Archives for November 2018

 The Jammu and Kashmir Police on Wednesday confirmed the killing of LeT commander Naveed Jatt, who was wanted for the murder of senior journalist Shujaat Bukhari, in Badgam district and called the Pakistani’s elimination “good news”.

Director General of Police Dilbag Singh said: “Yes, we have ground confirmation that one of the two terrorists killed in the Badgam encounter was Naveed Jatt.”

Naveed Jatt alias Abu Hanzullah was the most wanted Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) commander in Kashmir. He was wanted for the murder of “Rising Kashmir” Editor Bukhari in Srinagar on June 14.

Bukhari was killed by militants along with two of his security guards. Police believe Naveed Jatt was among the three militants who carried out the crime.

Belonging to Multan in Pakistan, Naveed Jatt had escaped from police custody on February 6 when he was taken for a medical check-up from the Srinagar Central Jail to S.M.H.S. Hospital in the city.

Two policemen were killed during Jatt’s escape from the hospital.

Dilbag Singh told the media: “More than two dozen militants have been killed in the last one week. They would lift boys and force them to join militancy. They would also torture them.

“Their elimination is good news for the peace-loving people.

“For the last two months, no new youth has joined militancy in the Valley. That is a welcome development.”

The police chief said that security forces do their best to ensure that civilians were not harmed during anti-militancy operations.

“Stone pelting incidents have come down. Lesser the number of militants, better for the people. Youths should desist from going to encounter sites.

“The militant outfits are unable to recruit more youths. With fresh infiltration, sometimes the number of militants operating here goes up,” he said.

The killing of Naveed Jatt is seen as a major success for the security forces.

Naveed Jatt was operating in south and central Kashmir. Intelligence agencies believe he was playing a major role in trying to woo youths towards militancy.

IANS

TDP founder N.T. Rama Rao’s granddaughter N. Venkata Suhasini, who is contesting the Telangana Assembly election from Kukatpally constituency in Greater Hyderabad, is banking on her lineage.

The presence of Suhasini in the electoral fray in Telangana is significant as the top leadership of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) moved to Andhra Pradesh following the bifurcation of the undivided state.

TDP has fielded Suhasini, daughter of former Minister N. Harikrishna, who died in a road accident this year.

Suhasini, 43, is a social activist and is banking on her lineage to win the election from this prestigious constituency, which has considerable a number of voters with their roots in Andhra Pradesh.

However, the family of the late actor-turned-politician NTR stands divided in the campaigning.

Suhasini’s aunt and Union Minister N. Purandeswari hit the campaign trail in Kukatpally not for her niece but for M. Kantha Rao, the candidate of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Purandeswari, daughter of NTR, was a Minister in the UPA government but she quit the Congress party and joined the BJP after the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh.

The TDP, which is part of opposition grand alliance led by the Congress, is contesting 13 seats in the December 7 election to the 119-member Telangana Assembly.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and TDP president N. Chandrababu Naidu is expected to campaign for Suhasini. Naidu is the son-in-law of NTR.

Paritala Sunita, a Minister in Naidu’s cabinet, was in the constituency to conduct road shows in support of Suhasini.

NTR’s actor son and TDP legislator N. Balakrishna has already announced that he will campaign for his niece. Suhasini’s brothers and popular actors Junior NTR and Kalyan Ram are also likely to address meetings in her support.

Suhasini’s cousin Taraka Ratna, also an actor, is campaigning for her.

Telangana’s ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) has fielded M. Krishna Rao, who won the 2014 elections from here on TDP ticket but later joined the ruling party. Interestingly, Krishna Rao’s brother Kantha Rao is the BJP candidate.

Kukatpally is like a mini-India with people belonging to various states and communities settled here. About 60 percent of the people have their roots in Andhra Pradesh.

The YSR Congress Party, which is the main opposition party in Andhra Pradesh, is not contesting the polls in Telangana. However, the party has declared its support to the TRS in Kukatpally.

As TDP is contesting the election in alliance with the Congress, the former hopes that the transfer of Congress votes will brighten Suhasini’s prospects.

In 2014, the TDP had bagged the seat with a margin of nearly over 43,000 votes. However, the equations have changed in the constituency with the deletion of 1.31 lakh voters after verification by the election authorities. The constituency now has 3.30 lakh voters.

IANS

Union Ministers Harsimrat Kaur Badal and Hardeep Puri on Wednesday crossed over to Pakistan through the Attari-Wagah joint check post between India and her neighbour for the Kartarpur Corridor ceremony, and termed it a “historic step”.

Both Ministers will represent India when Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan will later perform the ground breaking ceremony for the Kartarpur Corridor project near the Kartarpur Sahib gurdwara, where Sikhism’s founder, Guru Nanak Dev, spent the last 18 years of his life.

“I am going there to offer prayers to the first Guru at a place where he spent the last days of his life.

