Jammu, August 30
The BJP today said it opposed the participation of the chief information commissioner Wajahat Habibullah, in the ensuing meeting of the Working Group on centre-state relationship, in Delhi.

“Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh is playing foul with the Indian nation as he has pressurised the Working Group’s chairman Justice Sageer Ahmed to allow Wajahat Habibullah, the votary of greater Kashmir and rank communalist, to influence the working of this crucial working group despite the fact that Habibullah is not a member of this Working Group,” senior Jammu and Kashmir BJP leadership said.

Addressing a joint press conference, state party chief Ashok Khajuria, former central minister Chaman Lal Gupta and the BJP’s national executive member Nirmal Singh stated that Habibullah, a senior IAS officer of the Jammu and Kashmir cadre, had designs of dividing the state on religious lines and the BJP would never tolerate this.

They said that Habibullah wanted the separation of the Muslim-majority areas of Doda, Ramban, Kishtwar, Poonch and Rajouri from the Hindu-majority Jammu province and the Muslim-majority Kargil area from the Budhist majority Ladakh in order to facilitate the formation of greater Kashmir.

The fourth meeting of the Working Group on the centre-state relation is scheduled in New Delhi on September 2-3 in which Wajahat Habibullah would be making his presentation.

The other issues during the meet include regional imbalance in development and the backward areas within the three regions namely Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh.

Srinagar, August 30
The police have solved the case of a blind rape and the murder of a minor girl, Sabreena Sheikh of Rajbagh area and arrested the victim’s close relative, Zahoor Ahmad Sheikh who confessed to the crime.

Making a statement in the Legislative Assembly, the Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said that the government would try to have a special court for speedy trial of the case to bring the culprit to book. He said such cases were time consuming but the state police deserved appreciation for solving the case. He referred to a similar case of a minor girl from Handwara whose rape and murder case had been solved by police within three days.

Giving details of Sabreena’s case, the Chief Minister said that Zahoor Ahmad Sheikh of Ikhrajpora locality in Rajbagh here was arrested after the elder sister of the deceased girl was questioned and asked for the sequence of events. The CM said during questioning, she named the arrested youth, a dubious character, who is the second cousin of the victim and lived in the same building. She said that Zahoor had shown ill intentions of even molesting her.

The Chief Minister said Zahoor was picked up for questioning and during sustained interrogation, he confessed to having lured Sabreena to an abandoned house of a migrant where he raped and subsequently murdered her to destroy evidence. He said some more samples were being sent to the forensic laboratory in the state and outside the state as well, if required to substantiate the circumstantial and oral evidence gathered so far.

Earlier, National Conference members raised the issue in the House and demanded a statement from the government on the issue. The members also staged a walkout against the government on the issue and absence of most members in the treasury benches.

The minister for health and medical education, Mangat Ram Sharma while responding to the issue raised by Abdul Rahim Rather and Mir Saifullah of the NC told the House the government was equally shocked over the harrowing incidents of molestation and killing of innocent girls.

He said that government had already given instructions to the home department for immediate action against the culprits involved in the murder. He said to the government has already issued strict directions to law enforcing agencies to deal with such crimes.

Srinagar, August 30
A foreign militant was killed in an encounter by a joint team of the police and the Army today. The police said they eliminated Ali Raja, who hailed from Pakistan, and recovered a large haul of ammunition from the spot in the jungle area near Kupwara. Raja, was from the Jaish-e-Mohammad militant outfit, they said.

In another operation, the Srinagar and Baramula police arrested two self-styled commanders of the Hizbul- Mujahiddin from Baramula. Nazir Ahmad Khan, who was coded as Umar Gul, and Shafi Kasana, coded as Zahid, were arrested. The police termed it as a significant success as both of them were A-category militants who had been active for over 10 years.