PM's promise not honoured
KARGIL, June 29 — Army jawans in high mountains of Kargil battlefield continue to remain cut off from their kith and kin in the absence of adequate telephone services despite assurance given by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee for providing Inmarsat system of connection in the area.

"Powerless"in Kargil
KARGIL, June 29 — Bright flashes caused by the exchange of shells light up dark nights in otherwise "powerless" ghost town.

Tough times for displaced persons
DHARKHOUR VILLAGE, June 29 — This border village means a deserted look as 300 families have fled to safer places following heavy shelling from across the Line of Control.

Pro-active defence policy stressed
KARGIL, June 29 — The Kargil conflict has touched off a fierce debate among defence experts on the need for India to evolve a long-term national defence policy which should be pro-active rather than just reactive.

Installation of Inmarsat
PM's promise not honoured
From Ehsan Fazili
Tribune News Service

KARGIL, June 29 — Army jawans in high mountains of Kargil battlefield continue to remain cut off from their kith and kin in the absence of adequate telephone services despite assurance given by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee for providing Inmarsat system of connection in the area.

Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee on his last visit to the Kargil sector on June 13 had assured the troops that Inmarsat system of communication link would be set up in the mountainous battlefield. But so far this system of satellite-based communication system has not reached the troops. Troops were sent to the battlefield since the trouble started early last month.

Troops have been fighting Pakistan-backed intruders at heights of over 14,000 feet to 18000 feet from sea level. They do not have any means of communication with kith and kin across the country.

However, the highest battleground of Siachen in the frontier region of Ladakh, has been connected with the rest of the world with an STD facility. The STD facility at Siachen was inaugurated more than a year ago and happens to be the highest located STD in the world. The Drass-Kargil-Batalik axis of the fight between Indian Army and the intruders still awaits the STD facility for jawans and others for contact with other parts of the country.

There is no communication link for the 10,000 population of Kargil town and about 5000 population of Drass on the 434 km long Srinagar-Leh highway, with the outside world. These areas remain cut off from the rest of the world by road for more than six months of winter every year. But this year with the spotting of intruders on this side of the LoC has distanced the people further from the Kashmir valley close to them. The road has not been opened for public transport even after two months of its clearance.

Kargil town, which had its STD link with the rest of the world, suffers from "very weak and inefficient" services of the STD lines. "We are used to it. But nobody bothers to listen to us for the improvement of this system", said Haji R. Ali, owner of Hotel D' Zojila, one of the only two hotels in the town. Srinagar can be accessible from Kargil on a local dialling code, but it is hardly through. "We can get Srinagar through only after dialling for a couple of hours continuously", said the owner of Hotel D' Zojila.

For the visiting reporters in the wake of the Army's action against intrusion along the LoC, it has been equally difficult to transmit reports. They have been waiting for long hours to get through the lines to their respective media organisations. A few reporters having Sat phones only have been able to transmit reports and photographs without delay from the battle-field.

The town has only a few working STD Call Offices at present, while many others along with the major chunk of the town shopkeepers and the population have already fled the area in view of the growing tension due to shelling around the district headquarters. With a few towns people around and visiting journalists the only STD PCO near the Taxi Stand in the town remains open for fixed hours every day. The town's people later in the evening mostly run away from the town for fear of shelling by Pakistani troops.

But for the jawans around and away from the town, the lone STD PCO in the town even is not enough. They have to wait long to make connections through. Since engaged in battlefield it is not possible for them to try long at the telephone PCO. Since there has been a conflict going on in the area for about two months, jawans on duty have not been visiting the town for communication links. Their hope is to get back to their places after completion of tenure in the area. The old method of sending letters through Army Postal Service is the only means of communication between troops and their families, which lacks response in the battlefield.

While the ongoing conflict in the Dras-Kargil-Batalik axis along the LoC seems to be continuing at a "low speed for the difficult terrain" the troops hope Inmarsat will be installed at the earliest possible. That would be the only hope and means for the valiant troops to have contacts with their kith and kin across the country.

"Powerless" in Kargil
Tribune News Service

KARGIL, June 29 — Bright flashes caused by the exchange of shells light up dark nights in otherwise "powerless" ghost town.

A majority of the 10,000-strong population has already shifted from here to nearby villages.

Troops along the 70-km-long Dras-Kargil-Batalik axis at heights of 12,000 ft to 18,000 ft are trying to manage as best as they can in the absence of power.

Other in and around Kargil hardly rely on the locally generated power. The Iqbal mini hydroelectric project with a capacity of 3.75 mw is the only source of power.

