Militants kill 3 in valley
SRINAGAR, July 1 — Militants gunned down three persons, including a Special Police Officer (SPO) and wounded four others since last evening, the police said here today.

Ban on movement in border villages
JAMMU, July 1 — District Magistrate Kathua Chaman Lal has imposed restrictions on the movement of persons from 8 pm to 5 pm in 70 villages near the international border in Hiranagar tehsil of Kathua district with immediate effect under Section 144 of the Cr P.C. Restrictions will remain in force for one month.

160 volunteers to join Operation Vijay
UDHAMPUR, July 1 — Third batch of 160 youths from the Chhamb-Jaurian-Akhnoor area inspired by K.P. Singh of Tanda left Tanda on June 30 to join Operation Vijay for porter duties to assist men in uniform.

• Advani meets jawans

CMs' conference

Farooq to air "raw deal" to J&K
Tribune News Service

JAMMU, July 1 — At the Chief Ministers' conference, proposed to be held in Delhi on July 7, to discuss the Kargil situation, Dr Farooq Abdullah is likely to raise basic issues concerning people of Jammu and Kashmir.

Sources close to the Chief Minister said that Dr Abdullah would visit Delhi to attend the conference with details regarding what he calls stepmotherly treatment given to Jammu and Kashmir by the Centre during the last 33 months.These months have been a period of acute cash crisis causing inconvenience to the employees, migrants, pensioners and affected the pace of development works. Not only this the state government overdraft with the Jammu and Kashmir Bank has touched a record figure of Rs 1150 crore.

The Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister will use his visit to Delhi on building pressure on the Centre to announce an economic package for which the people of the state were waiting for since 1996 when the National Conference assumed power.

Apart from the two year old economic crisis the state government is upset over the inordinate delay on the part of the Centre in releasing additional funds which could be utilised on giving free ration and other assistance to the families displaced on account of armed conflict in the Kargil Dras belt and as a result of heavy Pak firing in nine sectors of the state. At present 60,000 people in Jammu sector and about 30,000 people in the Kargil Dras belt have been rendered "refugees" because of Pakistani shelling.

To start with the state government requires at least Rs 100 crore for making available ration free of cost and other essential commodities to the migrants. Twice the state government sent an SOS to the Centre to come to the rescue of the refugees but so far, nothing has been done despite commitment made by central leaders during their visits to the border areas in Jammu.

The state government has been able to allow the migrants on this side of the International Border in Jammu sector to stay in school buildings because of the summer recess. After the schools reopened with the end of summer break the state government has to make arrangements for the stay of the migrants.

It will require several crores of rupees for making tented accommodation available to the displaced families.

The Chief Minister's anger against the Centre flows from the dilly-dallying adopted by the BJP-led government in reimbursing over Rs 800 crore security related expenses. It is annoyed with the Centre when the Chief Minister's persistent demand for waiving of Rs 1275 crore central debt was not conceded because the annual servicing charges have touched Rs 600 crore which cuts the plan assistance from the Centre to a small size.

At one stage the Centre had agreed to release Rs 239 crore as part of the security related expenses but the amount is still to reach the government. Another irritant is refusal of the Centre to give counter guarantee for setting up major power projects in state. The state government showed its determination to go ahead with the 395 MW Bhagliar power project and made available over Rs 160 crore. The result of this hasty exercise was that the electricity consumers in the state have been fleeced when the government hiked the power tariff three times during the last one year and resorted to arbitrary 10 time hike in agreement between the Power Development Department and the electricity consumers who prefer flat rates to metered rates.

What seems to disturb the National Conference government is the people's ire against it on account of strict measures initiated for the recovery of Salex Tax, electricity tariff and other taxes. With these stringent measures the state government has not succeeded in plugging the growing budgetary deficit. And out of frustration Dr Abdullah announced at a recent tele press conference that he would wage a war against the party that came to power at the Centre after the Lok Sabha elections because of failure of the Centre to help the state to come out of the acute cash squeeze.

Contingency plan for migrants soon
From Our Correspondent

JAMMU, July 1 — A contingency plan to provide relief to the people who have migrated from the Jammu region to safer places, is being considered by the Jammu and Kashmir Government.

Stating this, Mr Surjit Singh Salathia, Animal Husbandry Minister, said the government was fully aware about the problems of the people and effective measures were being initiated to mitigate their sufferings and is ensuring adequate availability of drinking water, electricity, medicines, and kerosene. The minister, who visited the border villages of Nanga, Dug, Avtal, Jerada, Rargora of Vijaypur block, assured that the government would provide compensation to those farmers who could not cultivate their land due to unprovoked firing from across the border.

