A severe cold wave tightened its grip on Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday even as the Met forecast another spell of moderate snowfall beginning late on Wednesday.

Moderate snowfall is likely to occur in plains and higher reaches of the valley tomorrow evening, when the 40-day long period of harsh winter cold ‘Chillai Kalan’ that started on December 21, ends.

Minimum temperature in Srinagar dropped to minus 5.4 degrees Celsius, as Pahalgam and Gulmarg recorded minus 13.7 and minus 12.2 degrees.

Drass in Ladakh recorded minus 30.4 as the minimum temperature while the maximum on Monday was minus 13.7. Leh town was at minus 17.4 and Kargil minus 22.5.

Jammu city was at 4.1, Katra 4.2, Batote minus 1.8, Bannihal 0.6 and Bhaderwah was at minus 5.2 degrees Celsius.(IANS)

Bandipora, Jan 28 : Legend Riders Bandipora a club of bike enthusiasts elected Suhail Rather as its president during the annual general elections conducted on Monday.

He said besides promoting tourism, the club also aims to bring the safe Riding Culture in Kashmir and create awareness among the people to wear a crash helmet while riding a two-wheeler and also to bring the virgin tourist areas on tourist maps.

      A club is a group of young enthusiastic bikers who go on biking expeditions to explore the tourism potential in Bandipora especially the adventure tourism. The Club has organised various Off Road expeditions including a trip to Lolab via Aloosa, Gurez, Uri and Ladakh.

      Speaking on the occasion, newly elected president of the club, Rather said the club will continue to organise bike expeditions to various virgin spots of not only the Bandipora district but will also explore other tourist spots of the Kashmir Valley.

      “We are neglected by the Government and Tourism department despite the presence of  scenic places in the district that can be  an attraction for tourists be it rivers, Lakes, Glaciers, valleys etc,  but a certain lobby is working in a valley that keeps tourists restricted to few identified spots and are not allowed to see other areas. Our expeditions want to put virgin tourist spots on tourism map and to draw the dormant mind of Government towards the unfading beauty of District,” Rather added. (Press Release)

Youth injured after police, forces fire at vehicle jumping naka in Pattan

Suhail Khan

Srinagar, Jan 28 (GNS): One persons suffered injuries after a naka party fired some shots when four persons traveling in a car did not stop despite the signal at Wassun Pattan in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district. 

Reports reaching GNS said that a WagnoR (JK05A-4373) was asked to stop by the naka party of army and police at Wassun. After the car did not stop, the vehicle was given some warning shots, resulting in minor injuries to one person.

The injured has been identified as Mushtaq Ahmad Parray son of Ghulam Mohammad Khaitang, Baramulla. Another person Manzoor Lone son Abdul Karim Lone of Khaitang, Baramulla who was boarding the vehicle fled and is said to have received injuries in his leg but there was no official confirmation.

Following the incident, the naka party detained two persons including the driver. The detained were identified as Mushtaq War son of Bashir war Javid Dar son of Ghulam Rasool of Khanpora.

“There was no militant attack. One car didn’t stop at two Naka points. Some aerial shots were fired. No damage at all,” said police. (GNS)

KD NEWS SERVICE

SRINAGAR, Jan 28: Peoples Conference on Monday said that former chief minister and National Conference vice president Omar Abdullah was the first person from Kashmir to wear ‘RSS knickers’ when he was made a foreign minister of the BJP government at a time when human rights violations were at its peak in Kashmir.

In a statement, the PC spokesperson Adnan Mir said the sole motive of making him a junior foreign minister was to parade him across the world and show a Kashmiri face vouching that no human rights violations were taking place in Kashmir.

 “And now he is the new BJP baiter in town. And he expects to walk off from his past with not even the remotest hint of remorse. Incidentally he walked off from the RSS camp- not because there were human rights violations in Kashmir or that the autonomy resolution was not accepted. He walked off because Papa was not made the vice- president of India by the then BJP government,” he said.

The spokesman said NC seems to have off late donned the ‘defenders of faith’ hat and are busy issuing diktats left and right.

 “May we very humbly remind them that one needs to have a faith in order to defend the faith. In order to become the defender of Islamic faith one needs to strictly adhere to the Islamic tenets. Our humble advice is to not venture too far into the defender of faith space. It will open up a debate which will be very unpleasant for them. They issue diktats, they sing bhajans, they are the Ram Mandir walas. How many hats will they don?” the PC spokesman asked.

The spokesman said NC used Ikhwanis to kill Kashmiris during 1996 to 2002.

 “Why is the NC not owning up its Ikhwan links? Is it not a fact that Farooq Abdullah addressed rallies organized by Ikhwan? Is not a fact that during the NC regime of 1996 to 2002, the Ikhwan was active and killed hundreds of people? Did NC not give mandate to Ikhwanis to fight elections? What was Farooq Abdullah’s role in all this? Are you telling us that he was sitting and did nothing while the Ikhwanis went on a rampage,” he said.

 “Is he not the same person who was posing for photographs with the Ikhwan leaders, attending their rallies? Did he not encourage the “chit system” wherein a name was scribbled on a chit for elimination given to Ikhwan. Not just that, the NC later issued mandates to the same Ikhwanis, made them MLCs. We are ready to debate this with the National Conference; we have all the data. Let the people know what the National Conference has been up to. The records are not a figment of our imagination, it is the truth NC can’t wish away,” he said.

He  said that it was Farooq Abdullah who recommended one of the country’s highest civilian award for a dreaded counter-insurgent (Ikhwani) responsible for hundreds of unimaginable atrocities on hapless, innocent Kashmiris.

 “Ikhwan candidates, Ikhwan MLCs, Ikhwan photo-ops, Ikhwan rallies, Ikhwan killings and yet the NC wants us to believe that they are squeaky clean and got nothing to do with any of it”, he added.