Sajjad Lone’s mall, Khidmat building among 17 business complexes sealed

SMC swung into action after High Court warned framing of rule against Commissioner

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

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SRINAGAR, Dec 1: Following a strict direction from the Jammu and Kashmir High Court, Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) has sealed as many as 17 business complexes for different violations of the building permissions in the upscale neighbourhoods of the summer capital on Monday and Tuesday. The shopping malls, hotels and other commercial complexes sealed in the major drive include a business centre of the prominent separatist-turned-mainstream politician and Minister of Animal Husbandry Sajjad Gani Lone and a major property owned by the Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee (JKPCC).

Commissioner SMC Showkat Ahmad Zargar told STATE TIMES that a Division Bench of the J&K High Court, comprising Mr Justice Muzaffar Hussain Attar and Mr Justice Ali Mohammad Magray, had last week warned to frame rule against him in case he failed to seal all the unauthorised buildings, figuring in a list, within a particular framework. “It’s clear that we are not going to listen to anybody, whosoever, other than the High Court. We have sealed 17 complexes on Monday and Tuesday and we are proceeding against two or three more tomorrow”, Zargar said.

The SMC team headed by Chief Enforcement Officer Manzoor Ahmad Tarray sealed a multi-storeyed commercial complex, registered in the names of the Peoples Conference Chairman Sajjad Lone’s 8-year-old twins Emaad and Adnan at Sanat Nagar, for violation of the space earmarked for the parking facility. Mr Lone had raised another business joint, titled Just Baked, on the premises without necessary permission from BOCA. SMC proceed after the proprietor failed to respond to a notice served on him last week.

This is probably for the first time in the last many years that a sitting Cabinet Minister’s property has been sealed in J&K for violations by the municipal authorities, albeit under court orders in a Public Interest Litigation (PIL).

In the year 2008, a local NGO ‘Consumer Welfare Association’ had filed a PIL in J&K High Court in an attempt to make the authorities accountable for removing bottlenecks that cause menacing traffic jams in the State’s summer capital. During the course of the hearing, it was pointed out that SMC had granted a large number of building permissions for hotels, commercial complexes and shopping malls in violation of rules and no space had been reserved for parking of the vehicles of the shopkeepers and visitors.

It was also appointed out that many of the influential businesspersons and traders had secured building permissions on the undertaking that they would reserve a particular area for parking but after making their businesses operational, they had used even that space for commercial purposes. Consequently, most of the vehicles remained parked on the thorough fares resulting in huge traffic jams.

After years of hearing, DB directed to carry out a survey in which it was observed that owners and proprietors of 32 complexes had resorted to brazen violations. Notices were served on them for necessary restorations. During this process, some of them restored the parking spaces. The DB’s warning to Commissioner SMC came after it was alleged that the municipal authorities had turned a blind eye to a grave human problem. Commissioner was directed last week to complete the sealing process within a framework or else be prepared to face charge of contempt.

Significantly, the multi-storeyed complexes sealed by the SMC include Khidmat Building, a property of the JKPCC-run Khidmat Trust. Situated at Abi Guzar, behind Mushtaq Press Enclave, this building houses the offices of Congress party’s official organ, the bilingual daily Khidmat and its printing presses which are also used for printing of around 20 Urdu and English newspapers. Chambers of some advocates, offices and business establishments of different traders also operate from the same complex.

Close to Khidmat, the SMC team sealed three-storeyed building complex of Ghulam Mohiuddin Wani and three-storeyed Bakhtawar Plaza at Regal Chowk in Civil Lines. Eminent nephrologist Dr Munir Khan’s Kidney Hospital, registered in the name of his son Naveed Khan, was also sealed at Sonwar.

At Munnawarabad, the SMC team sealed four-storeyed guesthouse and hotel complex of Asrar Sharief Matoo and three-storeyed guesthouse and shopping complex of Altaf Hussain Mir.

Merajuddin Charu’s, Pritpal Singh’s, Zamir Ahmad Thakur’s and Ghulam Rasool Kuchai’s complexes were sealed respectively at Exhibition Road, Gogjibagh, Maharaja Bazar and Humhama.

A five-storeyed shopping mall and hotel complex, which is the property of Baba Dharam Das Temple Trust, registered in the name of a mahant Lala Jai Ram, was sealed at Barbarshah. The construction of this major complex had been already stayed by different courts as the owners and the lease-holders have been in crosshairs of litigation for over three years. One of the most prominent contractors of the State, who has also functioned as a Minister and MP, is reportedly a partner of the shopping complex and the hotel coming up at a prime location in uptown.

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DD’s ex-DDG Rafeeq Masoodi booked for fraudulent appointments

Misuse of official position confirmed in illegal appointments as Secretary Cultural Academy

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

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SRINAGAR, Dec 1: Upon confirmation of the misuse of his official position as Secretary of Jammu and Kashmir Academy of Art, Culture and Languages, in the preliminary verification of illegal appointments, former Deputy Director General of Doordarshan Dr Rafeeq Masoodi has been booked in a criminal base by the State Vigilance Organisation.

“The Vigilance Organization has booked the then Secretary J&K Academy of Art Culture & languages Shri Rafiq Ahmed Masoodi and others in case FIR No.34/2015 P/S VOJ U/S 5(1)(d) r/w section 5(2) J&K P.C Act Svt. 2006 and section 120-B RPC into the allegations of illegal appointments of Orderlies, Chowkidars, Gardeners and Sweepers  in J&K Academy of Art Culture & Languages by abusing his official position in active criminal conspiracy with the beneficiaries and others in utter violation of rules and regulations during the year 2006”, an official release from Vigilance Organisation on Tuesday said.

