Devotees embarking on the Amarnath Yatra in Jammu and Kashmir would be provided a multi-layered high tech security by the government, amidst reports of terrorists planning attacks to sabotage the pilgrimage. The Yatra is scheduled to begin on 28 June.
As per an Indian Expressreport, a multi-layered security cordon comprising of 40,000 CRPF and BSF jawans, along with army and police personnel might be set up to protect the devotees. Besides this, the Home Ministry is planning on installing high tech security infrastructure like jammers, bulletproof bunkers, CCTV cameras, dog squads and satellites to add another layer of protection. These satellites would be used to track the movement of all the pilgrims – expected to number around 3 lakh this year.
A DNAreport quotes CRPF Commandant Ashish Kumar Jha as stating that vehicles carrying pilgrims would be fitted with RFID tags to help security forces to keep a real time track on their movements. This decision was taken during a meeting between the CRPF and police personnel, which included attendees like Jammu & Kashmir DGP – SP Vaid and Special DG CRPF – V S K Kaumudi.
In order to review the security arrangements, meetings have also taken place between the security forces and Home Minister Rajnath Singh plus his officials.
The news of such a security arrangement might not come as much of a surprise considering the tragedy in July last year, when seven Amarnath pilgrims including six women had been killed when terrorists had attacked a bus carrying 60 such devotees.
What might also add further gravity to the matter is the fact that reports have claimed a security threat on this year’s Amarnath Yatra as well. As per an Economic Timesreport, the terrorists might be planning a different form of attack to surprise the security forces which might include improvised explosive devices (IEDs).
The Jammu and Kashmir Police have released the photograph of a fourth suspected terrorist involved in the killing of Raising Kashmir editor Shujaat Bukhari and two police personnel employed for his protection. Bukhari was gunned down last night by armed terrorists inside his vehicle. Shujaat’s brother Bashrat Bukhari is a minister in the J&K government.
#BREAKING: J&K Police release photograph of fourth suspected terrorist who killed Shujaat Bukhari and his two PSOs. Inform Police of any leads or information to nab these killers. pic.twitter.com/ZPxdW2WkjB
The police have requested the public to help identify the suspect. Earlier the police had released the CCTV images of 3 men riding a bike who were the suspected terrorists who gunned down Bukhari and his security men.
— Kashmir Zone Police (@KashmirPolice) June 14, 2018
There were news reports claiming that Pakistan’s ISI has carried out the targeted killing through jihadi terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba. Kashmiri journalists had claimed that two of the suspected terrorists were LeT’s Fahad Waza and Mehrajuddin Bangroo.
Two personal security officers of J&K police AB Ahmed and Mumtaz Ahmed were also gunned down by the terrorists. Shujaat was leaving his office in the press enclave, Srinagar to attend an iftar party when the terrorists attacked.
In another terror-related incident yesterday, 44, Rashtriya Rifles soldier Aurangzeb was abducted on his way home and killed by unidentified terrorists. His bullet-ridden body was found this morning near Gusoo, Pulwama. Aurangzeb was going to Poonch to celebrate Eid with his family.
West Bengal’s state education minister Partha Chatterjee has slammed the state’s Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi for urging the Vice-Chancellors of state universities to celebrate the International Yoga Day on 21 June, Indian Express has reported.
As per the report, Chatterjee was irked by the fact that Governor Tripathi directly wrote to the Vice-Chancellors, which as per him was done by disrespectfully bypassing the state government.
The Times of India had reported on Thursday that Governor Tripathi, who is the Chancellor of all the state-run universities, had written to the Vice-Chancellor of the varsities asking them to celebrate the yoga day. This letter was supposedly written owing to many state universities and schools not celebrating it last year.
While Chatterjee is not sure whether this action is unconstitutional, he has called it a disrespectful action not done in good spirit. Possibly in order to not come out as an opponent of physical fitness, Chatterjee has claimed that the state government has been emphasising over including physical education in academic institutes.
A Times of Indiareport even quoted Chatterjee as claiming that Mamata Banerjee has given priority to sports and that they would celebrate Yoga day in a befitting manner.
Interestingly Chatterjee’s claim of “state government being bypassed” has been disputed by the press secretary of the Governor – Manab Bandyopadhyay, who claims that a copy of the Governor’s letter was sent to the education minister. Chatterjee, though, has expressed ignorance about getting any such letter.
Incidentally, this isn’t the only time Governor Tripathi and the Mamata government have clashed.
Infamously during the Basirhat riots, Mamata had alleged that she had been ‘threatened’ by the Governor who as per her was acting like a BJP block president. The Governor’s office though had refused such allegation by stating that there was nothing threatening in his manner and that he was bringing the serious issue to Mamata’s notice.
