Newsletter 14 Feb

Top 5 of the Day

1- Nation remembers Pulwama martyrs, memorial inaugurated today
2- PM Modi, Portuguese President hold delegation level talks in Delhi
3- EU Envoy After Kashmir Visit, “Important To Lift Restrictions Swiftly”
4- One civilian dead, three injured in heavy shelling by Pakistan in J-K’s Poonch
5- SC notice to Centre on plea challenging constitutional validity of CAA

Tweet of the Day..

National

Nation remembers Pulwama martyrs, memorial inaugurated today

Just a year back on same day, in one of the most deadliest terror attack on security forces, at least 44 Central Reserve Police Force (CPRF) personnel were killed and another 20 injured when a suicide bomber drove an explosive-laden SUV into a convoy of vehicles carrying paramilitary troops on the Srinagar-Jammu national highway in South Kashmir’s Pulwama district at around 3 pm.

Though, all most all leadership across the party line, paid tribute to the Indian martyrs, but opposition had raised certain questions.

Rahul Gandhi, former INC president asked by tweet-

Who benefitted the most from the attack?
What is the outcome of the inquiry into the attack?
Who in the BJP Govt has yet been held accountable for the security lapses that allowed the attack?

Another question added by a senior INC leader,

Who is responsible for this failure, even after intelligence input?

These questions were got further strength from leaders of NCP, and immediately targeted by BJP. They questioned the intention and mental level of Gandhi.

One year of Pulwama attack, all suspects dead, but no clue still how explosives reached Kashmir?

The country’s National Investigative Agency (NIA) is yet to file charges in the case. It says most of the suspects in the attack have been killed in gunfights with security forces.

What happened exactly?

A 16 vehicles dropped out at Qazigund on reaching destination but 16 ‘mobile bunkers’ joined convoy to deal with terrorist ambushes which increase beyond Qazigund. The convoy left Qazigund at 2:38 pm
At Latoomode of Awantipora in Pulwama, an explosive laden vehicle entered the Jammu-Srinagar highway from a left bylane. It overtook a bus, 5^th in the convoy and exploded.

Later, the attacker is identified as ‘Adil Ahmad Darr’

The bus was blown to smithereens. The sixth bus was also impacted by the blast
The convoy of 78 vehicles, transporting 2,547 jawans, left Jammu transit camp at 3:30 am. The jawans were returning from leave or going to areas of deployment
- Around 40 CRPF jawans died, 39 in the 5th bus and one from the ROP. Five more men in the 6^th bus were injured
- This is the first time a suicide bomber in an explosive laden vehicle has attacked a CRPF convoy. About 80kg of explosives was used for the attack.
- Hours later of this attack, JeM took responsibility of this attack.
How India responded to the Pulwama Attack
- Tensions flared up between India and Pakistan after the attack. India summoned Pakistan’s top envoy and lodged strong protest.
- PM asserted that the security forces have been given permission to choose the timing, place and nature of their response to the Pulwama terror attack.
- “All tears will be avenged” and the armed forces have been given “full freedom to decide the place, time, intensity and nature of the retaliation against the enemy. ”I feel the same fire in my heart that’s raging inside you,” Modi said.
- Nationwide protests erupted against the dastardly terror attack. Several countries including Pakistan’s all-weather friend China condemned the attack.
Diplomatic Protest
India launched extensive diplomatic efforts to get JeM Chief Masood Azhar designated as a global terrorist, which finally became a reality on May 1 when China lifted its technical hold on a proposal introduced by the US, the UK, and France in the 1267 Committee of the UN Security Council.

