1. law, govt and politics
2. law enforcement
3. police

C M Y K
KashmiR
Beware of Pig Fat
in Your Food
5
29 Muharram | 1436 Hijri | Vol: 17 | Issue: 241 | Pages : 08 | Price: `3
w w w. k a s h m i r o b s e r v e r. n e t
sunDaY 23 nOvemBeR 2014
/ Srinagar Today: MoSTly Cloudy
MaxiMuM: 15oC / MiniMuM: -2oC / HuMidiTy : 65% / SunSeTS Today... 05:24 PM / SunriSeS ToMorrow... 07.09 aM
Wisdom
Politicians are the
same all over. They
promise to build a
bridge even where
there is no river.
...........Nikita Khrushchev
Will Fulfil Vajpayee’s Dream: Modi
■ ‘Have
deep affection from the core of my heart and soul for Kashmir’
■ ‘Two families have looted J&K in successive turns’
Observer News Service
Poll Vehicle
Mishap Kills 1
SRINAGAR: A man was killed on
Saturday and 10 others were injured when a vehicle turned turtle
during an election campaign in
Nowgam area.
The vehicle, which was part of
motorcade of PDP candidate from
Chadoora Javed Mustafa Mir,
turned turtle at Suthsoo in Nowgam area this afternoon, a police
official said.
He said Ghulam Qadir, a resident
of Pohru, died on the spot, while
10 others were injured in the mishap in central Kashmir's Budgam
district.
All the injured have been hospitalised and are in stable condition,
he said.
Malik Shifted to
Anantnag Jail
SRINAGAR: Incarcerated JKLF
Chairman Mohammad Yasin Malik, who was lodged at SKIMS
hospital, was today shifted back to
Anantnag jail.
“Ailing JKLF leader was early
morning shifted back to Islamabad jail, a JKLF spokesman said.
Meanwhile police crackdown
on JKLF continued with arrest of
zonal president Noor Mohammad
Kalwal at Basant Bagh. Police also
raided the residences of JKLF vice
chairmen Mushtaq Ajmal and
Showkat Ahmad Bakhshi. Despite
oppressive measures by authorities JKLF delegations continued
election boycott campaign with
passion,” he added.
Hizb Activist
Held in Sopore
SRINAGAR: A joint team of army
and police Saturday arrested a militant from Sopore town of north
Kashmir’s Baramulla district.
Official sources said that the joint
team of army’s 22 RR and SOG following a specific information raided
at General bus stand in Sopore.
During the raid the forces apprehended a militant of HizbulMujahideen outfit along with a
pistol, they said.
Sources identified the militant as Aijaz Ahmad Mir of Kreeri, Pattan. (GNS)
KISHTWAR: Asserting that he
has deep affection for Kashmir,
Prime Minister Narendra Modi
Saturday vowed to fulfil the
“dream” of former PM Atal Bihari
Vajpayee based on “democracy,
humanity and Kashmiriyat” that
has made a “special place” in the
hearts of people of Jammu and
Kashmir.
Addressing his first election
rally in the state, he said “democracy, Insaniyat and Kashmiriyat,
these words of Atal ji have made
special place in the hearts of Kashmiris and have ignited a hope in
every Kashmiri youth about better
future”
“I want to urge people to install
with full majority a BJP government in Jammu and Kashmir and
trust my words that the dream,
which Atal ji had seen for J&K,
Modi will use all his might and will
fulfil that dream.”
He warned against attempts to
link religion to politics, saying “a
Kashmiri is a Kashmiri” and the
government at the Centre was committed to development of the state.
“Our mantra is only develop-
ment, development and development,” he said, adding “I will return your trust in me with interest
by ensuring full fledged development in J&K.”
He said his wish is to complete
the work started by Vajpayee. “It
is my wish and I will come repeatedly here for that,” the Prime Minister said amid slogans of ‘Modi,
Modi’ from the audience.
“I have deep affection for Kashmir. Affection from the core of my
heart and soul,” he told the rally
at Chowgan ground in Kishtwar
town, adding other political parties
were surprised that there has not
been even a single month when
Modi has not come to Kashmir.
“He has come in July, August, September, October and now in November,” Modi said referring to himself.
“People wonder why Page 6
PeoPle wonder why Modi is so attached to Kashmir. I am attached to Kashmir. It is my wish
to complete the work started by Atal ji
SRINAGAR: Rejecting the allegations by Prime Minister Modi that
two political families have “looted” Jammu and Kashmir, Chief
Minister Omar Abdullah asked him to tell what his government
has found to prove this in its six months in office.
“You have been in the government for the last six months at the
Centre. Please tell us where (we have robbed the state),” Omar said
in response to Modi’s statement at the election rally in Kishtwar
Omar also said the allegations by Modi is not a new thing that is
being hurled at state political parties.
“This (such allegations) is not a new thing.... Perhaps he is getting afraid. If we had really looted the state, would people have
supported us like this.... It is a proof of the fact that we have won
the hearts of the people,” he added.
The Chief Minister challegend the BJP president to prove his allegations.
PDP on its part said that after the six decade rule of the Congress
and National Conference, people of the state heaved the sigh of relief during PDP’s brief tenure of three years.
“It is unfortunate that the Prime Minister of country sends out
a message that is not based on facts,” said PDP chief spokesman
Naeem Akhtar.
Police Detains 5 FB Users
‘Promoting Poll Boycott’
BJP not to Filed
Candidate from Sopore
SRINAGAR: While speculations were rife that BJP
was eyeing volatile Sopore assembly segment in
north Kashmir as it witnesses less percentage
of voting, the party has decided not to field any
candidate from the constituency.
Quoting unnamed sources KNS reported
that the rightwing party decided not to field
any candidate as they want to support the
parties with whom there is a possibility of
post-poll alliance.
Ramesh Arora state vice-president BJP and
in charge Kashmir said that they have decided
not to field any candidate in certain constituencies “as we may enter into post poll alliance
with some parties.”
Deputy Commissioner Baramulla Farooq
Ahmad Lone confirmed that no BJP candidate
has filed nomination papers from Sopore.
“Nomination of seven independents were rejected out of 23 and there are 16 candidates in
fray from Sopore now,” he said.
Media had earlier widely reported BJP plan
to grab Sopore seat with the help of migrant
Pandit voters as people in the constituency generally heed the boycott call of Syed Ali Geelani.
Two Families did Not Loot: omar
PHOtO: AbId bHAt
PDP Cavalcade Stoned at Budshah Chowk
SRINAGAR: At least three persons were injured when dozens
of youth attacked the cavalcade of
a senior Peoples Democratic Party
(PDP) leader at Budshah Chowk
here on Saturday afternoon.
Eyewitnesses said that PDP’s
candidate for Amira Kadal As-
sembly Segment, Altaf Ahmad
Bukhari, was returning home
after filing his nomination papers at Deputy Page 6
SRINAGAR: Police have detained five
social networking users for spreading rumors, exaggerating incidents
and
promoting
poll boycott on
social
networking sites particularly Facebook and
Whatsapp.
According
to
spokesman, Police
has identified a number of persons
found involved in these activities and
cases are being registered against
them for putting up these fake posts.
Police will continue to take stringent
action against the face book and oth-
PoliCe will Continue to take stringent action
against the face book and others social media users
who are found promoting fake news, exaggerating
incidents and polling boycott on their pages/accounts.
why is US watching Kashmir elections Keenly
WASHINGTON: American officials are keenly watching the
political drama unfolding in
Jammu and Kashmir, where
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's
party is running to claim the
coveted prize of winning India's
only Muslim-majority state.
They are aware that if the BJP
successfully completes its most
ambitious and audacious project or comes close to the prize,
the signal that it is the new national party would be unmistakable. US diplomats have learnt a
quick lesson after the national
elections where their analysis
was a little behind the curve.
But Kashmir also arouses
worry in Washington -- it is
seen as a "flash point" between
India and Pakistan, an ever-simmering flame that can spark a
confrontation. Pakistani visitors
never fail to whip up exactly
those sentiments among Americans with exaggerated accounts
of alleged Indian army excesses
and the desire among Kashmiris
for "azadi."
It so happens that Gen. Raheel
Sharif, Pakistan's army chief, is
currently on a six-day visit to
the US, meeting officials at the
Pentagon and the State Department. He has blamed India for
the current spate of LOC firings,
saying that his attention is being
forcibly diverted from fighting
terrorists on his eastern border.
But blaming India for Pakistan's self-inflicted wounds
doesn't sell as well in Washington
as it used to. The constant misinformation campaign on Kashmir
- best exemplified by the un-
masking of ISI-fronted Kashmiri
American Council and ISI-funded
Ghulam Nabi Fai in 2011 - has
taken a heavy toll on the credibility of Pakistani claims.
US officials can see that the
BJP is looming large on Kashmir this time with an effective
strategy of making inroads over
the past two years. But they
oBServerS outPoSt
are worried about BJP's stated
desire to "debate," if not abolish Article 370, which gives
the state a special status. Even
though BJP leaders are trying
hard to keep the 370 issue away
from headlines this campaign
season, the pot has been stirred.
The first phase of voting for
the 87-member State Assem-
bly begins Nov. 25 and political
dynamics are fluid to pin down.
Only two things are sure: that
the BJP won't join the Congress
in a coalition and that the two
main regional rivals, the National Conference and the PDP won't
join each other. All other combinations are possible, especially
with smaller parties, many of
which were created recently,
playing an important.
They will be crucial in BJP's
attempt to get the magic number of 44 since no matter how
hard it tries; its appeal among
Muslims in the valley is low. US
analysts say that parties like the
Kashmir Development Front,
which has several former bureaucrats and academics, may
be appealing to voters. KDF was
created by Farooq Renzu Shah,
ers social media users who are found
promoting fake news, exaggerating
incidents and polling boycott on their
pages/accounts.
Some of the persons found involved
have been identified as Sajad Mir and
Tabeeb sheikh of Khanyar Srinagar. Shaukat Salafi of Naidkhai
Bandipora. Zahid hamid, Muneeb
Farooq Wani of Hardpora Anantnag.
Spokesman adds that the police
action against such elements will continue as most of these mischief mongers are being continuously identified.
who left the Congress Party saying he was disillusioned. Renzu,
a bureaucrat who helped rebuild damaged shrines and big
bridges when he was in government, is popular among the
people.
US officials say they see
no major problems in the execution of the elections and
the theme of development in
Kashmir is just what the doctor ordered. They don't see the
streets erupting if the BJP forms
the government. The meeting
between Modi and former separatist leader, Sajjad Lone, was
seen as an especially interesting
development.
Vijay Sazawal, a Kashmir expert who is consulted widely
by Washington opinion makers,
said the mood in the Page 6
Grenade at rally
make Facts Public: PdP
Kulgam: People’s Democratic Party candidate for
Noorabad Constituency Abdul Majid Paddar Saturday
urged upon police and army to make the facts about
the the incident public. Two persons reportedly attacked the rally led by him in Gandwani Noorabad
with a grenade on Friday.
Paddar said that police has so far arrested only
one person while his associate whom he identified
as Shabir Ahmed Wani a resident of Choulan Kulgam
is still at large.
“My supporters have already helped police to nab
one assailant who hails from Augam Kulgam and his
name is Naushad Ahmed Ganaie. We had actually
handed over the accused to Army but he is right now
in police custody. I urged upon the police to made
the facts public and arrest another accused who is
evading arrest,” Paddar told CNS.
He alleged that the duo who hurled a grenade towards his supporters are working for some ‘agency’
and police must clear the doubts of his supporters
who are feeling scared. “It was the second attack on
my rally and we have right to know who is Page 6
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C M Y K
23 11 2014 Kashmir Observer
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Steve Jobs's reaction when
Jon Stewart made fun of APPlE
F
ormer Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs
wasn't too pleased when Jon Stewart poked
fun at Apple back in 2010.
After the tech blog Gizmodo found a
prototype of the iPhone 4 sitting in a bar four
years ago, Stewart teased Apple in a skit called
"Appholes." The segment specifically focused on
how Apple reacted to the incident.
"So we did a whole bit about what the f--k
is happening in the world," Stewart said in his
recent appearance on the Howard Stern Show in
which he recalled the conversation. "Bill Gates
is curing malaria and Apple is kicking people's
doors in; the whole thing is upside down."
The blog 9to5Mac found a recording of
Stewart telling Stern all about it on YouTube.
government of Jammu and kashmir
DIrecTorATe of rurAl DeveloPMenT KAshMIr
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Subject: Appointment of candidates to the post of village level worker District Cadre Pulwama/ Shopian/
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order no. 1120 drdK of 2014 / dated : 22.11.2014
The appointment order No. 1056 DRDK of 2014 dated 08/11/2014, No. 1057 DRDK of 2014 dated 08/11/2014,
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selected candidates to the post of Village Level Workers of District Cadre Pulwama/ Shopian/ Budgam and
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The next day, Stewart recieved a phone call
from Apple. Stewart was a bit surprised to hear
that Steve Jobs had actually called him.
