Prof Jan appointed as director CCAS at KU

Early Times Report

SRINAGAR, Dec 8: Senior professor of Persian language and literature, Dr Ghulam Rasool Jan today took over as Director of Centre of Central Asian Studies (CCAS) at the University of Kashmir, following the superannuation of Prof G M Mir. Jan has taught at KU’s Department of Persian and CCAS for nearly 30 years and scores of students have completed doctorate under his leadership.

An authority on Iranian art, culture and literature, Prof Jan has his own doctorate on the life and philosophy of Kashmir’s revered saint and Persian poet Sheikh Yaqoob Sarfi.

Author of many books on central Asian issues, Prof Jan has made remarkable contribution to his credit on history of Persian literature with special reference to Tajik and Kashmir. He has published more than 20 research papers on various themes concerning Central Asia in reputed journals. Kashmir university teaching and students fraternity has congratulated Prof Jan on his appointment as head of the CCAS. 

Meanwhile a valedictory function was organised in CCAS in honour of the outgoing head Prof Mir as also to welcome new incumbent Prof Jan. It was attended by faculty members and non-teaching staff of the Centre. Senior faculty member and Dean of College Development Council, Prof Mushtaq A Kaw, on behalf of the faculty spoke highly about contributions made by Prof. G M Mir as the director. Prof Kaw assured full cooperation to Prof Jan and hoped that CCAS would achieve new heights of excellence under Prof Jan’s able leadership.

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CM’s Kashmiri Advisor gets Dogri serial for his son

DD Kashir: Fighting Pak propaganda or generating heartburn in Jammu?

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

JAMMU, Dec 7: He contested elections on National Conference (NC) ticket in 2005 and represented Srinagar downtown area of Islamyarbal in Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) till February 2010. He was regularly paid honorarium as a public representative. But, that was not enough for Mubarak Gul’s son, Younis Gul, who fraudulently projected himself as a “private producer” and appeared in the government competition, like his father, in 2007-09, when he was NC’s elected corporator in Srinagar. By virtue of being son of the Advisor to J&K Chief Minister,Omar Abdullah, Younis Gul has now got DD Kashir’s Rs 24 Lakh project “Allhar Golli Vir Sepoy”---an 8-episode drama serial, not in Kashmiri but in Dogri language. Gul’s business firm Himalayan Communications has just begun shooting of this Dogri fiction at different locations in Jammu.

Once instrumentalists in Nawab Bazar’s Shah Dramatic Club, Mubarak Gul and Ali Mohammad Chralu (now Sagar) had begun their political career together when they floated NC’s youth wing, J&K Youth Federation, (later named as J&K Youth National Conference) and ran an effective election campaign for the ailing Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah in 1977. NC swept the polls against all visible indications and trounced all---New Delhi-backed Janta Party, Congress, Jamaat-e-Islami.

In recognition of their hardwork, both, Sagar and Mubarak, were fielded as NC’s candidates in 1983 elections in downtown Srinagar. Both polled more than 80 to 90 percent of the total votes cast in their respective constituencies. These were the elections when JKPCC chief Mufti Mohammad Sayeed was defeated in both of his segments---Bijbehara and Homeshalibugh. Luck was a little choosy thereafter. Sagar was inducted as Minister of State for Information by Dr Farooq Abdullah in 1988-89.

Firebrand Sagar maintained rising to the heights but Mubarak kept craving for Ministry. When Sagar was completing eight years of his working as Minister with three Chief Ministers in July 2008, Mubarak got the charity of the “status” of a Cabinet Minister. He was designated as “Advisor to Chief Minister” and assigned the portfolio of chairing meetings with officials and collecting applications from the human ocean of Kashmiri job seekers.

Generation-2 of the NC’s “youth leaders” came to the surface together when Sagar got SMC’s ticket for son, Salman, and Mubarak grabbed the one for Younis. Both were students of law, though the junior Gul could never pass the examinations till he was caught copying at a centre in Jammu earlier this year. Sagar succeeded in getting Salman installed as Mayor of Srinagar but the young corporator Younis Gul began trying his own and his father’s luck in Doordarshan’s much-hyped ‘DD Kashir’ channel.

