But the new UDF government is bent on getting rid of the DMRC from the project. The government announced in a casual manner that there would be global tenders for Kochi Metro leading to disdain from DMRC which is already associated with the project. It announced that it will withdraw from Kochi Metro project if the government is going ahead on its own. The hope of the people of Kochi to have a state of the art public transport system in Kochi, the largest and thickly populated city in the state, was shattered by the UDF government’s move to deliberately avoid DMRC from this project.

The opposition saw a huge case of corruption in the UDF government’s move, as recently the bank account of Kochi Metro Rail Limited (KMRL) was given to a bank managed by a close relative of the chief minister Ommen Chandy.  The opposition leaders alleged that government is planning to award the project to other companies instead of DMRC, a public sector unit which is well known for its transparency and its spectacular track record. CPI(M) leaders P Rajeev, MP, and T  M Thomas Isaac, MLA, said that there was ‘a mystery behind the latest moves on the part of the state government to get rid of E Sreedharan and DMRC’.

KMRL managing director Tom Jose said he had no information about such a decision of the DMRC but added that its withdrawal would in no way affect the timely implementation of the 26 km metro rail project. The KMRL would start the implementation of the project once the necessary clearance came from the centre, he said.

The cold war between the two metro companies reached a flashpoint after Tom Jose wrote to the DMRC to inform that it could participate in the open tender process planned for selecting the implementation agency. The DMRC reportedly felt slighted at this as it had been associated with the Kochi Metro project right from the very beginning.

Warning the UDF government, CPI(M) state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan called upon the people of Kerala to prevent a situation in which Kochi Metro project would be scuttled. “The government is planning to get rid of DMRC from the project and try to invite private players in the name of global tender. This will lead to loss of the expertise of DMRC and experience of E Sreedharan. The project should be taken up as early as possible in the public sector”, said Pinarayi. He wanted the chief minister Chandy to come clean on why the government wants to go for a global tender for this project when the expertise for this has been proved by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation. He asserted that the people of Kerala are keen to get an answer from Chandy on this.

Leader of opposition, V S Achuthanandan charged that the move to get rid of DMRC was meant for indulging in huge corruption. “E Sreedharan has proved his excellece by successfully completing projects like Konkan Railway and Delhi Metro and was burning the midnight oil to realise the Rs 5000 crore Kochi Metro. The LDF government had initiated the project by allotting Rs 150 crore and constructed the KMRL office. It had also allotted Rs 50 crore for infrastructure development like constructing bridges”, he said.

CPI(M) Polit Bureau member and former state home minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan also charged the UDF government of trying to get rid of DMRC in order to get kickbacks from new private parties. He demanded that at no cost should the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation be removed from the project.

Even the union minister Vayalar Ravi has asked the Chandy government to be cautious in the way the state government went about this project.

Sreedharan said that it was for the state government to take a final decision on the implementation of the Kochi Metro rail project. Refusing to speak on the controversy over the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation’s role in the implementation of the project, he said that DMRC got involved in the project following repeated appeals made by both the UDF and former LDF governments.

DILLY DALLYING

ON BYE-ELECTION

It is a panic situation for the UDF to face a bye-election in Kerala now. As the election for Piravam constituencey in Eranakulam district is due, the ruling front is trying to keep its options open till the end. The state government has not approached the Election Commission for conducting the election so far.

The bye-election in Piravam is necessitated due to the death of civil supplies minister and Kerala Congress (J) leader T M Jacob on October 31, 2011. After the death of an elected representative, the election should be conducted within six months. But the delaying tactics of the UDF may put the election off to April.

This is quite a testimony to the nervousness in the UDF as the anti-incumbency feeling is already high in the state. The recent developments like Mullapperiyar dam issue and scent of corruption in Kochi Metro affair have also pushed the UDF on to the back foot. It was anticipated that the election date for Piravam may be announced along with the announcement of assembly elections to Uttar Pradesh and other states.

Soon after the death of T M Jacob, UDF had started the electioneering by annoucing Jacob’s son Anup Jacob as its candidate. The LDF also put up former legislator M J Jacob in the fray. In the last assembly election held in April 2011, M J Jacob has lost the seat by a thin margin of 150 votes. The death of T M Jacob has further reduced the strength of the UDF in the assembly to 71 from 72 in the 140 member assembly.

RECEPTION COMMITTEE

OFFICE INAUGURATED

In the midst of raising slogans by hundreds of Party workers, CPI(M) Polit Bureau member S Ramachandran Pillai inaugurated the reception committee office of the 20th CPI(M) Party Congress which is scheduled to be held in Kozhikode from April 4 to 9 this year.

The office is located at Wayanad Road near NGO Union Hall in the city. The inaugural function saw attendance from a cross section of the city life as political and cultural leaders, writers, trade union leaders, social activists turned up.

CPI(M) state committee member and former industries minister Elamaram Kareem presided over the function. Among those who were present included CPI(M) district secretary and Reception Committee general secretary T P Ramakrishnan,  state committee member and former district secretary M Kelappan, well known scientist and environmental activist Dr Achuthan, Mayor Professor A K Premajam, well known writer P Valsala and several senior CPI(M) leaders. The various subcommittees of Reception Committee started functioning from this office.

Speaking on the occasion, CPI(M) Polit Bureau member S Ramachandran Pillai has said that the draft ideological document to be presented before the Party Congress would be finalised by the Party central committee, which is to be held in Kolkata, next month. The Polit Bureau has already discussed it and submitted to the central committee for its perusal.

The draft political resolution also has been finalised by the Polit Bureau. The central committee has to give its nod for the document before it goes to the Party Congress. He said that by the third week of January, both documents, ideological as well as political, will be published for discussion. All the Party units would discuss the documents and propose their amendments and suggestions.

People who are not members of the CPI(M) can also propose their amendments on the ideological document and political resolution. He said that the Party Congress will analyse the political and economical developments that took place during the last fifty years ever since the formation of the CPI(M) as part of its exercise to arrive at a fresh ideological understanding.

The new understanding would naturally influence Party’s strategy, tactics as well as the organisational tasks. The Party Congress will formulate fresh tactical line to equip the Party to respond to current challenges. Pillai said that capitalism was facing grave crisis all over the world. The waves of protest against neo-liberal policies of capitalist regimes erupted even on the Wall Street.

In India, unity among workers to fight against neo-liberal prescriptions is growing. All the trade unions, irrespective of their political leanings, have called for a public strike on February 28 against the capitalist policies. Such unity among workers and trade unions is unprecedented in the political history of India, he said.

SHORT FILM

COMPETITION

As part of CPI(M) 20th Party Congress, the cultural sub committee of the Reception Committee is conducting a short film competition on the topic ‘Marx Is Right’. The length of the film should be of five minutes duration. The films, shot in CD or DVD formats, should reach to the following address on or before March 20, 2012: Convenor, Cultural Committee, CPI(M) 20th Party Congress, Reception Committee Office, Bank Road, Kozhikode. Pin: 673001. The films can be shot in any language and English sub titles are necessary.

The best film will be awarded with Rs 25,000 cash prize, announced the convenor, Purushan Kadalundi who is a sitting MLA.

A group of five ministers constituted by the government held talks with four major anti-dam groups, representing more than 30 different organisations, in Guwahati.

“We told the groups that the government would seek expert opinion within six months if at all the dam in Arunachal Pradesh was safe or not or whether it could have any ecological impact in the downstream areas as apprehended,” state Power Minister Pradyut Bordoloi told journalists after a seven-hour long marathon meeting.

Among the anti-dam groups that took part in the meeting includes the All Assam Student’s Union (AASU), the Krishak Mukti Samaj Samity (KMSS), the Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuva Chatra Parishad (AJYCP) and the Takam Mising Poring Kebang (TMPK).

“We wanted the government to ask the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) to stop all works at the ongoing Lower Subansiri power project site until the expert committee report was ready. But the government said it would only ensure that the NHPC project would not allowed to be commissioned until the expert report comes in,” KMSS leader Akhil Gogoi said after the meeting.

The striking groups said they would continue to protest along the National Highway 52 and prevent trucks carrying machineries and equipment to the NHPC project site in Arunachal Pradesh.

The National Highway 52 is the main lifeline linking Arunachal Pradesh to the rest of India via Assam.

The anti-dam groups have since the past one month staging road blockades on and off leading to delay in construction of the power project.

The nearly Rs.10,000 crore project that began in 2003 is mired in a blazing row with several environmental and pressure groups in Assam, making vociferous protests and demanding scrapping of the construction work citing adverse ecological and environmental impact in downstream areas in Assam

The Arunachal Pradesh government has signed MoUs with several private firms for 10 major hydropower projects to generate an estimated 30,000 MW power in 10 years’ time.

The state, bordering Myanmar and the Tibet region, has the potential to generate an estimated 50,000 MW of hydropower.

Among the major projects currently being executed in the state are the Ranganadi project, the Subansari project and the Taloh power project.

Despite stiff opposition, the Arunachal Pradesh government is adamant on continuing with the construction of dams.

The slug fest among BJP factions over who should be the boss of the Karnataka unit, even if papered over by the party’s central leaders, is expected to simmer as the year progresses because every passing day takes the state closer to assembly elections.

Polls to the 225-member assembly, that includes one nominated member, are due in April-May 2013. But it will not be a surprise if BJP central leaders also prefer advancing them as a way out to settle the leadership issue.

The opposition Congress and Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S), though not in fine fettle themselves to face the elections, have stepped up the demand for early polls. They argue that going to people immediately is the best way to end “governance paralysis” in the state.

The BJP central leaders, busy as they are with Uttar Pradesh assembly elections to be held in February, are not likely to devote much time and energy to party’s affairs in Karnataka though they had once hailed the state as the party’s “gateway to rule south India”.

The feud centres on B.S. Yeddyurappa’s efforts to be re-instated as chief minister or be made state party chief or officially named as the one who will lead the party in the next elections.

Forced to leave the chief minister’s post in July over corruption charges, Yeddyurappa apparently fears that he and his supporters will be marginalised as elections approach and may have little say in the selection of candidates.

To prevent such a possibility, he and his supporters have launched a major attack on the party’s state unit chief K.S. Eshwarappa holding him responsible for all the troubles of Yeddyurappa.

Efforts of Chief Minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda to emerge out of the shadow of the former chief minister are only adding fuel to the factional feud. One of the conditions of Yeddyurappa to quit in July was that Gowda should be his successor.

BJP central leaders sending messages though Gowda and Eshwarappa to Yeddyurappa that he will have to wait till cleared of all charges to be re-instated as chief minister or to be made state party chief has further embittered the former chief minister.

Several ministers who are considered to be not involved in the factional feud, such as law minister S. Suresh Kumar, are publicly expressing their dismay at the developments in the state unit, describing them as “very unfortunate and embarrassing”.

Another minister, Balachandra Jarkiholi, handling municipalities and local bodies, has urged four bigwigs of the state unit – general secretary H.N. Ananth Kumar, Yeddyurappa, Eshwarappa and Gowda – to sit together and resolve their differences.

Two issues needing an early resolution also have the potential to widen the chasm between pro and anti-Yeddyurappa factions. First is naming a new Lokayukta (ombudsman) and the other is cabinet expansion.

The Lokayukta has been headless since Sep 19 when former Supreme Court judge Shivaraj V. Patil quit after over 45 days of assuming office following a row that he had acquired two house sites from cooperative societies in Bangalore violating rules.

Governor H.R. Bhardwaj has refused to accept Gowda government’s nominee S.R. Bannurmath, former chief justice of Kerala High Court, as the new Lokayukta after he was alleged to have built a house in Bangalore on a site meant for civic amenities.

Bannurmath is believed to be Yeddyurappa’s choice.

Yeddyurappa was removed as chief minister after the then Lokayukta N. Santosh Hegde recommended his trial for corruption in the illegal mining scam.

In the state cabinet, whose strength now is 27 including the chief minister, there are seven vacancies. There are too many claimants and the choice of legislators for the posts will leave several aspirants disgruntled.

These none-too-rosy scenarios greet Karnataka which in 2011 became the first state in the country to see four former chief ministers making a beeline to the high court to quash cases of allowing illegal mining for financial gains.

Besides Yeddyurappa, the others are S.M. Krishna and N. Dharam Singh of the Congress, and H.D. Kumaraswamy of the JD-S. The high court has stayed the probe in the cases and further hearing will resume in 2012.

News from the courts will also be eagerly awaited by several Karnataka politicians.

Former BJP minister, mining baron G. Janardhana Reddy, is fighting an illegal mining case in Andhra Pradesh. He has also been seeking bail as he has been in Hyderabad’s Chanchalaguda jail since Sep 5.

Two other former BJP ministers – Katta Subramanya Naidu and S.N. Krishnaiah Shetty – are out on bail in corruption cases while two ministers, R. Ashoka, home, and Murugesh Nirani, industries, are under police scanner for alleged land grab.

The end of one year and the dawn of another does not seem to herald cheerful times for Karnataka as governance will vie with scandals, court cases, power games and possibility of early polls for government’s attention.

A cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan decided to allot 100 acre land each in Indore to both the Infosys and TCS, on the promise of generating jobs.

The land will be allotted at the rate of Rs.20 lakh per acre.

Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party (JKNPP), having three seats in the current state assembly and a protagonist of regional balance, Wednesday called for the reorganisation of the state – which relates to greater regional empowerment, especially to Jammu and Ladakh regions.

‘Reorganisation of Jammu and Kashmir is on the top of agenda for 2012 to ensure justice, equity, equality and equitable legislative powers and development for all the three regions – Ladakh, Kashmir and Jammu,’ party chief Bhim Singh told reporters here.

