A train that was travelling from Bengaluru to Jamshedpur caught fire at around 2am on Monday in Andhra Pradesh’s East Godavari district. While no casualties were reported, the pantry car of the train was reportedly destroyed in the fire.

The fire started on the Yesvantpur-Tatanagar Superfast Express when the train was near Rajamundhry. Quick-thinking staff members first tried to douse the fire, but when they realised they would not be able to do so, they separated the pantry car from the rest of the train. The pantry car was destroyed in the fire. No casualties or injuries have been reported yet.

Officials are yet to determine what started the fire. Police officers have arrived at the location to identify the cause of the fire. Several trains scheduled to run between Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam regions in Andhra Pradesh, have been delayed as a result.

Earlier in December, two unused, abandoned coaches of a train caught fire and were destroyed at the Kazipet railway station in Telangana. Officials at the station had informed the fire department at once, who were able to quickly put out the fire, though they could not salvage the cars of the train which were gutted in the fire.

Agencies

Two militants were killed in an encounter between militants and security forces in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama district, Army sources said Tuesday.

The encounter broke out at Tral area on Monday. The security forces had cordoned off the area and launched an operation to flush out the militants, a police spokesperson had said.

“A brief exchange of fire took place between security forces and terrorists in Tral area,” the spokesperson had said.

Under pressure from the Financial Action Task Force, Pakistan issued an order to ban the financial wings of the Lashkar-e-Tayiba. The ban was imposed on the Jamaat-ud-Dawa and Falah-i-Insaniyat. Hafiz Saeed Delhi however is skeptical and says that this is another eyewash by Pakistan as it has done in the past. The ban is just an eyewash and will be lifted over a period of time, an officer speaks media.

The official also said that we have seen several times in the past, the ban being lifted or the courts in Pakistan coming to the rescue of these Hafiz Saeed run outfits. India does not read much into this and officials say that there have been many such bans in the past, but the fact is that no action is being taken on Saeed, who continues to roam around freely. In fact this is more of a protective measure in the aftermath of the Pulwama attack. Pakistan has this tendency to protect its terrorists under the cover of a ban and it had taken similar action following the 26/11 attack. However the Lashkar-e-Tayiba did not stop its activities, the official explained.

Pakistan’s action against the JuD and also the Falah-e-Insaniyat also being run by Saeed has been taken in the backdrop of a meeting of the Financial Action Task Force in Paris that is reviewing Pakistan’s steps to counter terror financing.

India also took note of the fact that no such action has been taken against the Jaish-e-Mohammad, which was involved in the Pathankot, Uri, Nagrota and Pulwama attacks. There have been bans in the past, but the Jamaat-ud-Dawa has managed to over come it in various ways. Both the Lahore High Court and the Supreme Court had cleared the JuD in the past and allowed it to operate. While the bans have been in place in the past as well, the JuD has always managed to overcome it either by going to court or carrying out its activities by coming up with newer outfits. The JuD is the parent group of the Lashkar-e-Tayiba. However in the year 2000, there was another parent group of the Lashkar which was known as the Markaz Dawa wal-Irshad. This was the group that carried out the alleged charity work and raised funds for the Lashkar.

Those were early days of the Lashkar and the Markaz had played a vital role in funding it. However in the year 2002, the Markaz was banned for funding terror activities. Did it make any difference? Not at all and Saeed immediately floated the JuD. Similarly Saeed floated the FeF after the JuD was banned. Eyewash of the past: Following the 26/11 attack, investigators in India found the funding of the attack to have been carried out by the JuD.