While Sagar and Salman kept tasting fruits of Omar Abdullah-led government, Mubarak and Younis secretly projected themselves as “private producers”. They submitted two different programme proposals and appeared in the competition of the commissioning of DD Kashir programmes at Directorate General of Doordarshan when the father was an elected Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) and the son an elected councilor with SMC. Their public office qualification is a known disqualification for private producers seeking contracts with any state government, Government of India or its subsidiaries.

As exclusively reported by Early Times earlier this year, five-times MLA and now government functionary of the rank of a Cabinet Minister, Mubarak Gul, besides his SMC councilor son, Younis Gul, had submitted their applications to Mandi House to get themselves empanelled as “freelance producers” for DD Kashir in December 2007 when both of them were peoples elected representatives. Retaining their public representative status, both of them appeared in the competition and an interview before DD’s Evaluation Committee in June-July 2008.

In October 2009, DD allotted 8-episode Kashmiri drama serial, titled ‘Azla Lon’ to Mubarak Gul when he was not only an elected MLA but also Advisor to Chief Minister. It was ultimately withdrawn when Early Times reported how the right of professional freelance producers and directors was being marred and how the salaried legislators and J&K politicians were being entertained as “private producers” by Doordarshan under the smokescreen of fighting Pakistan’s information war on Kashmir.

Mubarak Gul, however, managed to save his son’s Rs 24 Lakh project with the help of Director of Doordarshan Kendra Srinagar, Dr Rafeeq Masoodi, who was known not only for his patronage from the Union Minister of Health, Ghulam Nabi Azad, but had also projected himself as “Prasar Bharti CEO B S Lali’s man” in J&K.

Being a “Kashmir related matter”, all of the state and the central government’s integrity watchdogs, including DD’s internal vigilance wing, Central Vigilance Commission, J&K State Vigilance Organisation and Central Bureau of Investigation conveniently shut their eyes to DD’s multi-Crore fraud. Even Governor and Speaker of Legislative Assembly, who are normally regarded as the custodians of Constitution and Legislation, chose to ignore this broad daylight fraud that was brazenly condoned by the “intellectually immaculate” Chief Minister of the state.

[To be continued….]

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Geelani hits back on Farooq, calls him, his family and party ‘traitors’

‘NC responsible for 1947, 1975, 1996 and 2008 treasons’

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

SRINAGAR, Dec 6: Hurriyat hawk Syed Ali Shah Geelani today made a counter scathing attack on the National Conference supremo Dr Farooq Abdullah and dismissed him, his entire dynasty and political party (NC) as the “real traitors and backstabbers of Kashmiris”. He claimed that Jammu & Kashmir would not have been under “Indian occupation” today if Sheikh Abdullah, his progeny and NC would not have stood by New Delhi during the defining moments in 1947, 1975, 1996 and 2008.

In his fiery reaction to the speeches delivered by the NC top brass at Sheikh Abdullah’s mausoleum at Hazratbal on Sunday, Geelani held Dr Farooq Abdullah, his dynasty and party responsible for Jammu & Kashmir’s miseries and political uncertainty over the last 63 years. He asserted that simply for his hegemony and New Delhi’s good humour, Sheikh Abdullah converted the Muslim Conference into the secular National Conference in 1938. According to Geelani, Sheikh and his party “backstabbed” the Kashmiris way of strengthening “Indian military occupation” in J&K in 1947 when they ratified the Maharaja’s accession to India.

Geelani referred to 1975 (when Sheikh resumed power under Indira-Abdullah Accord), 1987 (when Assembly elections, according to the Hurriyat leader, were rigged), 1996 (when NC contested elections to defeat 7-year-old armed strife) and 2008 (when NC again jumped into the electoral fray to fail a mass agitation) and asserted that Farooq and his party had always “committed treason with the Kashmiris”. He alleged that in all of its regimes since 1947, the Sheikh dynasty and NC committed untold atrocities on the oppressed Kashmiris only to enjoy power under an occupational and colonial set up.

