Jammu And Kashmir - 2

07-12-2006, 09:13 PM

PM assures WB CM of all help in bringing back bodies of tourists

07-13-2006, 10:34 AM

Dance of terror: Four of 2 families shot dead in J&KQUOTEIn a pre-dawn strike, terrorists on Thursday killed four Hindus, including two girls, in Poonch district, official sources said.

The terrorists barged into two houses in Magnar village in the district around 1 am and opened fire on the family members of Ashok Kumar and Mangu, killing four persons and injuring two others, the sources said.

The terrorists also knocked at the doors of other houses but nobody opened, they said.

Those killed have been identified as Priyanka and Menaka, daughters of Mangu, and Lokesh and Pankaj, sons of Ashok Kumar.
I think this is for peace process and gift to Sonia Gadhi.

07-19-2006, 01:06 AM

QUOTELeT cadre given President's Medal 
Pioneer.com
Staff Reporter | New Delhi
Our President might have not imagined that he'd awarded a terrorist in a President's Award function. Lashkar man Ajaz Hussain Khwaja, who was arrested by Special Cell on July 10 with 2.050 kgs of RDX and 49 lakhs rupees was one among 44 artisans who received the award. 

The award function of 4 previous years 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005 was distributed this year as Khwaja received the award for 2003. According to the police, he turned into a terrorist after receiving the award.

According to sources, the State Government of Jammu and Kashmir in the year 2004 "for his extensive work in the field of handicrafts and shawl designing" recommended Khwaja's name. He has been in the profession for the past 10 years. "It is the duty of the State Government to verify the antecedents and activities of a person before recommending a person's name for the President's award. Since he was not involved in terrorist activities before receiving the award, the police had a good impression about him," said sources.

Khwaja is a resident of Baramulla district in Kashmir and is an artisan who designs shawls. He joined Lashkar in February to earn quick money and started delivering hawala money to Lashkar militants on the directions of Mukhtyar Ahmad. Mukhtyar is reportedly leading activities of Lashkar in PoK.

Khwaja was arrested near NBCC building on Bheesham Pitamah Marg with hawala money worth Rs 49 lakhs and two kg of RDX. He was to deliver it to a Lashkar attacker who did not arrive. According to the DCP Special Cell, Alok Kumar, he had to give money to a person whom he had not met. He was told that Mukhtyar would come to receive the consignment to hide his identity.

According to the police, he did not disclose anything about any future course of action of Lashkar in the Capital but he knew said that he had to deliver a huge amount of money in the coming days.

He used e-mails to get directions from Mukhtyar from Pakistan. The police have not found any clue about the person who was supposed to meet him

07-19-2006, 11:28 AM

Police station attacked in J&K, terrorist killedQUOTEPolice repulsed a pre-dawn attack by terrorists on a police station in Poonch district, where one Lashker-e-Toiba terrorist was killed in a fierce gunbattle with security forces and arms and ammunitions recovered from him, officials said
.................
Troops recovered one AK rifle, three magazines and other ammunition and explosive material from the slain terrorist.

07-19-2006, 09:42 PM

J&K Govt bans Bharat Mata Ki Jai slogans during Amarnath 
http://www.ibnlive.com/news/no-bharat-mata...se/16058-3.html

07-22-2006, 11:09 AM

Srinagar: Geelani under house arrest QUOTESrinagar, July 22: Chairman of hardline faction of Hurriyat Conference Syed Ali Shah Geelani was today placed under house arrest, official sources said.

Geelani had called for a bandh in Jammu and Kashmir today in protest against the Israeli attacks on Lebanon and Palestine.

Police and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel were deployed outside Geelani's residence at Hyderpora since 0500 hours and asked him not to venture out, the sources said.

Meanwhile, life in Srinagar and other towns of the valley was disrupted in response to the bandh call.

Shops and business establishments in Srinagar and other parts of the valley remained closed while traffic on the roads was thin, the sources added.

07-23-2006, 11:14 PM

250 kg. RDX seized from militant hideout in Anantnag QUOTEThe explosive, kept in five 50-kg bags, was recovered from a house at village Sitkipora, about 50 kms from here, Defence sources said.

07-26-2006, 07:52 PM

Two Army jawans held in J&K for alleged LeT linksQUOTETwo Army jawans were nabbed on Wednesday for their alleged links with the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), the first such arrests after the top security official warned of terrorists infiltrating the armed forces.

Lance Naik Mohammad Shakeel and Sepoy Abdul Haq of the Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry (JAKLI) were arrested by Military Intelligence officials on Saturday for suspected links with an LeT commander, official sources said.

Two policemen - Sikandar and Kabir - were also picked up for questioning for their links with terrorists, state Director General of Police Gopal Sharma said.

However, he said that the detentions were an "exception and not the rule."

"Their names had figured in interrogations (of terrorists), and then it took time to fix their identities," Sharma said.

The JAKLI jawans, posted in Yole camp in the Himachal Pradesh-based 9 Corps, were arrested when they were on their way to resume duties after a vacation, the sources said.

The duo is being questioned about suspected links with LeT "district commander" Abu Usama, believed to be responsible for grenade attacks in Jammu, they said.

The two jawans, who earlier served in counter-insurgency operations with 8 Rashtriya Rifles (RR) in Kulgam area of south Kashmir, are residents of Gursai area of Mendhar tehsil in Poonch district.

They are believed to have developed links with Usama during their stay in Gursai.

