The Tribune...Jammu and Kashmir

J A M M U C& CK A S H M I R

Wednesday, July 15, 1998

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today's calendar

Move on displaced
J & K families
JAMMU, July 14 — The state government has initiated a move to motivate displaced families to return to the Kashmir valley.
As part of the move, the Health Minister, Dr Mustafa Kamal, has decided to hold a meeting with migrant doctors to persuade them to return to the valley...
Explosive detected
SRINAGAR, July 14 — The security forces have foiled militants’ plan to disrupt the ongoing Amarnath pilgrimage by detecting and defusing an improvised explosive device (IED) on the pilgrimage route...

5 killed, 12 hurt in mishaps

16 militants shot dead
SRINAGAR, July 14 — Sixteen militants, including six foreigners, were among 17 persons killed while the security forces captured 12 militants in the Kashmir valley in the past 24 hours...

Move on displaced J & K families
Tribune News Service
JAMMU, July 14 — The state government has initiated a move to motivate displaced families to return to the Kashmir valley.
As part of the move, the Health Minister, Dr Mustafa Kamal, has decided to hold a meeting with migrant doctors to persuade them to return to the valley.
Sources said the Health Minister would brief the doctors on the steps the government had taken to have them back. It had decided to allot them residential accommodation and provide security.
However, the number of migrant doctors interviewed by this reporter said that the situation was not conducive for their return.
A doctor said that if he was forced to return without ensuring a conducive atmosphere, he would have no other option but to seek premature retirement.
He said the government should recall all those doctors who had gone to the Gulf and other countries.
Reports said that there were about 150 doctors belonging to the minority community who had migrated from Kashmir since 1990.
Reports said that the government had decided to bring back the displaced families in a phased manner. It had sought Rs 609 crore for phase-1 of the programme which would be implemented between 1998 and 2001. Under the programme, about 3,000 two-room sets would be constructed in Srinagar, Anantnag and Baramula. Of these, 700 would be completed in the current financial year and 1120 and 1080 respectively, in the subsequent years. The government also planned to earmark over Rs 140.75 crore for the reconstruction and repair of damaged houses belonging to the migrants.
A sum of Rs 500 crore had been projected for the purchase of construction material for building two-room tenements in three towns.

16 militants shot dead
SRINAGAR, July 14 (UNI, PTI) — Sixteen militants, including six foreigners, were among 17 persons killed while the security forces captured 12 militants in the Kashmir valley in the past 24 hours.
Meanwhile, at least one person was injured when Pakistani troops resorted to unprovoked artillery and mortar shelling on the Indian forward posts in the Gurez, Samba and Koran sector since last evening.
An official spokesman said one person was injured due to Pak firing in the Samba sector yesterday
Pak troops fired mortars and artillery shells in the Koran and Gurez sector. However, there was no report of any casualty or damage to property.
An official spokesman said the security forces killed four foreign militants in a fierce encounter at Dachna Handwara in Kupwara district last evening. Four AK-56 rifles, 12 magazines, 20 grenades and one wireless set was seized.
He said the security forces in two different encounters at Kalaban forest and Hadi Batergam also gunned down six militants. Further details were awaited.
The security forces on a tip off, cordoned off the Sukhnar area in Badgam district yesterday to nab militants and their sympathisers. However, when the forces were conducting searches, they were heavily fired upon by the militants with automatic weapons from different direction.
In the two-hour-long clash two foreign militants were killed. One universal machine gun, one AK-56 rifle, four magazines, 290 rounds, one grenade and two rocket launchers were recovered near the site of encounter.
The security forces killed three militants during search operation at Kastkote village today. Some arms and ammunition seized.
A militants' plan to disrupt the Amarnath yatra was foiled by the BSF when they seized five improvised explosive devices (IEDs) from a militant hideout here late last night.
A spokesman of the BSF said today that BSF troops acting on a tip off, raided a militant hideout and found five pipe IEDs.
Quoting intelligence sources, the spokesman said militants were planning to use these IEDs at Kangan, 40 km from here on the Srinagar-Leh national highway, with a view to disrupting vehicular movement of pilgrims on their way to Amarnath via Baltal.

Explosive detected
SRINAGAR, July 14 (PTI) — The security forces have foiled militants’ plan to disrupt the ongoing Amarnath pilgrimage by detecting and defusing an improvised explosive device (IED) on the pilgrimage route, even as 20,360 devotees paid their obeisance by this afternoon to the "Shivalingam", the icy idol of Lord Shiva, in a cave in the mountains. An official spokesman said an IED, wrapped in a polythene bag, was detected on the Khannabal-Pahalgam road, being used by a large number of Amarnath pilgrims, near Chee crossing, 54 km from here, last evening.

5 killed, 12 hurt in J&K mishaps
JAMMU, July 14 (PTI) — Five persons were killed and 12 injured in four different mishaps in the Jammu and Ladakh regions of the state since last evening, an official report said today.
The reports said that three persons were killed when a truck on its way from Srinagar to Jammu skidded off the road and fell into nullah near Bantalab yesterday.
In another accident, an army jawan was killed, when his vehicle plunged into Singow river on the Dras-Kargil road in the Ladakh region yesterday, the reports said.
A teenaged girl was killed, when she was hit by a speeding vehicle near Kathua on the Jammu-Pathankot highway today, the report said.
Twelve Amarnath pilgrims were injured when their Matador collided with a truck near Ramban on the Jammu-Srinagar national highway yesterday.