Srinagar, April 20: Five soldiers were killed and another injured in a militant attack in Poonch district, army said on Thursday.
“Today, at approximately 1500 hours, one Army vehicle, moving between Bhimber Gali and Poonch in the Rajauri sector was fired on by unidentified (militants), taking advantage of heavy rains and low visibility in the area. The vehicle caught fire, due to likely use of grenades by (militants),” army said in a statement.
“Five personnel of the Rashtriya Rifles Unit deployed for Counter Terrorist operations, in this area, have unfortunately lost their lives in the incident,” it said, adding, “Another seriously injured soldier was evacuated immediately to the Army Hospital at Rajouri and is under treatment.” Operations are in progress to locate the perpetrators, the army said. “Further details are being ascertained.” (GNS)
SRINAGAR: In a heart wrenching incident, street dogs attacked an eight year old boy in the Awantipora area of south Kashmir’s Pulwama district.
The minor, who is undergoing treatment at SMHS was attacked by a pack of 20 dogs near his home and sustained major injuries on his entire body.
Expressing his anguish over the incident, Dr Salim Khan Professor and HOD Community Medicine GMC Srinagar, wrote on his twiiter handle, “What could be more horrendous and human rights violation when a pack of 20 dogs tried to devour a young boy in Awantipora. SHAME ON THOSE DOG ACTIVISTS WHO KEEP THEIR RIGHTS ABOVE THOSE OF HUMANS.”
Meanwhile, the boy has been identified as Harris Khursheed Mir (08) son of Khursheed Ahmad a resident of Awantipora area of Pulwama district.
Noida: In a shocking incident, a woman, walking her pet dog in a park inside a posh Noida society, had to flee for her life after she was attacked by a pack by stray dogs, as per a video that has gone viral.
The incident was reported from Mahagun Moderne Society in Sector 78 on Tuesday evening, as per information available. The video shows the woman running a considerable distance to reach safety, while holding her pet dog in her arms, as the stray dogs continue to chase her and try to bite her.
As per the video, shot by a resident and shared on social media, the woman had entered the society park with her dog when it was attacked by the strays, and as she tried to protect it, the stray dogs attacked her too.
Disturbing scenes from Noida’s Mahagun Mezzaria Society where stray dogs attack a woman and her pet.
Thanks to the Dog Lovers in every such society where they neither adopt them nor they’ll allow others to evict them from the complex.https://t.co/rSYRvyhfOv
The viral video has garnered many reactions with people saying that they are not safe in societies as well, while the menace of stray dogs outside is always there.
In the previous days, several cases of dog bites had been reported, after which some local authorities slapped fines on dog-owners whose pets had attacked others. However, no concrete action has been taken in this matter.
Bengaluru: With the political temperature rising in Karnataka for the May 10 assembly polls, the BJP has sharpened its attack on the Congress with Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai stating that the opposition party has shown special love for Lingayat community after the elections were announced and pursued “divide and rule policy”.
BJP president JP Nadda, who was in Karnataka, also attacked the Congress and accused its leader and former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah of being “patron” of PFI.
“Former CM Siddaramaiah from Congress party withdrew cases against PFI, released 1,700 PFI activists from jail…Siddaramaiah is their patron…,” Nadda said in Hubballi. The Centre banned the Popular Front of India (PFI) in September last year.
The Congress on Tuesday announced its candidate against Chief Minister Bommai from Shiggaon. The party has fielded Mohammed Yousuf Savanur from the seat. The party announced seven candidates on Tuesday and fielded former Karnataka Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar from Hubli-Dharwad-Central.
Jagadish Shettar’s resignation from BJP and his joining Congress on Monday has made Hubballi-Dharwad Central a key battle in the assembly polls. Shettar, a six-time MLA, represented the seat in the outgoing assembly and was keen to be given a ticket from the constituency.
He is the second senior leader from the Lingayat community to leave the ruling BJP and join Congress in less than a week. Former Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister Laxman Savadi had joined the Congress on Friday.
Basavaraj Bommai said voters from the Lingayat community “are vigilant and “have taken right decision when required”.
“Lingayat voters in Karnataka are vigilant and they have always taken the right decision when required. Congress Party has shown special love for them (Lingayat) after the Assembly elections were announced but it’s the same party which tried to divide the Lingayats and Veerashaivas. The people have not forgotten the divide-and-rule policy of the Congress party,” Bommai told reporters.
“All those leaders who joined Congress during the election would not make any impact on the BJP’s prospects. This time, the BJP will win more seats than in the 2018 Assembly polls,” he added.
