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Srinagar: The Army has apprehended three suspected militants during a search operation in Kupwara district of Jammu and Kashmir, officials said on Tuesday.

A joint search operation was launched by the security forces on the inputs of Jammu and Kashmir Police in Lalpora area of Kupwara on Monday, an army official said.

He said three suspects were apprehended and some arms and ammunition recovered during the operation.

“One AK assault rifle, two pistols and some ammunition were recovered,” the official said, adding the operation is in progress.

PTI

Jammu: The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Tuesday produced a charge sheet against three people including former chairman of Jammu and Kashmir Cooperative Bank for sanctioning a Rs 250 crore loan to a non-existent cooperative housing society two years ago.

“The ACB filed a charge sheet against Mohammad Shafi Dar, the then chairman of J&K State Cooperative Bank Limited (JKSTCB), Hilal Ahmad Mir, chairman of non-existent River Jhelum Cooperative House Building Society, Srinagar and Abdul Hamid Hajam, secretary of the non-existent River Jhelum Cooperative House Building Society, Srinagar,” a spokesperson of the anti-graft body said here.

The ACB registered a case against Dar and others under various sections of prevention of corruption act for allegedly sanctioning a loan to the tune of Rs 250 crore in favour of the non-existent society for the purpose of construction of a satellite township at Shivpora locality in Srinagar bypassing the credit policy of the bank and on the basis of false and fabricated documents.

The ACB investigation revealed that a conspiracy was hatched between Dar, Mir, Hajam, Mohd Mujib Ur Rehman Ghasi, the then registrar of cooperative societies, J&K, Syed Ashiq Hussain, deputy registrar cooperative societies and others in creating the fake society in 2018-19 in order to obtain a loan from the bank.

The spokesperson said in furtherance of the conspiracy that was hatched, a fake registration certificate of the society was created by the accused.

Mir then approached secretary to government cooperative department Abdul Majid Bhat through the medium of an application on January 10, 2018 wherein directions were sought from the J&K Cooperative Department to J&K State Cooperative Bank Ltd Srinagar for grant of financial assistance (loan advance) to the tune of Rs 300 crore for the construction of the satellite township, the spokesperson said.

“The conspiracy of routing the application through the office of registrar of cooperative societies was done to camouflage the illegal acts of the accused and give it a stamp of government approval as otherwise there was no such precedence of routing loan application through the office of registrar for sanction of a loan in favour of a cooperative society and neither it was prescribed as mandatory requirement in the cooperative societies act,” he said.

The application of Mir was approved and forwarded to the chairman of J&K Cooperative Bank, Srinagar by Ghasi for the sanction of the loan.

“The chairman of the state cooperative bank in conspiracy with the borrower Hilal Ahmad and others has sanctioned the loan amount of Rs 250 crore in favour of the said fictitious society and out of that Rs 223 crore was released,” the spokesperson said.

The investigation has established that the loan was approved by the then chairman of the bank on the basis of false and forged documents by violating the banking rules and regulations and thereby causing loss of Rs 223 crores plus interest till date to J&K government exchequer and to the J&K cooperative bank and public at large, he said.

The amount was raised by the bank as a loan on the FDRs of JKSTCB Srinagar with the J&K Bank.

The entire loan amount was transferred into the account Mir from where it was transferred through RTGS/NEFT into the accounts of 18 people who are merely presumed to be shareholders/legal heirs of the land measuring nearly 13 hectares in Shivpora.

Srinagar: Army on Monday said it is “investigating the matter” as it “noted social media inputs linked to July 18 encounter at Shopian.” The social media was abuzz after families of three “labourers” from Rajouri filed missing report with police, stating that they last called their kin on July 17 and that they informed them of having taken a rented accommodation at Shopian. Next day there was encounter in which security forces claimed killing of three unidentified militants.

“We have noted social media inputs linked to the operation at Shopian on 18 Jul 2020. The three Terrorists killed during the operation have not been identified and the bodies were buried based on established protocols,” a defence ministry spokesman said in a statement issued to GNS.

“Army is investigating the matter,” the statement added.

Meanwhile, a senior police officer told GNS that if the families report to Shopian police station for bodies, legal formalities would be set into motion.

On July 18, police in a statement had said that three militants were killed in gunfight with joint team of police, army and CRPF in Shopian district on an input by army.

“On a specific input by 62RR about presence of (militants) in village Amshipora area, an operation was launched by them in the area,” a police spokesperson had said.