National Security Advisor MK Narayanan had written a letter to Chief Secretaries with a copy of a report of the National Security Council of August 2006, which warned them about possible terrorist infiltration into the armed forces.

08-02-2006, 10:54 AM

QUOTECeding Kashmir
Third-class governance can't give first-class response to terrorism
Arun Shourie
Wednesday August 2, 02:40 AM
By the end of 2003, we were being told that our agencies had neutralised over 160 ISI modules - counting only those outside Jammu and Kashmir and the Northeast. Since then, up to July 11, 2006, again counting only those outside Jammu and Kashmir and the Northeast, another 75 modules are reported to have been neutralized. These are substantial chievements - we can imagine how many more deaths and how much more dislocation would have been caused if these had not been got at and the persons caught or killed. But the figures have another side to them.

First, that there were that many cells to be neutralized shows that ISI had been able to set them up. Second, the cells that have been unearthed were found to exist across the entire country.

Going by the tabulation of the cells that have been located and finished just since January 2004, we see them having been found in state after state, town after town. In Andhra: Hyderabad (several), including one at the Begumpet airport, Nalgonda; in Karnataka: Alamati, Hesaraghatta on the outskirts of Bangalore, Jelenabad area in Gulbarga district; Delhi (several separate ones in several localities across the city); in Bengal and neighbouring regions: Ghosepur, Darjeeling district, Rishra, Hooghly district, Chowgacha village, Nadia district, Kaliachak, Malda, Kolkata; in Uttaranchal: Dehra Dun; in Maharashtra: Mumbai, Aurangabad, Manmad, Malegaon; in Rajasthan: Jaipur, Ajmer, Jodhpur; in Punjab, where a serious effort is being made to stoke up Sikh militancy: Jalandhar, Amritsar, Nawanshehar, Ropar, Hoshiarpur, Batala, Malerkotla; in UP: NOIDA, Lucknow, Hardoi, Lalkurti; Goa; in MP: Gwalior; Faridabad; in Gujarat: Ahmedabad; and so on.

The list of these 75 modules apart, just look at the far-flung places from which suspects of the July train blasts in Mumbai are being picked up - that itself shows the long reach of the ISI and its terrorist limbs within India, of the faraway places at which they have been able to set up sanctuaries.

Finally, that the blasts and other terrorist operations have continued unabated shows that the cells which have been located are but a fraction of the ones that have been set up. Several factors have afforded such easy access for the ISI. The principal one is the near collapse of law enforcement - from intelligence to investigation to combat to the courts.

As is well said, you cannot have a first class response to terrorism in a third class system of governance. Why should anyone be deterred from executing another round of blasts in Mumbai trains when he sees that those caught for the blasts executed 13 years ago are well and kicking; when he sees that their lawyers have been able, and with such ease, to ensnare Government prosecutors in the courts?

But the evaporation of governance and of the law-enforcement mechanisms is just one aspect, indeed it is in large part a consequence of complicity. In particular, of the perversion of pubic discourse - by which every action against terrorists, their sponsors and their collaborators is called into question and the national resolve dissipated; second, by the ever-strengthening nexus of rulers and criminal elements. And by the permissive atmosphere that has been fomented by these factors.

Which terrorist group, which potential recruit to terrorism will be deterred when he sees the solicitude with which the prime suspect of the blasts in Coimbatore, Abdul Nasser Mahdani, is being looked after? When he sees, as The Indian Express has reported (July 24-25, 2006) the comforts that the DMK Government has arranged for him, including Ayurvedic massages - with 10 masseurs and a senior physician labouring over him; and that too at the tax-payers' expense? When he sees that even the elementary restrictions on Mahdani's moving about in the prison have been cancelled in the face of opposition from security services?

When he sees that the representatives of the CPI(M) come calling on him in jail to seek his help in fighting elections? When he sees the Kerala Assembly pass a unanimous resolution on his behalf - and sees that that Assembly has not passed any comparable resolution for any other individual?

When he sees how doggedly the Government of Karnataka holds up the investigation into Telgi's doings? When he sees a Chief Minister defend SIMI, an organization that has been banned for secessionist and anti-national activities? When he sees what happens in our Parliament - how members shout each other down and cannot speak in one voice even while discussing the blasts in Mumbai? When he sees how, even after the Supreme Court has struck down the IMDT Act as unconstitutional and as a threat to national security, the Government, the principal party of which depends on votes of illegal infiltrators from Bangladesh, incorporates those very provisions in the Foreigners' Act? Who would not feel emboldened to sign up for the greater glory of jihad and shahadat?

THE FATAL CONCESSION

Nor is it just the terrorist module that is encouraged. The organisers and controllers of these modules are given a free hand. In the statement that Mr Vajpayee and General Musharraf issued on 6 January, 2004, the words that Pakistan was made to agree to were very, very carefully chosen. There was great resistance from Pakistan. But, in the end, it had to agree to those words. By that declaration, Pakistan was made to commit that for sustaining the dialogue it would stop cross-border violence, and ensure that no part of the territory under its control - that is, including PoK - shall be used for terrorism.

By contrast, in the statement that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh signed with General Musharraf in April 2005, India agreed that to ensure that terrorism will not be allowed to thwart the ''peace process''. This was a fatal concession - for by it Pakistan was in effect enabled to continue terrorist activities at will. The onus would henceforth be on India to continue the ''peace process'' and the ''dialogue'' in spite of the terrorist attacks.

