on such a day.

With due regards to the spiraling macro economic indicators compiled by Directorate General of Planning and Statistics and presented alongwith his Budget in the Legislative Assembly by Finance Minister, Abdul Rahim Rather, Mr Qallandar insisted that Jammu & Kashmir state’s economy was on the verge of economic collapse. Taking exception to “prejudiced claims” from certain analysts in New Delhi and overseas that J&K was flourishing with a “visible as well as invisible economy”, Qallandar said: “Don’t go by the deceptive indicators of the flowing in vehicles and coming up houses. One must bear it in mind that J&K is currently suffering the trade deficit of Rs 27,000 Cr a year. Total volume of our exports is Rs 7,000 Cr today while as goods worth Rs 34,000 Cr are imported in a year”.

“Everybody in J&K is debt trapped. Residents have lifted loans worth Rs 22,000 Cr from different banks and their liquidity is dismal”, Qallandar added. According to him, in terms of overall economic development, J&K stood among the highest growing eight states in 1988 while as, mainly due to a hostile business atmosphere, it had over the years plummeted to the bottom. He claimed that in 2009, J&K was among the three states of the worst economic development. Yet another negative indicator was a survey by Transparency International which put J&K as India’s second worst state in terms of corruption.

With the state government’s latest statistics putting the number of unemployed youth (between age group of 18 to 37 years) at 600,000, Qallandar insisted that total number of the people with no assured or permanent source of income in J&K was currently 10 Lakh (one million). “Our unemployed ratio has already crossed the red mark of 10 percent. It was just 2 percent in 1988. With 1000,000 unemployed people, we, on the other hand, engage 500,000 skilled and unskilled labours from Bihar, UP, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Punjab and few other North Indian states every year. State does not have institutions to create its own workforce of the skilled labours”, he said.

Another leading entrepreneur, who wished anonymity, told Early Times that frequent shutdowns were the worst enemy of the Valley’s new generation. “If our separatist political leaders continued to fail to introduce some benign form of demonstration of protest in the next couple of years, they will be dismissed by history as the agents of destruction”, he cautioned. He revealed that thousands of youth from the families traditionally associated with Kashmir’s art and handicrafts, living on either side of erstwhile Nallah Mar Road, had been lured into a romanticism of stone pelting and enforcement of shutdown. “They neither work themselves not let others work”, he said while fearing extinction of Kashmir’s unique art and intellectual talent that made the Valley proud for centuries in the past.

(To be continued)

END

Kashmir shutdowns

1990: 198
1991: 207
1992: 148
1993: 139
1994: 97
1995: 88
1996: 95
1997: 72
1998: 25
1999: 24
2000: 41
2001: 122
2002: 76
2003: 58:
2004: 25
2005: 18
2006: 26
2007: 13
2008: 33
2009: 35
2010: 22 (till 23rd June)

Total days of shutdown from 01-01-1990 t0 23-06-2010 = 1,562

[Source: Jammu & Kashmir Police]

KASHMIR SHUTDOWNS---1

Kashmir shutdown on 1,562 days in 20 years

While losing Rs 100 Cr on each day of shutdown, J&K has suffered loss of Rs 150,000 Cr

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

SRINAGAR, Jun 23: Thanks to the Valley’s militant outfits and separatist organizations, who have enforced 1,562 days of shutdown in the last 20 years of the secessionist movement, Jammu & Kashmir state has suffered loss of over Rs 150,000 Crore. Government’s contribution is also substantial as the state has additionally suffered loss of Rs 15,000 Crore on account of curfew on 150 days during same period of the political turmoil.

J&K state’s economy is estimated to have suffered loss of around Rs 200,000 Crore during 20 years of the separatist movement. This includes infrastructure destroyed by militants and security forces besides illegal felling of conifer trees and timber smuggling. Shutdown enforced by Hurriyat Conference, its constituents and militant outfits for 1,562 days till date, besides nearly 150 days of declared and undeclared curfew by the government, though mostly restricted to downtown Srinagar, have been the largest contributing factors. Loss suffered by the state’s economy on account of shutdown and curfew accounts for about 80% of the cumulative damage.

While the separatist groups and alliances have been enforcing shutdown mainly to protest human rights abuse by the armed forces, authorities have been resorting to imposition of curfew in extreme law and order situations from day one of the armed insurgency. Capital city of Srinagar, as also the key business townships of Sopore, Baramulla, Handwara, Bandipore, Budgam, Pulwama, Kulgam, Shopian and Anantnag have been the worst hit.

