Opposition unites to grill Govt on massacre

Determined to put the Government on the mat over its failure to contain recurring militant strikes in J-K, a unified Opposition today succee...

Determined to put the Government on the mat over its failure to contain recurring militant strikes in J-K, a unified Opposition today succeeded in getting an adjournment motion on the issue accepted in the Lok Sabha. This means that Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani, who was earlier slated to give a statement on Jammu killings tomorrow, will now have to respond to a bigger, day-long debate in the Lower House.

But it was not without some arm-twisting that the Government agreed to accept the motion. During a meeting held earlier in the day by Speaker Manohar Joshi, leaders from various parties, including the Congress, the Left and the RJD, emphasised that unless their motion was accepted they would not allow Advani to make his statement.

The stand taken by Congress’ Priya Ranjan Das Munshi, RJD’s Raghuvansh Prasad Singh and CPI(M)’s Somnath Chatterjee, among others, was that despite the Government having passed several resolutions in Parliament to put an an end to militancy in J-K, the ground situation remained unchanged.

LeT denies involvement in killing

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SRINAGAR: Pak-based militant outfit Lashker-e-Toiba on Monday denied its involvement in the Qasim Nagar massacre near Jammu on Saturday. LeT spokesman Abu Huzaifa told a local news agency here that J-K DGP A.K. Suri’s statement about the outfit’s involvement in the massacre was ‘‘baseless and concocted’’. He also called the massacre a ‘‘condemnable act.’’ (PTI)

Massacre setback to Indo-Pak
relations, says Yashwant Sinha

NEW DELHI: External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha has said that the terrorist attack near Jammu has dealt a blow to normalisation of relations between India and Pakistan. ‘‘Qasim Nagar carnage is a setback to normalisation of relations between the two countries,’’ he told a news channel in its programme to be telecast on Wednesday. He also said that the process of appointing a high commissioner to Pakistan has been slowed down because of lack of positive reaction to India’s move in this regard from Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf. (PTI)

The Congress was earlier contemplating to bring an adjournment motion on Government’s failure to provide rehabilitation to the victims of Gujarat riots. But later, after consulting other parties, it decided to zero in on J-K, it is learnt.

‘‘‘The Speaker and the Government have accepted the Opposition’s adjournment motion in Lok Sabha on the situation in J-K. The motion will be moved tomorrow,’’ Chatterjee said. However, the Opposition is yet to chalk out its strategy in the Rajya Sabha, where the Home Minister is scheduled to give a statement. The Opposition members of the Upper House will be holding a meeting at 9.30 in the morning. ‘‘In the morning meeting, we will decided our course of action,’’ RSP member Abani Roy said.

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Lashing out at the Government’s failure on J-K front, Congress spokesman Anand Sharma said it was a matter of concern that militants had struck after carrying out Kaluchak massacre. ‘‘Our president Sonia Gandhi has given the party’s full support to the Government to tackle the militancy. Obviously, it has failed in its task,’’ he said.

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