Friday, January 18, 2008

Bribe,Murder & Militants-Congress Chief of J&K(Peerzada Mohammed Sayeed)

Who's this Dr Tabbasum?
From Ahmed Ali Fayyaz (Daily Excelsior)
SRINAGAR, Jan 17: Immediately after the Independent MLA Shoaib Lone took objection to the arrest of driver Altaf Noorani and alleged that the bribe of Rs 40,000 had been actually demanded and received by the Education Minister Peerzada Mohammad Sayeed's wife on June 22, 2007, Police and intelligence agencies have begun to delve deep into the accused woman's background.

According to official sources, Police agencies have learned that Peerzada Sayeed had married the wife of a slain militant within a year of the death of his first wife in 1998-99. He had no issue from his first wife who belonged to his Kokernag locality in Anantnag district. Tabbasum happens to be the daughter of one-time JKPCC Secretary Abdul Aziz Tourist who had in his lifetime managed to get her a special seat for MBBS course with the help of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1983-84.

After getting the job of an assistant surgeon in J&K Health Department, she developed good relations with the seniormost JKLF militant commanders in 1989-90. It was in the first year of insurgency in J&K that Dr Tabbasum married senior JKLF commander Pervez Billa, who lived in Chhattabal locality of Srinagar. While she became the mother of a male child, Pervez was captured and killed by militants of Hizbul Mujahideen on the allegation of having killed the outfit's "Intelligence Chief" Mamoon Rasheed as also the father of another top functionary of the organisation, namely Firdaus Kirmani, both residents of Chhattabal area.

Tabbasum's son from her militant husband, who is now 17-year-old, has been living with her and Peerzada after she married him in 1999. Later, she also became the mother of a male child from Peerzada. Four years back, she has been posted in Kashmir chapter of Red Cross, though officials have learned that she has never been on duty during this period. They say that she had been recommended for a course in anaesthesia but due to her preoccupation with the husband Minister's work, she refused to undertake the training. They have also learned that she had been taking keen interest in the Minister's official files and his public relations.

After his dismissal from service and admission into PDP, a former Director of Rural Development Department is said to be targeting the Minister's wife than the Minister for the corruption in which Peerzada was "neckdeep" according to former Chairman of J&K State Accountability Commission Justice R P Sethi. SAC has, later, absolved Peerzada of the charges levelled against him in Panchayat Ghar Electrification Scam.

Even when Peerzada was a Minister and he failed to stop a Srinagar newspaper's tirade against him in 2004, many people here believed that editor of the Urdu daily was kidnapped and silenced by activists of a separatist group on the instigation of his wife.

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Kashmiri Pandits protest against Amnesty International


A worldwide initiative of the Kashmiri Pandit youth "Roots In Kashmir" protested against the international human rights group Amnesty International on the occasion of 60th anniversary of Universal Declaration of Human Rights on Sunday.

The group accused Amnesty of being biased in their human rights reports in the last two decades on the issue of Kashmir and Kashmiri Pandits.

"It has just failed to come to our rescue; Amnesty has failed to rise to the occasion wherein it could have played a greater role in raising the issues connected with the Kashmiri Pandit exodus," said a group member.

To escape persecution, more than 500,000 Kashmiri Pandits had to leave their home and hearths back in the Valley of which more than 50,000 refugees are still languishing in uninhabitable refugee camps in Jammu and Delhi.

"A blind attitude towards the ethnic cleansing and genocide of the Pandit community speaks volumes of the discrimination against the Kashmiris," the group further said. The group further asks the Amnesty International to send its representatives to the Kashmiri Pandit camps in Jammu and conduct an on ground survey and a report on the present situation. They claimed Amnesty should also extend the same privileges to Kashmiri Pandits; as they do to other Internally Displaced People across the globe.




The Hindustan Times





The Asian Age



The Hindu










State Times





Rashtriya Sahara



News also appeared at the following links:






5. AOL News





10. Kashmir News Service



13. Congoo


15. Inform