J&K faces a dark winter
JAMMU, Nov 3 — Prolonged load shedding is no longer news in Jammu and Kashmir with nine hour power cuts during the last several months. A year ago load shedding was limited to five to six hours.

Major, 5 others die in attack on HQ
SRINAGAR, Nov 3 — A suicide squad of Pakistan-backed militant outfit Lashkar-e-Toiba stormed the heavily-guarded headquarters of Indian Army’s 15 Corps killing a Major and five other persons here this evening.

Jammu Srinagar

Militancy under control: Army
SRINAGAR, Nov 3 — Contrary to estimates of the state police, the Army here believes that about 1500 militants are active in Kashmir valley operating from 300 hideouts, at arrived at the figure on the basis of a modernised electronic warfare (EW) map.

J&K faces a dark winter
From M.L. Kak
Tribune News Service

JAMMU, Nov 3 — Prolonged load shedding is no longer news in Jammu and Kashmir with nine hour power cuts during the last several months. A year ago load shedding was limited to five to six hours.

The Congress and the Peoples' Democratic Party (PDP) are planning a state-wide agitation against the load shedding according to senior Congress leader Raman Bhalla, the Congress plans to gherao the Civil Secretariat.

PDP leader Ved Mahajan, told newsmen here today that the party would finalise its programme at its provincial working committee meeting here on November 6.

He said as a result of the power cuts students, industrialists, traders and the general public were faced with inconvenience and losses. On one hand consumers were forced to pay power tariff on the basis of agreements while the other side power was not available for nine of 24 hours.

Students of several educational institutions have already held strike saying they could not study as the power supply was cut for more than five hours at night.

Official sources say a major factor responsible for the load shed are the severe cash crunch. The state has no resources to buy power from the Northern Grid while it owes Rs 460 crore. It also owes the Power Grid Corporation Rs 106 crore.

To reduce arrears the state has actually been selling power to the Northern Grid to reduce the level of arrears. But there has been a marked drop in water level in the river Jhelum which is the main power source for the 480 MW Uri project and 106 MW lower Jhelum Hydel project. This had resulted in a drop in power generation of around 30 to 50 per cent.

The demand for electricity has touched over 500 MW while availability from projects within the state including the 12 per cent share from the Salal and Uri projects does not cross 300 to 350 MW leaving shortfall of nearly 200 MW.

This can be met if the Central Government releases additional funds and waives off the central debt of Rs 1275 crores on which the state has to pay Rs 600 as yearly service charges.

Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah who is scheduled to reach Delhi next week after a month long tour of the USA and UK will meet the Prime Minister and Finance Minister to demand a Punjab and Haryana type package for Jammu and Kashmir. During the past 15 months though he has not been able to get such a economic package.

The Congress and PDP leaders blame both the Centre and the state Governments for the crisis saying the Centre is to blame for having squeezed credit to Jammu and Kashmir at a time when the security scenario, had warranted liberal financial assistance. They accuse the state government of having misused central funds with the result that the treasuries have now turned dry.

Militancy under control: Army
Tribune News Service

SRINAGAR, Nov 3 — Contrary to estimates of the state police, the Army here believes that about 1500 militants are active in Kashmir valley operating from 300 hideouts, at arrived at the figure on the basis of a modernised electronic warfare (EW) map.

A series of offensive operations launched during the past three months have "given us a good idea of the presence of militants. We are reasonably sure that the number of militants working in the valley is between 1200 and 1500", Lt Gen Krishan Pal, Commander of the Srinagar based 15 Corps headquarters said here today.

The Director General of Jammu and Kashmir Police had on Saturday stated here that 2000 fresh infiltrators sneaked into the valley during the Kargil crisis.

The situation along the LoC in Kargil was "very very satisfactory", Lt Gen Krishan Pal told a press conference here today. He said the level of shelling from across the LoC had reduced "significantly", but declined to comment whether this was due to the political developments.

Lt Gen Krishan Pal held that there was a notable change in the past three months after the Army returned to the valley to counter the proxy war after the Kargil operation.

He said extensive and offensive operations against militants would continue unabated "till we bring back the situation to that of last April".

He added that there was psychological change in the valley after Kargil.

The Army has already concluded Operation Kaziranga in Rajwar forests of Kupwara district in Kashmir and Romeo in Rajouri district of Jammu region. Kaziranga was launched to "bust hideouts" and recover arms and ammunition before winter so that the militants come down to the villages. "then security forces and the SoG would be able to deal with them more effectively", Gen Krishan Pal said. Raids on 132 hideouts leading to the death of 9 militants and recovery of about 25,000 pieces of ammunition of all types, 247 kgs of explosives, about 7500 kgs of rations, 41 AK rifles, 113 RPG rockets and a large quantity of arms and ammunition would help in this.

Giving details of infiltration Lt Gen Krishan Pal said 903 militants infiltrated till October this year as compared to 699 in 1998, 955 in 1997 and 895 in 1996. At least 274 youths ex-filtrated this year "due to economic reasons and unemployment".

Of these 130 ex-filtrated in September and 88 in October, and there was no ex-filtration during January, February, March and June this year. The ex-filtration and infiltration were in no way linked to the Kargil operations, Lt Gen Krishan Pal said.

Major, 5 others die in attack on HQ

SRINAGAR, Nov 3 (PTI) — A suicide squad of Pakistan-backed militant outfit Lashkar-e-Toiba stormed the heavily-guarded headquarters of Indian Army’s 15 Corps killing a Major and five other persons here this evening.

The four-member squad, armed with AK-47 rifles, attacked the headquarters at Badamibagh Cantonment lobbing several grenades before forcing their way in. The first casualty in the grenade attack was BSF jawan Joginder Singh who was sitting in his vehicle.

The militants then swooped on the army public relations office near the main gate of the cantonment killing Major P. Purushottam, Public Relations Officer of the 15 Corps, two JCOs and two soldiers. Sound of heavy mortar fire and explosions rattled areas even 3 to 4 km away from the spot till late tonight. Lashkar-e-Toiba claimed responsibility for the attack.