Mufti for talks with ultras
SRINAGAR, Sept 26 — Former Union Home Minister and President of Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Democratic Party Mufti Mohammad Sayeed said today his party would force the new government at the Centre to initiate a dialogue with militants to restore peace in Kashmir.



"Bhaint" competition from October 10
JAMMU, Sept 26 — A nine-day all-India competition of "bhaint" (devotional songs) on the occasion of Navratras is being organised by the J & K Tourism Department from October 10 to 18. In all 27 prizes worth Rs 1.5 lakh will be awarded.

Village razed to the ground
SRINAGAR, Sept 26 — A tiny hamlet was razed to the ground in a devastating fire in Gurez subsector of Baramula district, official sources said today.

Mufti for talks with ultras

SRINAGAR, Sept 26 (PTI) — Former Union Home Minister and President of Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Democratic Party Mufti Mohammad Sayeed said today his party would force the new government at the Centre to initiate a dialogue with militants to restore peace in Kashmir.

"If the Central Government is serious about restoration of peace and normalcy in the state, it should initiate an unconditional dialogue with the militants and their leaders without further loss of time," the Mufti said while addressing election rallies in the Pahalgam area of Anantnag district today.

He said his party would soon wage a struggle for the restoration of normalcy, democracy and rule of law in the state to protect human rights.

Accusing the ruling National Conference of dismal performance and its failure to mitigate misery of the people, the Mufti alleged that the state government was silent about the "reign of terror let loose by the special task force, pro-government militants, militants and security forces."

He said the PDP would start an agitation after elections against the misrule of the National Conference Government.

The Mufti alleged that the law and order situation in the state was deteriorating as the bullet-to-bullet policy of the state government was proving counter-productive.

"The militants again have established strong bases in some areas in Kashmir and are striking at random with the state government remaining a mute spectator to the situation," he said.

Senior PDP leader and party nominee for the Srinagar constituency Mehbooba Mufti charged the National Conference Government with indulging in electoral malpractices in the Srinagar-Badgam parliamentary elections.

Ms Mehbooba told an election meeting in Verinag and Nowgam in Anantnag district that the National Conference adopted "some methods to rig poll in the Srinagar parliamentary constituency like it did in the 1987 Assembly elections."

"Bhaints" competition from October 10

JAMMU, Sept 26 — A nine-day all-India competition of "bhaints" (devotional songs) on the occasion of Navratras is being organised by the J & K Tourism Department from October 10 to 18. In all 27 prizes worth Rs 1.5 lakh will be awarded.

The competition will be held from October 10 to 13 at Bagh-e-Bahu, Jammu, and from October 14 to 17 at Katra. The final will be held at Katra on October 18. All competitions will be held shortly after sun set.

There will be no entry fee and the competition would be held on the first come, first serve basis. Participants can enrole themselves with the Director Tourism, J & K, Mr S.S. Bhalla, at the TRC complex, Jammu.

Three prizes worth Rs 5,000, Rs 4,000 and Rs 3,000, respectively, will be given to individuals or groups every day. The winners of the eight day would be eligible for the finals. The prizes for the finals are Rs 10,000, Rs 8,000 and Rs 6,000 respectively.

More cinemas to reopen in valley
From M.L. Kak
Tribune News Service

JAMMU, Sept 26 — When the Regal cinema opened on Friday in Sringar after a gap of 10 years it was treated as yet another milestone in the valley's journey to peace on "But those who had dreamt of peace were rudely shaken when a grenade attack on cinegoers left one dead and many injured.

The cinema, after remaining open for two shows, was closed again. However, a senior police officer said the government was determined to see that it reopened within a day or two and adequate security arrangements were being made to make sure that more cinemas reopen. He said the owners of Regal cinema had committed one mistake of holding the second show from 4 p.m. to 7p.m. when under the given situation it should have ended by 5 p.m. The militants took advantage of this and succeeded in hurling a grenade in an attempt to foil the government's plan to restore peace in the valley.

