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| Some Doda Congress leaders complain of inadequate security, camp in Jammu | | In teeth-chattering cold, Niaz had spent night on tree to save himself from militants | | BHARAT BHUSHAN
EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Jan 27: In the bone-chilling cold when people of Changa in Bhalessa, Doda, used quilts and heating gadgets to keep themselves warm, Mohammad Sharief Niaz spent night on a tree to save himself from militants.
A veteran Congress leader and MLA, he kept Congress alive in the erstwhile Doda district when militancy was at its peak there. Despite militant threats, he even toured remote and hilly Doda areas to keep the morale of his party workers high.In the winter of 1992, 10 odd militants forced their entry into his house at Changa by breaking the doors open. While they searched for him in other rooms and manhandled family members, he got an opportunity to escape from a kitchen window that opened in a field and spent the night on a tree in the teeth-chattering cold.
He survived the cold and got down from the tree when the militants left after spending few hours in the house. In the 1993 winter, when militants stopped buses and cabs in his search on Bhalessa road, he had clandestinely alighted from a Tata Sumo and taken the hilly Chamba route on foot to reach Jammu.
A former power minister, Niaz now frets over the way he and his party workers were being forced to live in Bhaderwah without an adequate security cover. When contacted, he said though he and several other Bhaderwah-based Congress leaders faced militant threats, they did not have proper security cover. Niaz said four of the cops, who guarded his Changa house, had been withdrawn recently. Militants could take an advantage of it and make a strike, he feared.
Some other Congress leaders also complained of withdrawal of their PSOs and guards at houses. They were temporarily camping in the winter capital in view of the alleged inadequate security to them.
Haji Shahdin, Congress senior vice-president for Bhalessa, said of the six cops, who guarded his house against militants, four had been withdrawn.
"One of my two PSOs has also been taken back," he added. Shahdin, a resident of Chilli, said since two guards and one PSO were not enough to protect him from militants, he had shifted to Jammu. Congress secretary, Bhalessa, Hukum Chand Magotra was given an escort vehicle by the government as he faced a severe threat to his life. He owns a house in the far-flung Kota Khrangal village of Bhalessa. Of the six cops, who protected him and his family, only two were left now. Four cops from the escort vehicle and a PSO were also taken back, he said. He too was camping in Jammu for the past few days. He said with inadequate security, he could be targetted by militants in his village anytime.
All PSOs of another Congress leader Shabir Khan of Gatha, Bhaderwah, who was given a bullet-proof car, had been taken back. Krishan Chand Sapolia's two PSOs had also been withdrawn. In 1990, his PSOs shot dead a militant, who had attacked him at Halod. The Haji and other Congress leaders too had been attacked by militants from time to time. Cases in this connection stand registered at different police stations in Doda.
Niaz emphasised the need for a probe into the alleged withdrawal of PSOs of Congress leaders in Doda. All of them had kept the political activity alive in the erstwhile Doda district when "others" had fled to safer places, he added.
The concerned DIG of police could not be contacted for comments despite repeated attempts. |
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