By Mir Ehsan in the Indian Express, Aug 3
Srinagar: As Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said violence needs to be ended before any political and administrative intervention in Kashmir, seven more people, including a nine-year-old boy, were killed after a fresh wave of protests swept through Kashmir on Monday. A teenage protester who was hit by a teargas shell three days ago succumbed to injuries overnight in a Srinagar hospital taking the death toll in last four days to 22.
Defying curfew, protesters took to the streets in several areas of the Valley. They blocked the Srinagar-Jammu national highway and the high-security Srinagar airport road that also houses the DGP’s office. Police opened fire at more than a dozen places, wounding 70 protesters, 14 of whom were said to be in critical condition.
The centre of Monday’s protests was south Kashmir, where six civilians were killed and more than 50 injured. Angered by the deaths, protesters set on fire and ransacked several government offices and a Congress office.
Two civilians were killed when police and CRPF opened fire on protesters at Sangam on the Srinagar-Jammu national highway in south Kashmir. The police opened fire when the protesters were trying to cross a bridge manned by the police. The victims were identified as Basharat Ahmad Reshi, 14 and Arshad Ahmad Bhat, 20. Angered by the killings, the protesters set on fire four police and CRPF bunkers in the village.
At Chawalgam in south Kashmir’s Kulgam district, a Class IX student, Ashiq Hussain Bhat (15), was killed when police and CRPF opened fire on protesters, who were marching towards Kulgam town. Later in the day, police opened fire at protesters in Kulgam, killing Rameez Ahmad Bhat, 17.
At Kakapora in Pulwama district, police and CRPF opened fire on protesters, killing Mohammad Yaqoob Bhat, 22, of Zadoora village. “The protesters were moving peacefully,” said Abdul Rashid of Kakapora. “The firing was unprovoked.” Soon after the firing, protesters damaged the residence of a policeman from its counter-insurgency force, Special Operations Group, in neighboring Pinglana village.
In Bijbehara town of Anantnag, thousands of people took to streets after the body of Tariq Ahmad (17) reached there. Ahmad was injured on Friday when a tear smoke shell fired by police hit him. He succumbed to his injuries in Srinagar Sunday night. As the people took to streets after his body arrived, police and CRPF opened fire wounding five persons.
The police also opened fire on protesters at Kokernag, Bijbehara, Dooru, Brakpora, Kaimoh, Arwani and Shopian wounding 30 people. In Kokernag, protesters set on fire the office of state Education Minister Peerzada Mohammad Sayeed.
The protests have also spread to central Kashmir and Kupwara. At Kralpora, a remote village in Kupwara district, hundreds of people took to streets and started to march towards Kupwara town. The police and CRPF opened fire on the protesters, killing 22-year-old Khursheed Ahmad War.
In central Kashmir’s Budgam town, protesters set on fire the Tehsil office and the office of Chief Medical Officer.
A nine-year-old boy, Sameer Ahmad Rah, died when he was beaten by CRPF personnel at Batamaloo, said eyewitnesses. “They beat him and kicked him. He fell unconscious,” said Nazir Ahmad, an eyewitness. Rah died of spine injuries.
The police said in a statement it had to fire at several places when the protesters damaged public property. http://www.indianexpress.com/story-print/655321/

3. Delhi Games in crisis as clock runs down
New Delhi:  The Commonwealth Games in New Delhi have been plunged into crisis just two months before the opening ceremony by allegations of corruption, shoddy workmanship and delays in handing over venues.
Monday should have witnessed the final handover — already twice delayed — of the venues to the event directors, but four are still under construction and others are the focus of a row over sub-standard work.
The Games, which India had hoped would be a showcase for its emergence as a global economic power, are scheduled to begin on October 3.
The charges of rampant corruption and concerns over the ballooning cost have drowned out increasingly desperate-sounding assurances from top Indian officials, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, that preparations are on track.
An Indian anti-corruption body last week reported it had found a host of problems with construction work, including use of poor quality materials and dubious contracts.
