Kathua rape-murder...Bar Council as well as Kathua Bar Council for appearing before the Supreme Court on April 19.The Bar Association of Kathua has already retracted from its earlier statement of providing legal

assistance free of cost to the accused and said after going through the charge sheet presented by thecrime branch (against the accused in the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate on April 9) it is revealedthat the allegations against the accused persons are very grave and as such this case is to be dealtwith in a professional way. "As such, we have withdrawn our offer to contest the case free of cost.Accused are free to engage any individual advocate and exercise their respective rights of defence inthe court. It is for any individual advocate to accept the brief and the bar association will not comein the way of defence nor the bar association will hamper the prosecution," President of BAK KirtyBhushan Mahajan had said in a seven page statement on Saturday.

Members of the same association had blocked the way of crime branch personnel from submittingthe charge sheet before the chief judicial magistrate for six hours forcing the police to present it atthe house of the magistrate.

Police have already registered a case against lawyers for obstructing public servants from perform-ing their duty.

The Jammu Bar association, which was left red-faced after the Supreme Court's observation,attempted to put a brave face saying they had full faith in the apex court and said their maindemand was for shifting of illegally settled Rohingyas.

It denounced the attempts made by certain quarters for making wrongful attempts to project theassociation as "pro-rapist" or "anti-national".

The association today fielded a senior woman advocate Surinder Kour who said "we are now sat-isfied that the case has reached the Supreme Court and we are satisfied that justice will be deliveredto the minor girl." JHCBA is on strike since April 4 and sponsored a general strike on April 11 inJammu to press for its demands including for according district status to Nowshera sub division inRajouri district. "We included the demand for CBI probe into the Kathua rape and murder at therequest of civil society," Kour said and accused the state government of forcing them into agitationby "giving no response to our concerns despite repeated memorandums and statements."

Alleged conspirator's family...hospitalised in past 15 days. "My father (Sanji Ram) and brother (Vishal) should be hanged to

death if they are found guilty, provided the investigation is conducted by a credible agency. We wantjustice for the girl by a probe through credible agency and only such probe can ensure our father'sand brother's innocence," one of Ram's daughters said.

"Media should have heard us, our side and our fears on the probe by the Crime Branch. Wantinga CBI probe to give justice to 8-year girl, meant to media that we were shielding culprits or creat-ing hurdle in the probe. It was wrong. We always batted for justice for the girl," she said.

She expressed doubt about the credibility of the probe by the Crime Branch."Being a girl, I am pained over the treatment meted out to the victim but I am doubtful over the

probe being conducted by the Crime Branch," she said."We have doubts over the investigation and there are reasons for it. We strongly demand a CBI

inquiry to ensure justice to the victim as well as the local people," she added.Her younger sister also questioned the Crime Branch's investigation asking how a father could call

his son for raping a minor girl -- as claimed in the chargesheet."Can you imagine what this (statement in charge-sheet of Crime Branch) means? It is shameful

that someone says an old man called his young son from his college in UP to rape a little girl," shesaid.

The issue was being politicised, she said, and claimed that their voice had been muzzled in politi-cal war.

The family said that the chargesheet had not only given bad name to the hamlet but also "discred-ited" all the Dogras of the area.

CM accepts, forwards ...the State and the rest of the country "together"She said a sense of justice had been reinforced in the State and urged "New Delhi to wake up to

the Kashmir cauldron"Both the alliance partners -- the BJP and the PDP -- had separate legislature party meetings in

Srinagar and Jammu on Saturday to discuss the situation arising out of polarisation in the stateover the rape-cum-murder of the girl.

SAC grills Govt ...the Government were not based on the actual physical verification of the work done under these

schemes.SAC directed to furnish the record of the surveys conducted to identify beneficiaries under these

schemes; details of the amount spent under each scheme identifying the beneficiaries and the loca-tions; proof of the Job Cards supplied and the amount transferred to the beneficiaries' BankAccounts under each scheme; proof of the demand made under MGNREGA scheme by the benefi-ciaries from different areas of the State; whether any supervisory/monitoring mechanism was set upby the Rural Development Department to conduct any physical verification of the works under theseschemes, if so, the particulars of such supervisory body be provided; list of the Ombudsman appoint-ed in 22 districts with all their particulars to enable this Commission to summon them and obtainrecord and information on the physical execution of the various works under these schemes anddetails of the Social Audit Unit and its reports along with the personnel comprising such SocialAudit Unit within four weeks. The Commission also required the Govt to set up a supervisory mech-anism of its own to report progress of the execution of works on weekly/monthly basis. In case ofdefault, the Commission declared to direct setting up of such invigilatory mechanism by expertsdrawn from different fields who would report to the Commission every month.

