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Geelani
under house arrest; Two Al-Badr
ultras shot Freeze
Farooq’s bank accounts, says PDP Ceasefire
— opportunity to speed up |
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Elections
to cooperative bodies soon: minister Jammu
to be developed as tourist destination BJP
protests against increase in power tariff
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Geelani under house
arrest; bandh partial Srinagar, December 6 The police lobbed teargas shells to quell demonstrators at Maisuma in central Lal Chowk area here this morning. The demonstrators were raising anti-government slogans to register their protest against disallowing the public rally that was scheduled to be held in TRC ground here. Over 12 demonstrators were rounded up in the police action, while all shops and business establishments in the area remained closed. The APHC chairman, Mr Syed Ali Shah Geelani, who had given the bandh call, was kept under house arrest at his Hyderpora residence on the outskirts of Srinagar city. The police authorities here claimed that the permission to hold a public rally by the separatist leader was withheld in view of the law and order problem, as it coincided with the 11th anniversary of the Babri Masjid demolition. Mr Geelani, had, however, been advised to change the venue and date for the public meeting, senior police officers here said. Most of the shops and business establishments in the Civil Lines area and parts of downtown remained closed. Transport services and private vehicles plied near normal on the city routes. Inter-district transport services also plied normally. There was thin attendance in government offices here and some of the educational institutions were closed. According to reports coming here from other parts of the valley, there was a mixed response to the call in major towns. A complete shutdown was observed in Sopore, home town of Syed Ali Shah Geelani in Baramula district of north Kashmir. Other major towns in north Kashmir, including Baramula, Kupwara and Bandipore were open. There was partial response in south Kashmir towns of Anantnag and Pulwama. While most of the shops were closed in these areas, traffic plied normally and there was near normal working in the government offices. PTI adds: JKLF vice-chairman Javid Ahmad Mir and World Islamic Students Leauge leader Jameel Ahmad War were detained as they were planning to lead a march in the city to protest denial of permission to hold a public rally by Mr Geelani. Mir was picked up from his in-laws’ house at Maharajgunj area of downtown Srinagar this morning while Jameel was detained from the Maisuma area in the city when he was leading a procession there, after the police fired teargas shells to disperse protestors pelting stones at open shops and vehicles. The police canecharged some youths pelting stones at passing vehicles in the Dalgate area of the city, the sources said. The bandh call was given by Mr Geelani and supported by People’s Leauge, Kashmir Bar Association, Muslim League, Muslim Khawateen Markaz and Hizbul Mujahideen. It evoked partial response with attendance in government offices being near-normal and transport services remaining unaffected. |
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Two
Al-Badr ultras shot Jammu, December 6 On specific inputs provided by the intelligence agencies, Army troops launched a search operation in Naili village in the Manjakote area yesterday and found that two ultras had taken shelter in the house of Abdul Khaliq. On being challenged by the troops, the militants opened fire but the security forces observed restraint till the inmates of the house were brought out, sources said, adding that in the subsequent gunbattle, both ultras were shot dead. One of the slain ultras has been identified as Abu Hamza, alias Sher Baz, tehsil commander of Al-Badr and a resident of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. However, the identity of his associate could not be ascertained. Two AK rifles, four magzines, two hand grenades, one tape recorder, one pouch, and a diary were seized from their possession. One civilian, Mohammad Ishfaq, was injured in the cross-firing and later shifted to hospital. An Army jawan, Raju Rai Nair, was also injured. The house of Khaliq was gutted during the exchange of firing. A delayed report said an Army Subedar Thoru Ram was injured at a border outpost in Kothe in the Samba sector during a demining operation on December 4. He was admitted to a hospital.