During search, he had said, the militants fired upon Army and encounter started. “Later on police and CRPF also joined. During encounter three unidentified militants were killed,” he had said in the statement, adding, “Bodies of all the killed three (militants) were retrieved from the site of encounter.” However, he said, the identification and group affiliation of the slain was being ascertained.

“Incriminating materials including arms and ammunition were recovered from the site of encounter,” he said.

All the recovered materials have been taken into case records for further investigation and to probe their complicity in other militancy-related incidents, he had said.

“The bodies have been sent to Baramulla for their last rites after conducting medico-legal formalities including collection of their DNA,” he had said.

He had said a case FIR No. 42/2020 under relevant sections of law has been registered at Police Station Hirpora and investigation has been initiated into the matter. (GNS)

Srinagar: Old party workers are unnerved with the killing of BJP workers, only recently joined workers resign, General Secretary BJP Ashok Kaul said.

Taking exclusively to KNS, he said, “A good number of BJP leaders and workers have been provided security. Actually our membership is right now 2 to 3 lack in Kashmir. BJP has expanded here and many workers were assigned new important responsibilities. It will take some time to give security to all. I was told In all districts, Government has designated a secure place where these workers will be accommodated. We have asked the workers to cooperate with Government till 15th August; everything will be resolved after that.”

“Five BJP workers were killed. One is battling for his life in hospital, BJP is a new party, young men who were fed up with other parties had joined BJP. Today the Budgam man was killed. He was educated and was running his own wood business. He had distributed masks, ration among locals in the pandemic. These type of youngsters are connected with the ideology of BJP. Those forces who do these killings don’t want them to join us. Obviously, when these killings happen, people get scared. Some people who joined recently resign, ” Kaul said.(KNS) 

Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir government Monday said that it has no clue whether Shah Faesal is to join back administration.

Faesal on Sunday deleted his description as the president of JKPM from his twitter bio.

B R Batnagar, Advisor to Lieutenant Governor told news agency Kashmir Indpeth News Service (KINS) that they have no clue whether Faesal is joining back to the administration. “Let me verify, I have no clue,” he said.

Faesal had topped the 2010 civil services exam and was made a part of the J&K cadre of the IAS.
In 2018, he took a sabbatical of one year to go for studies to Harvard in the US. Soon after coming back, he decided to form a political party of his own.

There are reports that Faesal is likely to join back administration.

This after he was conveyed by authorities that his resignation has not still been accepted. In 2009, he became the first Kashmiri to place first in the Indian Civil Services Examination.

During his career as a civil servant, Faesal served in postings such as deputy commissioner (Bandipora), assistant commissioner (Pulwama) and director school education, Kashmir.

He resigned from the Indian bureaucracy in protest on January 9, 2019, citing “unabated killings” in Kashmir among other things.

On 4 February 2019, Faesal began his political life by giving a public speech in his hometown of Kupwara and shortly after on March 16, 2019 he announced that he would be launching his own political party, the Jammu and Kashmir People’s Movement (JKPM).

Faesal was born in the Sogam area of Lolab Valley, a district in Kupwara, Jammu and Kashmir. His father, Ghulam Rasool Shah, was a teacher, not only was his father a teacher, but his mother, Mubeena Varrier, as well as grandfather were teachers.

JKPM was launched by him in 2019, but things changed in the erstwhile state after the government decided to remove the special status of J&K in August by abrogating Article 370.

Scores of political leaders were detained and Faesal was also arrested from the Delhi airport. After spending close to a year in detention he was recently released.(KINS)

Srinagar: In Jammu and Kashmir, the dropout rate of school students among the Muslim community is high at all levels at an annual average.

The official figures available with the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO) states that the annual average drop-out rate of Muslim students in private as well as government was high at elementary, high, and secondary and higher secondary level.

“At the primary level, the drop rate is 14.3 percent followed by 13.1 percent at upper primary level, 23.7 percent at secondary level and 26 percent higher secondary level,” the official figures reveal.

The document also reveals that the drop rate at secondary was more than twenty percent in eight districts of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.

“Annual average drop-out rate at secondary level is more than twenty percent in eight districts including Budgam, Bandipora, Baramulla, Kulgam, Kupwara, Rajouri, Ramban and Resai,” it reads.

Meanwhile the central government has asked the JK administration to focus on provision of Computer Aided Learning (CAL) facilities in upper primary schools, lab facilities in secondary schools and providing free textbooks to students within a month of the start of the academic session.