Earlier, Additional Secretary Rural Development Department, Rakesh Kumar made a presenta-tion before the Commission claiming that three Districts of Leh, Kargil and Srinagar and 34 Blocks,284 Gram Panchayats and 418 Villages have been already declared ODF (open defecation free). Hegave resume of all six Centrally Sponsored Schemes and stated that Rs 123 crore were allocated forPradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana (Gramin) Scheme for 2017-18, Rs 165 crore for Swachh BharatMission and Rs 44 crore for National Rural Livelihood Mission.

BCI’s five-member...submit its report before the Apex Court."Since the case is fixed on April 19 and the team is going on April 20, we will seek two or three

days adjournment in the Supreme Court," Mishra said.The minor victim had disappeared from near her home in a village near Kathua in Jammu and

Kashmir on January 10. Her body was found in the same area a week later.The Crime Branch of J-K Police, which probed the case, filed a main charge sheet against seven

persons and a separate charge sheet against a juvenile in a Court in Kathua District earlier thisweek.

Farooq wants Bill ...The NC president said the PDP-BJP government should call a special session of the State

Legislature to pass the Bill which would act as a deterrent against such crimes.Let the government call a special session of the Assembly just for this thing. When the special ses-

sion of the Assembly is called and this Bill is passed, it will be a great thing for the future and suchcrimes will not take place," Abdullah said.

Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti has also said her government would bring a new law to make deathpenalty mandatory for those who rape minors.

"We will never ever let another child suffer in this way. We will bring a new law that will make thedeath penalty mandatory for those who rape minors," Mehbooba said in a tweet on April 12.

JHCBA welcomes SC...the Supreme court will help defuse the crisis since it is the history of the court that whenever there

is a crisis, its intervention helped in defusing the crisis, she said.Basotra said the association had not yet received the Supreme Court notice.We have come to know about the notice sent to the association through media reports. We have

not received the notice till date and once it is received, the general house of the Bar which is sched-uled to meet on April 17 will discuss and deliberate on it, he said.

Earlier, taking strong note of some lawyers obstructing the judicial process in the Kathua gan-

grape and murder case, the Supreme Court had initiated a case on its own record saying suchimpediment "affects the dispensation of justice and would amount to obstruction of access to jus-tice".

Kour, however, expressed surprise over what she called the projection of the bar association as pro-rapist and anti-national and said instead of projecting our main demand of deportation of illegallysettled Rohingyas and clarity on the stand of the government on Tribal Affairs, the focus had been

shifted to Kathua rape and murder case .JHCBA is on strike since April 4 and sponsored a general strike on April 11 in Jammu to press

for its demands including for according district status to Nowshera sub division in Rajouri district."We included the demand for CBI probe into the Kathua rape and murder at the request of civil

society, Kour said and accused the state government of forcing them into agitation by giving noresponse to our concerns despite repeated memorandums and statements.

We believe the Kathua case was deliberately raised to dilute our main demands, she said addingunfortunately, our agitation was projected as an attempt to save the culprits involved in the heinouscrime .

Our agitation was meant to ensure justice to the victim. Both PDP and BJP were pulling in oppo-site direction on the issue and the government changed three investigation teams. BJP spokesper-son Sunil Sethi is on record of having said that one of the SIT members is involved in rape and mur-der. It put a big question on the credibility of the probe, she said.

Basotra said there still was a contradiction in the charge sheet and the state government's stance.While the charge sheet says that the investigation is still ongoing, the government wants justice be

delivered to the girl in 90 days through a fast track trial of the case. He, however, added the barassociation supported the chief minister's demand for a fast track trial of the case.

Kour said it was the victim's family which approached the court with a plea that they did not trustthe police investigation.