When militancy took roots in Kashmir in 1990 there were more than 12 cinemas in the valley and out of them eight were in the summer capital. More than six cinemas were damaged by the militants and by the middle of January, 1990 all cinemas closed.

However, gradual improvement in the situation led to the reopening of two cinemas in Srinagar. The one in Badamibagh cantonment had been running shows for the last over eight months and another near the civil secretariat had been attracting large crowds during the past three months. Besides, these two cinemas, one in Baramula and another in Pattan had not been closed as they were being run by the Defence authorities.

People have defied threats from the militants with the result more than 24 cable operators have refused to shut down their establishments. They had buckled under threats four months ago but have reappared on the scene indicating that people were not averse to viewing Hindi films and other entertaining programmes.

But this alone cannot denote that peace has returned to Kashmir since the Kargil armed conflict. During the past four-and-a half months insurgents have resurfaced in areas which had been "sanitised" with the result that the number of militancy-related incidents in various parts of the Kashmir valley and the Jammu region had registered an upward trend. More than 150 civilians, including political activists, 76 security personnel were killed and scores of people and police and Army personnel were injured in shootouts, grenade and landmine blasts.

The police authorities mention three major factors responsible for the rise in militancy-related violance in the state. First, as the dates for the Lok Sabha poll were announced militants received instructions from across the border to step up violence in order to wreck the poll process. Secondly, since May more than 500 foreign mercenaries, equipped with highly sophisticated weapons, had infiltrated into the state to carry out operations against the security forces and political activists.

Thirdly, the withdrawal of 58 battalions from the state for deployment on the LoC in the wake of the Kargil conflict left many areas in the state without any security cover. Since the state had limited police force to cover areas vacated by the troops the Centre was asked to do the needful.

But the Centre could only give 26 battalions of paramilitary forces. This deficiency allowed rebels a chance to resurface in areas which had been cleared of militants by the Army.

After the Kargil conflict ended the troops have not returned back to the areas from where they had been shifted.

Informed sources said attempts made by senior National Conference leaders to criticise the Army had led to no coordination between the state government and the Defence authorities. During the month long pre-poll campaign the state government had requested the Army to depoy troops. This request hardly drew any response and five to seven companies were deployed in some highly sensitive areas. This failed to instill confidence among the voters residing not only in remote villages but in some towns, including Baramula and Sopore which witnessed poor polling on September 18.

Highly placed sources said since the Army authorities view senior state government functionaries with mistrust and do not seem to be prepared to accept suggestion from the state authorities. The mistrust was the result of a series of incidents in which the plan of the Defence forces was reportedly leaked in advance to the militants with the result operations against the militants failed to achieve the desired results.

A number of experts are of the firm opinion that a joint operation against the militants was the need of the hour the local police was revamped after Mr Gurbachan Jagat took over as the Director General over two-and-half years ago.

The matter, according to the sources, has been debated with the senior functionaries of the Defence Ministry and Union Home Ministry. But there has been no definite policy as far as tackling the menace of militancy is concerned.

The lack of definite policy has led to confusion. This is evident by the handling of the anti-poll campaign launched by the separatists, especially those belonging to the All-Party Huriyat Conference. First they were given the freedom to carry out their campaign against the elections. Once the government saw that their campaign had started keeping voters away from the pre-poll rallies, the police was asked to hit back.

This has caused people’s alienation and the strengthening of the image of APHC leader.

Village razed to the ground

SRINAGAR, Sept 26 (PTI) — A tiny hamlet was razed to the ground in a devastating fire in Gurez subsector of Baramula district, official sources said today.

Ninety houses were destroyed in the fire which broke out yesterday around 9 p.m. in Tulail area, 10 km from the Line of Control.

No one was injured in the fire which emanated from a house and within no time engulfed the entire village damaging the wooden structures, including residential houses, the sources added.