He said the ‘positive side of reorganisation has been that Ladakhis fully supported the agenda, Kashmiri leaders never opposed it and people of Jammu have been fully supporting the cause’.

‘The core group of the party has decided to gear up the battle in support of reorganisation from the streets to the Supreme Court,’ the JKNPP chief said.

The party also urged Governor N.N. Vohra to dissolve the present assembly, impose a short spell of governor’s rule in the state and hold fresh elections on the basis of reorganisation.

The National Conference leader had gone abroad to meet his mother on Christmas.

During his absence, a section of media reported on an alleged official communication of police hinting at an attempt by Health Minister Sham Lal Sharma of the Congress, an alliance partner of the National Conference government, to influence a probe into a land dispute.

The controversy took a serious turn when the minister stopped attending office after seeking an explanation on how the official communication was leaked.

The sources said Sharma had been eagerly awaiting the chief minister’s return for early sorting out of the matter as Abdullah also holds the home portfolio.

The severe chill and shortage of water and power in the Kashmir Valley has also left people complaining about poor governance, they said.

Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami told a public meeting in Jammu Monday that ‘good governance under the current dispensation has become a distant dream’.

The sources said that Abdullah would be visiting the Valley and would be there till the first week of January next year, attending to the problems of the people.

Farooq’s son Omar Abdullah has been the chief minister since January 2009, and a section of the Congress in the state, owing loyalty to state Congress chief Saifuddin Soz, has been pitching for change of guard.

A local media report Sunday suggested that nine Congress legislators, including five ministers, had resigned to mount pressure on the party high command to replace Omar with Soz.

The National Conference sources said that Farooq, who heads the NC, was so miffed with the report that he took up the matter with some senior Congress leaders in New Delhi and asked them that his party should be told in clear terms whether the NC-Congress alliance in Jammu and Kashmir is to continue or break mid-way.

These sources in the National Conference said that Farooq Abdullah’s response made Soz deny the report and even led to Deputy Chief Minister Tara Chand issue a statement that the coalition was running smoothly and that no Congress legislator or minister had resigned.

However, sources in the Congress said the matter is far from over as some leaders would again bring up this issue.

They said they feared that if the Congress continued to play the role of ‘B team’ in the government for next three years, it could result in electoral debacle for the party in the 2014 assembly polls.

The term of the Jammu and Kashmir assembly is of six years.

The minimum temperature in Srinagar Tuesday was minus 4.7 degrees Celsius. It was minus 7.6 degrees in south Kashmir’s Pahalgam hill station and minus 8.4 degrees in north Kashmir’s Gulmarg ski resort.

Most of the lakes and water bodies in the valley, including the famous Dal Lake were frozen at the margins Tuesday monring.

Ladakh’s capital Leh was again the coldest in Jammu and Kashmir with the minimum temperature being minus 14.4 degrees. Kargil town in Ladakh recorded a minimum of minus 12.8 degrees.

The weather office has said that there would be no respite from the present cold wave conditions for another four days.

Expressing the resolve of his party to make the state economically self-reliant, Sayeed demanded the implementation of the recommendations of the working group headed by Reserve Bank of India’s former governor C. Rangarajan on economic reconstruction.

‘For making Jammu and Kashmir an economically viable state, it is necessary to implement recommendations of C. Rangarajan,’ said Sayeed while addressing a public meeting at Ramban, 150 km north of Jammu.

Rangarajan recommended that the control over two of the hydro-electric projects, Dul Hasti and Salal, be handed over by the central government to Jammu and Kashmir.

Both the projects are located on the Chenab river that flows through the Jammu region.

Sayeed regretted that despite having huge water resources, the state had to depend on the central government for economic development.

He said that according to a rough estimate, the state would earn up to Rs.50,000 crore annually through proper utilisation of its natural resources.

‘It is unfortunate that successive National Conference regimes in the state have bartered natural resources by signing unfair agreements, just for the lust of power,’ Sayeed said.

The PDP was a ruling alliance partner when five working groups constituted by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh submitted their reports.

This is being done under the Remote Village Electrification Programme (RVEP) to be commissioned by the Science and Technology department of the state.

‘The project will provide electricity to remote inaccessible areas, border areas and some remote hospitals as these are not connected with National Power Grid,’ Minister for Science Technology Aga Syed Ruhullah said.

He said that each project will cost Rs.20 lakh and will generate 8.8 kilowatts of power (6.6kw from wind energy and 2.2 kw from solar photovoltaics) ‘to slowly replace the conventional power supply and bring down the cost of providing electricity through diesel generator sets being used in some remote areas.’ An estimated 350 units would be installed.

A majority of these projects would be in areas that remain cut off for a few months during winters due to snowfall.

According to official statistics, 809 villages in the Jammu region close to the international border and 349 in the Kashmir Valley and Ladakh are without electricity. ‘We are going to cover 285 villages and 28 hamlets under RVEP,’ the minister said.

In September 2009, about 30 villages comprising 3900 households in the remote Gurez area of North Kashmir close to the Line of Control (LOC) got solar electrification benefitting 30,000 people living there.

‘What all others say about the issue is irrelevant, including the statements of (senior Congress leaders) Mangat Ram Sharma and Madan Lal Sharma,’ Soz told a local TV channel here.

‘Unless or until I speak on the issue, no credence should be given to the statements by other party leaders,’ said Soz.

He was reacting to reports in a section of media suggesting that five ministers and two other legislators had submitted their resignations to the party high command to step up pressure for a Congress chief minister in the state, to replace the National Conference’s Omar Abdullah.

Soz, who had earlier declared that the matter of the rotational chief minister would be decided by the party high command, denied any resignations on the issue.

The change in Soz’s stand is being attributed to the strong opposition of the NC to any change, as it believes that it has got the mandate to rule for six years as the leading partner, with Abdullah as chief minister.

NC sources said they had conveyed to the Congress high command that repeated statements of Soz loyalists on the issue of the rotational chief minister were creating uncertainty in the state.

A faction of the party led by Pradesh Congress Committee president Saifuddin Soz has started holding rallies where Soz himself maintains silence on the issue, while other leaders make it a point to rake up the issue.

‘It is imperative to have a Congress chief minister as Omar Abdullah has completed three years in office,’ senior unit vice president Mangat Ram Sharma has been saying at rallies here.

At a rally in Sangrama in north Kashmir, former state unit president of Youth Congress Shoaib Lone went to the extent of declaring Soz the next chief minister. ‘He (Soz) is the leader who can change the destiny of Jammu and Kashmir,’ he said.

Asked to comment on this, Soz has said: ‘The party workers have the right to air their views.’

His latest comment on the issue has been: ‘It’s for the party high command to decide.’

Abdullah completes three years in office Jan 5. The Jammu and Kashmir assembly has a term of six years.

National Conference maintains that Abdullah would be the chief minister for a full six years.

‘This is the agreement of the party with the Congress high command and there is no change in it,’ Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ali Mohammad Sagar told IANS.

But the Congress is firm. A minister close to Soz said there were two reasons for their demand of change of guard.

‘Firstly, Omar has completed his first three years in office.’ Secondly, ‘the Congress has its own political interests to guard and it must take the frontline role in the government to do so’, he said.

Soz, currently on a visit to the Jammu region, told the governor that the empowerment of panchayats was imperative for an efficient governance system, party sources said.

He is reported to have told the governor that absence of adequate powers to the village heads, elected in the panchayat elections held early this year, was affecting the functioning of the village councils.

The wildlife department sent experts to Buchwara locality, wildlife warden Imtiyaz Ahmad told IANS.

‘While caging the animal, one of our employees was injured. We have shifted the leopard to the Dachigam National Park. We will later release it in the natural habitat,’ he added.

Kashmir has increasingly witnessed man-animal conflict, attributed to the encroachment by man into the natural habitats of wild animals.

‘Police arrested Sajad Ahmad Dar, son of Ghulam Nabi Dar, resident of Sangrampora Sopore, working with BSNL Sopore for providing 10 SIMs and one WLL connection to militants of Hizbul Mujahideen terror outfit,’ a police spokesman said in a statement.

‘The accused, a IT expert and a contractual employee with BSNL, has been working for Hizbul Mujahideen militant network for about one year,’ he said.

‘The SIMs and WLL connection so provided have been registered on fake names and addresses, and this was done with in connivance with some other accused who are yet to be arrested,’ the spokesman said, adding a case has been registered and investigations are on.

The SHRC issued arrest warrants against Tanveer Jeelani, deputy superintendent of police (headquarters) south Kashmir Anantnag district, for failing to comply with the directions of the commission.

‘The SHRC today ordered the arrest of the police officer and seizure of all the investigation record to be produced before the commission,’ sources in the SHRC told IANS.

The SHRC has ordered that all the investigation records, including case diaries etc. prepared by the SIT headed by the police officer up to July 4, 2011, be produced before the rights panel.

The SIT had been constituted to probe the 2007 disappearance of a local youth named Nazir Ahmad Mir, who belonged to Zadoor village of Anantnag district.

Gul Muhammad Mir, the father of the disappeared youth, had filed two petitions before the SHRC in 2008 and 2009 seeking the whereabouts of his son who allegedly had been called by his fiance to the local bus stand in 2007 from where some unidentified people kidnapped him in a waiting auto-rickshaw.

Gul Muhammad Mir had also approached the state high court that had given police three weeks’ time to complete the investigations into the youth’s disappearance.

Source said the SIT headed by Jeelani had closed the investigations as ‘youth untraced’. The SHRC has now sought all the relevant records and evidences based on which the case had been closed by the SIT.

This is the first time since the rights panel was constituted in Jammu and Kashmir in 1997 that it has ordered arrest of any senior police officer for non-compliance of the panel’s directions.

However, when asked about the arrest warrant, a senior police officer in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district said, ‘We have no information of the order.’

Sources in the SHRC said the panel has ordered its Senior Superintendent Police (human rights) to execute the warrant.

The SIT was constituted earlier this year.

Sources in the SHRC said they had been constantly summoning Jeelani since July to present himself before the panel, but he did not respond. The last time he was summoned was in November.

The SHRC issued arrest warrants against the deputy superintendent of police (headquarters) south Kashmir Anantnag district for failing to comply with the directions of the commission.

‘The SHRC today ordered the arrest of the police officer and seizure of all the investigation record to be produced before the commission,’ sources in the SHRC told IANS.

The SHRC has ordered that all the investigation records, including case diaries etc. prepared by the SIT headed by the police officer up to July 4, 2011, be produced before the rights panel.

The SIT had been constituted to probe the 2007 disappearance of a local youth named Nazir Ahmad Mir, who belonged to Zadoor village of Anantnag district.

Gull Muhammad Mir, the father of the disappeared youth, had filed two petitions before the SHRC in 2008 and 2009 seeking the whereabouts of his son who allegedly had been called by his fiance to the local bus stand in 2007 from where some unidentified people kidnapped him in a waiting auto-rickshaw.

Gull Muhammad Mir had also approached the state high court that had given police three weeks’ time to complete the investigations into the youth’s disappearance.

Source said the SIT headed by deputy superintendent of police (Headquarters) Anantnag had closed the investigations as ‘youth untraced’. The SHRC has now sought all the relevant records and evidences based on which the case had been closed by the SIT.

This is the first time since the rights panel was constituted in Jammu and Kashmir in 1997 that it has ordered arrest of any senior police officer for non-compliance of the panel’s directions.

Some parts of Jammu saw a partial response while others saw a complete shutdown. The closure was more intense in the first half of the day around the court complex area of Janipur.

Lawyers and people from organisations supporting the strike later took out a rally, moving from the walled city to other parts of Jammu amid extra police deployment made to enforce law and order.

The rallyists were shouting slogans against the government and demanding rollback of the order.

Commuter vehicles were plying in outer areas of the city, thus affecting attendances in offices and educational institutions.

Dilbagh Singh, the inspector general of police of Jammu Zone, told mediapersons, ‘The bandh is so far peaceful with no untoward incident reported from any part of the city.’

The bar association’s call is supported by over a dozen business and social organisations in Jammu which are opposed to the transfer of registration powers to revenue department officials who are also executive magistrates of the area.

Jagar Mal Gupta, who owns a general merchandise shop in the posh Gandhi Nagar locality, said he would keep his shop closed Tuesday in support of the lawyers’ demand.

‘I feel that powers of registration should be with the judiciary as the common man will otherwise be burdened with greasing the palms of revenue officials who are corrupt from top to bottom,’ Jagar observed.

Most shops, business establishments and commuter vehicles did not operate in the morning.

The government’s logic behind the decision is that it will increase ‘direct revenue through stamp paper duty, and also the records of lands and properties are with the revenue department, which will make things easier for common man’.

But lawyers feel that besides many of them losing business due to the move, the common man will be ‘harassed by corrupt revenue officials’.

Bar Association president B.S. Salathia said: ‘We will take our protest to a logical conclusion.’

The bar association’s call is supported by over a dozen business and social organisations in Jammu who are opposed to the transfer of registration powers to revenue department officials who are also executive magistrates of the area.

Jagar Mal Gupta, who owns a general merchandise shop in the posh Gandhi Nagar locality, will keep his shop closed Tuesday in support of the lawyers’ demand.

‘I feel that powers of registration should be with the judiciary as the common man will otherwise be burdened with greasing the palms of revenue officials who are corrupt from top to bottom,’ Jagar observed.

Most shops, business establishments and commuter vehicles did not operate in the morning.

The government’s logic behind the decision is that it will increase the ‘direct revenue of the government through stamp paper duty and also, the records of lands and properties are with revenue department, which will make things easier for common man’.

