Militants...

Governor NN Vohra took charge of the Jammu and Kashmir administration on Wednesday, a day after the Bharatiya Janata Party walked out from its alliance with the People’s Democratic Party forced chief minister Mehbooba Mufti to resign. On Friday morning, after receiving credible information about the presence of the militants in Khiram area of Sirigufwara in Anantnag, a search was launched by a joint team of the army, CRPF and J&K police.

As they advanced towards a house where the militants were suspected to be holed up, gunmen inside opened fire, hitting policeman Ashiq Hussain and a civilian, Mohammad Yousuf Rather, 53, and his wife. Hussain and Rather died of their injuries.

The police said the militants were hiding in the house of Rather. The militants who were killed in the operation have been identified as Dawood Ahmad Sofi of Srinagar, Majid Manzoor Dar, Aadil Rehman Bhat and Mohammad Ashraf Itoo from south Kashmir. Sofi, 33, was involved in number of stone-pelting cases in the area prior to joining the ranks of militants. He was involved in a terror attack which resulted in the death of assistant sub-inspector Ghulam Mohammad and head constable Naseer Ahmad at Bagh-ali-mardan Khan in Zadibal, Srinagar, and also in the killing of a policeman and snatching of his rifle at Tengpora Batamaloo, besides other terror attacks, a police officer said. Sofi joined militancy two years ago and was an A+++ category militant, the officer said. Defence spokesman, Colonel Rajesh Kalia, said that two militants were killed in the first assault. Two more died near a stream in the area when a search operation was carried out.

Even as the encounter progressed, villagers began pelting stones at security personnel in an attempt to allow the militants to escape. Twenty people were injured in the clashes when the police used teargas shells and fired pellets to disperse the protestors. Internet services were suspended in Srinagar and Anantnag after the encounter.in the afternoon, the body of Sofi was brought to his native place, Zanikote, where hundreds of mourners had gathered. The protestors also blocked traffic on the Baramulla-srinagar national highway. 2018, had given a clean chit to the minister. It concluded there was no evidence that the latter was aware that Khadse’s wife, Mandakini, and son-in-law, Girish Choudhary, had purchased the plot.

When asked why he had ordered the minutes to be scrapped, Khadse said, “After it came to light that a High Court case in the matter was pending, we scrapped the draft minutes of the meeting. They had in any case not been finalised or issued with my signature. This had to be endorsed by the CM as it pertained to two departments, so the order was also issued with his and my signature. I had submitted this document to the ACB.”

The chief minister was not available for comment on the issue.

The controversy surrounding Khadse pertains to the purchase of a three-acre plot in Bhosari, near Pune, by for ₹3.75 crore despite the prevalent market rate being ₹30 crore. Bought by Khadse’s wife and son-in-law, the plot’s ownership was contentious as the industries department had acquired it in 1971, but the final award of the plot was not granted and the owner had not been compensated for it.

The controversial meeting of April 12, 2016, was held a month after Khadse’s family paid an initial amount of Rs 50 lakh to finalise the purchase. The ACB report confirms that Hasnain Ukani, one of the owner’s heirs, had been paid Rs 50 lakh on March 11, 2016 by Khadse’s family. “This gives rise to suspicion that the meeting was held by Khadse to benefit his family,” says the report.

At the meeting, Khadse ordered that the industries department return the plot to the original land owner or give him compensation for the plot as per the 2013 land acquisition law. This was recorded in the draft minutes of the meeting issued by the Maharashtra Industries Development Corporation (MIDC). However, ACB in its investigation report also said that the draft minutes cannot be considered conclusive in the light of them being cancelled later by the minister and because the directives had not been implemented.

Activists have questioned the validity of the order issued on June 3, 2016. “Even if the minutes were cancelled, it does not take away from the fact that the minister held this meeting after his family had struck a deal for the same plot. That’s clear conflict of interest,” said Anjali Damania, who has filed a protest petition against the investigation in a special court. “Several angles have not been investigated in this case by the ACB,” she said.