SRINAGAR:  Three militants, belonging to two different outfits, and a CRPF jawan were killed while a jawan was injured in an encounter which ensued in the outskirts of city on Srinagar-Baramulla road on Wednesday.

Special Director General (DG) of CRPF Zulfiqar Hasan said that following specific information about a possible attack in the city, a checkpoint was established at Lawapora, about 12 km from here on  Srinagar-Baramulla road.

“Three motorcycle-borne persons were asked by security forces to stop at the checkpoint,” Mr Hasan told reporters during a press conference here on Wednesday.

He said militant who was sitting at the end of the motorcycle got down and fired at the security forces. “One CRPF jawan, who received a bullet on his head, died on the spot,” he said, adding the deceased jawan has been identified as Ramesh Ranjan.

He said the security forces retaliated, ensuing in a brief exchange of fire. “Two militants were killed on the spot while one was arrested in a critical condition,” he said, adding one CRPF jawan was also injured.     However, sources said that the third militant has also succumbed at the hospital.

The CRPF Special DG said the security force party at the checkpoint showed great courage and averted a major militant attack in Srinagar. “The security personnel will be appropriately awarded,” he added.

The slain militants have been identified as Lashker-e-Toiba (LeT) commander Zia-ul-Rehman from Budgam, Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) militant Khafil from Bijbehara and Faraz Lone of JKIS.

Director General of Police (DGP) Dilbag singh said Rehman was involved in the looting of weapons from the residence of former MLC Muzafar Parray and many cases were registered against him. “Khafil’s brother-in-law was also a militant who was killed in one of the encounters,” he added.

The DGP said two pistols and few grenades were recovered from the slain militants.

Meanwhile, traffic on Srinagar to Baramulla and world famous ski resort of Gulmarg was suspended while vehicles were asked to take alternative route.

‘To Make Provisions Of Appellate Tribunal Benches Applicable To J&K, Ladakh UTs’

BY: Mubashir Aalam Wani

SRINAGAR: The Government of India has proposed amendments in the Central Goods and Services Tax Act (GST) to make provisions for Appellate Tribunal and its benches thereof applicable to Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.

The Finance Bill-2020 tabled by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the Lok Sabha seeks the provisions for Appellate Tribunal and its benches thereof applicable in the Union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.

“Clause 123 of the Bill seeks to amend sub-section (6) of section 109 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act so as to make the provisions for Appellate Tribunal and its benches thereof applicable in the Union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh,” reveals the bill.

The amendment has been moved to undo the changes made in CGST law in 2017 by the Parliament. Under the 2017 law, the state bench of the Goods and Services Tax Appellate Tribunal constituted under CSGT Act shall be the State Appellate Tribunal constituted under the Jammu and Kashmir Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017. As per KNO, the bill also seeks amendment in the Union Territory Goods and Services Tax Act to make the law applicable to Union Territory of Ladakh.

“Clause134 of the Bill seeks to amend section 1 of the Union Territory Goods and Services Tax Act so as to give effect to the change in the status of Union territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Union territory of Daman and Diu and to make the said Act applicable to the Union territory of Ladakh,” the bill states.

It is worthwhile to mention that here UTs with legislature have their own SGST law while those without legislature come under UTGST.

NEW DELHI: The government has briefed the international community on the abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir and the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, with countries showing understanding of India’s position, the Lok Sabha was informed on Wednesday.

In a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha, Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan said as a result of the government’s outreach, countries have also called on Pakistan to not allow its territories to be used for terrorism in any manner.

The government has briefed the members of the international community on the facts relating to Jammu and Kashmir and also shared perspectives on the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), 2019, Muraleedharan said.

“As a result of the government’s efforts, countries have shown understanding that matters related to Jammu & Kashmir, which is an integral part of India, are internal to India, and that Pakistan sponsored cross-border terrorism has been posing a grave threat and affecting the lives of the people of India, including in Jammu & Kashmir,” he said.

There is also appreciation of the Indian position that the CAA is an affirmative action meant to address the long standing predicament of the vulnerable sections living in India, and that it does not impact in any manner the status of any citizen or deprive any Indian of any faith of her or his citizenship, the minister said.

