Omar Abdullah apologises for rape victime list
Indian-held Kashmir s chief minister apologized Friday after his government revealed the names of some 1,400 women raped in the insurgency-hit state during the last five years.
“I tender an unconditional apology to the victims and their families. There is a deep sense of shame over the revealing of names (of the victims),” Omar Abdullah told the state legislature.
On Thursday a written reply by the state s home department to a lawmaker s query contained a list of nearly 1,400 women raped since 2006, giving out their names, parentage and residential addresses.
Abdullah, who heads the department, pledged that “such a thing will never take place again” and said he would “look into the matter”.
He made his apology after the main opposition People Democratic Party protested over the issue.
Kashmir, a predominantly Muslim state, has been in the grip of an insurgency since 1989 that has left thousands dead so far.
The violence has declined sharply since India and Pakistan, which hold the region in part, started a peace process in 2004.
Omar Abdullah Threaten to Resign
SRINAGAR: Chief Minister of held Kashmir Omar Abdullah has threatened to resign after PDP member accused him of involvement in sex scandal.
CM Omar has declared the accusations baseless and said he will tender his resignation to the governor.
Omar Abdullah Threaten to Resign was first posted on July 28, 2009 at 1:42 pm.
President Zardari Statement Welcomes: Omar Abdullah
HANDWARA: Acknowledging Sajjad Lone as a potent force in Baramulla parliamentary constituency, Held Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said he wished that Sajjad should have contested on NC ticket.
“I welcome Sajjad into the mainstream camp. I wish he would have talked to us before announcing his decision to join the election fray,” the Chief Minister told a gathering of around 5000 people at Chinar Park in Handwara on the last day of campaigning for the Baramulla parliamentary constituency.
Omar said had Sajjad taken the decision of contesting elections earlier, the lives of scores of people would have been saved. “Had he announced to contest polls 10 years ago, the number of graves in the graveyards of Kashmir would have been less,” he said.
The Chief Minister said he stands by the announcement of his father and NC president Farooq Abdullah that the assembly will be dissolved if all the pro-freedom leaders join the election fray. “I stand by what my father had said,” he said.
Omar welcomed Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari’s recent statement that India was not the enemy of the country. “I want the new government in New Delhi to offer a hand of friendship to Pakistan and resume the stalled dialogue process,” he said.
The chief minister said that vote for PDP will be vote for L K Advani and rightwing BJP. “I want a party in power at New Delhi that would strengthen Article 370, promote communal harmony and brotherhood. And I believe that party is Congress as BJP is hell-bent to scrap Article 370 and create a communal divide across India,” he said.
President Zardari Statement Welcomes: Omar Abdullah was first posted on May 12, 2009 at 3:02 pm.
Police Contests Army’s Claims on Terrorists killed: Jammu and Kashmir
Kupwara: The claims by the Army having neutralised a maximum number of militants, who sneaked into Kashmir recently, have been hotly contested by the local police who have picked up trails of militants and the FIRs registered showing only 25 being killed.
Notwithstanding the recent claims of Brigadier General Staff of 15 Corps Gurmeet Singh that 32 militants had been killed and that there were only two infiltration bids since March, the figures with the local police have a different story to tell as they have spotted fresh batches in so far as Ganderbal and Bandipore areas of North Kashmir are concerned.
As per the statement of a local militant who surrendered along with Syed Moinullah Shah, a group of 120 militants, launched by the Hizbul Mujahideen’s Imtiyaz Alam, entered into Kashmir valley through Kel (Neelum Valley) and reached Bunar forest into Gurez through Naushera and Nad areas in North.
Though Army claimed that 12 militants of the group were killed in an avalanche while nearly 82 others had returned, the FIR registered by the Army showed only one unidentified militant was killed. There is no FIR, a mandatory procedure after gunbattle, of the 11 other militants that the Army claimed to have killed.
Army declined to give any clarification and there were no replies to questions mailed to Col JS Brar, spokesman for Srinagar-based 15-Corps, despite repeated reminders.
The Army’s claim that it had arrested Shah, a resident of Dhir district of North West Frontier Province in Pakistan, had loopholes as the FIR numbers 70/2009 and 71/2009 in Gurez area of North Kashmir show that Shah along with a local militant — Iabal Dajeo, a Bandipora resident — had surrendered after being pressurised by the police.
Later, the Army took over Shah’s custody as he was a foreign militant and left the local militant with the police. Shah was paraded before the media in last week of April but the press interaction was cut short after he spilled the beans that he had not been arrested but had surrendered.
About the number of terrorists, the Army claimed that 56 militants had infiltrated into the Valley since March 20, out of which 32 had been killed, one arrested and 17 were still at large. Six were believed to have been buried in an avalanche.
However, the facts registered with various police stations in Kupwara, Bandipore and Tanghdar districts show a different figure in which the causality was only 25 which included death of three terrorists because of extreme cold conditions.
Police Contests Army’s Claims on Terrorists killed: Jammu and Kashmir was first posted on May 10, 2009 at 6:48 pm.