PM Modi, Portuguese President hold delegation level talks in Delhi

PM Narendra Modi on Friday held delegation-level talks with Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo De Sousa at the Hyderabad House in the national capital.
A total of 7 Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) have been signed between India and Portugal on the sidelines of Marcelo’s visit in the fields of Nano-biotechnology, higher education, among other areas, while several other agreements have been exchanged.
Prior to the talks, the two leaders had witnessed the exchange of agreements between the two countries.
Marcelo is on a four-day visit to India, accompanied by Minister of State and Foreign Affairs Prof Augusto Santos Silva, Secretary of State for Internationalization, Prof Eurico Brilhante Dias and Secretary of State for National Defense Jorge Seguro Sanche.
On Feb 15, he will arrive in Mumbai and take part in the India-Portugal Business Forum.
Thereafter, he is expected to depart for Goa where important pacts are likely to be signed with the Goa government.

EU Envoy After Kashmir Visit, "Important To Lift Restrictions Swiftly"

India has taken positive steps to restore normalcy in JnK but it is important to lift the remaining restrictions swiftly, the European Union said on Friday, following the latest visit by a group of foreign diplomats to the union territory under lockdown since Aug.
Diplomats from 25 nations – including some from the EU, visited Srinagar and Jammu for two days this week today to survey the situation in JnK 6 months after the center ended the state’s special status and bifurcated it into two union territories.
The group included envoys from Germany, Canada, France, Italy and Poland, New Zealand, Mexico, Afghanistan, Austria, Uzbekistan, as well as envoys from the EU.
“The visit confirmed that the GoI has taken positive steps to restore normalcy. Some restrictions remain, notably on internet access and mobile services, and some political leaders are still in detention,” a statement from the European Union said on Friday.“While we recognize the serious security concerns, it is important that the remaining restrictions be lifted swiftly,” the statement from Virginie Battu-Henriksson, EU Spokesperson for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, added.

PM Modi to visit his constituency Varanasi on 16^th Feb, to inaugurate over 30 projects, including a 430 bed super specialty Government hospital at and a 74 bed psychiatry hospital at Banaras Hindu University (BHU).
PM to also flagoff IRCTC’s Maha Kaal Express through video link. The first overnight journey private train will connect the 3 pilgrim centers-Varanasi, Ujjain and Omkareshwar.
PM to also unveil a 63 feet tall statue of Pt Deendayal Upadhyaya at Pt Deendayal Upadhyaya Memorial Centre

One civilian dead, three injured in heavy shelling by Pakistan in J-K's Poonch

Naresh Kumar, Tehsildar of Shahpur area, Poonch District: One civilian dead and two injured in heavy shelling by Pakistan in Shahpur area of Poonch district, today.
Poonch district police chief SSP Ramesh Kumar Angral said, “Some people were on their way to a mosque in Shahpur to offer Namaz (Friday prayers) when a Pakistani shell exploded near them. A man was killed and three others were injured.”

48 Rohingya arrested off Myanmar coast

Nearly 50 Rohingya Muslims have been detained at sea by Myanmar’s navy, a local official said Fri, the latest from the persecuted minority to be caught trying to flee camps in Bangladesh and Myanmar’s restive Rakhine state.
It was not immediately clear where the group started their boat journey but they were likely aiming for Malaysia or Indonesia, predominantly Muslim countries with large Rohingya diasporas.
Thousands of Rohingya have taken to the sea over the years in high-risk attempts to escape sprawling refugee camps in Bangladesh and oppressive conditions in Rakhine.
Village administrator Myint Thein told AFP by phone the navy had picked up 48 Rohingya men, women and children, as well as five “traffickers”, at sea on Wed evening.
An AFP reporter saw the group arrive Friday morning at Pathein township police station.