Our bar is nationalist and has always challenged illegalities and preferred nation's interest overeverything else. If we had been wrong in our demands, the other associations would not have sup-ported our main demands, while Kashmir bar would have raised a question. They never said any-thing against us, she said.

Basotra said they were concerned over the security threat posed by Rohingyas as they had gotAadhaar cards. Their colonies have come up and government is putting their number at 15000,while as the number of their families have swelled to over 22000, she said.

Defending their president B S Slathia, she said he was representing 3,500 lawyers and is father-ly figure to all of them. She also claimed that the lawyer who represents the victim family in Kathuacase was never stopped or threatened by anyone.

We have not stopped any council when our strike started on April 4. No case was listed before thecourt on that day, she said. She said the bar was the victim and not the culprits.

Why we wanted CBI inquiry? There might be people involved in manipulation and we wantedthem to be identified and arrested as well, she said.

Radha Sharma, Deepali Arora, Anju Sharma, Prabhjot Kour, Surbhi Gupta, Jyoti Sharma,Deepali Kapoor, Shalni Sharma, Smiley Gupta, Seema Sharma, Meenakshi Slathia, Nishu Kanth,Deepa Sharma, Isha Alisha Kohli, Gyatri Dogra, Bhomika and Sushma Sharma were also pres-ent in the press conference.

Army Commanders’ Conference ...and explore ways to speed up infrastructure development along the border with China.There will be detailed discussions about the situation along the borders with China and Pakistan,

they said."Important issues that are likely to be discussed are management of the extant security dynamics,

mitigation of future security threats and enhancement of combat edge over potential adversaries,"Army PRO Col Aman Anand said.

He said other issues like infrastructure development for capacity enhancement along the northernborders, review of strategic railway lines, optimisation of limited budget to ensure making up of crit-ical deficiency in ammunition, would also be discussed.

Officials said major focus of the conference will be to bolster the army's overall operational pre-paredness along the nearly 4,000 km long border with China.

Troops of India and China were locked in a 73-day standoff in Doklam from June 16 last yearafter the Indian side stopped building of a road in the disputed area by the Chinese Army. The face-off ended on August 28. Sources said India has deployed more troops and increased patrolling alongthe borders with China following the Doklam face-off.

Col Anand said issues relating to projects being implemented by the Border Road Organisation aswell as matters relevant to welfare of troops will be discussed in detail.

The Army Commanders' Conference is held biannually for important policy decisions.Officials said the conference will discuss the security situation in Jammu and Kashmir.There will be subject-specific deliberations during the last three days of the conference which is

also likely to discuss implementation of the modernisation process in the army.

Kathua rape and murder..Headquarters here, Mir is purportedly telling reporters that the locals believed the investigation

was motivated and that the main culprits were still at large.Questions would be raised and there must be some justification in the people's demand, Mir said,

wondering if the probe was aimed at making some political points."When our ministers expressed these sentiments, the Congress, the media made a lot of noise. We

took action. They resigned. Now we want to ask Rahul Gandhi, who took out a candlelight march(protesting the growing incidents of crime against women in the country), why is he not takingaction against his party's State President, Javadekar said.

Pointing fingers at others while protecting its own was the character of the Congress Party, healleged. The authenticity of the video could not be independently verified by PTI.

The BJP had faced flak after its leaders in the Jammu region, including two ministers in theMehbooba Mufti government, joined the public protests against the police probe into the brutal rapeand murder of an eight-year-old girl from the nomadic Bakarwal Muslim community that had ledto the arrest of eight persons. The two ministers -- Lal Singh and Chander Prakash Ganga --resigned on Friday, soon after Prime Minister Narendra Modi said these incidents, including a rapecase in which a BJP MLA from Unnao District of Uttar Pradesh is the accused, had shamed thecountry and that justice would be ensured in all the cases.

Javadekar also demanded an apology from senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, noting thatBar Association of Jammu President B.S Slahia, who had led the public protests against the policeprobe, was his poll agent in the 2014 Lok Sabha election.

The BJP leader also questioned Gandhi's candlelight march at India Gate on Friday night, say-ing he never protested against the "Nirbhaya" incident, atrocities against Dalits in Mirchpur inHaryana and many other incidents of rape that had happened during the Congress rule.

