Pak, ISIS flags waved after Eid prayers in Srinagar

Mufti, Omar attend congregational prayers at Hazratbal amid clashes in downtown

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

________

SRINAGAR, Jul 18: Even as Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and the former Chief Minister and National Conference leader Omar Abdullah participated in the 60,000-strong Eid congregational prayers at Hazratbal on Saturday, separatist demonstrators clashed with the Police and paramilitary forces in downtown Srinagar and some of them waved Pakistani and ISIS flags while shouting pro-Azadi and pro-Pakistan slogans.

Official sources insisted that over 80,000 Muslims formed the State’s thickest Eid prayers congregation at Hazratbal where Mufti and Omar attended the session in the lead row amid tight security arrangements. Authorities had placed around 300 Police recruits in civvies, mostly from Police Training School Manigam, to dominate the crowd around the VVIPs so as to provide an extensive security ring.

However, independent estimates put the number of the participants at Hazratbal at around 60,000. Some 30,000 people performed the congregational prayers in the forenoon at the traditional venue of Eidgah even as the cleric-politician Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, who is also Chairman of a faction of the separatist alliance Hurriyat Conference, had been placed under house arrest at his residence in Nageen area, near Hazratbal. Those held in detention and denied permission to attend the Eid prayers included hardliner Syed Ali Shah Geelani, JKLF Chairman Yasin Malik, Democratic Freedom Party chief Shabir Shah, National Front head Nayeem Khan besides Bilal Lone, Prof Abdul Gani Bhat and Maulvi Abbas Ansari.

In an interesting development, Mufti and Omar shook hands at Hazratbal at the prayers session and exchanged Eid greetings. This was one of the rarest meetings of the two mainstream politicians in the last several years. No political activity or demonstration marred the Eid prayers at Hazratbal.

Nevertheless, immediately after the conclusion of the prayers at Eidgah, when the participants were returning to their home destinations, groups of the separatist demonstrators shouted pro-Pakistan, pro-Azadi and anti-India slogans. They also waved some Pakistani and ISIS flags while facing no resistance from Police for about 30 minutes. Later, unruly separatist groups resorted to stone pelting on Police and CRPF. Ding-dong clashes at some spots in downtown continued intermittently even as the authorities used tearsmoke and baton charge to disperse the violent but thin demonstrations.

Reports of some slogan shouting and clashes of medium intensity were received from two Civil Lines neighbourhoods of Kothibagh and Hyderpora besides from Baramulla, Sopore and Anantnag towns.

Geelani had called for “peaceful demonstrations” after the Eid prayers. However most of the participants ignored the call and avoided to play any sort of politics--- preferring to visit relatives and friends and celebrating the festival with fervour and gaiety. Congregational prayers were held at all Eidgahs and most of the major mosques with the exception of Jamia Masjid of Srinagar as the administrators had organised the prayer assembly at an open-air venue at Eidgah.

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Gill tipped as J&K Governor in September

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz
------------------------

SRINAGAR, Jul 15: Former Director General of Punjab Police, P.S. Gill, who proceeded on deputation to his home State after nearly 30 years of service in Jammu and Kashmir Police in 2009, is yet again in the NDA government’s top consideration zone as the next Governor in Jammu and Kashmir.

On Wednesday, STATE TIMES learned from knowledgeable sources that change of Governor in Jammu and Kashmir could occur anytime in the month of September after conclusion of the two-month-long Amarnath yatra. The BJP and its ideological arm RSS are understood to have zeroed in on two high profile names, including a retired Secretary to Government. Sources revealed that Mr Gill, who supervised and coordinated BJP's election campaign in Kashmir after joining BJP in 2014, had of late emerged as a favourite of the BJP and RSS high command.

If these sources are to be believed, Gill was last fortnight called to New Delhi for a closed-door meeting with RSS supremo Mohan Madhukar Bhagwat. "It appears that his name has been finalised but his appointment is still subject to a discussion bdetween BJP and RSS", said a source privy to the significant political development. Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, he said, would be taken on board.

