Quote:An Army Captain and a militant were killed in an encounter between security forces and militants in Pulwama district on Thursday.



Two jawans and a policeman were also injured in the encounter that started on Wednesday in Mir Mohalla Dadasir, 40 kms from here.



The gun battle broke out when militants hiding in a house fired on a joint search party of police and troops of 42 Rashtriya Rifles in Mir Mohalla Dadasir.



The Captain is the second Army officer to be killed in an encounter in Kashmir in less than a fortnight. On February 24, Captain Devinder Singh Jass was killed in a gunbattle with militants in Sopore.

Quote:Srinagar, May 5: A group of trapped militants killed a major and a soldier in a forest in north Kashmir before breaking an army cordon and escaping.



The army said Major Yogendra Rajbar and rifleman Uttam Singh were part of the search party that had gone to Chati Bandi village, located in a forest area in Bandipore district, last evening to track down the militants, who had taken refuge in a house.



“The militants fired at the troops as they closed in on the hideout, injuring an officer and a jawan. Both of them succumbed to their injuries in hospital,” army spokesperson Lt Colonel J.S. Brar said.



Brar said Major Rajbar was a resident of Dehra Dun and had been posted in Bandipore for the last two years. “He was instrumental in maintaining peace in the area, a hub of militancy because of its mountainous terrain,” Brar said.



He said the operation was still continuing.

Quote:Four militants and two army troopers were killed in a nightlong fierce encounter in the north Kashmir [ Images ] Baramulla district on Friday.



The encounter started on Thursday evening after the army and police jointly surrounded a forest area near Sheikhpora village in Rafiabad, 83 km from Srinagar [ Images ], on specific information about the presence of a group of militants



"As the security forces were laying the cordon, hiding militants opened fire triggering an encounter which continued the whole night," defence spokesman J S Brar told rediff.com.



"Four militants were killed in the encounter that has now ended. The searches are, however, going on."

Quote:The army on Monday said it had busted a militant hideout and recovered huge quantity of arms and ammunition in the continuing operation 'Thunder Strike' launched by it against militants in the north Kashmir [ Images ] forests on May 5.



A defence spokesman in Srinagar [ Images ] said that so far 11 militants have been killed in the 12-day-long continuing operation.



He said the troops busted a hideout in the Hafruda forest area of the Kupwara district early on Monday and recovered huge cache of arms and ammunition.



"We recovered ten AK-47 rifles, one 60mm mortar, one RPG gun, three 303 rifles, over one hundred grenades, mines and improvised explosive device making stores from the hideout," defence spokesman Lt. Col J.S.Brar told rediff.com.



"The operation is still continuing in the area," he added.

Quote:Arms seized from militants in Jammu and Kashmir can raise 42 new battalions of Security Forces, say sources

The quantity of arms and ammunition seized from militants and their hideouts in the State since eruption of militancy in 1990 is more than enough to raise 42 new battalions of Security Forces, reports Daily Excelsior. &quotThe Security Forces including Army, Police, CRPF [Central Reserve Police Force] and BSF [Border Security Force] have seized more than 30,000 AK rifles from the militants and militant hideouts in the State over the past 20 years when militancy began here," said authoritative sources.



They said over 12,000 pistols were also seized by the security forces during the anti-insurgency operations in the State. &quotThe quantity of arms and ammunition that the security forces have recovered from the militants and their hideouts across the State is good enough to arm 42 battalions of security forces," an unnamed senior intelligence official said. He said many countries in the world had lesser arms, ammunition and explosives to defend their country. &quotMany countries even do not have armies and many countries do not arm their police personnel," he added. More than 50,000 grenades of various makes and types have also been seized since the turmoil gripped the State in 1990. &quotThe security forces have also recovered tonnes of other explosives like RDX. If the militants had been able to use all the explosive material provided to them by their masters across the Line of Control (LoC), the devastation in the State would have been far more than what we have witnessed," he further added

Quote:TNN, May 28, 2010

NEW DELHI: For those who still think a plebiscite will tilt the status of Kashmir and that most Kashmiris yearn to wave the Pakistani green, there are now numbers for the first time to contradict these claims.



A survey carried out across both Jammu and Kashmir and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, that its author claims is the first ever of its kind, shows that only 2% of the respondents on the Indian side favour joining Pakistan and most such views were confined to Srinagar and Budgam districts. In six of the districts surveyed late last year by researchers from the London-based thinktank Chatham House, not a single person favoured annexation with Pakistan, a notion that remains the bedrock for the hardline separate campaign in Kashmir.