The result has been dramatically brought home in the wake of the Mumbai train blasts. The Prime Minister's address to the nation was anaemic. Perhaps that registered even in the Government. The second statement had a hue of firmness. And with much background briefing - ''we won't put up with this nonsense forever'' - the Foreign Secretaries' meeting was called off.

And then? The Prime Minister goes to Moscow. Meets Bush. And suddenly, the official line becomes, ''We won't let the terrorists succeed in their design to halt the peace process''!

So, Pakistan can pursue both limbs - talk peace, wage war! And all we can do is to go through the ritual again.

Blasts in Mumbai. Blasts in Srinagar. Another debate in Parliament. Another slew of statements - ''We resolutely/ strongly/unequivocally condemn this dastardly/ cowardly/treacherous/barbaric act... It shows their desperation... Government remains committed to fighting terrorism in all its forms... We will not allow them to disturb communal harmony... We will not allow them to derail the peace process...''

The Home Minister repeated all the standard phrases in his statement to Parliament last week. He also implied that his ministry had done its job. ''The Central Government has been sensitising the state governments/UTs about the plans and designs of terrorist outfits. They were asked to streamline physical and protective security of vital institutions...''

And the Government is on the job even now, he assured. "The Government has made an assessment of the situation following these blasts," he told Parliament. And what did the assessment yield? "The security apparatus has to focus greater attention and improve intelligence-gathering capabilities particularly at the local level to collect actionable intelligence... There is also a need to further enhance physical security and access control at airports, metros, vital installations... besides accelerated border fencing, overall coastal security... State Governments have been asked to improve coordination between the Railway Police Force and the Government Railway Police to enhance security of trains and railway stations...''

Should he not have said, "The Government has made yet another assessment of the situation following these blasts"? And did we really need yet another "assessment of the situation"? After all, what is new in this list? And what happened to that claim of 100 per cent of the recommendations of those Task Forces having been implemented?

THEIR SUCCESS

But while we keep repeating, "Terrorists will not be allowed to succeed," the fact is that through them Pakistan has already succeeded in several respects:

ï¿½ It has succeeded in creating the impression - I dare say, in India too - that the status of Kashmir vis a vis India is not a settled issue. Indeed, that what will happen in the future, what some Government of India will do is an open question. When it is asked in Parliament, "Does the Government stand by the unanimous Resolution which Parliament had passed, namely that the only unfinished business
relating to J&K is that we have to get back the parts of the state that Pakistan has usurped?," the Government remains silent.

ï¿½ Pakistan has succeeded in establishing that it shall have an equal say in what the final solution shall be.

ï¿½ It has succeeded in establishing that the secessionists it has been patronising, arming, financing are the representatives of the Kashmiris, and so they are the ones to whom the Indian authorities must talk.

ï¿½ And the Indian authorities must talk to them without the secessionists agreeing to anything in advance - in the Rajya Sabha, on July 26, the Home Minister was specifically asked by Yashwant Sinha, "Has Hurriyat agreed to give up violence?"; all he could claim was that they are giving the impression that they are willing to do so! As for their avowed goal of taking Kashmir out of India, they are not even giving any impression that they have diluted that goal one whit.

ï¿½ Pakistan and its local agents have already accomplished the "ethnic cleansing" of the Valley, having driven the Hindus out. They are now systematically driving them out of Doda.

Equally ominous is the fact that, while India has always maintained that issues between Pakistan and India shall be dealt with bilaterally, that we will not agree to any third party mediation, now the US is the very visible third party in everything. Recall the change in the Prime Minister's tenor after he met Bush in Moscow.

Moreover, the initiative has by now passed completely into the hands of Musharraf. He is the one who is forever proposing formulae, and we are put to reacting. Worse, he has succeeded in bringing the various political groups in Kashmir to talking his language. Omar Abdullah, the PDP leaders as well as the Mirwaiz are now lauding Musharraf's formulations, and proclaiming that these - "Self Rule," division into Regions - are the ones that show the way forward.

FUNDAMENTALISATION OF DISCOURSE

It is because our media is so preoccupied with the "controversy" of the day, it is because it is so preoccupied with "life-style" journalism, it is because there is the censorship of "political correctness" that we do not realise how fundamentalist the discourse has become in Kashmir. We keep repeating nonsense about the great tolerant traditions of Kashmir, about the "Sufi Islam" of Kashmir, about the unique catholicity of "Kashmiriat", about the incomparable blend of Shaivism and "liberal Islam" in Kashmir.

In fact, the very persons who are "people like us" are now taking positions that cannot but shock every Indian, and cannot but wreak a terrible outcome. Hari Parbat is sacred to every Kashmiri Hindu: how do you feel when Hindu refugees hear it being referred to in speeches and publications as Kohi Maaran - the hill of evil? Can you imagine a person who has held high office in the state telling Kashmiris that hey must learn from Hamas? Can you imagine his leading associate denouncing the Amarnath yatra as "a cultural intrusion"? Can you
imagine a situation, when persons holding a peaceful observance against the massacres in Doda are killed, the Chief Minister proclaims in effect that the protestors invited the deaths upon themselves? Can you imagine a person who was till the other day Chief Minister telling the second "Round Table Conference" that we must accept "One country, two systems"? Can you imagine a leading political light of the Valley tell the same conference that the Kashmir Constituent Assembly was a "sovereign body", that Article 370 was a "treaty between two sovereign bodies"?