The unfortunate assassination of veteran Kashmiri journalist on Thursday sent shockwaves in the country and especially in the journalist community. However, instead of talking about the core issue of Islamist terror that has infested Kashmir and that eventually claimed the life of Shujaat Bukhari, journalists, as is their nature, took to finding something, anything else to blame other than Pakistan backed Islamist terrorists. Some even hounded scientist and columnist Anand Ranganathan because a few days ago, Ranganathan had criticised Shujaat’s journalism with respect to the insurgency in Kashmir.
Barkha Dutt, another veteran journalist who has a special interest in Kashmir started with blaming “Twitter fundamentalists” for Bukhari’s death. And as if that wasn’t enough, she went a step ahead and used his death to write a shoddy, lie ridden article in Washington Post, basically using his death to further her own agenda.
According to Barkha, the first lesson that we must all learn from Shujaat’s assassination is that “The situation in terrorism-torn Kashmir is sliding into a black hole of possibly no return”.
The dishonesty here couldn’t be more glaring. Kashmir never elevated itself from the clutches of terrorism and hence there is no question of the state “sliding back into a black hole of possibly no return”.
A quick look at publicly available data would shatter her lie. A list of casualties since 1988 to 2018 (Till June 10th) in terror-infested Jammu and Kashmir.
If anything, the casualties in Kashmir have only decreased in all the years and in no period could one possibly say that Kashmir had lifted itself from the clutches of terrorism?
She goes on to write: “He refused to play to the jingoistic and hyper-nationalist gallery that currently dominates discussion about his home state”.
It is staggering how Shujaat Bhukari being killed by radical Islamists was turned on its head to imply that he got killed because he didn’t pander to the “hyper-nationalist gallery”.
She went on to say that ‘he condemned militant violence and concerted bids to kill local policemen by terrorist groups‘ and that ‘Kashmiri secessionists targeted him for not being anti-India, while hyper-nationalists targeted him for not being patriotic‘.
As an offshoot, Barkha Dutt has tried very hard to peddle the “secessionist” narrative even when the Kashmiris themselves proclaimed that they were doing it for religion. The “stone pelter” here says he is doing it for “Islam”. Barkha prods and asks him whether he is doing it for Kashmir.
The lies, of course, don’t stop here. She writes, “he was painted as an Islamist during a conference organized by a prominent think tank in Delhi, simply for refusing to support the publication of the Charlie Hebdo cartoons“.
Firstly, the conference she is referring to is where Anand Ranganathan spoke and elucidated how the media fans tensions in Kashmir. Incidentally, NDTV and Barkha herself has been blamed of that by Sajjad Lone himself. Secondly, for Barkha to say that Shujaat Bukhari “simply refused to support the publication of the Charlie Hebdo” is an outright lie.
Shujaat Bukhari outright justified the Charlie Hebdo killings.
Lessons learnt. Lessons delivered by the massacre of a dozen people. A line needs to be drawn. A line is drawn by the heinous terror attack. Shujaat Bukhari didn’t just refuse to endorse, he justified a terror attack.
He had also in the past justified violence and proudly proclaimed that he is intolerant.
Incidentally, these were also the tweets mentioned by Anand Ranganathan in his speech. These thoughts were twisted by Barkha to say that “he stood against extremist thought”. That he was a moderate. And that he merely “refused to endorse” the Charlie Hebdo publication. A blatant lie. Barkha yet again proves that she is the torch bearer of shoddy, dishonest journalism.
While she raves and rants, another interesting part catches one’s eye. She writes :
“His killing reinforces the fact that whether in Kashmir or the rest of India, the journalists who are the most vulnerable today are the ones who have rejected ideological labels and have held on to the importance of nuance and complexity. In today’s polarized times, those who dare to tell a story in textures of grey, instead of one-dimensional colours, are the first ones to be smeared, vilified and targeted. We are called anti-national and traitors and “presstitutes” every day on social media“.
It is extremely interesting and baffling that she has this insurmountable talent to twist an incident to firstly, paint herself as the victim and secondly, never truly talk about the roots of the problem and whitewash, shameless, the terrorism infesting Kashmir.
Shujaat Bukhari was killed by terrorists fighting against the Indian state. Shujaat Bukhari was killed by terrorists who want to break India. Shujaat Bukhari was killed by people who are backed by Pakistan. The arch nemesis of India. The country that regularly sends Kalashnikov wielding terrorists to kill our soldiers and civilians. The country that carried out the 26/11 terror attack. How Barkha twisted it to him being killed, and journalists being threatened, for not being “nationalists” is beyond comprehension.
