News Analysis India

Tag: Jammu and Kashmir

  • Easy availability of drones increases complexity and challenges, says Army Chief after Jammu attack

    By PTI
    Speaking days after attacks in Jammu and Kashmir, Indian Army Chief Gen MM Naravane on Thursday said the easy availability of drones definitely increases complexity and challenges.

    We have put in place certain measures, all troops sensitised to this evolving threat, Army Chief said on the drone attack on Jammu Air Force Station.

    “We have strong counter-terrorism & counter-infiltration grid in J&K and our operation to ensure peace, tranquillity will continue,” he said.

    “We are developing capabilities to deal with that threat whether by state-sponsored or by states themselves and to deal with drone threats both in kinetic & non-kinetic realm,” he opined.

    In a first terror attack of its kind, two low-intensity improvised explosive devices dropped by drones went off in a highly secure Indian Air Force base in Jammu, about 14 km off the International Border, in the early hours on Sunday.

    Naravane also said that there has been no infiltration along LoC after ceasefire agreement was reached between India & Pakistan.

    Since there is no infiltration, number of terrorists in Kashmir is lesser, he added. 

    The Army chief on Jammu and Kashmir said, “There will always be elements who will try to sabotage process of peace & development. We have to cater for that.”

  • Three LeT militants killed in encounter in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kulgam

    By PTI
    SRINAGAR: Three Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militants were killed in an encounter with security forces in Kulgam district of Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday, police said.

    Two Army soldiers were also injured in the exchange of fire in Kulgam’s Chimmer village, they said.

    While two militants were killed in the early exchange of fire, the third engaged the security forces for several hours before being neutralised, a police official said.

    Giving details of the operation, a police spokesperson said a joint cordon and search operation was launched by the police, the Central Reserve Police Force and the Army in Chimmer after receiving information about the presence of militants there.

    During the search operation, after the presence of terrorists was ascertained, they were repeatedly asked to surrender.

    However, they opened indiscriminate fire on the joint search party in which two Army soldiers were injured.

    They were airlifted to the Army’s hospital in Srinagar, he said.

    The security forces retaliated, the spokesperson said.

    “In the ensuing encounter, three terrorists were killed and their bodies were retrieved from the site of encounter.

    They have been identified as Waseem Ahmad Bangroo, a resident of Redwani in Kulgam; Shahnawaz Ahmad, a resident of Kilbal in Shopian; and Zakir Bashir, a resident of Chimmer in Kulgam.

    All of them were affiliated with proscribed terror group LeT,” he said.

    Bashir had recently joined the terror group, the spokesperson said.

    According to police records, all three terrorists killed in the encounter were part of a group involved in various terror crimes, he said.

  • Forest fire triggers landmine explosions along LoC in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch

    By PTI
    JAMMU: A forest fire triggered several landmine explosions along the Line of Control (LoC) in Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday, officials said.

    The fire started in a forest across the LoC and spread to the Indian side in Mendhar sector, they said.

    The officials said the fire triggered the explosion of nearly half a dozen landmines that were part of the anti-infiltration obstacle system.

    The fire was still raging and efforts were being made to control it when last reports were received, they said.

  • Delimitation commission to visit Jammu and Kashmir between July 6-9

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The delimitation commission will undertake a four-day visit to Jammu and Kashmir from July 6-9 and interact with political parties, their leaders and officials of the Union Territory to gather “first hand” inputs on the conduct of the mega exercise to carve out new constituencies there, the EC said on Wednesday.

    The decision was taken after a meeting was held on Wednesday at the headquarters of the poll panel here that was chaired by delimitation commission chairperson Justice (retd) Ranjana Prakash Desai and Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sushil Chandra.

    “During the visit period, the commission will interact with political parties, public representatives and Union Territory administration officials including district election officers/deputy commissioners of 20 districts of the UT to gather first hand information and input concerning the ongoing process of delimitation as mandated under the Jammu & Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019,” an Election Commission (EC) spokesperson said in a statement issued here.