"People can see what kind of politics you (Gandhi) are doing. Why are you silent? You shouldimmediately sack him (Mir)," Javadekar said. The HRD Minister rued that there had been no gen-der sensitisation for men in the country for generations, claiming it to be a reason behind the heinouscrimes against women, and said, "No amount of condemnation is enough for such incidents."

Never raised questions...the public protests against it."This is an old video. The statement was given by me in March. It was prior to the arrest of the

mastermind and main accused, and others (in the Kathua case)," he said.The saffron party has also demanded that Congress President Rahul Gandhi sack Mir."It was after my statement, the main accused and mastermind, Sanji Ram, and others were arrest-

ed. I never raised question mark on the probe (by the crime branch). I have never demanded a CBIprobe (into the matter)," Mir told PTI. In the video, which was played during a press conference atthe BJP's New Delhi Headquarters, Mir is purportedly telling reporters that the locals believed theinvestigation was motivated and that the main culprits were still at large.

Move offices of...time schedule notified by the Registrar General of High Court, Sanjay Dhar, the timing of Jammu

Wing of the High Court will be from 8 AM to 1:30 PM from May 1, 2018 while as timing of theSrinagar Wing of the High Court will be from 10:30 AM to 4:30 PM from May 1, 2018.

The timing of the Subordinate Courts of Jammu Province except courts located at Bhadarwah,Doda, Kishtwar, Gandoh (Bhallesa), Batote, Banihal, Gool and Bani will be from 8 AM to 1.30 PMwith lunch break from May 1, 2018. The Subordinate Courts of Kashmir Province will observe tim-ings from 10.30 AM to 4.30 PM with lunch break. This timing will also be applicable to the courtslocated at Bhadarwah, Doda, Kishtwar, Gandoh (Bhallesa), Batote, Banihal, Gool and Bani.

National TV sitting...understand who's who and what are the interests and motivations behind browbeating panelists. The unfortunate girl was reported missing from the grazing ground on January 11 and alleged-

ly kept in the hall by her predators. When she did not turn back her temporary Kothar till lateevening, an inquisitive reporter would have tried to know the response of the family and the adjoin-ing community members. In normal circumstances they would have launched a search and thetemple hall, being the public place, could have been easily accessible. According to eye witnesses,the entire room can be viewed through the window that remains wide open in the absence of win-dow-panes. Even if the keys would not have been, or made, available, the searchers could havestared through the window. Nobody appears to have tried to find out the girl in this hall or if theydid they might have not find anything objectionable.

Despite these harsh facts, a vicious campaign is continuing to hoodwink the public opinion thatcrime was commissioned in a temple, also being called as Devasthan. This is a mischievous bid todrag religion into the commission of barbaric crime. Also, how come the victim remained unno-ticed by the visitors, women and children included, who must have been spending quite a time inoffering Puja in the hall? Incidentally, two days after her alleged captivity, the hall remained huge-ly occupied in the wake of Lohri on January 13. There is reportedly no attached room where shecould have been kept in hiding in the midst of her relatives, community people and the police hav-ing launched massive search operations in the entire area. How the over-zealous, over-enthusias-tic and jingoistic channels missed these facts, which are going to be crucial for the case and wouldeventually come under scanner during judicial process? By basing their investigative journalism onpatently wrong assumptions, aren't the media channels becoming party to denying justice to littleangel?

2 killed, 5...demonstration and blocked roads disrupting traffic, alleging government's "failure" to end

attacks on Christians, according to the report. Meanwhile, Balochistan Home Minister MirSarfaraz Bugti condemned the attack and expressed sorrow over the loss of lives. The minister alsoassured action against the culprits, it said. The attack comes two weeks after four members of aChristian family were gunned down in Quetta a day after the community celebrated Easter onApril 1.

Monday April 16, 2018 9

Senior Advocate and JHCBA member Surinder Kour addressing press conference.

!! Continuations from Page 1 !!

STATE TIMES NEWSJAMMU: Sashwati Satpattian Alumni of SingaporeUniversity and a SyntheticPhonic Trainer fromBhuvneshwar conducted atwo day vibrant workshop forthe Pre Primary andPrimary Teachers ofJodhamal Public School toensure the 21st century edu-cation to the students whoare entrusted to the school.

The workshop started withthe sounds and how to makethe sound like a synthesizerand make it a syntheticsound.