The incumbent Governor Narendra Nath Vohra, according to highly placed authoritative sources, had conveyed to New Delhi his desire to quit in the middle of his second term after the change of regime last year which witnessed replacement of over a dozen Governors appointed by the Congress-led UPA government. However, he had been asked to continue, making it clear to him that the Narendra Modi government had no immediate intention of the gubernatorial reshuffle in the sensitive State. Rumours of General (retd) Ata Mohammad Hasnain's possible appointment as J&K Governor were "appropriately" discounted to the Raj Bhawan by the Centre.

Mr Vohra, who also worked as the UPA government's pointman for Kashmir, was appointed Governor of J&K in June 2008 when Lt Gen (retd.) S.K. Sinha, was removed in the wake of a controversy that led to the Amarnath land row and fall of Ghulam Nabi Azad's Congress-PDP regime. Mr Vohra was granted extension of another term at the completion of five years as Governor in 2013.

A J&K cadre IPS officer from Punjab, Gill held key positions including SSP Jammu, DIG Kashmir, IGP Kashmir twice (during which he played a decisive role to uproot the secessionist militancy), additional DGP Armed Police, DG Prisons, Transport Commissioner and Vigilance Commissioner. He also held a tenure as Director of Sher-e-Kashmir Police Training Academy Udhampur.

However, Gill's contribution to creating an extensively linked counter-insurgent force and eliminating militancy in close coordination with Army, paramilitary forces and intelligence agencies, remained unmatched. He, nevertheless, faced tremendous criticism to his working from human rights activists to different political parties, all invariably accusing him of ordering extrajudicial killings of the captured militants and their civilian sympathisers in fake encounters. It was during his leadership that the hardcore counter-insurgent officers like Farooq Khan, Munir Khan, JP Singh, Ashkoor Wani, Jagjit Kumar, Manohar Singh, Ramesh Kumar Jalla and many others wiped out militancy with hundreds of operations by Special Operations Group, initially known as State Task Force (STF).

Officers like K. Rajendra Kumar (now DGP of J&K) and Shiv Murari Sahai (now ADGP Armed) subsequently played prominent role in putting an end to the militancy which is officially claimed to be currently at its lowest ebb.

Gill's father, who was a Congress MLA in Moga, had been shot dead by militants during the armed insurgency in Punjab. Gill's elder brother also retired as a DGP in Punjab. After his retirement, PS Gill contested but lost Assembly elections in Punjab on Akali Dal ticket. However, in 2014, he joined BJP.

When STATE TIMES contacted Mr Gill in Chandigarh to know his reaction to the reports of his likely appointment as Governor of J&K, he asserted: "I am here with my family since last week. I have no knowledge of any such development in recent past".

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BJP embarrasses Mufti with boycott to Iftar party, Martyrs Day function

◆Omar says PDP is BJP's collaborator in desecration of martyrs

◆BJP says it's no martyrs day, just Sheikh-type hoodwinking of Kashmiris


Ahmed Ali Fayyaz
----------------------------

SRINAGAR, July 13: For the first time since the formation of government in March this year, BJP has created an embarrassing situation for the coalition partner PDP and Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed with its 'boycott' not only to the latter's Iftar party in New Delhi but also to the State ceremonial function on occasion of the Martyrs Day in Srinagar on Monday.

As exclusively predicted by STATE TIMES in its edition of July 11, BJP Ministers without exception boycotted the State function at the Martyrs Graveyard which was nonetheless presided over by Chief Minister Mufti and attended by a number of his Ministerial collegaues in the PDP and other senior leaders of the principal ruling party. In keeping with the tradition of the last 67 years, Chief Minister paid floral tributes to the 22 Kashmiri martyrs who fell to the bullets of Maharaja Hari Singh's armed forces during a mayhem at the hearing of a political detainee Abdul Qadeer outside Srinagar Central Jail on July 13, 1931.

The massacre led to a mass uprising, providing a popular political platform to the National Conference founder Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah whose struggle terminated the Dogra monarchy in 1947 and replaced it with democracy.

Jammu and Kashmir Police contingents paid their tributes to the martyrs with a traditional guard of honour. Senior government functionaries, including Director General of Police, K Rajendra Kumar, participated in the remembrance ceremony.

