Omar, Mehbooba booked under Public Safety Act on last day of detention

Current Affairs
Previous Jammu and Kashmir boss pastors Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti were on Thursday night booked under the stringent Public Safety Act (PSA), scarcely hours before their half year long "preventive confinement" was to reached a conclusion.
Prior in the day, the PSA was likewise slapped on two political stalwarts from NC and its chief adversary PDP. A justice joined by a cop landed at Hari Nivas where 49-year-old Omar has been confined since August 5, the day the Center revoked the extraordinary status of the past state and furthermore reported its bifurcation into two association regions - Ladakh and Jammu and Kashmir.
He was given over a warrant gave under the PSA, a law which was authorized by his granddad Sheik Mohammed Abdullah in 1978 at first to check timber sneaking. The PSA, which came convenient for police power to book separatists and aggressor sympathizers, has two segments - 'open request' and 'danger to security of the state'. The previous permits confinement without preliminary for a half year and the last for a long time.
Omar, who has been junior remote clergyman and trade serve in Atal Bihari Vajpayee-drove Cabinet in 2000, was presented with a three-page dossier wherein he was asserted to have offered expressions in the past which were "incendiary" in nature. Omar, who was the main pastor of the state from 2009 to 2014, rose to acclaim in 2008 with his renowned brief discourse at Parliament when he, in spite of being in resistance, bolstered the Indo-US atomic arrangement.

"I am a Muslim and I am an Indian," he said. "Also, I see no qualification between the two. I don't have a clue for what reason should I dread the atomic arrangement. It is an arrangement between two nations which, I trust, will become two equivalents later on," ....READ MORE

Trump again offers to 'help' resolve Kashmir issue, meets Pak PM in Davos

Current Affairs
President Donald Trump has said that the US is viewing the improvements among India and Pakistan over Kashmir "intently" and rehashed his idea to "help" resolve the longstanding debate between the two neighbors as he met Prime Minister Imran Khan uninvolved of the World Economic Forum here in the Swiss ski resort.
Tending to the media with the Pakistan Prime Minister preceding their private gathering on Tuesday, President Trump declared that exchange and outskirts were both basic focuses for talk, while Khan said that for him, Afghanistan was the top need. Trump told Khan, whom he alluded to as "my companion", that he would address Prime Minister Narendra Modi about the continuous Kashmir issue. The US president is relied upon to visit India in the coming weeks, denoting his first visit in the wake of taking up his post in the White House.
"What's happening among Pakistan and India on the off chance that we can help, we absolutely will. We have been watching it intently and it's a respect to be here with my companion," he said. "The Pakistan-India struggle is a major issue for us in Pakistan and we anticipate that the US should consistently have its impact in deescalating the pressures, on the grounds that no other nation can," Khan said.

President Trump has over and over offered to intercede following India's August 5 choice to disavow the unique status to Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcate the state into two Union Territories, bringing out solid response from Pakistan which has been attempting to internationalize the Kashmir issue. New Delhi has guarded the move, saying Jammu and Kashmir is an essential piece of India and the issue was carefully inside to the nation, and the unique status arrangements just offered ascend to fear mongering in Jammu and Kashmir...Read More

SMS returns to mobile phones, internet returns to govt hospitals in Kashmir

Current Affairs
Broadband web access was reestablished in government-run emergency clinics and SMS office on every single cell phone from Tuesday 12 PM in Kashmir, after more than four-and-a-half long stretches of suspension.
Internet providers, landline and cell phones were snapped crosswise over Jammu and Kashmir on August 4, a day prior to the Center's declaration to scrap the unique status of Jammu and Kashmir and gap it into two association regions.
Despite the fact that most administrations, aside from portable web, were reestablished in Jammu inside seven days, Kashmir saw landlines and post-paid administrations being reestablished in stages. "It has been chosen to reestablish web availability to all administration clinics with impact from 12 PM of December 31 other than completely reestablishing SMS on cell phones," Jammu and Kashmir organization representative Rohit Kansal told correspondents here.
Be that as it may, Internet and prepaid versatile administrations in Kashmir are yet to be reestablished. On December 10, he had said machine-based SMSes were empowered for cell phones in Kashmir so as to encourage understudies, grant competitors, merchants and others, and that reclamation of full message administrations was a piece of the procedure.

