Category: Union Territory

SRINAGAR: Former IAS officer Shah Faesal, who quit IAS job a few months ago, is likely to contest election from Baramulla. Shah Faesal, who hails from Kupwara, is expected to form his own political party in the next few days.

Shah Faesal is set to launch his own political party on Sunday. Amid speculation that he would be joining the National Conference, Faesal has been travelling through different districts in the Valley, meeting and bringing “like-minded individuals” into the fold. Among them is former JNU Students’ Union vice-president Shehla Rashid. (PTK)

SRINAGAR, Mar 13: Former Pradesh Congress Committee president Prof Saifuddin Soz has claimed that use of force in Kashmir may further aggravate the situation.

“PM Modi does not seem to realize, even in a small measure, that through his high handedness, he only cripples the goose that could lay a golden egg, in due course of time. Modi Govt also does not see a writing on the wall that the consistent refusal to open the dialogue in Kashmir has deepened the anger and unrest in Kashmir. On the other hand, Modi Administration gets along with repressive measures to provide a grease to the propaganda mill hoping to derive advantage for election 2019,” Prof Soz said in a statement today.

Soz said imposing PSA on Yaseen Malik and shifting him to Jammu and summoning Mirwaiz at NIA headquarters are the links of the said policy in Kashmir which is not going to give any advantage to the Modi Administration.

By using the Military muscle and intimidating the leadership in Kashmir, it is only aggravating the situation. I have convinced myself that Modi will be proved wrong. The Governor seems to be implementing Centre’s dictates based of misreading of the critical situation in Kashmir,” Soz added. (PTK)

Srinagar: The grounds for preventive detention of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front chairman Yasin Malik’s under the Public Safety Act (PSA) include references to some old cases, some fresh FIRs and statements like he “openly challenges J&K’s accession with India.”

The JKLF chief was detained on February 22 and lodged in Kothibagh police station here. On March 6, he was booked under PSA, which empowers the government to detain a person without a trial for up to six months. He has been shifted to Kotbhalwal jail in Jammu.

The PSA detention dossier prepared by the police and signed by the Srinagar district magistrate cites Malik’s alleged involvement in killing of air force personnel and kidnapping of former chief minister Mufti Muhammad Sayeed’s daughter Rubiya Sayeed in the 90s. These cases are pending with court.

The other grounds of detention, according to the police dossier, are:

1. “After the formation of All Parties Hurriyat Conference, Malik joined the amalgam and took active part in propagating its programme. However, after developing some differences, he parted ways with the APHC and established a separate organisation under the banner of which disruptive activities are still being carried out”.

2. “These serious criminal cases (IAF personnel killing and Rubiya kidnapping), presently at various stages, coupled with Malik’s continued organised attempts to disturb public order reveal that he (Malik) has indulged in such activities as a design and well-crafted plan which clearly is a direct threat to public order”.

3. “Malik openly challenges the accession of J&K with the union of India and strives hard for securing secession of the State. From the year 2016 till date he was very much active in sabotaging the peace and public tranquility of the state”.

4. “Malik is found involved in cases—FIR number 17/2016 police station Maisuma (arrested and bailed out), FIR number 19/2016 police station Maisuma (yet to be arrested), FIR number20/2016 police station Maisuma (yet to be arrested) FIR number 70/2017 police station Ram Munshibagh (yet to be arrested) and FIR number 22/2018 police station Maisuma (arrested, under custody).

5. “From 2017, Malik has continued to remain glued to the anti-national and secessionist activities. You (Malik) have been taken into preventive detention under sections 107, 51 CRPC, 28 times for (162) days and still you could not mend your ways and a reasonable opportunity was provided to you to correct yourself, but you have remained an incorrigible element despite furnishing surety/ personal bonds. Your conduct has remained the same. Breach of bond for good behaviour on several occasions clearly indicates that you are willfully indulging in activities prejudicial to public order and tranquility. Your attempts put the life of civilian at risk directly and indirectly.”

6. “Malik is instrumental in constituting the ‘Joint Resistance Leadership’ to portray India as a ‘colonial and occupational force’ by inserting the word ‘resistance’ in it. The JRL frequently imposes a forced shutdown on public establishments, business establishments, educational institutions etc by promoting attacks or mob building which become serious security concern vis-a-vis public order. The forced shutdown calls create an atmosphere of fear psychosis and have a direct bearing on the very idea and concept of freedom enshrined in the Constitution.”