Geelani said it was none other than Dr Abdullah who engineered custodial killing of one-odd voice of dissent to Indira-Abdullah Accord, namely Ghulam Mohammad Bulla of Sopore. Bulla had died in a jail.

He added that it was again none other than Dr Abdullah who signed the death warrant of JKLF leader Maqbool Bhat. Sentenced to death for gunning down a bank manager and a Police official in Handwara area, Bhat had been executed in Tihar Jail on February 11, 1984, when Dr Abdullah was Chief Minister of J&K. Geelani said that Dr Abdullah ignited insurgency by resorting to “massive rigging” in the Assembly elections of 1987 and later embraced power in 1996 only to defeat the Kashmiris’ armed struggle. He said that in 2008 too, it was none other than Dr Abdullah who came forward to contest the Assembly elections and failed a mass agitation in the Valley.

Geelani claimed that India was ruling Kashmir only because of Dr Abdullah, his family and party. “As long as India has Farooq Abdullah in Kashmir, it would never regard any democratic means adopted by the Kashmiris to fight their political battle”, Geelani said.

In his rejoinder to Chief Minister Omar Abdullah’s question---‘If Geelani has no problem in meeting with Indian Parliamentarians, why should he not meet with Government?---the Hurriyat chief argued that the separatist leaders would continue to interact with any non-official delegations from New Delhi. He made it clear on Chief Minister that he would have no hesitation in meeting with the official Indian envoys the day New Delhi declared J&K a disputed territory and abandoned its refrain of J&K being its integral part.

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SP Sopore has narrow escape in major attack on his house

Militants fired grenades, destroyed SP’s bedroom in midnight strike

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

SRINAGAR, Dec 6: Superintendent of Police (SP), Sopore, Altaf Khan, had a providential escape when militants launched a major strike on his house from a distance of 30 meters and caused heavy damage to his bedroom during last night.

SP Sopore, Altaf Khan, told Early Times that a group of heavily armed militants drew incredibly close to his official residence at Town Hall, Sopore, at around 20 minutes past midnight and targeted the Police and CRPF-guarded structure with UBGLs, RPGs and AK-56 rifles. He said that the grenades fired with complete precision, evidently by well-trained militants, landed well in his bedroom and caused considerable damage to its interior.

“It was simply my good luck that I had moved to an adjoining room. I first took it as an earthquake but realized soon that it was a terrorist strike to kill me. Guarded retaliated for about five minutes and forced the militants to vanish in darkness”, Mr Khan said. When security forces and ballistic experts made an extensive inspection of the site today, a Commanding Officer of Rashtriya Rifles opined that the militants had fired from a distance of just 30 meters.

Officials confirmed that the targeted house suffered some damage but they maintained that nobody was killed or injured in the midnight strike witnessed in Sopore township after several years.

From November 2009 to February 2010, militants had almost staged a comeback while striking and killing a number of Police and CRPF personnel at different places in Sopore area. In October later, they also attacked the house of NC’s MLA, Haji Mohammad Ashraf Ganai in Sopore outskirts. In one of these attacks at Police Station Sopore, militants also succeeded in killing one of SP Sopore’s personal security officers. This is, however, first time that they have struck on the official residence of the District Police chief in the apple-town with incredible precision. None of the militant outfit’s had claimed responsibility of the attack till late tonight.

Even as Hizbul Mujahideen and Jaish-e-Mohammad have established their presence in Sopore area with certain subversive activities this year, officials insist that well-trained militants of Lashkar-e-Toiba, most likely Pakistani cadres, were involved in carrying out the attack on SP’s residence.

Later today, reports from Sopore said that Police and security forces had launched a major operation to identify and apprehend the militants involved in the strike. According to these reports, confirmed by officials, Police have arrested two brothers, namely Jihangir and Javed, sons of Saifullah, and Maulvi Mohammad Afzal from Iqbal Nagar locality. They have been reportedly subjected to sustained interrogation but it was not immediately clear whether their questioning had yielded anything substantial or not.