"I was like 'what?' It was one of those things
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communicate to you through the computer," he
told Stern jokingly.
Stern asked Stewart how long the phone call
lasted, which Stern likened to "bull riding" at a
rodeo. Jobs, surprisingly, didn't react as harshly
as you might expect. "It was actually the worst
because he was really nice," Stewart said.
Stewart and Jobs had talked in the past and
were actually friends, so Jobs was just surprised
that he didn't call him before running the segment.
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irrigatiOn cOnst. DivisiOn PamPOre.
shorT Term n.i.T no.(07) of 2014-15 daTed : 18-11-2014.
for and on behalf of governor of Jammu and kashmir state sealed fresh tenders affixed with rs/6 revenue stamps are invited from
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0.10
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NEWS
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‘Moment Of Truth’ Nears In Iran Nuclear Talks
VIENNA: Leading diplomats racing to strike a nuclear accord with
Iran have little more than two days
to overcome serious disagreements
that threaten the outcome of their
negotiations.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry
met Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif today in Vienna,
where talks between world powers
and the Islamic Republic entered a
fifth day. They have until Nov. 24 to
agree on a comprehensive deal that
would curb Iran’s nuclear ambitions and roll back sanctions. Failure
to reach an accord may embolden
American and Iranian skeptics of the
negotiation process.
“We still have some serious gaps
which we’re working to close,” Kerry
said today before meeting his German
colleague, Foreign Minister FrankWalter Steinmeier. “A lot of serious
work is going on by a lot of people.”
Underscoring the high stakes,
Kerry and Zarif yesterday reversed
plans to temporarily leave the negotiations in Vienna in order to consult
with other officials. They instead re-
mained inside Vienna’s Palais Coburg
negotiating and making phone calls
to gather input from world leaders.
Kerry spoke with Arab foreign
ministers today in a telephone-conference, according to a U.S. official,
who added that the secretary of
state also contacted his Canadian and
Turkish counterparts.
The conflict over Iran’s nuclear
program has cast the shadow of war
over the Persian Gulf nation with
the world’s No. 4 oil reserves. Israel
and the U.S. have threatened military
action to prevent the country from
acquiring a nuclear weapon. Iran,
which says its nuclear program is
solely for energy and industrial uses,
has seen its economy squeezed and
oil output slashed under sanctions.
‘Hour of TruTH’
“After a long 10 years of talking to
Iran we’ve come here in Vienna to
the hour of truth,” Steinmeier told
reporters today before meeting Kerry. Even as the sides are “closer than
ever” to reaching a deal, “wide gaps”
preventing agreement on key issues
mean negotiators could still fall short
of an accord, he said.
The speed at which sanctions
hurting Iran’s economy are rolled
back under a possible deal remained
one of the main sticking points, four
diplomats told Bloomberg News
when talks began this week. Iran’s
capacity to produce fissile material
is the other main point of disagreement, they said.
An accord already exists in draft
version, containing a four- or fivepage introduction followed by 30 to
40 pages of details, according to a
senior Iranian diplomat cited by the
Islamic Student news Agency.
Lavrov Trip
“All the elements of an agreement
are already on the table, and the task
of diplomats now is to correctly put
together a package,” Russian Foreign
Minister Sergei Lavrov said yesterday
in Moscow, predicting that “common
sense” will prevail and a compromise
will be reached.
Lavrov will “probably” travel to
participate in talks before the deadline expires, Russia’s Tass news agency reported today.
Barring a deal, diplomats may extend their temporary agreement for
a second time in order to prolong
negotiations. That strategy carries
the risk that opponents of the talks
in both Iran and the U.S. may derail
the process.
Iran’s Khorasan newspaper reported today, citing an unnamed official
familiar with the negotiations, that
Zarif has taken a softer tone at this
round of talks -- a departure from
the shouting that it said had characterized past rounds.
oiL SLide
Iran has signaled it’s willing to
continue allowing intrusive international inspections of its nuclear
facilities even if there’s no deal this
weekend, according to Western officials. The U.S. is “committed to
pause” its efforts to reduce Iranian oil
sales under the interim accord that’s
currently due to expire on Nov. 24,
the White House said in a statement
yesterday.
The recent slide in oil prices has
dealt another blow to Iran. It’s also
squeezing Russia, another country
targeted by Western sanctions, which
has signed deals to buy oil from Iran
and sell nuclear reactors.
Saud al-Faisal, the foreign minister
of Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest
oil producer and one of the staunchest regional opponents of Iran, has
met with both Kerry and Lavrov
in the past two days. After talks in
Moscow yesterday, Lavrov said they
agreed that oil prices, which have
dropped almost 20 percent in two
months, shouldn’t be influenced by
politics.
We still have some serious gaps which we’re working to close,” Kerry said today before meeting his German colleague, Foreign
Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier. “A lot of serious work is going on by a lot of people.”
GARISSA: Gunmen seized a bus
in northeastern Kenya near the
Somali border early Saturday
and executed 28 non-Muslim
passengers, police said, blaming the attack on Shebab Islamic extremists.
“I can confirm... that 28 innocent travellers were brutally
executed by the Shebab,” said
regional police chief Noah
Mwavinda, referring to the Somali militant group.
He said the gunmen forced
the bus to stop and drove it
to the side of the road, where
they proceeded to kill passengers identified as non-Muslim.
The attack came after a
week that saw one person
shot dead and more than 350
people arrested as Kenyan se-
curity forces carried out raids
on mosques in the port city of
Mombasa searching for weapons and Shebab supporters.
Kenya has suffered a series of attacks since invading
Somalia in 2011 to attack the
Shebab, later joining an African Union force battling the
Islamists.
The Shebab carried out the
September 2013 attack on Nairobi's Westgate shopping mall,
killing at least 67 people as
a warning to Kenya to pull its
troops out of southern Somalia.
During the Westgate attack,
the gunmen weeded out nonMuslims for execution by demanding they recite the Shahada, the Muslim profession
of faith.
Baghdad: Daesh militants have
killed 25 members of a Sunni
tribe during their assault on a
provincial capital west of Baghdad, local officials said on Saturday, in apparent revenge for
tribal opposition to the radical
Islamists.
They said the bodies of the
men from the Albu Fahd tribe
were discovered after the army
launched a counter-offensive on
Saturday against the Daesh in a
village on the eastern edge of Ramadi, capital of Anbar province.
The killings echoed the execution of hundreds of members of
the Albu Nimr tribe last month
by Daesh fighters trying to break
local resistance to their advances
in Anbar, a Sunni province they
have largely controlled for nearly
a year.
“While they were combing
the territories they are liberating,
security forces found 25 corpses
in the Shujariya area,” Hathal Al
Fahdawi, a member of the Anbar
Provincial Council, told Reuters.
Albu Fahd tribal leader Shaikh
Rafie Al Fahdawi said at least 25
bodies had been found and said
he expected the total to be significantly higher. He said the bodies were found scattered around
with no signs of weapons next to
them, suggesting they were not
killed during fighting.
Daesh, which has seized control of large parts of Syria and
Iraq, continues to gain territory
in Anbar despite three months
of US-led air strikes launched
against the group.
On Friday it launched coordinated attacks in central and
outlying areas of Ramadi in an
attempt to take full control over
a city which is already mostly in
its hands.
Christian Man allegedly Tortured
To death By police in Lahore
LAHORE: A thirty-five-yearold Christian man , Allah Rakha Shahzad, died on Saturday
morning, allegedly after being
tortured by police officials at
Green Town police station.
Shahzad- also known as
Mithu- was arrested by the police on Friday night after which
an FIR was filed against him.
Shahzad was in custody for
selling alcohol and drugs.
Shahzad’s family attributed
his death to police torture, alleging that he died during
interrogation. Police officials
however, claimed that he died
due to a heart attack.
Family members of the deceased protested in front of
the Green Town police station
and threw stones at the police station. DIG Operations Dr
Haider Ashraf took notice of
the incident after the protest
INTERPOL Releases
Pakistan sponsoring
New ‘Most Wanted’ List terrorism, Dawood at
Pak-Afghan border: Rajnath
LONDON: The international
police agency, Interpol, has
started its first Most Wanted
list for suspects who commit
various sorts of environmental
crimes. The Most Wanted list
of environmental criminals,
dubbed Operation INFRA Terra,
has so far targeted nine fugitives for crimes including illegal discharge of toxic waste, illegal logging, ivory smuggling,
and trafficking live animals,
Interpol said on its website.
The suspects contributed to
“transnational organized crime
groups [that] have turned environmental exploitation into
a professional business with
lucrative revenues,” Interpol
said. The men hail from different parts of the world — there
are three Europeans, three Africans, two Asians, and a Latin
American — and operate across
national borders.
One fugitive, Ahmed Kamran, has been charged with
smuggling over 100 live animals, including giraffes and
impalas, on a military plane
from Kilimanjaro International
Airport in Tanzania to be delivered to Qatar.
Another, Sergey Darminov,
is suspected of operating an
illegal crab-fishing scheme in
Russia that netted USD 450
million.
Adriano Giacobone is also
wanted over criminal allegations including illegal transport and discharge of toxic
waste, poisoning water beds,
kidnapping, illegal detention,
carrying firearms and aggravated theft. Operation INFRA
(International Fugitive Round
up & Arrest) Terra started as an
effort to seek public assistance
in tracking down suspects
committing
environmental
crimes, said the international
policing organization.
“Until recently, environmental offences were not even
considered a crime by many
countries, but as the years have
passed, they have realized that
environmental crime is a serious internal threat to our societies,” said Andreas Andreou,
a criminal intelligence officer
with Interpol’s environmental
security unit.
A 2014 Interpol report said
transnational organized environmental crime is estimated
to be worth USD 70 -213 billion
annually.
NEW DELHI: Blaming Pakistan
for sponsoring terrorism in
India, home minister Rajnath
Singh on Saturday said the
neighbouring country is providing shelter to Dawood Ibrahim and the underworld don
is currently staying along the
Pak-Afghan border.
He said that though India
wants to maintain cordial relations with Pakistan, Islamabad
seems not too keen on establishing friendly relations with
New Delhi.
Addressing the Hindustan
Times Leadership Summit
here, he said terrorism in India is not home grown but is
externally aided... It is from
Pakistan.
"Terrorism in India is fully
Pakistan sponsored. Pakistan
says non state actors are involved. But is ISI non-state actor. ISI is aiding terrorism," he
said.
Singh said Pakistan is not
taking initiative to punish
those involved in 2008 Mumbai terror attacks as the case in
that country was moving at a
very slow pace.
"Pakistan is not helping in
the judicial process. In fact it is
trying to scuttle it," he said.
According to the home minister, Dawood has been living
in Pakistan and despite many
requests,
the
neighboring
country has not handed over
him to India.
"When the Pakistan premier
came to India, our Prime Minister told him to hand over Dawood. We are pursuing it. We
are trying to build diplomatic
pressure... As he is the most
wanted criminal... Right now
he is along (Pakistan-) Afghanistan border," he said.
Asked whether India would
carry out a "hot pursuit" to
nab Dawood, Singh said, "Give
us time. Please wait. Strategy
cannot be divulged. There is
no time frame. But we are trying so that Pakistan hands over
Dawood as early as possible.
Diplomatic pressure is building up."
On whether India will make
efforts to have dialogue with
Pakistan, the home minister
said New Delhi wants friendly
relations with not only Pakistan but with all the neighbouring countries as well
as others nations across the
world.
"There should be efforts
from Pakistan side too to
maintain cordial relations.
We always want friendly relations. But from their side,
there should be at least talk
of friendship. There should be
feeling to make friendship (by
Pak)... But I believe, sometime
sooner some breakthrough
will come," he said.
asked Whether india Would carry out a "hot pursuit" to nab Dawood, Singh said,
"Give us time. Please wait. Strategy cannot be divulged. There is no time frame. But we are trying
so that Pakistan hands over Dawood as early as possible. Diplomatic pressure is building up."
terrorism in india is fully Pakistan sponsored. Pakistan
says non state actors are involved. But is ISI non-state actor. ISI is
aiding terrorism," he said.
by Shahzad’s family members,
who also tried to forcibly enter
the police station by breaking
the front door.
An FIR was then registered
against investigation officer
(IO) ASI Rauf and three constables whose names have not
been revealed.
Angry
protesters
also
burned tyres and broke glass
with sticks, managing to block
the road outside the police station.
Speaking to The
Express
Tribune, SP
Sadar Ijaz
Shafi Dogar
confirmed
that an FIR
had been
registered
against IO
Rauf and
the three
unknown
constables.
The dead
body was moved to Munshi
Hospital where medical boards
will perform a postmortem.