This shouldn’t come as a surprise since Barkha and Shujaat were similar. Barkha too had justified the genocide of Kashmiri Pandits to imply that they were driven out because they had better jobs and Kashmiri Muslims were economically disenchanted.
There is perhaps only one question to be asked :
Will Shujaat Bukhari’s assassination force Barkha Dutt to wake up?
Amidst the ongoing debate over the security issues revolving around the Aadhaar database, in a shocking incident around 5,000 Aadhaar cards were reportedly found in a scrap dealer’s shop in Jaipur.
The matter surfaced when a few children passing by saw the Aadhaar cards and informed the local councilor. Interestingly, the envelopes are marked with a Rs 5 stamp and have a despatch seal, denoting that they were to be posted.
The matter was reported to the postal department and Jalupura police and a team had reached the spot to investigate the matter further. Earlier this year, in a similar incident, hundreds of Aadhaar cards were found dumped in a well in Maharashtra’s Yavatmal city. The volunteers were carrying out work of desilting the well when they found some plastic bags inside it. They found hundreds of original Aadhaar cards on opening the bags.
Controversy revolving around Aadhar cards is not new. Along with these incidents where abandoned Aadhaar cards have been recovered time and again, news regarding fake Aadhaar cards have also been doing the rounds. Last month two such incidents surfaced, one of which involved 24 Bangladeshi youth with suspected terror links were found carrying fake Aadhaar cards in Tripura.
In another incident menacing around Aadhaar cards, the authorities had recovered fake Aadhaar cards from “illegal Myanmar Muslim immigrants” in Manipur. CM Nongthombam Biren claimed that apart from “illegal Myanmar Muslims” an individual from Chennai too was caught with fake Aadhar cards. This as per him was not a one-off case, and earlier Rohingyas had been arrested with fake documents in the town of Moreh.
Following the assassination of journalist Shujaat Bukhari, the so-called journalists took it upon themselves to shift the blame from terrorists to those who raise their voices against terrorism. Scientist and columnist Anand Ranganathan, who had recently spoken against the role of media, the fourth estate, on reporting on terrorism, in the valley as well as elsewhere, was single out and bullied for telling people like Bukhari to be little mindful of how reportage is taking place in media. However, the otherwise cool and composed Ranganathan lost his cool and hit out on the journalists for their ‘vile slander and propaganda’.
Saddened also because his tragic death is being used by many journalists to indulge in a sickening game.
Much against my wishes, it is important that they be countered, so that these hours be rather spent in remembering a journalist than in vile slander and propaganda. 2/n
Referring to these so-called journalists as ‘third-raters and psychopaths’, Ranganathan expressed shock that they would use the death of someone, their fellow journalist, for ‘sick and demented childish game’.
Frenzied trash, you neither scare me nor do you ruffle me with your vile cyber-bullying. You sadden me. For I realise that, despite your mediocrity & psychopathy, you are allowed to write columns and appear on TV. If this isn’t Incredible India, I don’t know what else is. 4/n pic.twitter.com/yXZrJIvKlG
He said that their slander does not bother him, but what saddens him is that they are considered opinion-makers, despite their ‘mediocrity and psychopathy’. He shared screenshots of Bukhari for which he had called him out on a stage earlier this week, where Bukhari seemed to be speaking on the lines of terror sympathisers.
Shujaat Bukhari’s tweets
Stating that he does not believe in criminal defamation so he will not be taking legal action against those who insinuated that he is responsible for Bukhari’s assassination, he asked the ‘journalists’ to take their childish games elsewhere.
So. Mediocre, feeding-on-crumbs, psychopathic, otherwise unemployable trash, run along now and try your childish games somewhere else or I may be accused of body-shaming if I commented on the pitiful size of your brain. 7/n
He reminded these journalists on how to be a decent human being at a time when one of their own is assassinated.
Finally, I am very thankful to so many – SO MANY – who noticed what these psychopaths were up to and countered their slander and propaganda while I wasn’t on twitter to see their games for myself. Thank you SO very much. You give me strength. Indebted. n/n
The Pune police on Tuesday told a Maharashtra sessions court that the five arrested ‘Urban Maoists’ had planned an event at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in memory of dead Naxal leader Naveen Babu, Times of India has reported.
As per the district prosecutor – Ujjwala Pawar, the accused were operating under direct instructions from the CPI (Maoist), to “instigate, provoke and influence” the students to join the left-wing terrorist organisation. The prosecutor also claimed that the CPI (Maoist) was going to supply materials for the event.