Nadda, who also interacted with intellectuals in Dharwad, slammed the Congress saying that the party that “divided the country for seven decades is now itself divided”
“In the 70 years of Congress (rule) there was division, division, division and only division. Divide society as much as you can– north-south, language, caste, creed, religion. The fact is, by dividing and dividing, they themselves are divided now. BJP is unity in diversity,” Nadda said.
“In Tamil Nadu, 60 years back, they (Congress) were uprooted, till then they haven’t returned in the State. In kerala, they used to rule, but now they have shrunk from there too. In Karnataka, the fight is going on,” Nadda said.”You (Congress) were (in government) in Andhra Pradesh, in Telangana, you ruled both the States and now you have been wiped out from both the States,” he added.
He also spoke of the country’s development and foreign policy under the Modi government and referred to the de-hyphenation of India and Pakistan.
“Whenever any country spoke of India, it used to say ‘India-Pakistan’ together. Today, none of the countries mentions Pakistan, when it speaks of India. It’s because India moved ahead and Pakistan remained where it was,” he said.
BJP’s chief is on a two-day visit to the southern state. Union Home Minister Amit Shah will embark on a visit to Karnataka from April 21. He will be in Davanagere on April 21 and in Devanahalli on April 22.
Shah is expected to attend Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) organisational meetings in the run-up to the polls. Sources said Shah will meet the top BJP leaders in the state and hold a core group meeting.
Shah will also chair a meeting of the Election Campaign Committee and give his inputs to the team. He is also likely to chair a meeting of the Election Management Committee.
Meanwhile, former Congress MP B V Nayak has quit the party, after being denied a ticket to Devadurga constituency. Ticket has been given to his brother’s wife.
New Delhi: Nearly a month after the national flag at the Indian high commission in London was pulled down during a protest by pro-Khalistan activists, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) took over the case to investigate the matter, sources said.
According to inputs, the case was handed over to the NIA by the Counter Terrorism and Counter Radicalization (CTCR) division of the Ministry of Home Affairs a few days back.
The anti-terror agency registered a First Information Report (FIR) based on the orders of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and began its probe.
The agency took over the case from Delhi Police, which registered an FIR in the matter under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and is currently investigating it.
The MHA took the decision to hand over the case to the NIA following a meeting with UK representatives last week, the sources indicated.
It is learnt that a special team of the NIA, including a Deputy Inspector General rank officer, may visit London “very soon”, said a source privy to the development.
A tricolour flying atop the Indian High Commission in London was grabbed at by a group of protesters waving separatist Khalistani flags and chanting pro-Khalistani slogans on March 19.
The national flag was pulled down during the protest by pro-Khalistani elements. Videos of the incident showed several protesters carrying the yellow and black Khalistan flag and calling for radical Sikh preacher and Khalistan sympathiser Amritpal Singh to be “freed”.
The videos showed one of the protesters clambering onto a balcony and pulling down the Indian flag from a pole at the front of the high commission to cheers from the other men. British policemen arrived on the scene and prevented the protestors from approaching an entrance of the Indian high commission. The protesters shouted slogans and abused Indian officials within, the videos showed.
Centre amended the NIA Act in August 2019, empowering the agency to investigate terror activities against Indians and Indian interests abroad apart from cyber crimes and human trafficking.
In the fifth India-UK Home Affairs Dialogue held on April 12, India raised concerns on the misuse of the UK’s asylum status by the Pro-Khalistani elements aid and abet terrorist activities here and requested better cooperation with the UK and increased monitoring of UK based Pro-Khalistan Extremists and take appropriate proactive action.
India also pointed out its concerns over the breach of security of the Indian High Commission.
Both sides reviewed the ongoing cooperation and identified further steps that can be taken to explore opportunities and synergies in advancing cooperation in counter-terrorism, cyber security and global supply chains, drug trafficking, migration, extradition, and anti-India activities in the UK including Pro-Khalistan Extremism among other issues.
The Indian delegation was led by Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla and the UK delegation was led by Permanent Secretary, of Home Office, Sir Matthew Rycroft. The meeting was also attended by other senior officials of both countries.
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) last month summoned the UK deputy high commissioner after pro-Khalistan protestors took down the Indian flag at the high commission in London. The pro-Khalistan groups were protesting against the Punjab police’s crackdown on Sikh hardliner Amritpal Singh.
London: China would probably establish air superiority very rapidly in any attack on Taiwan, according to leaked US intelligence assessments that raise disturbing questions about the self-ruled island’s military readiness, media reports said.