7. “Malik played a key role in conceiving and chalking out agitation/hartal calendars to disrupt the life and to trigger law and order disturbances on any pretext. Recently you (Malik) you tried to aggravate the situation by floating Badamibagh chalo call to pit civilians against security forces and to instigate people to attack the legitimate state institutions so that some mishap is done and you and your ilk can derive political mileage out of it. In order to portray state in a bad light, you have conceived programme of candle light marches by acting as a proxy and quisling of enemy country. Your activities are very precarious in the backdrop of forthcoming Parliamentary and Assembly polls coupled with the security scenario in the state.”

Seeking to justify Malik’s preventive detention, the dossier reads:

“Malik’s activities are highly prejudicial to the maintenance of public order and warrant immediate prevention measures to be taken against him to prevent the society from violence, strikes, economic adversity, social indiscipline and unwarranted influence on the youth which has become a cascading effect on triggering public disorder. In order to stop you (Malik) from indulging in above activities, your detention under the provision of PSA at this stage has become imperative as the normal law has not been found sufficient to stop you from indulging in above activities.”

Courtesy: Greater Kashmir

New Delhi: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said that India cannot have dialogue with Pakistan unless the latter takes action against terror groups on its soil. Speaking at a conference in Delhi on Wednesday the union minister hit out at Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan and said, “Some people say Imran Khan is a statesman, if he is so generous then he should hand over JeM (Jaish e Mohammad) chief Masood Azhar to India. Let’s see how generous he is.”

“We are ready to engage with Pakistan in an atmosphere free from terror…talks and terror cannot go together,” said Sushma Swaraj.

Questioning Pakistan’s retaliation to Indian air strikes in Balakot, she said that India had specifically targeted the Jaish terror group but “Why did the Pakistani military attack us on behalf of JeM?”

“You not only keep JeM on your soil, but fund them and when the victim country retaliates, you attack it on the terror outfit’s behalf,” Sushma Swaraj tore into Pakistan government, adding that it
needs to control the ISI and its army, who are bent on “destroying the bilateral relations” time and again.

(With inputs from ANI & PTI)

Srinagar: In yet another setback to India’s bid to designate Masood Azhar as a “global terrorist”, China on Wednesday put a technical hold on a proposal in the UN Security Council to ban him.

The proposal to designate Azhar under the 1267 Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee of the UN Security Council was moved by France, the UK and the US on February 27, days after a suicide bomber of the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) killed 44 CRPF soldiers in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama, leading to a flare-up in tensions between India and Pakistan.

The Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee members had 10 working days to raise any objections to the proposal. The no-objection period deadline was scheduled to end at 3 PM local time (New York) Wednesday, (12:30 AM IST Thursday).

Just before the deadline, China put a “technical hold” on the proposal, a diplomat at the UN said.

The diplomat said China asked for “more time to examine” the proposal.

All eyes were on China, which has in the past blocked India’s bids to get Azhar listed as a UN-designated global terrorist thrice.

According to the listing rules of the Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee, if no objection is received by the end of the no-objection period, the decision will be deemed adopted.

As it has done in the past, Beijing put a technical hold on the proposal just as the deadline was about to end.

An inkling of China’s stand on the issue came during Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Lu Kang’s press conferences on Monday and Wednesday in Beijing when he was asked about the proposal to list Azhar as a global terrorist by the UNSC.

“The UN Security Council and its subsidiary bodies are run on strict rules. We already stressed China’s position on the listing of terrorist organisations and individuals in the UN Security Council 1267 Committee on many occasions,” Lu said on Monday.

“China will continue to adopt responsible attitude and participate in the deliberations in the UNSC 1267 Committee,” Lu said on Wednesday.

On the issue of listing Azhar, he said, “I want to say that China always adopts a responsible attitude, engage in consultations with various parties and properly deal with this issue.”

“The discussions, I want to say must follow the rules and procedures of the relevant bodies and only the solution that is acceptable to all sides is conducive for resolving the issue,” he said, indicating that Beijing may again block the move to list Azhar as a global terrorist.

It said the government has been taking over the control of the mosques, seminaries and other institutions of the banned organisations in the province.

Pakistan authorities on Thursday sealed the Lahore headquarters of Hafiz Saeed-led Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) and its charity wing Falah-i-Insaniat Foundation (FIF) as part of the ongoing crackdown against the banned organisations.
“Under the National Action Plan (NAP), the government has taken complete control of the banned JuD and FIF headquarters in Lahore and Muridkey,” said a statement issued by the Punjab Home department Thursday.