Govt clears proposal
to acquire 814 artillery
guns for rs 15,570 crore
NEW DELHI: In a fresh bid to
break the Bofors jinx, defence
minister Manohar Parrikar on
Saturday cleared proposal to
acquire 814 artillery guns for
Rs 15,750 crore while deferring
the decision on joint bid by Tata
Sons and Airbus to replace IAF's
Avro transport fleet and also
procurement of 106 Swiss Pilatus basic trainer aircraft.
The artillery guns would be
procured as per the "Buy and
Make" procedure introduced
last year under which 100 such
guns would be bought off the
shelf while 714 would be made
in India.
The Indian Army has not
acquired artillery guns in the
almost three decades after the
Bofors scam surfaced in 1986.
Sources said at least six
tenders have been issued so
far but were cancelled due to
a number of reasons including
blacklisting and single vendor
scenario.
The plans to acquire such
guns were first mooted under
Army's Field Artillery Rationalisation Plan (FARP) formulated
in 1999.
The decisions were taken after Parrikar chaired his maiden
meeting of the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) here this
morning.
Defence ministry sources
said the DAC has cleared the
long pending proposal to acquire 814 mounted guns of
155mm/52 calibre.
Sources said a fresh Request
for Proposal (RFP) would be
issued for the procurement
which will be open to public as
well as private companies.
The Indian private companies that are likely to make a
bid for this project include L&T,
TATA and Bharat Forge.
"The Indian company, when
selected, will be the lead partner now. They can either show
their ability to make the product completely here or tie-up
with a foreign firm and build
the guns here," a source said.
Talking about the multicrore joint bid by Tata Sons and
European firm Airbus to manufacture 56 transport aircraft
to replace the Avro fleet of the
Indian Air Force (IAF), sources
said the DAC has sought additional information.
A similar decision was also
taken on the proposal to acquire an additional 106 Swiss
Pilatus basic trainer aircraft for
the IAF at an estimated cost of
about Rs 8,200 crore.
The DAC also approved the
revised payment schedule of
Rs 7,160 crore for the IAF's Integrated Air Command and Control System which aims to integrate all ground and air censors.
The IAF currently has five
sector headquarters (nodes) of
communication and the plan is
to have five four more besides
10 sub-nodes and up-gradation
of the entire system.
Parrikar, who comes with an
IIT background and has himself
being an entrepreneur, stressed
that the procurement policy
should be fast and transparent.
According to the ministry
sources, Parrikar said that the
DAC could be held for more
than a month and with lesser
agenda. As of now, the ministry
is aiming to hold DAC at least
once a month.
During the discussion today,
the issue of "Make In India" initiative of Prime Minister Narendra Modi also came up.
Sources said there would be
more discussion on the matter
and the effort is to make the
entire process more attractive
to foreign investors.
The DAC, set up in 2001 as
part of the post-Kargil reforms
in defence sector, approves the
long-term integrated perspective plan for the forces, accords
acceptance of necessity (AON)
to begin acquisition proposals,
and has to grant its approval to
all major deals through all their
important phases.
C M Y K
Daesh Executes 25
al-Shabab
Gunmen Massacre Iraqi Tribesmen
28 Bus passengers
sunday
23 11 2014 Kashmir Observer

OPINION

Military Justice In A Political Season
The announcement of the Macchil conviction on the eve of the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly
elections is a political decision, not one in support of justice or transformation
suchiTra Vijayan
T
HE Indian Army last week
sentenced five of its personnel, including two officers, to
life imprisonment for staging
the killing of three Kashmiri
civilians in the Macchil fake encounter case in 2010 and branding them as
foreign militants for rewards and remunerations. Soon after, Jammu and
Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah
welcomed the decision calling it a “watershed moment.”
The Indian Army’s court martial
verdict presents us with an indictment
of state brutality, while simultaneously inviting us to consider the vacillations of those who peddle the promise
of a more benign, transformed rule in
Kashmir. The verdict is not a watershed
moment, but indicative of the manner
in which political considerations and
interests of the Army override larger
principles of justice and accountability.
Rogue elements in the Macchil fake encounter were not driven to these acts for
professional advancement. The encounter is not an aberration, but a deliberate
enactment of the unfettered power and
lawlessness of the state. It is reflective of
the cash-for-kill policy that has institutionalised the incentivisation of encounter killings.
It is imperative that the Macchil fake
encounter is placed within the larger
context of violence perpetrated against
civilians in Kashmir and the long history of human rights violations sanctioned by the state. Thousands of unmarked and mass graves in Jammu and
Kashmir are believed to contain victims
of unlawful killings, enforced disappearances, numerous fake encounters, torture, massacres and other abuses. The
report “Facts under Ground” issued by
the Srinagar-based Association of the
Parents of Disappeared Persons alleges
that more than 8,000 persons have gone
missing in Jammu and Kashmir since
1989. There are innumerable cases of
Army atrocities, cover-ups and systematic failure to prosecute.
This spectacle of death, destruction
and disappearance witnessed over and
over again in Kashmir is a culture of
impunity that has flourished in the aftermath of years of conflict, occupation
and militarisation. This reign of impunity constitutes a form of violence and
a “structural element of everyday reality.”
Patterns of impunity
In Kashmir, state violence is openly
exercised as the policy for governance;
it is integral to the way in which sovereignty is practised. Questions of rule of
law and state accountability remain abdicated. The political context to the exercise of state violence is the unchallenged
impunity and authority enjoyed by the
state forces. It is not just the question of
The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act,
but also larger structures of oppression
that dictate everyday life in Kashmir.
In Kunan Poshpora, a village in Kupwara district, soldiers of the 4th Rajputana Rifles of the Army’s 68th Brigade
allegedly raped more than 50 women in
1991. The Indian Army has consistently
denied the charges as “baseless” and
called the women’s struggle for justice
“mala fide.” In the 1998 Sailan massacre,
Beware of Pig
fat in Your food
How many times a day do you eat a cow or a pig? Every time you eat
gelatin. You do not even see it so you have no idea how it is made.
Maneka Gandhi
G
elatin is made from decaying animal hides, boiled
crushed bones, connective
tissues of cattle and pigs.
Animal bones, skins, and
tissue are obtained from slaughter houses. Gelatin processing plants are usually
located near slaughterhouses and often
the owners of gelatin factories have their
own slaughterhouses where animals
are killed just for their skin and bones.
When the animal parts arrive at the food
processing plant, they
are supposed to be inspected for quality and
the rotten parts discarded. There are no
inspection systems in
India so you can rule
this out. The bones,
tissues are loaded
into chopping machines that cut the
parts into small pieces.
A gelatin factory has cow skins
piled to the ceiling. The skins are left to
putrefy or "cure" for about a month in
vats of lime. The stench from the factory
can be smelt for miles. After the hides
are ripe they are put into vats of acid
that disintegrates the cow hairs, skin,
and cartilage. Acids and alkalines such
as caustic lime or sodium carbonate are
used. The gelatin obtained from acid
treated raw material has been called
type-A gelatin, and the gelatin obtained
from alkali treated raw material is
referred to as type-B gelatin. (In order
to confuse buyers into thinking they
Heads & Tails
are eating vegetarian alternative, many
food products put Type B gelatin on their
ingredients list.) This is washed in water
and then cooked till it becomes a white
goo or gel. The gelatin is then filtered,
evaporated, dried, ground to separate
the water from the gelatin solution and
shipped off to different companies. By
now the cow’s skin and bones have been
transformed into a translucent, colourless, brittle, flavourless solid substance
called gelatin. Commercially manufactured gelatin is packaged in ¼-ounce
envelopes of desiccated granules,
paper-thin sheets, known as leaves and
meltable blocks .Sweeteners, flavourings, and colourings are added in the
preparation of food gelatin.
The worldwide production amount
of gelatin is about 3,00,000 tons per year,
about 660 million pounds. It is used in
food, pharmaceuticals, photography
and cosmetics. These four industries
collectively consume over 95 percent of
gelatin globally. The balance 5 percent is
used in abrasive paper, textiles, matches
& printer rollers. Common examples
of foods that contain gelatin are gelatin
desserts, jellies, trifles, aspic, marshmallows, yogurt, jelly babies, transparent
sweets, jams, cream cheese, chewing
gum, blancmange, charlottes, mousses,
cake icing and frosting, Bavarian
creams, sour cream, Turkish Delight,
nougat, margarine, cake mixes, bakery
glazes, meringues, ice cream, coffee, and
powdered milk. It is used in jellied soups,
aspic, sauces and gravies, canned ham
and chicken, corned beef, sausage.
It is also used in fat reduced foods
to simulate the feel of fat and to create
volume without adding calories. It is
used for the clarification of juices, such as
apple juice and vinegar.
Isinglass, from the swim
bladders of fish, is still
used as a refining agent
for wine and beer. Yellow coloured soft drinks
contain gelatin as it makes
beta-carotene water-soluble. To name a few products
that
are available in the Indian
market - mentos, altoids, Trident gum,
Mints, Skittles, Starbursts , M&M’s,
Cupcakes, Snicker bars, Kellogg’s
Rice Krispies, Ranch Salad dressing,
Hershey’s Cheetos, Twix bars, Kellogg’s
Marshmallow Froot Loops cereal, Kellogg’s Smorz cereal,
Kellogg’s Frosted Pop-Tarts, Kellogg’s Frosted Mini-Wheats cereal,
Kellogg’s Fruit-Flavored Snacks , Milky
Way, Yoplait Yoghurt.
Gelatin forms the shells of pharmaceutical capsules. Gelatin is also used as
an ingredient in implantable medical devices, such as in some bone void fillers.
It's also in lozenges, and ointments.
Gelatin is closely related to bone
glue and is used as a binder in match
heads and sandpaper. It is used to hold
silver halide crystals in an emulsion
in virtually all photographic films and
photographic papers.
Cosmetics contain gelatin under
the name hydrolyzed collagen. Gelatin
is also used in nail polish remover and
makeup applications. The gelatin is often
tinted in different colours to match a
model's natural skin tone.
Gelatin is found in some glossy
printing papers, artistic papers, playing
cards. It maintains the wrinkles in crêpe
paper. Blocks of ballistic gelatin simulate
muscle tissue as a standardized medium
for testing firearms ammunition. It is
commonly used as a biological substrate
to culture cells.
Alternatives to gelatin include
non-animal gel sources such as agar-agar
seaweed, carrageenan, pectin, konjak,
and guar gum but they will never be
used unless you demand them.
Maneka Gandhi writes weekly
column Heads & Tails for the Kashmir
Observer. To join her animal rights movement contact gandhim@nic.in
19 civilians, including 11 children and
five women (one of whom was pregnant),
were shot to death at point blank range
in their homes in Sailan in Poonch district. Their bodies were thereafter dismembered to be disposed of. In official
accounts, these heinous crimes were
reported as collateral damage during an
“encounter” despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
In the 2000 Pathribal fake encounter,
Indian military forces killed five men
claiming that the victims were “foreign
militants” responsible for the massacre
of Sikhs in Chittisinghpora. During the
course of investigation, DNA samples
of the Pathribal victims had been tampered with. The Central Bureau of Investigation told the Supreme Court of India
that the Pathribal killings by the Army
“were cold-blooded murders and the accused officials deserve to be meted out
exemplary punishment.” Despite these
findings, the Indian Army closed the
case in January this year stating that
“the evidence did not establish a prima
facie case against any of the accused”
and chose not to conduct a court martial.
The existence of judicial institutions
holds out the promise of accountability,
and a facade of redress, but patterns
of cover-up and denials are pervasive
throughout the legal system. The institutional denial of justice extends the
control of the military while maintaining the facade of law. Impunity has been
the norm in Kashmir and convictions
such as in the Macchil case are exceptions in service of political end.
The military justice system in India remains opaque, procedurally longwinded, antiquated and unable to serve
the end goal of justice. It is incompatible
with the fundamental rights that collectively constitute the right to due process
in India. Rather than aid the system of
checks and balances that impose accountability, court martials have become a distinctive tool; kangaroo courts
that aid in the fiction of state accountability, while legitimising violence and
counterinsurgency operations.
Every now and again, security forces green light court martials in carefully
chosen cases in the guise of accountability. Of particular note are two cases
of rape, one against Captain Ravinder
Singh Tewatia in 2000 and the other
against Major Rehman Hussain in 2004.
Captain Tewatia was convicted by the
court martial and sentenced to imprisonment for seven years. Major Hussain
was dismissed from service. Both the accused challenged their decisions in the
Jammu and Kashmir High Court and in
both the instances, the court overturned
the court martial’s verdict. While the
Captain Tewatia case is still awaiting
further legal challenge, Major Hussain
is reported to have returned to service.
While the court martial decision
in Macchil has been announced, the
conviction remains to be confirmed by
the Northern Army Commander. This
might take up to two to three months.
Whether the perpetrators will be held
accountable remains to be seen. The
court martial verdict by itself is not an
administration of justice. A few inconsequential punishments will not lead
to justice when there is an entire chain
of command and a vicious structure in
place that makes these encounters, disappearances and everyday violence a
norm. An unjust law and a flawed court
of justice in itself is a species of violence. Systemic unaccountability for its
breach is more so.