It was for the first time in over half-a-century that the government’s own Ministers boycotted the Martys Day function and a coalition partner asserted this day and the martyrs carried no significance for it. Some of the BJP leaders were quoted by media as saying that the July 13 martyrs were of the same mentality and mindset that had been adopted by the post-1990 separatists and militants.

BJP's spokesperson Khalid Jehangir had told STATE TIMES on last Friday that his party would stay away as Chief Minister or his PDP had never organised or attended an event in honour of the Jan Sangh founder Syama Prasad Mookerjee.

Significantly, all the national and State level BJP leaders, with the one-odd exception of Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh, had been conspicuously absent at Chief Minister’s Iftar party at Hotel Ashok in New Delhi on Sunday evening. Participants described it as a "lacklustre show", saying that not a single BJP leader turned up at the high profile venue.

A senior officer associated with organising CM's Iftar party claimed that most of the CM's guests could not attend as the Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal hosted a similar Iftar party at the same time on Sunday evening.


PDP TO TAKE UP MATTER WITH BJP HIGH COMMAND

With the discomfiture becoming evident in the PDP, the party’s authorised spokesperson Dr Mehboob Beg issued a statement promptly. He said that to attend the official function to pay respects the Martyrs was an obligation that the Ministers ought to have fulfilled and any deviation from such a precedent was inappropriate. He stressed that it should be amply clear that the martyrs belonged to the state and not to any particular religion, region, caste or creed and their sacrifices must not be forgotten or belittled.

Dr.Beg pointed out that Mufti "paid his respects to the martyrs not as the PDP Patron but on behalf of the people of the state as their Chief Minister". He emphasised that it was "in indebtedness and gratitude that we salute these martyrs and that the martyrs transcended way beyond party lines".

One of the senior PDP leaders and a Cabinet Minister revealed to this newspaper that his party and the government had viewed BJP's "disrespect to the martyrs" so seriously that it would be taken up directly with the Prime Minister and the BJP President Amit Shah in a couple of days. "They have committed insult to the State and the government of which they are a pert. Even Governors Jagmohan, GC Saxena and NN Vohra attended this function and paid tributes to the martyrs during Governor’s or President's rule", he pointed out.


PDP COLLABORATOR IN BJP'S DISRESPECT TO MARTYRS: OMAR

Meanwhile, leader of the principal opposition party and former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah too reacted to the absence of BJP ministers at the Martyrs Graveyard. He said he had already cautioned that BJP’s coming to power would be "dangerous for the state of Jammu and Kashmir". “You should ask this question to the PDP which opened the doors for the BJP in Kashmir. We had already said that BJP will be dangerous for the state,” Omar told reporters after paying floral tributes to the martyrs at their tombs on the premises of the reverred Naqashband Sahab shrine between Nowhatta and Khanyar.

Drawing an analogy between late Bakhshi Ghulam Mohammad and the PDP patron Mufti, Omar said that Government of India was trying to "purchase the conscience of the Kashmiris" as it had done from 1953 to 1963. His uncharitable insinuation was unambiguously to the reported Rs 70,000 crore economic package Prime Minister Modi was expected to unfold for J&K during his visit to Jammu on July 17.

“Do they really think that by bringing in Rs one lakh crore, they will win over hearts of the people? Just like they did during the time of Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad. Sher-e-Kashmir (Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah) was arrested and lots of funds were given to Bakshi, thinking that Kashmiris will sell their values and honour. Kashmiris did not sell their honour then and they will not do it now,” Omar asserted.

He also castigated Centre over the delay in the relief package for flood victims, saying they were left in lurch despite 10 months have passed since the occurrence of floods in Kashmir.

The former chief minister maintained that the promises PDP made to the people of Kashmir ahead of coming to power had been outrightly ignored by the party. “Those with whom dialogue was ought to be started have been arrested. There is not even a single talk over reducing the number of forces deployed in Kashmir and furthermore there is complete lull over revocation of AFSPA,” Omar said.