These countries have expressed faith that Indian democratic practices and institutions are equipped to deal with issues that may arise in implementation of the decisions taken by the Indian Parliament, he said.

Muraleedhran also hit out at the spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights for his remarks on the CAA, saying the comments were “inaccurate and unwarranted”.

The United Nations’ human rights body had voiced concern over India’s new citizenship law, terming it “fundamentally discriminatory” in nature.

“The government immediately registered its protest with the office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and clearly conveyed that the legislation is a humanitarian measure and is in line with India’s international human rights obligations,” Muraleedharan said.

He said the government completely and unequivocally rejected any efforts to internationalize the issues which are internal to India, in particular on laws passed by Parliament of a sovereign nation.

The government has also taken note of some statements made by China, Malaysia and Turkey on the issue of Jammu & Kashmir and conveyed that India expects these countries to not comment on the internal affairs of India, he said.

The countries have been asked to respect India’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and develop a proper understanding of the issue, he said.

Responding to another question on the impact of the Article 370 abrogation on Indo-US ties, Muraleedharan said matters related to the Constitution of India are sovereign in nature, and do not concern other countries or international organizations.

The government has pro-actively briefed members of the international community, including interlocutors in the US, regarding the rationale behind the abrogation of Article 370 and the normalisation of the situation in the Union Territory of J&K, he said.

The US government has shown understanding regarding the security challenges in the Union Territory and, from time to time, has acknowledged the steps taken to restore normalcy, he said.

BY: ABID BASHIR

SRINAGAR: Threat is looming large in Jammu and Kashmir even as no specialized ‘negative- pressure’ isolation wards (airborne infection isolation wards) and medical kits have been made available in the valley despite World Health Organization (WHO) declaring China’s Coronavirus outbreak as an international emergency.

The Divisional Administration has asked district authorities to press surveillance teams on 24X7 jobs to keep a close watch on Coronavirus disease. Divisional Commissioner Kashmir, Baseer Ahmad Khan on February 2 said multi-pronged strategy, including deployment of screening teams with doctors at block level, besides roping in ASHA workers, should be adopted.

The death toll from coronavirus outbreak has continued to climb in China, rising to 490 with new cases surging by double-digit percentages in the past 11 days, with no sign of a slowdown. So far, 24,324 people are known to have been infected by the virus in China.

“No specialized training has been given to doctors or paramedical staff to handle the patients or take samples if the virus manages to sneak into the newly created Union Territory (UT),” experts told UNI.

They said the initial symptoms in the patients are fever followed by cough, but running nose, sour throat was missing in them. “Upper respiratory symptoms were missing in them. In severe cases, they have difficulty in breathing and complication is pneumonia and Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS)… they die because of that,” they said.

As many as 11 Kashmiris, mostly students, who have a travel history of China, have so far not shown any signs of Coronavirus infection though they have been placed under observation at their respective residences in the valley.

However, experts claim that keeping suspected people under observation at their residences was putting other family members and people, who come in their contact, at risk. They further said that there were reports of asymptomatic carriers of the virus, who show no symptoms but can infect other vulnerable people.

“Suspected case is anyone who comes from the affected area, be it China or other countries which has reported Coronavirus cases. If someone comes from these countries he or she is also a suspected case. Suspected person is anyone who has been around a confirmed case or a suspected case. Now, if people have come from China and we are around them, we are also suspected cases even if they are not symptomatic,” they said.

A UNI reporter, who visited hospitals were isolation wards have been designated by the authorities in the city, including SHMS and SKIMS, saw normal rooms (wards) for such patients. They are not ‘negative-pressure’ isolation wards or airborne infection isolation wards hence lack the capacity to curtail the virus if it sneaks into the UT.

Experts said that there were some cases, who were positive, but had no symptoms. “So, we might have asymptomatic people and they may come into community and give it to the vulnerable lot,” they added.

They believe that Coronavirus is going to be pandemic. “It is a droplet infection, it transmits by coughing and sneezing. So virus will be in the air. Human to human transmission is happening through droplets and it is spreading to other countries, so it will be pandemic. We can’t stop it,” they said, adding ‘we can prepare for it’.

