Another attack on SOG camp
Tribune News Service and agencies

SRINAGAR, Dec 29 — Militants struck again at the headquarters of the Special Operations Group (SOG) of the Jammu and Kashmir police here today minutes before the Chief Minister, Dr Farooq Abdullah, was to visit the site which was the scene of a 24-hour gun battle between a group of ultras and security forces that ended last evening.

Militants fired three rifle grenades towards the SOG headquarters at Haftchinar this afternoon even though the area remained cordoned off after the 24-hour gun fight, which was prompted by the storming of the complex by three Harkat-ul-Mujahideen ultras on Monday evening.

The fresh attack on the SOG headquarters came barely 10 minutes before the arrival of the Chief Minister to inspect the damaged building, an official spokesman said.

While two grenades hit a nearby building housing the Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry (JAKLI), another landed in the SOG headquarters without exploding and was being defused.

No casualty was reported in the fresh attack.

Eleven security personnel, including a Deputy Superintendent of Police, were killed in yesterday’s gun fight, in which the three militants were also killed.

The attack on the SOG headquarters was followed by firing by militants at Maharaj Bazaar, barely 1 km from Haftchinar, which disrupted normal life in the heart of the state’s summer capital.

Security forces returned the fire, but the militants escaped.

The SOG is the elite wing of the state police, involved mainly to counter militancy.

Meanwhile, with the recovery of four more bodies of security personnel from the debris of the SOG headquarters today, the-death toll went up to 14, including three militants.

The casualties on security forces’ side were nine J and K policemen, including DSP Ganshyam Dass, and two personnel of CRPF.

A spokesman of the Harkat-ul Mujahideen, which has claimed responsibility for the earlier storming of the SOG headquarters, also claimed responsibility for today’s attack at the SOG headquarters and the firing at Maharaj Bazaar.

The Chief Minister today reviewed the law and order situation arising out of the latest militant attack on the SOG headquarters.

Dr Abdullah, who flew in here after performing Umrah (pilgrimage) in Saudi Arabia, chaired the meeting, attended, among others, by Works Minister A M Sagar, Home Minister Mushtaq Ahmad Lone and Director-General of Police Gurbachan Jagat, an official release said.

In another incident, the Jammu and Kashmir police achieved a major success today when it killed self-styled operational chief of Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba Mohammad Abdullah, who had masterminded a sensational attack on Badamibagh army headquarters in Srinagar on November 3.

Abdullah, alias ‘Abu Mawiya’, of Multan in Pakistan, was gunned down in an encounter with the SOG and BSF in the Nowgam area.

Elsewhere in the valley, at least 18 persons, including eight militants and four members of a family, were killed in separate incidents of violence.

IAS lobby being ‘targeted’
From Girja Shankar Kaura
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Dec 29 — The IC-814 hijack crisis has triggered off tension between the IAS lobby and the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister and the National Security Adviser, Mr Brajesh Mishra.

The IAS lobby feels that it was unnecessarily being blamed for the delay in conveying the news of the hijacking of the aircraft to the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee. There was a feeling that the Principal Secretary was trying to shift the responsibility to Cabinet Secretary, Mr Prabhat Kumar, which eventually could lead to the rolling of some heads in the bureaucracy after the crisis was over.

Senior IAS officers, talking on the condition of anonymity, said the accusing finger was being pointed at the Cabinet Secretary for the delay in passing the information, whereas it should have been the job of the Principal Secretary. Mr Brajash Mishra, besides being the Principal Secretary, is also a member of the BJP and had been appointed in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) with a view to handling crucial matters for the Prime Minister.

There was a crucial 45-minute delay in passing the information to the Prime Minister, which eventually led to the delay in taking some important decisions leading to the present stalemate with the hijackers. The early movement on this front could have led to taking certain crucial decisions which could have helped in detaining the aircraft at the Amritsar airport.

Sources point out that it was not the job of the Cabinet Secretary to be in constant touch with the Prime Minister and inform him of such crucial incidents. The Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister should have been the one to have immediately got in touch with him and explained the situation.

Incidentally, Mr Brajesh Mishra, has been missing from the public eye since the hijack drama started. Normally he would have been addressing the media about the crucial decisions being taken by the government.

The sources said efforts were also on way to blame the crisis management group (CMG) headed by Mr Prabhat Kumar for the lapse at the Amritsar airport.

The IAS officers counter that the CMG was only formed in the evening and was unfairly being blamed for the lapse. The delay was on the part of the government and not the bureaucracy.

The IAS lobby does not rule out the possibility of some heads rolling especially if the hijack crisis ended in a fiasco.

Incidentally, the hijack crisis has also brought out the divide between the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and other ministries. There was a feeling, especially in the Ministry of Civil Aviation that the MEA had taken over on all fronts, whereas it was doing all the work of getting in touch with the ATC at Kandahar and keeping the government abreast of the situation there.