Moral and political failure
Kashmir is India’s greatest moral
and political failure. It is here that even
the most civilised amongst us begin to
make excuses for repression, brutality
and violence. It is here that we subsume
all that we otherwise celebrate under
the demands of freedom, progress, liberalism, liberty and secular ideals. Since
1947, the Indian state has responded
to the political aspirations and the social and the legal demands in Kashmir
through militarisation, repression, and
indiscriminate violence, including, at
various times, the denial of democratic
rights, the manipulation of elections,
and the murder and imprisonment of its
political leaders.
The Macchil verdict and the decision
to announce the conviction on the eve of
the Assembly elections in Jammu and
Kashmir is a political decision, and not
one in support of justice or transformation. Even as change is being trumpeted,
Kashmir has witnessed yet another killing of a civilian by Indian Army personnel, 18-year-old Tariq Ahmad in Kulgam
area. Possibilities of change will occur
when perpetrators are held uniformly
accountable for their act in a civil court
under the public gaze and when victims,
survivors and their families finally
have the opportunity to confront those
responsible for what happened to them.
Courtesy The Hindu
(Suchitra Vijayan is a Barrister-atLaw and a political analyst.)
narendera Modi &
the Great Power GaMe
PhiliP sTePhens
T
he world looks a different place
through the other end of the telescope. For westerners, the crisis
in Ukraine is about the threat to
the European order posed by Russian revanchism. Visiting New Delhi the
other day, I was presented with a different
perspective. There was only one winner from
President Vladimir Putin’s confrontation
with the west: China’s Xi Jinping.
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi
has surprised during his first months in office.
The pace of economic modernisation has fallen short of high expectations. Indian business
leaders mutter that while the prime minister
has set off in the right direction, his caution
has belied an unchallenged grip on power.
the knowhow that New Delhi needs to modernise its infrastructure. Washington has the
defence equipment required by a neglected
military. Israel is relaxed about selling on
sensitive military technologies.
The second thread is security. Modi is
establishing a more explicit strategic hedge
against China’s rising economic and military
might. You can see why. Beijing has extend-
balance rising Chinese power. Modi has been
confident enough to publicly chide Beijing
for stirring tensions in the East and South
China Seas and to offer Indian support for
the Vietnamese navy.
Which takes us back to Ukraine. During
the Cold War, India’s hedge against China
came in the form of the Indo-Soviet friendship treaty. Moscow still supplies vital de-
ed its regional influence beyond a longstanding understanding with Pakistan. Also called
the “string of pearls” strategy, it aims to
build China’s presence in the Indian Ocean.
Only the other day, a Chinese submarine
docked in Sri Lanka. Simultaneously, Beijing has upgraded its forces and modernised
its military infrastructure along the disputed
and largely undemarcated Himalayan border
with India.
India has learnt to live with the everpresent danger of another war with a nuclear-armed Pakistan. The humiliation of
its defeat at the hands of the Chinese in the
1962 border war cut deeper into the national
psyche. Xi’s unapologetically revisionist
foreign policy rekindles the painful memories. Chinese troops chose the occasion of
Xi’s September visit to New Delhi to stage a
cross-border incursion into Indian territory.
Beijing is anything but subtle.
India is not looking for a confrontation.
It has a lot of catching up to do, economically and militarily. It wants to expand the
economic relationship with Beijing. If Japan
has money to invest, China, potentially, has
more.
That said, each of Modi’s diplomatic forays — and particularly the closeness of the
relationship with Abe — speak of the effort to
fence equipment, but the relationship has
fallen into disrepair. Few expect anything
new from Putin’s visit to New Delhi next
month. Instead, the Ukraine crisis has driven
the Russian president into the arms of China.
With only enemies in the West, Putin has felt
compelled to show he has a friend in the East.
Xi has been quick to exploit this supplicant
status. By Indian estimations, Moscow’s gas
supply deal with Beijing was struck at a bargain basement price.
Many expected a “big bang”.
They are getting instead a series of useful but unspectacular
advances. Foreign investors
have been reminded of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s
(BJP) mercantilist roots. Modi is
navigating — by most accounts
— a bit too cautiously, between
the need for foreign capital and
knowhow and the defensive nationalism of his own party.
A contrary surprise has come in the
realm of foreign policy. Widely expected to
be a domestic prime minister, Modi has been
energetic and assertive on the international
stage. These are early days, but the signs are
that India is thinking like a power intent on
shaping the space around it. Modi has shed
what an ally calls the “third-worldish” outlook that flowed from India’s long allegiance
to the nonaligned movement. He has also
sidestepped the BJP’s instinctive anti-Americanism.
Prime ministerial visits to Tokyo and
Washington have heralded an extravagantly
close relationship with Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and a noticeable warming of
ties with the US. Attention to India’s neighbourhood, including long-forgotten places
such as Bhutan and Nepal, has improved India’s frayed regional standing. The new government has opened up military cooperation
with Vietnam and struck a long-term deal to
buy uranium from Australia. An apparently
convivial meeting in New York with Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may
foreshadow the first visit to the Jewish state
by an Indian prime minister.
Those looking for binding threads in this
flurry of diplomatic activity will find two.
They are interwoven. The first centres on
the imperative of attracting foreign investment and advanced technology. Indian power depends, above all, on a faster economic
growth rate. Japan has both the money and
Word in New Delhi also has
it that Putin has been under
pressure to sell China some of
Russia’s most advanced military
technology.
Geopolitics is full of unintended consequences. In this case, Putin’s military adventurism in Ukraine has encouraged New
Delhi in its quest for friends elsewhere. It is
hard to imagine India forging anything like
a formal alliance with Washington. There is
too much historical baggage for that, but all
strategic logic now points to a deepening security partnership with the US. And, in this,
Russia has become very much the unwitting
accomplice.
— Financial Times
sunday
23 11 2014 Kashmir Observer
From Being idiots to Being ZomBies


PANORAMA
How TV Robs Our Emotional Quotient
When phones get
smarter and people
get dumber, it is the
manufactured truth
that triumphs
TAHMINA LASKAR
A
s the public opinion got
bigger with the presence of
social media and television
it got dumber too. In fact it is
no more an opinion; rather
it is repeating a notion over and over
again until it becomes gospel truth. Since
the 24X7 news channels and soap operas
made their foray into Indian television we
have virtually been reduced to a vegetative, unthinking lot. For one so much
information overload has made us lazy.
We do not bother to verify facts anymore and share misinformation in all
gullibility. Very few have caught this
pulse of ours and they manipulate our
choices; make us speak in 140 characters,
Parveen Shakir
Jaisa Mein
nay Dekha
REVIEwER: IMTIAz PIRAcHA
P
ARVEEN Shakir was born on a rainy day in November
1952, in Karachi. By the age of 25, she had made her mark
as a poet of substance through mushairas, radio and television appearances. Her first collection, Khushboo, was
published in 1977. Her fourth and last book, Inkaar, was
published in 1990. In between, Sadburg and Khudkalami appeared.
Another collection, Kafe-Aina, was published posthumously in 1996.
Shakir also contributed newspaper columns. Her poetry powerfully and defiantly voiced the deeply suppressed emotions of women
living in a society dominated by men and their rules.
Written in the style of popular Urdu fiction mostly associated
with women writers, Parveen Shakir: Jaisa Mein Nay Dekhha by
Rafaqat Javed is a friend’s tribute to the poet. In spite of the fictional
style, the facts about Shakir’s life and the selection of poems are wellresearched and painstakingly presented in an uncluttered manner.
An outstanding student throughout, Shakir taught English literature for nine years at Abdullah College in Karachi before joining
the civil services. During her government service, she earned scholarships and pursued studies in the West.
The breakup of Shakir’s marriage left her reeling. Her son Murad, nicknamed Geetu, became the centre of her existence. Moreover, being a single working mother and competing professionally
and culturally in an intimidating male environment further inflamed her sensitivity toward gender issues facing women.
Although an old admirer of Shakir’s poetry, Rafaqat Javed got to
know her in 1988 in New Delhi. Rafaqat’s husband was posted in the
Pakistan embassy and Shakir was attending the International Urdu
Conference there. The two friends met several noted personalities in
India during the visit. Their meetings during the trip with Khushwant Singh, Qurratulain Hyder, F.M. Hussain, Kamna Parshad and
Kathak dancer Pushpa Dogra are recounted with interesting details.
One instance is the rumour that Dogra was an Indian spy.
During the trip, Shakir also expressed keen interest in meeting
a well-known palmist who, according to Javed, was popular among
the showbiz celebrities. He forewarned Shakir that she would not
be able to complete her fifth book, which she was working on at the
time, and that she would die young. He was proved right on both
counts.
Javed has carefully picked and included Shakir’s poems corresponding with various stages and events in her life — her early life,
marriage, the birth of her only child Murad; her separation from
her husband, the allegations, and later the agony of loneliness. It
gives a lot of perspective to the poetry and is meticulously done, enriching the book. Shakir received numerous prestigious awards for
her work, including the Adamjee Award in 1978 and Pride of Performance in 1991. The translations of her poetry into English, Japanese
and Sanskrit began during her lifetime.
‘Najanay kiyun?’ is a brief chapter in the book in which Javed
narrates the events of Shakir’s last 24 hours. Shakir could not make
it to Javed’s house for a Sunday lunch. However, she surprised Javed by showing up close to midnight along with her son, and asked
Javed to go out for ice-cream. The weather was cold. Javed regrets
her inability to fulfill that wish. Meanwhile, Shakir also returned
some jewellery she had borrowed from Javed, saying “Zindagi ka
kya bharosa, kya khabar, Rafaqat?”
The friendship between Javed and Shakir grew stronger with
the passage of time. Shakir, usually along with her son Murad,
was a frequent
guest at Javed’s
home. First in
New Delhi and
later in Risalpur, Peshawar,
Kamra and
finally Islamabad, where the
families eventually settled.
Shakir died in a
car accident in
December 1994,
in Islamabad.
It was another
rainy day. She
was 42.
PARVEEN
SHAKIR:
Jaisa
Mein nay
Dekha
(BiogrAPHY)
By rafaqat Javed
Parveen shakir
trust
isBn 978-969-8794-04-0
228pp.
keep us in a tizzy, always harried. We
represent no more our own reason but
manufactured reasoning is drilled into
us. The recent episodes of political immaturity or blind faith that we are witnessing reflect these tendencies. Very few
possessing reason and objectivity occupy
these virtual spaces.
Slavoj Zizek, a Slovenian philosopher
and psychoanalyst, notes in one of his articles that “When I come home in the evening too exhausted to engage in meaningful activity, I just tune in to a TV sitcom;
even if I do not laugh, but simply stare at
the screen, tired after a hard day’s work,
I nonetheless feel relieved after the show.
It is as if the TV were literally laughing in
my place, instead of me.”
That is the reality of today’s public
opinion.
Zizek goes on to say that “the real
threat of new media is that they deprive us
of our authentic passive experience, and
thus prepare us for mindless frenetic activity—for endless work” which in fact is
the exact echo of the current kind of thinking (or the lack of it). Mindless tweeting,
replying, getting all worked up and mad
over silly Facebook posts and doing little
research before blurting out endless blabber is what marks our discourses today.
The fear is real that we are gradually
becoming television news and social networking zombies impatient to react to
things. Our responses are often impulsive
and devoid of objectivity. When phones get
smarter and people get dumber, it is the
manufactured truth that triumphs. One of
the major reasons of such gluttony for reacting in public is that we leave ourselves
with little time after work and in those
moments we just want to be a part of the
world buzzing with activity.
This just takes us away from other
more important activities like reasoned,
critical thinking and analysis. There is
still time left to wake up and take a break
from this endless cacophony. Our discourses and life itself can be more meaningful if we pick and choose from what we
are being fed and more often question the
veracity of facts. It’s time to get a life.
Tahmina Laskar
is a New Delhibased blogger and
Program Officer,
Police Reforms
Program with
Commonwealth
Human Rights
Initiative. She blogs at www.tamz84.com.
A PoliticAl Story
of JAmA mASJid
HILAL AHMEd
T
he first of a two-part series on
India’s best known moque located in the Capital
The
Masjid-e-Jane-Jahanuma or Jama Masjid was
built by the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan
in the 17th century as the central mosque
for the capital city of Shahjahanabad.
Shah Jahan invited Hazrat Abdul Ghafur
Shah to lead the regular prayers at Jama
Masjid. Abdul Ghafur Shah was an established Islamic scholar from Bukhara, a
central Asian city renowned for Islamic
ing Committee of Jama Masjid were delegated to this newly centralized Wakf
institution. This administrative system
was changed again in 1962 when the Delhi Wakf Board (DWB) was established
under the Wakf Act of 1954. Since then
the management of the Jama Masjid became the responsibility of the DWB. All
the financial matters including the payments of salaries to the Shahi Imam, the
Naib Imam and other employees of the
mosque were administered by the DWB.