    The spokesperson said that the commission expected that all stakeholders will “cooperate” in this endeavour and provide valuable suggestions so that the task of delimitation is completed timely. The spokesperson added that the delimitation commission already has had a series of meetings related to data/map of the districts/constituencies related to census 2011.

    “Earlier, it invited all associate members for interaction, which were participated by two of the associate members. A number of representations have also been received on various aspects concerning delimitation from civil societies and members of the public from the UT,” the spokesperson said.

    The delimitation commission has already taken note of all such suggestions and directed that these may be deliberated further in the context of ground realities concerning delimitation, the spokesperson said. The commission, constituted in March last year with a one year time frame to complete its task, is entrusted with redrawing the parliamentary and assembly constituencies in Jammu and Kashmir.

    It was given its first extension of one year by the Union government in March this year in view of the Covid pandemic.

    The visit of the delimitation commission comes after Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a meeting with leaders of mainstream political parties from Jammu and Kashmir last week where he stressed that the delimitation exercise has to happen quickly so that polls can be held in the UT.

    During the visit, the members of the delimitation commission will hold talks with various political parties, their representatives and also the five associate members who are the five Lok Sabha MPs from the UT.

    Of the mainstream parties, the National Conference, which has won all the three Lok Sabha seats from the Kashmir Valley, had earlier decided to stay away from the proceedings of the commission contending there was no need to redraw the constituencies at this stage.

    However, there are indications that the party is having a rethink and has recently authorised its president Farooq Abdullah to decide whether to participate in the deliberations of the commission.

    The prime minister, during the June 24 meeting, had said the ongoing delimitation exercise in Jammu and Kashmir has to happen quickly so that polls can be held to install an elected government that gives strength to its development trajectory.

    In a series of tweets after a three-and-a-half-hour-long meeting with 14 political leaders of Jammu and Kashmir, the prime minister said, “Our priority is to strengthen grassroots democracy in J&K. Delimitation has to happen at a quick pace so that polls can happen and J&K gets an elected government that gives strength to J&K’s development trajectory.”

    The delimitation exercise has attained an urgency amid indications that the Centre is keen to hold early assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir. There is speculation that the polls could be held in the next six to nine months.

    During Wednesday’s meeting, the delimitation commission is understood to have reviewed the progress made so far, including the consultations held by it last week with all deputy commissioners of Jammu and Kashmir on restructuring of the existing assembly constituencies and carving out seven new seats early this month.

    At the meeting with the deputy commissioners on June 23, inputs were gathered on how to make the assembly seats more geographically compact. Once the delimitation exercise is completed, the number of assembly seats in Jammu and Kashmir will go up from 83 to 90.

    Twenty-four seats of the Assembly continue to remain vacant as they fall under Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

  • Soldier injured in exchange of fire with suspected terrorists in J&K’s Rajouri

    By PTI
    JAMMU: A soldier was injured in an exchange of fire with suspected terrorists near the Line of Control (LoC) in Rajouri district of Jammu and Kashmir, officials said on Wednesday.

    The incident took place during the course of a search operation in village Dadal during the intervening night of Tuesday and Wednesday, the officials said.

    They said a search operation was launched in the village and adjoining areas near the LoC on Tuesday evening following information about suspicious movement of some armed persons.

    The group was tracked and an exchange of fire took place, resulting in minor injuries to a soldier, the officials said, adding reinforcements have been rushed and an operation is on to neutralise the terrorists.

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  • IGP Kashmir Vijay Kumar warns militants from targeting off-duty cops in J&K

    By Express News Service
    SRINAGAR: After three off-duty policemen, including a CID inspector Parvez Ahmad Dar, were killed by militants within 10 days in the Valley, IGP Kashmir Vijay Kumar on Tuesday warned militants against incurring the wrath of the police and said they know how to counter such attacks.

    “The cops are locals, and they have to live with their families. We cannot keep them in camps like the personnel of other security forces. They become soft targets,’ Kumar told reporters at a press conference in Srinagar. 

    “I have 24 years of experience and we know how to counter it. I advise the militants not to get involved in these acts,” he said. According to the IGP, the CID inspector had gone to a mosque to offer namaz and on his way, two militants shot him from behind.

