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Srinagar, May 18: The government of India's Ministry of Minority Affairs has asked the Jammu and Kashmir's Social Welfare Department to hold an inquiry into the discrepancies in the list of candidates selected for Minority Scholarship Scheme in south Kashmir's Kulgam district.
The development comes after The Kashmir Monitor reported on May 15 about the discrepancies in the list of candidates for Kulgam district getting financial aid in Minority Affairs 'merit cum means' scholarship for professional and technical courses.
Data compiled by Union Ministry of Minority Affairs has listed over 400 Hindu candidates as Muslim in Kulgam availing benefits under the scheme.
The Union Minority Affairs Ministry has now written to J&K's Social Welfare Department to initiate a probe for unveiling the facts into the matter.
"So far, it has been found that bank account numbers of 474 candidates who have availed benefit under the scheme are not from Jammu and Kashmir. Everything will be cleared once the probe is completed," said an official of the Social Welfare Department.
Asked whether any candidates from Kulgam district have availed the benefit under the scheme, the official said, "The mandate of the probe committee is to look into all these aspects including why the names of actual candidates of Kulgam are missing from the list. This committee will also look who is responsible for these discrepancies."
Director, Social Welfare Department, Kashmir, Rukhsana Gani, confirmed that the Union Minority Affairs has asked them to hold the probe.
"Prime-facie, some wrong has happened at Minority Affairs Department. They have told us to hold the inquiry. We will initiate the probe very soon to unveil the facts (sic)," she said.
The objective of the Merit-Cum-Means Scholarship, as per the Union Ministry, is to provide financial assistance to the poor and meritorious students belonging to minority communities (Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, Sikhs, Parsis and Jain) to enable them to pursue professional and technical courses.
As already reported by this newspaper, data on the National Scholarship Portal lists 474 candidates, majority of them are Hindu names, availing a cumulative Rs 1.5 crore under this scheme for 2019-20 in Kulgam district.
Srinagar, May 18: The month of Ramadan is seeing a surge in anti-militancy operations as Saturday also witnessed two more gunfights in south and north Kashmir in which four militants were killed.
The first encounter begun at the wee hours of Saturday at Panzgam area of Awantipora in Pulwama in which three militants were killed. The second gunfight took place in north Kashmir's Baramulla district which ended in killing of another militant.
Giving details about the first gunfight, a police spokesperson said a cordon and search operation was launched by police and government forces early Saturday morning at Panzgam.
During the search operation, the hiding militants fired on the search party, which was retaliated leading to an encounter.
In the ensuing encounter, three militants were killed and the bodies were retrieved from the site of encounter.
The slain militants were identified as Showkat Dar, a native of Panzgam, Irfan War of Wadoora Payeen Sopore, and Muzaffar Sheikh of Tahab Pulwama.
All the three slain militants, according to the police records, were affiliated with militant outfit Hizbul Mujahideen.
As per police records, Showkat had a long history of militancy related cases.
"He was involved in planning and executing series of militant attacks in the area. He was part of a group involved in killing of Army soldier Aurangzeb last year in 2018. He was also involved in killing of a policeman Aqib Ahmad Wagay last year," the spokesperson said.
He added that incriminating materials including arms and ammunition were recovered from the site of encounter.
Meanwhile, Showkat was interred amid pro-freedom slogans and spontaneous shutdown in his native village. Before his burial, thousands of people attended his funeral.
On June 14, 2018, Aurangzeb, a rifleman with 44 Rashtriya Rifles was kidnapped and shot dead by militants in south Kashmir's Pulwama when he was travelling in a private vehicle, on his way home in Poonch.
Aurangzeb was part of an officer's team which killed Hizbul Mujahideen commander Sameer Tiger on May 1, 2018.
Sopore encounter
In second encounter of the day, one militant was killed in brief exchange of fire at Hathlangoo area of North Kashmir's Sopore.