Let me also say the people of J&K are not saleable and cannot be bought and sold through economic packages while their political rights and their dignity is bartered. When Sheikh Sahib was incarcerated, Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad got numerous economic packages and a flood of funds. We all know how futile that nefarious plan turned out to be. Our party and our people are the vanguards in a battle to safeguard our State from all evil plans – and economic packages won’t change that”, the NC Working President said.

BJP's Ministers avoided speaking to media on their boycott but its spokesman in a conversation with mediapersons defended staying away from the Martyrs Day function.


BJP: NOTHING BUT HOODWINKING KASHMIRIS

“We have seen since decades that such exercises are done to exploit people, gain political mileages and hoodwink masses at large,” he said. He alleged that Sheikh Abdullah used the same slogan of July 13 to become the chief minister and NC continued "to exploit people of the state even today with that slogan". BJP maintained that it entered into alliance with the PDP "for giving good governance to the state of Jammu and Kashmir and not for participating in the events like these of July 13".

Authorities enforced virtual curfew in downtown Srinagar and did not permit the separatists' joint march to the cemetery. All the prominent separatist leaders were either detained at Police Stations or placed under house arrest. However, there were no reports of any clashes with Police or paramilitary forces.

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Kulgam crowd roughs up PDP MP, sets ablaze 2 vehicles of his cavalcade

◆Nazir Laway rescued by Police amid violent clashes as youth hit by rubber bullet

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz
----------------------------

SRINAGAR, Jul 11: While shouting pro-Pakistan, anti-PDP and anti-RSS slogans, a thick gathering of the separatists on Saturday torched two vehicles of the ruling PDP activists even as Police and security forces foiled their attempts to hold hostage PDP's Rajya Sabha member Nazir Ahmad Laway at Bogam village in Kulgam district of South Kashmir.

Eyewitnesses from the spot told STATE TIMES that Mr Laway had fixed a schedule of visiting some Higher Secondary Schools in his home district of Kulgam. He wanted to donate computers to some educational institutions out of Member Parliament's Local Area Development (MPLAD) Fund. As soon as he reached Higher Secondly School of Bogam after visiting two schools in Yaripora, hundreds of the angry residents resisted his entry, objected to his visit and made sustained attempts to hold him hostage.

The high spirited separatist crowd shouted slogans in favour of Pakistan as also against India, PDP and RSS.

Police and security forces in large numbers foiled the mob's attempts to take Mr Laway hostage. Amid a violent clash with the crowd, Laway and his associates were rescued by two Dy SPs and the local SHO with the help of SOG and CRPF.

During the clashes, a 17-year-old Class 11th student Nadeem Ahmad Dar was hit by a rubber bullet fired by Police or CRPF. He was evacuated to a hospital for treatment. Sources said at least six persons, including three Policemen sustained injuries. During the melee, the crowds set on fire a Bolero (JK02B-1829) and a Santro (JK22-4260) belonging to the PDP activists Mubarak Ahmad Koka of Kulgam and Tauseef Ahmed Dar of Tarigam. Both the vehicles suffered extensive damage.

DIG South Kashmir Nitish Kumar told STATE TIMES that Bogam village had a history of separatist activism and arson. Not a single vote had been polled in the village in last year's Lok Sabha and Assembly elections. "We foiled the mob's attempts and rescued the honourable MP successfully even as the crowd torched a vehicle", DIG said.

Senior Superintendent of Police Kulgam, Mumtaz Ahmad, added that the crowd held Chief Education Officer and some other officials of Education Department in wrongful confinement after the Police rescued Mr Laway. "Police swung into action and got the captives rescued", he said. He told STATE TIMES that the Police filed two FIRs against the miscreants and got four four if them arrested. "We have arrested their kingpin Mohammad Shafi Wani and four others", SSP Mumtaz said.

Mr Laway was not reachable on phone for his comment. However, PDP's authorised spokesperson Dr Mehboob Beg said: "I called Laway Sahab by phone immediately after I learned about the attack on his cavalcade. He maintained that it was an attack by supporters of the CPI(M) State Secretary and MLA Kulgam Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami. When I asked him why Mr Tarigami's followers would attack him, Laway Sahab said that the CPI (M) leader was labouring under envy and jealousy due to the PDP MP's activity and support among the public". Dr Beg said that the unruly crowd also torched a PDP worker's vehicle.