With the help of call detail records of the mobile phones recovered from three youth killed in the Qamarwari shootout on November 29^th, Police have learned that the trio had set out for a “cop killing operation in Srinagar” from Ontoo Hamam locality of Sopore. Two of the three youth killed minutes after they gunned down a Constable have been identified as residents of Seer Jagir and Alsafa Colony of Sopore while as third one surfaced as a resident of Bandipore.

Residents of Parimpora-Qamarwari area today staged a protest demonstration and blocked the highway when Police swooped on the peripheral locality and arrested one Nazir Ahmed Mir.

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Farooq blasts separatist leaders over shutdowns, stone pelting

NC patriarch also snubs Shariq, Mustafa Kamal on their anti-India statements

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

SRINAGAR, Dec 5: National Conference President and Union Minister of New & Renewable Energy Resources, Dr Farooq Abdullah, today came down heavily on the Valley’s separatist leaders and held them responsible for leading the Kashmiris to a quagmire of devastation. He even did not spare his own senior party colleagues, Sharief-ud-din Shariq and Dr Sheikh Mustafa Kamal, over frequently issuing anti-India and anti-Police statements.

Addressing a remembrance function on the NC founder Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah’s 105^th birth anniversary at Hazratbal, Dr Abdullah asserted that some political leaders had sacrificed everything for the prosperity, development and dignity of the people of Jammu & Kashmir but there were also politicians who forced the hapless people to sacrifice everything for making their own family fortunes.

Dr Abdullah said that violence and crass forms of resistance, like armed insurgency and stone pelting, had been employed by the Valley’s separatist leadership as tools to win freedom from India. But both, according to him, were unacceptable to the civilized world. He claimed that the separatist leaders and their followers had not only failed to achieve anything but had also pushed Kashmir in a morass of misery and misfortune. While the leaders themselves had achieved their personal comforts and built fortunes for their own children, the ordinary Kashmiris had been forced to suffer for petty morsels of food.

Three-times former Chief Minister, Dr Abdullah said that the separatist leaders had forced the poor Kashmiris to shut their schools and shops for months and years together but, on the other hand, they had sent their own children to foreign countries to pursue higher studies, jobs and businesses. Mentioning hardliner separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani by name, Farooq said that the Hurriyat chief would religiously stick to a fabulous menu even in jail but a lousy spinach was a luxury for the poor Kashmiris. He said that continuous shutdown for five months this year had not only affected the development and economy but had also ruined the future of poor students who wanted to pursue their studies and compete with students of other Indian states in different examinations and job opportunities.

Dr Abdullah said that anarchical street clashes, stone pelting, closure of shops and schools and torching of school buses---justified by the Hurriyat leaders as the Kashmiris’ only tool of resistance and attracting the world attention---would simply add to the miseries of the people of the state, particularly those living in Kashmir valley. He argued that dialogue in fact was the only tool to make one’s point and achieve something in any conflict. He asserted that NC would continue its 60-year-long struggle to achieve what Sheikh Abdullah had envisioned for the people of this embattled state.

Restoration of greater autonomy, he contended, was the best possible solution of the J&K unrest. He hastened to add that if any other individual or political party came forward with a better solution “that must be all-inclusive and acceptable to people of all regions of the state”, NC would have no hesitation to accept it. He said that he and his party would give every sacrifice to realize Sher-e-Kashmir’s dream of a prosperous, autonomous state of Jammu & Kashmir.

A day after Geelani called upon the Kashmiris to reject the proposed Panchayat and local body elections with “total boycott”, Dr Abdullah asked the people to participate in the grass-root democratic process in a big way. He asked his party workers to set themselves into the election mode and make preparations for yet another victory at the hustings right from today.

On this occasion, Dr Abdullah did not even spare his own senior party colleagues for frequently issuing anti-India, anti-Police and anti-security forces statements without ascertaining facts of the incidents brought to their notice. He snubbed NC’s Member of Parliament from North Kashmir, Sharief-ud-din Shariq, as well as younger brother and MLA Hazratbal, Dr Sheikh Mustafa Kamal, over their passion of issuing statements that had the potential of discrediting the state and the central governments and demoralizing Police and security forces who were working under extreme hostile conditions from different quarters.

