Quote:Resolving the Kashmir issue between India and Pakistan is key to stability in South Asia, where all terror groups including al-Qaeda, Taliban, LeT and JeM are "working much more closely together" now than a year ago, top US military commander Mike Mullen has said.



"I actually believe that the challenges that exist tied to the border in Kashmir are key to solving that or moving forward on that are critical in terms of the overall stability of the region," Admiral Mullen, Chairman of the US Joint Chief of Staff, said.

Quote:manmohan to give obama and pak what they want: kashmir for mohammedans

dec 24th, 2009



http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5geNQImvVSRrCe_zDF4H7u8Uep56Q



after this, of course manmohan will give a) hyderabad, <img src='http://www.india-forum.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cool.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='B)' /> malabar, c) assam to the mohammedans.



did i mention that manmohan is the worst prime minister india ever had, even eclipsing jawaharlal?

Posted by nizhal yoddha at 12/24/2009 08:13:00 AM 0 comments Links to this post

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Quote:Indian PM's group recommends autonomy for Kashmir



(AFP) – 24/25 December 2009



SRINAGAR, India — High-level advisers appointed by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh are recommending autonomy for Kashmir, where militants have fought for 20 years against rule from New Delhi.



Under its accession to India in 1947 upon the country's independence from Britain, Muslim-majority Kashmir was granted autonomous powers over all sectors excluding communications, defence and foreign affairs.



These powers have been eroded over the years. But the advisory group, headed by former supreme court judge Saghir Ahmad, recommended that the prime minister look at various formulations "to restore the autonomy to the extent possible".



The group's report was delivered to the Kashmir chief minister late Wednesday and made public Thursday.



The Kashmir legislative assembly in 2000 passed a resolution favouring full restoration of the state's autonomy. But India's then Hindu-nationalist government rejected the resolution passed unanimously by the assembly.



Autonomy is the main demand of the ruling National Conference, the state's biggest pro-India political party, which had moved the resolution in 2000.



The government has not reacted to the report so far.



"We will react only after going through the report. It is a long report," said Ali Mohammed Sagar, Kashmir's law and parliamentary minister.



Singh had appointed the working group in May 2006 to try to find a permanent solution to the unrest in the scenic Himalayan region, which is split between India and Pakistan.



Most of the rebel groups fighting New Delhi's rule want the region to become part of Pakistan. A few support its independence.



India has been dangling the promise of greater autonomy to Kashmiris for many years but the idea has been rejected by the separatists.



Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved

Quote:23-hour Srinagar siege ends, Pakistani among two terrorists killed

IANS | Srinagar

pioneer.com

A 23-hour terror siege that left Lal Chowk, the bustling centre of Jammu and Kashmir's summer capital Srinagar, looking like an abandoned battlefield ended on Thursday noon with two holed up guerrillas, including a Pakistani, of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) being killed.



"The operation is over. Two LeT militants have been killed," Jammu and Kashmir's police chief Kuldeep Khoda told reporters near the shootout site in Lal Chowk, the downtown business hub of Srinagar.



"We had inputs that the LeT was planning an attack in Srinagar. There is a desperation on part of Pakistan-based elements. They wanted to target not only Srinagar but any part of India and Srinagar is their prime target," Khoda said.



The other slain militant belonged to north Kashmir Sopore town, according to police.



A civilian and a policemen were also killed and 10 people, including two paramilitary troopers, were wounded in the fidayeen attack that came amid official claims of steep fall in violence. According to home ministry figures, there has been a 25 percent drop in terrorist violence.

Quote:In yet another ceasefire violation along the Line of Control, Pakistani troops on Monday evening fired small arms and rockets on Forward Defence Locations in Poonch sector of Jammu and Kashmir, a senior army official said.



Pakistani troops in Kadu post fired small arms and at least five rockets on the Indian Army’s Kranti post in Krishnaghati sub-sector in Poonch from 6.10 pm till 7.40 pm on Monday, he told

Quote:Two Indian Army soldiers were killed early on Friday in an ambush by terrorists in Tandar village in Kishtwar district of Jammu and Kashmir, an official in Jammu said.

The militants attacked an army patrol that was on its way to a suspected militant hideout in Tandar in the Dachhan area, about 240 km northeast of Jammu, the official said requesting anonymity.

Quote:The Jammu and Kashmir police on Thursday foiled an exfiltration bid and arrested eight youth in Srinagar, who were planning to cross the border for arms training in PoK.

The youth, mostly minors in the age group of 13 to 18 years, belong to the south Kashmir district of Shopian. This is the first such attempt in 2010 that has been thwarted by the police.

