Nasheman News : To take stock of the operational preparedness of forces, Army chief General Bipin Rawat visited forward areas on the border in the Jammu region on Sunday.

Defence ministry spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Devender Anand said: “The Chief of Army Staff, General Bipin Rawat, visited various army forward locations of Samba and Ratnuchak in the Jammu region to review the operational deployment and preparedness. 

“The Army Chief was briefed about the situation and preparedness by Lieutenant General J.S. Nain, General Officer Commanding Rising Star Corps. The Army Chief also interacted with the troops at forward locations. 

“He expressed complete confidence in the Indian Army’s capabilities to thwart any nefarious designs of enemies and handle any situation. The Chief also praised the high moral and preparedness of the troops.”

[Nasheman news] Chennai The DMK and VCK on Monday inked an electoral pact by which the latter will contest from two seats in Tamil Nadu in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.

The two parties reached the agreement after talks.

Speaking to the media, VCK leader Thirumavalavan said the two constituencies will be decided later.

According to Thirumavalavan, the DMK-led alliance will win all the 40 Lok Sabha seats — 39 in Tamil Nadu and the lone Puducherry seat.

He said the party would decide on whether to contest under its own symbol or under DMK’s Rising Sun symbol.

The DMK has signed electoral alliance pacts with Congress (nine seats in Tamil Nadu and the lone Puducherry seat), IUML and KDMK (one seat each).

The DMK is also holding talks with the two communist parties, MDMK and others like DMDK.

The DMDK founded by A. Vijayakant has called a meeting of its party senior officials on Tuesday probably to decide on whom to align with.

[Nasheman news] Hyderabad Former India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni has become only the fourth Indian batsman to complete 13,000 runs in List A cricket. Dhoni has amassed 13,054 runs in 412 List A matches at an average of 50.79.

The veteran wicketkeeper-batsman has joined an elite club, comprising Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid.

Dhoni achieved the milestone during the first One-Day International (ODI) against Australia when he scored a gritty half-century to power India to a six-wicket victory.

Former England star Graham Gooch is at the top of the list with 22,211 runs in List A cricket.

Apart from this, Dhoni’s unbeaten 141-run partnership with Kedar Jadhav is the second highest fifth-wicket stand by India against Australia at home. This was also the second best partnership for any wicket at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium here. 

The highest stand was put up by Shaun Marsh and Shane Watson of Australia when they produced a 145-run opening partnership in 2009.

[Nasheman news] Dubai The International Cricket Council (ICC), here on Saturday evening, turned down the BCCI’s request for isolation of Pakistan from the global cricket community.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had in a letter to the ICC, following the Pulwama terror attack, demanded that the international cricket community sever cricketing ties with nations from where “terrorism emnates”.

However, the ICC board at its meeting refused to accept the BCCI request.

“The ICC has made it clear that this request cannot be implemented, as of now. The ICC did concede to our demands on security at the World Cup, but refused to accept this demand of ours,” a BCCI official said.

Several former cricketers, like Sourav Ganguly and Harbhajan Singh and former officials like Rajiv Shukla, had demanded that India should boycott the June 16 World Cup match against Pakistan and persuade the international cricket community to isolate Pakistan.

The BCCI has, however, not taken any decision to boycott the match yet, saying it will follow the government instructions on the matter.

[Nasheman news] Jammu A team from the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Monday embarked on a visit to Jammu and Kashmir to review the preparedness for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections and the security situation in the state.

“The team headed by Deputy Election Commissioner Sandeep Sharma will hold meetings with leaders of seven national and three regional parties in Srinagar on Monday,” official sources said.

They will also hold detailed discussions with top administration officials including Deputy Commissioners and Senior Superintendents of Police of 10 districts in the Kashmir Valley and two in the Ladakh division.

According to the sources, the team will also be briefed about the security situation in the state following cross-border tensions in the past one week.

“Before flying back to Delhi tomorrow (Tuesday), the team will hold a press conference here tomorrow,” the sources added.

The ECI visit is taking place amid intense speculation whether the state Assembly polls will also be held simultaneously with the general elections or be deferred to a later date.

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[Nasheman news] United Nations Members of the Indian community and international supporters have held a protest outside the UN headquarters demanding that the international organisation act against Pakistani leaders abetting terrorism and impose an arms embargo on Islamabad.

The protest on Sunday by about 400 people also included concerned citizens from the US, Bangladesh, Caribbean countries, Sri Lanka and Israel, as well as from Pakistan’s Balochistan province.

The protesters held up signs listing various terrorist attacks around the world linked to Pakistan — from Pulwama to New York’s Times Square, and from Mumbai to London, and the Pakistani military’s atrocities during Bangladesh’s War of Independence.

Their posters also listed terrorist organisations like the Al Qaeda, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), Haqqani Network, Taliban, Laskshar-e-Omar, Sipah-e-Sahaba that are based in Pakistan and operate internationally. 

A memorandum from the protesters to the UN said the world body should declare Pakistan a global terrorist state and JeM leader Masood Azhar an international terrorist and impose sanctions on them.

As a member of the Security Council, China has been protecting Azhar and has vetoed efforts by other members to add him to the list of global terrorists so he would face international sanctions.

The JeM claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing in Pulwama in Jammu and Kashmir on February 14 which killed 40 Central Reserve Police Force personnel.

