Differences come to the fore
NEW DELHI, March 24 — Even as the young firebrand JKLF leader Yasin Malik decided to absent himself from Pakistan Day celebrations at the High Commission yesterday, the generation gap within the organisation is coming to the fore with the older group led by Hurriyat Chairman S.A.S. Gillani sticking to the beaten track and the younger elements wanting to chart out a new path for their movement.

Former RAC chief questions CM's statement
JAMMU, March 24 — The former Working Chairman of the Regional Autonomy Committee, Mr Balraj Puri, has questioned the desirability of securing two reports on the issue, one from him and the other from members of the RAC, by the Chief Minister.

Differences to the fore in APHC
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, March 24 — Even as the young firebrand JKLF leader Yasin Malik decided to absent himself from Pakistan Day celebrations at the High Commission yesterday, the generation gap within the organisation is coming to the fore with the older group led by Hurriyat Chairman S.A.S. Gillani sticking to the beaten track and the younger elements wanting to chart out a new path for their movement.

When contacted on telephone in Srinagar, Mr Malik said that he could not come to New Delhi to attend the celebrations as he was busy in a seminar which was held on Monday but sources within the Hurriyat maintained that the JKLF leader has decided to maintain a distance from Pakistan and that is why he consciously avoided coming to the capital to participate in the celebrations.

Mr Gillani, Mr G.M. Butt, Mr Mohammad Ashraf Sehrai and Mr A.G. Lone’s daughter, Ms Shabnam, along with other leaders attended the function at the Pakistan High Commission.

Mr Malik, whose main plan has been “Azadi” for the Kashmiri people, is believed to be having serious differences with his senior colleagues who have covertly and sometime overtly been toeing Islamabad line.

Mr Malik sees his future in the line taken by expatriate Kashmiri leaders who have been asking the All Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC) leadership to work towards an independent entity for Jammu and Kashmir, sources pointed out.

The expatriate leaders, based in the United Kingdom and the USA, have been supporting the idea of an independent state of Jammu and Kashmir as evident in various proposals. The latest proposal, coming from a US think tank largely funded by a businessman of Kashmiri origins, talks about a portion of the former princely state to be reconstituted as a sovereign entity, but without an international personality. This sovereign entity would enjoy free access to and from both India and Pakistan.

The paper has suggested that a portion of the state to be so reconstituted should be determined through an internationally supervised ascertainment of the wishes of the Kashmiri people on either side of the Line of Control (LoC).

The paper, carrying a title “Kashmir- A Way Forward”, has been authored by the Kashmir Study Group which has been largely funded by a businessman , Mr Farooq Kathwari. Mr Kathwari, who was recently in India, met many leaders from the state. He met Mr Shabbir Ahmed Shah and the National Conference leader, Prof Saifuddin Soz.

When asked whether he met Mr Kathwari, Mr Malik refused to either confirm or deny it saying that “how does it matter”.

However the proposals, like the one prepared by the US think tank, strike a positive cord with the younger and the middle ranking leaders of various groups and parties.

While the elder leaders like Mr Gillani, Mr Butt, Mr Lone and others are sceptical about such proposals, younger elements like Mr Malik are confident that an independent State of Jammu and Kashmir would finally emerge. For elder leaders, one in hand is better than two in bush, an observer pointed out.

That is precisely why Mr Gillani is sleeping over a suggestion from London-based World Kashmiri Freedom Movement which had asked the APHC to have a more representative character by democratising the seven year old organisation. The London based organisation had also suggested that the APHC be renamed as “Freedom Conference”.

Leaders like Mr Gillani are of the view that their pro-Pakistan approach was a safer course and proposals coming from expatriates, which have the blessing of the western capitals particularly of the Anglo-Saxon world, are dicey in nature and so should be downplayed if not totally ignored. The West can change its stance anytime, they point out.

J&K Annual Plan fixed at 1750 cr
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Marc 24 — The Annual Plan for Jammu and Kashmir for 1999-2000 was today fixed at Rs 1750 crore.

This was decided at a meeting between the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, Mr K C Pant and the state Chief Minister Dr Farooq Abdullah here today.

Mr Pant requested the state to pay special attention to empowerment of people through panchayati raj representatives and trim bureaucracy. These steps would go a long way in speeding up the economic development of the state and help in stabilising the fiscal situation of the government, Mr Pant said.

Noting that the progress in the plan development of the state was gradually picking up with net state domestic product recording an average growth of 4.75 per cent during the Eighth Plan period.

Mr Pant said the state needed to introduce power sector reforms as agreed at the National Development Council,increase area under foodgrain crops, enhance percentage of irrigated area,add to the consumption of fertilisers and introduce high-yielding variety pulses.

It was pointed out that the state needed to develop an integrated strategy for processing of sub-standard apples and replacement of old walnut trees with fresh genetic material.

Dr Farooq Abdullah drew attention to the difficult conditions under which the state government was performing.He said that the state government was facing additional financial burden because of the Fifth Pay Commission recommendations and efforts were being made to generate more revenue.

Former RAC chief questions CM's statement
Tribune News Service

JAMMU, March 24 — The former Working Chairman of the Regional Autonomy Committee (RAC), Mr Balraj Puri, has questioned the desirability of securing two reports on the issue, one from him and the other from members of the RAC, by the Chief Minister.

In a signed statement issued here today, Mr Puri said Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah's recent statement on the floor of the Assembly that he had received two reports on regional autonomy was "surprising". He said he had submitted his report to the government in June last year.

Mr Puri said the Chief Minister should have invited him for discussion on the report he (Puri) had submitted but instead of doing it the Chief Minister "removed me from the committee with retrospective effect". He asked whether it was necessary for the Chief Minister to remove him and ask the remaining members to submit another report.

He said the changing stand of the Chief Minister on the issue indicated that Dr Abdullah was not serious on devolution of power. He wanted the Chief Minister to ponder over the consequences of getting a report prepared by a committee comprising ministers and members of the ruling party. Such a report would "lack credibility" and it might "revive and aggravate regional and sectional tension", he said.

Ancient coins found

SRINAGAR, March 24 (ANI) — Archaeologists in Jammu and Kashmir have unearthed nearly 1,450 coins dating back to the 14th and 15th century A.D.

The discovery of the coins from a graveyard near here could throw some light on the history of the state of which very little was known, archaeologists said.

The coins were discovered during digging at a historic graveyard in Barthana, 4 km from Srinagar.

Archaeologists said the coins, on which research work has started, were minted between 1420 and 1580 A.D. "It may have happened that someone must have collected these coins between 1420 and 1580. We found them in a pot in the graveyard," said Mohammed Hussain Makhdoomi, senior official of the state’s Archaeological Department.

The coins have inscription in Arabic and depict pictures of 13 rulers of Kashmir about whom very little is known. Each coin bears a typical monogram of "Bar and Naught" used by the then Muslim rulers. The reverse of the coin carries the mint name "Zarab-e-Kashmir" in crude Arabic letters.

Most of the coins belong to the periods when Sultan Zain-ul-Abideen, Sultan Hassan Shah, Mohammed Shah and Sultan Ali Shah ruled the Himalayan kingdom.

According to the officials this is the largest discovery of such coins. In late eighties, nearly 500 coins dating back to the 10th century were discovered.