However, the study by Robert Bradrock, a scholar from London's Kings College, that involved interviewing 3,774 people in both parts of Kashmir in September-October 2009 showed that 44% of people on the Pakistani side favoured independence, compared to 43% in Indian Kashmir.



Bradrock says in the 37-page report on the survey that this would put an end for all times to come to the plebiscite route as a possible way to resolve Kashmir, since the only two options envisaged under the UN resolutions proposing plebiscite in 1948/49 were for the whole of Kashmir to join either India or Pakistan; azadi was not an option. But in the Valley, the mood for azadi still remained strong, with 75%-95% respondents favouring that as a final resolution.



The poll showed no support either for joint sovereignty or for maintaining status quo. However, more than 58% of those surveyed were prepared to accept the Line of Control as a permanent border if it could be liberalized for greater people-to-people contact and trade. Only 8% voted against making the LoC a permanent boundary, with the highest level of opposition in Anantnag district, the report said.



Few people in Kashmir, compared to many more in PoK, believed that violence was likely to resolve the Kashmir issue.



In J&K, only 20% thought that militant violence would help solve the problem, compared to nearly 40% who thought it was coming in the way of a resolution. In PoK, 37% of those surveyed held the view that violence was a possible route to resolution.



That both the state legislative elections in 2008 and the Lok Sabha elections in 2009 had helped bring about a change in mindsets was seen in the increasingly high turnouts that Kashmir has posted in recent years.



The survey too demonstrated that trend, with more than half the respondents saying the elections had improved chances for peace.



"The results aren't surprising at all. I feel they re-emphasize the need to look beyond traditional positions and evaluate the contours of a solution grounded in today's realities," said Sajjad Lone, a former ally of the Hurriyat who unsuccessfully contested the 2009 election.



Peoples Democratic Party chief spokesman Naeem Akhtar said the azadi aspirations must be factored into any solution.



"It can't be wished away and has to be configured into the future strategy on Kashmir. We've always been pleading to provide an alternative to the azadi sentiment."

Quote:An underwear allegedly sporting a mosque sparked widespread protests here Saturday. But police said the protests were premeditated, blaming miscreants for much ado about nothing.

Trouble began after some residents of Nowhatta area claimed to have spotted the “blasphemous” underwear being sold on a handcart. Minutes later, scores of people took to the streets and began pelting stones at vehicles.

Clashes between the protesters and security personnel that ensued soon spread to other areas of downtown Srinagar forcing shopkeepers to down shutters.



The police fired blanks and used tear gas canisters to disperse stone-pelting youths in several localities including Ghanta Ghar, Srinagar's commercial hub.

The police crackdown left more than dozen protesters were injured, but that didn’t stop them from baying for the blood of those responsible for the “sacrilegious pictures”.

But the police claimed the underwear wasn’t sacrilegious to warrant protests.



“This (protests) was premeditated and organised to vitiate the atmosphere. The picture doesn’t seem to resemble a mosque,” said Senior Superintendent of Police Reyaz Bedar.

Rather, the picture resembled London's Big Ben and St. Paul’s Cathedral, asserted a police spokesman. “It seems the youths were planted in several localities to disturb normal life,” he added without pointing fingers.



The otherwise edgy Srinagar had unusually been calm prior to Saturday’s protests. Even the alleged killing of three civilians by the army in north Kashmir's Baramulla district some time ago had failed to evoke public resentment.

Quote:PM's trip: Army apprehends suicide attack

pioneer.com

PTI | Srinagar

Army has sent messages warning of a suicide attack during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Jammu and Kashmir but they have been found to be unsubstantiated by the state police and central security agencies.



The Army establishment in the Valley had pressed panic buttons by claiming that Lashker-e-Taiba commander Abdullah Unni was planning to carry out a suicide attack during Singh's visit starting tomorrow, official sources said.



Communications were sent to the state as well as the Centre for shifting of the venue of the Prime Minister's official engagements to Cantonment area, a proposal rejected by the state government.



The state police and the central security agencies sought the coordinates of the intercept of the terrorists by the Army, but it turned it down citing operational reasons, the sources said.



The state police had sought the CD of the conversation between the terrorists to get a voice sample of Abdullah Unni which was also not provided by the Army, they said.



There were other intercepts the Army has claimed to have picked up from the border in North Kashmir but none of them could be corroborated independently by the state or central security agencies, the sources said.



During the last visit of Congress President Sonia Gandhi to the state, Army had picked up two engineers who were planning to visit secretariat for attending a meeting.