The memorandum also asked the UN to impose an arms embargo on Islamabad and financial and travel sanctions on Pakistani political and military leaders involved in protecting and aiding terrorist organisations.

Overseas Friends of BJP President Krishna Reddy Anugula said that they would send the memorandum to Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday.

[Nasheman news] Bengaluru Karnataka’s “rebel” Congress MLA Umesh Jadhav resigned from the Assembly on Monday.

Jadhav, a two-time MLA from Chincholi constituency in Kalaburagi district, submitted his resignation to Assembly Speaker K.R. Ramesh Kumar without giving any explanation.

“Jadhav submitted his resignation letter to Kumar earlier in the day at the latter’s house in Kolar town near Bengaluru,” a party official told IANS here.

[Nasheman news] Hyderabad  Kedar Jadhav sent a strong message to selectors before the World Cup with a street-smart 81 to guide India to a six-wicket win over Australia in the first ODI, here on Saturday.

Jadhav, whose unbeaten 87-ball 81 was laced with nine fours and a six, was supported by Mahendra Singh Dhoni (59 not out off 72 balls) as India took a 1-0 lead in the five match series, which is their last before the World Cup in May.

Wearing their brand new jerseys, the men in blue were asked to chase a modest 237 by the visitors after the home team bowlers did a brilliant job to restrict them to 236/7.

Dhoni who hit the winning runs, a four off Marcus Stoinis over the infield, with 10 balls to spare joined hands with Jadhav for an unbroken 141-run stand for the fifth wicket.

Dhoni came in to bat when India were in a spot at 99/4 with skipper Virat Kohli (44 off 45 balls) and vice-captain Rohit Sharma (37 off 66 balls) back in the hut.

Dhoni’s innings was studded with six fours and a six but it was Jadhav who guided India past the finishing line. Jadhav scored his fifth half century, while Dhoni brought up his 71st in his 339th ODI, playing through cramps towards the later part of the match.

The visitors started well, shaving off the Indian top order under 100 runs by the 24th over. Nathan Coulter-Nile (2/46 in 10 overs) and Adam Zampa (2/49 in 10 overs) caused the damage.

Rohit and Kohli had stitched together a partnership of 76 for the second wicket but just when they were looking threatening, Kohli was trapped in front by Zampa. The umpire initially turned down the appeal, but reviews showed the ball had pitched in line and was hitting the wickets.

Rohit was removed by Coulter-Nile with a cross seam delivery that took the leading edge and went to mid-off for skipper Aaron Finch to grab the opportunity.

Ambati Rayudu (13) was caught behind off Zampa as India looked in trouble. From there on, Dhoni and Jadhav paced the chase to perfection with the former playing second fiddle and the latter taking the charge.

Earlier, Indian bowlers once again underlined their collective might by not allowing the Aussies to ever get going.

Pacer Mohammed Shami led the attack with figures of 2/44 in 10 overs as chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav (2/46 in 10 overs) Ravindra Jadeja (0/33 in 10 overs) and Jadhav (1/31) made up for a rare off-day by Jasprit Bumrah (2/60 in 10 overs).

Usman Khawaja (50) and Glenn Maxwell (40) scored the runs for the visitors but never looked in full flow as the Indian attack displayed its versatility.

Shami was on song from start to finish as he bowled a brilliant wicketless first spell, which was seen off by Stoinis (37) and Khawaja who added 87 runs for the second wicket after the early dismissal of skipper Aaron Finch for a duck.

The Powerplay yielded just 38 runs with Stoinis and Khawaja then changing gears off Vijay Shankar’s bowling.

In the next five overs, Australia scored 33 runs and looked like regaining ground when Jadhav (1/31 from 7 overs) got a breakthrough with a half-tracker that Stoinis looked to whip away through the mid-wicket region.

Khawaja completed his sixth half-century in ODIs but couldn’t continue, holing out to Shankar at deep mid-wicket boundary off Kuldeep.

Maxwell joined Peter Handscomb at 97/3 and the pair stemmed the rot somewhat.

Kuldeep then removed Handscomb with a tossed up delivery outside off stump that beat the batsman and Dhoni completed an easy stumping.

India then took the game by the scruff of the neck in the second Powerplay with Jadhav and Jadeja checking the run flow.

Shami castled Maxwell and debutant Ashton Turner (21) to leave the Aussies staring at a sub-200 score. But Alex Carey (36 off 37 not out) and Nathan Coulter-Nile (28 off 27) added 62 runs for the seventh wicket.

Brief scores: Australia 236/7 (Usman Khawaja 50, Glenn Maxwell 40; Mohammed Shami (2/44), Kuldeep Yadav (2/46) and Jasprit Bumrah (2/60); India 240/4 (Kedar Jadhav 81 not out, MS Dhoni 59 not out; Nathan Coulter-Nile 2/46, Adam Zampa 2/49)

[Nasheman news] Panaji Ailing Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar was discharged from a hospital on Sunday, an hour after he was admitted for “tests and examinations”, an official said here.

“The Chief Minister was discharged after few medical tests. The reports are awaited. He has left for his residence,” the official from the state-run Goa Medical College, said on the condition of anonymity.

Parrikar was diagnosed with advanced pancreatic cancer in February 2018 and has been in and out of hospitals in Goa, Mumbai, Delhi and New York since.

He was admitted at the Goa Medical College for nearly a week last month after he suffered from internal bleeding.