— PTI |
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Freeze
Farooq’s bank accounts, says PDP Jammu, December 6 Reacting sharply to Dr Abdullah’s yesterday allegation that Chief Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, was pursuing his agenda of destroying the legacy of Sheikh Abdullah and the National Conference , a PDP spokesman said here today that the irregularities in the Muslim Auqaf trust would come in the open following a special audit of its accounts. The spokesman claimed that the welfare measure of restoring the trust to the community was being misinterpreted by Dr Abdullah. The misuse of trust properties and funds during the regime of the National Conference government was a matter of common knowledge. Dr Abdullah has taken a U-turn by offering his services for mending fences between the two warring factions of the Hurriyat Conference while in the past he insisted that no talks should be held with the separatists until they swear by the Constitution of India, he alleged. The spokesman said the speech of Dr Abdullah at Srinagar on the occasion of the Sheikh’s birth anniversary was a welcome acknowledgement of the policies of the coalition government which had been advocating as dialogue the only way out of the Kashmir crisis. He had earlier subverted all such initiatives for his partisan and family interests, he alleged. He alleged that prime properties of the Muslim Auqaf trust were given to National Conference activists on a platter. He said Dr Abdullah was himself responsible for destroying the legacy of his father, Sheikh Abdullah. |
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Ceasefire — opportunity to speed up border fencing Jammu, December
6 Official sources said that fencing work had been expedited after the gun fell silent on the border. Out of 187-km long International Border 95 km border stretch had been fenced by the BSF and the project of raising eight feet high barbed wire on the LoC in Poonch and Rajauri districts has been uninterrupted in the past 12 days. The sources added that Army engineers had completed the fencing of the border stretch from Poonch to Nowshehra. Out of 380 km LoC stretch in these two districts more than 150 km stretch has been fenced. A senior BSF official said that in the past three years "the pace of fencing remained slow because of intermittent and heavy firing from across the border. At places raised clay embankments to secure our labourers and jawans, engaged in fencing, against the Pakistani bullets." He said at number of places digging of pits and raising fencing poles had to be repeated because such works used to get damaged by the Pakistani gunners. According to official sources, militants, with the help of Pakistani troops, have been trying to use wire cutters, plastic ladders concentrated acids to snap the barbed wire fence for infiltration. Such attempts have not fructified on the IB because BSF jawans continue to maintain vigil. However, at couple of places in Poonch district rebels succeeded in snapping the wire. The sources said that if the ceasefire remained in force for long period "fencing would be completed before the schedule." However, GOC 16 Corps, Lt-General
Ashok Kapur, has said that infiltration continued despite ceasefire.
He told newsmen at Akhnoor that "there is no perceptible change
in infiltration of armed men from across the border". |
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Elections to cooperative bodies soon: minister Jammu, December 6 Instructions have been given to the authorities concerned to make arrangements for holding the elections to cooperatives, Minister for Agriculture and Cooperatives Abdul Aziz Zargar told a group of mediapersons here last evening. He said the cooperative sector had emerged as a vibrant tool for mobilising economic activity and employment generation. He said the coalition government was determined to revive cooperative movement in the state and diversify its activities to bolster the economy by ensuring active participation of masses in development process through cooperative network. Poultry cooperatives, in particular, have emerged as high return business enterprise with tremendous employment generation offering unique opportunity for economic emancipation, Mr Zargar added. He said over 50 lakh poultry birds worth Rs 300 crore were being imported for consumption in an year in the state and this potential needed to be exploited optimally.
— PTI |
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Jammu to be developed as tourist destination Jammu, December 6 The Mufti, who laid the foundation stone of a police station here, said so far Jammu had been a transit camp for millions of Vaishno Devi pilgrims. As Katra, the base camp for the Vaishno Devi pilgrimage, would be linked by rail shortly, there was need to develop Jammu as an independent destination. He said Rs 500 crore-water supply project had been formulated for the city and it would be funded by the World Bank. The Housing and Urban Development Minister, Mr Ghulam Hassan Mir, said keeping in view the unprecedented increase in the number of vehicles and vast expansion of the city, several projects had been taken in hand for constructing parking lots. |
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BJP protests against increase in power
tariff Jammu, December 6 Holding torches and raising slogans against the government and the Chief Minister, over 3,000 workers marched through main roads of the city last evening demanding restoration of the earlier tariff. Led by district BJP president Kavinder Gupta, the processionists warned that people would not pay the enhanced power tariff at any cost. Addressing the rally, Mr Gupta threatened that if the government did not rescind the power tariff hike, the BJP would launch an agitation.
— PTI |
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