“41 initial cases, which were studied in Wuhan, are nothing to gage the disease … but around one-third deaths were of those who had some underline medical condition or hypertension or cardiovascular disease and they were elderly. That means they were possibly vulnerable… but 41-case study is nothing, but we are learning about the disease,” they said.

Experts said that they are not sure for how much time the virus remain in the air. “We know that the period of infectivity is 14 days. But we don’t know for how much time it remains on the surfaces. If somebody coughs it on the surface, be it table, knob of a door, or his hand and then touches the surface it remains there. Then if a uninfected person touches it, he will be infected,” they claimed.

“Once a new virus comes, we do not know anything about it. How it will behave in a human body. Even symptoms… studies so far say it has flue like symptoms… there are fever and cough but there is no running nose. There are some upper respiratory symptoms for flue like sour throat, but it was not found in Coronavirus infected patients. We just found fever and cough. Even some of the flue patients have intestinal symptoms, but during study of Coronavirus patients it was missing in China. So there are some dissimilarity between flue and Coronavirus.

Every fever or cough is not Coronavirus, there is confounding things between different viruses which attack people, particularly during winter… not only flue, but other respiratory viruses which have similar symptoms,” they said.

They said there are two way to fight it. “One is to stop the virus from entering your region or country or state, which is very difficult and the other is curtail it if it manages to sneak in.

“You can’t check only the airport, because people also commute through train and surface transport. We are not checking at Lower Munda or train stations. There is every possibility that virus could sneak in. In the airport also there are no thermo graphic devices so infection can sneak in. So the virus can come anytime,” they said.

They said it is not possible to stop it from entering a region as there are reports of asymptomatic carriers of the virus. “How can you check it? At the airport only temperature of suspected people is checked. So, it is inevitable that the virus will come,” they added.

So, the experts said that the administration needs to take measures to curtail it. “If there is a virus in the community, we have to contain it. The three isolation wards setup by administration in Srinagar are not equipped. The isolation wards have to be negative pressure isolation wards. Suppose you put an infected patient in the ward, if there is no negative pressure the air will go to the other wards,” they said.

“The negative pressure of the room would prevent contaminated air from escaping the room. These rooms should have dedicated ventilators and they should be fitted with HEPA filters that would reduce the risk of transmission of the virus,” they said

They said that the rooms should have separate entrance so that infected patients don’t risk other patients and staff in the hospital. “They (isolation wards) have to be specially designed,” they said.

Government Medical Colleges (GMC), Srinagar has set up 26 beds, S K Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) 25 in Srinagar district. Directorate of Health Services Kashmir (DHSK) has kept 52 beds available across Kashmir Division with Isolation wards and ventilators in each hospital and Public Health Centres (PHCs).

Besides, VTM kits, personal protection gears and dedicated staff of Microbiologist have also been kept in ready mode. The GMC has stored 11,500 triple layer, 7000 N-95 masks while as SKIMS has stored 10,000 N-95. Moreover, 2 lkh triple layer masks will reach valley within a day.

Mr Khan asked the concerned to maintain a travel inventory of students, businessmen and traders in each district, from December 01, 2019 who have been travelling to China and other reportedly infected countries.

He said printing pamphlets regarding do’s and don’ts of Corona Virus disease in Urdu, Kashmiri and English languages should be distributed in these areas, at Airport, Railway Stations, different locations on National Highway and other congested places. He asked the concerned to ply announcement vehicles on highways on daily basis.

“Bio-medical and other wastes related to patients, if any, kept in isolation wards be lifted separately and disposed-off by incinerating as per the advisory of Health & Medical Education department besides, setting up adequate beds at PCR hospital and other district police hospitals with all facilities,” he further added.

NEW DELHI: A total of 389 people are currently in detention under the Public Safety Act (PSA) in Jammu and Kashmir, the Rajya Sabha was informed on Wednesday.

Union Minister of State for Home G Kishan Reddy said detention orders has been issued against 444 people under the JK Public Safety Act since August 2019 when Article 370 was abrogated.

At present, 389 people are in detention under the PSA, he said in reply to a written question.

Regular reviews are undertaken on a case-by-case basis and accordingly, extension in detention or revocation is made based on reports of field agencies and the ground situation.