How do you feel as you see the glee with which a Pakistani website reports a mainstream, "nationalist" Kashmiri politician proclaim that New Delhi "is responsible for the volatile situation in Kashmir, where its troops are killing Kashmiris unjustifiably and forcing them to take up arms"? How do you feel when you read him demanding to know, "Why is India killing innocents?," and declaring, "By these evil designs, India forces our youth to take the gun and sacrifice their lives"? When he declares that the Indian Army has been given "a free hand to kill innocent people"? When you see that his charge against his political rivals, that is the current Government in the state, is that it is "in league with the occupation authorities to run a campaign of terror against Kashmiris"?

Such rhetoric is the staple today. And the results are brought home every other day. When a Lashkar man is killed these days, four to five thousand turn up for an ostentatious demonstration in his honour. The counter-insurgency groups which had been built up with such great effort have all been abandoned by Delhi. The killings by the terrorist bands become more and more brutal by the week - corpses are left with their heads hacked off, people are sent back to their homes with their limbs and parts sawn off... New technologies are introduced - car bombs; grenades - the man who throws it is paid when he produces the pin...

Has Pakistan not succeeded? Has its instrument, terrorism, not succeeded? And our Government applies itself to organizing yet another "assessment of the situation." Actually, it does more. It is only by a hair's breadth, it is only at the very last minute that the decision that had been taken - namely, to agree in the Indo-Pak meeting of May 21, 2006 to withdraw troops from Siachin - was abandoned.

The terrorist infrastructure remains intact in Pakistan, and securely in the hands of ISI and the Army. Lashkar-e-Tayyaba and other such groups have been allowed a free field to operate in POK after the earthquake - to organise relief, to open "educational institutions". A better opportunity to pick up recruits for jihad and shahadat could not have been provided. Musharraf remains set in his singular aim.

HENCE

The first thing that is required for standing up to what is in store can be put in the words that were used by a high-up in the present Government itself:

ï¿½ The PM and others must see that this Government does not have the mandate to make any fundamental changes in our foreign policy, certainly not in our defence policy; that it does not have the mandate to take decisions that will jeopardise our country's territory;

ï¿½ They must give up the delusion that problems that it has not been possible to solve in 55 years can be solved by "out-of-the-box thinking" in five weeks;

ï¿½ Individuals must give up the delusions of what has been rightly called "the Gujranwala School of Foreign Policy" - the delusion, namely, that while others have failed, I will succeed because I am manifestly more sincere, because I am from that part of the sub-continent.

Next, the Government must spell out what the ultimate solution is that it has in mind for Kashmir. It must share with the people and Parliament what is happening in talks around Round and other tables.

In the alternate, Parliament must insist that it be taken into confdence. Once the deed is done, it will be too late.

Parliament must also get Government to specify what it understands by "Self Rule"; by "making borders irrelevant"; by "autonomy" - is "the sky the limit" still?; by the proposals that are being bandied about - joint management for power, tourism, horticulture...

Most important, it must rescind the fatal concession it made in the April 2005 statement - that we will continue the "peace process" irrespective of terrorism.

And a final plea - to the media: report in detail what the "nationalist", mainstream political leaders of J&K are saying in the Valley. Unless the country is alerted now, obituaries will be all that will be left to pen.
http://indianexpress.com/story/9720.html

08-08-2006, 07:25 PM

<img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/india.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='india.gif' /> Fauji Beat
1947 Army split and after

As August 15 draws near, oneâs memory travels back to the time of Partition of the country. It was in August 1947 that a âdivideâ was created in the British Indian Army to form two separate armies-the Indian Army and the Pakistan Army. It was difficult to imagine how these two armies, which fought as one cohesive force in both World Wars made unparalleled sacrifices together and won a large array of gallantry awards could be so sharply split overnight. So much that by casting away their comradeship, they turned into bitter enemies. The rest is history.

What cannot be denied is that one of the best institutions that the British left in India at the time of Partition was the Army. Since the British officers manned the higher echelon of the Army at that time, Partition brought a palpable vacuum in it. To fill this vacuum, junior officers had to be catapulted to the senior ranks. Notwithstanding this, the Army gave a good account of itself in the 1947 Jammu and Kashmir War, which Pakistan forced on India in October 1947.

In 1948, the late General then Maj-Gen K.S. Thimayya as the General Officer Commanding (GOC), 19 Infantry Division was responsible for the security of the valley. He had requested Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru to give him just three more months to reach Muzaffarabad. Had Pandit Nehru acceded to his request, India would not have been facing the languishing Kashmir problem today.

08-08-2006, 09:43 PM

QUOTEDear All:

I would like to bring the following news to your attention, that now in our own land Bharata, the Kashmiri Hindus can not perform Shrada for their dead. The Harkat-ul-Jehad has threatened the Kashmiri Hindus of dire consequences, if they perform the Shrada for their dead. And Govt. of India and the J&K Govt. both has turned a blind eye, ignored the incident and refused to provide protection to Hindu citizens. The media has given no coverage to this news. Imagine what media would have done if a similar threat was set against the Haj pilgrims from India.

Please give this news a wide coverage so that rest of the Hindus wake up a little as to what is in store for us in coming days.

Thanks
qqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqq
____________________________________________________________________

Links to Kashmiri Pt Shrandhanjali "Maha shraadh"
http://www.vkps.org

PK shifts venue of Maha Shraad 
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Aug 3: Panun Kashmir (PK) has decided to shift the venue of its proposed Maha Shraad (rites of dead) from religious shrine of Mattan in Anantnag district to Akhnoor in Jammu district, owing to increase in terrorist attacks in the Valley and "threatening" by the militant outfit HUJI to the organization.