A police officer said that acting on a specific human intelligence, a cordon was laid at village Hathlangoo. "As the suspected house was zeroed-in, the hiding militant opened fire resulting in an encounter. In the ensuing gunfight, the militant was killed," the officer said.
"It was a clean operation and no collateral damage took place in the gunfight," he said.
Sources said that in the incident, a residential house also got completely damaged.
The officer identified the slain militant as Waseem Ahmad Naik son of Abdul Gani Naik of Udipora Barsoo Awantipora.
According to sources, Waseem was missing since March this year. The family had accordingly filed a missing report in police station concerned.
Meanwhile, authorities suspended internet services in Sopore town as a precautionary measure in wake of this search operation.
Militants escape after brief exchange of fire in Anantnag
Militants on Saturday morning managed to escape after brief exchange of fire in Dehruna village of Anantnag village.
An official confirmed that militants have managed to escape in Dehruna and operation has been called off.
Earlier, a joint team of forces including 19 RR and SOG cordoned off Dehruna area of Anantnag following specific information about the presence of some militants in the area.
As the joint team of forces intensified the searches towards the suspected spot, the hiding militants opened fire, leading to an encounter, he said.
However during initial exchange of fire, militants managed to break the cordon and escaped from the spot, he said, adding that after initial exchange, cordon was extended to nearby villages. However, the operation after finding no militant there was called off.
Meanwhile, soon after news of encounter spread in the area, youth took to streets and started pelting stones on government forces, which was retaliated by smoking tear smoke shells.
Eyewitnesses said that several youth received minor injuries during the clashes.
May 10: 1 militant killed in Herpora, Shopian
May 12: 2 militants killed in Hend, Shopian
May 16: 5 militants, 2 civilians, soldier killed in Pulwama, Shopian
May 18: 4 militants killed in Awantipora, Sopore
Srinagar, May 18: Government forces have stepped-up operations against militants this Ramadan as Kashmir has witnessed multiple gunfights since the start of the month of fasting.
In the first 12 days of the holy month, as many as 11 militants, two soldiers and two civilians were killed in six encounters, most of which broke out in the pre-dawn hours.
Among the six encounters, five have taken place in south Kashmir.
The first shoot-out in Ramadan took place on May 10 at Ramnagri area of Herpora in Shopian, in which an ISJK militant Ishfaq Sofi was killed. Since then, there has been no letup all the way till Saturday when two gunfights took place in Pulwama and Sopore resulting in killing of four militants.
The second encounter took place on May 12, again in Shopian district.
In it, two Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) militants were killed in Hend Sitapora village. The slain were identified as Javeed Ahmad Bhat of Redwani, Kulgam and Adil Bashir Wani of Waripora, DH-Pora, Kulgam.
On May 16, two encounters broke out in south Kashmir between the government forces and militants in twin districts of Pulwama and Shopian.
In Pulwama, three Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) militants, an army man and a civilian were killed in a pre-dawn encounter near the district township.
The slain militants were identified as Naseer Ahmad Pandith of Karimabad, Pulwama, Umar Ahmad Mir of Barthipora, Shopian and Khalid, JeM commander, a native of Pakistan.
The deceased civilian was identified as Rayees Ahmad Dar. His elder brother, Mohammad Younis, a businessman by profession received fire arm injuries in the gun-battle.
One of the soldiers, Sepoy Sandeep Kumar injured in the gunfight succumbed to his injuries at Army's 92 base hospital.
In Shopian, two Hizbul Mujahideen militants, a soldier and a civilian were killed in a brief encounter in the orchards of Handew village.
The encounter broke out after a joint search operation was launched by Army, SOG and CRPF at around 04:30 am, following credible inputs about the presence of militants.
The slain militants were later identified as Yawar Munshi of Thokerpora, Shopian and Shakeel Ahmad Dar of Tikroo, Shopian.
The local resident killed in an encounter was identified as Ishtiyaq Ahmad Bhat of Handew.
In the gunfight, an Army man, Sepoy Rohit sustained injuries.
