Greater Kashmir 03Srinagar | September 24, 2016, Saturday

Govt launches massive crackdown against protesters in Kashmir

300 arrested in Ganderbal, 14 booked under PSA 11 more detained under ‘lawless law’ in BandiporaIrfan ahmad/ Ejaz-ul-haq Bhat

Ganderbal/Bandipora, Sep 23: In a major crackdown to quell the ongoing pro-freedom protests, police have arrested at least 300 per-sons, majority of them teenagers, in central Kashmir’s Ganderbal district and booked at least 14 of them under stringent Public Safety Act (PSA). In Bandipora district, 11 more persons have been booked under the controversial PSA, which the Amnesty International has termed ‘lawless law’ as it allows government to detain a person for up to two years without trial.

Details gathered by Greater Kashmir from various police sta-

tions in Ganderbal district reveal that at least 300 persons have been arrested up to 20th September. Of those arrested, 14 have been booked under PSA and shifted to various jails in Kashmir and Jammu.

Sources said that the crackdown was intensified soon after the culmination of amaranth yatra and 15th August.

As per police the arrested per-sons were involved in “stone pelt-ing and disruption of law and order” in several areas. Police said more youth have been identified and shall be rounded up ‘soon.’

Sources said that for the past one month police have been conducting raids in different parts of the dis-trict. They said that move than 250

persons have been arrested from Ganderbal areas that include Lar, Safapora and Tulmulla, while as from Kangan areas 40 persons have been arrested so far. Reports said many of the arrested persons have got bail from court.

Police sources said that 14 of those against whom there was strong evi-dence of stone-pelting and organiz-ing pro-freedom protests have been booked under the Public Safety Act.11 more booked under PSA in bAndiPorA:

Eleven more persons have been booked under PSA in North Kash-mir’s Bandipora district, taking the total number of persons in the dis-trict charged with the controversial

law to 21 during the ongoing unrest.Official sources said that

seven persons from Hajin and 4 youths from Bandipora have been booked under PSA.

“Those who have been booked under PSA in Hajin town include Muhammad Mubarak Koul of Baharabad, Tariq Ahmad Lone of Vijpara, Muhmmad Ayoub Mir of Mir Mohalla Hajin, Bilal Ahmad Dar of Saderkoot Bala, Tajamul Rasool of Saderkoot Bala, Gulzar Ahmad Rather of Khumani and Imtiyaz Ahmad Malik of Panzina-ra,” sources told Greater Kashmir.

They said that 4 youths who have been booked under PSA in Bandipora town include Tariq

Ahmad Panzoo of Nibrpora, Hilal Ahmad Khan of Nowpora, Irfan Jan of Onagam and Asif Bhat of Aloosa.

“They have been sent to Kotbalw-al jail in Jammu,” a senior police offi-cial confirmed to Greater Kashmir.

Earlier this month, four persons including Tehreek-e-Hurriyat (TeH) District President Rayees Ahmad Mir were booked under the PSA and were sent to Kotbalwal jail.

Six persons were also booked under PSA in the month of August and sent to Udhampur jail.

Recently government also booked prominent human rights defender Khurram Parvez under PSA, immediately after court ordered his release from jail.

Pak warns india against giving asylum to bugti

israel offers to assist india in border fencingNew Delhi, Sep 23: Israel today offered to India its expertise for strengthening border fencing, stressing that the two countries share “similar challenges” on many fronts, including cross-border terrorism.

Israeli Ambassador to India Daniel Carmon said, “Our mes-sage is, yes, Israel has the expertise, because it has been under threat. We do share simi-lar challenges. We have the solutions. We can work together on the solution.”

“There is a need to confront terrorism. There is a tactical way to do this. There is an inter-national, diplomatic way to do this and I am sure and confident that India knows exactly what it needs to do,” he said. PTI

Islamabad, Sep 23: Paki-stan today warned India that by granting asylum to Baloch leader Brahamdagh Bugti, it will become an “offi-cial sponsor of terrorism.”

“India granting asylum to Bugti will amount to harbouring a terrorist by a State...Thus (India) becoming official sponsor of terrorism,” Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif tweeted.

Asif’s remarks came after it emerged that Bugti’s application seeking political asylum in India was yesterday received by the Home Minis-try which is examining it.

Bugti, who has been living in Switzerland, on Tues-day approached the Indian Embassy in Geneva seeking asylum in India and exuded confidence of a positive response from New Delhi.

Bugti is the President and founder of Baloch Republi-can Party. The decision of seeking asylum was taken at a meeting of the Baloch Republican Party on Sunday in Geneva.

He is the grandson of Nawab Akbar Bugti, a Baloch nationalist leader killed by the Pakistani army in 2006.

Pakistan government had blamed India for helping Bugti flee Pakistan to Geneva in 2010 via Afghanistan. PTI

khAwAjA ASifPakistan Defence Minister

India to buy 36 Rafale jets from FranceNew Delhi, Sep 23: India on Friday signed a deal with France to buy 36 Rafale fighter jets to meet critical operational requirement for a multi-role combat aircraft for the Indian Air Force (IAF).