The Industries Minister, Mr Bodh Raj Bali, also reviewed the overall situation at a high-level meeting attended by top civil and police officers. The meeting was apprised that nearly 4912 families have migrated from Jammu division. Of this, 2893 families have migrated partially and 2019 fully due to intermittent firing on the border. The Divisional Commissioner of Jammu informed the meeting that 35 migrant camps have been set up in various educational institutions. He said to provide accommodation to the needy migrant families, 500 tents had been purchased and an equal number was likely to be arranged shortly.

Meanwhile, Mr Salathia gave away cheques amounting to Rs 2 lakh each as ex gratia relief on behalf of the state government to widows of two Kargil martyrs — Havildar Jagan Nath of Poonda village and Havildar Rajinder Singh of Marta Nagrota village of Basohli tehsil. He visited the houses of these martyrs to deliver the cheques on Tuesday. He also announced that the school in Kotla village would be named after Havildar Jagan Nath. Nogrota chowk of Marta Nagrota village has already been renamed after the name of Havildar Rajinder Singh.

Havildar Jagan Nath is survived by three daughters while Havildar Rajinder Singh has two sons.

Information war also on: Mahajan
Tribune News Service

JAMMU, July 1 — Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Pramod Mahajan has said that besides the military war, "we are fighting an information war against Pakistan."

He said this at a meet the Press programme organised by the local Press Club here today.

He said Pakistan had launched a vicious anti-India propaganda through its print and electronic media. It was in this context that the government had temporarily banned relaying PTV programmes through cable operators. He said there was no system yet developed through which terrestrial television programmes could be stopped.

Mr Mahajan listed several schemes that the government had cleared for strengthening India's campaign against false propaganda launched by Pakistan and in this connection he referred to the installation of 10 KV transmitter in Kargil and Leh to update the broadcasting system in the remote areas.

Mr Ved Bhasin, president of the Press Club, donated Rs 5,000 to the Prime Minister's Relief Fund. Several other trade and voluntary organisations handed over drafts for the relief fund.

Earlier, Mr Mahajan inaugurated Jammu Doordarshan's Dogri news bulletin programme which has met the demand of the local people who had been struggling for 10 years to give due status to the Dogri language.

Kargil imbroglio

Is our defence policy proactive ?
from A.S. Prashar
Tribune News Service

KARGIL, July 1 — Indian defence forces have contained the Pakistani intrusion into the Kargil sector. It is only a matter of time, before the enemy is beaten back to wherever it came from.

But the Kargil conflict has raised certain very important, basic questions about India's defence policy.Even 50 years after Independence, India does not seem to have a well-defined, coherent, proactive national defence policy. And if there is one, it does not seem to go beyond activating the defence forces to safeguard the unity and territorial integrity of the country whenever the enemy decides to launch an aggression.

This is what happened in 1948 when Pakistan sent its "irregulars" and tribesmen to grab Kashmir. This was followed by its aggressive incursion in the Kutch in 1965 followed by infiltration in Kashmir in September the same year leading to the Indo-Pak war. This has now been repeated in more or less similar fashion in the Kashmir valley and Kargil in 1999.

Defence analysts here argue that it is the manifestation of this very reactive mindset that the defence forces have been directed to confine the conflict to the Kargil sector alone and forbidden to cross the LoC in order to annihilate the enemy. Although Army field commanders here maintain that there is no need to cross the LoC to deal with the enemy, it is no secret that there is considerable unhappiness and frustration in the Army for not being allowed to cross the LoC to deal a crushing blow to the enemy.

Even the Chief of the Army Staff, General V.P. Malik, declared at his press conference in Delhi the other day that "there is need to look beyond Kargil". What he did not spell out in so many words was that India must deal with an intractable foe like Pakistan in a comprehensive manner so as to solve the problem once for all. The defence analysts say that unless Pakistan is fixed once for all, it would continue to make life difficult for India as it has done in Kargil. Hence, the need for a dynamic, proactive and forward-looking defence policy rather than reactive defence policy.

"The Government of India should evolve a policy and give it to us for implementation and in no time at all, we can make Pakistan so busy trying to keep itself together that it will forget about Kashmir or anything else...", says an angry young Army officer.

"It is a wicked, wicked world as India must have discovered by now," say defence experts. "Chanting mantras alone will not ensure peace. If the Indian leadership does not learn even now, it will never learn. One has to be aggressive and always on guard to survive in this world."

They point out that there is no need for India to be always reactive as regards its defence matters. Why should the initiative be always with the enemy while India, with one of the largest armies in the world, be always trying to find ways and means of containing and beating back him, as it is being done in Kargil? they ask.

The defence policy must take into account the possible threat perception from different sources and deal with them even before they materialise and become a menace.