The documents emerged as G7 foreign ministers met to discuss a common China strategy and Beijing briefly halted flights over part of the East China Sea on Sunday.
The classified documents seen by the Washington Post reveal that Taiwan’s military leaders doubt their air defences can “accurately detect missile launches” and that only about half of the island’s aircraft are capable of effectively engaging the enemy.
The documents also said Taiwan feared moving its aircraft to shelters could take up to a week, leaving them vulnerable to missile strikes, and that China’s use of civilian ships for military purposes was hampering US intelligence’s ability to predict an invasion, The Guardian reported.
Pentagon analysts concluded China’s air force would find it far easier to establish early air superiority than Russia did in its invasion of Ukraine, it added.
China views Taiwan as part of its territory to be retaken one day, by force if necessary. Chinese President Xi Jinping has expanded and modernised the People’s Liberation Army and China’s armed forces are thought to be 14 times the size of Taiwan’s.
Taiwan’s Defence Ministry said in a statement to the Washington Post that it “respects outside opinions about its military preparedness” but its response to recent Chinese military exercises showed officers were “absolutely capable, determined and confident”.
Taiwan last week staged large-scale emergency response drills enacting scenarios including missile and chemical weapons attacks, after China held its latest military exercises around the island, 100 miles (160km) off the Chinese mainland.
Flights out of northern Taiwan were delayed on Sunday morning after China launched a satellite rocket that dropped debris into waters north of the capital, Taipei. Taiwan’s Defence Ministry said the incident posed no threat to “our nation’s territory”, The Guardian reported.
Satya Pal Malik, the last Governor of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir who oversaw heightened times that include the abrogation of Article 370, stated in an interview that the Prime Minister squelched him by saying “tum abhi chup raho” when he as governor reported that the Centre’s own mistakes were to blame for the Pulwama massacre.
Malik also said that the Prime Minister is ‘ill-informed’ and ‘does not hate corruption very much’ in an interview with journalist Karan Thapar for The Wire news portal that was posted on Friday night.
Malik mentioned the bombing of the CRPF convoy in Pulwama in February 2019 which claimed the lives of 40 jawans and was turned into an election issue by the BJP in the interview.
“CRPF members requested an aircraft to transport their members because such a sizable convoy seldom travels by road. They enquired the home ministry. They refused to give. They only required 5 aircraft, but they weren’t provided with any,” Malik said.
He recalled the Prime Minister calling him on the evening of February 14, 2019, from outside the Corbett National Park in Uttarakhand.
“I told it to the PM the same evening. This is our fault. Had we given aircraft then this would not have happened. (To that), he told me, “Tum abhi chup raho….’ I had already said this to a couple of channels. He said, ‘Yeh sab mat bolo, yeh koi aur cheez hai. Hame bolne do….’
Malik also said that the National security advisor Ajit Doval also asked him to stay quiet. “Yeh sab mat boliye. Aap chup rahiye (Don’t say all this. Stay quiet)….’ Mujhe lag gaya tha ki ab yeh sara onus Pakistan ke taraf jana hai toh ‘chup rahiye’ (I feelthat the onus was shifted to Pakistan, so ‘stay quiet’),” Malik said.
He said that none of the link roads to the highway where the convoy was travelling had been blocked, blaming the CRPF and the Union home ministry.
“It was 100% an intelligence failure,” the former governor stated. He further stated that the vehicle that crashed into the convoy was travelling through the nearby villages for 10–12 days prior to the explosion while carrying an estimated 300kg of explosives without being seen.
He claimed that even though Pakistan was the only place where such a massive amount of explosives could have arrived, the deaths were due to these security failings.
When the interviewer asked the former Governor if the Prime Minister used the Pulwama issue for the sake of the upcoming general election, Satyapal Malik just smiled. “Ha ya Na.. kuch nahi kar raha hu,” he added.
Malik stated that while not being informed beforehand of the Modi administration’s intention to revoke the state’s special status, he was aware of it because it had been discussed and was on the agenda.
“Just a day before (the abrogation of special status under Article 370), I got a call from the home minister saying he was sending me a letter that I needed to get passed by the committee and send by 11 a.m. the next day,” Malik explained.
Malik further said that if he had been consulted, he would have advocated against reducing Jammu and Kashmir to a Union Territory. He speculated that this was done because the Centre feared an uprising and wanted the police under its control.
Malik stated he found Modi ‘ill-informed’ during their conversations on Kashmir in 2018, after Modi had already been in power for four years.