Lawyers feel that besides many of them losing business due to the move, the common man will be ‘harassed by corrupt revenue officials’.

Bar Association president B.S. Salathia said: ‘We will take our protest to a logical conclusion.’

On December 3, Youth Congress volunteers in Kerala marched to the Mullaperiyar dam and the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board office there. The next day, several hundred workers of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) marched to the dam, with an earth mover in tow, and tried to open a channel at the baby dam.

On December 4, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asking for the immediate “deployment of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) at the dam site to avert any man-made catastrophic consequences”. Apart from the “mob vandalism” at the dam site, “the orchestrated campaign of fear-mongering” by the Kerala government “has led to this situation wherein the very security and safety of the dam is being deliberately threatened”, Jayalalithaa said. Her demand for CISF protection met with favour among many political parties in Tamil Nadu.

The sporadic attacks on Tamils in Kumili and other parts of Kerala led to retaliation in Tamil Nadu. In a statement issued on December 6, Jayalalithaa said: “There is no justification whatsoever to believe that the Mullaperiyar dam is unsafe or likely to collapse, bringing a deluge upon Idukki and surrounding districts. The dam is well maintained and periodically reinforced. Its safety is being constantly monitored, and highly qualified and accomplished technical experts, including those nominated by the Supreme Court of India, have repeatedly reiterated that it is absolutely safe. To doubt its safety merely because it is 116 years old is sheer ignorance. Kallanai, or the Grand Anicut dam, widely considered to be the oldest dam in the world, built by Karikala Cholan over the river Cauvery, still stands in Tamil Nadu. Built in the second century A.D., it is all of 1,900 years old and absolutely safe…. There is, therefore, no necessity to dismiss the Mullaperiyar dam as a primitive construction or fear that it would self-destruct due to old age.”

FOR MORE READING. . .

A statement issued by the public relations office of the army here said: ‘Elimination of a large number of guerrillas in the hinterland this year has created a vacuum in the terrorist leadership and their effectiveness. Therefore, there is pressure on the terrorists in the training camps/launch pads in PoK to infiltrate.

‘This has been corroborated by intelligence inputs of various intelligence agencies which have indicated presence of an additional 100 militants across the LoC poised for infiltration.

‘Traditionally, infiltration decreases with the onset of snow, but due to late winter, terrorists, as in the past, will make desperate attempts to infiltrate in the coming few months.’

The statement also said that attempts were being made by vested interests to upset the synergy between various security forces conducting counter-insurgency operations in Jammu and Kashmir.

‘There appears to be an attempt by inimical elements, probably from across the LoC, to drive a wedge between the army, other security forces and the state government with a view to breaking the excellent synergy which has been generated throughout 2011.’

The statement also asserted that the army was capable of working within the parameters of difference of opinion as per democratic norms.

Clearing the air about the stand of the army over the revocation of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), the statement said: ‘It is, therefore, incorrect to surmise that infiltration has taken place or is related to issue of revocation of AFSPA.’

Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has been pushing for revocation of AFSPA from the four districts of Srinagar, Badgam, Samba and Jammu while the army continues to believe such a step would hamper their operational efficacy against the guerrillas.

Speaking to media persons on the sidelines of a function in Kashmir University where on-the-spot employment orders were given to over 1,000 youth in different private companies, he said: ‘Cinemas have always been a private enterprise. It is not the government’s job to establish them.

‘If anyone is interested in establishing them, we can look at that. I am not in the business of either establishing cinemas here or giving them subsidies.’

His father and union Renewable Energy Minister Farooq Abdullah had said here earlier this month that cinemas and liquor shops should be reopened to provide some entertainment to the tourists who have been returning to Kashmir in large numbers.

The elder Abdullah had attracted a lot of flak from the various separatist and religious leaders for his statement.

All cinemas halls and liquor shops were closed in the Valley following the outbreak of the armed violence here in the early 1990s.

Except for one cinema hall, which is still operating in Srinagar, all other cinemas have been either closed or converted into healthcare centres and makeshift headquarters of the security forces.

At a function in the Kashmir University, employment letters were given to 1,059 youth.

The chief minister said the economy of the country started growing about 20 years ago but the state, particularly the Kashmir Valley, could not gain from the liberalisation due to the turmoil.

‘Now the time has come to take full advantage of all the developmental schemes which will enable us not only to provide employment to our youth, but also accelerate economic, industrial and trade activity in the state,’ he said.

‘We have to create opportunities for employment through the private sector,’ he said.

The chief minister expressed happiness that under project Himayat, under which the youth get training, a large number of candidates got jobs in the state and outside.

Besides Abdullah, union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh, chairman, economic advisory council to prime minister C. Rangarajan, state Rural Development Minister Ali Mohammad Sagar, Kashmir University Vice Chancellor Talat Ahmed and senior officers of central and the state governments were also present on the occasion.

Ramesh said apart from project Himayat, another project, Udaan, was being launched under which 40,000 youth will be trained in the next five years.

Rangarajan said the basic idea for launching project Himayat was to ensure the development of skill and self-confidence of the youth.

‘I cannot say anything on this. It is for the high command to decide on this issue,’ Soz

said at a press conference here.

Majority of the Congress leaders in the state are in favour of rotational chief minister — three years for NC and remaining three for the Congress. The life of legislative assembly in the state is six years.

In the earlier coalition with Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the alliance was led by the PDP for the first three years from 2002 while the power was later handed over to Ghulam Nabi Azad of the Congress.

The party leaders are desirous of the same now but the party high command is not giving clear signals on it. Congress sources attribute this to ‘close proximity’ of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah with Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi.

On the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) in Jammu and Kashmir, the state Congress president said: ‘It is a temporary law and has to go one day. But that can be done only with consultation with all stakeholders.’

Srinagar recorded minus 4.3 degrees, the lowest in the city this season so far.

‘Leh was the coldest place in Jammu and Kashmir with the minimum temperature there dipping to minus 14.0 degrees Celsius while Kargil town recorded minus 12.0 degrees,’ an official of the local meteorological department told IANS here.

The ski resort of Gulmarg in north Kashmir recorded minus 8.2 while Pahalgam in south Kashmir recorded a low of minus 6.6 degrees Celsius.

The official also said the night temperatures would continue to fall further during the next two days because of clear, windy nights across the valley.

‘On the afternoon of Dec 19, we are expecting the arrival of a Western disturbance, which could result in light rains in the plains and a mild snowfall in the higher reaches. This would bring in respite for the locals who have been experiencing severe cold, especially during the nights’, the official added.

‘Western disturbance’ is the term used in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal to describe an extra-tropical storm originating in the Mediterranean Sea region that brings sudden winter rain and snow to the northwestern parts of the Indian sub-continent.

Western disturbances are important for the Rabi (winter) crops in the northern parts of the Indian sub-continent.

Mirwaiz Umer had gone to Sopore to address a Friday congregation there. When after the congregation at Khankah area, he refused to lead a procession towards the town’s main thoroughfare, some youth got infuriated and hurled stones and at the Mirwaiz, a senior police officer said.

The Mirwaiz, however, escaped unhurt and returned to Srinagar.

‘Police have registered an FIR in the stone pelting incident that occurred today (Friday) in Khankah area of Sopore town,’ the officer said.

The Central government should  intervene and see that steps are taken to ensure the safety of the dam.  The Prime Minister himself should take the initiative with both state governments for this.  This is required pending the final decision by the Supreme Court.

Shops in Nowhatta area, where the deceased, the 25-year-old Tariq Ahmad Bhat, had a shop, as well as in the adjoining Gojwara, Rajouri Kadal and Hawal areas observed the shutdown.

Police said Bhat had refused to accept the shutdown dictates of the separatists and was hit by assailants on the head with a cricket bat.

Bhat battled for life in the Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences at Soura for 14 days and finally succumbed to critical injuries Wednesday.

Hundreds attended the burial of the shopkeeper Wednesday evening with relatives and shopkeepers condemned the gruesome murder of the youth.

Chief Minister Omar Abdullah Thursday condemned the shopkeeper’s murder and challenged the separatists to do genuine politics instead of resorting to force to have their shutdown calls enforced.

‘Acts like this will no longer be tolerated,’ he warned.

Police have already arrested four people for the murder.

No separatist leader has so far condemned the shopkeeper’s murder.

His strong words followed the death of a shopkeeper in Nowhatta after he was severely beaten up by stone-pelters for refusing to shutter down his shop and succumbed to his injuries Wednesday.

Addressing his National Conference’s party workers convention at Doda town, about 175 km north east of Jammu, the chief minister said that the government will not tolerate ‘goondaism (hooliganism)’ and attempts at disturbing peace by forcing people to shut down their establishments and hamper their earning opportunities.

He said his ‘endeavour would continue to seek peaceful and progressive Jammu and Kashmir through a positive political ideology’, but criticised the separatists for ‘forcing the people to adhere to their calendar of disturbance and lockouts, making them victims of hooliganism’.

‘If you want to fight, you should fight politically and not by means of hooliganism, highhandedness and muscle power,’ he told the separatists, adding that ‘lies cannot live long’ and people cannot be hoodwinked by slogans and fear.

‘One day, you have to apologise to the people for this sort of attitude,’ he maintained and asked them to face political challenges ‘politically’ and ‘fight the roadmap and framework put forth by our party for settlement of the Kashmir issue on the political turf’.

‘There is no taker of violence and hatred and nobody can digest your stance that whatever you do is right and whatever others carry out is wrong,’ he said in remarks aimed at the separatists.

‘A peaceful and youthful person of Nowhatta is the latest victim of your outlook,’ he said.

Omar expressed surprise over the attitude of those behind peace disturbances who issued date sheets for lockouts without uttering even a word against this heinous act of hooligans, who forced the people to obey their programmes or lose their lives.

‘While we condemn all acts of human rights violation and misuse of power by anyone, it is unfortunate to observe that if such a kind of act had been committed by men in uniform, the cry raised by separatists would have been the loudest,’ he added.

Tariq Ahmad Bhat, 25, was beaten by stone-pelters in the Gojwara neighbourhood of the old city on December 3, 2011, when he refused to shut down his shop in response to a separatist-called shutdown. He was reportedly hit on the head with a cricket bat. Tariq was admitted to a local hospital where he battled for life for the last eleven days.

As the news about the youth’s death spread in the area, shopkeepers shut their shops and gathered at his residence in Rangar Hamam locality.

Tariq’s body was handed over to his family by police in the evening.

Around 400 mourners gathered to attend his burial.

‘Police have already registered a case in this incident and four stone-pelters have been arrested for the killing of the shopkeeper,’ a senior police officer said here.

On a tour of the mountainous border districts of Poonch and Rajouri in Jammu region, Mufti sought the support of the people to change the fundamentals of the state’s political and administrative system.

Addressing a public rally at Kotranka in Rajouri, about 220 km from Jammu, Mehbooba Mufti noted that her party had proved how a ‘change could be brought about in the life of people even with a fractured mandate and a short span of time’.

Her father, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, headed PDP-Congress coalition from 2002 to 2005 after which the Congress’ Ghulam Nabi Azad took over as per the agreement on rotational chief ministers.

‘Governance consciousness was generated in the people of Jammu and Kashmir only after experiencing the positive impact of the previous PDP-Congress government on their daily lives and they would hence forth not compromise on the quality of governance,’ she said.

Mehbooba Mufti said that the state was earlier exploited on emotional slogans alone without keeping pace with the requirements of development and growth that had hit the remote and the backward areas the hardest.

Contending the government under Sayeed unlocked the process of development, she said: ‘This we could achieve with just 16 members in the assembly and a loose coalition of many parties and Independent members.’

In present coalition led by National Conference (NC), there are 28 NC legislators and 17 of the Congress. The PDP has 21 members.

Mehbooba Mufti claimed that the ‘feel good’ environment that the previous government left behind was unfortunately wasted by the present government. ‘It not only brought to a halt the process of development and political reconciliation but reversed the process in every sense of the word,’ she alleged.

She said that present coalition government led by Omar Abdullah had just ‘promoted misgovernance and institutionalized corruption’.

Referring to Abdullah’s October announcement of removing Armed Forces Special Powers Act from some parts of state within a ‘few days’, she said: ‘Though Omar Abdullah made noises about AFSPA recently but he could not make any headway and in the process lowered the prestige of chief minister’s position and compromised the dignity and respect of the state.’

Political parties and families of the victims demanded expeditious execution of Guru, the surviving conspirator sentenced to death by the court.

The government said his mercy petition was for Patil to decide.

‘The matter is with the president and it is for the president to decide (whether to accept it or not),’ Union Home Secretary R.K. Singh told reporters here.

On Dec 13, 2001, when the two houses assembled for the day’s sitting, five heavily armed men posing as security personnel stormed the Parliament House and opened indiscriminate fire, killing nine people. The attackers were also gunned down.

Guru was convicted for conspiracy and sentenced to death that was to be carried out Oct 20, 2006. His wife filed a mercy petition that was forwarded by the government to the president.

The government note on July 27, 2011 recommends that the clemency petition should be rejected.

The families remembering their lost ones want that justice be done and Guru hanged.

‘Till the time Guru is hanged, there will be no honour for the martyrs in the parliament attack,’ said 23-year-old Bipin Adana, the son of Delhi Police head constable Vijendra Singh, who was killed in the attack.

Adana, who runs a petrol pump allotted to him by the government as compensation for having lost his father, said he was ready to forgo the fuel station. ‘Why is the traitor not being punished.’

Shweta lost her mother Kamlesh Kumari, a woman constable with the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), in the attack. She is surprised Guru has not been hanged.