There were nearly 700 days of Hartal in Kashmir valley in the first four years of militancy. According to the official figures tabulated by Jammu & Kashmir Police, year 1990 witnessed 198 days of shutdown. It was followed by 207 days of shutdown in 1991---highest so far. Similarly, the Valley shut for 148 days in 1992 and 139 days in 1993. With the gradual improvement in situation, days of shutdown reduced to 24 in 1999 but again went up to 122 in 2001. Minimum days of shutdown in a calendar year were witnessed in 2007 when the business in Kashmir remained closed for 13 days.

Mainly due to the Amarnath shrine land allotment strife, Kashmir was shut for 33 days in 2008. It jumped to 35 in the first year of Omar Abdullah government in 2009 when Hurriyat and other separatist outfits succeeded in freezing the Valley for different intervals on account of alleged rape-cum-murder of two women in Shopian (which was not proved in CBI investigation) and several related incidents. Second year of the NC-Congress coalition government is threatening to prove worse as the Valley has already observed 22 days of shutdown in just 6 months and 23 days.

All individual outfits and both factions of Hurriyat Conference have been calling for a strike whenever an incident of human rights abuse happens or is perceived to have happened at the hands of Police or security forces. On several occasions, these constituents and alliances have enforced shutdown “in honour” of the militants killed by security forces in gunbattles. Over a dozen historical days, like Republic Day (January 26), Martyrs Day (July 13), Independence Day (August 15), Indian Army’s First Arrival (October 26) besides the assassination anniversary of Mirwaiz Maulvi Farooq (May 21) and death anniversaries of top ranking militants have been marked as red in Kashmir’s calendar. Hardliner separatist leader, Syed Ali Shah Geelani, has attained the highest profile among all political and militant leaders in enforcing a bandh in the Valley.

Sponsors of the shutdown have been justifying their calls for strike with the argument that it was the “only form of demonstration” with the Kashmiris. Though a large number of strike calls have failed to generate desired impact, most of such appeals have evoked substantial response. Guns, grenades and stones have also been used on certain occasion to enforce a shutdown, particularly around Lok Sabha, Assembly and Municipal elections.

(To be continued tomorrow).

Geelani really dying for Kashmir’s ecology?

Influential separatist leader should also call a shutdown on brick kilns

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

SRINAGAR, Jun 20: Senior Kashmiri separatist leader, Syed Ali Shah Geelani, has, of late, begun to lay remarkable emphasis over the need to protect the Valley’s environment and ecology. In the last one week, Geelani has shown significant concern over the damage, according to him, caused to the Valley’s fragile ecology by the annual Amarnath pilgrimage. He has made specific non-political demand of reducing the pilgrimage period from existing two months to just 15 days and argued that similar arrangement was in place at Gangotri and other holy places in Uttaranchal.

Notwithstanding resting his entire argument on the 60-year-old UN resolutions, Geelani’s ideology of a theocratic Islamic system has little scope for geo-political boundaries. He seems to be confident that Jammu & Kashmir’s merger with Pakistan, in realization of what he calls ‘aspiration of the Kashmiris’, would be a service to the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. When he was led to believe during Amarnath land row in August 2008---by slogans like ‘kaun karega tarjumani, Syed Ali Shah Geelani’--- that he alone was the representative of the Kashmiris, he lost no time to assert.

At the TRC congregation, Geelani found two of the most prominent pro-Azadi leaders, namely Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Mohammad Yasin Malik, already seated on the dais. Cutting them both dead, he sought the gathering’s vote of being the “only representative of the Kashmiris” and led the audience yell as many as 10 times in one go: “Ham Pakistani hain, Pakistan hamara hai”.

In contrast, Geelani has been complaining of “cultural aggression” and “ecological degradation” for quite some time now--- holding the “Indian occupational forces” responsible for both. So the fundamental question, unanswered in the minds of a many Kashmiris, is: Is the octogenarian separatist leader concerned about all hues of “cultural aggression” and “ecological degradation” in Kashmir or merely the one he finds the “Indian occupational forces” involved in?

At three of his thinly attended public meetings since the weekend last, Geelani has warned the Government of “a sustained struggle” in case his demand of restricting the pilgrimage period to 15 days was not acceded to. “It (Yatra period of 60 days) has been destroying our atmosphere”, he has complained. Those visiting Sonmarg and Pahalgam during the two-odd months of the pilgrimage would readily agree with Mr Geelani as the damage caused to the environ is colossal. Much like Geelani, they were also concerned over the raising of concrete structures at Baltal in 2008. But, this time around, they are perhaps equally concerned that their joining the chorus with Geelani could push the environment to the backburner exactly like in 2008 and bring region and religion to the forefront. This, they know, is bound to be catastrophic in perception of an equally negative reaction in Jammu.

