Jammu: A leopard killed nearly a dozen sheep in the Gurha Slathia area of Jammu and Kashmir’s Samba district on Sunday, police officials said.
Joint teams have been formed and traps placed to capture the big cat, they said.
The leopard ventured into the Ghar Mandi locality of Gurha Slathia from the nearby forest area and attacked a herd of goats, they said, adding that while eight goats were found dead on the spot, three others are missing and are believed to have been taken away by the animal.
A couple of days back, a girl sustained serious injuries after being attacked by a leopard near the Parmandal area.
The wildlife department has been informed about the frequent visit of leopards in the villages adjoining the forest area, officials said, adding that the animal will be caught soon.
SRINAGAR: Security forces have detained more than dozen persons in connection with the investigation of a case involving Thursday’s militant attack on an army vehicle on the national highway in Poonch in which five army personnel lost their lives.
The attack was carried out in the dense forests between Bhata Dhurian and Bhimber Gali. An army vehicle was moving towards Bhata Dhurian and it was ambushed by militants and the vehicle caught fire.
Quoting officials, KNO reported that the questioning of the detained people is going on.
On the other hand, the search operation launched in the area entered the second day with more teams of the army and police being deployed.
Vehicular movement on the national highway 144-A, which connects Jammu with Rajouri and Poonch districts, has also been been suspended on the 25-kilometre stretch from Bhimber Gali to Bhata Dhurian.
Police have put up barricades both on the Bhimber Gali side and Jarran Wali Gali side of the highway, blocking it for the movement of vehicles.
Director General of Police (DGP) Dilbagh Singh as well as a high-level team of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) visited the army vehicle attack site. The NIA team examined the site and reviewed the overall circumstances.
The DGP was accompanied by ADG Jammu zone Mukesh Singh. He later reached Rajouri where he chaired a series of meetings with security force officers and reviewed the overall security situation and aggressive counter-militancy operations launched in the region.
The fallen soldiers include Hav Mandeep Singh, L/NK Kulwant Singh, Sep Harkrishan Singh and Sep Sewak Singh, all natives of Punjab and L/NK Debashish Biswal, a native of Odisha.
Army on Friday also held a wreath-laying ceremony for five soldiers who lost their lives. The wreath laying was held in Army’s General Hospital Rajouri. Senior officers from the army, police and civil administration also offered tributes to these soldiers.
SRINAGAR: At least sixteen women were injured after a house collapsed in Khanetar village of Poonch district on Thursday.
Quoting an official, KNO reported that the incident happened when people had assembled in the house of Zakir Hussain Shah of Khanetar village to mourn death of a family member.
He said that due to heavy load amid large presence of mourners, roof of the house collapsed, resulting in injuries to 16 women.
The injured have been rushed to a hospital for treatment, he said. (KNO)
New Delhi: The Income Tax Department has identified about two dozen ‘benami’ assets worth Rs 127 crore of gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari in Uttar Pradesh and other locations as part of a “comprehensive” action against him and his associates, sources said Wednesday.
The department’s Lucknow benami assets investigation unit on Tuesday attached the first benami property in this case, a land parcel located in Ghazipur district worth about Rs 1.29 crore (book value). The market value of this property is about 12 crore, according to an attachment order of the department.
The benamidar (in whose name a benami property is standing) in this case has been identified as an alleged associate and neighbour of Ansari, Ganesh D Mishra while the “beneficial owner” has been named as Ansari in the attachment order.
Benami means ‘no name’ or ‘without name’ and such properties are those in which the real beneficiary is not the one in whose name the property has been purchased.
The attachment order, issued under the provisions of the Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Amendment Act of 2016, has been passed under the name and seal of Deputy Commissioner of I-T Alok K Singh under Additional Commissioner of the I-T (Benami Prohibition Unit) Dhruvpurari Singh.
The department, the sources said, followed the “documents and money trail” in this case after going through multiple FIRs filed by the UP Police against Ansari, checking land records and numerous bank documents and it was found that Mishra had allegedly furnished a personal bond of Rs 90 lakh and had also pledged his property for a Rs 1.60 crore loan taken by a company in which Ansari’s wife and son are shareholders.
The sources said the I-T department has launched a “comprehensive” action against Ansari and his associates and has codenamed the operation of identifying his alleged benami assets and finances as ‘Operation Panther’.
The department, as per the sources, is in the process of attaching the rest 22 benami properties of Ansari which are estimated to be bearing a market value of over Rs 100 crore.