There was international pressure and this forced a ban on the JuD. In fact the then interior minister, Rehman Malik had informed that the JuD had been banned with immediate effect. Although the statement sounded strong, Pakistan was not going to take any chances and directly confront the JuD. It did not impose the ban directly but asked various authorities such as the UN to impose sanctions on the JuD. Paksitan’s eye wash was evident in the year 2008. It sealed 100 offices of the JuD and even Saeed was placed under house arrest only to be released later. During all this Pakistan made a shocking statement in which it stated that there was no need to issue any notification banning the JuD when the UN has already added it to the list of banned outfits. Courts to the rescue: There was some more eye wash by Pakistan. It claimed that it had sealed the 200 acre campus of the JuD in Murdike. It also stated that an administrator in Pakistan had taken over the operational facility of the JuD. All this led to the JuD seeking legal recourse.

The petition drafted by top bureaucrats of Pakistan sought a directive to first release Saeed who was under house arrest. The court allowed the petition and in the days to come even the ban on the JuD was lifted. It is quite surprising that the Pakistan government was asked to return the property of the JuD and also its other assets when there was never any official notification The JuD has a sprawling campus at Murdike spread over 200 acres of land. It has teaching facilities catering to 3000 students and also residential complexes. The investigations post 26/11 showed that the ten terrorists were housed in this complex and underwent training over here. The funds according to investigators came in from Saudi Arabia right from 1998 and till date the majority of the funding is from there. With the help of these funds the JuD has been accused of recruiting youth from Kashmir and Pakistan and train them to undertake strikes against India. Further it has also been found that the JuD in a bid to attract possible recruits from southern Punjab also held camps in Kasur district. This particular camp had come under the radar of the Indian agencies.

The fact that the JuD enjoys the complete backing of the military can be seen in various instances. Following the Quetta earthquake the JuD was openly seen assisting the military in relief works. This was quite surprising as Pakistan had claimed that it had banned the JuD. Even when former President Pervez Musharaff had claimed to have curbed the outfit and clipped its wings, he was no where to be seen or heard when Saeed held a rally in Lahore at the same time.

Agencies

Weeks after the Pulwama terror attack, Navy Chief Admiral Sunil Lanba on Tuesday warned that there are reports about terrorists being trained to carry out operations through sea.

Addressing a gathering of global experts at the Indo-Pacific Regional Dialogue in New Delhi, Admiral Lanba said that the Pulwama terror attack was carried out by terrorists who were “aided by” a country that seeks to destabilise India.

“We also have reports of terrorists being trained to carry out operations in various modus operandi, including through the medium of the sea,” he said.

The 26/11 terror attack was carried out by 10 sea-borne terrorists of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, who hijacked an Indian fishing trawler to reach Mumbai.

The navy chief said this part of the world had witnessed multiple forms of terrorism in recent years and few countries in the region had been spared.

The global nature that terrorism has acquired in the recent times has further enhanced the scope of this threat, Admiral Lanba said.

India, however, faces a “far more serious” version of “state-sponsored” terrorism, he said.

We recently saw the horrific scale of the terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir about three weeks ago. This violence was perpetrated by terrorists aided and abetted by a country that seeks to destabilise India, the navy chief said without naming Pakistan.

On February 14, a suicide bomber of the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed or JeM exploded an explosive-laden vehicle near a CRPF bus in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama district, killing more than 40 soldiers. 

“We have seen how quickly terror groups evolve across the globe. A particular brand of terror can well become a global problem in near future,” Admiral Lanba warned.

The Indian security establishment is continuously working to address this menace, he said, noting that “it is imperative that the global community works in concert to contain and eliminate terrorism in all its forms”.

Admiral Lanba also emphasised the importance of the Indo-Pacific Region. “There is a renewed focus of the world on the seas. This is principally due to the geoeconomic and geopolitical significance of the maritime domain.”

India is a maritime nation and, recently, there have been an increasing attention to harness potential of the maritime domain for the country’s growth and regional development, he said.

This event seeks to “identify and conceptualise challenges and opportunities that lie in the waters, and evolve strategy for mutual benefits of all stakeholders,” Admiral Lanba said.

“It is widely accepted that (the) Indo-Pacific Region has been growing in geopolitical significance in recent years due to economic, political and other reasons,” he said.1

Admiral Lanba underlined the region’s ancient and historical link with India and its significance for the country.