Leela Karan Sharma of the 2008 Sangharsh fame and others of his ilk, who remained in oblivion in the last 20 months, have immediately got resuscitation in Geelani’s warning and have begun to find their role and place in the situation being communally charged in Jammu & Kashmir. Much like Congress-PDP coalition in 2008, Congress-NC ruling alliance seems to be having other priorities at hand.

Among the ordinary Kashmiris, many are surprised why Mr Geelani does not deliver a sermon on Director SKIMS, Dr Abdul Hamid Zargar, on the latter’s obligation of installing an incinerator for appropriate disposal of medical waste at the hospital. If the Valley’s jails and detention centers are Geelani’s “second home”, SKIMS has indisputably emerged as his “third home”. Every time Geelani was ‘arrested’ in the last several years, his detention has ended at SKIMS. Concerned over the environment, Geelani must be aware that J&K State Pollution Control Board has now slapped a final notice of closure on the SKIMS Director for ignoring to set up an incinerator at the state’s only tertiary care hospital.

Having never planted a tree on the World Arbor Day on March 21 or otherwise, Geelani is also supposed to be knowing well that sections of the Valley’s pro-Azadi and pro-Pakistan militants have caused more damage to the state’s sylvan cover---particularly in 1990-1996 period---than Army and paramilitary forces. Hundreds of compartments were denuded in broad daylight everywhere in Kashmir, including Geelani’s own Sopore-Rafiabad forests. One conservator and scores of Forest Department officials were not gunned down by military.

And the last, but not the least, Geelani has never raised his voice over the mushroom growth of cement plants---maximum of them laid by a Sopore-based business family---in the critical Khonmoh-Khrew belt, bordering Dachigam National Park on one side and the saffron fields of Pampore on another. While traveling more than any other political leader through Valley, Geelani has also witnessed how more than 300 completely unauthorized and illegal brick kilns have caused grave threat not only to environment but also to the poor human life. Should he not invoke his “only tool” of shutdown for a day, specifically for closing down these dangerously operating kilns or else prevail upon the owners to do a real good to the Kashmiris?

END

Omar Govt has one rule for Shafi Uri’s son, another for 600,000 unemployed youth
Laharwal-Runiyal duo taints Chief Minister’s claim of ‘cleanest ever Government’

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

SRINAGAR, Jun 16: While denying a job to hundreds of graduates and post-graduates in different professional streams---Medicine, Engineering, Forestry, Agriculture, Veterinary Science, Mass Communications included---Chief Minister Omar Abdullah’s bureaucracy has begun to rehabilitate kith and kin of the ruling coalition politicians through backdoor. Latest beneficiaries of the largesse, being extended surreptitiously, include senior National Conference (NC) leader and Rajya Sabha member Mohammad Shafi Uri’s 12th pass son, Owais Shafi, who has been appointed as ‘Editor’ in a regular pay scale in the J&K State Sports Council (JKSSC) . Entire process, from creation of post to relaxation of rules to the issuance of appointment order, has taken place for the blue-eyed boy in three hours on April 29th, 2010.

Secretary of JKSSC, Shameem Ahmed Laharwal, and Secretary to Government Technical Education, Youth Services and Sports, Bashir Ahmed Runiyal, have clandestinely conducted entire exercise on the last day of Durbar in the winter capital, obviously in an attempt to keep it a secret. Exactly in the same manner had then National Conference government’s head, Dr Farooq Abdullah, sanctioned Owais Shafi’s appointment as Assistant Tourist Officer (ATO) on the last day of Durbar in Srinagar on 29th October in 1998. That infamous backdoor appointment was later terminated by Jammu & Kashmir High Court as well as Supreme Court of India.

The post of Editor, in the pre-revised pay scale of Rs 4,000--6,000, has been specially created and the coalition MP’s son appointed inspite of the fact that he has absolutely no qualification or experience for the job. His highest academic qualification is Class 12th pass and he had also crossed the age-bar of 37 years on the day of his second successive backdoor appointment.