Asked for his reaction, Mr Tarigami told STATE TIMES that he or his workers were not instrumental behind the attack on PDP MP. "It's an open secret as to who did it. Everybody knows well. It's bullshit if PDP holds us responsible", Tarigami asserted. He pointed out that Bogam had witnessed total boycott to the Assembly elections.

Later, a CPI (M) spokesman elaborated that Bogam village stood predominantly under the influence of Jamaat-e-Islami and followers of Syed Ali Shah Geelani's faction of the Hurriyat Conference. He said that District chief of Geelani's organisation Mohammad Shafi Wani, JKLF Chairman Yasin Malik, Zamrooda Habib had frequently visited Bogam and set up their base there. "It has become some sort of a liberated zone. Police or forces or any mainstream politician doesn't dare to enter this village", he said, claiming that Mr Laway had been attacked by the separatists.

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BJP Ministers to boycott government's Martyrs Day function

All separatist leaders being detained; curfew to be imposed in Srinagar

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

SRINAGAR, Jul 10: Even as Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s government is understood to start detaining all the prominent separatist leaders from later tonight and enforce curfew to thwart their "joint march" to Mazaar-e-Shuhada, STATE TIMES has learned from highly placed political sources that none of the BJP leaders or Ministers would participate in the government’s ceremonial function in the summer capital on July 13.

Sources revealed to this newspaper on Friday that partner in the ruling coalition, BJP, would "boycott" the traditional official function at Naqashband Sahab shrine, which would be attended by Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed alongwith almost all his PDP Ministers and senior party leaders. As per a decades-old ritual, top government functionaries would pay floral tributes to the 21 martyrs, who fell to the bullets of Maharaja Hari Singh's armed forces outside Srinagar Central Jail on July 13, 1931, and were buried on the premises of the reverred Muslim shrine of Naqashband Sahab, between Jamia Masjid (Nowhatta) and Dastgir Sahab shrine of Khanyar.

While as the Ministers and senior government officers offer Fatiha at the remembrance ceremony, contingents of Jammu and Kashmir Police perform guard of honour.

The massacre, during the course of a massive protest against prosecution of a political detainee Abdul Qadeer by Maharaja's government, led to a political upheaval and provided a platform to the National Conference (previously christened as Muslim Conference) founder Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah to end the Dogra monarchy with the dawn of the Partition in 1947.

Sources revealed to STATE TIMES that the State BJP leaders did strategically arrange a meeting in New Delhi on July 12 as it provide them an excuse to stay in the Union Capital and skip the Martyrs Day function on July 13. While as Speaker Kavinder Gupta and some BJP leaders from J&K arrived in New Delhi today, all the party’s Ministers---including Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh----besides other prominent legislators and leaders would be reaching New Delhi on Saturday.

The brainstorming session on awareness, membership drive, AIIMS agitation in Jammu and performance assessment of the BJP Ministers, is scheduled to start at Kedharnath Sawhny Sabha Nagar, near MCD Civic Centre, Minto Road, Ram Leela Maudan, at 9.30 a.m. on Sunday. It would end at 6.00 p.m same say. BJP's President Amit Shah would preside over the conclave.

Interestingly, Chief Minister Mufti has fixed an Iftar Party at Hotel Ashok on the same evening. Many of the New Dehi-based politicians, from almost all the parties including BJP, are being invited by CM's Secretariat. Sources said that Mufti would return to Srinagar early next day to attend the Martyrs Day function. DGP K. Rajendra Kumar and Chief Secretary Iqbal Khanday would also attend the meeting.

Even as the BJP Ministers insisted to remain noncommittal, party's spokesman for J&K Khalid Jehangir said: "Yes, this Martyrs Day function in Srinagar means nothing for BJP. Since the government and its PDP Ministers do never hold or attend a function in remembrance snd honour of Syama Prasad Mookerjee, none of us is going to participate in it. But I know only about the leaders and workers. Ministers would themselves decide whether to boycott or attend it".

