Kashmir

tion of his life in jail, so much so that Amnesty International once named him a “prisoner of conscience”.

Hardline separatist leader Geelani does not have any security cover from the government and has been under house arrest, on and off, since the mass agitation of 2010. Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front chief Yasin Malik has also not been provided any security.

India has slammed Pakistan for stating that it had no role in the Pulwama attack carried out by Pakistan-based terror group JEM, saying Islamabad could not claim that it was unaware of the presence of terror groups on its soil as the links of such outfits to the country were there for everyone to see.

But Foreign Office spokesperson Mohammad Faisal rejected India’s allegation that Pakistan was behind the attack. “JEM remains a proscribed entity in Pakistan since 2002 and Pakistan is implementing its obligations on sanctions implementation,” he said.

Faisal said Pakistan rejected India’s allegations because these were made within a short time from the attack and without carrying out any investigations. “These knee-jerk and pre-conceived accusations were nevertheless consistent with well-rehearsed tactics from Indian playbook after such incidents in the past,” he said.

The government, in Sunday’s statement, said the police headquarters will review if there are any other separatist leaders who have been provided security and those would be withdraw immediately.

The withdrawal of security cover is likely to have repercussions, as separatist leaders couldn’t mobilise protests in the state earlier as they were under constant surveillance.

Mirwaiz Umar Farooq had at one time been provided Z-level security cover of 100 personnel, headed by a deputy superintendent of police (Dsp)-rank officer. However, after the killing of a police officer outside Jamia Masjid in Srinagar in June 2017, his security was curtailed to around 30 men without a Dsp-rank officer. Jamia Masjid is a stronghold of Farooq.

Other leaders were provided a cover of four to six personnel as

INDIA HAS SLAMMED PAKISTAN FOR STATING THAT IT HAD NO ROLE IN THE PULWAMA ATTACK CARRIED OUT BY JEM

well as a vehicle each.

The Hurriyat said the decision will not have an impact on it as the party has never asked for any security cover.

“With or without these police personnel at Hurriyat residence all remains the same. Whenever the issue has been made centre stage, Mirwaiz has repeatedly said from the pulpit of Jamia Masjid that the Government can withdraw it,” said APHC in a statement. “Infact, it was the government that insisted on keeping the personnel based on what they said was their assessment of threat perception. It was the Government’s decision at that time to keep it, today it’s their decision to remove it. It’s not an issue for us,” it added.

Union law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad welcomed the state government’s decision to withdraw the security of separatist leaders in the wake of the Pulwama terror attack. “These Hurriyat leaders talk to Pakistan and receive funding from various places. The most painful thing is that they get security from the central government and the Jammu and Kashmir government. India will not allow any step taken towards separating Kashmir from the country,” Prasad told mediapersons in Patna.

The attack on the CRPF convoy, which killed at least 40 jawans and left several injured, was the biggest terror attack in insurgency-hit Jammu and Kashmir. Pakistan-based terror organisation Jaish-e-mohammad had claimed responsibility for the attack and had identified the suicide bomber as 22-yearold Adil Ahmad Dar. foundation-laying exercise was a “feeble attempt” and a “political stunt”.

People should get ready to hear more such announcements, particularly at an NDA rally on March 3, said Communist Party of India state secretary Satyanarain Singh.

Later in the day, Modi paid tributes to CRPF’S Vijay Soreng, who too was killed in the attack, at a rally in Hazaribagh in neighbouring Jharkhand. In the tribaldominated state, Modi inaugurated three medical colleges and laid the foundation stone for the Women’s Engineering College in Ramgarh district. and exercise caution. Only patients with underlying medical conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, or those on cancer treatment, post transplant patients on immune suppressants etc. being admitted at the hospital,” he said.

Dr Manoj Goel, pulmonologist at Fortis Hospital in Sector 44, said patients who have severe chest infection or breathing difficulty are taken to the isolation ward in the ICU while the patients who are stable are being shifted to single rooms in the hospital. He gets about four patients with flu every day, but since the isolation beds are limited in the hospital, he refers a couple of them to other hospitals in the city.

“For critical cases, who need emergency admission, services are upgraded in the casualty and step down Intensive Care Units (High Dependency Units) to the level of Intensive Care Units. This helps in increasing the ICU bed strength to about 30%. Patients who do not require ventilator but require close observation, we create facilities on the floor itself, where the ICU team provides the supervision. Some extra trolleys are also put in casualty,” says Dr Rana. Noida and Ghaziabad too have seen a sharp increase in swine flu cases since mid-december last year. Health officials say there is no paucity of vaccines, hospital beds or other treatment facilities. “All treatment facilities and medicines are available. We have checked stocks with private hospitals too and all of them have enough beds in isolation wards,” said Dr Anurag Bhargava, chief medical officer of Noida.

Health department officials in Ghaziabad said that they have already reserved 10 beds each at MMG and Sanjay Nagar Combined government hospital since January 1 this year for swine flu patients while another five beds each have already been reserved at four community health centres at Dasna, Loni, Muradnagar and Modinagar.

“Most patients were given medication and treated at home. Just few cases have become serious enough to require hospitalisation so ,” said GK Mishra, district malaria officer, Ghaziabad.