Chennai: Describing the Public Safety Act as draconian, the DMK on Saturday slammed the Centre for extending the detention of Kashmiri leaders, including former chief ministers Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti, and demanded their immediate release.

The Centre had booked the two former chief ministers under the stringent Act on February 6, barely hours before their six-month-long “preventive detention” was to end.

Hitting out at the centre, the main opposition in Tamil Nadu alleged the PSA was draconian and condemned their further detention.

Alleging that such draconian laws could be implemented in any State and against any leader, DMK president M K Stalin said such a scenario was not appropriate for both the country and Centre-State relations.

Agenices

JAMMU: To counter militant attacks, Jammu and Kashmir Police have constituted “Special 22” member team of commandos named as ‘Crisis Response Team’ on the pattern of Para Commandos of Indian Army.

“To deal with militant activities, “Special 22″ commandos team of Jammu Police has been set up named as ‘Crisis Response Team’ and they are laced with hi-tech gadgets and refined weaponry,”  sources here told UNI.

They further said that the team takes 4 to 5 minutes to deal with the situation, adding, “in January 13 Nagrota encounter, not only Jammu Police, Army and Paramilitary Forces eliminated the three Pakistani origin Jaish-e-Mohammad militants but also arrested three terrorists and the commandos of ‘Crisis Response Team ‘ equally contributed their role in the operation.”

“With the help of modern weapons and drones, it is with restraint and bravery towards the enemy’s base, these 22 police commandos of Jammu Police have been made part of the recently formed Crisis Response Team,” sources said.

They further added that till now, Special Operations Group commandos used to be involved in fighting terror in Jammu and Kashmir, but in view of many other responsibilities including law and order, narcotics, cyber-crime, ‘Crisis Response Team’ has been formed, which will be exclusively fighting against terrorism.”

“Police have included 22 such youths into the team, who are focused only on their training. These commandos are not involved into normal policing and they spend most of their time in training. Keeping in mind the geographical conditions of Jammu and Kashmir, the training of these commandos has been specially designed,” sources added.

They said that the training preferably includes forest and general search operation, for which they are also trained to run many modern equipment including drones.

“Along with search operations, the team of 22 commandos have also been given training in Jungle Warfare,” sources said and added that along with this, they have also been equipped with many modern tools to prevent the natural factors such as inclement weather, darkness, climatic conditions or fog, so that they do not face any hindrance at the time of combat operations.”

“One can imagine that these commandos are so focused and sharp that they take just five minutes of time to get ready and try for any counter insurgency operation,” sources added and said, “in recent militant attacks in Jammu and Kashmir, most of the terrorists were hiding in residential house or buildings but these commandos of the ‘Crisis Response Team’ have also been mastered and trained to conduct operations in such situations and free any hostages from the clutches of the terrorists.”

Sources also added that the commandos have also been trained of scanning across the walls with the help of special cameras used in combat operations while Jammu and Kashmir Police is also training them to catch terrorists alive during an operation.

“The commandos can also appeal to the terrorists to surrender through the speakers installed in the drones and hi-tech gadgets they are handling,” sources added.

SRINAGAR: Terming the decision of the abolition of the Jammu and Kashmir cadre of Civil Services as unwarranted and arbitrary, former finance minister of the Union Territory Syed Mohammad Altaf Bukhari on Friday demanded that the decision be rolled back in view of the promise to restore the statehood made by the Prime Minister on the floor of Parliament.

Bukhari also expressed strong reservations on doing away with five-year age relaxation granted to Jammu and Kashmir youth in the Civil Services examinations.

“The decision of abolition of J&K cadre and doing away with the five-year age relaxation are capricious and have come as a shocker to the people of Jammu and Kashmir, especially its aspirants for the Civil Services career,” Bukhari remarked.

The former finance minister observed that these decisions were confusing and make no sense because at the time of temporary conversion of J&K from State to Union Territory, the Central Government had assured that there will be no fiddling with the cadre.

“These decisions seem to have been taken without proper application of mind. Not only the sanctity of the caderisation of the Civil Services has been put to a question mark but the decision to abolish J&K cadre will be a strong factor for demotivation of the J&K youth who aspire to join the prestigious civil services in the country,” he opined.

Bukhari observed that the five-year age relaxation was granted by the Centre to J&K civil service aspirants because of topography, inclement climatic conditions and the hostile security scenario in the Kashmir Valley.

“However, the contenders from all the regions of Jammu and Kashmir were equally benefitted by this special provision of age relaxation. Doing away with this advantage has not only brought cynicism among them but has also disillusioned thousands of J&K students who have gone outside the state for coaching, thereby wasting their precious time and resources,” he added.

The former finance minister demanded immediate review of these decisions in the larger interest of the people of the Union territory, especially its huge number of qualified, unemployed youth.

“The status of Jammu and Kashmir may have changed from a State to Union territory, but unfortunately there is no marked change on the ground situation so far. These hostile decisions are bound to alienate our aspiring youth further,” Bukhari observed, while appealing Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister to intervene into the matter and ask the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) to revoke its decisions without any delay.