‘The person who killed my mother, hasn’t been hanged yet. I want him to be hanged soon,’ she said.

The victims included five Delhi Police personnel, a woman CRPF trooper, two parliament watch and ward staff and a gardener. A journalist who took a terrorist’s AK-47 bullets died later.

Law Minister Salman Khurshid admitted the pace of implementation of law was slow in the country.

‘We are not always happy with the pace with which the rule of law is implemented in our country and that is the reason why we have a mission for justice delivery,’ he told reporters.

‘We are sure that the matters are decided in court between three to five years. There should be nothing that goes beyond five years,’ he added.

The attack on parliament complex had led to an escalation of conflict between India and Pakistan, as New Delhi was convinced that the terror strike had been masterminded in the neighbouring country.

On Tuesday, the memory of the event came alive.

Vice President Hamid Ansari led members of both houses of parliament in paying tribute to those killed.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader L.K. Advani, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj and other members attended a ceremony held in the parliament complex.

The leaders observed a minute’s silence in memory of the victims.

Advani recalled the attack and said ‘if even one of them (the attackers) had succeeded in entering Parliament House, it would have been horrific.’

A blood donation camp was organised in parliament by the Red Cross Society.

‘Police in Pattan town along with the troops of counter-insurgency 29 Rashtriya Rifles today (Tuesday) arrested a Hizbul Mujahideen militant and his wife near Rangee Mode, Baramulla,’ a senior police officer told IANS here.

‘The militant was identified as Mohammad Yousuf Bhat, resident of south Kashmir’s Shopian district, and his wife as Shahnaz Bibi, resident of Chinari Muzaffarabad (Pakistan-administered Kashmir),’ the officer said, adding the couple had recently infiltrated into the Kashmir Valley.

‘One revolver, three rounds and one hand grenade were recovered from the possession of arrested militant. A case has been registered in this regard,’ the officer added.

Police said Bhat had married Shahnaz Bibi in Muzaffarabad during his stay there after he had gone across the LOC for obtaining training in militant activities.

A police statement issued here Tuesday evening said, ‘Baramulla police today presented a charge sheet against 20 persons in the competent court of law for setting ablaze government property worth crores of rupees at Tangmarg last year.’

‘The incident had happened on September 13, 2010, when an unruly mob wrought destruction and devastation at Tangmarg town by burning down different government buildings, including the tehsil office complex, animal husbandry department building, social welfare office building and Tyndale Biscoe School building among others’.

This is the first time that police have formally filed charges against someone in connection with arson and destruction of public property during the unrest.

Total of 210 persons died in bloody clashes with security forces across the valley during 2010′s summer unrest.

The statement said a case under FIR number 91/2010 under sections 307, 436, 147,148, 149 of the Ranbir Penal Code (RPC) had been registered by Tangmarg police station after the incident.

‘During the course of investigations, police through photographs, video-clips and eyewitnesses identified the accused persons who were leading the mob and orchestrating the arson.’

‘Fifteen accused persons were presented before the court and charge sheeted along with five deceased persons for the crimes punishable under sections 307, 436, 147,148, 149 of the RPC’, the statement said.

In the wake of the mass destruction of public property and violence in Tangmarg during last year’s summer unrest, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, union Home Minister P. Chidambaram and Bharatiya Janata Party leader Arun Jaitley had visited Tangmarg.

‘Chief Minister Omar Abdullah is a complete failure on all fronts. The terrorists have become emboldened by his call for the removal of AFSPA from the state, as was evident by the terrorist attack on Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ali Mohammad Sagar on Sunday evening,’ said senior legislator and chief whip of the BJP Ashok Khajuria at a press conference here Tuesday.

At the press conference, the BJP leader counted the failures of the Omar Abdullah government and demanded that Omar step down and make way for an alternative government.

Khajuria said the National Conference-Congress alliance government has proven that it is incapable of dealing with terrorism effectively.

‘It is unfortunate that Omar has encouraged terrorists by his campaign against the AFSPA, and equally unfortunate is the fact that other senior leaders of the National Conference, including Omar’s uncle Sheikh Mustafa Kamal, have openly started speaking against the army.’

In a statement faxed to the offices of a national news agency and a local news agency, JUM spokesman Jameel Ahmad said the attack on Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sagar was carried out by Al-Jabar squad of the group.

A body guard of the minister was killed while two bodyguards and a civilian were wounded when separatist guerrillas attacked the minister in Shah Mohalla in Nawa Bazar locality of the old city in the evening. The minister escaped unhurt.

The minister has condemned the attack, calling it ‘a cowardly terrorist act’.

A high-level security review was undertaken here Monday by Director General of Police (DGP) Kuldeep Khoda in the wake of the attack.

Security has already been beefed up in the city and other parts of the valley and the police and paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel have been deployed in strength at busy market places, traffic intersections and sensitive installations.

Sagar has, however, ruled out any security lapse.

‘I had gone to attend a social function at my ancestral place in Nawa Bazar when the attack happened.,’ Sagar said.

‘There was no security lapse,’ he told reporters at a function where wreaths were laid on the body of the slain constable, Gulzar Ahmad, in district police lines in Srinagar.

‘The chief minister wants a comprehensive report and how it happened and what were the loopholes,’ said a senior official quoting Abdullah’s instructions to Minister of State for Home Nasir Aslam Wani and Director General of Police Kuldeep Khoda.

Wani and Khoda will visit Srinagar to assess the situation and report to the chief minister by evening, the official who did not want to be named told IANS.

The assassination bid on Sagar took place in the congested Nawa Bazar area in downtown Srinagar late Sunday. One bodyguard was killed and three people were injured when suspected militants opende fire at Sagar’s ancestral residence while he was inside.

There is also a possibility of the government issuing new do’s and don’ts to ministers, legislators and top functionaries of political groups.

Abdullah has spoken to Sagar and assured all possible security to him and his family, the official said.

Police and paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel were deployed in big numbers at major markets, traffic intersections and around sensitive installations.

Though Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ali Muhammad Sagar escaped a guerrilla bid on his life in Old City Nawa Bazar locality, one of his bodyguards was killed in the attack while three — two bodyguards and a civilian — sustained bullet injuries.

Speaking to the media at an official function to lay wreaths on the body of the slain police constable, Sagar said: ‘Whomsoever did it. It was a cowardly act of terrorism.

‘They did not spare even a social function. I had gone there to attend a social function and immediately after I entered the house, they opened a volley of gunfire, killing one of my security guards and wounding three other people.

He said the slain guard, Gulzar Ahmad, has four daughters ‘and one of them is mentally challenged’.

The minister, however, said there was no security lapse.

A high-level security review meeting is being held in Srinagar to take stock of the overall security situation in the wake of the militant attack.

The attack comes at a time when the Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has been strongly pushing for the revocation of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) from Srinagar, Badgam, Samba and Jammu districts.

‘At about 8 p.m. today (Sunday), some unidentified militants attacked Minister of Law and Parliamentary Affairs Ali Muhammad Sagar at his ancestral home in Shah Mohalla, Nawa Bazar, Srinagar,’ a police statement issued here said.

‘Three police personnel, Gulzar Ahmad, Mohammad Yaqoob and Feroz Ahmad got injured in this incident. Later constable Gulzar Ahmad succumbed to his injuries. A civilian, Ali Mohummad, was also injured in the attack.’

Senior police and paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) officers rushed with reinforcements to the densely populated old city Nawa Bazar locality to escort the minister safely to his uptown official residence.

The minister had gone to his ancestral home in connection with a social function there.

This is the first major separatist guerrilla attack in Srinagar in many months and triggered panic in the area.

The attack occurred at a time when Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has been advocating the revocation of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) from Srinagar district as well as Badgam district in the Valley and Jammu and Samba districts in the Jammu region.

A senior police officer said the attack came outside Sagar’s ancestral home in the old city’s Nawa Bazaar area.

‘Three people including two policemen and a civilian were injured in the attack. One of the injured policemen identified as constable Gulzar Ahmad succumbed to injuries while being shifted to the hospital for treatment.’

‘The minister was inside his ancestral home when the militants fired at his escort vehicle which was parked outside,’ the officer said.

Reports said the minister had just entered his home when the attack took place.

Police and paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) reinforcements were rushed to the spot to escort the minister back to his official residence in the uptown area.

This is the first such attack by the separatist guerrillas in the heart of Srinagar and comes at a time when Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has been advocating revocation of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) from Srinagar city.

The JKLF staged a candle-light protest in Maisuma area adjacent to city centre Lal Chowk.

As the protestors tried to march towards the nearby Badshah Chowk, police stopped the marchers and arrested Malik together with some of his supporters.

‘Malik was taken into preventive custody along with five of his supporters. They have been now released,’ a senior police officer told IANS.

Another protest was led by Engineer Rasheed, who represents the north Kashmir’s Langate assembly constituency.

Along with his supporters, Rasheed staged a protest for preservation of human rights outside the headquarters of the United Nations Military Observers Group for India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) in Sonawar area.

Police said the legislator was taken into preventive custody for trying to breach law and order in the city.

He was too released later, the police officer said.

Earlier Saturday, parents of disappeared persons staged a protest in the Press Enclave area.

The protests on the World Human Rights Day were organised by the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) to highlight their plight.

The APDP is an association of parents of those locals, including children, who were allegedly arrested by the security forces but whose arrests were later denied.

Since their disappearance after arrests, nothing is so far known about these persons who are now known as ‘disappeared persons’ in the valley.

The spokesman said the chief minister called on the governor on Saturday soon after his return from New Delhi.

‘The chief minister briefed the governor about security management issues,’ the spokesman said without giving any details on the issue.

Sources in the government said the security situation was discussed against the backdrop of the decline in the militancy and the chief minister’s campaign for the revocation of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) from some parts of the state.

‘During their hour and a half meeting, the governor and the chief minister also discussed various important issues relating to the state, which included the establishment of panchayati raj institutions, elections to the urban local bodies and cooperative societies, early setting up of watchdog commissions, the measures being considered to eradicate corruption and for the time-bound completion of major development projects,’ the spokesman said.

‘The Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) firmly resolves to continue their struggle for truth, justice and accountability,’ said a statement issued at the protest.

‘In most cases, the perpetrators have been identified by the family members and cases against them are pending in the courts. We demand that an independent credible investigation should be initiated against these perpetrators,’ The statement said.

The protesters also demanded a probe into the recently released state human rights commission report on mass graves discovered in Kashmir.

Scores of locals, including children, have disappeared during the last 20 years of violence in the Valley.

The families are alleging that their loved ones were arrested by the security forces, but their arrests were later denied.

‘My initiative regarding the gradual revocation of laws like AFSPA (Armed Forces Special Powers Act) in the areas where the role of army has ended due to the restoration of peace, relates to the commitments made to people,’ Abdullah said.

The chief minister was addressing a function after the launch of comprehensive management action plan for preservation and conservation of Asia’s largest fresh water lake – Wular Lake – near north Kashmir’s Bandipore town.

While slamming the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the chief minister said: ‘The party is politicking on the issue of the AFSPA by speaking in different languages in Srinagar, Jammu and New Delhi.’

‘While the party favours AFSPA revocation in the valley, it keeps mum in Jammu, and at New Delhi it says that the AFSPA should be removed only after army permits to do so,’ he said, adding that the double-speak was aimed at deceiving people.

He said the 13th Finance Commission had granted Rs.120 crore for the lake project and the central government approved the funding in a phased manner with an initial allocation of Rs.30 crore for the year 2011-12.

Geelani, who chaired an advisory committee meeting of his faction of the Hurriyat Conference Tuesday, said in a statement: ‘Islam declares liquor as the mother of all evils and orders punishment against those who consume it.’

‘Advocating the opening of liquor shops in Muslim majority state speaks of the mental apostasy of Dr. Farooq who despite his old age retains his mischievous character,’ he said in the statement Wednesday.

He also contested Farooq Abdullah’s claim that the opening of liquor shops would help the tourist industry in the Valley.

The local Jamaat-e-Islami has also criticized Farooq Abdullah for his statement Monday advocating the opening of liquor shops and cinema halls in the Valley, both of which had been closed in the beginning of 1990 following the outbreak of armed violence.

‘Whether it is a liquor shop or the cinema hall, both are sources of propagation of obscenity, immorality and imprudence,’ the Jamaat said in a statement.

Minister of State for Home and Urban Development Nasir Aslam Wani said the forthcoming municipal elections would be held on party basis unlike the earlier panchayat polls held on non-party basis with contestants joining the fray as individuals and not as representatives of any political party.

The civic polls would be held for the two municipal corporations of Jammu and Srinagar and all municipal committees of the state.

The minister said the notification for the municipal polls would be issued only after the state cabinet’s approval.

He said seats have been increased from 68 to 75 for Srinagar Municipal Corporation and from 72 to 75 for the Jammu Municipal Corporation.

‘Population in both the cities has increased in the last few years. So seats had to be enhanced accordingly,’ he added.

Wani said he hoped people would participate in the municipal elections in large numbers.

‘I hate the idea of censorship but have seen for myself how dangerous inflammatory content on #facebook and #youtube can be,’ Omar posted on micro-blogging site Twitter, perhaps recalling the days of stone pelting and street protests in Kashmir last year when Facebook and YouTube users had started a campaign against him.

He went on to add in another tweet: ‘We want the luxury of free speech but not the burden of responsibility for how we use that freedom. Something will have to give.’

‘If push came to shove, I’d come down on the side of freedom of speech but its one of those freedoms that has me worried unfortunately,’ he added.

