Government nod to Army on evacuation
JAMMU, Dec 8 — The state government has decided to allow the Army to evacuate civilians from highly sensitive border villages, which have remained vulnerable to Pakistani firing, if the defence forces made a firm commitment that such a step would help the border guards to check in filtration and the Centre reimbursed in full the amount required for the rehabilitation of the evicted people.

No secret talks with Centre: APHC

SRINAGAR, Dec 8 (PTI) — A 70-member delegation of the All-Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC) today left for New Delhi to stage demonstrations outside the United Nations office and other places in the national Capital on the World Human Rights day on December 10.

The demonstration and dharna would highlight the human rights violations allegedly perpetuated by the security forces in the Kashmir valley, a spokesman of the delegation said.

Led by Sheikh Ali Mohammad the Hurriyat activists assembled at the Rajbagh headquarters of the conference early today and left in three Delhi-bound buses.

The acting chairman of the conference, Mirwaiz Moulvi Umer Farooq, is expected to join the contingent at Delhi tomorrow.

Meanwhile, the APHC today denied reports of secret parleys between the Centre and its jailed leaders but expressed willingness for the same if the government recognised "Kashmiris as principal party to the Kashmir dispute."

"There is no question of secret talks with New Delhi as no one has approached the Hurriyat leadership presently lodged in Jodhpur jail," acting chairman of the Hurriyat, Mirwaiz Moulvi Umer Farooq, told reporters here yesterday.

"Although bilateral talks are no solution to the Kashmir problem, there is no objection in holding talks once India accepts Kashmiris a party to the dispute," he remarked.

He said his organisation could not enter into any secret parleys with the Centre as it was the "trustee of the sacrifices made by thousands of Kashmiris during the ongoing movement."

He, however, expressed willingness to hold talks with the government if the latter agreed to recognise Kashmiris as principal party to the Kashmir dispute.

Government nod to Army on evacuation
From M.L. Kak
Tribune News Service

JAMMU, Dec 8 — The state government has decided to allow the Army to evacuate civilians from highly sensitive border villages, which have remained vulnerable to Pakistani firing, if the defence forces made a firm commitment that such a step would help the border guards to check in filtration and the Centre reimbursed in full the amount required for the rehabilitation of the evicted people.

Official sources said the Army authorities had conveyed to the state government that there was an urgent need for evacuating civilians living in villages close to the border in Poonch, Rajouri, Uri, Kupwara and Keran sectors. The state government has reportedly conveyed to the defence authorities that the Army should first of all specify the number of villages it wanted to clear of the population so that the administration could finalise the cost component needed for the rehabilitation of the villagers.

The sources said the Army authorities had conveyed to the state government that the troops faced odds while taking retaliatory measures against Pakistani forces during border firing because of the presence of civilian population. The Indian troops have had to follow restraint to avoid civilian killings. Also, infiltrators took shelter in the nearest border village soon after infiltration from across the border. This had created a problem for the troops to isolate the infiltrators. And whenever search operations were launched it would create inconvenience to the civilians and on several occasions resulted in the killing of innocent people during the crossfire between militants and the security forces.

The state government is also satisfied with the hazy plan given by the Army on the plea that at times the border guards referred to 10 villages, then to 15 and then to 20 that needed to be cleared to civilian population. The state police is also supporting the Army plan of shifting civilians from the sensitive border villages so that infiltrators had no hideout within the border belt.

A senior government functionary said even if 20 villages were cleared of civilian families it would mean at least an expenditure of over Rs 200 crore for their rehabilitation. The cost could be reduced by 50 per cent if the evacuation was to be temporary. In addition to this the state government would like to know what sort of rehabilitation programme was required because most of the border villages need land for carrying our farming practices was not available in abandance in the state.

At the same time the state government would support the programme of clearing the border villages of civilian population provided the defence authorities made it clear that infiltration would be totally stopped with a minimum period of time.