DIRECTED: CJM Srinagar M Ibrahim Wani directed MHA to ensure the implementation of its warrants of arrest against elusive army Major Avtar Singh, the main accused in the assassination of lawyer activist Jalil Andrabi. A kidnapped Andrabi’s corpse was fished out of Jhelum on March 27 1996. Later a special investigation team of police submitted a voluminous report before the court establishing the arrest and subsequent killing. As the trial started, the summon was issued against the TA-103 officer who by then had fled to Canada. J&K government’s request to CBI in ensuring his arrest did not yield anything as army insists it lacks any information about his whereabouts. Now court wants the warrants to be executed using Interpol.
UNEARTHED: Jammu police unearthed a brothel run by a retired soldier Shri Vatsa masquerading as a doctor. He had set up his ‘Yagya Kalyan Clinic’ at Nideesh Apartments in Trikuta Nagar. From the spot, police detained three customers – all employees besides a comfort girl, a Kashmiri now residing in Sidhra. The ex-serviceman was in this profession for six months and would charge Rs 700 from his customers of which he would keep Rs 200.
VISITED: Chief Minister Omar Abdullah visited his in-laws in Himachal. With his wife, two sons and in-laws, Abdullah visited Kullu, Manali and also to Rangri hamlet where Payal’s family has some agricultural land. Fascinated by the natural splendor and breathtaking beauty of Ranger, media reports said, the family wanted to construct a farmhouse. The family has already invested around nine millions in a factory at Kasuli.
EMBARASSED: Visit of finance minister Abdur Raheem Rather to Khaigam triggered protests. The village is on strike seeking removal of the CRPF garrison. The movement started after CRPF killed a young carpenter for no apparent reason. Police used force to disperse the protesting villagers and help an embarrassed Rather to move out. He later told them that CRPF camp will move out. The villagers have set the deadline of April 20.
ARRESTED: Police arrested a PDP municipal councilor Ghulam Mohiuddin Akhoon near Saidakadal for ferrying construction material in his gypsy to Zaindar Mohalla (Rangar Stop) that falls in a prohibited zone.
DEFECTED: The only surviving, Param Vir Chakra awardee, Captain (retired) Bana Singh, defected the Shiv Sena to join the ruling National Conference this week. Captain Singh was decorated with the highest wartime gallantry medal for capturing a Siachen glacier post. He hails from the border area of Ranbirsinghpora, 30 km west of Jammu, and will head the ex-servicemen wing of the National Conference.
In June 1987 Bana Singh then a Naib Subedar led his men in a secret operation to capture the Qaid-e-Azam Post at Siachen Galcier, the world’s highest battlefield at an altitude of 21,000 feet. The post was then renamed Bana Top.
The post he was virtually an impregnable glacier fortress with ice walls, 1,500 feet high, on both sides. Bana later joined the Shiv Sena in 2005. On his joining the NC this week party provincial president Rattan Lal Gupta said he was proud to announce the joining of the “brave soldier.”