Malik rehashed past claims of corruption in an insurance contract and a power project that he had halted as governor in the interview. In conjunction with his charges, he implicated a business, a former Jammu and Kashmir minister, and RSS leader Ram Madhav. For these claims, Ram Madhav has filed a defamation suit against Malik.
“I can safely say that the PM does not hate corruption very much,” Malik claimed, adding that he was relocated from Goa, where he was governor, a week after complaining to Modi about suspected corruption there.
However, he claimed that the Prime Minister had supported him when he stopped the ‘dodgy’ projects in Jammu and Kashmir.
Malik further stated that despite a recommendation for Z+ security and a residence for him due to an alleged danger from Pakistan, he is now protected by a single cop. “Sarkar chahti hai saale ko koi maar de,” he said when asked about the absence of protection.
“If we could only work honestly in Kashmir. We never had free and fair elections there. We rigged the results. We don’t elicit trust because of these tricks,” he remarked.
Malik disputed charges made by former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti that he denied her an audience to lay a claim to lead the government when he dissolved the J&K Assembly in 2018.
“I was not in contact with him (Modi),” he explained. It was Eid and there was no one in my office to operate the fax machine or anything else. I was in Delhi at the time. I arrived at 4 p.m. My chief secretary and our intelligence head arrived and informed me that there is a majority and that if they submit the letter, I will administer the oath. But what exactly is the rule? Twitter is not where governments are formed,” he remarked.
“I dissolved the Assembly after 8 p.m,” Malik stated. “She had the entire day to herself. There are three flights every day between Srinagar and Jammu. We are heading to Delhi and will decide tomorrow,’ stated Farooq Abdullah Sahab’s party. Ghulam Nabi Azad has not said unequivocally that they will support it. Only Mehbooba stated that she had a majority. There was horse trading going on at a large scale. She herself had complained and demanded that the Assembly be dissolved soon, ‘Our MLAs are being poached, we are being pressurised’. Farooq himself used to complain..if they were incompetent, I am not responsible for that..Of course, she is lying. She never called me in that period of time,” he added
Malik remarked that the Adani-Hindenburg row would be to the Modi government’s detriment if the opposition comes together for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
“It’s (the Adani-Hindenburg scandal) an election issue. If they (the Modi government) do not improve, the Adani (row) will destroy them. If the opposition has a one-on-one debate, they (the Modi government) will not be rescued. He (the PM) couldn’t say anything in his defence,” Malik remarked.
New Delhi: The fear of Pegasus-style spyware attack resurfaced on Tuesday after researchers at Microsoft and the digital rights group Citizen Lab identified new victims in North America, Central Asia, Southeast Asia, Europe, and the Middle East — once again from an Israel-based spyware maker.
Hackers used QuaDream spyware to send malicious calendar invites and hack the iPhones of journalists, political opposition figures, and an NGO worker.
“Based on an analysis of samples shared with us by Microsoft Threat Intelligence, we developed indicators that enabled us to identify at least five civil society victims of QuaDream’s spyware,” Citizen Lab said in a statement.
The researchers identified traces of a suspected iOS 14 zero-click exploit used to deploy QuaDream’s spyware.
The exploit was deployed as a zero-day against iOS versions 14.4 and 14.4.2, and possibly other versions.
“The suspected exploit, which we call ‘ENDOFDAYS’, appears to make use of invisible iCloud calendar invitations sent from the spyware’s operator to victims,” said Citizen Lab of the University of Toronto’s Munk School.
Microsoft Threat Intelligence analysts named the threat group “DEV-0196” linked to Israel-based private sector offensive actor (PSOA) known as QuaDream.
QuaDream reportedly sells a platform they call REIGN to governments for law enforcement purposes. REIGN is a suite of exploits, malware, and infrastructure designed to exfiltrate data from mobile devices.
Like NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware, REIGN reportedly utilises zero-click exploits to hack into target devices.
“Citizen Lab was able to identify operator locations for QuaDream systems in the following countries: Bulgaria, Czechia, Hungary, Ghana, Israel, Mexico, Romania, Singapore, United Arab Emirates, and Uzbekistan,” the tech giant revealed.
QuaDream has had a partnership with a Cypriot company called InReach, with whom it is currently embroiled in a legal dispute.
“Numerous key individuals associated with both companies have prior connections with another surveillance vendor, Verint, as well as Israeli intelligence agencies,” the reports mentioned.
An Apple spokesperson was quoted as saying in a TechCrunch report that “there’s no evidence showing the exploit discovered by Microsoft and Citizen Lab has been used after March 2021, when the company released an update”.