"Ceaseless endeavors of the administration have been to encourage and push ahead however much as could be expected and as fast as would be prudent, and as far back as August 5, we have been advancing toward this path both in Jammu and in Kashmir. We have been moving dynamically forward and we will attempt to guarantee however much and as fast as could be expected," Kansal said in light of an inquiry regarding rebuilding of Internet administrations...Read More

India's problems were always bigger than Modi, started much before 2014

International News
A new narrative about India is suddenly emerging. Until very recently, India appeared a great democracy as well as a rising economic power, a potential partner of the West in its policy of containing China. Writing in Time magazine in 2015, no less a moral and political authority than Barack Obama hailed Prime Minister Narendra Modi as India’s “reformer-in-chief” who “reflects the dynamism and potential of India’s rise.”
However, the latest, radically different narrative about India holds that the country is flailing, its politics and civil society captured by a Hindu supremacist movement, and its economy trapped in a potentially long slowdown.Evidence that India’s prime minister is not the smart economic moderniser he seemed to many in the West has become steadily incontrovertible, especially after he quixotically withdrew most currency notes in circulation in 2016.
This week, an exhaustively researched report in the New Yorker by Dexter Filkins provided spine-chilling evidence that India is ruled by cold-blooded ideological fanatics, who will use all means to achieve their aims. These can range from perversion of the media, judiciary and military to anti-Muslim pogroms, targeted assassinations of critics, and collective punishment of a minority (as in Kashmir, where a four-month-old lockdown continues).

Such a dramatic reversal of reputations — “from hero to zero,” as the Indian wisecrack goes — is not new in India’s case. For much of India’s seven decades, when it appeared to be on the wrong side of the Cold War, Western commentators regarded the country as a basket case.As Thomas Friedman put it in The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century, India was “known as a country of snake charmers, poor people, and Mother Teresa” before it was abruptly re-branded, including by Friedman, as a “country of brainy people and computer wizards.”As India embraced market capitalism, moved away from its Russian friends, and came closer to the West....Read More

Won't survive this disaster: Kashmiri entrepreneurs share lockdown pains

International News

Haji Mohammed Ghani, 74, squatted at the border of his apple orchard, sporting a neatly trimmed, white beard, and a frown. Around him were trees laden with apples ripe for picking.
At this time of year, his orchard--in a state that produces two-thirds of India's apples, earning Rs 6,500 crore ($903 million) in exports in 2016-17, contributing to a 10th of the state’s gross domestic product (GDP) and employing 3.3 million workers--should have been buzzing with pickers and packers readying the fruits for shipment across India.
On September 8, 2019, when we visited his orchard, there was no activity.
Ghani owns five acres of land in an area famous for apple orchards, a village called Choora near the town of Sopore in Baramulla district, 55 km northwest of Srinagar. The trees yield 5,000 boxes of fruit every year, fetching Ghani a profit of Rs 5 lakh.
This year, he will settle for whatever he gets.
Since August 5, 2019, when the Centre snapped all communication lines in Kashmir--as it abrogated Section 370, which gave Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) special constitutional status--Ghani has not been able to speak to traders in Delhi, Kolkata and Patna to negotiate prices. Several traders used to come to Kashmir to collect the fruit, but they cannot make the trip this year.Some of Ghani’s apples were being sold at the Sopore fruit market but after a September 7, 2019, attack on a trader family by unknown gunmen, even that is not an option.

 “We survived the hailstorm this year but we will not be able to survive this disaster,” Ghani told IndiaSpend. Now, Srinagar’s fruit hawkers stock his apples but they pay half the normal market price...Read More

No change in nuclear policy: Pak on Imran's 'no first from our side' remark

Current Affairs

There is no change in Pakistan's nuclear policy, the Foreign Office has said, hours after Prime Minister Imran Khan vowed that his country will never ever start a war with India, amid escalating tensions between the nuclear powers over the Kashmir issue.
Addressing a gathering of the Sikh community at the Governor's House in Lahore on Monday evening, Khan said both India and Pakistan are nuclear-armed countries and if tension escalates, the world will face danger.
"There will be no first from our side ever," he said, without explaining further.
However, Khan has been repeatedly threatening the possibility of a nuclear war with India over Kashmir after his efforts to internationalise the matter failed to gain any traction.
Khan also said conflict create more problems than resolving them.
"I want to tell India that war is not a solution to any problem. The winner in war is also a loser. War gives birth to host of other issues," he said.
However, Pakistan Foreign Office said Khan's comments were being taken out of context and did not represent a change in Islamabad's nuclear policy.
"Prime Minister's comments on Pakistan's approach towards conflict between two nuclear armed states are being taken out of context," Foreign Office spokesperson Mohammad Faisal said in a late night tweet on Monday.

