Soldiers back PM's stand: Dhumal
SRINAGAR, July 5 — The Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee's stand that the government did not favour any third party mediation on resolving the Kargil issue has been appreciated by the troops fighting intruders along the LoC in Kargil.

Congress for ‘white paper’ on secret talks
JAMMU, July 5 — The Congress has demanded a "white paper" from the Vajpayee-led government on what it has called "secret" talks between the US, Indian and Pakistan government on the Kashmir issue, including the Kargil imbroglio.

BSF officer, Army Havaldar shot
JAMMU, July 5 — A Border Security Force personnel and an Army Havaldar were killed and two women injured in mortar shelling and firing by Pakistani forces in Poonch, Rajouri and Jammu districts since yesterday, official reports said here today.

Devotees stirred by nationalism
VAISHNO DEVI, July 5 — Nationalist fervour in the backdrop of Kargil conflict was clearly visible among a large number of devotees heading for a darshan of Mata Vaishno Devi shrine near here along the entire 12 km stretch of the Katra-Vaishno Devi route.

Soldiers back PM's stand: Dhumal
Tribune News Service

SRINAGAR, July 5 — The Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee's stand that the government did not favour any third party mediation on resolving the Kargil issue has been appreciated by the troops fighting intruders along the LoC in Kargil.

This was disclosed by Mr Prem Kumar Dhumal, Himachal Chief Minister, while addressing a press conference here this afternoon after visiting the Kargil area. He said soldiers fighting the intruders also hailed the stand of BJP-led government. Mr Dhumal said jawans fighting in the most difficult terrain were in high spirits.

Mr Dhumal, who along with the Speaker of HP Assembly, Mr Gulab Singh and All-India General Secretary of the BJP, Mr Narinder Modi visited command hospital and base hospital here also visited Kargil today.

Later he flew back to Chandigarh on way to Shimla. Mr Dhumal said they visited injured soldiers in the hospitals and conveyed to them that the entire nation was behind them. A large quantity of eatables and other essentials were distributed among the injured soldiers at the hospital and also at some of the positions in the Kargil area.

The Chief Minister said his government had taken special measures for the welfare of the families of the soldiers who had laid their lives in the Kargil battle. At least 25 Army men from Himachal Pradesh alone had sacrificed their lives in the conflict along the LoC.

Mr Dhumal said Rs 5 lakh would be given to kin of the martyrs . His government would offer a job each to kin of the deceased soldiers and provide free education to two children of such soldiers.

The BJP general secretary, Mr Narinder Modi, who accompanied Mr Dhumal said the BJP had taken note of the joint statement of President Bill Clinton and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif from White House for an end to the Kargil conflict.

He however, refused to comment on the statement.

Answering a question Mr Modi said Kargil was not to be linked to the coming Lok Sabha elections. He added the Kargil situation had proved that Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee was a "great leader".

The BJP leader also sought to devise a mechanism to ensure the participation in poll of all troops stationed at distant places from their homes. He proposed "proxy vote" in such case.

Congress for ‘white paper’ on secret talks
Tribune News Service

JAMMU, July 5 — The Congress has demanded a "white paper" from the Vajpayee-led government on what it has called "secret" talks between the US, Indian and Pakistan government on the Kashmir issue, including the Kargil imbroglio.

Two senior Congress leaders, Mr K M Khan and Mr S S Surjewala, told newsmen here today that the Vajpayee government should take the nation into confidence on the alleged sellout of Kashmir. They said the idea behind the Congress demand for convening a special session of the Rajya Sabha was to force the government to make a statement on the floor of the House regarding the nature and the contents of the secret talks.

Mr Khan opposed any US intervention or mediation on the Kargil and Kashmir issues. Blaming the Government of India for what he termed as diplomatic failure Mr Khan said had the Centre used the services of its diplomatic channels the OIC would have not adopted a resolution supporting Pak stand on Kargil. He described the OIC resolution as unfortunate and condemned it saying the OIC had ignored that India was inhabited by over 15 crore Muslims.

He denounced the OIC to send a team to Kashmir to study the situation and said Islamic countries should have sought report from their ambassadors as the violation of sanctity of the Line of Control in Kargil by Pakistan was quite clear.