This was stated at a joint press conference by PK leaders and members of Marag Darshak Mandal of Maha Shraad, Dr Agnishekhar, Dr K L Choudhary, Jyotshi Omkar Nath Shastri and Swami Kumar Ji here, this afternoon.

"The PK in consultation with the high priests and religious authorities decided to perform Maha Shraad at Mattan on August 6 this year in memory of those community members who fell to the bullets of terrorists and 30,000 others who died in exile over these years due to the hardships and unnatural calamities " said Dr Choudhary.

Expressing concern over the attitude of the Government PK convenor, Dr Agnishekhar claimed that his organization had apprised the President, Prime Minister, Chief Minister, J&K , police and other agencies of the State three months in advance of the programme and had demanded a necessary security cover but they did not respond. In view of the terrorist threat, the PK was left with no alternative except to shift the venue of the Maha Shraad from Mattan to Akhnoor, he said, while circulating photo copies purportedly written by HUJI spokesman.

Letter fromDr Ag... PK leader To CommunityÂ

Dear Fellow Community members,
Namaskaar!!
As you are aware Panun Kashmir, in consultation with the revered priests and religious authorities of Kashmiri Pandits, had decided months back to perform Maha Shraadh, at Martand (Mattan), on Shakula Dwadishi of Shrawana corresponding to 6th August 2006.

In view of the escalating terror and violence in the valley, especially targeting tourists and pilgrims, we wrote to the President of India, the Prime Minister, the Chief Minister of the State, the State police and other security agencies, months in advance, to provide the necessary security cover for this community event. However, our appeals were met with traditional apathy and callous neglect. Our reminders too went on deaf ears.

In spite of this we were still ready to go ahead with the pilgrimage but for the attack on yet another pilgrim bus on 31st July and a threatening letter from the dreaded terrorist outfit HUJIÂ (Harkat-ul-Jehad-al-Islami), dated July 27, 2006 and received on August 2, 2006. The letter (enclosed below) threatened to ban our entry to Kashmir, putting in jeopardy the massive preparation that has been going on for this solemn occasion.

In view of this serious development, our Marg Darshak Mandal (Swami Kumar Ji, Jyotishi Omkar Nath Shastri, Jyotishi Dr. Manmohan Shastri, Dr. K. L. Chowdhury, Pt. Moti Koul & Dr. Shailja Bhardwaj) decided unanimously to relocate the venue for the Maha Shraaddh. Looking at the enthusiasm and mental and physical preparation of thousands of our community members, and the fact that the ceremony can not be postponed in view of the auspicious date, it was decided to relocate the venue to the banks of the sacred Chandra Bhaga River at Akhnoor, Jammu as an alternative site for Maha Shraaddh.

This certainly is a great disappointment for many of the exiled Pandits with a burning desire to revisit their homeland, even for a single day, but we will never do anything that will put the life of even a single KP in danger. It also provides us an opportunity to pay our gratitude at the same time to the people of Jammu and the sacred Chenab for sheltering us and watering us these 16+ years in exile.

In light of these fast-moving developments, we immediately convened a well attended press conference today in Jammu. The press conference was jointly addressed by the main representatives of Marg Darshak Mandal of Maha Shraaddh. The threatening letter from HUJI was also presented to the press and other agencies. We did our best to debunk the myths of Kashmiriyat and the hollow claims of the State Govt. that the Pandits are a part and parcel of the socio-cultural mosaic of Kashmir. We explained to the deaf media that how we, the Kashmiri Pandits, are treated as the pariahs, the disowned children of mother Kashmir.

Now that the preparations of Maha Shraaddh being performed at Akhnoor are on, we once again appeal all the community members to participate and support the event.

Highlights of the event will be:

- Performance of Maha Shraaddh in the memory of over 30,000 Kashmiri Pandits by Jyotishi Omkar Nath Shastri and Jyotshi Dr. Manmohan Shastri and others.

- Religious discourses by Swami Kumar Ji Maharaj, Swami Poshkar Ji, Swami Abhedanand Ji Maharaj, Swami Mahant Ramdass Ji and others.

- Homage giving ceremony by the prominent members of the community.

- Installation of memorial plaque, with homage inscription engraved, on the bank of Chander Bhaga near historic site where Maharaja Ranjeet Singh organized a coronation ceremony of Maharaja Gulab Singh while handing over him the State of Jammu and Kashmir.

- A concert by renowned artists and musicians in memory of our martyrs.

- Release of special homage â Symphony prepared for this event, by young music director Pt. Kuldeep Saproo.

- Special Langar has been organized for the yatris.

- Special transportation arrangements for the Print and Electronic Media.

- Free transport for the yatris from all refugee camps, including Udhampur.

- Observance of two minute silence by Kashmiri Pandit Global Diaspora.

- Special medical care for Yatris by Shirya Bhatt Medical Mission.

I am also enclosing the translated version of the threatening letter from HUJI, for your information.

Thanks for your continued support, trust and blessings!

With kindest regards and Orzu

Dr. Ag..

***********************

English version of threatening letter from HUJI (Dated July 27, 2006)

The traitors of âJang-e-Aazadiâ i.e, Kashmiri Pandits who have been part and parcel of âMuslim Kushâ policies of Jagmohan, who have since left their âWattanâ, are being strongly warned to desist from the plans and activities which are aimed at undermining our freedom struggle.