It said the government has been taking over the control of the mosques, seminaries and other institutions of the banned organisations in the province.
“We have intensified action against the banned organisations,” it said.
A senior government official told PTI that the authorities have sealed the Jamia Masjid Qadsia, the Lahore headquarters of the JuD and FIF.
The official said the government has also taken over the complete control of the JuD headquarters in Muridke, some 40-km from Lahore. However, the home department did not confirm it.
The official further said that Saeed and his supporters did not protest when the administration and police reached there to take over the control of the building.
“Saeed along with his supporters left for his Jauhar Town residence,” he said. The whereabouts of Saeed was immediately not known.
Saeed was listed under UN Security Council Resolution 1267 in December 2008. He was released from house arrest in Pakistan in November 2017.
According to officials, JuD’s network includes 300 seminaries and schools, hospitals, a publishing house and ambulance service. The two groups have about 50,000 volunteers and hundreds of other paid workers.
Meanwhile, a total of 121 members of the proscribed groups have so far been taken into “preventive detention” across Pakistan, the Interior Ministry announced Thursday.
The new figure of 121 came two days after the ministry said Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) chief Masood Azhar’s son and brother were among 44 members of the banned militant outfits taken into “preventive detention”.
Ministry of Interior Secretary AzamSuleman Khan said on Tuesday that HamadAzhar and Mufti Abdul Raoof were among those detained. Hamad is the son of Masood Azhar while Raoof is his brother.
In a notification, the Interior Ministry said the provincial governments have taken over the management and administrative control of 182 madaris, 34 schools/ colleges as part of the National Action Plan (NAP) to “combat terrorism.”
The Ministry of Interior said law enforcement agencies had taken 121 people into preventive detention as of Thursday in compliance with the NAP, formulated after the attack on an army school in Peshawar in 2014 that killed nearly 150 people, mostly students.
Provincial governments across Pakistan have also taken over five hospitals, 163 dispensaries, 184 ambulances and eight offices, Geo News quoted the notification as saying.
Meanwhile, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry said the government has decided that it will decide on its larger strategy on how to act against proscribed organisations after discussing the matter with other parliamentary leaders.
Addressing a press conference, he said that the leaders of major parties will be taken into confidence on major decisions on banned organisations in the country.
Chaudhry said that a consensus had been built in the country in recent days in response to the “Indian aggression” and the government wanted this consensus to be sustained rather than see it break “over small things”.
He said that these were matters of national interest and the government wanted to move forward with the Opposition, similar to the way it had with various other institutions.

SRINAGAR: Traffic police Thursday said vehicles parked on roadsides in the city will be seized under law.

“In compliance to the directions of the Hon’ble High Court of Jammu and Kashmir passed in PIL No. 458/2003 dated 19.04.2017, regarding the menace of wrong parking of vehicles, all motorists are hereby informed not to park their vehicles on the roadside and ensure that the vehicles are parked only at designated parking places,” said the police, in an advisory.

“All those vehicles which are found to be parked in violation of the directions of the Hon’ble High Court of Jammu and Kashmir issued in PIL No. 458/2003 dated 19.04.2017 shall be seized under law and will be released by the Hon’ble Court only.”

Last month, the administration had passed a slew of directions it said will “greatly help” decongest traffic in this summer capital city, after drawing flak from the Jammu and Kashmir High Court over the issue.

The court had asked administration to file a detailed compliance report regarding its directions on streamlining of traffic in Srinagar, and ordered personal appearance on March 19 of five top officers including Divisional Commissioner Kashmir and Inspector General of Police Traffic Kashmir in case of their failure to do so.

On February 19, Divisional Commissioner Kashmir Baseer Ahmad Khan had convened a meeting here to review traffic decongestion measures across the city.

A new mechanized car parking will “greatly help” decongest traffic in the summer capital city, an official spokesman had quoted Khan as saying.

In order to minimize traffic jams across city, the Divisional Commissioner had also directed Commissioner SMC to start intense drive along with Police, traffic personnel to remove all road side vendors from Hari Singh High Street, Batmaloo and other places and shift them to designated Vendor Zones which were already developed for them.

Police, Traffic Police and Chief Enforcement Officer SMC were directed to keep 24X7 tight vigil on all city roads and ensure that no vendor can display their goods on roads or car parking sides. “Violators will be dealt strictly as per prescribed law,” the spokesman said.

Traffic department was asked to start intense and strict document checking of every type of vehicles and immediately seize those vehicles which lack requisite vehicle documents.

SRINAGAR: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday slammed the members of a fringe group who targeted Kashmiri students in Uttar Pradesh, saying India’s fight is against the separatists and militants, and not against the people of Kashmir.

Taking to Twitter, the Union Minister posted a message in which he expressed full support to the Kashmiris amid reports of attack on them in a few parts of the country.

The attack on innocent Kashmiris is condemnable. Our fight is against the separatists and terrorists. We need the people of Jammu and Kashmir with us in the fight against terror.

“The attack on innocent Kashmiris is condemnable. Our fight is against the separatists and terrorists. We need the people of Jammu and Kashmir with us in the fight against terror,” his post read. (PTK)