Congress has shown its true colours: BJP hits back over Pulwama allegations

Politics News:

Slamming the Congress for targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the Pulwama attack, the BJP dubbed its allegations "shameful" and said they have exposed its "true colours" after it kept a "facade" of standing with security forces and the government following the terror strike.

At a party event in Andhra Pradesh, BJP president Amit Shah said it was condemnable that the Congress has "politicised" the Pulwama attack, in which 40 CRPF personnel were killed on February 14, and asserted that people have full trust in Modi's commitment of ending terrorism.

Citing media reports, the Congress claimed that Modi continued shooting for a film in the Corbett National Park for his "propaganda and publicity" and stayed put in the area till the February 14 evening despite the Pulwama attack taking place in the afternoon that day.

Congress' chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala also claimed that the prime minister continued to "have tea, samosas, at seven o'clock in a PWD guest house" that evening.

Union minister and BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad rejected the Congress' charge as "shameful" and said Modi was there as part of an official programme related to tiger conservation.

"Was the Congress aware of the Pulwama attack? We were not aware," the BJP leader said in a jibe at the opposition party.


 The Congress attack on the Modi government would have pleased Pakistan, he said, adding that styles of what Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan and the opposition party have said may be different but their contents bore striking resemblance...Read More

Counter-terrorism, energy security top agenda during Saudi prince's visit

Current Affairs:

Counter-terrorism, including Pakistans role in sponsoring terrorism against India, and energy security are likely to be on top of Indias agenda for discussion during Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salmans visit starting .

India is expected to take up with the Saudi Crown Prince Pakistan's role in the Pulwama terror attack that killed at least 49 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel in Jammu and Kashmir, informed sources said.

India has already started diplomatic efforts to isolate Pakistan internationally with Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale briefing envoys of around two dozen nations including those of P-5 and South Asian nations about Pakistan's footprint in the Pulwama attack.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia's Ambassador to New Delhi Saud bin Mohammed Al-Saty has said that Mohammed bin Salman's visit to India presents a "historic opportunity" to expand collaboration in all sectors.

Moammed bin Salman is on a three-nation diplomatic tour to Pakistan, India and China.

 He will be on a two-day visit to India staring February 19 and will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. He is visiting Pakistan before coming to India.

Pulwama terror attack: Like you, fire raging in my heart too, says PM Modi

Current Affairs:

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he shared the grief and outrage with the people of the nation in the wake of the terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir which claimed the lives of 40 CRPF personnel.

The prime minister, who was in this north Bihar town to launch a slew of projects, began his speech with a few lines in the local dialect Angika and paid tributes to two jawans from the state who died in the Pulwama attack.

“I salute and pay my tributes to Sanjay Kumar Sinha and Ratan Kumar Thakur. To the people who have gathered here, I would like to say the fire that is raging in your bosoms, is in my heart too,” Modi said, evoking a thunderous response from the crowds.J&K withdraws security cover of six separatist leaders


 The security cover of six separatist leaders, including Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, was withdrawn , a decision that comes in the aftermath of the Pulwama terror strike in which 40 CRPF personnel were killed, officials said. Besides Mirwaiz, the security cover of Abdul Gani Bhat, Bilal Lone, Hashim Qureshi, Fazal Haq Qureshi and Shabir Shah has been withdrawn, they said. While there was no categorisation of security for these leaders, the state government in consultation with the Centre had provided them ad hoc security, keeping in mind the threat to their lives from some militant groups.

Kashmiri students held on sedition charges for celebrating Pulwama attack

Current Affairs:

Four female paramedical students of Kashmiri-origin have been slapped with sedition charges after being suspended from a private institute here for allegedly celebrating the Pulwama terror attack by posting "anti-national" messages on an instant messaging app, officials.

The second-year students of the National Institute of Medical Science (NIMS), Talveen Manzoor, Iqra, Zohra Nazir and Uzma Nazir, were suspended for posting on WhatsApp a picture in which they were purportedly seen celebrating the terrorist attack in Kashmir that claimed the lives of 40 CRPF personnel..

The picture soon went viral, prompting the university administration to take action.

ALSO READ: Pulwama attack: Paramilitary convoy movement by road to continue, says MHA

In the suspension order, the NIMS registrar said,"You have posted an anti-national message on your WhatsApp for celebrating killing of Pulwama terrorist attack martyrs. The university will not tolerate and strictly condemns such activities. The act is grave and serious in nature."

Later, a case was registered against the four students following a complaint by the university administration, a police official said.


 The students were booked under IPC sections 124A (sedition), 153A (promoting enmity) and relevant provisions of the Information Technology (IT) Act. Senior officials are investigating the matter and appropriate action will be taken thereafter, SP (Rural) Harendra Kumar said.

Pak, China share the blame for Pulwama attack but India must introspect to

Current Affairs:

Millions of Indians will by now have seen the twisted wreckage of buses carrying dozens of Indian paramilitary soldiers from the Central Reserve Police Force, or CRPF; at least 40 of them died when a car loaded with explosives rammed into their convoy as it passed through Pulwama district of India’s Jammu and Kashmir state. Jaish-e-Mohammed, a group of militant Islamic extremists who pioneered suicide bombings in the disputed region of Kashmir, claimed responsibility for the attack. As one Kashmiri politician wrote on Twitter, it was “reminiscent of the dark days of militancy pre 2004-05.”

Jaish-e-Mohammed is based in Pakistan. Its leader, Masood Azhar, gives speeches freely and the group has built a sprawling training complex in the city of Bahawalpur, which features a wall painting of suitably militant-looking horses bearing down on Delhi’s Red Fort. Periodically, the Pakistani government pretends to crack down on militant Islamists such as Azhar; in fact, the terrorists continue to raise funds, recruit and strike at will across Pakistan’s borders. Nor is it just India that suffers. The Afghan government tells all and sundry that it cannot defeat the Taliban as long as the militants are supported by Pakistan. Just a day before the Kashmir attack, the Pakistan-based Sunni extremist group Jaish al Adl killed 27 members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, also using a car bomb.


 Pakistani officials often like to say that their country is among the foremost victims of Islamist terrorism. Perhaps. But, their response has been at best to accommodate extremism, and at worst to try and convince terrorists that their efforts are best turned outwards, towards India, Afghanistan or Iran. Indian government officials -- like the Afghans -- are caught in a bind. They have little leverage over the militants’ patrons within the Pakistani military establishment. Nor are the Americans any longer influential enough to help: Jaish-e-Mohammed went quiet in the mid-2000s at American insistence but reemerged soon enough.