    “He was shot dead near the mosque and a video of the incident has been seen by everybody. He was not part of the Special Operations Group (SOG) or any anti-militancy squad…Just to create fear psychosis among the people, militants are targeting innocent people,” he said.

    Referring to the killing of SPO Fayaz Ahmad, his wife and their daughter in Pulwama district on Sunday evening, the IGP said two Jaish militants involved in the killing have been identified. The militants knocked at the door of ailing Ahmad and started thrashing him. His wife Raja Begum and daughter Rafia, 22, made an unsuccessful bid to save him as the terrorists started spraying bullets on him. In the process, Begum and Rafia were injured and died at a hospital.

  • LeT suspected to be behind IAF station attack in Jammu, drones may have come from across border: DGP

    By PTI
    JAMMU/ NEW DELHI: The banned Lashkar-e-Taiba terror outfit is suspected to have been behind the sensational drone attack on the Indian Air Force station in Jammu on Sunday morning with indication that the unmanned aerial vehicles had come from across the border, a top police official said on Tuesday.

    Jammu and Kashmir DGP Dilbag Singh told PTI that the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), a terror outfit based out of Pakistan, is suspected to be responsible for the attack. Two drones dropped explosive material on the IAF station located at Jammu airport on Sunday injuring two personnel.

    A cocktail of explosive material, including RDX, is believed to have been used. The case was handed over to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Tuesday. The decision to hand over the probe into the first-of-its-kind terror attack at the Indian Air Force station was taken by the Ministry of Home Affairs.

    A 1987-batch IPS officer, Singh, who has been monitoring the situation as well as the probe, said that in all likelihood, the unmanned aerial vehicles have flown in from across the border and returned after the operation. “We are still probing the case and will extend all our findings with other security agencies,” Singh said.

    Police also carried out a series of raids in Jammu and neighbouring locations but could not establish any concrete leads. “The drones are suspected to have come from across (the border) but we are still probing as of now,” he said.

    He said police have sensitised vital installations about the new threat from terror outfits. “All preventive measures have been taken for the same,” Singh said. He said that a general warning has also been issued to the public for no unauthorised use of drones in Jammu and Kashmir. “Strict actions would be taken for the same,” he added.

    In what was the first instance of Pakistan-based terrorists deploying drones to strike vital installations, two bombs were dropped at the IAF station in Jammu in the early hours of Sunday, causing minor injuries to two airmen.

    The explosions took place around 1.40 am within six minutes of each other. The first blast ripped off the roof of a single-storey building at the technical area of the airport manned by the IAF in Satwari on the outskirts of Jammu.

    The second one was on the ground. The aerial distance from the Jammu airport to the international border is 14 km.

  • Twitter removes distorted map displaying Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh outside India after drawing flak

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: After drawing flak over displaying a distorted map of India that showed Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh as a separate country, Twitter has now removed the wrong map.

    The glaring distortion, which appeared on the career section of Twitter website under the header ‘Tweep Life’, had triggered a heavy backlash from netizens on Monday as they demanded strict action against the microblogging platform that has flouted various rules on multiple occasions in the past.

    #TwitterBan was trending on Twitter with almost 17,000 tweets. This is not the first time that Twitter has misrepresented India’s map. Earlier, it had shown Leh as part of China.

    The global map, which grossly misrepresented India’s boundaries, was removed on late Monday evening by Twitter following social media outrage.

    Sources said the government is seriously looking into the matter.

    In this case, since the wrong depiction is on Twitter’s website, the case is not that of an ‘intermediary’ but of a publisher which is responsible for content.

    ALSO READ | Twitter appoints US-based Jeremy Kessel as new grievance officer for India

    When something is clearly wrong it has to be tackled, or consequential action will follow, they said.

    Twitter — which has an estimated 1.75 crore users in India — has remained mum on the entire episode.

    Emails sent to the company did not elicit any response.

    The US digital giant has been at loggerheads with the Indian government over the new social media rules.