….Jama Masjid has never been declared a protected monument. Following
the guidelines given in the Conservation
Manual of 1923, the Jama Masjid was put
Wakf Board, Abdullah Bukhari chose
an alternative political move. He issued
a statement supporting the family planning programme of the government.
This statement was widely circulated as
a religious decree (fatwa) and presented
as the religious sanctioning for family
planning among Muslims. He also used
the Public Address System (PAS) of the
Jama Masjid to encourage the Muslims
for family planning.
….This pro-Congress gesture turned
out to be a political disaster for Abdullah
Bukhari. This ‘fatwa’ further heightened
the anti-government feelings, which
were already increasing in the Jama
muslims gather for sunset prayers at the grand mosque in Jama masjid Photograph: mustafa Quraishi/AP
scholarship at that time. Imam Ghafur
Shah was designated as the Imam-ulSultan (the Imam of the Emperor) or the
Shahi Imam of the Jama Masjid.
The Shahi Imam had two main functions. First, as the Imam of the mosque
he had to perform certain religious activities such as leading regular daily
prayers, weekly congregational prayers
on Friday and the annual Eid prayers.
Second, the Imam had to function as the
royal priest. He was bestowed with the
responsibility and authority of crowning
the Mughal emperor. The Imam of Jama
Masjid, thus, over the period of time became some kind of religious-political authority….
Despite having a religious-traditional authority, the Shahi Imam had
not been involved in the management
related issues of the mosque in Mughal
India. The Emperor dedicated four villages as wakf for Jama Masjid. However, by the end of the 19th century these
villages disappeared and the mosque
lost its principal source of income. Yet,
the royal grants were continued for the
maintenance of Jama Masjid. In the last
phase of the Mughal Empire, when it
became virtually impossible for the Mughal Kings to provide financial support
to the mosque, the local community took
up this responsibility.
In the late 19th century a Working
Committee for looking after the management of the mosque was set up. Besides
the monthly collection from the local
shops and stalls, the donations given by
the rich Muslims were the main source
of income of the mosque at that time. The
Imam of Jama Masjid used to be an ordinary member of the Working Committee.
After the formation of the Sunni
Majlis-e-Auqaf on the basis of the Auqaf
Act of 1943, all the powers of the Work-
in the special category. Without any formal agreement with concerned religious
endowment, the ASI used to take care of
the architectural and historic character
of the buildings. However, the question
of ASI’s involvement in the management
of the mosque has always been a politically sensitive issue.
….The eleventh Imam of the Jama
Masjid, Syed Hamid Bukhari was the
Shahi Imam of the mosque in 1970s. He
was known for his personal integrity
and was respected as a responsible ‘elder’ by the local Muslim community.
On the other hand, his eldest son and
the then Naib Imam (Deputy Imam) of
the mosque, Syed Abdullah Bukhari,
was not an educated man. No one knows
about his formal education. He was not a
Hafiz (memorizer), nor an Alim or Mufti
(formal degrees in the Madrasa system).
Yet, as the Naib Imam, he used to lead the
regular prayers at Jama Masjid in the absence of his father. Unlike Syed Hamid,
Abdullah Bukhari was a politically ambitious person. He was fully aware of the
religious and historical significance of
Jama Masjid, particularly the economic
importance of the mosque for the local
Muslim population, and very much interested in exploiting this ‘emotional attachment’ for his own political advancement.
…He was aware of his limitations and
advantages. He must have realised, as it
seems, the historic connection between
the institution of Shahi Imam and the
Jama Masjid. Yet, he was a bit confused,
as his first political endeavour clearly
shows, about the choice of an applicable
political strategy. As a result, he decided
not to use his indisputable stature as the
true heir of the royal Muslim past in a
manner antagonistic to the government
and adopted a relatively mild approach.
Instead of waging a war against the
Masjid area because of the forced urbanisation and family planning programme.
Many Muslim families decided not to offer namaz inside this historic mosque to
register their protest. The fatwa was also
criticised by the local political groups as
well as the established Muslim organisations.
This political debacle was a turning
point for Abdullah Bukhari. He realised
that his political support to Mrs Gandhi
could not help him in mobilizing local
Muslims. The pro-Congress politics, furthermore, did not give him a stature that
he might have been aiming for. On the
other hand, the Congress was also not
interested in him any longer. The fatwa
was unofficially withdrawn and the
Congress establishment started ignoring him. These changing circumstances
forced Abdullah Bukhari not only to
revolutionise his style of politics but also
to rethink creatively about more innovative use of Jama Masjid. In this context,
the Socialist Party and the Jan Sangh–
ideologically two opposite political
groups- discovered Abdullah Bukhari, as
a potential ally.
The public image of Bukhari was further ruined by allegations made by the
DWB. …the Board had asked Abdullah
Bukhari to give accounts for the money
received by him through the sale of tickets to foreign tourists.. However, Bukhari
did not reply to these letters and ignored
the reminders sent to him. — DNA
(The article contains excerpts from
Hilal Ahmed’s book, Muslim Political
Discourse in Postcolonial India: Monuments, Memory, Contestation, Routledge,
2014)
The author is an assistant professor
at the Centre for the Study of Developing
Societies (CSDS)
6 Sunday
23 11 2014 Kashmir Observer


Govt to relook at tax treaties to
unearth black money: Arun Jaitley
New Delhi: Faced with the daunting task of getting back black money
stashed abroad, government on Saturday said it was having a relook at some
of the bilateral tax treaties signed with
foreign countries that may be hindering
the repatriation of the money.
“Of course, we are,” Finance Minister
Arun Jaitley said in an interaction with
PTI journalists at the PTI headquarters
in New Delhi.
He was asked whether the government would have a relook at the bilateral treaties through which the government was not easily getting information
about black money hoarders abroad.
Mr. Jaitley said he had sent a delegation recently to Switzerland and they
have come back with some positive
movement.
“We have to furnish evidence independent of the HSBC list. I can’t go to
them (foreign countries) and they say
the HSBC list is stolen, I won’t cooperate. So I won’t go to you on the basis of
stolen list. But if I present to you some
independent evidence about names
which happen to come on the stolen
list, then will you provide me the evidence?” he said referring to the discussions with Swiss government.
Asked if this was not provided in the
current bilateral treaties, the Minister
said, “This is what we have discussed.
Increasingly the cooperation is increasing. Now if you see the U.S. laws, they
want more and more countries to accept that law which provides for automatic exchange of information.”
To a question whether India would
be signing such a treaty, the Minister said, “Our application is precisely
that. The Supreme Court, the earlier
judgement, needs a clarification. So
the Special Investigation Team (SIT) is
looking into it.”
On another question relating to dif-
ficulties in getting black money from
abroad, a promise of which was made
by BJP during elections, Mr. Jaitley said
there is a settled procedure and government has to go by that settled process.
“The world today is uniting to unearth these unauthorised transactions.
Conventionally they were against crime
money and not tax evaded money.
“Today even tax evaded money,
which flies from one part of the world
to another, there is exchange of information. And then if you are able to
prove that it’s contrary to law they give
you the supporting evidence. You have
to go through that procedure. There is
no other short cut,” he said.
The Minister parried a question
about the possibility of an amnesty
scheme to unearth black money, both
within and outside the country.
“Every institution in this matter has
to realise its responsibilities,” he said
without elaborating.
To a question on the Congress criti-
cism of the relaunching of the Kisan
Vikas Patra (KVP) in which even narco
terrorism money can be laundered, Mr.
Jaitley dismissed such fears saying there
are adequate safeguards built in it.
He said the Congress gave its reaction without reading the notification
on the KVP scheme and there cannot
be a debate on “ill-informed or semiinformed facts”.
“In the notification we have said that
the moment you buy those patras you
have to give name and address. So the
KYC norms are there and if you are buying more than Rs. 50,000 then you have
to give your PAN card.
“So the argument is narcotic dealers
and narco terrorism and all those people
will buy. But then they have to give their
PAN cards and we will arrest all of them.
You can’t have a debate on ill-informed
or semi-informed facts,” he said.
India one of our fastest
India’s shareholder protection ranking
growing markets: Twitter ahead of developed countries: SEBI chief
New Delhi, November 22:
Buoyed by the rising penetration of Internet in the country,
a top official from Twitter on
Saturday said India is one of
the fastest growing markets
for the micro-blogging site.
The U.S.-based social networking platform said it will
be investing more in India,
which industry body IAMAI
has predicted will surpass the
U.S. by December this year in
terms of Internet users.
“India is a big market
for us. It is one of our fastest growing markets and we
will be investing more here,”
Twitter VP, Global Media, Katie Jacobs Stanton said at the
HT Leadership Summit here.
She added that 78 per cent
of the traffic on Twitter now
comes from outside the U.S.,
signifying the growing importance of emerging markets.
According to its latest
quarterly report, for the three
months ended September 30,
2014, Twitter had 284 million
average monthly active users
(MAUs) spanning nearly every country.
Users outside the U.S. con-
stituted 78 per cent of its average MAUs, but the international revenue, as determined
on the basis of the billing location of its advertisers, was only
34 per cent of its consolidated
revenue in the three months
ended September 30, 2014.
Stanton further said: “India
is a growing market, which can
be ascertained by the fact that
the Lok Sabha elections generated about 60 million tweets.”
Speaking at a discussion on
whether social media is killing big media, she said Twitter is a tech-company in the
media business.
“We are not here to put
media out of business. In fact,
journalists were the first users
of the median to break and consume news,” Stanton added.
London Evening Standard
Editor Sarah Sands said the paper had turnaround at a time
when print has been declared
doomed, but added that like
other organisations, the paper
is on a multi-platform format.
Both Stanton and Sands
agreed that social media has
been a game changer for the
way the media operates, with
the latest proof being Prime
Minister Narendra Modi
breaking the news of President Barrack Obama’s India
visit as the chief guest for the
Republic Day on Twitter.
NEW DELHI, November 22:
India’s ranking on the shareholder protection parameter
of the World Bank’s Ease of
Doing Business ratings has
shot up from 49 in 2012 to
7 in 2014, ahead of even advanced economies such as the
U.S., Securities and Exchange
Board of India (SEBI) chief
U.K. Sinha said in New Delhi
on Saturday.
“Our steps for ensuring diversity on corporate boards
by mandating appointment
of at least one woman director and other regulations
for related-party transactions have pushed up India’s
shareholder protection ranking even ahead of developed
countries,” Mr. Sinha said. He
was interacting with reporters at the inauguration of a
Bombay Stock Exchange’s Investors Service Centre in New
Delhi on Saturday.
Mr. Sinha also said that
State governments are working with SEBI and the Reserve
Bank to curb the menace of
ponzi schemes such as Saradha. Twenty States and Union
Territories have already enacted a Depositor Protection
“And literally almost half
your taxes are indirect taxes
today. He pays excise, he pays
customs duty, he pays service
tax. Now as far as income tax
is concerned, to bring those
who evade tax is widening
the tax net, I am all for it,”
the Minister said in an interaction with PTI journalists at
PTI headquarters.
He was replying to a question on whether his budget
would look at widening the
tax base to maximise revenue.
Mr. Jaitley, who will be
presenting his first full
fledged budget in February,
said that in his last budget he
had increased the tax exemp-
tion limit from Rs. 2 lakh to
Rs. 2.5 lakh and would even
raise it further if he had more
MONEY.
“After all what are we talking about Rs. 2.5 lakh today
means, taking all the deductions which we have given,
somebody up to Rs. 3.5-4
lakh does not have to pay tax.
So we have reached the situation broadly.
“One earning Rs. 35,00040,000 per month, if the
person puts some MONEY
for savings, (he) won’t have
to pay tax. But people falling in this bracket say that
they don’t save anything with
salary of Rs. 35,000-40,000
(with) the present cost of
living, the transport cost, the
fees of children and so on,”
Mr. Jaitley said.
Therefore, the Minister
said, he was against reducing
the exemptions to widen the
tax net. “Then that’s not my
approach,” he added.
“So I am quite willing, if I
had my way and I had more
MONEY in my pocket, I would
like to expand. But today the
revenue position is challenging. Last time I gave several
concessions, which were actually beyond my means.
“But it’s all fine to bring
those who evade tax under the tax net. But to bring
this vulnerable section into
the tax net, that can’t be the
in the bucket then the water will not stay. I wonder where the money that comes from the Centre
goes”.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that in
Jammu and Kashmir there is a deal between the
two families here. “For the first five years, I will
rule, for the next you may govern the state. Will
only two families rule Kashmir? Can you not run
Kashmir?” he said.
“Our film industry used to shoot Kashmir in every film. Now, they have gone to other countries.
I want to bring them back and give employment
to youth here. I want to tell the people here. You
have been regretting for the last 50 years. Decide
once and you will not regret again,” he said.
