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COVER STORY ► POONCH-RAWALAKOT
BUS SERVICE
A
Journey of Hopes and Dupes
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Sonia
Gandhi, Pranab Mukherji, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Mufti Sayeed while flagging
off the first bus between Poonch-Rawalakot
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June
20 was the gala day for the people of Poonch who had got the opportunity to
meet their departed kith and kin on the other side of the Line of Control,
which sliced their land, their homes and hearths. The Chairperson of the
ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Sonia Gandhi accompanied by the
Defense Minister Pranab Kumar Mukherji flaged off the first Bus from the
Indian post of Chakkan Da Baagh. From here starts the journey to the
land, which had been captured by the Pak raiders during the holocaust of
1947.
It is a sad chapter of the
history when about 50,000 Hindus and Sikhs were attacked in their homes and
subjected to arson, loot and plunder. Thousands were butchered while
thousands ran for their lives and took refuge in Poonch, Jammu and
elsewhere while the Muslim families were divided because of the bloody
Cease Fire Line drawn on January 1, 1949 when the turce became effective
between the Indian and Pak armies. During this period the people had
nothing but the sad memories of their land and the people they left behind.
Late Bachan Singh Panchhi, a veteran politician and the refugee leader told
this scribe during the last days of his life in 1992, that the former
President of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Sardar Abdul Qayyum Khan was a
staunch Gandhian who was serving the Soldier Board near their School. According to Panchhi, Qayyum was
hurt when he came to know that the Dora soldiers had molested his mother
and sister during the raid of their house. ....FULL STORY
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BJP SAVE DODA SAVE NATION
The Saffron Assault
On fateful night of April
29, the militants moved down 37 innocents in two separate incidents at
Basantgrah in Udha-mpur district and Kulhand in Doda district, which
shocked the whole nation. The Chief Minister, Ghulam Nabi Azad air dashed
to the site of the massacre and took corrective measure to restore the
confidence of the people but the situation soon took a stormy turn when the
Bhartya Janata Party (BJP).... MORE
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COLUMN
Pak Defence Budget Widens the Civil-Military Divide
The Pakistan Government has
increased its defence budget from Rs.223.5 billion in 2005-06 to Rs.250
billion in 2006-07. But there is no finality about this allocation. This,
as the tradition goes, is reviewed mid-year and increased by 10 to 12 per
cent. For example, in the outgoing year 2005-06, the military spent more
than Rs.17.5 billion over and above the budgeted... MORE
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NEWS SCAN
Importance of being Mir
Mirs are hot in the news
these days. Hassan Mir for shaking the very foundations of Mufti’s bastion
and Ahmed Mir and Ashraf Mir for painting coal tar on the face of Congress
and police respectively by being named as accused in the notorious flesh
trade racket. However, my topic of discussion right now is PDP and its
rebel leader Ghulam Hassan Mir who claims himself as not only the founder
member of the party, but also as.... MORE
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