    The government has confronted Twitter over deliberate defiance and failure to comply with the country’s new IT rules, despite repeated reminders.

    Notably, the microblogging platform has lost its legal shield as an intermediary in India, becoming liable for users posting any unlawful content.

    In October last year, Twitter came under heavy criticism and faced backlash after its geotagging feature displayed “Jammu & Kashmir, People’s Republic of China” in a live broadcast from Leh’s Hall of Fame, a war memorial for fallen soldiers in the Union Territory of Ladakh.

    India had issued a stern warning to Twitter that time, making it clear that any disrespect of the country’s sovereignty and integrity is totally unacceptable.

    In November, Twitter again showed Leh as part of Jammu and Kashmir instead of the Union Territory of Ladakh, following which the Centre issued a notice to the US-based company for disrespecting the territorial integrity of India by showing an incorrect map.

    Twitter’s apparent heavy-handedness has come under government scrutiny, given that the platform has not complied with the new IT rules, called intermediary guidelines, that mandate setting up a robust grievance redressal mechanism and appointing officers to coordinate with law enforcement.

    The rules became effective from May 26 and Twitter, even after the expiry of the additional time, had not appointed the requisite officers, leading to it losing the ‘safe harbour’ immunity.

    Even in the backdrop of heightened strained relations with the Indian government, Twitter on Friday briefly blocked IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad from accessing his account over alleged violation of US copyright law — a move that was immediately slammed by the minister as being arbitrary and in gross violation of IT rules.

    Meanwhile, Twitter’s interim grievance officer for India, Dharmendra Chatur, has quit within weeks of taking over the key role.

    California-based Jeremy Kessel has now been named as India’s grievance redressal officer on the platform’s website — although the appointment does not meet the requirements of new IT rules that clearly mandate key officers including the grievance officer, to be resident in India.

    Twitter and the government have been on a collision course on multiple issues in the past months, including during the farmers’ protest and later when the microblogging platform tagged political posts of several leaders of the ruling party BJP as “manipulated media”, drawing a sharp rebuke from the Centre.

    Other major flashpoints included rampant proliferation of fake and harmful content against India and the platform’s ‘discriminatory’ practices in dealing with them, as well as no action being taken on a type of coronavirus being called the ‘Indian variant’.

    IT Minister had earlier said that it is “astounding” that Twitter, that portrays itself as the flag bearer of free speech, chooses the path of deliberate defiance when it comes to the intermediary guidelines.

    The ministry has called out Twitter on a number of occasions for attempting to dictate terms to the world’s largest democracy.

    “Twitter needs to stop beating around the bush and comply with the laws of the land,” IT Ministry has stated in the past.

  • Encounter breaks out between security forces, militants in Jammu and Kashmir’s Parimpora

    By PTI
    SRINAGAR: An encounter broke out between security forces and militants in Parimpora area of the city here on Monday, police said.

    The encounter started at Malhoora in the area of the city, a police official said.

    The exchange of fire is going on and further details are awaited.

  • Terrorism reduced in Ladakh after becoming UT: Rajnath Singh

    By ANI
    LADAKH: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday said terrorism has reduced in Ladakh after it became a Union territory.

    “After becoming a Union territory, terrorism has reduced in Ladakh. There is mutual coordination among the Army, paramilitary forces and local police. We have data and figures that terrorism has reduced here,” said the Minister.

    Singh also revealed that many people had doubted the intention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi when Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh became a union territory by calling it a “political vested interest”.

    He also informed that the Centre wants to re-start the political process quickly in both regions.

    “After Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh were made Union Territories, many doubted the intention of Prime Minister as political vested interest. But he wants the political process to start in both regions. He spoke to political leaders of Jammu and Kashmir and will speak to leaders in Ladakh soon,” he added.

    Raksha Mantri also lauded the Army and said, “Our Army is sensitive as well. Even if the terrorists want to surrender and want to get into the mainstream then they are also given this opportunity.”

    Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday inaugurated 63 infrastructure projects constructed by the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) from Ladakh.

    Singh is currently in Leh for a three-day visit to Ladakh.