It is no secret that Pakistan's military leadership has just a single point state policy vis-a-vis India: to make it bleed at as many places as possible so as to make it so weak. Since India cannot be defeated militarily by Pakistan, it has perfected the technique of waging a proxy war. This is what it has been pursuing ever since the days of General Zia-ul-Haq with single-minded devotion irrespective of the government in power in that country. Pakistan's brainwashing, training and arming of Punjab militants, open support to armed subversives in Kashmir, Ulfa, Nagas, Mizos and other groups in the North-East, rearing of outlaws like Dawood Ibrahim responsible for the Bombay serial blasts as also the Muslim fundamentalist organisations in the south has to be seen in this context.

In the absence of a clear, proactive defence policy, the Indian state has been reduced to being on the back foot all the time, trying to contain the enemy. "It is the manifestation of this seemingly timid mentality which encourages, instead of deterring, the enemy, " say the analysts. "If he sends armed militants to Punjab, we erect a border fence. If he creates trouble in the North East, we deploy forces there. If he organises bomb blasts in Bombay and Coimbatore, we beef up security there. If he encourages militancy in Kashmir, we send more forces there... Why should we not pay back the enemy in the same coin and defeat it in its own game. Why should India not create such conditions inside Pakistan which would force its military leadership to concentrate on keeping Pakistan together instead of always scheming about grabbing Kashmir.

Militants kill 3 in valley

SRINAGAR, July 1 (PTI) — Militants gunned down three persons, including a Special Police Officer (SPO) and wounded four others since last evening, the police said here today.

The police also arrested two militants, including a self-styled deputy district commander of the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, from Magarmalbagh in Srinagar last evening.

The arrest of Nissar Ahmad Mir led to the recovery of an AK assault rifle, three magazines and 63 rounds of ammunition. The weapons had been snatched by militants Altaf Baba and Shafiq Ahmad Bhat from 20 Grenadiers in an encounter at Batmaloo in 1993-94.

Altaf Baba and Shafiq had crossed over to Pakistan after the encounter and were reportedly supervising militant operations from there, the police said.

Panic gripped Lal Chowk when militants shot dead a Special Police Officer, Mohammad Maqbool, near the Amirakadal bridge this morning.

The police said militants shot dead a militant, Bashir Ahmad Bhat, at village Salar in the Batapora area of Anantnag district in South Kashmir last evening.

Two more persons, Ghulam Mohiuddin Mir and Ghulam Nabi Shah, were injured in firing by militants.

The police recovered the body of Gayoor Ahmad Khan from the Bandipora area of Baramula district in North Kashmir last evening. He had been reportedly kidnapped and subsequently killed.

Two security personnel were wounded in an ambush by the militants at the Klankote area of Doda district last night.

The police said the Special Operations Group of the local police arrested a militant, Abdul Bhat from Bagyass in the Chattabal area of Srinagar last evening.

Mr Bhat was a trained militant of the Tehreek-ul-Mujahideen and was in possession of some ammunition which was seized.

Meanwhile, a report from Jammu said three intruders were killed when the BSF and the Army foiled two infiltration bids in the Samba and Poonch areas of the Jammu region last night even as shelling and firing continued in different areas of the Poonch, Jammu and Rajouri sectors today, official sources here said.

Ban on movement in border villages
From Our Correspondent

JAMMU, July 1 — District Magistrate Kathua Chaman Lal has imposed restrictions on the movement of persons from 8 pm to 5 pm in 70 villages near the international border in Hiranagar tehsil of Kathua district with immediate effect under Section 144 of the Cr P.C. Restrictions will remain in force for one month.

Restrictions have been imposed in view of the prevailing security scenario and with the apprehension of smuggling of weapons from other side of the international border which may be used for subversive or anti-national activities.

However, persons needing emergency medical attention or answering call of nature have been exempted from restrictions. They shall have to contact the nearest security force post with a torch in hand and shall have to give identification and search to security personnel on demand.

Police personnel under the District Superintendent of Police and other security personnel engaged in executing the restrictions are also exempted from this order.

160 volunteers to join Operation Vijay
From Our Correspondent

UDHAMPUR, July 1 — Third batch of 160 youths from the Chhamb-Jaurian-Akhnoor area inspired by K.P. Singh of Tanda left Tanda on June 30 to join Operation Vijay for porter duties to assist men in uniform. The youths appeared to be committed to serve the nation.

In an interview to Star TV at Tanda on June 29 many said that they had volunteered not to earn money despite being from migrant refugees camps after being uprooted from border areas. Naib Subedar T.K. Dutta will present them to Lt Col Chauhan who will be their Commanding Officer.

Advani meets jawans
From Our Correspondent

UDHAMPUR, July 1 — Union Home Minister Lal Krishan Advani today visited Army Command Hospital here and met injured Jawans of Operation Vijay.

A deputation of the BJP, headed by Mr. Shivcharan Gupta, met him and demanded help for the migrants from Udhampur district.