The five suspected ‘Urban Maoists’ were arrested by the Pune police on 6 June, over charges of organising the Elgaar Parishad held at Pune’s Shaniwarwada on 31 December 2017, which is believed to have instigated the Bhima-Koregaon violence a day later.
Those five arrested have been identified as Delhi based activist Rona Wilson, advocate Surendra Gadling, professor Shoma Sen and Mahesh Raut from Nagpur and Mumbai’s Sudhir Dhavle. Incidentally out of these five, Rona is a known JNU alumnus who is accused of plotting Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s assassination.
All the accused except Gadling were produced before the sessions court on Tuesday. Gadling was admitted in a government hospital over medical grounds.
A PTIreport incidentally takes things further to claim that the accused were supposedly going to plan a “lecture series” in the memory of a slain Naxal leader to incite students to join the banned organisation. The report also quoted the public prosecutor as claiming that the episode was a deep-rooted conspiracy acting as a national security threat, which needed to be investigated.
The prosecutor further told the court that documents seized from the accused established their involvement in anti-national activities. She claimed that a total of 25 terabytes of data was recovered from them, which required them to be placed in the judicial custody for a longer period of time.
As per a DNA report, the court extended the custody of the four accused till 21 June.
UP CM Yogi Adityanath has hailed Rajput King Maharana Pratap as a truly great king who fought for protecting the sovereignty and values of his people against an invader like Akbar. According to reports, speaking at a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh event to commemorate the Mewar warrior king’s birth anniversary, Yogi Adityanath stated that it is Maharana Pratap who was great, not Akbar.
Akbar asked Maharana Pratap to accept him as ‘badshah’ & that then he won’t interfere in his kingdom Mewar. Maharana Pratap said we can’t accept a ‘vidharmi’ & a foreigner as our ruler. Maharana proved it wasn’t Akbar, but he who was great, by winning back his forts: UP CM (14.6) pic.twitter.com/YjAHejrRYP
Addressing to the people gathered there, the mahant of Gorakhpeeth said Akbar had sent Jaipur’s ruler Mann Singh as an emissary to Maharana to accept him as supreme ruler and surrender Mewar’s sovereignty but Maharana refused. He added that despite numerous efforts by Akbar to intimidate, threaten and persuade Maharana, he did not submit to a faithless, foreign ruler and continued his fight. Despite being shunned by other Hindu rulers who submitted to Akbar, Maharana Pratap kept on fighting. Yogi Adityanath stated that for these reasons, Maharana Pratap is admired and hailed even after 500 years of his demise.
पाक्षिक पत्रिका ‘अवध प्रहरी’ द्वारा प्रकाश्य युवा शौर्य विशेषांक का विमोचन कार्यक्रम में संबोधन।-1 pic.twitter.com/64Wvg0fHyo
Yogi Adityanath added that it is not important who won or lost the battle of Haldighati, but it is important that Maharana Pratap, with the armies of his small kingdom, faced the largest army of the entire region at that time. He stated that the kind of bravery and resolute valour Maharana Pratap showed in the war that lasted for years in the terrains of Aravali mountain range, has no match in history. He went ahead to praise the Mewar warrior who eventually won back most of his kingdom and never accepted the supremacy of Akbar till he ruled.
Yogi Adityanath also unveiled a fortnightly magazine called Avadh Prahari at the event. He also spoke on various issues regarding Dalits and women empowerment. The event was held at IMRT Management College in Gomtinagar, Lucknow.
The murder of Shujaat Bukhari by terrorists last night left me in all sorts of quandaries. On the one hand, there was the purely human element, the need to express condolences to the family of the murdered man and demand punishment for his killers.
At the same time, I needed to take a stand against the left wing brigade on Twitter who were behaving disgracefully, trying to use the murder as an excuse to shame everyone who disagreed with the outrageous views the man had expressed during his lifetime. But I also had to do this without appearing to be kicking the dead body of a victim of terrorism.
Having zero formal training in journalistic writing, I was truly struggling.
And then the idea struck me like a lightning bolt. Rajdeep Sir! I could look through the writings of India’s numero uno political analyst and borrow some words/ideas from there.
I needed to find the perfect balance, a sublime way to make my point that would be fair to all. A form of writing that is truly subtle and classy and sensitive. I found this article written by Rajdeep Sardesai in The News Minute.
Brilliant writing! Absolutely brilliant writing! And a standing ovation to The News Minute for publishing such brilliant writing.
Even the Scroll had printed the same “nuanced” take by Rajdeep Sardesai.
Mr Shujaat Bukhari was the editor of ‘Rising Kashmir’, an influential voice in the valley. He has self admittedly expressed pride in being intolerant. Don’t believe me? See this:
Here is Mr Shujaat Bukhari’s shocking take on the terror attack at the offices of the magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris.