He said that the civil service aspirants of Jammu and Kashmir appear in the examination conducted through UPSC after facing tremendous hardships including inclement weather, intimidating security situation and frequent internet shutdowns. “Our youth have always braved all odds with a hope that they will get a chance to prove their mettle in the prestigious civil service examinations. That hope, trust and confidence of our students need to be restored by the leadership of our country,” he said. (KNT)

SRINAGAR: With the coronavirus scare gripping the world, panicky people in Kashmir valley are knocking on the doors of pharmacists seeking to buy masks to prevent being infected.

Though no positive cases of coronavirus infection have been seen in Jammu and Kashmir, chemists confirmed the surge in sale of masks.

It may be recalled that the guidelines issued by the Jammu Kashmir Health department in its advisories, mention the usage of handkerchiefs to maintain cough hygiene. As per media reports, in Singapore, which has reported three confirmed cases of coronavirus so far, the government has decided to issue four masks to every family.

Imtiyaz Ahmad, retailer of a local pharmacy store in uptown Bemina area of Srinagar, said the sale of masks in his shop has gone up due to the panic surrounding coronavirus. “Not everyone who buys a mask may be using it the right way. People are just buying masks and keeping them. This is panic buying, which was seen earlier during outbreak of swine flu,” he said.

He added that a month ago he was selling not more than 10-20 masks a day, and over the past three or four days, the number has crossed 100-150.

Masks are available from Rs 20 to Rs 100 a piece. Some people complained that the price has doubled for clinical masks. “What was sold at Rs 20 now costs for Rs 50 owing to shortage,” he said.

According to doctors, wearing a mask is only one of the precautions to prevent infections. “Importance should also be given to other preventive aspects like washing hands, keeping distance from an infected person and maintaining cough hygiene,” he said.

The swine flu scare that had gripped Kashmir some five years before had led to brisk sales of masks. However, this time in the case of coronavirus, doctors said the masks offer little protection.

“I have sold 300 masks in 10 days. This week I am planning to order a fresh consignment from outside. This year their demand is pretty higher,” said Peer Amjad, a pharmacist in Batmaloo.

He further said: “Mostly tuition going children, bikers, senior citizens and patients with bronchial and respiratory problems are buying them. With different medical advisories doing rounds on internet, the masks are selling out fast.”

China’s coronavirus outbreak, which began in December 2019, has reportedly now spread to 14 countries. The World Health Organisation (WHO), has also declared it public health emergency.

Doctors had stated that the threat cannot be ruled out in the valley because of tourist inflow in valley and also many of Indian students studying in China and their movement from China to India may bring the infection here. Chances cannot be ruled out that someone has already brought the infection to Indian state Kerala.

As per reports, the first confirmed case of novel coronavirus was found in Thrissur district of Kerala. The patient is a student studying in Wuhan University, China and had recently returned to India.

On Thursday Union Health Ministry confirmed that all 645 Indian evacuees from Wuhan China have tested negative.

As per report, health officials in China declared that 563 people had died from the virus, up from nearly 500 people the day before, and that 28,018 cases had been confirmed. On Monday, the number of confirmed cases was put at 20,438, meaning the number increased more than 35 percent in just a few days.

SRINAGAR: There was considerable improvement in the weather condition during the day as bright sunshine greeted people in the afternoon though ice cold winds continued in Kashmir valley, where fresh spell of snow would occur for two days next week.

Barring world famous ski resort of Gulmarg and health resort of Pahalgam, the night temperature improved across the valley and settled above normal.

Meanwhile, there was no respite from chilly weather conditions in Ladakh, where all water-bodies — including lakes and streams — remained frozen due to several degrees’ below freezing point temperature. The people in the newly created Union Territory (UT) of Ladakh are mostly dependent on hot water springs during winter. The border town of Drass was the coldest place in the region at minus 26.4 degree, followed by Kargil, where the mercury settled at minus 19.4 degree.

A Met department spokesperson told UNI that weather is expected to remain dry till February 11 in the valley, which could result in further improvement in the maximum temperature though mercury during the night would dip due to open skies.

However, he said a fresh Western Disturbance (WD), which originated from the Arabian Sea and is approaching the region though Afghanistan and Pakistan, will hit J&K on February 11. “Under the influence of this WD, light to moderate snow could occur at some places in J&K on February 11 and February 12,” he added.

After witnessing some improvement in the night temperature, people woke up to a chilly Friday morning in the summer capital, Srinagar. However, as the day progressed sun came out from behind the clouds, resulting in major improvement in the day temperature though ice cold winds continued. Against minus 3.2 degree recorded on Thursday, the mercury in Srinagar improved and settled at minus 2.7 degree, which is considered normal during this time of the year.

The spokesperson said the maximum temperature in the city was normal at 9.3 degree on Thursday while the mercury will remain around the same mark on Friday due to sunshine.

The night temperature at Pahalgam, which received fresh snowfall during the last 24 hours, dipped about 3 degree from Thursday and settled at minus 10.5 degree.

Gulmarg, about 55 km from here in north Kashmir, also witnessed a dipped in the night temperature, which settled at minus 10.2 degree, against minus 9 degree recorded on Thursday. “The weather witnessed improvement as sun came out from behind the clouds on Friday afternoon in Gulmarg, which is famous for its ski slopes and quality of snow. Tourists, including foreigners, were out on ski slopes enjoying different activities,” a hotelier said.

The mercury during the night at Qazigund, Kupwara in north Kashmir and tourist resort of Kokernag improved and settled at minus 2.2 degree, minus 4 degree and minus 2.1 degree, respectively.