Shariq had taken lead over all separatist and mainstream politicians in discrediting the October 29^th shootout at Qamarwari as “cold blooded murder of innocent youth”. He was later followed by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Geelani who called for a shutdown on December 4^th against the encounter and called it a “deliberate murder”. One of Shariq’s relatives was among the three youth killed by Police after they allegedly gunned down a Constable in broad daylight and began leaving alongwith his AK-47 rifle.

Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah, who has been extremely cautious in his remarks about the separatists, also lashed out at them on incidents like sustained stone pelting, shutdowns and now burning of a school bus. “Sher-e-Kashmir never instigated his followers to shut businesses and educational institutions and burn down the school buses”, Omar asserted. He too said that the separatists had been pursuing their own agenda of vested interest and claimed that it was he who had convinced the highest leadership in New Delhi that Kashmir was a political problem and it required a political resolution.

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School bus torched to enforce Geelani’s shutdown

6 youth on 2 bikes set the bus on fire in Sagar’s Khanyar area

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

SRINAGAR, Dec 4: Even after spearheading the separatist movement for 21 years and claiming himself to be the most influential and the most popular leader of the Kashmiris, Syed Ali Shah Geelani today required burning of a school bus to enforce his shutdown in Kashmir valley. This, however, failed to work as most of the shops remained open and all the educational institutions functioned without taking any fear from the fire in Khanyar area. Geelani had called for total shutdown on Saturday as a mark of protest against the October 29^th shootout in which Police claimed to have eliminated three militants after they gunned down a Constable in Qamarwari.

Authoritative sources, claiming to be quoting eyewitness accounts and preliminary investigation, told Early Times that half-a-dozen youth, three each on two motorcycles, appeared at Rangar Stop in Khanyar area of the capital city at 0815 hours. A bus of Tibetan Public School, Badamwari, was parked on the road and a number of the young students were boarding the vehicle. The youth on the motorcycles sprinkled petrol on the bus and set it on fire. Driver Muzaffar Ahmed of Rainawari quickly pulled down one-odd student who had just boarded and taken a seat. Under fear, all the students and their attendants ran away in different directions.

The bus, bearing registration No: JK01N-9076, gutted completely before men from Police Station of Khanyar reached the spot. The rescued pupil’s bag, containing his books, notebooks and lunch refreshment, also perished in the blaze. Eyewitnesses told Police that all the six youth escaped comfortably without facing any resistance. Police Station Khanyar registered a criminal matter and launched investigation.

Official sources later insisted that two of the six youth, who were responsible for torching the school bus, were identified and they were likely to be arrested in the next 24 hours.

SSP Srinagar, Syed Ashiq Hussain Bukhari, refused to confirm or deny that two of the six saboteurs had been identified. He, however, asserted that today’s subversive act was “an organized strike” from Geelani’s followers who desperately wanted to enforce shutdown called by the separatist leader. “We had not put in place any Police or security bandobust as we had not expected any attack on schools, school buses and students. Schools and colleges have been operating in total defiance of Hurriyat’s call since October. No such complaint or apprehension had surfaced in the last over one month”, SSP said.

Though followers of the separatist leaders, particularly those of Geelani, have been pelting stones on school buses and some of the students have sustained injuries in scores of such strikes, it is for the first time that a school bus has been torched to spread fear among students and teachers, obviously in a desperate attempt to enforce shutdown. Geelani, as well as all other separatist and mainstream politicians remained tightlipped and they did not condemn today’s incident.

However, Minister of Rural Development and National Conference’s MLA from Khanyar, Ali Mohammad Sagar, and Minister of School Education, Peerzada Mohammad Sayeed, condemned torching of the school bus in their separately circulated statements.

Reports said that notwithstanding the incident of subversion at Khanyar, all government-run and private educational institutions, including the targeted Tibetan Public School, functioned fearlessly. Students, their parents and teachers, besides the common people, showed no hesitation in publicly condemning today’s incident. They were heard invariably complaining that about 130 days of shutdown and curfew this summer had already spoiled almost the full academic year in the Valley.