He also ridiculed the Union Minister, Mr Ram Jethmalani's statement favouring taking the Kargil conflict to the International Court of Justice.

Mr Surjewala accused the Farooq Abdullah-led government in Jammu and Kashmir of having launched a "tirade" against Congress workers and leaders. He said senior Congress leaders had been denied security cover despite the fact that they were on the hit list of militants. He blamed the Chief Minister, for having excluded those constituencies which will represented by the Congress from development works.

Police sources said a large number of foreign mercenaries may opt out of Jammu and Kashmir as they had been assured that once they landed in Kashmir, Pak troops would invade the state and "liberate" Kashmir.

Meanwhile, the Defence Ministry has decided to set up permanent bunkers and border outposts on the heights in the Kargil and Dras sectors. These will not left unmanned during winter. In the last 50 years these heights would be abandoned between October and May because of difficult terrain where maintaining troops in arctic conditions entails heavy expenses.

Defence experts say that maintaining troops on the mountain belts of the Kargil and Dras sectors is very costly as compared to Siachen because in the Kargil-Dras belt more than 400 km area has to be taken care of against 64-km-long Siachen glacier.

Already the exercise on developing mule tracks from Kargil and Dras towns to hilly belts has been started so that in winter supplies could be sent to high altitude posts whenever strong winds and snow disrupt helicopter services. The Army authorities have informed the Defence Ministry that leaving Indian posts unmanned in winter will be a blunder because Islamabad cannot be trusted even if a peace treaty or ceasefire agreement is signed by both sides.

BSF officer, Army Havaldar shot

JAMMU, July 5 (PTI) — A Border Security Force (BSF) personnel and an Army Havaldar were killed and two women injured in mortar shelling and firing by Pakistani forces in Poonch, Rajouri and Jammu districts since yesterday, official reports said here today.

The reports said a BSF Sub-Inspector died after suffering head injuries in Pakistani firing in Poonch last night.

Army Havaldar Swami, hailing from Himachal Pradesh, was killed when a mortar shell exploded close to him in a forward area of the Gambhir sector in Rajouri district.

One girl, Kaneeza, of Gole Pattan Gajansoo village in the Kanachak area was injured due to firing from across the border. Another woman identified as Feroza Bi sustained injuries in Pakistan shelling at the Digwar area of Poonch district during the period, the reports said.

Heavy shelling was reported from Pakistani side at Kadhali village in the Nowshera sector last night resulting in the loss of several cattle heads.

Indian troops also retaliated and intermittent exchange of shelling was continuing in the area.

SRINAGAR (UNI): Militants killed a security jawan and a central government official, while forces captured eight militants in the Kashmir valley in the past 24 hours.

Militants today shot dead Naxir Ahmad Sofi at Baran Pather Batmalo around 10.30 am. Sofi was working as orderly in Deputy Accountant General's office, an official spokesman said.

The spokesman said a patrol party was fired upon by militants armed with automatic weapons at Kaspath last evening which resulted in the death of a jawan, though the patrol party retaliated, the militants escaped.

Later one pistol and eight rounds were recovered from near the site of encounter.

The spokesman said security forces arrested eight militants and recovered some arms and ammunition, including one grenade launcher, four grenades, one pistol, one anti-personnel mine, five programme time devices, two remote control devices and one wireless set across the valley during overnight operations.

Devotees stirred by nationalism

VAISHNO DEVI (JAMMU), July 5 (PTI) — Nationalist fervour in the backdrop of Kargil conflict was clearly visible among a large number of devotees heading for a darshan of Mata Vaishno Devi shrine near here along the entire 12 km stretch of the Katra-Vaishno Devi route.

Anti-Pakistan slogans overshadowed the religious slogans which normally fill the air in this sacred place.

The usual "chalo bulawa aaya hai mata" was replaced with "mata ke saath saath hum bhi apni army ke saath hai" along with the blessings of the goddess we are also with our Army). A group from Delhi was reciting while heading towards the shrine.

The entire route from Pathankot to Jammu was flooded with banners put up by various organisations welcoming the soldiers for their ordeal to icy-hills.