According to sources, the boys were picked up by the special operations group of Jammu and Kashmir police following a tip off. The group was intercepted in Parimpora area of Srinagar, near a police check point.

Quote:Fresh terror threat to Vaishnodevi: CRPF

Posted: Wednesday, Feb 03, 2010 at 1717 hrs

Jammu:



There is a threat to the cave shrine of Vaishnodevi from militants: Special DG (CRPF)



The cave shrine of Vaishnodevi, one of the most revered places of worship visited by about eight million pilgrims each year, faced a fresh terror threat and security has been beefed up.



Central Reserve Police Force's (CRPF) Special Director General N K Tripathi on Tuesday warned of the threat to the hill shrine, about 61 kms from here, saying it is on the radar of militants.



"There is a threat to the cave shrine of Vaishnodevi from militants. We have received inputs that militants want to do some mischief," he told reporters.



"Elaborate security measures are in place as per the threat perception. There is no laxity on part of the CRPF," he said, adding "the shrine is secured and safe, so pilgrims need not fear. They can undertake pilgrimage as CRPF is there for their security".



CRPF jawans have been put on high level of alert and are already keeping a hawk's vigil from the days in the run up to Republic Day on January 26 in Trikuta hills, the abode of the holy shrine, Tripathi said.

Quote:Terrorists may strike Vaishnodevi, says CRPF

PTI, 3 February 2010, 04:52pm IST

JAMMU: The cave shrine of Vaishnodevi, one of the most visited pilgrimage centers in the country, is on the radar of

militants, a senior official said on Wednesday.



"There is a threat to the cave shrine of Vaishnodevi from militants. We have received inputs that militants want to do some mischief," Special Director General of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) N K Tripathi told reporters here.



"Elaborate security measures are in place as per the threat perception. There is no laxity on part of the CRPF," he said.



Jawans have been put on high level of vigilance and they started patrolling well before January 26 in Trikuta hills, the abode of cave shrine, Tripathi said, adding "the shrine is secured and safe so pilgrims should not fear. They can undertake pilgrimage as CRPF is there for their security".



To a question, he said CRPF is main security agency providing security cover to the shrine and a full 6th battalion is guarding it. There is always a change in the strategy as per threat perception from time to time.



"I had visited the shrine for security review after the threat inputs. There is frisking of pilgrims, round the clock patrolling, check points, nakas and electronic surveillance at the shrine and around it," he said.

Quote:Govt diluting command over Kashmir, says Arun Jaitley

pioneer.com

Kumar Uttam | New Delhi

Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha and senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley on Friday hit out at the Manmohan Singh Government for its policies on Pakistan and J&K, saying New Delhi was forcing the country down an “alley of darkness from where nobody will have an idea how to come out”.



Jaitley was critical of the Government for deciding to resume talks with Pakistan. He feared that New Delhi would finally land in a situation where India’s command over Kashmir was diluted. He also questioned the Government’s intention in endorsing the J&K Government’s surrender policy for terrorists in PoK, wondering whether the current regime wanted to legitimise infiltration.



A member of the Prime Minister’s Working Group on J&K, Jaitley said he was not aware when and how did the committee recommend in favour of the surrender policy. He said the recommendations were not discussed with the members. “Forget the final report, most members had not even seen the draft. One fine day, the report by Justice Saghir Ahmed-headed committee cropped up. Last time the committee met was two years ago,” Jaitley said.



On Thursday, Home Minister P Chidambaram had said the surrender policy was among the recommendations of the Prime Minister’s Working Group.



The senior BJP leader also took on the Home Minister, who had said the Government was trying to take everyone on board, by referring to the open disagreement between Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad and Omar Abdullah on the controversial proposal. "This Government has no idea what damage it would do to the country. I will like this Government to commit in front of the nation that not a single inch of the Indian territory would be compromised and that India's position on J&K would not be diluted during the talks with Pakistan," Jaitley told The Pioneer.



The former Union Minister accused the Manmohan Singh Government of succumbing to the US pressure and deciding to resume talks with Pakistan though the latter had not showed any signs that it was ready to crack down on anti-India terror groups operating from its soil.

Quote:In a ceasefire violation on the Line of Control (LoC), 10 rockets were fired allegedly from a Pakistani post at the Krishnaghati sector in Jammu’s Poonch district late on Saturday evening. Indian security forces claimed to have foiled several attempts by militants to enter Jammu and Kashmir from Krishnaghati in the last few months.



“It was an unprovoked ceasefire violation attempt, in which 10 rockets were fired from the Pakistani post on our post, which was retaliated by the army,” a defence spokesperson said on Sunday. “The firing lasted more than two hours. No loss of life was reported.