CRACKDOWN, CURFEW ON MATYRS DAY

Meanwhile, well-placed sources in the State government revealed to STATE TIMES that the Police would launch a crackdown and start detaining all the prominent separatist leaders from later tonight. Some of them would be picked up and lodged in Police Stations while as others would be placed under "house arrest". Those being detained include Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Yasin Malik, Shabir Shah, Maulvi Abbas and Bilal Lone. Some of the separatists have been already put in detention. "All these separatist leaders will remain under detention for the next three days", said a senior Police official.

Sources said that in view of the successive Fridays disturbance at Jamia Masjid, particularly today's stone pelting on Police and waving of the Pakistani and ISIS flags, alongwith pro-Pakistan slogans by some people, authorities decided to impose curfew in all areas of downtown Srinagar, including Maisuma, on Monday. They said that over 50 of the "potential troublemakers" had been already lifted from different places and detained at Police Stations to ensure trouble-free Martyrs Day celebrations.

Meanwhile, in a host of statements pouring in from almost all the political parties, leaders have severely condemned Mufti government's crackdown on the separatists. Significantly, for the first time after Hurriyat Conference's split in 2003, Valley’s separatist leaders----including Geelani, Mirwaiz, Yasin and Shabir--- have decided to lead a joint mass march to Naqashband Sahab cemetery on the Martyrs Day.

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J&K should adopt PPP mode: Dr Nagpal

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz
------------------

SRINAGAR, Jul 2: Asia’s iconic hospital administrator and creator of J&K's prestigious Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) in 1978-82, Dr Ajit K. Nagpal, said that several services problem including the cardinal Emergency Services could not be addressed effectively until the State adopts the Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode on the pattern of some South and Central Indian states.

Dr Nagpal, who is now Chairman & Director General of Dubai-based Amity University Middle East Initiative told STATE TIMES in an exclusive interview that the heath Task Force during Omar Abdullah’s regime had recommended operation of the ambulance services in J&K in PPP mode on the pattern of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Gujurat. He said that as per his knowledge, on recommendation of the Task Force, J&K Legislative Assembly had also passed a law that would enable the State to adopt and introduce the PPP mode.

Dr Nagpal was a prominent member of the health Task Force.

He said that there was an identified requirement of around 100 specialised and critical care ambulances for hospitals in J&K. "Even if government will provide enough funds for its existing ambulance system, it will not work. J&K has a golden opportunity as, lately, NITI Ayog has authorised the States to take such decisions independent of the Centre", Dr Nagpal asserted.

He revealed that there was tremendous scope of involvement of private sector as many business houses had the ambulance operations under PPP mode as a priority in their corporate social responsibility (CSR). “Some of them have provided not only the vehicles and machinery but also the experienced staff to the States which have engaged them in PPP mode”, Dr Nagpal informed.

He said that he was waiting for his first meeting with the new CM Mufti Mohammad Sayeed. "Unfortunately there were floods in September last year and thereafter no meeting of Task Force could take place. State was also preoccupied with transit of power and elections. I didn't want to bother the State government over the months", Dr Nagpal said. He disclosed that he was in touch with CM's Secretariat and Commissioner-Secretary Health Dr Mandeep K. Bhandari.

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Mufti Govt. doesn't respond

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz
--------------------

SRINAGAR, Jul 2: "kisi din mere daftar aajao. Mein temhen samjhadoonga yeh kya hota hai" (Come to my office someday. I will teach you what this all is), Minister of Health & Medical Education Lal Singh said on phone when STATE TIMES attempted to know if Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s government had any plan to acquire critical care ambulances for the State’s major and district hospitals and why the only two CCAs had been attached to only Governor and Chief Minister. And, true to his style, Lal Singh dropped the phone tersely, at 7.44 pm on Thursday.

Commissioner-Secretary H&ME Dr M.K. Bhandi too did not respond, either to a call on his phone at 7.30 p.m. or a question delivered on his WhatsApp thereafter. He was very much online when the communication went to him successfully.

Director Health Services Kashmir Dr Sumir Matoo was no different. He too did not respond to the two calls on his mobile phone.

END