J A M M U   &   K A S H M I R

Abjure violence, Mufti’s appeal to militants
Srinagar, May 18
Former Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, has stressed the need for a new sense of purpose to end political problems of Jammu and Kashmir and open up the region for rapid economic integration and convergence.

1 dead, 16 hurt in grenade attacks
Srinagar, May 18
While security has been tightened ahead of the second round table conference here next week, suspected militants lobbed two grenades causing death of a pedestrian and injuries to at least 16 others in two separate incidents in Pulwama and Srinagar today.

Video

Indian Army takes Muslim clerics on goodwill tour. (28k, 56k)

Abjure violence, Mufti’s appeal to militants
Tribune News Service

Srinagar, May 18
Former Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, has stressed the need for a new sense of purpose to end political problems of Jammu and Kashmir and open up the region for rapid economic integration and convergence.

The Mufti also hailed Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh’s resolve to work out a solution to the Kashmir issue by involving all parties by holding two consecutive roundtable conferences on Kashmir. He urged the militants to give up the gun and contribute towards peaceful resolution of the issue instead of showing obduracy that would do no good to the people of the State. He said people of state had realised that they could get their grievances redressed only through democratic means and their massive participation in the recent by-elections is the vindication of their faith in the democracy.

The former Chief Minister and PDP patron was addressing a public meeting at Anantnag today as part of its celebration programmes on the opening of the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad road for trade. He said India and Pakistan had to look to regional economic integration as a means of engine of growth rather than just for promoting trade and commerce. He added this arrangement was bound to benefit the people of both countries, which could be realised only when both countries worked out a peaceful resolution of the Kashmir problem.

Over the past 50 years, Mufti Sayeed said contribution of Jammu and Kashmir to the economic growth of India had declined and the epicenters of growth had shifted to other areas of the country.

There was need for a structural intervention which could be achieved by opening the silk route and allow the north markets to be exploited and northern economic agents to exploit Central Asian markets. This, he said would make Jammu and Kashmir once again the hub of inter-state trade. Mufti Sayeed said if it took shape, the regional economic integration in the sub-continent would make the two countries more attractive destinations for investment by obviating the constraint imposed by a small domestic market. The concept of regional economic integration, he said could help evolve horizontal specialization across the region to enable the member countries to draw mutual benefits from the same.

1 dead, 16 hurt in grenade attacks
Tribune News Service

Srinagar, May 18
While security has been tightened ahead of the second round table conference here next week, suspected militants lobbed two grenades causing death of a pedestrian and injuries to at least 16 others in two separate incidents in Pulwama and Srinagar today.

Three militants were also killed in an encounter with security forces and the police in Kupwara district today.

The police here said one person, Farooq Ahmad, was killed and a woman was injured when suspected militants hurled a grenade at a marketplace at Saraf Kadal here this afternoon.

At least 15 others, including three security personnel, were injured in a grenade explosion at the main chowk of Pulwama town in south Kashmir today.

Four of them were seriously injured and were shifted to the hospitals here.

Three unidentified militants were killed in an encounter with a joint party of the police and security forces at Awatkul-Meelyal in the Kralpora area of Kupwara district. Three AK rifles and a huge quantity of arms and ammunition were recovered from the site of encounter, the police here said.

An encounter took place between militants and security forces in the forest area of Purni Dashnan in Doda district of Jammu region today.

However, the militants managed to escape, leaving behind two mobile phones, a charger, a wireless set and two AK magazines.