 "While conflict should not take place between two nuclear states, there's no change in Pakistan's nuclear policy," he said...Read More

J&K Governor announces 50,000 govt jobs for Kashmiris in next 3 months

Current Affairs

The Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) administration will try filling 50,000 vacancies in government jobs in the next two-three months in the soon-to-be-created Union Territory, J&K Governor Satya Pal Malik said on Wednesday.
Malik, addressing his first press conference after Parliament revoked provisions of Article 370 in the first week of August, said the Centre would soon make a ‘big’ announcement on J&K.
In New Delhi, government sources denied reports that it has constituted a Group of Ministers, or GoM, to look into development, economic and social issues for J&K and Ladakh. While there was speculation of it, the government did not announce any special package for either Ladakh or J&K. The two union territories come into existence on October 31. The governor's promise on jobs echoes the commitment that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had made to the people of the region in his address to the nation earlier this month.
In his press conference, the J&K Governor sought to justify detention and imprisoning of mainstream politicians. He said times spent by politicians in jail would help them in their political careers. “Don't you want that people should become leaders. I have gone to jail 30 times. Those who will go to jail, will become leaders. Let them be there. The more they spend time in the jail, the more they will claim during elections...that I have spent six months behind bars...

 Malik also said restrictions in J&K were necessary to prevent civilian causalities. The Internet is a handy tool for anti-national elements and the restoration of connections will be deferred for some more time, Malik said. He said pellet guns were used by security personnel during protests in the Kashmir Valley, but said forces took precaution to prevent injuries...Read More

Kashmir should be settled bilaterally; no place for third party: Macron

Current Affairs

India and Pakistan should resolve the Kashmir issue bilaterally and no third party should "interfere or incite" violence in the region, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday after his marathon one-on-one talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The two leaders reviewed the entire gamut of the dynamic and multi-faceted bilateral relationship during their more than 90-minute long one-on-one meeting at Chateau de Chantilly, one of the finest jewels of French cultural heritage, located about 50 kms north of Paris.
The one-on-one interaction was followed by the delegation-level talks.
In a joint press statement after the talks, President Macron said that Prime Minister Modi briefed him about the recent decision taken by India on Jammu and Kashmir and that it is in their sovereignty.
"I told him that India and Pakistan will have to find a solution to the issue and no third party should interfere or incite violence in the region," Macron said.He said that peace should be maintained in the region and peoples' rights should be protected.
"I will also speak to Pakistan Prime Minister after a few days and tell him that the talks should be held bilaterally," the French president said.He also said that France will deliver 1st of the 36 Rafale fighter jets to India next month.

Speaking after Macron, Prime Minister Modi said the relationship between India and France is not based on any selfishness, but on solid ideals of 'Liberty, Equality and Fraternity'.He said India and France will expand cooperation in counter terrorism and security....Read More

Would be unwise to alienate India, turn to Pakistan as partner: US expert

Company News

Amid an increased India-Pak tension on Kashmir and an ongoing Afghan peace talks, a top American foreign policy expert has cautioned the Trump Administration against any strategic tilt towards Pakistan and moving away from India.
"The US would be unwise to turn to Pakistan as a strategic partner," Richard N Hass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, wrote in an op-ed last week.Pakistan sees a friendly government in Kabul as vital to its security and competition with arch-rival India, he wrote in his op-ed that was first published by Project Syndicate and thereafter, on the CFR website.
"There is little reason to believe that the military and intelligence services, which continue to run Pakistan, will rein in the Taliban or rule out terrorism," Hass said."Equally, the US would be unwise to alienate India. Yes, India has a tradition of protectionist trade policies and often frustrates US policymakers with its reluctance to cooperate fully on strategic issues," he wrote.
But democratic India, which will soon surpass China as the world's most populous country and will boast the world's fifth-largest economy, is a good long-term bet, he added.
"It is a natural partner to help balance China. India has rejected participation in China's Belt and Road Initiative, whereas Pakistan, struggling economically, has embraced it," Hass said.According to the top American scholar, the US would also be unwise to race for the exits from Afghanistan.