Reports said that followers of the separatist leaders appeared on the streets at some places and they pelted stones on the shops and vehicles found open in defiance of Geelani’s call. Some of the shopkeepers shuttered their businesses but most of them remained unfazed. According to these reports, Geelani’s call had some impact in parts of Srinagar, Baramulla, Sopore and Anantnag towns. Still a section of businesses and transport functioned normally in these towns. Reports from other towns said that businesses, schools, government and private offices functioned as usual and there was little evidence of any shutdown.

Three identified youth, killed in the Qamarwari shootout on October 29^th, were all militants according to Police who were killed in an encounter after they gunned down a Constable. However, some of the separatist leaders, including Geelani and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, besides the ruling National Conference’s Lok Sabha Member from North Kashmir, Sharief-ud-din Shariq, have described the trio as innocent and alleged that they had been killed by Police in cold blood in a fake encounter.

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Qamarwari shootout exposes militant-stone pelter axis

‘Cop killers’ had set out on a deadly mission from Sopore, cellphone CDR shows links with stone pelters

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

SRINAGAR, Dec 2: Monday’s shootout at Qamarwari is leading Police to establishment of “working links” between stone pelters and militants of the formidable guerrilla outfit Lashkar-e-Toiba. One constable and three Kashmiri youth---who were  “cop killers” according to Police but innocent civilians according to the ruling National Conference’s Lok Sabha Member Sharief-ud-din Shariq---had died in the broad daylight shootout.

Commander of Sopore-based “cop killer module”, Waseem Raja Guroo of Seer Jagir locality has been found to have been inducted as Jaish-e-Mohammad’s “battalion commander” by top functionary of the outfit Shoaib alias Yasir, a Pakistani national. His alleged involvement in over a dozen guerrilla strikes in Sopore area made Guroo a “Category A militant” in 2009. Wanted in nearly a dozen strikes, including killing of Police personnel, Guroo, according to Police records, remained active in Sopore-Pattan-Bandipore belt in North Kashmir.

Zahoor Ahmed Hajjam, who operated with code names of Tanvir and Imran, was a resident of Ward No:5 of Bandipore. While continuing his studies, Hajjam was locally trained by some militants of Al-Badar outfit before he was arrested by troops of Rashtriya Rifles 15^th Bn on August 23, 2004. During sustained interrogation, he not only handed over his Chinese-made pistol to Army but also got his associate, Hilal Ahmed Shah S/o Mohammad Sultan Shah R/o Hospital Road, Bandipore, arrested. FIR No: 170 of 2004 at Police Station Bandipore shows that seven hand grenades were recovered from Shah. He remained under detention for nearly two years till a court quashed the PSA slapped on him. Months after his release, he was recycled and worked with Jaish-e-Mohammad.

Even after completing his graduation in Education (B Ed) from a private college, Mehboobul Alam, and subsequently working as a teacher at Kousarya Public School, Chak Rishipora, Hajjam went underground in October. His dead body was among the three recovered from the shootout site at Qamarwari on November 29^th.

Shariq’s relative, Arshid Bashir Peerzada S/o Bashir Ahmed Peerzada R/o Alsafa Colony, Sopore, was a student enrolled at Government Degree College Bemina. He has no history of involvement with militancy but Police insist that a hand grenade was found tied to his body when it was recovered from the site of the shootout. They also insist that Arshid Bashir’s rented accommodation in Bemina had served as hideout for the trio as also some other “militants and stone pelters”. He happened to be the grandson of Shariq’s brother-in-law, Ghulam Ahmed Peer of Chogal, Handwara. For years, Peer functioned as Jamaat-e-Islami’s Tehsil President in Handwara.

Details collected by Police about Shariq, immediately after he began clamouring about the “cold blooded murder of innocent youth”, revealed that the politician had a longtime association with Jamaat-e-Islami as well as its guerrilla arm, Hizbul Mujahideen. He, in fact, began his political career with unsuccessfully contesting his first ever Assembly elections on Jamaat-e-Islami ticket and symbol in 1972 against then ruling Congress party’s candidate, Abdul Gani Lone.

