8 militants killed

JAMMU, Jan 8 (PTI) — Eight militants were killed and three captured in Jammu and Kashmir since last evening, official reports said here today.

Two militants, including a foreign mercenary, were killed in an encounter with security forces in the Kelu area of Mandi in Poonch district last night, the reports said.

Two AK rifles, two magazines, 40 rounds and five hand-grenades found from the encounter scene.

Two militants were killed in a gun fight with security forces in the Bhudal area of Rajouri district yesterday. Two AK type rifles, two magazines and a pistol were seized from the scene.

Four militants were killed in an encounter with security forces in Baramula district of North Kashmir yesterday, an official spokesman said at Srinagar.

Four AK assault rifles, 14 magazines, 88 rounds of ammunition, a grenade launcher, three wireless sets, five hand-grenades, five rifle grenades and three antennae were seized from the deceased militants, the spokesman said.

Two militants were apprehended by security forces during search operations at Chhamgund in Anantnag and Kandi in Rajouri yesterday, the spokesman said.

A universal machine gun, an AK assault rifle, two single-barrel muzzle loaded guns, a .12-bore gun, a wireless set, a compass and some ammunition were found from an abandoned militant hideouts in Badgam, Anantnag and Doda districts today, he said.

Militants made an attempt to blow up the office of General Manager, Telecommunications, by firing a rifle grenade at the heavily-guarded building in Srinagar.

The grenade missed its target and exploded on the nearby road close to Maisuma police station in the heart of the city, official sources said.
There was no loss of life or damage to property reported in the blast, the sources said.

No militant outfit has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Unemployment remains problem No 1
From Ramesh Gupta

UDHAMPUR: Unemployment is indeed a national problem but it has assumed alarming proportions in Jammu & Kashmir.

In Udhampur district it has had a devastating impact on educated youth. Even highly qualified youth such as graduates, post-graduates, engineers (both degree and diploma holders) and draftsmen, etc are struggling to get jobs. In all there are more than 10,000 jobless educated youth in Udhampur district. The number of these unemployed youth is increasing at a fast pace every year. Although Dr Farooq Abdullah, Chief Minister, during his poll campaign in 1996 had assured that his government would create 26,000 posts in various government departments of the state to resolve the unemployment crisis, nothing concrete has been done so far.

In the absence of a clear recruitment policy, the unemployed youth are the victims of exploitation at the hands of unscrupulous officers of different departments who promise them government jobs on payment of a "fee" but they do not get any job and ultimately suffer losses as they have no proof with them regarding the payments made.

Apart from this, the unreasonably long time taken by the service selection recruitment board and other agencies in completing the selection process as well as delay in issuing of appointment orders is disheartening.

It is very disappointing that the selection list of government teachers for Udhampur district has been declared but the appointing authorities have not issued the appointment orders as yet. Thus the future of the selected candidates hangs in the balance.

Many of educated job seekers are over-aged due to persistent delays by the authorities concerned. Another reason for unemployment is the backdoor entry which has also thwarted the entry of meritorious candidates as they do not have links with those in power and cannot afford to bribe officials. There are a few instances of suicide by some post-graduates and diploma engineers of Udhampur when they failed to get work. It is painful that the government is paying no heed to the growing problem of unemployment despite such incidents.

Although the Centre and state governments have introduced various schemes for unemployed youth like Prime Minister's Rozgar Yojna, employment scheme, Indira Awas Yojna and other schemes under the self-employment programme, but these have failed to make the desired impact on unemployed youth, particularly those from the rural areas.

In service selection, educated youth, who have done their B.A., B.Ed or post-graduation with B.Ed in the early eighties have been ignored while those who did their B.A, B.Ed or post-graduation in the nineties have been given recruitment. No reasonable required criteria for old and new graduates and post-graduates has been fixed with regard to selection for government jobs. Even simple graduates are selected while at times graduates and post-graduates with B.Ed are ignored. This has led to anxiety among unemployed educated youth. To remove this anomaly in recruitment the government should adopt the policy similar to that done during the Mir Qasim government rule in the early seventies which had established a precedent to give employment to the unemployed educated youth in year wise batches and under this scheme almost all the educated youth up to 1972 had been able to get jobs.

It is distressing that even 50 years after Independence, educated youth still face this problem. Unemployment is the root cause of crime and militancy and it is very painful that neither the state nor the central government has been paying attention to this growing problem.