Peace talks with the Taliban mostly look like a means to extract US forces from the country, he claimed, adding that the process is reminiscent of Vietnam, where a 1973 agreement between the US and North Vietnam provided a pretext for American withdrawal from the South but not a basis for peace....Read More

Jammu & Kashmir special status: Decoding Article 35A and Article 370

International News

With speculation rife that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) -led central government could remove Article 35A and article 370, which give a special status to Jammu & Kashmir, there is a lot of confusion as to what these two statutes entail. Political parties on either side of the debate have voiced their opinion, with some calling tinkering with Article 35A “like setting powder keg on fire”, while others have supported the idea calling it a move to unify of the country.
What is Article 35A?
This provision of the Constitution allows the Jammu & Kashmir state Assembly to define who is and is not a “permanent resident” of the state. To further break it down, this provision of the Constitution gives the legislators from Jammu & Kashmir the exclusive power to determine as to which people in or outside the state will have special rights and privileges granted by the state.
The provision, inserted through a special Presidential order in 1954, also gives the state Assembly powers to determine the recipients of state grants, the right to purchase land and property in the state, as well as settling permanently in the region. Other than this, the legislative Assembly of Jammu & Kashmir can use the provision to restrict rights of any person not classified under “permanent resident” of the state.
Can Article 35A be amended or repealed?

 The repealing of Article 35A could be a legal uphill task for the central government, experts said. For any changes to be made to the provision, the constituent Assembly of the state has to consent to it. The constituent Assembly of the state, however, ceased to exist in 1957. This, constitutional expert Shubhankar Dam said, made seeking nod from the Assembly impossible...Read More

US Congressman apologises for Trump's 'embarrassing' remark on Kashmir

International News

An influential Democratic Congressman on Tuesday apologised to India's US envoy for President Donald Trump's "embarrassing" remarks on Kashmir, while several others came out in support of New Delhi's established stand against any third-party role on the issue.
"I just apologized to Indian Ambassador Harsh Shringla for Trump's amateurish and embarrassing mistake," Congressman Brad Sherman tweeted hours after Trump's stunning claim that Prime Minister Narendra Modi sought his mediation or arbitration efforts to resolve the Kashmir issue.
India quickly rejected his claims.
For the past 70 years, India has consistently resisted any third-party mediation proposal, and for over a decade now, the US has been reiterating that Kashmir is a bilateral issue.
"Everyone who knows anything about foreign policy in South Asia knows that #India consistently opposes third-party mediation re Kashmir. Everyone knows PM Modi would never suggest such a thing (sic)," tweeted Sherman, who has been closely following the development in South Asia for past few decades.
"Trump's statement is amateurish and delusional. And embarrassing, said Sherman who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Sub-Committee on Asia, the Pacific and Non-Proliferation.

 Later in the evening, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Alice Wells in a tweet said that Kashmir is a bilateral issue between India and Pakistan. "While Kashmir is a bilateral issue for both parties to discuss, the Trump administration welcomes Pakistan and India sitting down and the United States stands ready to assist," she tweeted...Read More

Kashmir is issue between India-Pak; US ready to assist talks: State Dept

International News

The Trump administration has launched a damage control exercise after the President's remarks about mediation on Kashmir, with the State Department on Tuesday saying it was a "bilateral" issue between India and Pakistan, and the US "welcomes" the two countries "sitting down" for talks.
It also said Pakistan taking "sustained and irreversible" steps against terrorism is key to a successful dialogue with India.
"While Kashmir is a bilateral issue for both parties to discuss, the Trump administration welcomes Pakistan and India sitting down and the United States stands ready to assist," a State Department spokesperson told PTI in response to a question if Trump's remarks reflect a change in the country's policy on Kashmir.
India has already rejected Trump's claim that Prime Minister Narendra Modi sought his mediation on the Kashmir issue.
For more than a decade, the US has consistently insisted that Kashmir is a bilateral issue between India and Pakistan and it is for the two countries to decide on the nature and scope of the dialogue.
"We believe the foundation for any successful dialogue between India and Pakistan is based on Pakistan taking sustained and irreversible steps against militants and terrorists on its territory. These actions are in line with Prime Minister (Imran) Khan's stated commitments, and Pakistan's international obligations," the State Department spokesperson said.

 "We will continue to support efforts that reduce tensions and create an environment conducive for dialogue. This first and foremost means tackling the menace of terrorism. As the President indicated, we stand ready to assist," the spokesperson said in response to a question...Read More

Tral encounter: Al Qaeda affiliate Zakir Musa killed, curfew in Kashmir

Current Affairs

Curfew was imposed in parts of Kashmir on Friday, a day after Zakir Musa, the so-called chief of a group affiliated to the Al-Qaeda, was believed to have been killed in an encounter with security forces in Tral.
Educational institutions have been closed and curfew was imposed in places in Kashmir as a precautionary measure, following the Thursday incident, officials said.Internet was also shutdown, they said.
Musa, who is believed to have been killed in the gunfight with security forces, was the so-called head of the Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind.
Two terrorists were killed in the encounter in a village south Kashmir's Tral area but there was no confirmation about their identities.
However, Musa's family confirmed that he was present at the site.
Spontaneous protests had broken out in Shopian, Pulwama, Awantipora and downtown Srinagar, with people raising slogans in favour of Musa.
Senior police officials had said security forces had launched a cordon and search operation at Dadsara village and when the terrorists tried to escape, a gunfight broke out.
They had said efforts were made to make them surrender but the request fell on deaf ears and the holed up terrorists started lobbing grenades using a launcher.The officials had said more security forces were rushed to the area to prevent the terrorists from escaping under the cover of darkness.
On Thursday, the Jammu and Kashmir Police announced restrictions in some areas of Pulwama, Awantipora, Srinagar, Anantnag and Budgam as a precautionary measure.

