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Kashmir: Timber scam sparks demand for resignation of Min¬isters

	January 28, 2008

The inquiry report on the timber scam carried out over several years, which was partially tabled in the Jammu and Kash¬mir Assembly, on Tuesday, Jan. 22, led to the opposition demand for the resignation of Finance Minister Tariq Hamid Kara and Forest Minister Qazi Mohammad Afzal. The Assembly was on Jan. 24 adjourned till Jan. 28 as Opposition parties demanded their resignation.



The names of two People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Ministers had purportedly figured in the Kundal Inquiry Report on the scam. Speaker Tara Chand adjourned the House after National Conference legislators stormed into the well of the House demanding the resignations of the two allegedly tainted Ministers. The House proceedings were affected on the previous two days also.



Though the report does not put a figure on the financial loss to the exchequer, the illegal benefits accrued through administrative irregularities run into hundreds of crores of rupees.



According to the report, the main beneficiaries of the 32 forest scams probed by the B.R. Kundal Committee are relatives of the state Forest Minister, past and present, and the timber mafia. Kundal, who is now the Chief Secretary, was the Home Secretary when Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad ordered the inquiry in mid-2007.



In the face of the persistent Opposition demand, the state government tabled the report in the Assembly. However, it handed over jut one copy to the Speaker in the winter capital, Jammu.



Soz new PCC chief



Union Water Resources Minister Saifuddin Soz will be the new chief of the Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee (JKPCC).



An official announcement to this effect is likely to be made in a day or two.



Sources said Prof Soz would, for the time being, retain the portfolio of Water Resources Ministry. They said the Congress High Command has informed Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad of the decision.



The sources further said Prof Soz was not “too keen” to occupy the top party post in Jammu and Kashmir, where the crucial Assembly elections are scheduled for September-October this year.



A large number of supporters of Prof Soz had been camping in the national capital for several days in anticipation of the decision after the resignation of Peerzada Mohammad Sayeed from the post.



Sayeed, a former Education and Haj and Auqaf minister, resigned from the Jammu and Kashmir Cabinet and the party post on January 17 following allegations of bribery levelled against him by a legislator.



Independent legislator Shoaib Lone had alleged in the Assembly on January 11 that Sayeed demanded and took from him Rs 40,000 for giving permission to his sister to open an elementary teacher training institute in the valley.





A relief package discussed



Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Jan. 23 reviewed the pro¬gress of implementation of recommendations of the working groups set up after the roundtable conference on Jammu and Kashmir. The review meeting was attended by Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil, state chief minister Ghulam Nabi Azad and National Security Advisor M.K. Narayanan.



Reports say the Prime Minister made enquiries about the problems of specific groups such as Kashmiri Pandits and other migrants and specific regions such as Ladakh. A relief package for Kashmiri pandits and support for dependents of the militants killed in police encounter were among the matters discussed.



The meeting also discussed steps for easing travel between the two parts of Kashmir.



The People’s democratic Party has urged the Centre not to delay the implementation of the recommendations of the working groups.



HuJI chief shot dead



Self-styled supreme commander of the Harkat-ul-Jihad-e-Islami (HuJI) Bashir Ahmed Mir, who master-minded serial blasts in courts in three Uttar Pradesh cities in Nov. last year has been killed in an encounter in the mountainous district of Doda.

DIG Doda range Farooq Ahmed Khan said that Mir was the most wanted terrorist of the times.



Operating under the code-name “Hijazi,” Pakistan-trained Mir is believed to have ordered a string of strikes across north and south-east India last year, including the court complex bombings in Uttar Pradesh, the bombing of the Ajmer Sharif shrine in Rajasthan, and the multiple bombings which took place in Hydera¬bad, Andhra Pradesh, in May and August.



Investigators believe Mir supplied cadre with the RDX used in the November 2007 serial bombing of three court complexes in Uttar Pradesh. A part of the explosives used in the attacks were transported from Doda by Mir’s subordinate Kishtwar resident Sajjad Ahmad Wani.



Police in Uttar Pradesh believe Mir used contacts at the Dar-ul-Uloom seminary in Deoband to recruit operatives from amongst its student body.



Jammu and Kashmir police officials said Mir’s death was the most significant blow against the outfit in years. “We had been tracking him for weeks,” said Doda Deputy Inspector-General of Police, “and eventually learned that he was operating out of a hideout in the mountains above Chatroo. Our personnel had to trek, in complete silence, through two feet of snow to get to the hideout.”



A resident of Chatroo village, in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kisht¬war tehsil, Mir joined the Harkat-ul-Ansar, which later trans¬formed itself into the Jaish-e-Mohammad, in 1992. He trained in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) from 1994 to 1995, and was then assigned the charge of instructing new recruits at a HuJI-run camp near Mansehra.





Chief Minister’s security upgraded



Following reports of a militant plot to target Chief Min¬ister Ghulam Nabi Azad, the security around him has been tight¬ened. Elite commandos of the National Security Guards replaced the Indo-Tibetan Border Police in his security cordon on Friday, Jan. 25.



Intelligence inputs had mentioned the possibility of mili¬tants having access to information on Azad’s movements from his own personal staff. Nearly a dozen people at the Chief Minister’s official residence have been replaced following inputs that the plot may involve insider.