FIR against former NRC official for Data Missing

Hours after Assam’s updated citizenship data disappeared from the website ‘nrcassam.nic.in’, an FIR was filed against a former NRC official for allegedly failing to submit the password to the sensitive document before quitting her job.
- Talking to PTI on Thursday, NRC state coordinator Hitesh Dev Sarma said the complaint against former NRC project officer was filed under Official Secrets Act in Paltan Bazar police station here, as she “did not provide the password to the document, despite written reminders”.
“She failed to surrender the password even after tendering her resignation on Nov 11 last year. She was a contractual employee and no longer authorized to hold the password, after quitting her job. An FIR has been filed against the former NRC project officer on Wed for violating the Official Secrets Act,” he said.
Sarma also stated that the NRC office had written to her on several occasions for submitting the password, but did not get any response.
“We knew (she had resigned) and, therefore, sent several letters to her for handing over the password. But as she did not respond all these months, we filed a complaint against her yesterday for violating the Official Secrets Act.
“We must know if she has tampered with the sensitive information, after resigning,” he added.
The NRC state coordinator, however, disproven allegations of “malafide intent” involved in the matter.
The Centre on Wed asserted that NRC data in Assam was safe even though some technical issues have been detected, which would be resolved soon.
Senior journalist-cum-RTI activist Saket Gokhale had sent an application to the NIC, the IT wing of the government, seeking a copy of the contract with Wipro.
“The Assam NRC data suddenly vanishing from the website (& the lack of data security) is incredibly shady. I’ve filed an RTI with the NIC specifically asking about details of the contract with Wipro, name of the cloud service provider, & all contracts signed for hosting this,” he tweeted, while attaching a copy of the RTI application.
Leader of the Opposition in Assam Assembly and Congress leader Debabrata Saikia has also written to the Registrar General of India, requesting him to look into the fiasco urgently.
Some 740,000 Rohingya fled Myanmar’s Rakhine to Bangladesh to escape a brutal military crackdown in 2017 and now languish in sprawling refugee camps.
Hundreds of thousands more remain in Rakhine, living under tight restrictions with little access to healthcare, education or livelihoods in conditions Amnesty International brands as “apartheid”.
The group detained at sea this week is just the latest in a series of arrests in recent months as seasonal calmer waters tempt more Rohingya to put their lives in the hands of traffickers.
On Tue, at least 15 Rohingya refugees drowned when an overloaded boat carrying mostly women and children sank as it tried to reach Malaysia from Bangladesh. Local authorities have so far responded with various measures.
Twenty-two were imprisoned for two years, nearly 200 were sent back to camps in Rakhine while 95 more are waiting to hear the outcome of a lengthy trial.
The minority garner little sympathy within Myanmar, where many people buy the official line they are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, even though many trace their roots in the country back generations.
Amnesty’s Laura Haigh said Rohingya will continue to undertake such risky journeys unless their rights are restored and full accountability for military atrocities is assured.

SC notice to Centre on plea challenging constitutional validity of CAA

The Supreme Court on Fri issued a notice to the Centre on a plea challenging the constitutional validity of Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, and the National Register of Citizens (NRC).
- The apex court has sought the Central government’s reply and tagged the matter along with similar pending matters. The petition was filed by Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind.
- Earlier on Feb 7, the top court issued a notice to the Centre on a plea challenging the constitutional validity of CAA and effective implementation of the Assam Accord.
- Over a hundred petitions have been filed in the apex court for and against the amended citizenship law.
Protests have erupted in various parts of the country against the amended law which grants citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians who fled religious persecution in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan and took refuge in India on or before Dec 31, 2014.

SC issues notice to JnK administration on plea by Omar Abdullah’s sister challenging detention

SC issues notice to the Jammu and Kashmir administration on the plea of Sara Abdullah Pilot, former JnK CM Omar Abdullah’s sister challenging his detention under JnK Public Safety Act, 1978. The Court asks JnK administration to file a reply by Mar 2.
The petition filed by Sara Abdullah Pilot challenges the detention of National Conference leader Omar Abdullah under the J&K Public Safety Act.
Pilot had on Feb 10 approached the SC challenging her brother’s detention, saying the order of detention is “manifestly illegal” and there is no question of him being a “threat to the maintenance of public order”.
The plea sought quashing of the Feb 5 order detaining Abdullah.
It is said “similar orders of detention have been issued by respondents (authorities of union territory of JnK) over the last 7 months in a wholly mechanical manner to other détentes, which suggest that there has been a consistent and concerted effort to muzzle all political rivals”.
The plea said at no point of time in his “prolific political career”, he has resorted to or indulged in conduct unbecoming of a “conscientious public figure”.