Stapatti discussed the 42sounds from 26 letters ofEnglish and told the teachersto never ever make the phon-ic sounds using Hindi or anyother vernacular rather the42 synthetic sounds to makethe students join the lettersto make reading easy forthem by the blended learn-

ing.Sashwati explained that

Phonics is nothing but relat-ing sounds (phonemes) toletters (graphemes) or groupof letters.

Coordinators RanjuMalhotra, Urmila Kaul andNeetu Johri appreciated theworkshop and said that suchworkshops add on to thecapability of the staff andfrom Pre Nursery itself weneed to incorporate it.

Trilok Singh Bist, thePrincipal of the School appre-ciated the concept and washappy to see the sea changein all the 50 teachers whowere a part of this fruitfulworkshop. Trustee NandanKuthiala and Vice PrincipalPooja Panthri presented atoken of appreciation toSaswati Nanda Satpatti formaking these two days soenriching for the facultymembers of Jodhamal.

Jodhamal hosts synthetic phonicsworkshop for junior teachers

Junior teachers after the workshop at Jammu.

STATE TIMES NEWSUDHAMPUR: The ArmyCommander's InvitationalGolf Championship 2018was organised on Sunday atUdhampur. More than 70golfers participated.

The tournament is organ-

ised by the army every yearto enhance the existing bon-homie within the golfing fra-ternity in the State and alsoto exchange ideas with peoplefrom various walks of life.Governor, N.N Vohra gaveaway prizes to the winners.

Golf tournament organised

Governor N.N Vohra shaking hand with a golfer.

Man shot at by terroristsSTATE TIMES NEWS

SRINAGAR: Suspected terrorists on Sunday shot at andinjured a man in south Kashmir's Shopian district, policesaid. Terrorists fired upon Kifayat Mir, a resident of Shopian,near Pinjoora area of the district, a police official said.

He said Mir was rushed to a hospital in an injured condition.Further details are awaited, the official said.

STATE TIMES NEWSSRINAGAR: The matches ofthe ongoing first MuftiMohammad Sayeed (MMS)Memorial FootballTournament restarted atSynthetic Turf TRC inSrinagar after a hiatus of twoweeks due to the prevailing sit-uation in the Valley.

Lone Star KFC defeatedJ&K State Football Academy(SFA) by two goals to nil in ahigh voltage match. The starstudded teams played aggres-sive football from the word gowhich delighted the fans whohad thronged the venue inhuge numbers.

As the match started, for-wards of both the teams start-ed attacking other's goalpost toseize an early initiative.However, defence lines of boththe teams ensured that nodamage was done and the firsthalf ended with score line read-ing 0-0. The goalkeepers ofboth the teams made someexceptional saves.

The second half also startedwith the two teams making allout efforts to open theiraccount. The intense battlecontinued for most part of thesecond half. However, FaisalGulzar of Lone Star teammanaged to score first goal ofthe match in 57th minute ofthe play when he shot a kickstraight into the opposite goal-post. The lead boosted themorale of Lone Star players

and they went on all out attack.In 70th minute of the matchKarun Raina doubled the leadfor Lone Star.

Trailing by two goals, theSFA players tried their best toscore, but strong defence linesof Lone Star thwarted all theirattempts. When referee blewthe final whistle the score lineread 2-0 in favour of LoneStar. Umer Bashir, goalkeeperof the winning team wasdeclared as player of the matchfor his brilliant performance. Itwas due to his efforts that SFAteam couldn't score any goal inthe match. He was awarded Rs1000 cash and a memento.

In Kathua, 23 matches of theevent have been completedwhile 19 more matches wouldbe played in the coming days.Top football Clubs of Jammu,Kathua, Hiranagar, Billawarand Basohli are taking part inthe tournament, which is beingheld under the banner ofJammu and Kashmir FootballAssociation (JKFA) and issponsored by J&K StateSports Council.

While in Kashmir region,first and second phase matchesof the event have been complet-ed, in Jammu region firstphase matches are going on. Sofar nearly 1700 matches havebeen played in the event acrossthe state while more than 400matches are expected to beheld at different venues in J&Kin coming days.

MMS Memorial Football Tournament:Lone Star defeats SFA by 2-1

A football match in progress at Srinagar.