Ansari, a five-time former MLA, is lodged in a jail at Banda in Uttar Pradesh.
Apart from the I-T department, he is being investigated by the Enforcement Directorate too on money laundering charges.
Ansari faces as many as 49 criminal cases that have been booked against him and aides on charges of land grabbing, murder and extortion.
SRINAGAR: A porcupine that has been causing damage to the trees and orchards in the village of Gurwait Kalan in the Khansahib area of Budgam district has been caught by Hilal Ahmad Najar, a local resident.
Najar was able to do so on his own, prompting some locals to question why the department had not been more effective. The residents reported spotting over a dozen porcupines in the area, all of which have been causing damage to crops and vegetation.
“We appeal wildlife department to rescue us from this havoc of porcupines” locals said.
SRINAGAR: Jammu and Kashmir Sunday reported 19 fresh cases of Covid-19, taking the number of active cases to 148 while no death was reported in the last 24 hours.
Quoting an official, KNO reported that among 19 new cases, 18 have been reported from Kashmir division and one from Jammu division.
He said that the total number of positive cases in Kashmir have reached to 305,631 including 303,074 recoveries and 2,433 deaths, while total number of positive cases in Jammu division have reached to 174,129 including 171,753 recoveries and 2,352 deaths.
He further said that the total number of active cases in Jammu and Kashmir are 148 including 124 from Kashmir division and 24 from Jammu division.
“Among the fresh 19 cases today, 06 are from Srinagar, 01 from Baramulla, 04 from Budgam,01 from Kupwara, 01 from Bandipora, 04 from Ganderbal and 01 from Kulgam in Kashmir division and one from Ramban in Jammu division,” he said.
New Delhi: More than three dozen towns and villages of nine states — from Delhi to Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat to Assam — have become cyber crime hotspots which are being closely monitored by law enforcement agencies, sources said on Tuesday.
Besides, a number of hostile countries have been trying for long to cripple India’s financial system and national security grid where additional preventive measures are put in place by the government.
The states where the cyber crime hotspots have been located include Haryana, Delhi, Jharkhand, Bihar, West Bengal, Assam, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh, they said.
The emerging cyber crime hotspot cities, towns and villages are: Mewat, Bhiwani, Nuh, Palwal, Manota, Hasanpur, Hathan Gaon (all in Haryana), Ashok Nagar, Uttam Nagar, Shakarpur, Harkesh Nagar, Okhla, Azadpur (all in Delhi), Banka, Begusarai, Jamui, Nawada, Nalanda, Gaya (Bihar), Barpeta, Dhubri, Goalpara, Morigaon, Nagaon (Assam), Jamtara, Deoghar (Jharkhand), Asansol, Durgapur (West Bengal), Ahmedabad, Surat (Gujarat), Azamgarh (Uttar Pradesh) and Chittoor (Andhra Pradesh).
The foreign cyber attackers mostly belong to countries like China, Pakistan and T rkiye, sources said.
Ramban/Jammu: Over a dozen residential houses were damaged in a massive landslide in a remote village in Jammu and Kashmir’s Ramban district, rendering 13 families homeless, officials said on Sunday.
The affected families were shifted to safer locations and provided immediate relief, while the main road passing near the village was closed for vehicular traffic after developing cracks, they said.
The incident that took place in Duksar Dal village in Gool sub-division, 45 km from Ramban district headquarters, comes barely a fortnight after 19 residential houses, a mosque, and a religious school for girls developed cracks due to land sinking at Nai Basti village of Doda district.
“A total of 13 houses were damaged and rendered uninhabitable due to the landslide at Duksar Dal over the past three days. The affected families were shifted and provided tents, ration, utensils and blankets as immediate relief,” Sub-Divisional Magistrate Gool Tanveer-ul-Majeed Wani told PTI.
He said the land started sliding on Friday, also affecting a local graveyard following which the mortal remains of a local were exhumed and later buried at another place.
“We are monitoring the situation and have placed restrictions for the time being on the movement of people in the area as the land is still sinking. The experts from Geological Survey of India (GSI) are visiting the place within the next couple of days to inspect the scene and look for the reasons for the sudden landslide,” the officer said.
He said the affected families would be provided compensation from the State Disaster Management Fund as per laid down norms within the shortest possible time.
The SDM said the main road connecting Gool and Sangaldan was closed after it also developed cracks and Border Roads Organisation (BRO) was requested to make the alternate road motorable to facilitate movement of people and defence vehicles.