In yet another tweet, perhaps targeting TV channels, Omar asked: ‘How come all of you going nuts over Kapil Sibal’s proposal also go nuts when Hurriyat leaders go on anti-India rants???? Freedom of speech?? (sic)’

Communications Minister Kapil Sibal said Tuesday that the Indian government will not allow social networking sites to host ‘objectionable’ content and will take steps to screen and remove them.

Sibal said this a day after representatives from Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Microsoft, during a meeting with him, declined to remove the ‘offensive content’.

Solar energy pumps are to be installed in tribal dominated villages where government has received scores of complaints of water-borne diseases in recent years, sources in the CREDA told IANS.

‘Chief minister Raman Singh has already approved the proposal and asked to identify 200 villages of the state’s jungle areas that come under southern part, which is called Bastar region, and another 200 tribal hamlets of state’s northern region that fall under Surguja belt,’ a CREDA official informed.

He added that the government has agreed to invest Rs.1 lakh for installation of each solar energy pump in 400 villages.

The state’s sprawling poverty-hit Bastar and Surguja regions report several deaths annually because residents there are largely dependent on culverts and rivers for their drinking water.

A senior police officer said restrictions have been imposed in areas falling under two police stations of Maisuma and Kothibagh in order to prevent some anti-social elements from creating trouble in the city.

Shops, vehicular traffic, businesses and pedestrian movement remained suspended in city centre Lal Chowk, adjacent Maisuma locality and Residency Road areas Tuesday.

Shops and other business establishments were also closed in old city areas with very little traffic on the roads.

Shia Muslims throughout the world take out mourning processions and hold majlis (gatherings) during the first ten days of the Muslim month of Muharram, which is known as ‘Ashura’. The mourning reaches a climax with major processions on the 10th day.

Clashes had erupted between the Shia mourners and the security forces in Jahangir Chowk area of Srinagar on Sunday after authorities disallowed a mourning procession.

‘The situation is normal throughout the Valley and no untoward incident has been reported from anywhere. Sufficient deployments of police and paramilitary central reserve police force (CRPF) are in place to prevent miscreants from creating any trouble in the city,’ a police officer said.

Talking to reporters on the sidelines of a function here, Abdullah said: ‘NHRC’s call for the removal of AFSPA only gives strength to my plea that the special powers should be done away with.’

Contending that his approach was ‘based on logic and not on emotions’, he accused those opposing the AFSPA’s revocation of offering an ‘emotional response to a proposal based on logic.’

Abdullah had surprised everyone on Oct 21 when he announced that the AFSPA would go from some areas of the state within days.

A critical response to his announcement came not only from the opposition that charged him with ‘diverting attention from his government’s failures’, but also from ruling coalition ally Congress, which felt that the chief minister had taken a unilateral step.

The chief minister also reiterated that he had not announced any decision with regard to bringing the state’s penal law, the Ranbir Penal Code, at par with the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) to provide protective cover to security forces, especially the army in Jammu and Kashmir in lieu of the AFSPA. He said this was ‘one of the suggestions and we are considering it’.

‘After due deliberation, it is up to us whether to accept or reject the suggestion,’ he said.

On Nov 23, Abdullah told newsmen here that he would be amending the RPC to bring it at par with the CrPC to address the ‘reservations and concerns voiced by the army’.

This move evoked strong protests across the state, particularly in the valley and thereafter Omar backtracked on the issue.

The magic and charisma of the man who singlehandedly withstood the tide of communal fires in the subcontinent has remained restricted to the older generations while the youth just remember the late Sheikh as someone who facilitated the state’s accession to India.

Kashmir Valley was the only place in the subcontinent that did not witness a single communal riot in the wake of the country’s partition in 1947 because of the secular vision given by the Sheikh.

The politics of Hindu-Muslim unity was something Dogra Maharaja Hari Singh could not handle except by imprisoning the ‘Lion of Kashmir for extolling his people to freedom from the yoke of slavery and penury’.

Second to none in the secular politics of India, the Sheikh today is a largely betrayed man – sometimes by his own colleagues and sometimes by the inheritors of his legacy, both of whom have miserably failed the vision the man had given to his people.

His most remarkable contribution, besides giving Kashmiris a sense of pride, has been the landmark agrarian reforms which gave the proprietary rights of land to peasants. Till then, they tilled those lands on behalf of absentee landlords.

Sheikh’s agrarian reforms, the first of their kind in India, brought in 1950, are still to be matched in their sweeping empowerment of landless tillers who became masters of their own destiny.

Little wonder the Sheikh ruled the hearts and minds of his people till the very end of his life in 1982. When he died, more than a million mourners participated in his burial on the banks of the Dal Lake in Srinagar adjacent to the Hazratbal shrine.

Much water has flowed down the Jhelum since, and the charisma of the Sheikh is little remembered by the youth today, but a more popular leader is yet to be produced by Kashmir.

He may be eulogised or cursed for acceding to secular India against the rationale of the Two Nation Theory that saw the country divided into two with millions losing life and home, but the Sheikh continues to remain relevant to the politics and ethos of Kashmir.

Despite his detractors, the over six feet tall, Karakul wearing man of Kashmir politics continues to be loved and loathed 29 years after his death.

The party (Regional National Conference) he founded might be a far cry from what it was during his lifetime, the inheritors of his legacy, both son Farooq Abdullah and grandson, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, might have failed the charisma, yet the late Sheikh continues to remain the referral point on Kashmir politics.

(Sheikh Abdul Qayoom can be contacted at sheikh.abdul@ians.in)

PDP patron and former chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, whose party is focusing on spreading its wings in the Jammu region, referred to the failure of the government in conducting the civic polls.

The polls to civic agencies and town area committees have not been held since February 2010. Earlier, the polls were held in 2004, after a gap of more than two decades.

‘Why is the government shying away from polls and the panchayats which were elected this year are without powers, there are no proper panchayat ghars (buildings), and the sanctity of the legislative assembly has already been eroded,’ Sayeed said while lashing out at the government at a public rally in the border town of Ranbirsinghpora, 30 km from Jammu.

Sayeed regretted that ‘instead of addressing aspirations of the people, the present regime headed by the National Conference has been brazenly indulging in gimmicks for its survival’.

Scores of protesting Shia Muslims clashed with the police in Jehangir Chowk here.

More than three dozen protesters were taken into preventive custody, a police officer said.

The authorities had imposed restrictions in the city to prevent the Muharram procession.

Heavy police and paramilitary reinforcements were moved in the areas falling under three police stations of Shaheedgunj, Maisuma and Kothibagh.

Authorities here have been disallowing the Shia procession on the 8th of the Muslim month of Muharram since the outbreak of the separatist violence in the early 1990s due to fears of the event being hijacked by separatists and resulting law and order problems.

However, small Muharram processions in other parts of the city were allowed Sunday.

The march would start in the afternoon from Guru Bazzar, city’s interior locality and wind its way through the historic Lal Chowk, the city centre and culminate at the tourist hub of Dalgate after covering a distance nearly four km.

The authorities early Sunday morning moved heavy police and paramilitary reinforcements in the areas falling under three police stations of Shaheedgunj, Maisuma and Kothibagh to enforce strict restrictions.

No movement was being allowed in the city centre and its adjoining areas.

A senior police officer said restrictions had to be imposed in the areas as a precautionary measure to maintain law and order.

Security forces have erected barricades and coils of razor fitted wire have been placed at some intersections to block pedestrian and vehicular movement.

Authorities are, however, allowing small processions by the Shia community in the interior areas of the city.

‘The state government has not fulfilled our demands,’ said the local handicapped persons’ association general secretary Abdul Rashid.

‘We met Chief Minister Omar Abdullah May 26 and he promised to fulfil our genuine demands but nothing has happened so far,’ he added.

The demands include introduction of Braille education system from primary to university level in the state, reservations in government jobs, enhancement of monthly pension, concessions in payments of revenue to the government, setting up of a handicapped advisory board, and providing prosthesis aid and artificial limbs.

‘We also demand free medical treatment for the handicapped people in all the government-run hospitals in the state,’ said Ghulam Muhammad Lone, who is physically challenged.

The protestors displayed placards to highlight their plight and the apathy shown by the society towards them.

Later, they conducted a peaceful march to the residence of the chief minister here but police took some of them into preventive custody before they could reach it.

‘They have been restrained from breaching Section 144 of the criminal procedure code according to which assembly of five or more people is deemed as illegal. The detained people have, however, been released now,’ a police officer said.

The minimum temperature was minus 0.4 degrees Celsius in Srinagar, minus 2.2 degrees in south Kashmir’s Pahalgam hill station, and minus 1.6 degrees Celsius at north Kashmir’s Gulmarg ski resort, Sonam Lotus, director of the local meteorological office, told IANS here.

In the Ladakh region of the state, Leh town recorded a minimum of minus 10.0 degrees Celsius while it was minus 6.8 degrees in the Kargil town.

‘At minus 10.6 degrees, Leh town was the coldest in the state today. Same weather conditions are going to continue for at least three to four more days.

‘Because of clear night skies and haze in the mornings, we are expecting a further dip in the minimum temperatures in the valley and the Ladakh region during the next three to four days,’ Lotus said.

Guerrillas fired at Ghulam Muhammad Lone, a block president of the party, from a close range in Safakadal area of old city injuring him critically, a senior police officer told IANS.

‘Lone received bullet wounds in neck and chest and was immediately taken to SMHS hospital where doctors were trying to revive him,’ the officer said.

Police immediately rushed to the spot and the area was searched.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.

Sources said Abdullah wants to denotify four districts — Srinagar, Budgam, Jammu and Samba — from the Disturbed Areas Act. This would automatically mean that armed forces would not have any powers under the AFSPA to operate in these areas.

AFSPA is applicable only in places notified as disturbed areas.

Sources say the chief minister is ‘immovable’ on the issue.

Speaking to reporters in Delhi Thursday, union Home Minister P. Chidambaram had said: ‘The decision to denotify areas from Disturbed Areas Act would be taken by the governor on the advice of the state government.’

‘At the moment, what the Jammu and Kashmir chief minister wishes to be done is to denotify areas which had been originally notified as disturbed areas. That is his effort now. That, as I said earlier, is in accordance to the Cabinet Committee on Security decision which requested him to review the matter in the Unified HQs,’

Kashmir’s main opposition Peoples Democratic Party, the separatists and Kashmir Bar Association have asked Abdullah to live upto his promise that he made on Oct 21 when he declared that AFSPA would go within days.

But the reservations of the Indian Army, which fears that terrorists would take advantage of the absence of the empowering laws to the armed forces, has kept the matter pending.

The chief minister has met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress President Sonia Gandhi, Defence Minister A.K. Antony, Chidambaram and Army chief V.K. Singh to put across his point.

‘We have recovered 53 stolen vehicles and 63 motorcycles worth Rs.2,66,00,000,’ Senior Superintendent of Police (Srinagar) Ashiq Hussain Bukhari told media persons here.

‘In addition to these, mobile phones, grocery items and gold worth Rs.3,00,000 were also recovered. The gangs were active in Srinagar city for the last few months,’ he added.

At least six people have been arrested — they include a 12-year-old boy whom the police described as an expert carjacker.

The district police chief, however, confirmed that some members of these gangs were absconding.

Addressing a well attended public rally in Rafiabad village of north Kashmir Baramulla district, Omar said: ‘The peaceful situation in the Valley during this year has had positive effect on the economic welfare steps taken by the government.

‘But, political stability is not possible without the involvement of the people.

‘We were able to hold successful panchayat elections and subsequently transfer powers to these democratic institutions.’

The chief minister said his government is determined to ensure that peace dividends reach people in all fields of life and they are actively involved in the process of development and political stability.

‘My government has taken various measures on the law and order front to inculcate a sense of belonging in the people and make them all-encompassing in the process of restoration of peace and development.

‘We have enhanced the role of the Jammu and Kashmir police in the maintenance of law and order,’ he said adding that the removal of bunkers and reduction in the security forces were other important steps taken by the state government during the last three years.

Taking a dig at the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) headed by former chief minister, Mufti Muhammad Sayeed, Omar said, ‘During their tenure they only fed the people with the hollow slogan of ‘healing touch’ but did nothing on ground and even opposed the ‘Rehabilitation Resolution’ then brought by a private member in the state legislature.

‘We have framed the Rehabilitation Policy for the return of youth from across the line of control (LOC), implemented the same and provided opportunity to peace loving youth to be part of the civil society.’

On empowering the people, Omar Abdullah referred to the strengthening and implementing of the right to information act (RTI).

He said the implementation of the public service guarantee act (PSGA) was yet another initiative to curb corruption at lower levels and empowering public to have legal right to get specific public service in a specific timeline.

PDP patron Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, also a former chief minister, spoke of regional balance at a meeting with party workers here, a day after the ruling National Conference’s MP Ghulam Nabi Ratanpuri alleged that Kashmiris were being subjected to ‘gradual disempowerment’ under the current regime of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah.

Ratanpuri, a Rajya Sabha member, earlier gave the statement to a Kashmir-based news agency Tuesday. His charges were rebutted by advisor to chief minister Mubarak Gul.

The PDP leader also highlighted how the coalition government of the PDP and the Congress from 2002-05 upheld the regional balance in the border state.

Mufti Mohammad Sayeed told party workers that ‘the PDP-led regime had set an example of equitable and balanced development in Jammu and Kashmir’.

‘After 1947, for the first time all regions were treated equally in development and other decision-making process and the credit for this goes to the PDP-Congress regime which was formed in the year 2002,’ he said.