In the wee hours of Saturday, another gunfight broke out in Panzgam area of Awantipora in Pulwama.
In an encounter, three militants of Hizbul Mujahideen identified as Showkat Ahmad Dar of Panzgam, Pulwama, Irfan Ahamd of Sopore and Muzaffar Ahmad of Tahab, Pulwama were killed.
On the same day, a militant was killed in a brief shoot out in north Kashmir's Hatlangoo area in Sopore.
He was identified as Wasim Ahmad Naik of Udipora, Barsoo in Awantipora.
Additional Director General of Police (ADGP), Law and Order, Munir Khan said that precise information was leading to the encounters.
"We have not changed the strategy; we always want zero or minimal damage during the encounters. It is good that if an encounter breaks out in early hours as people as well as police won't face any difficulties," he said.
Srinagar, May 18: There may be a hue and cry over the Sumbal 'rape' case now but a look at the last six years data shows that majority of the rape victims are eventually caught in the rigmarole of long legal battles that take years to reach to a point where the culprits are punished and justice delivered.
Official data until March 2019 shows that 1,046 rape cases in Jammu and Kashmir are under trial with 831 of them pending since at least 2014.
The conviction rate in the last six years, the data shows, is as low as 5%.
Ironically, 822 of these undertrial cases involve victims which are minors.
The year-wise data and pendency, a copy of which is with The Kashmir Monitor, was compiled by the State's Crime Branch.
Data shows that alone in the first three months of 2019, 64 cases of rape were registered in the state of which 33 had minors as victims of the heinous crime.
The year had already begun with a backlog of 198 rape cases under-investigation from 2018 and a long undertrial backlog of 1069 cases that had accumulated during the last at least six years. The figure rose to 1099 as 30 cases from the first three months of this year were sent for trial.
In 46 of these 1099 cases, the accused were acquitted or the case itself discharged, while in seven, the accused were convicted thus leaving a final undertrial figure of 1046 cases.
A look at the year-wise data shows how the crimes against females are now becoming a norm rather than being an exception in J&K, usually viewed through the prism of a morally upright society.
In 2014, 352 cases, 265 of which involved minors, were registered. In years 2015, 16 and 17, the 312 (251 minors), 263 (204 minors), and 314 (213 minors) cases were respectively registered.
The number of rape cases registered during the 2018 was 359 of which 273 had victims as minors.
The horrid picture presented by the data is an alarm bell telling that the state needs some immediate measures to fix this growing menace.
A case in point to understand the long wait for justice is the 2005 rape-and-murder of a six-year-old girl by a 40-year-old man in Srinagar.
The trial went on for 12 years even as the investigation revealed that the man had lured the child, raped her, smothered her to death and then dumped her body in a trench close to her home.
In 2017, the man was sentenced to death. During this period he had enjoyed more the six years of interim bail between August 2010 and November 2017. During these years, the culprit was found regularly absent from the trial. He was finally convicted on the penultimate day of 2017.
But the sentence has not been carried out yet as the death penalty given by the Additional Sessions Judge Srinagar is awaiting the High Court nod.
In other words, justice to the family of the six-year-old has been incomplete for the last 14 years.
Ask the legal experts about the inordinate delay in such sensitive cases and they have the stock answers ready.
"The main reason behind the pending under trial cases of sexual harassment is that Kashmir has a scarcity of judges. There is extremely limited number of judges to deal with such cases," said Mushtaq Ahmad Dar, criminal Lawyer at High Court.
Dar said that a single judge has to see thousands of cases and it is not possible for him to do justice with his job.
"The witnesses are not brought on time. It is being delayed by the prosecution in getting the witnesses. In many cases witnesses do not come forward or are withheld for some vested interest or accused are not brought before the court due to which the matters are delayed," Dar said.
"In Srinagar district, there is currently one judge, special Second Additional Sessions judge who is hearing sexual harassment cases," Dar told The Kashmir Monitor.