A few solar power points have been established by the troops at mountains where they are engaged in fighting the intruders. These are in addition to some of the diesel generating sets.

"Power supply would be restored after one and a half month" said Jaffar, a young waiter at Siachen Hotel. There was a power failure in part of the town after the transformer was damaged during the day.

Resident said it was a routine feature. Restoring the power supply usually took a long time they said. The repair of the transformer would also take a long time as it, usually happened in any distant area.

Journalists who have come here from Srinagar and are staying in Siachen Hotel have to rely on the diesel generator for the power supply. The supply in the rest of the town is not better following a power cut at night.

Rangee Ali, father of Asghar Ali an engineer with the Power Department said his son had not returned home from the office for two days as he was busy with the rectification of the transformer. "It is normal practice here" he added.

State officials claim that of a total of 120 villagers, the district has 79 electrified villages. The residents care of the view, that the power supply in the rest of the district is even worse. The over 81,000 population of the district is used to dark nights in the absence of proper power generating facilities even as the area has sufficient hydroelectric resources.

The official claim that there are at least 17 diesel generating stations in the district. Work on three more hydroelectric projects is also in progress. The 60-km-long road from Dras to Kargil is strewn with damaged electric and telephone poles.

Despite the official claims, the local population is largely dependent on conventional sources of energy.

J&K police — a force to reckon with
From A.S. Prashar
Tribune News Service

SRINAGAR, June 29 — After remaining sidelined for years, the Jammu and Kashmir Police is now a force to reckon with and is fighting shoulder to shoulder with the Army and paramilitary forces in anti-militancy operations.

"As many as 80 per cent of the operations of the Army are now carried out jointly with the state police," says Mr Gurbachan Jagat, Director-General of the J&K Police. "Even in other operations carried out by the Army alone, the information is provided by us. Thus, the basic information input is almost totally ours."

In fact, immediately after Pakistani intrusion was detected in the Kargil sector, the Army got in touch with the J&K Police immediately to set up special operation groups in Dras, Turtuk and Kargil. "We are of great help because our men are from this area and know the psychology of the militants. A job which may require an elaborate cordon-and-search operation in an entire village by the Army can be easily done by the SHO of the area concerned just by sending out a police team to catch the culprit. This is because the police is familiar with the area and its people."

When Mr Jagat came here almost two and a half years ago, the situation was similar to what it was in Punjab in the early 80’s. The police was not equipped to fight the armed militants mentally as well as physically. It was underarmed, communications were primitive and transport was inadequate. Its strength was about 37,000.

The situation has undergone a vast change since then. The police is now fully motivated to fight militancy. Its arms, communications and transport system have been upgraded. The strength of the force has now increased to 53,000. It will rise to almost 70,000 by the end of next year.

This is the reason why the militancy in J and K is now down by about 90 per cent. The local recruitment is also very marginal. Whatever is happening now is due to foreign militants, 70-80 per cent of whom are Pakistanis. The rest are Afghans and a few Sudanese.

Leadership of the militants has passed into the hands of foreign mercenaries. It is they who are now controlling arms, ammunition and finance. The ISI is no longer trusting Kashmiri militants. That is why Hizb-e-Mujahideen is becoming weaker and organisations like the Laskhar-e-Toiba and the Harkat-ul-Ansar are becoming stronger.

The estimates about the number of mercenaries operating in J&K vary between 30,000 and 35,000. It is very difficult to stop infiltration completely. Although the border management this year has been very good, the attempt from the Pakistani side is to push in as many infiltrators as possible.

According to intelligence information available with the police, about 3,700 militants are waiting across the LoC at various points opposite Kupwara, Machhal, Gurez, Poonch and Rajouri. They are not able in infiltrate in large groups, but manage to come in twos and threes.

A large percentage of those coming in from across the LoC are Pakistani ex-servicemen. According to intelligence information, the foreign mercenaries will concentrate on sabotaging the highways used by the security forces. In the summer, militants generally go to the mountains and staying with Bakarwals and Gujjars. This time, they have been noticed coming down the hills and shifting their arms and ammunition dumps to lower heights, indicating that they want to sabotage army infrastructure, bridges and telephone lines.

Because of the pullout by the Army from around Srinagar for deployment in the Kargil sector, the strength of the security forces in the area is down to just one-third of the requirement. The state government is now pleading with the Centre for the induction of more paramilitary forces.

Tough times for displaced persons
From M.L. Kak
Tribune News Service

DHARKHOUR VILLAGE, June 29 — This border village means a deserted look as 300 families have fled to safer places following heavy shelling from across the Line of Control.