‘There is no move by the government to replace a temporary legislation with a permanent legislation which is being debated at present in the media,’ he told Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) state secretary M.Y. Tarigami, according to an official spokesman.

‘No paper has been prepared in this regard and it was just one of the suggestions,’ said Abdullah, adding: ‘Various suggestions in this regard have been received from various quarters and they are under examination.’

‘The government understands the sensitivity of the issue and therefore any decision in this regard will be taken only after wider consultation with all the concerned,’ said Abdullah, according to the spokesman.

Earlier, while talking to media on Nov 23, he had said that the government was ready to amend the RPC (the state’s version of the Indian Penal Code) to bring it on a par with the CrPC, if the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) was removed.

His announcement, however, sparked off a strong reaction from various political groups, including main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PD) and separatists in Kashmir.

PDP president Mehbooba Mufti even went to the extent of saying that it was like bringing Jammu and Kashmir under ‘martial law’.

‘Both the judicial and the administrative functioning of the commission have remained suspended for more than a month now,’ a source in the SHRC told IANS here.

‘The state government is yet to nominate the successor of Justice (retd) Syed Bashir-ud-Din, the chairperson of the commission who demitted office on Oct 24 following the completion of his three year term,’ the source said.

Meanwhile, the panel’s investigative wing is also headless following the transferring out of the inspector general of police who was heading it, and no one being appointed to succeed him, the sources said.

‘The state government recently transferred Gulzar Singh Slathia, the inspector general of police (IGP) heading the investigative wing of the commission without the concurrence of the SHRC which is otherwise mandatory before such a change.

‘No officer has been posted with the SHRC to head its investigative wing. It appears the government is not interested in the normal functioning of the commission,’ the source said.

Significantly, the hearing of some crucial cases like that of the unmarked graves could not be taken up since the division bench required to hear the case could not be constituted in the absence of the chairperson.

The Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) has filed a petition before the panel for the details of those buried in the more than 2,000 unmarked graves, discovered by the SHRC’s investigative wing of the SHRC, in north Kashmir.

The parents of disappeared have expressed fears that their dear ones could be buried in these unmarked graves.

A recent survey confirmed there were just 210 of these animals whose natural habitat was the Dachigam National Park, located 14 km from city centre Lal Chowk in Jammu and Kashmir’s summer capital Srinagar.

Different aspects of the survival of this rare species including its history, biology, ecology, monitoring, management, socio-economics, diseases, conservation and breeding were highlighted during the workshop.

Tej Pratap Singh, vice chancellor of the local agricultural university, laid emphasis on the increasing wildlife-human conflict in the Valley, need for habitat improvement and economic growth.

‘The Hangul lalong with other wild species has become a victim due to an increase in human population leading to scarcity of land, water and other natural resources,’ he said.

‘The impact of human activities on physical environment has laid tremendous pressure on the natural resources. During the past many years there has been a domination of technology and demography which has resulted in hindrances for the welfare of the ecology,’ he said.

For the first time, the recently-elected village headmen were invited to the workshop to educate them about the delicate ecology in the mountains.

‘(The) army is not our master. Just remember that. The people of Jammu and Kashmir are the masters of their state,’ Abdullah, who has been the chief minister of the state thrice in the past, told Karan Thapar in ‘Devil’s Advocate’ on CNN-IBN news channel.

He said the the army’s job was to protect the borders. ‘They have to guard the border so the infiltration doesn’t take place. It is their job. Rest the local police, the CRPF (Central Reserve Police Force) are ready to handle (the situation),’ said the union minister of renewable energy.

He criticised the army and intelligence agencies for failing to check the infiltration from the border with Pakistan.

‘How are they coming, if they (the army) are able to handle? Tell me how they are able to handle? They must have failed otherwise how do they enter? How do they enter? It’s the failure of the entire system. The intelligence failure. We have intelligence – we have external intelligence and we have internal intelligence. There must be a failure somewhere if they are coming in,’ he said.

Strongly supporting his son, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah’s views on the removal of the law that gives sweeping powers to the army in fighting militancy, the senior Abdullah said he was ‘sure it will go’.

But added it was not the decision that could be taken in a spur of the moment. ‘Everything has to take time after all AFSPA was introduced in 1990 by the then government and the governor. Now the question is, situation has gone better. What is the actual situation is known only to the chief minister because he gets all the inputs.’

Calling the the AFSPA a ‘draconian law’, Adbullah said there was no proposal to withdraw it from bordering areas where terrorists would infiltrate or set up sanctuaries.

‘The AFPSA is not going to be removed from those areas. It’s not going from areas they (terrorists) are coming in. But for the other districts it will go. You think the CRPF and the police are useless. That they can’t deal with it. That they are unable to deal with it,’ he said.

Asked if his son had mishandled the issue by going public over its withdrawal without taking stake holders on board, Abdullah said: ‘No, not at all. None, none whatsoever. If he (the chief minister) decides that it (AFSPA) has to go, it must go.’

He said it did not matter if the army and the central government disagree. ‘It is the wishes of the people that matter and if the people feel that the things are better, then let’s give them that. They (army) said when 40 bunkers were removed. They said if the bunkers go, there will be no safety. The bunkers were removed and the people are able to breathe safely. People are walking safely.’

He said the army had its view over the AFSPA. ‘As far as I am concerned, I feel that once its lifted, it is not something that cannot be brought back if the situation turns like that. The chief minister has already cleared that.

‘Therefore, the army’s feeling that it will give more powers to the militants to act, I don’t agree with this thing because this is going to take place only in Srinagar, Budgam, Samba and Jammu… So how does this affect in such small districts?’

National Conference president and union minister for New and Renewable Energy Minister Farooq Abdullah called the PDP a ‘party of saboteurs’ and recalled how it had withdrawn support to the Congress-led government in 2008.

He was addressing a public meeting at Basholi in Kathua district in the Jammu region at a time when the political temperature of the state is rising owing to the debate on the revocation of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act and the challenge thrown by Farooq Abdullah’s brother and senior NC leader Sheikh Mustafa Kamal by challenging the party leadership’s alliance with the Congress.

Farooq Abdullah has been visiting the state and addressing rallies ever since Kamal accused him and Chief Minister Omar Abdullah of capitulating to Congress pressure in removing him from two key party posts.

Kamal was asked to step down from the positions of additional general secretary and chief spokesperson of the NC.

Farooq Abdullah, however, reiterated that ‘the NC-Congress alliance would be further strengthened’.

He said that ‘the NC and Congress workers should jointly work with one another and become a bridge between the people and the government’.

She was scheduled to leave on Sunday, official sources said, but did not give any reasons for the curtailed programme.

On Saturday, Patil paid obeisance at the famous Hindu shrine.

Governor N.N. Vohra, who is also the chairman of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board, accompanied her and briefed her about the activities of the board. She was at the shrine for more than one hour.

This is the silver jubilee year of the shrine board, which had come into existence in August 1986.

The shrine, in Reasi district of the Jammu region, attracts more than eight million pilgrims every year. The hill-top shrine is located at the height of 5,200 feet above sea level.

The incident took place in south Kashmir’s Tral town.

‘Militants fired at Abdul Salam Bhat, a sarpanch and block president of the National Conference in Tral market Friday afternoon. The injured was shifted to hospital for treatment where doctors have described his condition as out of danger,’ a senior police officer told IANS here.

No separatist guerrilla group has owned responsibility for the attack. Police said the area around the site is being searched. No arrests have been made so far.

Many shops, businesses and schools were closed in the capital Srinagar while low attendance was recorded in government offices and banks.

Though public transport remained off roads here, private vehicles was plying.

Authorities made elaborate security arrangements as police and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) troopers in riot gear were seen deployed in various uptown and downtown localities of the city.

The strike call evoked mixed response in other towns of the valley.

Governor N.N. Vora and Chief Minister Omar Abdullah were among the senior functionaries who received her at the Jammu airport.

She will be in Jammu till Sunday, and is also sheduled to address a convocation of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University.

A division bench of the high court headed by Chief Justice Ibrahim Kaifullah, while disposing off the public suit of three activists of Routes, an organisation of Kashmiri Pandits, said that the matter pertains to the police.

The petitioners, the court said, should register their complaint with the police.

Arundhati Roy while speaking at a seminar in New York had denounced ‘Indian occupation of Kashmir’ and urged that the ‘right to self determination be given to the people of Jammu and Kashmir’.

Taking strong exception to her remarks, the activists of Routes, Veer Saraf, Vijay Kumar had sought direction from the court for her utterances, which they said that were ‘untenable’.

‘We run two trains of eight coaches in the valley daily and these are running on schedule today,’ Upinder Singh, chief area manager of the railways, told IANS here.

The first train starts in the morning from south Kashmir’s Qazigund station to Srinagar and another leaves central Kashmir’s Badgam station for Baramulla station in north Kashmir.

‘Our coaches are air-heated during the winter months and we have separate cabins for the physically-challenged passengers,’ Singh added.

He said more than 6,000 passengers avail of the train services in the valley daily, travelling to their offices and back home.

The engine and one coach of the Qazigund-Srinagar-Baramulla train Wednesday derailed in Anantnag district, injuring 20 people, in the first rail accident since the train services were launched in the Kashmir Valley in 2008.

‘Initial investigations have shown the accident happened because of a pressure leakage, but the final report is awaited,’ Singh said.

The Qazigund-Baramulla rail stretch is 119 km long, of which the initial 66 km stretch in south Kashmir was inaugurated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi in October 2008.

The train services are still to be connected with the rest of the country as the 11.89 km long rail tunnel across the Pir Panchal mountains, the longest tunnel in the world, would be ready for traffic in December 2012.

She will be attending and addressing the convocation at Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University Friday. She would also be offering payers at the Vaishno Devi shrine.

Elaborate security arrangements have been put in place for her visit, with special commando teams deployed at key places.

‘Every necessary arrangement has been made for the visit of the VVIP,’ Dilbag Singh, inspector general of police, Jammu Zone, told IANS. He said the security agencies were taking no chances.

Governor N.N. Vohra, sources said, was personally monitoring the details of the president’s visit. He is chancellor of the Vaishno Devi University and also chairman of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board.

Kamal, the younger brother of NC president and union minister Farooq Abdullah and the chief minister’s uncle, has said that Omar Abdullah was behind him being ousted from two key posts in the party.

Kamal was removed as additional general secretary and chief spokesperson early this month for his remarks on Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi and governance in the state. Omar Abdullah and Rahul Gandhi are considered to be close friends.

This is the first time that Kamal has hit out at the chief minister.

‘The importance of Mustafa Kamal is because he is the son of Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah and is a senior legislator. It is also true that he was appointed to important positions by the party president and whenever he makes a statement, it’s bound to have a fall out,’ a party legislator told IANS.

While a section of the party describes Kamal’s utterances as his ‘frustration’ on not being a minister, there are some who believe that party workers are ‘disgusted’ with the way events are panning out.

A young leader and Omar Abullah loyalist said there was need to bridge the gap ‘and it would be in the interest of the party if two are seen together and speaking in one voice on the issues confronting the state’.

Panchayati Raj Minister V. Kishore Chandra Deo said his ministry will provide ‘foundation training’ to the representatives.

The 16-phase panchayat polls in the state were held during April-June this year. The elections were marked by a high voter turnout despite a boycott call by sections of separatists. Over 75 percent of the more than five million eligible voters participated in the polls.

The last panchayat elections in the state were held in 2000-2001.

Deo said the first batch of representatives were likely to be provided training by the end of this month at the National Institute of Rural Development, Hyderabad, and some state-level institutions.

‘We intend to build their capacities by imparting training. Such training and interaction with their counterparts in other states will give them insight and provide them basic inputs with regard to local governance,’ Deo told IANS.

He said over 35,000 panchayat representatives will be given a five-day training over the next three-four months.

Deo also wrote a letter to Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah last month, complimenting him on the ‘successful and smooth’ panchayat elections.

He said the polls were ‘certainly a concrete step for restoring normalcy in the state’ and his ministry would facilitate capacity building of the newly formed panchayati raj institutions (PRIs).

The panchayat elections in Jammu and Kashmir were held under the state Panchayati Raj Act.

However, the state Congress has been demanding incorporation of the 73rd Constitution Amendment Act, 1992, in the state’s Panchayati Raj Act to empower the rural local bodies.

The 73rd amendment provides for devolution of power and responsibilities to different tiers of PRIs.

State Congress chief Saifuddin Soz said real empowerment of panchayat bodies will not take place in the state till the amendment is adopted.

‘It will lead to empowerment of the panchayati raj institutions,’ Soz told IANS.

He said if the amendment act is adopted, it will not be possible for the state government to nominate zila parishad chiefs.

In his letter to Abdullah, Deo also referred to the issue.

‘As I understand, the legislative intent behind the 73rd Amendment based on the vision and dreams of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi was to provide a potent mechanism for people’s involvement in development and governance process. This also generates among the people at large a feeling of actual participation in the governance and a sense of inclusiveness among them,’ Deo said in the letter.

The minister also emphasised the role of gram sabhas and said they not only provide a forum but also give an opportunity for every citizen, including those who are not elected representatives, to participate in development and governance at the grassroots.

(Prashant Sood can be contacted at prashant.s@ians.in)

The PIL, filed in the Jammu and Kashmir High Court here, said that the remarks were ‘untenable’ because they were ‘anti-national’.

Filed by Routes, an organisation of displaced Kashmiri Pandits, the PIL demanded that Roy should be restrained from making offensive remarks against India in reference to Jammu and Kashmir within and outside of the country.

The PIL filed by Routes’ members, Veer Saraf, Ajay Bhat and Vijay Kashkari, alsosought impunding of her passport.