In Bhima Koregaon Case: Pune Sessions Court passes an order to transfer all the records and further proceedings of the case to Special NIA Court, Mumbai.

All the accused in the case to be produced before the Special NIA Court in Mumbai on 28th Feb.
The court on Fri reserved its order on the transferring of this case to the NIA.
The Maharashtra government, in an application filed before the court on Feb 7^th, objected to transferring all the court records, seized articles from the file of this court to an NIA court in Mumbai.
As per application filled “That present application is not legally tenable under the provisions of law and particularly according to the provisions of UAPA 1967 and NIA Act 2008”.

The case, which was earlier being reinvestigated by the Pune Police, after a new government came to power in Maharashtra.

Then, center transferred this case to the NIA last week.

Obtaining PAN card will be made simpler, says Sitharaman

Fin Min, N Sitharaman made the comments during an interactive session titled ‘Budget and Beyond’ with professionals from asset management, wealth advisory, tax consultancy and other related industries at NITI Aayog.
“It is one budget where the impact on bond market currency and equity markets has been positive.”
- Even before, she had words with various stockholders, in Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata also.
- The FM will be on a two-day official visit to Hyderabad and Bengaluru on Feb 16 and 17 to hold interactive sessions with various stakeholders on Union Budget 2020-21.
- In the first session, in each city, Sitharaman will interact with representatives of trade, industry, investment bankers and farmers organizations, among others.
- In the second session, she will meet economists, tax practitioners, academia and policymakers.

Rajya Sabha official demoted for anti-Modi posts on social media

On the directive of Rajya Sabha Chairman Venkaiah Naidu, an official working in the post of Dy Director in the Rajya Sabha Secretariat has been demoted for his social media posts allegedly against PM Narendra Modi, BJP Cabinet Ministers and UP Chief Minister Yogi Adtiyanath.

A memo issued by the Secretariat dated Feb 12 to Dy Director (Security) Urujul Hasan charges him with “sharing several offensive, derogatory, demeaning and sarcastic posts on social media against the PM of India and some Union Ministers and CM UP as also sharing a number of posts indicating his active involvement/ assistance/

indulgence in political activities canvassing in connection with an election to the legislature”.
According to media, the order was issued following a year-long enquiry after an anonymous complaint flagged Mr. Hasan’s Facebook posts made from Apr to May 2018.
Many of these posts, sources said, were merely repost of others’ statements.
The order rules that Mr. Hasan has “failed to maintain political neutrality” as per the Central Civil Services Conduct Rules of 1964 which has stringent provisions against participation of a government servant in any kind of political activity or even freely expressing their view.

International

US calls for Hafiz Saeed to be held accountable for involvement in 26/11 Mumbai terror attack

The US on Thursday called for Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed to be held accountable for his involvement in the planning of “numerous acts of terrorism, including 2008 Mumbai attacks”.

“We continue to call for Hafiz Saeed to be held accountable for his involvement in the planning of numerous acts of terrorism, including 2008 Mumbai attacks that killed 166 innocent people, including 6 Americans,” US State Department spokesperson told ANI, commenting on the Saeed’s conviction in terror financing cases.

The spokesperson said Hafiz Saeed’s conviction on terror financing is a step towards curtailing the operation of a terrorist group that threatens peace and stability in South Asia.

“We urge Pakistan to continue to take appropriate legal action against individuals who commit acts of terrorism, raise funds for, or advocate for terrorism,” the official said.