The chief technical examiner from the Central Vigilance Commission inspected 15 sites around the national capital and found a number of irregularities and suspect practices by contractors and public bodies.
The Times of India said all construction quality certificates inspected so far had turned out to be fake or "suspect."
Indian media also reported that the British government had raised questions about suspect sums being transferred from the organising committee to a British-based firm.
The reports prompted the chairman of the Games organising committee, Suresh Kalmadi, to address a hurried press conference where he slammed the media for conducting a "prejudiced campaign".
"I wish to state that we have nothing to hide and I stand before you with clear conscience and complete conviction," Kalmadi said.
"We believe in total transparency. The campaign is very demoralising for athletes and officials who have been working day and night for many years now to make the Games a success.
"The need of the hour is to get on with the Games and be united to make this happen. Let not corruption be the only highlight. There are many positive things to write and talk about."
Media coverage has become increasingly negative as the games approach.
The India Today news magazine dubbed the event the "Shame Games" while a recent editorial in The Times of India said it was "in danger of becoming an exhibition of ineptitude and incompetence."
The event involving 71 nations is already the costliest Commonwealth Games in history, with an infrastructure and organising budget of two billion dollars. Unofficial estimates say the cost will be at least three times that amount.
The desperate race to get everything finished in time has been hampered by heavy monsoon rains that have turned worksites across the city into mudbaths and even flooded some of the main venues.
Games Federation chief executive Mike Hooper said Monday he was concerned about the Central Vigilance Commission’s report and made it clear that the organisers would refuse to take over suspect venues.
"We will not accept the handover of any venue if appropriate documents are not there attesting that the venues are fit for the purpose," Hooper said.
Opposition parties have seized on the corruption allegations to condemn the government’s handling of preparations for the Games.
Police had to use water cannon on Monday to disperse opposition activists who marched to parliament with banners bearing slogans including: "Is it Commonwealth Games or the Loot of the Common Man?"
Other Commonwealth nations have expressed concerns about the situation, although Perry Crosswhite, the chief executive of the Australian Commonwealth Games Association, said he suspected political motives at play.
 "It looks like the parties and the government there are having a go at each other and no doubt everybody has got their little axe to grind," Crosswhite said on Monday.
"These things tend to happen before these types of events — the blame game happens. http://www.ekantipur.com/2010/08/03/sports/delhi-games-in-crisis-as-clock-runs-down/319735/

4.The other border: edit in The Indian Express, Aug 03
Rising powers need friendly neighborhoods. A relationship with our neighbours that is supportive, or at least cordial, would free us to think on a larger scale. Of course, India’s western border shows no signs of being unproblematic any time soon. But, to the east, an election in 2008 in Bangladesh that brought in the Awami League — which does not subscribe to the anti-India rhetoric that is characteristic of the other main party there, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party — should have been an opportunity seized with both hands. And, indeed, the visit of Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina last January seemed to indicate movement. Five joint agreements were signed, especially on cooperation against terror and on electricity, but even more — on transit rights, extradition, and boundary disputes, for example — seemed in the works. The political will clearly existed on both sides. It seemed just a matter of time.
It is particularly shocking, therefore, that India seems to have dropped the ball. In case after case, the Bangladeshi side has done its bit, laying the groundwork for further agreement, or implementing what was already signed. And in case after case, the Indian side has not reciprocated to any reasonable degree. On boundary demarcation, for example, the Joint Boundary Working Group is yet to meet. On trade, the exception raj that seems to have replaced the licence raj for the UPA has scuttled any meaningful progress towards an agreement on freeing imports and exports. On transit issues, too, India hasn’t matched the Bangladeshi side — though movement on that is colossally more politically sensitive for Bangladesh than for India.
Simply put, this is not how aspirational great powers behave with their neighbours. India should be doing all the running, not Bangladesh. And, furthermore, it is unclear how long this window of opportunity will exist: Bangladesh politics is notoriously volatile, and relations with India are a central wedge issue there. It would be a pity if the Delhi establishment’s tendency to look obsessively at the western border means that it ignores what it must achieve on the eastern border. http://www.indianexpress.com/story-print/655258/