Jammu, September 11
Former Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah, is not averse to promoting NC-APHC, alliance in Jammu and Kashmir on the pattern he had forged an alliance with late Maulvi Farooq, chairman of the Awami Action Committee, in 1983.

In an interview published in the latest issue of a Srinagar-based newspaper, Chattan, Dr Abdullah has said the possibility of the alliance. between his son Omar Abdullah and chairman, All-Party Hurriyat Conference, Maulvi Umar Farooq in the near future “cannot be ruled out.”

In reply to a question Dr Farooq said the slogan of “azadi” for Kashmir was a fraud, adding that both Pakistan and Hurriyat leaders had by now, realised that this could not be achieved. “He claimed that as a result of this realisation Islamabad had agreed to have a dialogue with Delhi and also suggested to the Hurriyat leaders to hold talks with the Government of India.

Dr Farooq said, “The claim of many politicians and writers that militancy in Jammu and Kashmir was the result of rigging in the Assembly election in 1987 was baseless and lacked credibility.

However, while speaking at a function in Jammu yesterday Dr Abdullah predicted fall of the coalition government in the state because of infighting in the PDP. He said he would welcome a Congress-National Conference coalition and even went to the extent of expressing his desire of working with Mr Mangat Ram Sharma, a senior Congress leader and a Cabinet minister.

Sources said if the PDP tried to make things inconvenient for the Congress the AICC leadership might have to seek support from the National Conference.

Srinagar, September 11
The security forces recovered a large quantity of arms and ammunition and warlike stores near the LoC in Machil sector of Kupwara district in north Kashmir. Arms and ammunition were also recovered in Rajauri and Poonch districts of the Jammu region, the police here said.

A Defence spokesman said here that a huge cache of arms and ammunition and other warlike stores were recovered in Machil sector on the receipt of an information on Saturday. The recoveries were made from three separate hideouts concealed under rocks in Muthul Nualla close to the LoC. These included two AK rifles, 1280 rounds of AK ammunition, 19 rounds of sniper ammunition, 22 RPG rounds, 10 kg of explosives, 236 detonators (No 33), 193 detonators, 161 UBGL grenades, 22 anti-tank grenades and seven hand grenades.

Elsewhere, two persons including a Pakistan militant were killed in separate incidents in Kashmir valley since yesterday.

A Pakistan militant, Nadeem alias Waleed from Pakistan was killed in an encounter with security forces at Nishat Park, Bandipore in Baramula district today. One pistol, one magazine and two rounds were recovered from the site of encounter, the police here said.

One SPO, Abdul Hameed, who was injured in an IED blast at Yaripora in Anantnag district yesterday, succumbed to his injuries in the hospital today.

The security forces recovered 35 kg of RDX, nine hand grenades, four IED switches, five metres of cordex wire, 220 AK rounds and a wireless set from a hideout in Thanamandi sector of Rajauri district of Jammu region yesterday.

Security forces recovered 350 AK rounds, 10 UBGL, three hand grenades and an antenna at Gadanga village in Harni sector of Poonch district, the police here said. 

Srinagar, September 11
Expressing optimism over the future state of economy in Jammu and Kashmir, Finance Minister Tariq Hameed Qarrah has said the focus would be on resource mobilisation. He said there had been a satisfactory cash flow from the Central Government and the Asian Development Bank during the past four years.

Addressing a press conference here today after taking over as the new Finance Minister, Mr Qarrah, however, lamented that the Centre had not released anything on account of the special plan of assistance or the power reform grant. As such, almost Rs 1,300 crore were due from the Central Government, the minister said, seeking an immediate attention towards this. Referring to the resource mobilisation, the minister said it needed to introduce a system of internal monitoring to make it effective. He also laid thrust on the introduction of certain innovative measures for power generation, the lack of which was hampering the industrial activity in the state.

He hinted at advancing the next budget session by one month 

Jammu, September 11
Teaching on the Bhaderwah campus of Jammu University was inaugurated by the Vice-Chancellor, Prof Amitabh Mattoo, today.

The inauguration of classes was scheduled to be inaugurated by Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, but he could not reach there as the helicopter was unable to cross Patnitop because of bad weather.

Prof Mattoo said construction of the university’s own campus would be completed within the next six months.

He said that initially classes in MCA, MBA, computer sciences, English literature and e-learning for women had been started on the campus. Other subjects would be introduced in a phased manner with the construction of the campus. He said that e-learning for women had specially been introduced to provide an opportunity to women of the remote area to keep pace with rest of the world.