Raqeeb Wani, the local sarpanch, said “The people are in a panic as we have never witnessed such a thing in the past. We are thankful to the district administration for the quick response and we are hopeful that all the affected families will be suitably rehabilitated.”
He said agricultural and horticulture land was also hit by the landslide and the farmers needed to be provided adequate compensation for the loss of fruit bearing trees.
Meanwhile, a three-member team from the National Institute of Disaster Management headed by Professor Surya Prakash visited Nai Basti village of Tharthri for a survey on Sunday, officials said.
Earlier, several other teams including experts from the GSI also inspected the affected village to ascertain the underlying factors for the development of cracks in the concrete structures.
Srinagar, Feb 01(GNS): Authorities on Wednesday sealed around two dozen shops at Aftab market in Srinagar.
“Eviction notices to the occupants were already served but they failed to vacate on their own after which we sealed the shop”, an official said.
Reports reaching GNS said that Revenue officials accompanied by police reached the market and sealed the shops.
Meanwhile, shopkeepers held a protest claiming that they have been paying rent to the Srinagar Municipal Corporation. They said that they had been earning their livelihood for decades. “These shops have been in existence for more than five decades. The action by the government is tantamount to snatching our livelihood,” a shopkeeper said and urged the government to revisit the decision.
“Only a few days back, we got eviction notices, saying this was a private property. If that is the case, then where was this private person from 1970 till now,” another shopkeeper said and urged authorities not to “snatch” their means of sustenance. (GNS)
SRINAGAR: In last year’s Jammu and Kashmir Administrative Services examination, the result of which was declared last week, a dozen students enrolled with the Initiative for Competition Promotion (ICP) cracked the coveted examination.
An ICP event in which the civil services aspirants are being made aware of the syllabus and methodology
The ICP, a registered trust, was home to 35 students for a year when they were being trained by a few bureaucrats who run the centre for free. The centre provides mentoring and coaching to civil services aspirants.
“I enrolled in the interview programme of ICP and it helped me to qualify for the exams. It is a good initiative in Kashmir as people lack guidance and environment which is available in Delhi and even in Jammu,” Saqib Rashid, a professional engineer, who secured 10th rank in the recent examination said. “The Institution provides hostel and library facilities for students from far-flung areas. These students get an environment to study which they lack at their homes.”
Besides, nearly two dozen other lateral candidates from different regions of the UT, who were trained for the interview programme through offline and online orientation classes, expert lectures and mock interviews, have also made it to the service.
Riyaz Ahmad Rather, who secured 104th rank in the JKAS exam recently said, “Honestly saying, I was groomed at ICP, I was a full-time resident from the last three years. They provide services at minimal charges; it has a suitable environment for doubt clearance. One gets admission to the resident programme only after qualifying entrance exam. Students qualifying mains exam are then admitted to the interview programme.”
ICP conducts screening test for free coaching program for Civil Services Exam-2020
Yasir Farooq, who secured 120th rank in the examination said, “I owe my selection to ICP. I appeared in KAS 2018 but failed to go through. ICP played the most important role in my selection. I enrolled in 2018 till I qualified. They provide accommodation, test series and guidance. The teachers treat us like their own children. I had an issue with answer writing but the teachers used to evaluate my answers which helped me a lot. I have also twice appeared in the mains examination of the Indian Administrative Services.”
This year a fair number of female candidates from the ICP made it to the final list of JKAS. Saima Ahad from Gandebal secured 26th rank; Rakshan Peerzada and Hafsa Mohidin placed 31st and 130th in rank respectively this year. Zarqa Naquib, who has secured 74th rank also took regular guidance from ICP.
Even though ICP doesn’t have a centre in Jammu, many aspirants from the Jammu division had also enrolled at the centre in Srinagar.
In 2022, nearly 30 outstation students from Jammu and Delhi also availed the benefit of ICP’s Interview Mentorship Programme, an initiative aimed at preparing for the crucial personality test stage of the examination.
Every year 35 aspirants from across the length and breadth of Jammu and Kashmir enrol with the centre at Raj Bagh. The ICP trust has two small guest houses where all the services including lodging, teaching and library facilities are provided free of cost.
The aspirants are guided by the officers to help them to achieve their civil service dream. Besides the residential coaching programme, the academy also conducts classroom coaching, Test series and regular awareness campaigns about a career in the civil services are conducted at Centre.
