DEVASTATED: Baramulla’s vast commercial belt was devastated in a massive conflagration. Apart from 10 houses, 200 shops and godowns were destroyed in the Auqaf Market. It started with a burst in an LPG cylinder.
REARRESTED: Dukhteran leader Asiya Andrabi has been booked under a fresh PSA after the high court quashed her earlier detention. She is being held in Kot Balwal jail for the last seven months.
KILLED: A villager Nazir Bhat was detained by police for killing a neighbour and serioyusly injuring another one who objected to his planting trees on a disputed piece of landing Hakoora hamlet of Diyalgam in Islamabad. Locals set afire his house later.
LOST: As many as 843 families have lost 75 percent of their lands to the railways in Kashmir. So far one member each of 418 such families were appointed by the railways.
VISITED: Australian High Commission Brendan Hodgson visited J&K and met leaders from the two sides of the ideological divide. These include governor, chief minister, Mohammad Yasin Malik, and Mirwaiz Umer Farooq. Second secretary Sarah Kirlew accompanied him.
RULED OUT: CRPF Special DG Anirudh Uppal has ruled out the existence of any proposal for withdrawal of any para-military force deployment from J&K. He said they would assist the state police in smooth and peaceful conduct of Panchayat elections and Shri Amarnath yatra. The force is planning its own intelligence gathering wing.
RELEASED: Government finally set free High Court Bar Association president Mian Abdul Qayoom. He was detained on July 6 2010 and came out after his PSA was quashed by court thrice. Within two days his associate Ghulam Nabi Shaheen was also released.
PLANNED: JKTDC is planning to acquire the Air India owned Centaur lake view hotel as the Hotel Corporation of India has scrapped its deal with Shahid Balwa. The deal had already been stayed by the court.
DIED: Gojri literature, poet, and writer Dr Sabir Afaqi passed away in Muzafrabad at the age of 78. He is survived by wife, a son and two daughters. .He had visited J&K in 2007.
PLANNED:A prospective project for consultancy contract costing Rs 262 crore has been formulated for up-gradation of SKIMS. It envisages Accident Emergency Services, a separate seven storey building for indoor patients and new OPD block to cater the rush of patients.
CONSIDERING: The government is considering amending Juvenile Justice Act 1997 and raising the cut-off age of juveniles from 16 to 18 years. The move has started from the social welfare that is sending a formal proposal to the law ministry.
CONSITITUTED: Police have set up Special Investigating Team (SIT) headed by SDPO Kothibagh Abdul Jabbar, to identify and apprehend the killers of Jamiat Ahl-e-Hadith chief, Maulana Shaukat Ahmed Shah. Widely condemned assassination triggered an all party meeting as well. Cutting across party lines all the leaders visited slain leader’s Lal Bazar home to express their sympathies. These included Syed Ali Geelani, Omar Abdullah, Mehbooba Mufti and a delagtion of BJP’s lawmakers who promised they will ask Prime Minister to probe into the murder.
ARRESTED: Police have rounded up four village youth in Shopian for the murder of Dr Masood, an ISM practitioner on March 28. They say the accused have accepted their guilt but nobody knows the motive.
DIED: PaK resident Akhtar Hussain passed away in Surankote while visiting his relative Syed Mohammad Asmal Geelani. A chronic asthma patient, his body was handed over to his relatives after post mortem.
ARRESTED: In Doda police detained a Territorial Army (159 bn) soldier for raping a girl. The complaint was filed by the victim, a resident of Marmat village, following which Ashish Kumar. He raped her after abduction.
LAL CHOWK: It sounded different and it looked different. A group of Kashmiri Pandits celebrated Ramnavmi, the birthday of Ram, by taking out a procession. They initially had prayers in a temple and later they came out singing the praises for their lord. There were men, women and children. They followed a slow-motion mini-truck that had a mike fitted on it. It was not a huge gathering but it was different. Near Lal Chowk, the women sang and danced to celebrate the festival. Pandit leaders said 651 families with a population of 2764 are living in and outside Srinagar which is less than the official figure of 808.
LUCKNOW: Sajad-ur-Rahman, a youth from Kishtwar arrested in 2007 for six blasts in UP was set free by a court saying he had no links with the case. However, trial of Mohammad Akhtar (Kashmir), Mohamad Khalid and Mohammad Tariq Qasmi (UP) will continue. Six bombs – three in Varansi, two in Faizabad and one in Lucknow – went off within a span of 15 minutes in the crowded court complexes killing 15 people, four of them lawyers, and injuring over 80 on November 22, 2007. A day after UPP arrested Tariq (30) and Khalid (24) from Barabanki railway station as JKP detained Sajjad from Kishtwar. Sajad is a resident of Kushal hamlet and had studied at the Dar-ul-Uloom seminary in Deoband.
CHILE: Delhi has sent a joint team of CBI and IB to Chile for interrogate Abdul Rauf, a Pakistani national held by Chilean police at Santiago. India suspects him to be the financer of the 1999 Kandhar plane hijacking case in which New Delhi exchanged prisoners with 150 passengers of Indian Airlines aircraft IC-814 that was hijacked from Kathmandu. He was arrested for possession of a fake visa and the Interpol alerted New Delhi. But the problem with sleuths is that they have no photograph of the man they are hunting for. So their immediate priority is to ascertain whether it is the same Rauf who is brother in law of Jaish-e-Muhammad flounder Molvi Masood Azhar who was the main person exchanged with the passengers. The Rauf the security agencies are gunning for has allegedly used hawala channels to fund a lot of operations linked to the hijack. If the team is convinced it is the same man, New Delhi will start the process for deportation.
UDHAMPUR: As many as 13 prisoners fell ill due to food poisoning in district jail Udhampur. Soon after, the dinner was served, prisoners complained of stomach pain and vomiting. All of them were treated within the jail hospital excepting one who was sent to the district hospital outside. Reports suggested the authorities have ordered a probe. Jails across Kashmir mostly have political Kashmiri prisoners and militant under-trails.
SHIVPORA: Tariq Hamid Karra, PDP’s last finance minister is angry. After the 2008 debacle, Karra remained restricted to his mansion. He had in fact invested heavily in politics but somehow it could not help him wrest Srinagar. The party (read Muftis) did not make any effort to get him into the flock. The gaps widened till the PDP got its defeated candidate from Sonwar – who lost by 42 votes – Mohammad Ashraf Mir to contest for the single berth in the state legilstive council. And he won.Karra, has been one of the founding members of the PDP and party’s urban face. He was angry and was waiting for the most opportune time to express it. He finally did it. However, he issued confusing statement. He is open to jumping out of the party. And at the same time he is ready to work at 12th member in PDP. He already has that distinction so why is angry. The waiting players are always in their uniform but they are fence sitters who rarely jump into the pitch.
MASTGARH: They were married and they were unable to manage their lives. So they entered into another pact. This time it was for death. Yes, Janu and his wife Sunita jumped from the rooftop of a house in Mastgarh belt of Jammu last week. The woman died instantly and Janu a day after. Sunita had married him after coming out of her firs marriage. They were living in a rented room. Somehow, they were unable to manage their lives and unhappy. So they decided to take their lives and they did it. Police is still investigating.