QuaDream was mentioned in a December 2022 report from Meta, which reportedly took down 250 accounts associated with the company.
According to the report, Meta observed QuaDream testing its ability to exploit iOS and Android mobile devices with the intent “to exfiltrate various types of data including messages, images, video and audio files, and geolocation”.
Islamabad: Amid a surge in attacks by the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has said that the banned militant group was still using Afghan soil to carry out attacks inside the country, a media report said on Tuesday.
Asif expressed his concern at the TTP using neighbouring Afghanistan for terrorism in an interview with the Voice of America on Monday, the Dawn newspaper reported.
“TTP is using (the) Afghan soil even today for attacks in our country, especially Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,” the minister said, adding that Pakistan enjoys good ties with the interim Taliban government.
Asif’s remarks come as Pakistan has witnessed a surge in TTP violence since peace talks between the militant group and the government began to falter in the latter half of last year.
The TTP formally ended the ceasefire on November 28 and has executed more than 100 attacks since then.
Many of these attacks were planned and directed by the militant group’s leadership based in Afghanistan.
During the interview, Asif recalled that the issue of increased attacks by the TTP was brought to the notice of the Afghan Taliban rulers during his recent visit to Kabul.
Earlier this year, a Pakistani delegation comprising of Asif, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Director General Lt Gen Nadeem Anjum, Foreign Secretary Asad Majeed Khan, Charge d’Affaires to Afghanistan Ubaidur Rehman Nizamani and Pakistan’s Special Representative for Afghanistan Mohammad Sadiq visited the Afghan capital for talks on security-related matters, including counter-terrorism measures.
“(In the meeting) The (Afghan) Taliban had expressed their determination to deal with this problem and said that they won’t allow their land to be used for terrorism as per the Doha Agreement,” the minister said in the interview.
According to the report, Asif said the Afghan Taliban and TTP shared a “camaraderie” because they have been fighting against NATO for the past 20 years.
“According to my information on TTP militants, between 7,000 to 8,000 of them have been involved in the war against Nato with the Afghan Taliban,” the defence minister was quoted as saying.
“In this context, there is a camaraderie between the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban which was also seen in their (Afghan Taliban’s) words during our meetings that they are not in a position to oppose them (TTP), but they also want to help Pakistan,” he added.
Asif also said that the banned militant group was equipped with advanced weapons, such as night vision goggles left behind by the American forces when they withdrew from Afghanistan in August 2021.
Talking about the recent protests in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province against rising militancy, the minister said the province’s residents were not ready to “co-exist” with the TTP.
“It is remarkable that people are protesting unarmed against the return of the Taliban (in Pakistan). These people have been poisoned by the Taliban in the past as well, Asif said.
“What is encouraging is that people protested of their own will. They did not protest in the past. They have realised that they don’t want to live with the TTP, considering the peaceful life they have lived in the last eight to 10 years,” he added.
The minister also admitted that due to the political situation in Pakistan, protests against militancy in several areas of the country were often overlooked by the media.
In response to a question, the minister said there was no difference between the TTP and the Afghan Taliban.
“But according to our talks with the Afghan Taliban it seems that they want to distance themselves from the TTP,” Asif pointed out, adding that the Afghan Taliban were “politically astute” people.
Asif’s remarks came days after the National Security Committee (NSC) – the principal decision-making body on national security matters – agreed to launch an “all-out comprehensive operation” to rid the country of the menace of terrorism, the report said. PTI SH
Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said he would increase security at G7 meetings taking place in his country, a day after a man threw a smoke bomb at him at a campaign event.
Kishida was campaigning Saturday ahead of next week’s by-elections for the Japanese parliament when an explosive device was hurled toward him. Footage on Twitter appeared to show a bodyguard kicking a smoke bomb away from the prime minister and bundling him away, after the device landed near them. A 24-year-old man was arrested at the scene.
Japan will host the leaders of the Group of Seven most industrialized nations at a summit in Hiroshima next month.
On Sunday, speaking after emerging unscathed from the smoke bomb incident, CNN quoted Kishida as saying: “Japan as a whole must strive to provide maximum security during the dates of the summit and other gatherings of dignitaries from around the world.”
G7 foreign ministers are meeting Sunday for a three-day conference in Karuizawa, where they are expected to discuss China’s aggression toward Taiwan, Russia’s war in Ukraine, and North Korea’s missile testing. G7 climate ministers, meanwhile, are completing a two-day meeting in Sapporo.
The Kishida incident had eerie echoes of the shocking assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe last July.