According to Police records, Shariq was kidnapped by the militants of Allah Tigers from Directorate of School Education in 1991 but was got rescued by militants of Hizbul Mujahideen. In 1993, BSF arrested Hizbul Mujahideen’s first “Commander-in-Chief” (two years after he had launched his own Muslim Mujahideen) from the officially allotted accommodation of NC leader, Mushtaq Ahmed Lone, near Mini Bus Stand Jawahar Nagar alongwith Shariq’s son, Pervez Ahmed, who was later released and appointed as an Inspector in Department of Excise and Taxation. He was again arrested by SOG Srinagar from Flat No: E-28. His interrogation led to the arrest of top wanted Hizb militant, Javed Ahmed Kirmani S/o Maulvi Mohammad Akbar Kirmani of Diwaspora, Handwara.

While Dar was lifted from the flat allotted to Lone---who later became Minister of State for Home and was killed in September 2002 in a militant strike at Tikkipora (Lolab)---Pervez was picked up from the premises allotted to his father, Shariq.

Police records also revealed that one Tassaduq Rasool Shah, grandson of Shariq’s brother, Noor-ud-din Shah, was currently working as a commander at a guerilla training camp in Pakistan-administered Kashmir. He was reportedly a senior functionary in United Jihad Council.

According to well-placed authoritative sources, in its preliminary investigation of the Qamarwari shootout, Police have learned that the three slain youth, Waseem Raja Guroo, Zahoor Ahmed Hajam and Arshid Bashir, had set out from Sopore on a mission of striking on Police personnel in Srinagar.

Tracking call detail record of one of the three mobile phones recovered from the bodies of the youth, Police have learned that the “cop killers” were present in Ontoo Hamam locality of Sopore during the night intervening November 28^th and 29^th. SIM card of the cellphone recorded that the last call was handled by Airtel’s Ontoo Hamam site at 1801 hours on Nov 28^th. On way to Srinagar, one of the day’s first calls came through Airtel’s sites at Mian Mohalla and Malpora in the highway township of Pattan at 0825 hours on Nov 29^th.

In Srinagar, the “cop killers” operated the first call at 0929 hours. It was handled by Airtel’s site at Zaima Masjid, Qamarwari. They received the last call of their life at 1218 hours, just 17 minutes before they gunned down Constable Mohammad Ashraf  S/o Mohammad Yousuf Shah R/o Lar, Ganderbal, at Baitul Shafa Medical Hall. It came through a tower at Qamarwari Chowk.

Inquiries revealed that two constables came out of Police Chowki Qamarwari to purchase some vegetables from the market. While Constable Ashraf was busy in buying the vegetables, one of the three youth took out his pistol and pumped two shots into his neck. He fell in a pool of blood and died on the spot. The killer lifted his AK-47 rifle and handed it over to his colleague who was wearing a black colour Pheran. People ran for life at the first gunshot. Constable Shabir, who watched his colleague felling to the bullets and being relieved of his AK-47 in full view of people, decided to hit the trio only after he saw two of them laughing over the assassination and heading leisurely towards Cement Bridge. He was purchasing a jacket inside a nearby shop.

Constable Shabir walked some 20 yards behind the youth who were walking unmindful of their behind and fired on them all with precision. All the three died on the spot. He was later rewarded with four grade promotions, appointed ASI and also given cash reward of Rs 5 Lakh. Those who rushed to the spot after the shootout were also rewarded with one rank promotion each.

Sources revealed that the call detail records of the mobile phones seized on the spot indicated that the slain youth had remained directly in touch with more than 20 stone pelters in Srinagar and Sopore. Some of them have been arrested in the last one month while others are being rounded up. Officials believe that it would be second consecutive confirmation of “close liaison” between militants of Lashkar-e-Toiba and the stone pelters whose activities froze the Valley for over four months this summer. They insist that all the three were lastly working with Lashkar.

END