As many as 12 journalists murdered and Mr Shujaat Bukhari’s response is to kick the victims’ dead bodies and their grieving families in the teeth. To tell them to draw a line and stay clear of faith. To say that it is a case of “lessons learnt.”
Or take this absolutely chilling tweet, also in response to Charlie Hebdo attacks.
It also comes as no surprise that Mr Shujaat Bukhari has also been involved in deliberately misrepresenting actions of Indian security forces in Kashmir.
Considering how sensitive this material is, there is no saying how wicked such an action is.
Any killing is wrong. Mr Bukhari did not deserve to die under any circumstances but there is a “political context to his death” as there would be when Pakistani Army bases are attacked by Islamic terrorists. The Pakistani Army has done it’s very best towards training, supporting and shielding Islamic terrorists. But because of the inherently irrational and violent nature of terrorists, the same jihadis have been known to carry out brutal attacks against the very hands that fed them.
As such, it is disgraceful for the pseudo-secularists to use this moment to score points against Indian critics of Mr Shujaat Bukhari.
Colour me confused. How exactly are “Twitter fundamentalists” the issue here?
A particular target of pseudo-secular attacks turned out to be a scientist and political commentator Anand Ranganathan, for the mere accident that he recalled some of Mr Bukhari’s outrageous quotes a few days ago. Sample this truly puzzling tweet from the health and science editor of The Hindu.
Huh? What is wrong with quoting Mr Bukhari’s publicly expressed views? And as for “sitting on a high horse and pinning agendas” on people who might have to “face bullets”, will reporters of ‘liberal’ news outlets remember this when they discuss the actions of Indian security forces?
“Sitting on a high horse and pinning agendas”, you say. Like the times when cosy “political scientists” write articles comparing the Indian Army in Kashmir to General Dyer? In fact, wasn’t Mr Bukhari choosing to do exactly this when he suggested that crushing Kashmiris under the wheel might be a deliberate action from the CRPF?
Or take this one from another liberal, who seems to be implying that right-wing twitter might have perfected time travel.
Unfortunately, bashing right-wingers have become a large multi-national industry, backed up by big money and big institutional power, run by people who believe they are so right and so moral that they have a mandate to monopolize the flow of information. This is not about million dollar left wing channels and news portals versus right-wing twitter, this is about punishing terrorists. Nothing else matters.
Rajdeep Sardesai gave a “political context” to the brutal killing of Prashant Poojary. The News Minute, among many others, published that view and the “liberal” media applauded the nuance. Where is that same “nuance” now?
President Ramnath Kovind has rejected the Tamil Nadu government’s proposal to release the seven convicts serving sentences for former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination. According to a report in The Hindu, the President has conveyed to the Tamil Nadu government that the Centre does not agree with their views on the matter.
The Tamil Nadu state government has written to the centre twice for the release of the seven convicts ‘on humanitarian grounds’. The Hindu quoted a government officials saying that the President has rejected the proposal after consulting with the Home Ministry and this has been conveyed to the state. The official added that the assassins of a former Prime Minister cannot be allowed to walk free.
The seven convicts are Nalini Sriharan, V Sriharan (Murugan), AG Perarivalan, T Suthendraraja, Jayakumar, Robert Pious and Ravichandran. Earlier in 2014, the convict Nalini had moved to the Supreme Court seeking mercy release for having served more than 14 years in jail. The SC had rejected the mercy plea. Nalini was initially awarded death sentence which was commuted to life imprisonment by the governor of Tamil Nadu in April 2000.
This year too, Nalini’s release plea was rejected first by the Madras High Court, following which the convicts had moved to the Supreme Court which had directed the Home Ministry to seek details of the physical and mental health, socio-economic backgrounds and criminal history.
The Supreme Court had stated earlier that the state government has no power to release the convicts without the nod of the central government.
MP and legal activist Subramanian Swamy has welcomed the President’s decision.
Rashtrapati has flatly rejected the stupid Illegal resolution of the TN Legislative Assembly to set Rajiv Gandhi the killer conspirators free. Actually the killers are lucky that they have not been hanged as per SC .The Head conspirator is living in Italy but seriously ailing
According to reports, the Centre has filed a report before the Supreme Court regarding the investigation being carried out on the conspiracy aspect behind the former PM’s assassination. Convict Perarivalan had claimed that certain aspects regarding the making of the bomb, missing security files and murder of journalist Rajinder Kumar Jain were not being probed in this matter.
Former PM Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by a suicide bombing attack while interacting with the public in Tamil Nadu’s Sriperumbudur on May 21, 1991.
