Jammu, March 24
More than 25 persons were injured when the police resorted to a lathi-charge and burst of teargas shells to chase away West Pakistani refugees, who were demonstrating near the Assembly today in support of their demand for citizenship rights.

The police took about 40 leaders of the protesting refugees into custody.

Several women were also injured in the lathi-charge.

The refugees were protesting against the failure of the state government to confer citizenship rights on them for the past 58 years.

Their leaders complained that wards of the West Pakistani refugees were ineligible to get government jobs in the state and were also denied seats in professional colleges.

Mr Rajiv Chunni, chairman of the SOS refugees organisation, said the demonstration was organised by the joint action committee of the West Pakistani refugees and the displaced persons of the Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK).

The police mercilessly beat up innocent men and women and resorted to indiscriminate bursting of teargas shells. A number of old persons were injured in the melee that followed the unprovoked lathi charge, he said. The police attacked the demonstrators with lathis near the city police station while they were peacefully protesting he added.

Meanwhile, within the Assembly four members — Mr Faqir Nath, Mr Balwant Singh Mankotia (Panthers Party), Mr Jugal Kishore (BJP) and Mr Ashwani Kumar (JSM) — raised the issue of the refugees during question hour.

However, their protests were inaudible in the din that was created due to slogan shouting by members of the National Conference on some other issue. Mr Faqir Nath and Mr Mankotia later walked out of the House, protesting against the indifference of the government towards the demands of the refugees.

Jammu, March 24
A former Chief Minister, Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, is again shelterless after he vacated the guest house of the Jammu and Kashmir Bank in the winter capital and has been staying, for the past three days, in the government guest house, as a temporary occupant.

After the change of guard in November 2005, Mufti Mohammed Sayeed had been allotted by the government bunglow No 2 on canal road in Jammu but the former Chief Minister did not accept the allottment on the plea that from the security point of view the house was not safe.

As the government delayed allotting a suitable house to Mufti Sayeed he moved to the guest house of Jammu and Kashmir Bank.

A senior PDP leader said here today that the party was of the opinion that the state government had failed to allot a house that was suitable to the stature of Mufti Sayeed.

His stay in the bank guest house was cut short by the repeated protests lodged by the opposition NC members in the Assembly. And when the Mufti addressed a press conference recently in the bank guest house it was resented by the NC members who wanted to know whether the PDP had made any payment for the guest house or not. A PDP Minister, Mr Abdul Aziz Zargar, had informed the House that the PDP had made the payment.

Inside reports said the chairman of the Jammu and Kashmir Bank had also raised objections against the Mufti holding the press conference in the bank guest house.

According to these reports, Mufti Mohammed Sayeed preferred to move to the government guest house to silence critics from the National Conference whose members have been seen aiming their guns at the PDP ministers and demonstrating their cotton-like softness towards the ministers belonging to the Congress.

Reports said the Mufti had not relished the way the NC members had launched a vilification campaign against him and his party, the PDP, without genuine reasons.

Jammu, March 24
Following adjournment of the House due to noisy scenes in the past two days on the issue of “backdoor” appointments in the public health engineering department (PHE), the J&K Assembly today decided to appoint a committee to probe all appointments in government departments and allocation of works without inviting tenders in the past 10 years.

The decision came following 90-minute meeting between Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad and leader of the opposition Abdul Rahim Rather, after the House was adjourned soon after the question hour started in the morning.

Accepting the demand of National Conference members (NC), Deputy Chief Minister, Muzaffar Hussain Baig announced when the House reassembled in the afternoon that the House committee would look into the alleged violations in the two sectors since 1996 when the NC was in power and after 2002 when the Congress PDP coalition assumed power.

Mr Baig, who also holds the Portfolio of Parliamentary Affairs, urged Speaker, Tara Chand to form the House committee in a manner that it enjoyed credibility. An impression should not go that it was packed with members of the ruling coalition.

Mr Rather said what had added fuel to fire was the sudden statement of PHE minister Qazi Mohammad Afzal, two days ago that he had disengaged all casual employees recruited recently. The minister had so far been giving conflicting statements on the issue and denying that any recruitment was made by him.

He complained that the committee set up earlier by the Speaker was packed with members of the ruling coalition. Only two members belonged to the NC in the nine-member committee.

Mr Rather also moved a privilege motion against the minister alleging that he had misled the House.

Earlier in the morning, the NC members disrupted the question hour and demanded sacking of the minister. They raised slogans against the government.

Mr Faqir Nath and Mr Balwant Singh Mankotia (Panthers Party) walked out of the House protesting against the failure of the government to resettle refugees of West Pakistan for the past nearly 58 years.

These refugees have not been given citizenship rights by the state government, they said.

Jammu, March 24
As a sequel to the developments in New Delhi, all four legislators of the ruling coalition today resigned from the office of profit they were holding in Jammu and Kashmir.

Chief minister Ghulam Nabi Azad had asked these legislators to resign from chairmanship of the boards and corporations. They would continue to be the members of the Assembly.

The MLAs were functioning as chairmen of various boards and corporations besides enjoying the status of either Cabinet ministers or ministers of state.

Those occupying the offices comprised Cabinet minister Mohammad Shafi Bhat (chairman of the Agro-Industries Development Corporation), and three ministers of states — Mr G.M.Saroori (chief of the J&K Social Welfare Board), Haji Abdul Rashid (chairman of the J&K Handicrafts (Sales and Export) Corporation), and Mr Girdhari Lal (vice-chairman of the J&K Scheduled Caste Advisory Board).

Srinagar, March 24
Separatist Hurriyat Conference Chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq has hailed the launch of the Amritsar-Nankana Sahib bus service that was inaugurated by the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, today.

Addressing a Friday congregation at Jamia Masjid here, the Mirwaiz expressed his optimism over developing of closer Indo-Pak relations, and hoped that more and more steps would be taken for greater interaction between the people of Jammu and Kashmir divided by the LoC.

The Mirwaiz, however, lamented the slow pace of the dialogue process towards the resolution of the Kashmir issue.

He added the Kashmir issue was the main issue between India and Pakistan which required to be resolved by speeding up the dialogue process.

A spokesman of the APHC said that the Mirwaiz left for Karachi to attend a historical convention beginning tomorrow that is being conducted by the World Social Forum.