 The officials said the decision was made keeping in view the Friday prayer gatherings.

Pulwama attack: UN Secretary General calls on India, Pak to defuse tension

Current Affairs:

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has called on India and Pakistan to take "immediate steps" to deescalate tension that soared after 40 Indian security personnel were killed in an attack by Jaish-e-Mohammed in Pulwama.

"The Secretary General stresses the importance for both sides to exercise maximum restraint and take immediate steps to de-escalation, and his good offices are always available should both sides ask," the UN Chief's spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters here Tuesday at the daily press briefing.

Dujarric was asked about a meeting Pakistan's Permanent Mission to the UN has sought with the Secretary General and also about Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi saying the UN must step in to defuse tensions between the two nations.
"...Looking at the situation in general between India and Pakistan, we're deeply concerned at the increase in tensions between the two countries in the wake of the attack on Indian security personnel on 14 February in Pulwama," Dujrraic said.

He said Pakistan's mission at the UN requested for the meeting with the Secretary General.
"We have seen press reports of a letter having been delivered to the UN. As far as we've ascertained, none has been received as of this very minute," he added.


 Last week, Guterres had "strongly" condemned the terror attack against security personnel in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district, perpetrated by Pakistan-based terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed, calling for those behind the attack to be brought to justice...Read More

Pulwama attack: Sitharaman slams Pak for seeking proof of its involvement

Current Affairs:

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman lammed Pakistan for seeking proof of its involvement in the Pulwama terror attack and said it was India which has been providing evidence but the neighbouring country has not taken any action on it.

She was reacting to Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan's message to India to share 'actionable intelligence' if his country was involved in the terror attack for any action.

"Since the Mumbai attacks, not just this government, the earlier government also had sent dossiers after dossiers, evidence after evidence, what action has Pakistan taken on them?" she asked.
Also, at every level India has been following the process of law and the Mumbai attackers had been brought to book and punished by court of law, she told a press conference here.
"In Pakistan not even the first court is doing its job. There is nothing for Pakistan to show," she added.

Reacting to Khan's comments over the attack, Sitharaman said she would not want to say how the government was going to respond to it as no word is sufficient enough to assuage the anger and disappointment of every person of the country.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has already allowed the Indian Army to respond at any given time and as they see fit, Sitharaman said.


 On the defence forces morale following the Pulwama terror attack, Sitharaman said "The morale is not affected at all, they are absolutely ready to do their job...Read More

Strategies for Pulwama-like attacks trace back to ISI HQ: Christine Fair

Current Affairs:
In the wake of the Pulwama terrorist attack, India needs a discussion about what is in its best interest — should it continue with its strategy of restraint or change its behaviour — says C Christine Fair, author of In Their Own Words: Understanding Lashkar-e-Tayyaba and Fighting to the End: The Pakistan Army's Way of War. Fair tells Bhaswar Kumar in an interview that terrorist attacks like Pulwama will continue because this is the only way Pakistan can show India that it is not defeated, no matter how powerful India becomes. Edited excerpts:

Indian governments do not say so. Unlike the US, India does not have a written National Security Strategy (NSS). Each American President has to issue an NSS and this is the standard by which informed citizens can monitor the budget and other applications of national powers. Few countries have NSS documents. These are helpful documents, as they effect a public debate and provide a road map for the elected government.

So, though one could not be certain, one could infer a general avoidance of confrontation from the Indian government's behaviour. And, it seems to be a constant since the post-Kargil time.
India understands that if it can keep focusing on its economy, it can continue increasing its defence allocation in real terms, with its overall economy continuing to grow. That will allow India to outgrow the Pakistan threat.


 For its part, Pakistan understands that it has an army that cannot win the wars that it starts, and nuclear weapons that it cannot use, so it must demonstrate that India's hegemonic goals are not unchallenged. This means Pakistan must attack India through proxy actors under its nuclear umbrella, just to demonstrate that India has not defeated it or forced it into accepting the status quo...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.

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.