“As approved by the Vice President, Sports Council (Hon’ble Sports Minister) vide communication No: PS/HM/ME,TE &YSS/1003/10 dated:- 29-04-2010, sanction is hereby accorded to the creation of one post of Editor in the grade of Rs 4000-6000 (pre-revised) in the Press & Publicity wing of J&K State Sports Council subject to the confirmation of the standing committee as and when constituted. Consequent to the above, and as approved by the Vice President, Sports Council (Hon’ble Sports Minister), Sh Owais Ahmad S/o Mohd Shafi R/o Gharkot, Uri, Baramulla, Kashmir A/P: Srinagar is, hereby, appointed temporarily as Editor in the Press & Publicity wing of the J&K State Sports Council in the pay scale of Rs 4000-6000 (pre-revised) plus usual allowances”, says JKSSC Secretary’s Order No: 269 of 2010 Dated: 29-04-2010. NC Rajya Sabha member’s son has been appointed as Editor at a time when hundreds of Post Graduates in Journalism and Mass Communication are running from pillar to post in search of a government job and scores of them have already crossed their age-bar. Government has spent huge amounts of money on their education and training for the job that has been doled out to a politician’s nearly illiterate son. It has also come at a time when JKSSC has denied benefits of 6th pay commission recommendations to all of its coaches, citing financial constraints as the biggest reason.

Secretary JKSSC, Mr Laharwal, has indeed mentioned in the appointment order that it would be subject to confirmation by Standing Committee. However, the fact is that the Standing Committee does not exist. Nominees of politicians like Shafi Uri are, by tradition, appointed as members of the ‘Standing Committee’. Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, by default, will be the Chairman of this committee whenever constituted in the next four-and-a-half years.

While Secretary Youth Services & Sports, B A Runiyal, was not reachable, Secretary JKSSC, Shameem Ahmed Laharwal, argued that Secretary was competent to appoint anybody as a Junior Assistant or equivalent and the Vice President (Minister incharge Sports) could sanction appointment of Senior Assistant or equivalent. He told Early Times that Editor was equivalent to Senior Assistant and there was nothing wrong in Owais Shafi’s appointment, made without providing any chance to thousands of unemployed and highly qualified youth and thus in violation of Article 14 and 16 of the Constitution. He said that Vice President was “competent” to create any post and relax all rules but failed to mention wherefrom he had got that authority and competence.

The NC leader has succeeded in rehabilitating his son through backdoor at the cost of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah’s claim of heading the state’s “cleanest ever government” as also Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh’s appreciation---“not only the youngest, but also the best Chief Minister”.

Even as Owais Shafi’s backdoor appointment in 1998 as Assistant Tourist Officer had raised many an eyebrow in hundreds of thousands of unemployed and highly qualified youth, he had joined without wasting any time. To keep then Cabinet Minister, Shafi Uri, in good humour, Dr Abdullah’s government had first upgraded the post of Receptionist in Bombay to the level of Assistant Tourist Officer and then appointed Owais Shafi on the same post. Rather than working at Bombay office, he was further allowed to stay in Jammu and attend duty at Tourist Reception Centre Jammu.

Two of the highly qualified but unemployed youth from Jammu, namely Jugal Kishore Anand, who had an MBA and another Masters in Tourism Administration, and Rajan Gupta (MTA), had challenged Owais Shafi’s backdoor appointment as Assistant Tourist Officer by way of a writ petition in J&K High Court. Mr Justice Pramod Kohli, presently a judge in Punjab & Haryana High Court, had quashed Owais Shafi’s appointment on 15-09-2003 and held it “illegal, arbitrary and in violation of Article 14 and 16 of the Constitution of India”.
Owais Shafi went to Division Bench in appeal against Justice Kohli’s order but a DB, comprising Mr Justice V K Jhanji (then acting Chief Justice of J&K High Court) and Mr Justice Basheer-ud-din, upheld the order and dismissed the LPA on 13-11-2003. Thereafter, Owais Shafi as well as then Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s government challenged the J&K High Court order in Supreme Court of India, by filing Special Leave Petition No: 7462-7463 of 2004, and sought maintenance of the order issued by Dr Farooq Abdullah’s government. After hearing arguments of all concerned, a bench comprising Mr Justice K G Balakrishnan and Mr Justice B N Sri Krishnan, upheld J&K High Court’s order, thus terminating Owais Shafi’s service in J&K Government on 23-04-2004.

Even as J&K Government did never consider the complainant Jugal Kishore (MBA, MTA) for any post, the meritorious youth qualified Combined Competitive Services Examination and was appointed in prestigious Kashmir Administrative Service.
END