Our organization stands by the joint pronouncement dated 22.7.2005 of Al-farin, Al-Nasreen, Farzandani Millat and Save Kashmir Movement, which made compulsory for the Pandits to seek pardon, for all the omissions and commissions against the Kashmiri Muslims and also to beg pardon for the heinous crimes they have committed, which also directed Pandits to participate actively in Jehad failing which they will not be allowed to come back.

Our organization in its congregation has decided to defeat the sinister designs of the migrant Pandits, who are going to perform a Maha Shraadh at Mattan near Islamabad to project the killings of âMukhbir Panditsâ as martyrs. The Pandits are warned to be ready to pay the price for entering the valley. Defying this warning, they could not be protected even by the Prime Minister of India, the Indian puppet Chief Minister and the army contingents.

Migrant Pandits are being warned that their welfare rests in begging for pardons, accept their heinous crimes and terms and conditions of our organizations, till they do it the doors to the valley are shut for them.

Nizam-u-Din Sarwar
Spokesperson.

08-08-2006, 11:44 PM

No one can hand me over to India: Hizbul chiefQUOTEWith India seeking his deportation from Pakistan in the aftermath of Mumbai blasts, Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin has said nobody could hand him over to India.

At the same time he asked Pakistan to provide "substantial support" to make militancy in Jammu and Kashmir "meaningful".

"I have full faith that nobody can take U-turn on Kashmir. Nobody can hand me over to India," he said in an interview to Pakistani weekly The Friday Times <!--emo& Big Grin

--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /> when asked about the possibility of Musharraf regime taking a U-turn on Kashmir


I thought FT is only for free enjoyment.

08-09-2006, 12:25 AM

India on Sale by Sonia and spineless UPA
QUOTEPre-'53 status for Kashmir? 
Pioneer.com
Kanchan Gupta
The UPA Government is reported to have submitted a 'non-paper' for Gen Musharraf's consideration, offering to roll back Jammu & Kashmir's integration with India ---- The Nation of Pakistan carried an interesting story on its front page on Monday, August 7, whose astonishing contents, based on a 'non-paper' reportedly submitted by New Delhi to Islamabad, have gone unnoticed in the brouhaha over the Justice RS Pathak Authority's non-report.

Headlined 'India offered HK autonomy to Pak' - HK being the abbreviation for 'Held Kashmir', Pakistan's description of Jammu & Kashmir - the Islamabad datelined report says, "Prior to the Mumbai bomb blasts there was a marked progress in the peace process to the extent that New Delhi offered even 'autonomy for Kashmir' through a non-paper to its nuclear rival but Saturday's tit-for-tat expulsions of diplomats by both Pakistan and India proved a serious setback to the already stalled dialogue processs."

A 'non-paper', for the uninitiated, in diplomacy means a proposed agreement or negotiating text circulated or submitted informally for discussion without committing the originating country to the contents. In other words, if the UPA Government did submit such a non-paper, to use subcontinental bureaucratese, for Gen Pervez Musharraf's "kind perusal", then it means a substantive proposal was made without committing India to honouring it.

But before analysing the implications of the reported offer, let's get back to the story in The Nation. "It was days before the Mumbai blasts that Pakistan received a 'non-paper' on Kashmir from India containing the proposal of autonomy to Kashmiri people but within its Constitution," the report says.

It adds, quoting diplomatic sources in Islamabad, "The proposal on Kashmir's autonomy calls for the return of the State to its pre-1953 constitutional condition, which means that all its affairs, sans defence, foreign affairs and communications, would be run by the State Government... Nonetheless, the deadly blasts in India's financial capital changed the whole scenario with ties between the two countries coming under duress reflected well by the expulsion of each other's diplomats on Saturday."

The Nation further says, "In the non-paper... India also offered to reduce more troops in Kashmir in case of end to subversive acts in Held Kashmir by the militants with the alleged support from elements across the Line of Control... Besides, New Delhi also expressed its willingness to set free the Kashmiri detainees not involved in terrorist acts... The Indian non-paper was in response to President Pervez Musharraf's proposals with regard to demilitarisation, self-governance and joint management of Kashmir to resolve the core issue on permanent basis."

Had the July 11 Mumbai bombings not intervened, the 'non-paper' would have become the basis of further discussions between India and Pakistan. According to The Nation, "no discussions on the Indian proposals are likely in the months to come but if the peace process is put back on the track, it could become a basis for formal discussions on Kashmir issue between the neighbours."

Are we missing out on something over here in Delhi of which people in Islamabad are aware? If what The Nation has reported is true - there has been no formal denial by the Ministry of External Affairs till Tuesday evening, in the absence of which we must, for the moment, proceed on the assumption that it could be true - then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who has been personally steering the so-called peace process with Pakistan and is given to coming up with "out-of-the-box ideas", has offered to, no matter how informally, radically alter New Delhi's terms of engagement with Srinagar. More importantly, he has offered to undo more than half-a-century of Jammu & Kashmir's integration with the rest of The Nation which has brought it within the ambit of the Constitution, rendering Article 370 more or less redundant.