Speaking in New York recently, Roy had reportedly demanded an ‘end to the brutal occupation of Kashmir’ by India and also said that its people must be given the ‘right to self determination’.

Retweeting to a question posed by one of his followers on Twitter, Omar Abdullah said about Kamal: ‘He’s my uncle and I have the greatest of respect for him. This matter is between him and my father, no reason to drag me into it.’

His uncle has accused Omar Abdullah of pressuring his father and National Conference president Farooq Abdullah to oust Kamal from the two party positions.

Kamal had told a channel Monday that his nephew was ‘weak’ and felt ‘insecure because of my popularity’ and had pressured Farooq Abdullah to ‘make me step down’ from the posts of additional general secretary and chief spokesperson of the National Conference.

Farooq Abdullah had appointed Kamal to the party posts in early October, but had asked him to resign after a spate of controversial statements, including one asking Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi ‘to run his party (Congress) and not to reflect on the governance of the state government’.

In some of his statements, he had accused New Delhi of neglecting Jammu and Kashmir and the aspirations of its people. Kamal is the youngest brother of Farooq Abdullah.

‘The process is on, the discussions are going on and we do not want any public debate on this issue,’ Omar Abdullah said during the inauguration of an electric power grid station in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district.

The chief minister dispelled media reports that the move to partially revoke AFSPA from certain areas of the state had met with stiff resistance from some quarters.

‘Nobody has opposed the move to partially revoke AFSPA. Yes, apprehensions have been expressed over the issue and we are trying to address those apprehensions,’ he said.

The chief minister said a joint team of state government officials would soon visit Delhi to carry forward the discussions with the central government.

Media reports here said a five-member team of state government officials, including State Commissioner/Secretary (Home) B.R. Sharma and Director General of Police (DGP) Kuldeep Khoda would soon visit Delhi to discuss the matter with union home and defence ministry officials.

The state government has proposed revocation of AFSPA — which gives sweeping powers to the army — from Srinagar and Badgam towns in the Valley and Jammu and Samba towns in the Jammu region.

However, the move has been strongly resisted by the army, which says it would impede the operational capabilities of the security forces.

The chief minister has asserted that the army has not operated in these areas for many years. He also said AFSPA could always be reimposed if the security situation deteriorated.

‘We demand the complete revocation of the AFSPA from the entire state and not merely from four districts as proposed by Omar Abdullah. The army does not anyway operate in these areas from where Omar proposes to revoke the AFSPA,’ PDP leader Molvi Ifftekhar Hussain Ansari said at a rally here.

The PDP took out a rally against alleged rampant corruption in the state. It started from the party headquarters and ended in Regal Chowk, adjacent to city centre Lal Chowk.

Scores of PDP activists carried placards against graft and set ablaze an effigy depicting corruption.

Former deputy chief minister and PDP leader Muzaffar Hussain Baig also joined the rally.

The rally also called for the release of minors allegedly arrested by the police on charges of stone pelting in the city.

Abdullah posted on Twitter late Sunday, ‘Stop the rumour mongering. Govt (government) has no intention of banning Facebook. Only a request to block certain blasphemous pages has been made’.

Abdullah has through his post, however, confirmed that a request has been made to Facebook to block some blasphemous pages which could result in communal disharmony in the politically volatile Kashmir.

Following some highly objectionable picture posts on Facebook during the past week, Law Minister Ali Muhammad Sagar had said the government was mulling banning the site to check the spread of blasphemous posts regarding Islam and its holiest place of pilgrimage, the Kaaba in Saudi Arabia.

Many student organisations held peaceful protests in the state’s summer capital Srinagar last week, demanding the ban on Facebook.

Justice H.S. Bedi, a former judge of the Supreme Court, would head the inquiry commission, an official spokesman said here Friday evening.

Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had announced that he would be getting the death of the NC worker probed by a judicial commission.

‘The Commission so appointed shall enquire into the causes and circumstances leading to the death of Syed Mohammad Yousuf in Bijbehara, Anantnag and fix the responsibility for the lapses, if any, committed by any person in discharge of his duties under law,’ the spokesman said.

Yousuf was alleged to have taken a bribe of Rs.1.18 crore from two of his fellow party workers, promising them ministerial berth and membership of the legislative council.

The chief minister had called the three to his house, and had handed the alleged bribe taker to the crime branch of the state police on Sep 29. Yousuf died in police custody the next day.

His family members alleged he was tortured to death, while Omar Abdullah maintained there was no torture.

The commission shall perform all the functions necessary for holding the enquiry or incidental thereto and submit its report to the government within a period of six weeks.

The party had already disqualified Chaman Lal Gupta, who was the party’s legislature party leader at the time of the council elections.

The party’s decision to disqualify six more MLAs was announced by BJP’s state unit spokesperson Nirmal Kamal. She said the ‘party wants to purge itself of the elements who had voted against the party candidate Ranjit Singh in the council elections’.

Chaman Lal Gupta, Durga Dass, Baldev Raj, Gharu Ram, Jagdish Sapolia, Lal Chand and Bharat Bhushan had voted for the National Conference-led coalition government candidates.

The BJP candidate had polled only four votes as against 11, as seven party legislators had voted for the ruling alliance candidate.

The spokesperson said the BJP has written to the assembly speaker and also to the Election Commission of India informing them of the party’s decision.

A group of people carrying placards bearing Islamic slogans marched from the uptown Maisuma locality to the city centre Lal Chowk after the prayers.

The protesters shouted slogans against those responsible for posting the Facebook comments. They demanded serious action against those responsible.

Police and the paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) were deployed in sufficient strength to maintain law and order. As the protests were peaceful, the security forces did not intervene.

However, later some youths gathered in the lanes and bylanes of the politically sensitive Maisuma locality and stoned police and the CRPF troopers.

The security forces maintained restraint. A few tear smoke canisters were lobbed by police to disperse the protesters.

Another group of protesters gathered in the Sarai Bala area, adjacent to Lal Chowk, raising slogans against the alleged blasphemy. As the protesters remained peaceful, the security forces allowed the gathering.

Hardline separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani, placed under house arrest by the authorities, had called for post Friday prayer protests.

Another senior separatist leader, Shabir Shah, was also been placed under house arrest as a precaution in Srinagar.

‘If the chief minister feels conditions are better and things have improved (in terms of security in the state), we should take his views,’ the senior Abdullah told reporters on the sidelines of a book release here.

‘As chief minister, I am the boss. I get the inputs from all the agencies. Today, if the chief minister (Omar) feels that conditions are better and our relations with Pakistan are improving, then I feel that we should take his view,’ said Abdullah, who has been the chief minister of the state thrice in the past.

He said he too felt that the time had come when the state was on the mend and from some of the areas, the AFSPA should be removed ‘because people feel that things are getting normal’.

He said he was the person who invoked the AFSPA and created the Unified Command Headquarters when Kashmir was in the grip of Pakistan-backed insurgency in 1990.

The idea, he said, was opposed ‘tooth and nail’ by the then army chief Gen Shankar Roychowdhury.

‘But that was then. When I recently went to Kashmir, the flight to Srinagar was full of visitors. The situation in the region is much better,’ he said.

At the same time, he said that it was a sensitive issue and any decision regarding it would have to be taken carefully.

‘We have to be very careful. Whatever steps have to be taken, they have to be taken with great care with all the things being understood carefully, then only one must take steps forward,’ he added.

Referring to Omar Abdullah’s meetings with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, senior ministers in his cabinet and Congress president Sonia Gandhi, the union minister for renewable energy said: ‘I am sure good discussions have happened,’ he said,

Abdullah didn’t name the Indian Army, which vehemently opposes the idea of revoking the act that gives sweeping powers to armed forces in fighting militants.

He said opposition to the proposal would always be there.

‘There was opposition when we mooted the idea of lifting security pickets from Srinagar. Today, Kashmir is much more peaceful. Tourists are coming,’ Abdullah told IANS later.

Despite opposition, he said, ‘The AFSPA will gradually have to go’.

Omar Abdullah has been persisting with the idea of partial lifting of the act.

He was recently in Delhi to meet the prime minister, Home Minister P. Chidambaram, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Defence Minister A.K. Antony and the army chief, General V.K. Singh.

The meetings with members of the Cabinet Committee on Security proved inconclusive. He was asked by the central government to take the army on board before taking any decision on the act.

Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) general secretary Prakash Karat and Communist Party of India (CPI) general secretary A.B. Bardhan unequivocally supported Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah’s demand for partial withdrawal of the act that gives sweeping powers to the armed forces in fighting militants.

The two leaders were addressing reporters here on the initiative of the Centre for Policy Analysis (CPA), a Delhi-based think tank that claims to be working for Kashmir.

LJP chief Vilasrao Paswan and Shahid Siddiqui of the RLD also supported the demand of the Left parties.

‘Militancy and violence have come down drastically in Kashmir. The army is not deployed in most of the urban areas. We were given a clear understanding by the central government that there will be a review of AFSPA. There was an unwritten assurance that it will be withdrawn from some areas,’ Karat said.

Karat said he was unable to understand why the army was opposed to the idea of withdrawing the AFSPA from the areas where they are not in command.

‘There seems to be a vested interest. There is a clear cut need to bring down the number of security forces from Jammu and Kashmir,’ Karat said.

Bardhan, claiming to have the support of major non-Bharatiya Janata Party and non-Congress parties, said continuing with the AFSPA in Kashmir was ‘atrocious’.

‘There are strong grounds for withdrawing the act. We will also conduct public meetings all over the country on the issue,’ Bardhan said.

Paswan said the issue of lifting the controversial act was also discussed in an all-party meeting held last year after three-month-long violent street protests left over 100 people dead in Kashmir.

He said a parliamentary delegation that went to Jammu and Kashmir last year had also vouched for lifting the law. ‘We will have a full discussion on Kashmir in the winter session now,’ he said.

Security forces early morning surrounded a house in Shalidoora (Keller) village of Shopian district, 55 km from this Jammu and Kashmir summer capital, after information about the presence of militants there.

‘When the holed up militants were challenged, they started firing at the troops. One local militant belonging to Hizbul Mujahideen was killed,’ a police officer told IANS.

‘Searches are going on. No security force personnel was injured nor any collateral damage caused to civilian life and property in the area,’ he added.

Abdullah called on the governor to give details on his meetings this week with the prime minister, United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Defence Minister A.K. Antony and Army Chief Gen. V.K. Singh amongst others.

The chief minister had last month said that AFSPA, which protects armed forces personnel, would be lifted from some parts of the state very soon.

The army in a recently held Unified Command meeting had said ‘no’ as it believes that even partial revocation of AFSPA would hamper anti-terrorism operations in the state. The Unified Command, headed by the chief minister, consists of top civil, police, army, paramilitary and intelligence officials that takes decisions on matters relating to security in the state.

The meeting between the governor and chief minister lasted for more than an hour.

Sources in the police said a cordon was laid in a mountainous area of Pijari in Kishtwar following a tip-off about the presence of Jehangir Saroori, one of the main plotters of the Delhi blasts, and a gun battle was sparked off while the security forces were chasing him.

A special police officer was killed in the gunfight, the sources said, adding there was difficulty in closing in on Saroori as the area is dotted with dense forests.

Following the blasts in New Delhi, the National Investigation Agency had zeroed in on Kishtwar town, 230 km north-east of Jammu and arrested three youth, after it was discovered that an e-mail claiming that Harkat-ul-Jehadi Islami had executed the blast was sent from a cyber cafe there.

The three youth were taken to Delhi and during investigations, it had emerged that Saroori, also associated with militant outfit Hizb-ul-Mujahadeen, was one of the masterminds, the sources said.

NIA had started looking for Saroori and Junaid after the arrest of Wasim Akram, a medical student in Bangladesh. Wasim, the brother of Junaid, had disclosed to the NIA that his brother and Jehangir were involved in plotting the blast that left 15 dead and over 80 injured.

Touching upon a range of issues in the state and the latest campaign of the chief minister for revocation of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act from some parts of the state, PDP president Mehbooba Mufti told a rally of her party workers here that ‘it is surprising and shocking that the centre is acting like a silent spectator to the misdeeds and corruption of the Omar Abdullah government in Jammu and Kashmir’.

‘Look, who is talking about the repeal of AFSPA,’ Mehbooba mockingly asked of Omar Abdullah. ‘Omar used AFSPA in his house, where a hale and hearty National Conference worker Syed Mohammad Yousuf visits his house and comes out vomiting blood and dies within hours.’

‘If something happens in West Bengal or Karnataka, the centre and BJP make an issue out of it, but Jammu and Kashmir is witnessing such incidents (NC worker’s death), for which no FIR is lodged, no inquiry is set up, and the Centre and BJP choose to remain silent,’ Mehbooba Mufti said and asked: ‘Why?’

The PDP workers had organised a rally here to protest against the ‘corruption under the Omar Abdullah government’ in Jammu and Kashmir.

Mehbooba also raised the issue of high corruption in the state and the lowering of the ‘prestige of chief minister’s institution’.

‘All we have seen so far is the chief minister rushing to Delhi and begging for one thing or the other, and essentially the goal is to secure his chair. He is most of the time out of the state and all the time on TV channels. There is no governance, no work and the people are being taken for granted and looked down upon with contempt,’ Mehbooba Mufti said.

Addressing a media conference at his uptown Hyderpora residence here, Geelani said: ‘During our peaceful rally last Friday in Sopore town there was some commotion in which people caught a person and recovered a pistol from his possession. The person belonged to the army.’