He said that Gujarat has less rainfall and scarcity of drinking water. We built a pipeline and
Narmada's water is now supplied to 9,000 houses.
“The size of the pipe is big enough to fit the family
of Omar Abdullah while sitting in a car. J&K has
Chenab next to it. Can't they supply water here?
No one has the time to study the proposal kept
here,” he said.
Reliance, SJVN get Nepal
approval for investments
policy today. In fact if you
put additional MONEY in
their pockets and allow them
to spend, then I collect correspondingly more indirect
taxes so I will rather encourage more economic activity.”
On black MONEY within
the country, he said, “It is
huge quantity and more easily traceable. Because you go
to real estate, you go to land,
you go to mining, you go to
jewellery, you go to luxury
goods, you will find the domestic (black money). You go
to educational institutions,
you will find it there. Therefore to trace out the buyers
and the recipients is also
easy.”
From Front Page
Taking a dig at successive governments in the
Will Fulfil
state over corruption, he said, “If there is a hole PDP Cavalcade
Modi is so attached to Kashmir. I am attached
to Kashmir. It is my wish to complete the work
started by Atal ji. I would like to narrate my experience here.
Recalling the NDA rule under Vajapyee, he said,
“Every Kashmiri thought that now their dreams
be fulfilled. But during last ten years, what has
happened with Kashmir and its situation.”
“Despite the Chenab River being nearby who
is responsible for people not getting water,” the
Prime Minister asked and said that we are aware
that 20,000MW of power can be produced in the
state and it has the capability to eliminate darkness of all India.
He said he had come to Jammu and Kashmir
to reassure people that there would never be any
shortage of funds for the state. “The state will
be never any shortage of the funds but it needs
a corruption-free government, which could work
for the welfare of the people.
He said that, “we need to get rid of corruption
in the state. When I declared Rs 1,000 crore for relief work after floods here, the government here
was surprised. There has never been shortage of
funds,” he said.
ponzi schemes.
Coordination committees
headed by the State Chief
Secretaries have been set up
in all States, he said. Officers
from SEBI, RBI and other
regulatory authorities and
investigating agencies are
members on them.
The new provisions of
amended SEBI Act make it
mandatory for money pooling schemes collecting in
excess of Rs. 100 crore to
register with SEBI unless
already registered with another regulatory agency, Mr.
Sinha clarified.
He also said that SEBI was
working towards reducing the
time lag between the closing
of an initial public offer and
the commencement of trading of its scrip at the stock
exchanges to under six days
from the 12 days at present.
Our steps fOr ensuring diversity on corporate boards by mandating appointment
of at least one woman director and other regulations for related-party transactions have
pushed up India’s shareholder protection ranking even ahead of developed countries,”
Arun Jaitley against burdening
salaried, middle class
NEW DELHI, November 22
:Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Saturday said that he
does not favour burdening
the salaried and middle-class
with more taxes but would go
after the evaders in widening
the net.
In fact, he would encourage more MONEY being put
in the pockets of tax payers
that will lead to spending and
collection of more indirect
taxes.
“This widening of the tax
base. What does it mean?... I
pay the same indirect tax as
my attendant. Our volume of
consumption may be different. So everybody is paying
indirect taxes.
Act. Six more have passed the
legislation that is waiting for
Presidential assent.
A three-pronged strategy
has been adopted to deal with
the menace of these collective investment schemes and
unauthorised deposits, said
Mr. Sinha.
The State Depositor Protection Acts empower District
Magistrates to take action
against any entity collecting unauthorised deposits by
way of searching its premises,
attaching property-both personal and acquired through
the collected sums-and even
order arrest of the accused,
said Mr. Sinha. It also enables
the DM to disgorge or distribute the impounded assets
among the affected people,
he elaborated.
Besides the State Depositor
Protection Acts, as directed by
the Financial Sector Development Council (FSDC) — that
is headed by the Union Finance Minister — State-level
co-ordination for exchange
of information have also been
set up and the new provisions
of the amended SEBI Act are
being used to crack down on
Commissioner’s Office when his cavalcade was
attacked by youth with stones near Maisuma
Bund this afternoon. Though Bukhari escaped unhurt, three of his supporters were injured in the
attack.
“The attack created panic among PDP workers,
who tried to save themselves from the wrath of
Maisuma youth,” eyewitnesses said.
The police and paramilitary personal, who
were deployed in the area in advance, swung into
action and chased away stone-throwing youth.
The youths again appeared at Budshah Chowk
and continued renewed attack on PDP sympathizers. Many vehicles were also damaged in the stone
pelting.
A camera-person, who was covering the clashes, said that many PDP workers were roughed
up by the youth. He said forces burst pepper and
teargas shells after failing to disperse the stone
pelting youth with batons.
“The forces managed to push the stone-throwing youth into the lanes and by-lanes of Maisuma,
Red Cross road and Gawkadal. Soon, the interior parts of Maisuma were turned into a battleground, where slogans in favor of poll boycott was
KATHMANDU, November 22:
Two prominent Indian business houses have received
Nepal government’s approval
to INVEST NRs 144 billion for
setting up cement and hydropower projects in the country.
The Nepal Investment
Board (NIB), headed by Prime
Minister Sushil Koirala, has
cleared the decks for Anil
Ambani-led Reliance Group
for an investment of NRs
40 billion ($400 million) in
southern Nepal.
The NIB has approved the
Indian company’s proposal
for setting up the multibillion dollar project in Ne-
pal on Friday, according to a
statement by the board on
Saturday.
The Reliance Group will
soon conduct the study for
constructing the plant in central or eastern Terai region of
the southern plain.
Similarly, the board has
also approved the Project
Development Agreement for
the construction of 900-MW
Arun Third Project being developed by Satluj Jal Vidyut
Nigam Limited (SJVN), India.
As per the draft agreement, Nepal will receive 21.9
per cent or 197 MW of electricity free of cost from the
project, besides revenue and
other facilities.
The Indian company will
INVEST NRs 104 billion on
the project.
Besides, Nepal will get a
total economic benefit of $3.5
billion which includes royalty
fees, tax and free power from
the implementation of the
period over the concessional
period of 24 years.
The formal agreement
for developing the project is
likely to be signed next week
during the 18th SAARC Summit in Kathmandu in presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
the nepal investment BOard (NIB), headed by Prime Minister Sushil
Koirala, has cleared the decks for Anil Ambani-led Reliance Group for an investment of
NRs 40 billion ($400 million) in southern Nepal.
resonating” he said.
A police source said that a youth identified as
Usman was hurt during clashes after he was hit
by a teargas shell. The youth, he said, was stable.
Meanwhile, the shopkeepers downed their
shutters in the area while the transport was also
diverted to other routes. Reinforcements were
rushed to the area to contain the spiraling protests. (GNS)
Why is US
valley and elsewhere has noticeably changed,
mostly in favor of the BJP.
He cited two factors - the apology by the Indian army for the shooting of a teenager and a
young man on Nov. 3 and the sentencing by a
military court of five soldiers, including two officers, to life imprisonment for the staged killing
of three Kashmiri civilians in the Machil sector
in 2010. The rare developments have been welcomed by Kashmiris whose wounds are deep
and feelings raw.
"It has helped greatly and the apology came
after direct orders of the PMO not to fudge the issue. The people are happy that the army has been
punished. People tell me that none of Modi's
posters has been torn or defaced in the valley,"
says Sazawal, who regularly talks to people on
the ground.
He marveled at the strategic insights of BJP
managers - Amit Shah and Ram Madhav - in making the right moves and saying the right things.
He cited BJP's state unit vice-president, Ramesh
Arora's declaration that Sufi Islam would prosper under BJP. This is clever messaging to those
Muslims who are tired of terrorism and want the
peaceful version of their religion to return home.
The US government, struggling to contain the
extreme strains of Islam as exemplified by ISIS,
can hardly quarrel with promotion of Sufi Islam.
Pakistan, the other player in the "dispute" doesn't
raise confidence levels when it comes to dealing
with or "managing" Wahabism, which it and Saudis have injected into India.
The views expressed in the above article are
that Ms. Seema Sirohi, a senior journalist based in
Washington D.C. ANI
Make Facts
grooming such assailants,” he said and asked
police to launch an operation to nab the other culprit as well. (CNS)
22 11 2014 Kashmir Observer

NEWS

Haven’t Issued Any New Statement On Poll Boycott: Geelani
Srinagar: Huriyat Conference
(G) chairman Syed Ali Geelani
Saturday took strong exception
to the statement attributed to
him that separatist leadership
should not enforce an election boycott in Kashmir during
these elections and rather leave
it to the discretion of the people to make their own decision
about poll boycott. Geelani said
he never issued any such statement.
The Huriyat veteran while
talking to KNS said that his
amalgam has already appealed
for the complete boycott of
elections and has asked people
not to forget the sacrifices rendered by the people for their
Jamat Says, Have
Fielded No Proxies,
Calls For Boycott
Srinagar: The socio-religious political organization, Jamat-e-Islami (JeI) has distanced itself from
the poll activities with its chief
asking people to boycott the
coming state elections in Jammu
and Kashmir.
JeI chief Mohammad Abdullah
Wani while talking to KNS took
strong exceptions to the recent
statement that was attributed to
him, saying Jamat will take part
in the assembly elections. “I have
never said it. I said if for proving
the representative character before the international community for the Kashmir resolution, Jamat will take part in that election
that would be held under the supervision of the United Nations,”
Wani said, adding that Jamat will
never be instrumental in assembly or parliament elections.
Terming polls the futile exercise, the JeI chief said polls would
never be substitute to the right of
self determination and that JeI in
Kashmir has already rejected the
poll process which is being held
under the purview of Indian constitution.
Asking people to boycott the
coming assembly elections being
held for 87 member state assembly, Wani said that JeI has already
intimated to its entire state cadre
to remain away from the poll
exercise. “We have sent a clear
message to our cadre that they
should not participate in elections and neither should they
vote. When JeI says it has nothing
to do with the poll process, how
could it take part into it?”
Over the door to door poll
boycott campaign, the JeI chief
maintained that his organization is already much busy with
its own mission of religious
propagation and hence has no
time in carrying out the boycott campaign. “People have to
understand that when Jamat is
distancing itself from the poll
process, they should follow the
suit. It is certain that we will not
ask people to vote.”
Over the allegations leveled
by some mainstream parties
that the JeI has fielded proxy
candidates in the elections, Wani
ridiculed the reports, saying false
allegations are being leveled
against the organization by the
vested interests. He added that
there are no proxy candidates
of the JeI in the poll fray and the
organization has no relation with
any mainstream political party of
the state.
“We have no understanding
with PDP, NC, Congress or any
other party in the state. We are
not helping them and nor would
we do it. We have already made
it clear that JeI has rejected the
present system of elections in
Jammu and Kashmir.”
birth right. “We have issued
a complete boycott call. This
is the hand work of some elements to confuse the situation.
I have never issued any such
statement wherein I have retreated from my stand on polls.”
Geelani said further that the
system of elections are based
on ‘lies’ and that people must
Srinagar:
Journalist turned
politician and People’s Democratic Party candidate for Habba
Kadal Assembly constituency,
Zafar Me’raj, Saturday appealed
the Habba Kadal voters to give
him a chance to serve them in
coming years.
“I am contesting the Assembly
polls with the sole objective to
mitigate the sufferings of people
living in old city particularly
Habba Kadal Constituency.
I am not a politician by profession but I promise that under
the shade of PDP I will change
the face of Habba Kadal in three
months” Meraj told CNS adding that being the native of old
Srinagar city, he is well aware of
the problems that people have
been facing there.
“Let the voters of this constituency (Habba Kadal) give me a
chance, I will try my best not to
let them down. Habba kadal is a
small constituency with specific
needs. I promise there will be a
visible change within 100 days
of PDP coming to power,” he
said and urged the youth to lead
the movement for change.
Meraj said as a journalist he
worked day and night to highlight the problems of the common people and now as a politician he want to address those
problems that he highlighted
from time to time.
“It was because of my
staunch views and the stand
taken by me on the issues
Youth will need to drive NC-Congress government out of office: Baig
laws does not help any particular community or region, but
the framework as well protects
the distinct identity of different
regions and communities within Jammu and Kashmir. He said
this special protection to the
interests of the State has helped
every ethnic identity within the
State to flourish and preserve its
identity. “In fact this could be a
model for other states in the
country which have diverse and
multi-cultural populations,” he
said.
Referring to the development potential of Bandipora
district, Mufti said it is endowed with extraordinary
natural assets which have remained untapped. He said the
initiative taken by his coalition government to establish
Wullar-Manasbal Development
Authority had opened up new
opportunities of employment
and growth but like all other
good initiatives NC government
shelved it. He said the PDP
would launch major tourism
development schemes in Bandipora, Sonawari and Gurez areas
to create job opportunities and
introduce the area to the world.