In other words, to reach a concord on the "core issue" as defined by Pakistan, he is willing to consider, ever so informally, cutting Jammu & Kashmir loose from the Union of India. Not only does the 'non-paper' referred to by The Nation make a mockery of the 1995 Parliament resolution on Jammu & Kashmir, it endorses Pakistan's position that "India should first declare Kashmir as a disputed State and revoke the 1995 Parliament resolution declaring Kashmir as an integral part of the country."

For some time now there has been talk about the UPA Government conceding "autonomy" to Jammu & Kashmir, of pulling out security forces from that State, and, of greater 'coordination' between institutions and people of Jammu & Kashmir and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. If The Nation's report is not incorrect, then what has till now been vague talk has begun to take shape.

Since Parliament is in session, it would be in order for the Prime Minister to take The Nation into confidence over the reported proposal. If Pakistan can know, surely India deserves to know, too

Spineless is mole another proof.

08-12-2006, 02:22 AM

J-K: Three members of a family killed QUOTEJammu, Aug. 11 (PTI): Three members of a Hindu family,including two children, were shot dead by militants in Udhampur district today.

A group of suspected LeT militants entered into the house of one Ram Singh in Ara village of Gool tehsil in the small hours today and enquired about him, official sources said.

Singh, who had been receiving threats from militants, had taken shelter for the night in a nearby Special Task Force camp of J-K Police and only his wife and two children were present in the isolated house, on the outskirts of the village and surrounded by hillocks.

The militants severely beat up Singh's wife and the two children before shooting them dead. All the three died on the spot. The ultras later escaped, they said.

After hearing gun shots, jawans from the STF camp rushed to the spot and recovered the bodies.

The deceased were Singh's 35-year-old wife Chitra Devi, son Neelam (6) and daughter Meena (4). 
Cowards

08-14-2006, 09:28 PM

QUOTEhttp://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IEL20060812004030&Page=P&Title=Nation&Topic=0&
Two Kashmir Muslims killed for sending children to Army
Sunday August 13 2006 00:00 IST
IANS

JAMMU: Lashkar-e-Taiba militants shot dead two Muslims residents of Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district, saying in a note that this was the punishment for sending their sons for recruitment in the Indian Army.

Police said the militants barged into the houses of two neighbours, Mohammad Bashir and Sadiq Khan, in Kulali village near Bafliaz in Poonch, about 220 km north of Jammu at around 11.00 pm on Friday.

Bashir and Sadiq's sons recently took part in the Army recruitment rally and were selected. Militants have issued an all-time decree that no one in the State should join the Army.

The step by the sons of the two victims infuriated them. They picked up the two from their beds at gunpoint and shot them. Their sons were not present in the houses at that time.

The killers left a hand written note, which said, "This is a punishment for those defying us. We are here, it should not be forgotten." The police have launched a hunt for the killers.

Sunder · 08-15-2006, 09:20 PM

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4783353.stm

Kashmir militants 'kill family'

Police in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir say a woman and her two children have been killed by militants. <img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/furious.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='furious.gif' />

They say the victims were the only Hindu family in the village of Arra.

The incident happened in the mountainous Udhampur district, more than 200km from the state's winter capital, Jammu.

There has been no independent confirmation of the incident which happened on Thursday night. Police say they are searching for the suspects.

08-17-2006, 03:09 AM

QUOTECan of worms 
Pioneer.com
Reopening the debate over pre-1953 status for Jammu & Kashmir will revive several issues, including the basis of Partition, says Prafull Goradia 

If the Government of India is proposing to reinstate the pre-1953 status of Jammu & Kashmir, it should realise the corollaries. The first one is that it should be ready to go back to the logic of Partition, which was the creation of a homeland for Muslims. Evidently, Jammu would be excluded, as should be Ladakh, which are non-Muslim areas. Sheikh Abdullah and his National Conference only represented the majority of the population of the Valley.

The 'non-paper', reportedly submitted by the GoI to Islamabad, concedes that the Kashmiri Muslims had taken refuge with India from the marauders from Pakistan. Call them refugees who came with territory, or call them hapless guests who had arrived with their homes with a desire to return as soon as securely possible.

Uncannily, Article 370 of the Constitution is a temporary provision. Nationalist Indians have interpreted it all along as a clause, which was to be scrapped long before, whereas the separatists have taken it as implying a guest status. The basis of Partition was division between Muslims and non-Muslims.

The territorial vivisection was only incidental. It was also in a way unimportant to the Muslim League. Or else, there would be no sense in creating a country whose two wings were separated by a thousand miles. Had Qaid-e-Azam Mohammed Ali Jinnah thought it otherwise, he and his party would not have insisted on an exchange of population again and again through 1946.

Jinnah had repeatedly claimed that the League alone represented Muslims, whereas the Congress had disputed this contention. In order to ascertain the truth, Viceroy Lord Wavell ordered a general election, which was held during the winter of 1945-46. The results startled the Congress. With a single-point manifesto called Partition, the League won a landslide victory. It won all the Muslim seats in the Central Assembly; while in the provincial legislatures, the victory count was 446 out of 495 Muslim seats.

Prof M Mujeeb, the late vice-chancellor of Jamia Millia Islamia, later opined in his book, Islamic Influence on Indian Society, that Muslims were overwhelmingly in favour of Pakistan. Soon after the election, the Congress conceded Jinnah's claim to participate in the interim Government which earlier it was not prepared to; its erstwhile demand was for a share of the Muslim seats. In the interim Government, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad had to be given a non-Muslim entitlement.