Some of the displaced persons have been camping in several schools at Domana, Muthi, Akhnoor, Daipur and Kotbalwal and in temple premises. Several hundred families of this villages and 20 neighbouring hamlets, including Pallanwala and Khour were putting up with their friends or relatives in Jammu city.

Each day brings many displaced persons, to transit camps. Four or six families squeeze themselves in each classroom. This correspondent saw in several deserted villages cattle grazing in paddy fields.

Bhagmal, an 85-year-old resident of Nikia village, said "if we fail to transplant paddy within next 15 days we will be doomed." As fire hasn't been capped on the LoC their hope for returning to their hamlets has receded.

Kailash Devi whose husband was killed fighting militants, was depressed. She and her two children had got nothing at the camp. She said "our paddy crop was being away eaten away cattle. We cannot go back and carry out farming.

"What will we eat even if we are able to return to our villages after a couple of months, "she said. Subedar Major (retd) Jaswant Singh is crestfallen. He had invested Rs 3 lakh in setting up a television shop in Jourian village. "When my village was hit by shells and bullets I loaded all the television sets and equipments in a truck and fled to Domana," he said adding that "I have no source of income now."

He said "we lost our estates in the 1971 war when Pakistani troops captured parts of the Chhamb area." Another retired soldier Subhash Singh of Pallanwala said "India should annexe the Chhamb sector and only then will we be free from Pakistani needling.

While 99 per cent residents have moved out of Nikia, Pallanwala, Gigdial Hamirpur, Garhar, Chaprial. Only able bodied males have strayed put in Trioti, Khour, Pargwal, Didora and Truckwal. And most of them keep a vigil on their houses during the day and shift to safer places during the night.

The 57-year-old Kala Devi of Gigdial and now staying in a camp for displaced persons said "we are faced with severe difficulties. We have nothing to eat. Our hungry children cannot study."

Pratap Ram of Chak Phakwari said "we have suffered tribulations during 1965 and 1971 wars. Since 1966 we have been facing hardships owing to intermittent but heavy Pak firing.

He said "we are human beings and cannot suffer more. The government should take in hand measures for our proper rehabilitation."

Neither kerosene nor foodgrains have been made available to displaced persons. The government had sent one Kerosene tanker for two camps at Domana and Muthi. "We bank on help from the social organisations which have distributed rice, wheat flour and other items," said Ajay Singh of Pallanwala.

By now more than 60,000 people from the border villages of Akhnoor, R.S. Pora and Samba sectors have fled their villages to safer places. Several houses bear the shell marks on doors and windows.

From eight villages in the Samba sector, including Galard, Nanga, Hobtal, Langur and Gobindgarh more than 104 families have moved to safer places during the past 24 hours. Most of them have been camping on roadsides.

Since there has been no let up in Pakistani firing in Akhnoor, Samba R.S. Pora, Poonch and Rajouri areas the Government fears more exodus. The continued cash crunch in the state administration had made the supply of free ration to displaced persons a dream.

The Chief Minister, Dr Farooq Abdullah, has deputed the Industries Minister, Mr Bodh Raj Bali and Animal Husbandry Minister, Mr Surjit Singh Slathia, to look into the problems faced by displaced persons.

Mr Bodh Raj Bali said as soon as "we will carry out relief operation the centre releases funds for displaced persons". He said Dr Abdullah has renewed his request to the Centre to release additional funds.

Mr Bali and Mr Salathia have been in touch with prominent leaders of the Chamber of Commerce and Industries and other organisations in order to continue the supply of food and other items to the displaced persons. Electricity and drinking water supplies to these camps have been improved.

These organisations have informed the state Government that they may not be able to provide free ration and other essential items to the displaced persons after 10 days.

The Union Home Minister, Mr L.K. Advani, had announced in Jammu that the Centre would reimburse the expenses the state Government woule incur on relief measures to the displaced persons but the state authorities say their coffers were empty.

Pro-active defence policy stressed
Tribune News Service

KARGIL, June 29 — The Kargil conflict has touched off a fierce debate among defence experts on the need for India to evolve a long-term national defence policy which should be pro-active rather than just reactive.

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

It is well-known that Pakistan has a single point programme of making India bleed at as many places as possible to weaken it to grab Kashmir. Pakistan’s training, arming and brainwashing Punjab militants, open support to Kashmiri militants, Ulfa, Nagas, Mizos and others in the north-east as also Muslim fundamentalist organisations in the South have to be seen in this context.