On Wed, Alice Wells, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of US for South and Central Asian Affairs had termed the conviction of 26/11 Mumbai terror attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed as an “important step forward” towards holding terrorist organization LeT “accountable for its crimes”.

The conviction of Hafiz Saeed and his associate is an important step forward – both toward holding LeT accountable for its crimes and for Pakistan in meeting its international commitments to combat terrorist financing,” she tweeted.

“And as @ImranKhanPTI has said, it is in the interest of Pakistan’s future that it not allow non-state actors to operate from its soil,” she said in another tweet.

An anti-terrorism court in Lahore, Pakistan on Wednesday sentenced Mumbai terror attack mastermind and chief of the banned Jamaat-ud -Dawa (JuD) Hafiz Saeed to five-and-a-half years in prison each in two terror financing cases.

Pakistan based Dawn reported that he was slapped with a prison sentence of five-and-a-half years and a fine of Rs 15,000 in each case and the sentences of both cases will run concurrently.

We should not forget that on Dec 19, a Pakistani court has disposed of the petition of Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed and 67 other leaders of the outlawed Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD) and its so-called charity wing Falah-i-Insaniat (FIF) seeking cancellation of 23 FIRs registered against them on charges of using different properties for terror financing.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Islamabad

As per radio Pak “Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has emphatically stated to stick to his stance on resolution of outstanding Kashmir dispute through dialogue and peaceful means on the basis of justice”.
Addressing the joint sitting of the parliament amidst the thumping of desks by the elected representatives in Islamabad on Fri, he said “our Kashmiri brothers have been living under difficult circumstances over the years. However, the recent unilateral steps have further added to the woes of the Kashmiri people and the situation has assumed alarming situation.”
He noted that depriving the Kashmiris from their freedom and usurping their rights is not in anybody’s interests.
He said resolution of this dispute lies not in oppressive tactics but it warrants justice. He added, we feel for the Kashmiris the same way like the Muslims of this region felt for us during Khilafat Movement.
The Turkish President had extended fully support to the Pak at the session of the UN General Assembly.
In Joint Press conference
- Erdogan has vowed to take Pak-Turkey bilateral trade volume to $1 billion in the 1st phase and eventually to $5 billion later
- He said that there is vast scope for increasing the current two way trade volume of $800 million. He said Turkey is one of the top 20 economies of the world and we have brought down our debt from 72% of GDP to 33 %.
He said Turkey increased tourists from 13 million to 68 million, resulting in increased to 35 billion dollars from $8.5 billion earned from this sector.

Political

BJP may have suffered because of hate statements made by party leaders: Amit Shah

Union minister Prakash Javadekar says ‘sudden disappearance’ of Congress was responsible for BJP’s defeat in Delhi Assembly polls as it led to direct fight between his party and AAP.

States

Chhattisgarh: Congress MLA Shakuntala Sahu and trainee IPS officer Ankita Sharma entered into a verbal spat during a protest in Baloda Bazar on Wednesday. SP Neetu Kamal says, “Some protesters were trying to demolish a gate. Police personnel forbade them and an argument broke out”.

2012 Delhi gang-rape case: Supreme Court dismisses the petition of death-row convict Vinay Kumar Sharma challenging the rejection of the mercy petition by President Kovind.

Justice R Banumathi fainted during the hearing in 2012 Delhi gang-rape case in SC today. He was hearing the submissions made by the Centre on separate execution of convicts in the case.

SC also said in its order, that the medical reports said that Vinay is psychologically fit and his medical condition is stable.

The Apex Court dismissed his petition, finding it devoid of merit.

In Gujarat college, 68 girls forced to remove underwear to prove they weren’t menstruating

Ahmedabad Mirror report says hostel rector complained to principal of college run by Swaminarayan trust that menstruating girls were violating ‘religious norms’. V-C says will take action.

National Commission for Women have taken suo-moto cognizance in the matter and have set-up an inquiry team to visit and speak with the students at institute.