“UT was recommended to set-up CAL facilities and science lab facilities in upper-primary and secondary schools respectively and ensure timely delivery of text books before the start of academic session,” the official documents reveal.

State Project Director (SPD), Samagra Shiksha, Arun Manhas said there was many reasons for the dropout rate among the Muslim community in JK.

“There are many reasons for the high dropout rate among Muslims like lack of formal education among Muslims, Madrasas and education to nomad Muslim are some of the main factors,” he said.

Manhas said, “We are making efforts for the betterment of formal education and we are providing seasonal centers for nomad students.”

“We already have a dropout issue but it is not that higher than other states of India, however under the New Education Policy (NEP), we have to ensure Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) of 100 percent in next coming years,” he added—(KNO)

Kupwara: A group of 13 Kashmiri Pandits headed by Rakesh today called upon Deputy Commissioner Kupwara, Anshul Garg and apprised him about the fake news that has been viral on facebook regarding demolition of Temple at Waterkhani Kupwara.

The pandit group condemned this act and called it a handy work of the mischievous person responsible for circulating the fake news on social media.

“The fact is that the temple was damaged due to heavy snowfall in February, this year and the tomb of the Temple had fallen in the nearby LalKhul,” said Rakesh.

He added that since there are 500 government employees residing in Nutnussa migrant colony, the employees decided to contribute some amount to refurbish the said Temple and on Saturday they visited the Waterkhani Temple site and decided to work on its repairs with due permission of concerned Revenue authorities.

In fact, on our request, they assured all possible support and we are to ensure renovation of the Temple on religious basis, said Rakesh, flanked by his fellow members.

“We unanimously condemn the act of the mischievous person who is hell-bent upon to vitiate the century old communal harmony”, said Rakesh, adding that he is son of the soil and all the local people and panchs and sarpanchs have assured him support for renovation of the Temple.

The Deputy Commissioner appreciated the Pandit Community for clearing the air on fake news and simultaneously assured them of every support from administration.

He said the district as a whole does not tolerate the mischievous acts like this and whosoever is behind this mischief should apologize for his mistake for the larger interest of the society.

The DC also said that people should take utmost care while reacting to such malicious social media news and instead should contact administration for the clarifications.

Shocked to hear about reports of 3 missing labourers reportedly killed in a staged encounter at Shopian.Armed forces have a free hand to operate with impunity.Explains why bodies are allowed to decompose at unknown locations.Probes into recent encounters must be ordered

@MehboobaMufti

Shocked to hear about reports of 3 missing labourers reportedly killed in a staged encounter at Shopian.Armed forces have a free hand to operate with impunity.Explains why bodies are allowed to decompose at unknown locations.Probes into recent encounters must be ordered https://t.co/7uoNlVIuuN

— Mehbooba Mufti (@MehboobaMufti) August 10, 2020

PTI

Jammu: Pakistani troops opened fire on forward posts along the Line of Control (LoC) in Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir on Monday in violation of a ceasefire agreement, a defence spokesman said.

The unprovoked firing from across the border started in the Balakote sector around 10.15 am and was given a befitting response by Indian Army personnel guarding the LoC, the spokesman said.

He said the cross-border firing between the two sides was going on when last reports were received.

However, there was no report of any casualty, the spokesman said.

Officials said Pakistan Army personnel also fired mortar shells targeting Tarkundi village, causing panic among residents.

On Sunday, Pakistani troops resorted to heavy shelling in Mankote, Shahpur, Kirni and Krishna Ghati sectors.

PTI

Jammu: A Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) youth leader on Monday joined the Jammu and Kashmir Apni Party (JKAP) here, a party leader said.

Malik Mohammad Umar, the general secretary of the PDP’s youth wing, was welcomed into the JKAP by senior leaders including former minister Dilawar Mir, the leader said.

Hailing from Kishtwar district of Chenab Valley region, Umar said he had learnt a lot during his association with the PDP but felt the need to be part of a better platform which can work with the people and take the Union Territory to new heights of development.

“There are some leaders in the PDP who are enjoying power despite having no connections with the grassroots. We have a lot of issues in Chenab valley where the majority of the people are craving for basic medical facilities, better roads, electricity and drinking water,” he said.

Umar, a lawyer by profession, said, “The Apni Party led by former minister Altaf Bukhari has generated a hope among the people and it is the best available platform which is connected with the ordinary people and can resolve their issues.