The verification conducted reveals that one post of Gardener was advertised vide employment notice No: Adm-E/12/2002-04/3079-3113 Dated 22-09-2003. It was found that 19 candidates were appointed as Chowkidars, Orderlies, Gardeners and Sweepers whereas only one candidate out of these had applied on due date. The applications of other candidates for these posts were found without date and postal orders which was mandatory. 

The verification further revealed that the evaluation sheets prepared by the interview committee had some over-writing and name of one selected candidate did not figure in the evaluation sheets prepared by the interview committee. Even one of the candidates was not a permanent resident of J&K State.  It has been further observed that undue favours had been conferred upon the beneficiaries who had not even applied in time and did not fulfil the requisite formalities as per the advertisement.

“During verification, it has also been found that two posts of Junior Assistants were also advertised vide employment notice quoted above and against these posts 10 candidates have been appointed, whereas only three candidates had submitted their application forms with postal orders before cut-off date and rest of them had submitted their application forms without postal orders. Some of the candidates have even exceeded the maximum age limit. The  services of the candidates appointed illegally have subsequently been regularised and some were even promoted on higher posts”, the official release said.

“By acting in this manner, Shri Rafiq Ahmed Masoodi the then Secretary Academy of Art, culture and Languages in league with the beneficiaries has abused his official position and has thereby conferred undue benefit upon the beneficiaries. Investigation of the case has been taken-up”, it added.

After serving as Secretary of Cultural Academy for about three years on deputation from Prasar Bharti Broadcasting Corporation of India, Dr Masoodi was appointed as Director of Doordarshan Kendra Srinagar. Significantly, involving about two years of his posting as Director DDK Srinagar, CBI and DD’s Vigilance Department registered at least four FIRs and inquiries against Dr Masoodi. He is facing charges of corruption and misuse of official position in the organisation.

However, till his retirement from service last year, fate of all the FIRs and departmental vigilance inquiries against him was not known to anybody. Notwithstanding all these FIRs and inquiries, former Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad selected Dr Masoodi for the prestigious State Award (not in any specific category) which was later given away to him at an investiture ceremony by Governor N.N. Vohra in presence of former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah. Governor and then Chief Minister ignored all the criminal cases registered against Masoodi besides eye-opening newspaper reports on his omissions and commissions as a senior officer of the Central and the State governments.

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Two years after retirement, Ashiq Bukhari getting IPS

Kashmir's ace counterinsurgent returning to Police service as DIG

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz
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SRINAGAR, Nov 30: Top counterterrorism expert Syed Ashiq Hussain Bukhari, who had retired from Jammu and Kashmir Police service as Senior Superintendent of Police in January 2014, is likely to join back as Deputy Inspector General of Police as the Jammu and Kashmir High Court has granted him induction into Indian Police Service (IPS) and ordered that his seniority as SP should be fixed from the date he began officiating as SP in Budgam district.

Consequently, Bukhari will get two more years of service and his placement is being fixed between DIG Central Kashmir Ghulam Hassan Bhat and DIG CID Headquarters Syed Kifayat Haider.

Dismissing the objections of the retired SSP Amjad Pervez Mirza, High Court has declared Bukhari as SP on a substantive position from the day he had officiated as SP Budgam while holding the posting of Additional SP of Special Operations Group (SOG) in Budgam. Following the pronouncement of judgment in a service writ petition, Home Department of Government of Jammu and Kashmir has approached Union Public Service Commission with the plea that Bukhari may be treated as inducted into IPS with the seniority granted to him by the court and his year of IPS allotment may be fixed as 2000.

UPSC is understood to have taken up the matter in turn with the union Department of Personnel & Training and the Union Ministry of Home Affairs that regulates the IPS. Since the respondent State is clearly in favour of Bukhari and the Home Department under Chief Minister's direct control has decided not to move an appeal against the retired officer, it is likely that Government of India would issue necessary orders in his favour in the next one or two weeks.

On January 31, 2014, Bukhari had reached superannuation as a KPS officer on attaining age of 58 years. It happened two months before the Omar Abdullah government raised the retirement age of the State services employees from 58 to 60 years. 

Induction into IPS would give two more years of service to Bukhari besides his elevation to the rank of DIG by virtue of his fresh fixation of the seniority as SP.

As and when the Centre would issue an order, Bukhari would be eligible to join back as DIG. Since his new date of superannuation (31-01-2016) is just two months away, he is likely to join and serve for a day and take voluntary retirement from service. That will give him entitlement to all the pensionary bebefits as DIG.

Well placed sources in the government told STATE TIMES that Bukhari could be immediately thereafter adjusted as a member or head of a board or a commission owing to his proximity and known loyalty to Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and the ruling Peoples Democratic Party.

With his unmatched profile on counterterrorism front, Bukhari has served as SSP of Budgam, Anantnag and Srinagar districts besides brief tenures as SP CIK, AIG Provisions at Police Headquarters and SSP Crime Branch. I 1997, he was the first Kashmiri Muslim Police officer who volunteered to join the counterterrorist SOG, then known as Soecial Task Force (STF). He has to his credit elimination and arrest of over 300 Kashmiri militants.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Minister among 5 gets fresh demolition notices in Srinagar

Special Tribunal gets 6 complexes sealed in Rajbagh, Jawahar Nagar

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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3 militants, civilian killed in fidayeen attack in Tanghdar

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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CM’s hometown becomes Pakistan at militants’ funeral

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

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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