November 2, 2005	Wednesday	Ramzan 28, 1426

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GILGIT, Nov 1: Committees constituted by the peace jirga for defusing tension and brokering reconciliation among sectarian groups here are reported to have finalized their recommendations after holding meetings with leaders and clerics of both the sects.

A jirga source said that the recommendations embodied a ban on sectarian groups, banning of hate-speeches and literature and restriction on use of loudspeakers.

He said the committees would submit their recommendations to a grand jirga on Nov 7.

Meanwhile the district magistrate Gilgit relaxed curfew in force 20 days for 13 hours (from 6am to 7pm) on Tuesday.

CELEBRATIONS CANCELLED: Celebrations to mark the 58th Liberation Day of Gilgit and Baltistan were not held in the regional headquarters of Gilgit because of sectarian tension which has affected life and business for the past 11 months.

The day is celebrated every year to pay tributes to heroes of the Gilgit Scouts, Northern Scouts and local volunteers who fought a pitched battle with forces of the Dogra regime on this day in 1947 and librated the region.

Though the region has been in a constitutional limbo since its independence from the Dogra regime, the day is celebrated every year to remember the martyrs and veterans of the Gilgit-Baltistan Liberation Movement.

In their separate messages the Northern Areas deputy chief executive Mir Ghazanfar Ali Khan and NALC Speaker Malik Muhammad Miskeen paid glowing tributes to the martyrs and ghazis and urged people to foster unity and sectarian harmony in their ranks.

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