BLASTED: Chief Minister Omar Abdullah termed the “stony silence” of separatists over the murder of a three-year old boy in Keller as “politics of hypocrisy”. People used to raise all hue and cry over the crimes committed by security forces preferred not to utter a word, he said. “Fairness, morality and respect for human rights demand that these elements who really believe in maintenance of human rights should have raised the same voice as they are used to raise on similar situations,” he was quoted saying.
KILLED: In an unprecedented incident an Irrigation department worker Reyaz Ahmad Bhat was electrocuted when he touched the barbed wire fencing a bunker in Bemina. Investigations are on whether the CRPF had electrified barbed wires ‘intentionally’ or ‘accidentally’. Bhat was part of the team that were measuring the bund. Bunker and a run-down transformer were inside the fence. The concertina wires being used in Kashmir are capable of being electrified, a system in vogue on IB and LoC.
ABSOLVED: Chandigarh based Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) has quashed the twin orders of the J&K government that initiated an enquiry against senior IAS officer Dr Arun Kumar whose uncharitable comments lit the 2008 summer fires. Apart from killing of over 65 persons, the agitation led to Kashmir’s economic blockade, a massive march towards LoC and fall of the government. Interestingly, his defence team included A K Sawhney, the PDP spokesman.
WANTED: Cancer survivor, separatist Syed Ali Shah Geelani, currently detained under Public Safety Act is still wanted in seven cases police recently told a court. These inclue cases registered against him in police stations Raj Bagh, Soura, Shaheedgunj, Shergari, Sadder, Nowhatta, and Soura. Though bailed out twice recently, he was finally detained under PSA on July 18. He is currently admitted in SKIMS.
DELAYED: Continuous house arrest of JKLF leader M Yasin Malik has delayed his marriage, scheduled for second week of July. Malik was placed under house arrest on April 23 and in between he was permitted to move out only thrice – May 26, June 6 and June 28.
CONSTITUTED: J&K has set up Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS) under the direct supervision of IGP crime & railways S M Sahai. Headed by SP Zubair A Khan, ATS is hunting for its staff in its formative days. Instead of being another SOG, ATS, according to police, would be mandated to investigate inter-state crimes involving terrorism, fake currency, narcotics and allied issues. Besides, it would collect and share information with various security and police agencies including R&AW, IB on identified issues.
ARGUED: NC MP Sharifuddin Shariq asked Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon why India was discussing Kashmir with Pakistan when it was an integral part of India. He said he was confused and failed to understand the logic behind discussing the issue with Pakistan. The argument goes against the party stand that dialogue with Pakistan must resume and Kashmir must be settled, once for all.
CONSUMED: A failed love story consumed a boy and a girl in Chirala (Thathri belt of Doda). Hameeda Kousar, 20, consumed poison and when her lover Mohsin received the news he shot himself dead with a 12 bore gun that his father owned.