He said Bandipora which till
independence was an important transit point on the SilkRoute, suffered a setback in its
commerce and trade. He said
reopening of Bandipora-GurezAstoor Road is part of the PDP’s
Self Rule framework.
Mufti said the area offers a
large potential to develop water resource which at present
is only source of discomfort
during floods. He said the PDP,
Kangan on Saturday welcomed
the apparent decision of Syed
Ali Shah Geelani and the separatist leadership to not enforce
an election boycott in Kashmir during these elections and
rather leave it to the discretion
of the people to make their
own decision. “This is a very
welcome step by Geelani Sahab
Will change face of Habba
Kadal in 100 days: Zafar Meraj
This Election is About
Safeguarding JK’s Identity: Mufti
Srinagar: Peoples Democratic
Party (PDP Patron Mufti Mohammad Sayeed has said the
focus of the upcoming assembly
elections will be to safeguard
the distinct identity of Jammu
and Kashmir rather than victory or defeat of a particular
party. He said Congress and NC
have been on a self-destruction
mode in the last six years and
they apparently seem to be out
of the context already after the
crushing defeat in the parliamentary elections.
Addressing election rallies
in Bandipora and Sonawari assembly constituencies to enlist
support for the PDP candidates
Nizam-ud-Din Bhat and Yasir Reshi, Mufti said while PDP
has clearly emerged as a frontrunner for forming the next
government in the State, but
the challenges before it have
mounted in view of the latest attempts to polarize J&K on
communal lines and target the
special constitutional position
that the State enjoys. He said
in order to face up to this challenge with strength and determination, PDP will need a clear
majority which will also help it
in addressing the fallout of the
present coalition government’s
inefficiency, corruption and
mis-governance.
Mufti said the special status
enjoyed by J&K is no concession
but a historical requirement
that the founding fathers of
the country acknowledged and
which they protected with adequate constitutional safeguards.
He said the authority of the
State to make its own special
not pay any heed to any such
remarks that are being wrongly
attributed to the pro-freedom
leadership of Kashmir.
Interestingly, the statement
of Geelani was making rounds
in the social networking sites.
Also the chief minister Omar
Abdullah while addressing
election rallies in Sumbal and
if it forms the next government, would try to tap water
resources for tourism irrigation
fisheries and other pursuits that
provide jobs to the locals.
Recalling the major initiatives taken by his government
in 2002 Mufti said horticulture
had received a boost by abolition of toll tax and implementation of Horticulture Mission
and introduction of MIS. He
said modern technological support would be offered to the
fruit growers to overcome postharvest problems and ensure
better returns for their produce.
Speaking on the occasion senior party leader and Member
of Parliament, Muzzafar Hussain Baig said though Kashmir
issue needs a political solution
but bad governance, corruption
and unemployment has further
complicated the issue thus creating enormous instability and
insecurity among the people.
He said that this year’s Lok
Sabha election results are an indication that the people want a
change and they are looking towards PDP as better alternative
to address the governance deficit and also create reconciliatory
atmosphere on the ground for
peace process to move forward.
Baig said unemployment
among the youth in the state is
the most pressing task before it
and the PDP will take it as challenge and addressed it very seriously.
“Job creation will remain
thrust area for the next government likely formed by the party
under the leadership of Mufti
Mohammad Sayeed,” he said.
concerning political and economic injustices meted out to
Srinagar, that party leadership
reposed faith in me and asked
me to contest the upcoming Assembly elections,” he said and
added that he is not like others
who could sacrifice people’s interests for power.
Zafar Me’raj said that PDP
was working to form the government and urged the people
not to waste their votes on people who would sit in opposition
and could do nothing for them.
"The people must decide
whether they want an MLA
from ruling party or opposition.
We have to keep communal
forces out of Kashmir,” Meraj
told CNS.
Veteran journalist who hails
from Zaina Kadal said that he is
sure this time round the emancipated voters of Srinagar won’t
allow any electoral maneuvering in Srinagar which has only
led to systemic political and
economic disempowerment of
its inhabitants.
“I request the voters
in Habba Kadal Assembly constituency
to give me a chance
and I won’t disappoint
them, have given my
blood for the people
and i will stand by
them whenever needed.” he said and assured people of Haba
Kadal that he will be
always available for
them.
“For the people of Haba
Kadal, my doors are always
open. It’s my promise to them
that I will try my level best to
mitigate their sufferings and
will work day in and out to address their problems,” he said.
(CNS)
Seeking Power sole
aim of NC, PDP: Lone
Srinagar: Sajad Gani Lone,
Chairman, Jammu & Kashmir
People’s Conference today castigated NC and PDP for promulgation of dynastic rule in the
state.
He expressed these views
at various public meetings in
Langate area of Kupwara. He
was accompanied by Adv. Mohamad Abdullah Mir, contesting candidate from Langate.
Terming the dynastic rule as
anti democracy Lone in a statement said, “Rejection of the
dynastic rule is in the ethos of
the democracy. In Jammu and
Kashmir these ethos of the democracy were over ruled and
hijacked by the dynastic rule
of the Abdullah’s and Mufti’s.
The sole aim of both these dynasties is to seek power and
to attain this objectives they
have sacrificed the interests
of the people of Jammu and
Kashmir. These families treat
Jammu and Kashmir as their
privately owned property and
act as facilitators to add miseries to life of the People of
Jammu and Kashmir.”
“They acted with betrayal and obfuscate people to
achieve political ends and always been source of patron-
age for elites while forgetting
the common people. Though
NC and PDP derive its strength
from the electorate of Kashmir but their policies and developmental activities were
always against the interest of
Kashmiris from time to time.
Their major concern is the
power and not the people,” he
alleged.
Lone said, “The elected representatives of NC, PDP and
Congress from J&K are known
for their short-sightedness.
Their vision do not even extends up to the next election.
They are disinclined to foment
unrest among the powerful
interests that fund their political activities and often their
personal bank accounts. These
People behave like autocrats
and care little about miseries of the common people.
Like their bosses, they too are
primarily concerned for the
presence of their masters in
the power corridors and the
promotion of their kiths and
kins in to the political space.
People deserve an honest,
dedicated and visionary leadership which willingly put
forth the courage to address
the miseries of people.”
6 students oF ku
qualiFy icar net
Srinagar: Six students of Kashmir University have qualified the
ICAR NET (2014) exams conducted by the Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR) in which thousands of students across the
country appeared.
All of these students belong to Food and Science Technology department of university. While appreciating this success of
students head Food Science and Technology department Prof. F A
Masoodi Said that university is working hard to prepare students
of the varsity for competing in national and international exams.
The University authorities also congratulated the students for
achieving success in the above said test.
Arms, Petrol Bombs, Pregnancy Strip Found in Rampal's Ashram
Chandigarh: A huge cache of arms
and ammunition, petrol bombs,
acid syringes, a chilli grenade and
a pregnancy test strip were found
inside the highly-fortified Satlok
Ashram from where controversial
guru Rampal was arrested.
The shocking details came to
the fore on Friday during a search
conducted by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Haryana Police. The pregnancy test strip was
recovered by police from a room
adjacent to the one of Rampal in
the ashram.
The police also found a woman
lying unconscious and locked in
a bathroom. She was admitted
to general hospital. She has been
identified as Bijlesh, a resident of
Ashok Nagar village in Madhya
Pradesh.
A spokesman of the police department said the team had recovered three .32 bore revolvers, 19
air guns, two DBBL 12 bore, two
.315 bore rifles, 28 cartridges of .32
bore, 50 cartridges of 12 bore and
25 cartridges of .315 bore.
Most of the weapons were
kept in bags and almirahs in two
secret rooms. At the centre of the
ashram, Rampal had an elevated
structure on which he had his seat.
The ammunition was stored under
the structure so that no one could
suspect the location.
The search also revealed a private swimming pool, state-of-the-
art elevators and 24 AC rooms.
The rooms, which could be compared to a luxury hotel or a farm
house, had attached bathrooms
fitted with top-of-the line fixtures.
While one of the rooms had a massage bed, the other had a treadmill.
The team also found helmets
and sticks and 20 pairs of black
dresses and two tanks containing
800 litres of diesel and catapult.
The sprawling complex was
found to be under constant sur-
veillance with CCTV cameras installed at several key-points to
keep a tab on the movements of
devotees, who largely came from
low-income strata.
A huge amount of eatables recovered during the search operation was being disposed off by the
Food and Supplies Department in
compliance with the orders of the
High Court. The ashram ran a wellstocked kitchen that could cater to
1 lakh people for a month.
and we all need to realize that
election boycotts have given
the people of J&K nothing but
political dis-empowerment and
a weakening of our regional
character in politics. The elections of 2014 are crucial and
an election boycott this time
around would have far-reaching, irreversible and detrimen-
tal consequences not only on
Article 370 or our special status
but also our political stature
and voice as a people. I hope
and pray that people come out
and vote in large numbers in
these elections and reinforce
their defense of their political
aspirations and the interests of
J&K”, Omar said. (KNS)
Police cracks
burglary case
Culprit arrested, rs 5.31 lakhs reCovered
Srinagar: Srinagar police cracked a burglary case when they
arrested a burglar and recovered the stolen money of 5.31 lac.
A petrol pump dealer complained to the Karanagar Police
station that a burglar has stolen Rs 5.31 lac from his petrol
pump at Karanagar. Karanagar police registered a case FIR
number 47/2014 under section 381 RPC and investigation was
taken up.
To investigate the matter SHO Karanagar
constituted a special team. During investigation
it came to surface that culprit had fled to Leh. On
this information Police Karanagar kept constant
watch on him.
Police said that it received an information that the culprit
has reached to his home at Hyhama in District Kupwara. The
police party of police station Karanagar raided to his house
and arrested the Culprit identified as Zubair Ahmad khan son
of Tikka Khan. The stolen money of Rs 5.31 lac has also been
recovered. (CNS)
Fiddling with article 370
can derail Jk’s relations
with india: yasin
Srinagar: Warning that any attempt to abrogate Article 370 will
derail all relations of Jammu and Kashmir State with the Union
of India, Peoples Democratic Front chief and MLA Khansahib
Hakim Mohammad Yasin Saturday said the abrogation of the
Article 370 are not only unwarranted but totally unacceptable
to the people of the state.
Addressing an election rally of more than 30 thousand
people here, he said, “If any attempt is made to fiddle with the
Article 370, it will have dangerous consequences vis-à-vis J&K’s
relations with the Center. Our party will not only defend the
Article 370 at all costs, but will restore the eroded provisions of
this Article of faith to its original status in the Constitution.”
Amid high pitched slogans by the people, the
MLA Khansahib said, “We will fight for the restoration of Article 370 to pre 1953 position when we
come to the power. Article 370 was incorporated
in Constitution of India to maintain a distinct
identity of J&K in political map of the world. But
it has been reduced to a husk through political
fraud and constitutional abuse and now it seems
that some elements were tactfully raking up this
issue to divert attention from the main Kashmir
issue.”
“It would be in the best interests of nation that provisions
of Article 370 which have been eroded from time to time are
restored,” he said and added even Parliament and J&K Assembly
doesn’t have powers to abrogate the Article 370.
Hakim Yasin said that his party will fight against all those
forces who want to divide people of Jammu and Kashmir in the
name of region, sub-region, religion and other trivial issues.
“The communal overtures of some vested elements are fraught
with dangerous consequences for the ideals enshrined in the
republican constitution of the country. There is also a dire need
to protect and preserve the rich socio-cultural and religious
diversity of the state and any division on regional, religious,
ethnic or cultural basis is acceptable to the people of Jammu
and Kashmir,” he added.
shaheen’s Family
accuses nc oF
harassment
Srinagar: Family of former NC leader Abdul Rashid Shaheen
Saturday accused National Conference of bulldozing their
Srinagar house in a bid to pressurize him (Shaheen) for leaving
Pattan constituency during the elections.
Family of Shaheen said correspondent that after a massive
rally was held at Pattan by Shaheen who is contesting as an
independent candidate, NC used the government machinery to
damage their Srinagar house. “Without any notice or intimation, some people with the JCB along with some goons have
brought down the fencing of our Srinagar house and have also
destroyed our window panes and decamped with various valuables,” accused Shaheen’s son.
He alleged the National Conference is using the state
machinery to carry out its hidden agenda and is pressuring
Shaheen withdraw from the seat. (KNS)
hurriyat (m) Pays tributes
to slain tral militants
Srinagar: Paying rich tributes to Shiraz Ahmad Ganai, Asif Ahmad and Shabir Ahmad Gojar who were slain at Tral on Thursday evening Hurriyat Conference (M) spokesman Saturday said
that the three brave hearts of Kashmir sacrificed their today for
freedom struggle.
“Hurriyat would continue to take the mission
of martyrs forward. Sacrifices of Kashmiris are
priceless asset of the Kashmir movement and it
will not be allowed go waste at any cost,” he said
in a statement.
