Sunday,
October 7, 2001, Chandigarh, India
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Four RR jawans
killed in IED
blast in valley
M.L. Kak
Tribune News Service
Policemen look at the body of
their colleague Bashir Ahmad, who was killed by suspected separatist militants, in a hospital in Srinagar,
on Saturday. — Reuters photo
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Jammu, October 6
While four security personnel were killed and 20 persons, including six police and Rashtriya Rifles men, were wounded in Kashmir today, the elite in the summer capital, including senior bureaucrats, Army and police officers remained engaged in the first Sher-e-Kashmir Open 2001 in the new 18-hole golf course built in the scenic Zabarwan mountain range overlooking the Dal lake. It was exactly during the time when people were protesting against the killing of two civilians, father and son, at the hands of security forces in the Handwara area, and there was wailing over the IED blast in which 15 passengers were wounded in Anantnag, that senior functionaries of the state and central agencies were busy in putting and hitting at the multicrore International Golf Course. A large number of people remained indoors in Hari Singh High street and its adjoining areas following a police crackdown in the belt after one police official was gunned down in the busy street this morning. Ambulance vans were pressed into service for carrying five of the 15 wounded in the Anantnag blast to Government Medical College in Srinagar for treatment. And the troops were busy in shifting four men of the Rashtriya Rifles and three bodies
of the same regiment to the hospital after their vehicle was wrecked in an IED blast at Pohloo in the Kulgam area of Anantnag district.Far away from the International Golf Course, four militants were killed in an operation launched by the police in the Mendhar area of Poonch. However, it was all calm and normal on the boulevard except for strict checking of buses and cars and frisking of pedestrians. These elaborate arrangements had been made to sanitise the gold course where top golfers of the country and those belonging to Jammu and Kashmir have been participating in putting and hitting competition for fabulous sums of tournament money. Since the state government is faced with an acute cash crunch, it sought help from Jammu and Kashmir Bank, which advanced Rs 4 crore as overdraft to the government to enable it to make the tournament a big success. Gaurav Ghei, Jyoti Randhawa and Feroze Ali are some of the top Indian golfers participating in the tournament. The state government had hosted All-India Police football matches in Srinagar last year and the golf tournament is expected to be a star attraction for home and foreign tourists. Four militants were killed in encounters with security forces at Thera Topa and Pator Top in Poonch district of Jammu division today. Three more militants, including two belonging to the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen outfit, were killed at Bhatia Seoj Dhar in the Bhaderwah area of Doda and Gleer-Budhal in Rajouri in Jammu division, he said. Three civilians and a militant of the Lashker-e-Toiba were killed in an encounter at Jaggerpora in Handwara town of Kupwara district today. Three LeT militants, including two Pakistanis, were gunned down by security forces in an encounter at Satharun forest in Badgam district today, an official spokesman said. A self-styled battalion commander of the LeT, Rizwan Azhar of Bahawalpore area of Pakistan, was killed during a search operation by troops at Shangus village in Achabal area of Anantnag district last night. Two militants were killed during search operations at Boniyar in Baramulla district. Two were killed in an encounter with the BSF at Zakoora area on the outskirts of Srinagar. 
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