09:21 3 kg beef can be traced but not 350 kg RDX, asks Congress leader:
Delhi Congress working president Haroon Yusuf created a controversy by alleging that three kg beef could be traced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi but not 350 kg RDX, referring to the Pulwama terror attack in which 40 CRPF personnel were killed.
Senior BJP leader and Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad termed the statement “scandalous and irresponsible”
“@narendramodi Ji can trace 3 kg of beef but cannot trace 350 kg of RDX #ModiFailsNationalSecurity(sic),” Yusuf alleged in a tweet.
He later defended his tweet.
“What I have said is reality. Can you deny it? Lynching was done for polarisation. You can catch 3 kg beef, kill innocents, but not 350 kg RDX. Isn’t Modi informed by security agencies,” Yusuf said.
Delhi BJP vice president Rajiv Babbar claimed Yusuf’s remarks exposed the Congress’s “double face”.
“They can not even wait for a few days and have started defaming security agencies. This exposes their double face. They claim solidarity with the government in all-party meeting and soon start seeking political gains through their shameful comments,” Babbar alleged.
Delhi BJP Minority Morcha president Mohammad Haroon termed Yusuf’s statement “very objectionable”.
“The Pulwama attack shocked the nation and in the meantime Yusuf has issued very objectionable statement against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and tried to give it a communal colour,” he alleged.
Yusuf’s statement is an attempt to “divide” the country on “communal lines”, he claimed.
— PTI
08:41 Encounter breaks out in J-K’s Baramulla:
An encounter broke out between terrorists and security forces in Sopore township of Jammu and Kashmir’s Baramulla district on Friday morning, police said.
Acting on specific input, the security personnel launched a cordon and search operation in the Warpora area of Sopore, they said.
A senior official said the search operation turned into an encounter after the terrorists fired at the search party of the security men, who then returned fire.
The exchange of fire was on and further details were awaited, he added.
— PTI
08:27 Olympic body punishes India for declining visas to Pak team after Pulwama:
All the 16 Olympic quotas allotted to New Delhi World Cup were withdrawn owing to denial of visas to Pakistani shooters in the wake of the Pulwama terror attack.
This was announced by the International Shooting Sport Federation president Vladimir Lisin during his address to the season-opening World Cup at the Dr Karni Singh Shooting Range.
Pakistan shooters’ participation in the tournament became the bone of contention since the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama killed more than 40 CRPF personnel last Thursday.
It was learnt that the International Olympic Committee is deliberating on the matter and a decision of its Executive Board is likely to be issued at 10 pm local time of Switzerland (02:30 IST Friday), officials said.
“The International Olympic Committee informed us this World Cup will not be included in the competitions for Olympic quotas. In this case, the quotas will be distributed in another World Cup. No one can be discriminated and we have to follow the IOC decision as part of the IOC family,” Lisin said during his address.
National Rifle Association of India president Raninder Singh, though, said that they are still looking for a resolution so that the quotas for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics are not withheld.
“Nothing is cancelled as of now. The status as of now is we don’t know. We are waiting. There are meetings that are going on where the position is being assessed by the IOC and the government. Everyone is working very hard but it is a very peculiar position. It is very unprecedented scenario and it is unfortunate,” Raninder said.
Denied visas in the wake of the Pulwama terror attack, the Pakistan’s shooting federation on Wednesday wrote to the international body, asking it to drop the two 25m rapid fire pistol quotas for 2020 Olympics.
Pakistan had applied for visas for two shooters in the rapid fire category as the event in New Delhi also serves as a qualifier for the 2020 Olympic games.
— PTI
07:56 Farmers’ march to Mumbai suspended after talks with Maharashtra govt:
A leading farmers’ organisation announced suspension of its ongoing protest march from Nashik to Mumbai over agrarian concerns after talks with the Maharashtra government.
The All India Kisan Sabha, backed by the CPI-M, announced suspension of the 180-km march from Nashik to Mumbai after a three-and-a-half hour meeting of its representatives with state ministers Girish Mahajan and Jaykumar Rawal.
The farmers had embarked on the march on Thursday morning, but it was called off later.
“The meeting (held Thursday) yielded positive results. We will suspend the march today,” AIKS president Ashok Dhawale said after the meeting between the two sides at Ambebahula village in Nashik.
This is the second time in the last one year that farmers were on the roads to protest against the “betrayal” of peasants by the BJP governments at the Centre and in the state.
Earlier, they had planned to launch the march on Wednesday but it was deferred by a day allegedly after the state police stopped scores of farmers approaching Nashik from districts like Thane, Palghar and Ahmednagar.
In a late night meeting on Wednesday, the AIKS had asked the government to give its assurances in writing, a demand Mahajan agreed to. Mahajan had held parleys on behalf of the Devendra Fadnavis dispensation.
The AIKS, however, had decided to proceed with its march from Nashik till the government kept its word.
— PTI
00:27 Pak asks ICJ to ‘dismiss’ India’s claim for relief to Jadhav:
Pakistan on Thursday asked the International Court of Justice to ‘dismiss or declare inadmissible’ India’s claim for relief to Kulbhushan Jadhav, who is on a death row in the country.
Jadhav, 48, a retired Indian Navy officer, was sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court on charges of ‘espionage and terrorism’ after a closed trial in April 2017.
His sentencing evoked a sharp reaction in India. India on Wednesday questioned the functioning of Pakistan’s notorious military courts and urged the top United Nations court to annul Jadhav’s death sentence, which is based on an ‘extracted confession’.
Making the final submission in the ICJ on the last day of the hearing, Pakistan’s counsel Khawar Qureshi said, “India’s claim for relief must be dismissed or declared inadmissible.”
“India’s claim for relief (in the Jadhav case) remains as far fetched now as it was then (May 8, 2017),” he told the judges in his concluding remarks.
Closing the arguments, Pakistan’s Attorney General Anwar Mansoor Khan said, “India seeks relief which they cannot claim from this court.”
Asserting that the military court in Pakistan works according to the Constitution, he asked the ICJ to ‘dismiss India’s request’ in the case.
Khan also assured the court that the process of judicial review in Pakistan was robust and Jadhav can avail it if he chooses.
“Jadhav has been charged with terrorism for which an FIR has been registered with the police that is a civilian agency.
“The military courts have sufficient proof of espionage and the said military court on the available evidence and the judicial confession proceeded to convict him despite he being given the option of going for a judicial review, he has refused to do so,” Khan told the court.
He said India claims consular access, “surely (it) was not allowed for good reason in terms of the agreement of 2008, specially for the reason that commander Jadhav being involved in espionage.”
Khan also raked up the Kashmir issue and said Pakistan was awaiting India’s response on Samjhauta train blast case and has sought evidence on his country’s role in the Pulwama terror attack.
After his submission, ICJ top judge Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf adjourned the hearing and said a date for the judgement would be announced later.
On Wednesday, Harish Salve, who was representing India in the case, said that the time has come for the ICJ to make Article 36 a potent weapon for protecting human rights.
On Pakistan’s military courts, he said the International Commission of Jurists and European Parliament have criticised their functioning and added that anything diluting provisions of Vienna Convention must fail.
India moved the ICJ in May 2017 for the ‘egregious violation’ of the provisions of the Vienna Convention by Pakistan by repeatedly denying New Delhi consular access to Jadhav.
The four-day hearing in the Jadhav case opened Monday amidst heightened tensions between India and Pakistan following one of the worst terror attacks in Jammu and Kashmir by Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad terror group that killed 40 CRPF soldiers. — PTI
Source: Rediff