The spokesman alleged that the state was continuing with
the military suppression, rights of Kashmiris were being
usurped on gunpoint, and their voices of freedom were being
strangulated using force. “However, despite efforts to break the
will of people the sentiment of freedom and resistance is being
expressed forcefully and coercion, wanton arrests, bloodshed
and oppression could not suppress it,” he said.
Appealing to people of Ganderbal and Bandipora districts to
observe complete shutdown on November 25, the day elections would be conducted in these areas, the spokesman asked
people to dissociate themselves from the “election drama and
reject the sham elections so that it would become clear on
international community that nothing can substitute right to
self determination.”
C M Y K
C M Y K
saturday


Kashmir Observer
news
C M Y K
C M Y K
8 SUNDAY 23 11 2014
Sharif Reminds Obama of Kashmir in Tele Talk
pressed his understanding for our position,” he added. The prime minister urged
President Obama to take up the cause of
Kashmir with the Indian leadership as
its early resolution would bring enduring
peace, stability and economic cooperation
to Asia.
He said "while we remain open to the resumption of bilateral dialogue, the onus
is on India to create a conducive environment in this regard."
Recent exchanges of fire across the de
facto border between India and Pakistan in
Kashmir, which both countries administer
in part but claim in full, have killed at least
20 civilians and forced thousands to flee
their homes.
The nuclear-armed neighbours, who have
fought two wars over Muslim-majority
Kashmir, have traded blame for the upsurge in firing and shelling which started
on October 6.
India called off peace talks in August after
Pakistan first consulted Kashmiri separatists, a move some saw as a sign of a tougher
stance by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's
new right-wing government.
"The two leaders agreed to stay engaged to
further strengthen Pakistan-US relations
in their common desire to promote peace
and prosperity in South Asia," the ministry
statement said.
Scrutiny for 3rd phase held
C M Y K
C M Y K
Nomination papers of 145 cleared, 21 rejected
JAMMU: The scrutiny nomination papers
of 166 candidates who filed their papers
for 3rd phase of Assembly Elections-2014
was held today in the offices of Returning
officers of their respective constituencies, in which 145 candidates were found
eligible, whereas nomination papers of 21
candidates were rejected.
In 6- Uri constituency, papers of 5 candidates, Ajaz Ali Khan (PDP), Mr. Taj Mohiud-Din (INC), Mohammad Shafi (JKNC),
Mushtaq Ahmad Mir (BJP) and Waseem
Raja (JKKMP) have been cleared.
In 7- Rafiabad constituency, papers of
12 candidates, Desh Kumar Nehru(BJP),
Abdul Gani Vakil(INC), Javaid Ahmad
Dar(NC), Abdul Majeed Dar(JKNPP),
Yawar Ahmad Mir(PDP), Khurshid Ahmad Khan (JKPC), Fayaz Ahmad Malik,
Ghulam Mohi-ud-Din Ahanger, Ghulam
Nabi Parry, Mohammad Maqbool Dar,
Mohammad Maqbool Mir and Mudasir
Rasool Bhat(Independents) have been
cleared.
In 8-Sopore constituency, papers of
16 candidates, Abdul Rashid Dar (INC),
Mohammad Ashraf Ganie (NC), Muzafar Ahmad Lone (JKNPP), Nazir Ahmad
Naikoo (PDP), Mohammad Ramzan Baba
(PC), Irshad Rasool Kar, Ulfat Sabba Ahmad Khawaja, Bashir Ahmad Azad, Zahid Gani Mircha, Shahzad Aasim, Sajad
Mohi-udddin Sheikh, Sayed Iqbal Nazki,
Gh. Rasool Dar, Gh. Mohammad War,
Mohammad Abdullah Dar and Mudasir Manzoor Wani (Independents) have
been cleared.
In 12-Sangrama constituency, papers
C M Y K
of 10 candidates, Kh. Mohammad Yaqoob
Wani (JKNC), Syed Basharat Bukhari (PDP),
Shoiab Nabi Lone (INC), Farooq Ahmad
Bhat (JKNPP), Ghulam Mohidin Bhat (PC),
Nisar Ahmad Shah (KMP), Irfan Hafiz Lone,
Gh. Mohi-ud-din Sofi, Fazal Mahmood
Baig and Hilal Ahmed Bhat (Independents) have been cleared.
In 13-Baramulla constituency, papers
of 13 candidates, Javid Hassan Baig (PDP),
Salman Anees Soz (INC), Gh. Hassan Rahi
(NC), Gulshan Sanhotra (JKNPP), Mohammad Afsar Khan (KMP), Mohammad Yousf
Dar (PC), Asif Akbar Lone, Altaf Jameel
Lone, Ashiq Hussain Ganaie, Gulam-udDin Gulshan, Mohammad Aslam Deedar,
Mohammad Rafiq Lone and Mohammad
Maqbool Mir (Independents) have been
cleared.
In 14- Gulmarg constituency, papers
of 8 candidates, Sheikh Mustafa Kamal
(NC), Ghulam Mohi-ud-Din Malla (JKNPP),
Mohammad Abbas Wani (PDP), Abdul
Ahad Sheikh (KMP), Ghulam Hassan Mir
(DPN), Tejender Singh, Shabir Ahmad Mir
and Mohammad Akram Mir (Independents) have been cleared.
In 15 –Pattan constituency, papers of
14 candidates, Aga Syed Mehmood-AlMosavi (NC), Riyaz Ahmad (INC), Aashiq
Hussain Lone (BSP), Imran Raza Ansari
(PDP), Basharat Hussain Najar (JKDPN),
Wali Mohammad Wani (KMP), Bashir Ahmad Ganai, Shabir Ahmad Wani, Shahzad
Ahmad Yatoo, Tariq Ahmad Parry, Ashiq
Ahmad Dar, Abdul Ahad Yatoo, Ab. Rashid
Shaheen and Farooq Ahmad Ganie (Independents) have been cleared.
In 26-Chadoora constituency, papers
of 7 candidates, Mr. Javid Mustafa Mir
(PDP), Riyaz Ahmad Rather (JKNPP), Mr.
Ali Mohammad Dar (NC), Gh. Mohammad
Paul (NCP), Mohammad Maqbool Malla
(INC), Dr Bilal Ahmad Mir and Gulam Mohammad Bhat (Independents) have been
cleared.
In 27-Budgam constituency, papers of
7 candidates, Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi
(NC), Ghulam Hussain Geelani (INC), Gh.
Mohi-ud-Din Bhat (Muntazir) (PDP), Mir
Fayaz Rahat (BJP), Mohammad Kamal Malik (PC), Fayaz Ahmad Dar (PDF) and Rafiq
Ahmad Dar (Independent) have been
cleared.
In 28-Beerwah constituency, papers
of 6 candidates, Abdul Rashid Banday
(BJP), Nazir Ahmad Khan (INC), Omar
Abdullah (J&KNC), Dr. Shafi Ahmad
Wani (PDP), Dawood Khan Lodhi (PC)
and Aijaz Ahmad Lone (Independent)
have been cleared.
In 29-Khansahib constituency, papers
of 6 candidates, Abdul Gani Naseem (INC),
Manzoor Ahmad Wani (NC), Saif-ud-Din
Bhat (PDP), Hakim Mohammad Yaseen
Shah (PDF), Bashir Ahmad Khan and Mohammad Anwar Lone (Independents) have
been cleared.
In 30-Chrar-i-Sharief constituency, papers of 9 candidates, Zahid Hussain (INC),
Ghulam Mohammad Chopan (BJP), Abdul
Rahim Rather (NC), Ghulam Nabi Lone
(PDP), Fayaz Ahmad Rather (JKNPP), Advocate Mohammad Latief Lone (PC), Mushtaq Ahmad Baba (KMP), Showkat Ahmad
Raina and Nazir Ahmad Rather (Indepen-
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dents) have been cleared.
In 31-Tral constituency, papers of 8
candidates, Mr. Avtar Singh (BJP), Mr. Gh.
Mohammad Mir (INC), Mr. Krishan Singh
(JKNPP), Mr. Mohammad Ashraf Bhat
(JKNC), Mr. Mushtaq Ahmad Shah (PDP),
Sheikh Abdul Rashid, Mr. Ab. Rashid Dar
and Mohammad Ashraf Ganie (Independents) have been cleared.
In 32 – Pampore constituency, papers of
6 candidates, Zahoor Ahmad Mir (JKPDP),
Ali Mohammad Wagay (BJP), Mohammad
Anwar Bhat (INC), Mr. Yawar Ali Abbas
Masoodi (JKNC) and Mr. Ghulam Mohammad Yatoo and Mohammad Iqbal Sofi (Independents) have been cleared.
In 33-Pulwama constituency, papers of
10 candidates, Bashir Ahmad Magray(INC),
Riyaz Ahmad Mir, (BJP), Gh. Nabi Wani
(Ratanpuri) (NC), Mohammad Khalil
Bandh(PDP), Ab. Qayoom Mir (PDFS), Farooq Ahmad Mir(PC), Bashir Ahmad Malik,
Sana-ullah Dar, Ab. Gani Shah and Masood
Hussain Wani (Independents) have been
cleared.
In 34-Rajpora constituency, papers of
8 candidates, Haseeb A Drabu (PDP), Ghulam Mohi-ud-Din Mir (NC), Fayaz Ahmad
Dar, (INC), Mohammad Abdullah Dar(RPI)
(A), Peerzada Syed Bashir Ahmad, Syed Riyaz Ahmad Riyaz Khawar, Gh. Nabi Wani
and Lateef Ahmad Dederd (Independents)
have been cleared.
The last day for withdrawal of nomination papers has been fixed on 24th November, 2014 and polling for this phase is
scheduled to be held on December 9, 2014
(Tuesday).
Bukhari files nomination papers
from Amira Kadal
Srinagar: Senior Peoples Democratic Party leader Syed Altaf Ahmed Bukhari filed
his nomination papers for Amira Kadal Assembly constituency on Saturday. Bukhari
is challenged by National Conference incumbent legislator Nasir Aslam Wani who
is also the provincial president of the party. Bukhari was accompanied by PDP Chief
Spokesperson Nayeem Akhtar to the office of Returning officer Srinagar.
Though there are other candidates also in the fray from the same constituency,
however, there will be a straight contest between Syed Altaf Bukhari and Nasir
Aslam Wani. Pertinently Wani is seeking re-election from the coveted Amira
Kadal constituency. According to observers Amira Kadal constituency is to witness an interesting contest as the ruling National Conference faces a strong
anti-incumbency wave which could certainly have an impact on the results.
One of the eight assembly seats of Srinagar district, Amira Kadal, out of ten
elections held since 1957, has went seven times to NC and thrice to Congress.
In 2002 assembly elections, Mohammad Shafi Bhat, a lawyer and politician
from Amira Kadal, defeated NC’s Ghulam Nabi Mir, on a Congress ticket. Bhat,
previously affiliated with NC, had switched over to Congress in 2002.
Talking to CNS soon after filing his nomination papers, PDP candidate, Syed
Altaf Bukhari said that he is confident of his victory. He said that he is hopeful that people would vote for him as he has already promised them that, “I
will not let them down.” He said people have been let down by the present
regime and they want change. (CNS)
Man held for ‘blackmailing’
people on gunpoint
Poonch: Police on Saturday arrested a man and recovered weapons from his
possession in a village of Mendhar Tehsil of Poonch district.
A police official said that acting on a complaint, a police party led by Sub-Divisional Police Officer (SDPO) Mendhar along Station House Officer (SHO) Sadaqat
Qureshi cordoned off the Sagra Belonai village and arrested Muhammad Fareed.
Police said they recovered a gun and a pistol from his possession. “He was
blackmailing and threatening people on the gunpoint,” police said.
The police also said that the arrested man threatened a woman if she didn’t
marry her. “A woman (name held) lodged a complaint with police and said
Fareed is asking her to divorce his husband and marry him,” the police added.
Meanwhile, police have registered a case under FIR number 178 under 354
AB, 509 RPC in police station Mendhar. (GNS)
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Sharif's earlier invitation to the president.
According to a statement Nawaz referred to his visit to India, which was
aimed at taking Pakistan-India relations
forward. Subsequent unfortunate steps
on India’s part, including cancellation of
the foreign secretary-level talks and the
unprovoked firing across the LoC/Working Boundary resulting in civilian casualties, indicated that India was averse
to normalisation of relations with Pakistan, he added.
“Thus, while we remain open to the resumption of bilateral dialogue, the onus
is on India to create a conducive environment in this regard. President Obama ex-
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Islamabad (AFP) - US President Barack
Obama telephoned Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to discuss the "evolving
situation" in the region, the Pakistani foreign ministry said.
"Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif expressed
satisfaction at the direction of Pakistan-US
relations which were on an upward trajectory" and "President Obama noted Pakistan-US relations were strong and robust"
during their conversation Friday evening
the ministry said in a statement.
Obama informed Sharif of his forthcoming
trip to India and said he would visit Pakistan as soon as the situation normalises in
the country, the ministry said, following