Varmul, Aug 9: As officers of Jammu and Kashmir government rushed to attend Varmul board meeting on Monday amidst showers of stones pelted on them by the youth enroute north Kashmir town to protest the killing of Fida Nabi of Mustaffabad, HMT, their minister bosses preferred to board helicopter to avoid being targeted.
 The large contingent of Heads of Departments and other senior officers invited to attend the District Development Board meeting here had first to reach the venue by opting to travel in the wee hours and those who unwittingly left for the venue little later escaped unhurt in stone throwing incidents on the way but their vehicles did suffer damages.
 “There was hardly any security on the road. There were no RoPs seen anywhere on the 54 kms stretch of the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad Highway,” said the officers.
 The meeting, according to informed sources was convened to fulfill a formality of approving the current year’s proposed plan, was convened today after being postponed several times.  The meeting was concluded in two hours time where most of the talking was done by MLA Sopur, M Ashraf Ganaie as all the opposition MLAs had chosen to stay away as a mark of protest against the killings of innocents.
 Among the absentees included the ruling party MP, Sharief-ud-din Sharik. 
 While the ministers who had helicopter at their disposal to avoid direct contact with hostile crowds on the land route, the officers had to wait till late evening in the town till the protesters dispersed from the places along the route.
 The officers were criticizing the organizers for keeping the venue at Varmul instead of choosing SKICC as majority of the participants hailed from Srinagar or are headquartered at Srinagar.

Lastupdate on : Mon, 9 Aug 2010 21:30:00 Mecca time
Lastupdate on : Mon, 9 Aug 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Tue, 10 Aug 2010 00:00:00 IST