RESCINDED: Revenue ministry announced the MHA relaxation in recruitments in central paramilitary forces being extended to entire state has made the requirement of Dogra certificate irrelevant. The rescinding came within days of the deadline that separatist Syed Ali Geelani had set.
FOLLOWING: The first political family on the other side of the LoC has also got its third generation into politics. PaK premier Attique Khan’s son Usman is contesting from a Muzaffarabad constituency in upcoming general elections.
CONVICTED: Principal Sessions Judge Udhampur, A K Sharma has awarded life-imprisonment to the Ramnagar trio – Mohamad Hussain, Mushtaq Ahmed and Gul Mohamad – for butchering Arshad Begum and Amina Begum in Jadwa village on August 2, 2001. Police terms them Hizb militants.
INDICTED: SHRC has indicted BSF for the arrest and subsequent disappearance of Muhammad Shafi Chopan of Chaiya Guion Budgam. He was arrested on July 7, 1990 at Dhobiwan Tangmarg.
DEMANDED: Syed Ali Geelani has demanded registration of FIRs and arrest of all those police and CRPF personnel responsible for the killing of 118 persons in 2010. Earlier, JKLF leader Yasin Malik has gone to court with the same plea.
QUASHED: High Court has quashed the detention of Qazi Yasir, son of slain Qazi Nisar of Islamabad, under PSA. Justice Muhammad Yaqoob Mir observed the grounds mentioned in the detention order were insufficient to detain Yasir and termed the detention “illegal and unconstitutional”.
PROPOSED: Revenue Minister Raman Bhalla has directed officials to prepare a Rs 300 crore project under ADB funding for construction of Bikram Chowk-Satwari flyover, up-gradation of Landoi-Choi nallah and digging of tube wells
across Ghandinagar.
EXPRESSED: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has expressed happiness over the large participation of voters in J&K Panchayat polls saying it is how the people want to decide their fate themselves. “Seventy to eighty-five per cent polling shows that people want to decide their fate themselves and are capable to do so,” he said.
DISCIPLINED: Police used force to ‘discipline’ student participants at a function organised by army in Pulwama and the exercise left half a dozen injured. Cane charging took place as students at the end of 14-kms run under Operation Sadhbhavna crowded the prize distribution part. Commander of Srinagar based 15-corps left soon after without distributing the prizes.
ORGANIZED: Thousands of Muslims converged in Srinagar to attend “international Islamic conference” of “Karvan-e-Islam”. State government extended all the facilities to the exercise that was attended by some foreign invitees.
IDENTIFIED: Railways have held its manager and traffic porter of Qazigund station responsible for the plying of Diesel Multiple Unit in Kashmir valley without driver on the intervening night of April 16 and 17. They are being charge-sheeted before being awarded major punishment.
PROTRESTED: Murder of Muhammad Ashraf Lone of Chatipora, an Imam, by unidentified persons in Rafiabad triggered protests and clashes in which four persons were injured. Lone was teaching at a seminary in Hail-Jageer in Kreeri and was leading prayers at Kreeri. While JKLF leader Malik visited the family, Geelani blamed security forces for the murder.
REVEALED: A newspaper in Srinagar says son of a middle rung government officer has purchased a top of the line BMW Sports Utility Vehicle in New Delhi recently that costs around Rs 70 lakh. It says the employee is “a government officer who is heavily involved in government employee union activities.”
HYDERPORA: Lok Janshakti Party’s Ram Vilas Paswan met Syed Ali Geelani for the second time since the peak of 2010 unrest. Besides criticising government for not following up on the announcements made last year, Paswan termed Geelani a popular figure without whom no dialogue can succeed.
The two discussed the prevailing situation following which Paswan said Dogra certificate issue was an unwanted initiative. Geelani told him that there is no second option but to withdraw the certificate.
Geelani referred to his five points and Paswan said the four that are acceptable to New Delhi have not been implemented. Geelani sought Paswan’s help in convincing New Delhi that the struggle for freedom in Kashmir is legitimate and peaceful. But who will tell Geelani that Paswan as India’s steel minister was making efforts to set up a steel fabrication unit in Kashmir. This unit had helped LJP to set up its base as its Habakadal candidate got 493 votes. After Paswan lost ministry, Kashmir lost the unit and his party the base.
DELHI : J&K’s state bird may live longer as central environment and forest ministry is considering the inclusion of black necked crane under the ‘species recovery programme’. Found between eastern Ladakh and northern Sichuan province in China, the crane with a population of around 11,000 birds is a protected species in all the three countries sharing the Tibetan Plateau. Unlike China, it is considered a threatened species in India and Bhutan. It was traced breeding in Ladakh in 1919.
CHANDIGARH : Mainland traders engaged in exports and imports through Wagah are seeking a check on the trans-LoC trade transacted through twin routes in Uri and Poonch. Amritsar Exporters Chamber of Commerce had an interaction with Commerce Secretary Rahul Khullar in Amritsar before he crossed over to Pakistan for the meeting with his counterpart Zafar Mehmood.
Rajdeep Uppal who is the VP of the trade body said they are suffering because of the zero-duty barter on the LoC. He reiterated his suggestion that this barter should take place on items which are endemic to J&K and PaK. He talked about the unscrupulous traders exporting and importing items through the duty free routes using the gullible locals as their agents. Uppal mentioned massive exports of Chilli powder to Pakistan which actually comes from Andhra Pardesh.
GUGLOOSA : Bilal A Parray is 24 and was recruited as a soldier. During a training session in Orissa he fractured his leg, returned home, recovered and went again to rejoin his services. The medical test declared him as unfit. He checked into a hotel and did not come out for two days. Hotel employees traced him hanging with the ceiling fan on April 17. An orphan who was taking care of his four sister and mother, the family was in dire straits. They are seeking help from the state government in initiating probe into the mysterious death of their lone breadwinner.
ZABARWAN: Tulip garden that Congressman Ghulam Nabi Azad laid was not as good a hit this year as it was for preceding two years as for as local resident visitors are concerned. With just a few days left for its official closure and the numbers are barely crossing 75000. The garden opens on April 1 for a month and is season’s first attraction. The garden that claims credit for advancing tourist arrivals by a month has 1.5 million tulip bulbs of 50 varieties grown on six terraces of the eight hectares garden.
URI: Police finally arrested Javed Naik who axed his 22-year old wife, Nasreena, at Marliduba hamlet in Uri. She was pregnant. The couple had strained conjugal life and Javed had gone visiting her at his in-laws place. An altercation broke out and he used an axe to kill her. He lives in Kellar hamlet in Garkote belt. After three days, the police arrested him. The motive is still not very clear.