Defence Minister Mano-har Parrikar and his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian signed the agreement in this regard here.

The deal was preceded by tough negotiations over the price and is expected to cost India some 7.87 billion Euros (about 700 billion Rupees). The deal also has a provision for transfer of technology through offsets.

The fighter plane will

be equipped with Meteor, a beyond-visual range air-to-air missile expected to considerably advance IAF’s capability in aerial combat.

The Rafale aircraft would have advanced fea-tures like advanced elec-tronically scanned array radar, mid-air refuelling and advanced electronic warfare equipment. IANS

Russian troops arrive in Pak for first-ever joint drillsPrEss trust of IndIa

Islamabad, Sep 23: A mechanised infantry unit of the Russian military Friday arrived in Pakistan to par-ticipate in the first-ever joint mili-tary drills dubbed ‘Friendship-2016’ starting from Saturday, reflecting growing military ties between the two former Cold War rivals.

“A contingent of Russian ground forces arrived in Pakistan for first ever Pak-Russian joint exercise from September 24 to October 10,” army spokesman Lt-Gen Asim Bajwa tweeted along with some photographs of the Russian and Pakistan troops.

A statement by Russia’s Southern Military Command said the drills will involve over 70 servicemen of the Southern Military Command, including the Mountain Mobile Brigade’s personnel deployed to the Karachay-Cherkessia Republic

(North Caucasus), and also officers from the headquarters’ staff.

“The joint military drills are aimed at bolstering and building up military cooperation between the two countries,” it said ahead of the opening ceremony Saturday which is scheduled to take place at Paki-stan Army’s High Altitude School in Rattu, Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

About 200 troops from the two countries will take part in the two-week long military drills which have been termed as a sign of growing mil-itary ties between the former rivals of Cold War era.

The joint drill is seen as another step in growing military-to-military cooperation, indicating a steady growth in bilateral relationship between the two countries, whose ties had been marred by Cold War rivalry for decades.

Pic: AgencieS

Trauma centers fail to deliver amid unrest‘Defunct facilities caused confusion, delayed treatment to injured’

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Srinagar, Sep 23: The scores of Trauma Centers across the state have not rendered any service to the people injured during the protests due to staff and infra-structure shortage, raising a question over their overall util-ity in the healthcare provision in times of emergencies and crisis.

While there are 12 Trauma Centers dotting highways across the state, most of these newly constructed facilities are devoid of basic infrastructure such as X-ray and scans for diagnosis, official sources said. At most places, even the operation the-atres are yet to be completed.

Even at places, where infra-structure is adequate, the dearth of qualified staff makes these centers fare worse than Primary Health Centers, sources told Greater Kashmir.

During the current unrest, which claimed at least 87 lives due to injuries caused mainly by firearms fired by security forces, doctors said many lives were lost because grievously hurt could not be provided medical treat-ment on time. Many doctors working in rural hospitals, where most of the injuries and casual-ties took place, believe that Trauma Hospitals created chaos as injured were sometimes taken to Trauma Centers where there was no facility available.

Officials said at least 9 out of every 10 injuries were treated at District Hospitals in Kashmir. “Trauma centers were exposed in the initial few days of turmoil only, when people realized that these are almost defunct,” a doctor working at DH Anantnag said.

Notwithstanding the short-age of doctors in peripheral hos-pitals across Kashmir, the avail-able human resource, officials said, is scattered over various health centers. “When we have a shortage in district hospital, we must address that rather than dividing the limited pool we have among Sub-District Hospitals, District Hospitals, Community Health Centers and now Trauma Centers,” an official in health department said.

“We have Trauma Centers on highways, not far from main hospitals in the districts,” he further said.

Doctors said the need to have a strong accident and emergency care facilities at district levels have been felt ‘dreadfully’ in the past two and

a half month, where transporting the injured to Srinagar was not always possible. “In most cases, transporting the injured to tertiary care hospitals was fraught with delays and risks due to blockades and curfew,” a doctor working in a district hospital said.

In many cases, medicos believed, the attacks on ambu-lances and frisking of the injured by security forces caused addi-tional delays.

Health experts believe that strengthening of peripheral health-care and emergency services needs to take human resource con-solidation at its core. “No doubt it is important to have an accident and emergency hospital in vicinity to save the ‘golden hour’, the precious time that can decide between life and death of an injured, but this is not happening with the creation of hollow Trauma Centers,” a senior health official said.

As per rules, a Trauma Center is sanctioned with six anesthetic posts, six posts of surgeons, six orthopedics and allied staff. How-ever, in almost all such centers, the staff strength is far from adequate.

In Trauma Center Qazigund for example, there are only two doctors, one anesthetic and one orthopedic. Similarly, in Trauma Center Pattan, one anesthetic is supposed to support work of two surgeons and one orthopedic.

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