“I have not been invited by anyone but I am going there as a Sikh,” a visibly emotional Union Food Processing Minister Harsimrat Badal told the media here some 30 km from Amritsar as she crossed over to Pakistan.

“This is a historic occasion. The Kartarpur Corridor has been a long-pending demand of the Sikh community. I am privileged to be going there to offer prayers.

“This is a significant measure among the several measures announced by the Government of India last week in connection with the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev.

“I am a proud Sikh to be going there,” Union Minister of State Puri said, adding that the corridor should have been opened much earlier.

Though Puri said that the Corridor was an important step in the relations between both countries, he added that he would not “jump the gun” in the “euphoria” over the development.

The corridor will give access to pilgrims from India, especially from the Sikh community, to visit the gurdwara which has a significant place in Sikh religious history.

Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu and Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh had on Monday laid the foundation stone of a road, from Dera Baba Nanak town in Punjab’s Gurdaspur district, which will connect the Kartarpur Corridor.

Amritsar Member of Parliament (MP) Gurjeet Singh Aujla crossed over to Pakistan from Attari on Tuesday for the ceremony. He carried holy water from the ‘sarovar’ (pond) at the Golden Temple complex.

Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) President Gobind Singh Langowal is also in Pakistan for the event.

Punjab Cabinet Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu on Tuesday said the Kartarpur Corridor had the potential to erase enmity between the two nations and bring peace in the subcontinent.

Sidhu heaped praises on his “friend”, the Pakistan Prime Minister, for ensuring that the corridor became a reality.

“The Kartarpur Corridor will prove to be a path of peace. It will erase enmity between both countries,” Sidhu told media in Wagah in Pakistan.

Sidhu strongly batted for people-to-people and cricketing ties between India and Pakistan despite both the nuclear-armed neighbours who have gone to war earlier having increased tensions in recent years over Pakistan’s support to terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir and other parts of India.

The cricketer-turned-politician tried to steer clear of controversy over his visiting Pakistan despite strained relations between both countries and Indian soldiers being killed in firing from Pakistan side.

Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh turned down an invite from the Pakistan government to be part of the ceremony.

He said that the Pakistan Army was killing Indian soldiers and supporting terrorist elements fomenting trouble in Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab.

Amarinder said he had asked Sidhu to “reconsider” his decision.

“I had asked Sidhu to reconsider his decision to go to Pakistan for the ground-breaking ceremony of the Kartarpur Corridor, but had acceded to his (Sidhu’s) request for permission to go since I did not believe in stopping anyone from undertaking a personal visit,” Amarinder told media on Tuesday.

“Sidhu told me he had already committed himself. When I informed him of the stand I had taken, he said it was his personal visit but he would get back to me. But I did not hear from him,” said the Chief Minister.

Amarinder Singh said the minister sent him a request for going and he cleared it.

“I do not stop anyone from going anywhere on a private visit. It (Sidhu’s trip) is not an official visit,” the Chief Minister said.

Sidhu, who arrived in Pakistan on Wednesday, had on Monday defended his decision to go to Pakistan saying he had the “Chief Minister’s permission.

“Standing by his own decision to decline Pakistan’s invitation for the ceremony, Amarinder Singh said he believed in saying what he felt.

“I have strong feelings on the issue. I have a strong bond with the Indian Army and cannot stand seeing my people getting killed,” he said.

It was at the Kartarpur gurdwara, which is located around two-to-three kilometre from the India-Pakistan international border and is situated right opposite the border belt in Dera Baba Nanak in Indian’s Gurdaspur district in Punjab, that Guru Nanak Dev spent 18 years of his life till he died in 1539.

The gurdwara, which fell in Pakistan territory following the Partition of India in August 1947, has big significance in Sikhism and history.

For the past over 71 years, ever since Partition, Sikhs have been offering prayers near the international border while seeing the gurdwara from a distance.

IANS

A top Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) commander, Naveed Jatt, who was wanted for the murder of senior journalist Shujaat Bukhari, was killed on Wednesday in a gunfight in Jammu and Kashmir’s Badgam district, police sources said.

Although an official confirmation was still awaited, the sources said that Jatt, alias Abu Hanzullah, was among the two militants killed in the gunfight that broke out earlier in the day during a cordon and search operation in Kuthpora village.

A Pakistani national belonging to Multan, Jatt, had escaped from police custody on February 6, when he was being taken for a medical check-up to a hospital from the Srinagar Central Jail.

Two policeman were also killed during Jatt’s escape from the S.M.H.S. hospital here.

Jatt was among the top LeT militants wanted by the security forces.

He is believed to be involved in the murder of Bukhari, the then Editor-in-chief of Rising Kashmir, an English daily.

Bukhari was gunned down along with two of his guards in the Press Enclave area in the city on June 14.

The killing of Jatt is seen as a big success for the security forces in their anti-militancy operations.

IANS