The interim Government having been formed, the League's obsession for the rest of the year was on an exchange of population whereby all the Muslims should immigrate to Pakistan and all non-Muslims should transfer to Hindustan. Sir Feroze Khan Noon, who later on went to become Prime Minister, on April 8, 1946, told his Bihar legislators that unless there was an exchange of population, the League would re-enact the murderous orgies of Changez Khan and Halaqu Khan.

Ismail Chundrigar, another Prime Minister who hailed from Godhra, had also wanted his fellow religionists to emigrate.

The Qaid-e-Azam, in a press conference held at Karachi on November 25, announced that the authorities should immediately take up the question of population exchange. Mohammad Ismail of Madras and Shaukat Hayat Khan had whole-heartedly supported the idea.

On December 3, Pir Ilahi Bux of Sind and Iftikhar Husain Khan, the Punjab League chief, in separate meetings had reiterated the demand for an exchange.

On December 4, another Sind leader, Ghulam Hussain Hidayatullah, had repeated the demand. Raja Ghazanfar Ali Khan of Punjab publicly stated on December 19 that there was no alternative to a transfer of the peoples. All these details were published by Dawn, which was then published from Delhi and later transferred to Karachi.

Jinnah evidently knew the subject with the help of his long experience. The League of Nations had, with the help of a committee headed by former Viceroy Lord Curzon, worked out a detailed plan of population exchange and had implemented it in Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey during 1923. The point being made is that the League knew certainly what it was talking about.

BR Ambedkar, too, recommended an exchange as the only permanent solution to the minority problems. In subsequent years, the issue remained largely unnoticed because the Congress leaders had ignored the League demand and did not wish their mistake to gain publicity. Frustrated by the Congress indifference, Jinnah proposed his theory of reciprocal hostages.

That the Hindus in Pakistan would be treated as hostages if any harm came upon Muslims who remained in Hindustan, presumably he expected the opposite to apply as well. In a conversation, he called this theory 'tit-for-tat'. A reference in this regard can be made to his interview with Beverley Nichols (his book Verdict on India). Rafiq Zakaria, too, has mentioned the same in his book, The Man Who Divided India.

Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan evidently expects that the Valley, if not the whole of Jammu & Kashmir, would more or less secede on communal lines. In order to answer what next communal initiative can be taken up, at the end of July at a public meeting, he demanded the creation of a Muslim Pradesh with the help of western districts of Uttar Pradesh, as reported in The Economic Times.

It is clear that neither the UPA Government nor the Samajwadi Party realises the consequences of handing over Jammu & Kashmir on a platter. Every action is known to have a reaction - equal and opposite. What will have to be seen is whether a handover would result in a demand for disenfranchisement of the community inclined to continual secession. Or else, the annulment of Articles 25 to 30 which are replete with concessions to minorities, an euphemism for Muslims. Or else what future elections could lead to especially in the background of widespread Islamist terrorism?

Naresh · 08-17-2006, 05:11 AM

Rigging of Azad Jammu and Kashmir polls : âPakistan has lost the worldâs respectâ <img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/Flush.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='Flush.gif' />

LAHORE: Peopleâs Muslim League President Sultan Mehmood said on Wednesday that the Pakistani government had lost respect in the international community by rigging the recently held elections in Azad Jammu and Kashmir.

Sultan Mehmood, who is also a former AJK prime minister, said the Indians were also blaming the Pakistanis for the rigging. He alleged that office bearers of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League and the chef ministers of all Pakistanâs provinces had helped Muslim Conference candidates win the elections held on July 11.

He demanded the removal of the newly elected AJK prime minister and abolishing the post of Pakistanâs federal minister for Kashmir affairs. He also demanded the Pakistani government activate the Kashmir Council for Coordinating with Pakistan in place of the Kashmir Affairs Ministry and explain the mechanism of appointing senior judicial officials in AJK.

He said the rigging had demoralised Kashmiris at such a sensitive time when the peace talks between India and Pakistan were slowing down and Indian soldiers had started firing at the Pakistani population settled on the Line of Control.

He said Kashmiris were of the view that the July 11 elections were rigged to get control over the billions of dollars sent by donors for the rehabilitation of the October 8, 2005, earthquake victims.

Sultan Mehmood said his party would consult all AJK opposition parties to remove the âpuppetâ prime minister and to help the opposition parties in Pakistan to move a non-confidence motion against Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz.

Cheers <img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cheers.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='cheers.gif' />

08-25-2006, 10:58 PM

http://www.dailyexcelsior.com/web1/06aug25/news.htm#1

QUOTESecurity forces and police gunned down two top militants of Hizbul Mujahideen outfit including an âarea commanderâ belonging to the minority community at Kalihand, about 18 kms from Doda in early hours of this morning. This is for the first time that a minority community militant has been killed in the region though a couple of them had been arrested earlier.

Body of Kuldeep Kumar was handed over to his family at Zihand this afternoon after post-mortem. Police sources said KK was active in Hizbul Mujahideen since 1998 and was also reported to have converted to Islam. The family members hadnât performed his last rites till tonight. KKâs name had also figured in a series of subversive activities including attacks on security forces and some massacres. 

If he converted to Islam how is he from the minority community?

Wonder if his family will perform the last rites...

08-26-2006, 12:58 AM

This is not first time when Hindu was killed and they labeled his as first Hindu. I have read atleast 6-7 incidence where Indian media labeled killed Hindu as Hindu terrorist with Hizbul. Whether he was forced to convert to Islam or kidnapped? Who knows?

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