‘His identity card said he was Naik Kamlesh Misra of the army. Police have also registered an FIR in the incident following our written complaint. The army also later confirmed he was part of the army’s covert team. Why was he present at our rally with a weapon?’

The senior separatist leader also said he had filed an application in this regard at the Sopore police station.

Geelani claimed he had been attacked 18 times in the past by the security forces, the first time being in 1996 when he alleged a rocket was fired at his house.

He also expressed fear that the security forces would harm his life and later blame separatist gunmen for it.

Meanwhile, police asked Geelani to produce the pistol, the identity card and the camera of the alleged army operative caught by the people in the Sopore rally Nov 11.

Responding to Geelani’s statement, a police press release here said: ‘…it is stated that Syed Ali Shah Geelani has moved an application before police station Sopore, but he was told to produce the pistol, identity card and the camera of the army man since Ayaz Akbar, the spokesman of Geelani’s Hurriyat group, has already briefed the media that the said army man was caught by Geelani’s men and a pistol was recovered from his possession besides an identity card of the army Intelligence, which he has failed to produce before the police’.

The press release confirmed that an FIR is already registered in this regard and Geelani’s application would form a part of the investigations.

Police also said ‘it is a really encouraging gesture on the part of Geelani that he has reposed trust in the system and the police for their professional competence’.

Addressing a media conference at his uptown Hyderpora residence in summer capital Srinagar, Geelani said: ‘During our peaceful rally last Friday in Sopore town there was some commotion in which people caught a person and recovered a pistol from his possession. The person belonged to the army.’

‘His identity card said he was Naik Kamlesh Misra of the army. Police have also registered an FIR in the incident following our written complaint. The army also later confirmed he was part of the army’s covert team. Why was he present at our rally with a weapon?’

Geelani said the act was clearly meant to threaten his life and disrupt a peaceful separatist rally.

Geelani claimed he had been attacked 18 times in the past by the security forces, the first time being in 1996 when he alleged a rocket was fired at his house.

He also expressed fear that the security forces would harm his life and later blame separatist gunmen for it.

‘We have said time and again that our struggle will continue till the Indian security forces vacate Kashmir. For us, Islam is not a religion to be observed in private. For us, Islam is a complete way of life, laying down clear guidelines for every field of human activity.’

‘The acts of the army prove that Jammu and Kashmir is a state ruled by the army and the sovereignty of India is upheld in the state through the might of the army’s gun,’ he said.

Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, who chaired the unified headquarters (UHQ) meeting in winter capital Jammu Nov 9, has brushed aside the stand taken by the army over the proposed partial revocation of AFSPA.

AFSPA, which gives sweeping powers to the armed forces, was invoked in the Valley in 1990 and the Jammu region in 2001.

Omar said he would not take ‘no’ as an option.

‘The army must come forward with a workable and feasible option. ‘No’ is not the option,’ Omar told reporters in summer capital Srinagar a day after the UHQ meeting in which the army is believed to have firmly opposed the move to revoke AFSPA even partially.

For the chief minister, the revocation of AFSPA from at least some areas of the Valley and the Jammu region has become a matter of credibility.

As the elected chief minister who also heads the UHQ, Omar Abdullah is in an unenviable position.

A highly sensitive issue that concerns the security of the state has been converted into a public confrontation. The army says it cannot be done and the chief minister says he shall have it done. The message that has gone out seems to be nobody’s bother.

As if the closed-door confrontation was not enough, leaders from both the ruling National Conference (NC) and the Congress have jumped on to the bandwagon for one-upmanship.

The most embarrassing statements for the state government came from none other than the chief spokesman of the NC and Omar’s uncle, Mustafa Kamal.

Kamal even accused the army of being responsible for some grenade attacks that occurred in the wake of Omar’s announcement about the partial revocation.

Although Kamal, in an interview to IANS, later denied he had ever said anything against the army, he continued to fume against the Congress and finally the Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi.

Following a statement by state Congress president Saif-ud-Din Soz, carried by the widely circulated Greater Kashmir newspaper, in which Soz said Rahul Gandhi was not happy with governance in the state, Kamal said Rahul’s happiness had nothing to do with the state’s governance.

The statement against Rahul Gandhi finally cost Kamal his status as the NC chief spokesman. NC patron Farooq Abdullah asked him to immediately step down.

While noises against and for the partial revocation of AFSPA continued in both the local NC and the Congress camps, the chief minister again asserted that the final call on revocation would be taken by the state government.

To top the confusion, Defence Minister A.K. Antony said the cabinet committee on security (CCS) had authorised the UHQ to decide the issue and Omar alone could not take the final call.

This followed reports in The Hindu attributed to S.A. Hasnain, the corps commander of army’s Srinagar-based 15th corps, saying if the state government went ahead with its decision to revoke AFSPA, the country would have to grant independence to Kashmir by 2016.

The newspaper said Hasnain had made the remarks during his presentation in the UHQ meeting Nov 9 in Jammu.

There is no doubt that the stand taken by the chief minister needs to be appreciated by those empowered to discuss the revocation whether completely or partially, but a faceoff between the army and the state government would come handy only for those who want the situation to slip back to what it was when even a discussion on AFSPA revocation was not possible.

The assertion that the state police and the local intelligence are in favour of the chief minister’s decision is fraught with serious risks.

It could place the army and the state police in a situation of mutual mistrust that would have far reaching consequences on the joint operations carried out by them against the separatist guerrillas.

(Sheikh Qayoom can be contacted at sheikh.abdul@ians.in)

‘The change in the security situation and the political process will have to be objectively reviewed,’ the prime minister said, to queries if the contentious legislation will be withdrawn from parts of Jammu and Kashmir as demanded by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah.

‘I don’t think the process has been completed,’ said Manmohan Singh, indicating the government is yet to make up its mind.

The prime minister was speaking to journalists on board his special aircraft while returning home from the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit in the Maldives.

Defence Minister A.K. Antony said Friday that the final call on revoking the law from parts of Jammu and Kashmir rests with the Unified Command, headed by Abdullah, whose call for partial withdrawal of the act has led to a raging debate.

‘The CCS (Cabinet Committee on Security) last year decided to leave it to the Unified Command to take a decision on partial withdrawal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act in Jammu and Kashmir,’ Antony told reporters in New Delhie on the sidelines of an event.

He was responding to a question on Abdullah’s remarks that his government had the authority to withdraw the AFSPA, which empowers security forces with authority to use force on or arrest suspects, from parts of the state.

Brazilian coach Juan Marcos Troia, who runs football training academies in the state, made the announcement at a function Friday.

Of the youngest of the six is 18-year-old Imran Bhat, of Old city Rainawari locality.

Bhatt was arrested by the police in 2005 for stone pelting and later released on assurances of good conduct given by his parents.

He still has 18 cases of stone pelting pending him though he has given up stone pelting for the good.

‘Every boy in my locality was pelting stones and I also joined them. The police picked me up one day outside my house, Bhatt said.

‘I heard of Juan Marcos Troia training local boys for football in 2006 and that is when I decided I must join the coaching camp,’ Imran said here at a function organised by the Argentinian born Brazilian coach.

Marcos said he saw promise in Bhatt the very day he watched his movements on the field.

‘I noticed the boy’s talent when he came for training to my camp and today he is ready to join the world’s best football training academy,’ the proud coach said.

Besides Bhatt, Basharat Bashir Baba from Pampore town, Masood Maqbool from Nowgam area of Srinagar, Abid Yaqoob from the Badgam district, Muzammil Mehmood Dar from Ganderbal district and Tahir Maqbool from the far off Gurez border town in Bandipora district would also be leaving for Brazil.

At a function here attended among others by state Sports Minister R.S. Chib, Marcos said: ‘The International Sports Academy Trust (ISAT) football developing programme in Kashmir is helping to fulfill the dreams of these six local boys.

‘The reason to send these young footballers to Brazil is to attend one of the most important football courses in the world given by the syndicate of professional football trainers of Sao Paulo, Brazil.

‘The course will capacitate them with a certificate to train footballers at a professional level.’

Marcos, who earlier this year received anonymous threats to leave the Kashmir Valley, said his football academy had grown quite impressively in many areas of the Kashmir region.

‘Today, we have six academies at Srinagar, Badgam, Nowgam, Ganderbal, Bandipora and Gurez. Some 3,000 men are involved in 20 of our teams from super division of the state at under 16 and under 14 levels.

‘We have so far arranged 50 different competitions in the state and outside. We also organised and sponsored five tournaments here in 2011,’ the coach said.

Kashmiris have always been ardent football lovers and despite the cold weather, local boys can be seen playing the game in the cities and towns of the valley.

‘President Jammu & Kashmir NC, Dr. Farooq Abdullah has asked Dr. Mustafa Kamal to resign immediately as the additional general secretary and chief spokesman of the party,’ a party statement said.

‘Dr. Farooq Abdullah said that he had to take this difficult decision because Dr. Mustafa Kamal has been making certain statements which are not in tandem with the policies of the NC and are against the coalition dharma,’ the statement added.

Kamal had stirred up a controversy recently by blaming the army for grenade attacks in the Valley to scuttle Chief Minister Omar Abdullah’s decision to partially revoke the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA). Kamal had also said the accession of the state to India was temporary.

However, he denied making the statements, saying he had been misquoted.

Omar Abdullah had said the statements from his uncle had come as a major embarrassment to him.

The elder Abdullah had some time ago warned Kamal to desist from making controversial statements.

NC’s coalition partner, the Congress, had demanded the NC should ask Kamal to behave.

‘The NC is committed to the NC-Congress coalition government and its smooth functioning and any indiscipline in this regard within the NC will not be tolerated,’ the party said Thursday.

Kamal was not available for comment.

Talking to mediapersons here, Azad, who is also a former chief minister, said: ‘The matter (of dealing with AFSPA) should be left entirely to the wisdom of the chief minister and (union) Home Minister P. Chidambram.’

‘This will send good signal both nationally and internationally,’ he added.

Strongly backing Omar, Azad said: ‘If even after 20 years we are not able to lift AFSPA from some parts of Jammu and Kashmir, then what are we doing all this time.’

While Chidambram and Omar Abdullah appear to be on the same page on the matter of lifting AFSPA from some areas ‘where it is not required’, the army is opposed to the move saying that militancy was not area-specific and any dilution of the law would handicap it in dealing with the situation.

Abdullah had announced at a function in the Kashmir Valley last month that AFSPA would be lifted from some parts of the state in a few days.

Despite the army voicing concern against lifting of AFSPA even from some parts of the state, the chief minister Thursday reiterated his stand on AFSPA saying he has asked panels formed last year to speed up their recommendations.

Two panels consisting of the state police chief, the home secretary along with the commanders of the army’s 15 and 16 Corps (Srinagar and Jammu, respectively) were constituted to study the status of AFSPA .

‘Around 50-60 percent of Delhi Master Plan is irrelevant, as a result of which several colonies have sprung up in the capital. The plan will be revised in 2012,’ said Nath.

‘It is easy to draft a plan in a walled office but such plans must be made in keeping with the ground realities,’ added the minister, who was present at the launch multilevel automated parking lot in south Delhi’s Sarojini Nagar.

Nath said that it is difficult to remove people who have been living in the city for the past 25-50 years.

‘The recent illegal construction will not be spared,’ he warned.

Pointing to the rapid change in the capital, the minister said: ‘Delhi is bearing the brunt of progress and development due to which its infrastructural capacity has exhausted.’

He further indicated that the Delhi Special Laws Provision Act will be extended with suitable modifications to safeguard the interests of genuine persons.

Delhi’s Master Plan 2021 specifically provides for strategies for housing for urban poor as well as to deal with the informal sector.

As media channels flashed reports about the army putting up stiff resistance to the proposed partial withdrawal of AFSPA, Abdullah wondered who was giving the details of the security grid meeting at the UHQ in Jammu Wednesday evening to the media.

‘It’s amusing to see how ‘sources’ are giving verbatim accounts to various channels. My dad used to complain about this after cabinet meetings,’ Abdullah said in another post on his Twitter site.

Not pleased at all with the ‘verbatim accounts’ of what happened at the UHQ meeting, Abdullah refused to oblige the media about what he himself had said during the meeting.

‘And for those of you in the media following me wanting to know what I said ‘NO comment’,’ said another of his posts.

Abdullah has made a strong case for the withdrawal of the controversial AFSPA from some areas.

‘Where the army has not operated for several years. What protection do they need in such areas,’ Omar had posed a counter-question while answering questions at a media conference in winter capital Jammu Wednesday.

‘We cannot wait for the last gun to fall silent,’ Abdullah said, upping the ante ahead of the UHQ meeting.

Even though the chief minister has said the last call on the partial revocation of AFSPA would be taken by the state cabinet, a panel comprising the state police, the intelligence agencies and the army has been asked to furnish a report on the security aspect of the proposed partial revocation of AFSPA as early as possible.

Abdullah is determined to go ahead with his decision to have the act revoked from Srinagar city and Badgam town in the valley and Jammu city and Samba town in the Jammu region.

A number of students were able to reach outside the civil secretariat here Wednesday despite heavy police presence. However, police intercepted and arrested them when they were approaching the main gate of the civil secretariat.

‘They violated the restrictions placed around the secretariat,’ said a police official.

The youth in Jammu are protesting the new recruitment policy announced by the state government in October, which slashes 50 percent salary of new employees in government jobs for two years and 25 percent for the next three years. Their confirmation in service would be done only after five years, the policy envisages.

Police also forcibly lifted two Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislators — Sham Choudhary and Sukhnandhan — who were staging a sit-in outside the civil secretariat against what they called the anti-people policies of the National Conference-Congress government.