Army intelligence had earlier also provided an input about the World Badminton championship in Hyderabad, which was later found to be incorrect.

Quote:All SMS services in Kashmir have been blocked, media reports said Tuesday. The step has been taken by the government keeping in mind the deteriorating law and order situation in the Valley.



On Monday, two people, Tajamul Bashir (17) and Ashif Hassan Rather (9) died in CRPF firing in Sopore and Baramulla, both 55 km north of Srinagar. This brings the number of civilian deaths at the hands of troops to eight in 15 days, three of them in the past 48 hours.



Kashmir has recently seen a spurt of violence, as a result of which paramilitary forces have been compelled to use force against people partaking in anti-State activities.

Quote:Six foreign militants and three Army soldiers killed in Jammu and Kashmir

Six armed foreign militants and three Army soldiers were killed on June 28 in a gun battle that broke out along the Line of Control (LoC) in the Kupwara sector, reports Times of India. Acting on a tip off, troops picked up the movement of a group of infiltrating militants in 104 forward location along LoC in Kupwara belt and launched an operation, triggering the encounter, an unnamed senior Army official at Udhampur-based Northern Command said. Six foreign militants and three Army soldiers were killed in the gun battle, which was on when reports last came in from the area.



Meanwhile, the Security Forces (SFs) recovered three anti personnel mines from a field near the Indo-Pak border in Samba District in the night of June 28. Acting on information provided by a farmer, the SFs recovered the three mines from his field near the International Border in Sadha Chak area, Police said on June 29 (today). The mines were later defused.

Quote:A group of 213 Hindu pilgrims from Pakistan on Sunday paid obeisance at the Vaishnodevi cave shrine in Trikuta hills in Reasi district of Jammu and Kashmir [ Images ].



The pilgrims offered prayers amid chanting of hymns and bhajans of Mata Vaishnodevi for over half an hour at the shrine in Bhawan.



The group, which consisted of 143 men, 50 women and 20 children, arrived in Katra town yesterday. They undertook the 13-km trek to the shrine on foot.



"It was due to a call from the Mata that we are here to pay obeisance at her darbar. We are very happy that we were able to perform Yatra to this shrine and get blessings from the Mata," pilgrim Jagdish Kumar said.



Another pilgrim Mukesh Kumar said, "We prayed for peace in this sub-continent." The pilgrims, under the banner of Mata Mandal Trust of Sindh province of Pakistan, had crossed the Wagah border on July 1 and will return to their native place on July 25 after undertaking pilgrimage to various shrines in Haridwar, Indore, Raipur, Jalgaon as well as the Golden Temple [ Images ].

Quote:Get up to Rs 300 daily for throwing stones at jawans

pioneer.com

Kumar Shakti Shekhar | New Delhi

Stone-pelting, which has become a menace for the security forces in the Kashmir valley, has become an organised crime and a thriving business.



Sources in the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said there are as many as four major stone-pelters’ organisations active in the Valley, proving to be a nightmare for the security forces. “Jammu and Kashmir Stone-pelters’ Association, Stone-pelters’ Association of Kashmir Valley, I Am A Stone-pelter and Stone Throwers are the four organisations active in the Valley for the past couple of years,” they said.



These organisations allegedly recruit the youth and pay them at the rate of about Rs 150 to Rs 300 per day for throwing stones at the security forces and disturbing the normal life in the Valley.



What is perplexing for the officials is that the administration and police in the Valley are in the know of this “lucrative stone-pelting business” but have not taken any action against them, they added.



Stone-pelting, which started from Nauhatta in Srinagar in the wake of Amarnath land dispute in June 2008, has not only created a law and order problem but also taken a toll on the security forces. On July 4, Sunil Pawar, a constable of CRPF’s 162 Battalion, lost his left eye after being hit by a stone. He is recuperating at the Army’s Base Hospital in Srinagar.



So far, 1,875 CRPF personnel have been injured, with 211 of them becoming victims since the latest spate of stone-pelting started on June 11. Sources said the local police had even intercepted communications of the LeT on the ways in which to build up the agitation through stone-pelting.



Meanwhile, Intelligence agencies have found that the stone pelters were funded from across the border through money transfer agencies, like Western Union, via Dubai. “It is not easy to track them, as they dispatch money through small amounts. As the transactions are below Rs10 lakh, it is not easy to keep a watch always. The money is transferred to agents in small lots. It is an open secret that stone-pelters are hired for Rs 300 per day by these local agents. State police should bring these unscrupulous elements before the law,” sources said.