New Delhi: Army Chief General Manoj Mukund Naravane has said that Kashmir had witnessed an increase in seizure of arms and ammunition from Afghanistan.

“There is definitely an increase in the number of weapons and other equipment, especially night-vision devices that we are capturing or unearthing, which definitely have come from Afghanistan,” General Naravane said in a video released on Thursday.

“When the previous Taliban regime was there in Afghanistan in the early 2000s, we did have a little spillover. We had captured or killed Afghan terrorists (in Kashmir) also.”

In February this year, General Naravane had said the situation in Afghanistan had again brought to focus, the use of proxies and non-state actors to decisive effects.

“These actors thrive on local conditions, innovatively exploit low cost options, to devastating impact and create conditions, that limit the full use of sophisticated capabilities, available to the state,” he had said.

“I have said this in the past, and I wish to reiterate, that in future conflicts, the troops, on the forward-most locations, ready and in a high state of alertness, may not be the ones to face the first wave of aggression,” he had added.

Prime Minister, Narendra Modi hosted a Sikh delegation at 7 Lok Kalyan Marg, the official residence of the Prime Minister. The group included people from different walks of life. Union Minister, Hardeep Singh Puri was among those present on the occasion.

Speaking on the occasion, the Prime Minister recalled his long association with the Sikh community. “Going to Gurudwaras, spending time in ‘sewa’, getting langar, staying at the homes of Sikh families has been a part of my life. The feet of Sikh saints keep falling from time to time in the Prime Minister’s residence here. I keep getting the good fortune of their company”, the Prime Minister said. The Prime Minister also recalled his visits to the places of Sikh heritage all over the world during his visits abroad.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said “our Gurus have taught us courage and service. The people of India have gone to different parts of the world without any resources and achieved success through their labour. This is the spirit of New India today too”, he said.

Reiterating his appreciation for the mood of new India, the Prime Minister said New India is scaling new dimensions and is leaving its mark on the whole world. Period of Corona epidemic is the biggest example of this. At the beginning of the epidemic, people with old mindset were expressing concerns about India. But now, people are giving the example of India for its handling of the pandemic. Earlier concerns were being voiced over the enormity of  population of India and many were doubtful about vaccine for Indians. But today India has emerged as the biggest vaccine maker. “You will also be proud to hear that 99 percent of the vaccination has been done through our own Made in India Vaccines” ,he said.

The Prime Minister Modi said in this difficult period, India has emerged as one of the world’s largest start up ecosystems. “The number of our unicorns is constantly increasing. This growing stature and credibility of India provides maximum satisfaction and pride to our diaspora”, he added. The Prime Minister said “I have always considered our Indian diaspora as Rashtrdoot of India. All of you are the strong voice and lofty identity of Maa Bharati abroad.” He said even diaspora feels proud about the strides of growth that India is taking. “Wherever we are in the world, ‘India First’ needs to be our primary faith, he added.

Bowing to the great contribution and sacrifices of the Gurus, the Prime Minister recalled how Guru Nanak Dev ji awakened the consciousness of the entire nation and bought the nation out of darkness and took it on the path of light. He said that the Gurus travelled all over India and everywhere there are their signs and inspirations. They are revered and there is faith in them everywhere. The Prime Minister said that the feet of Gurus sanctified this great land and inspired its people. Sikh tradition is a living tradition of ‘Ek Bharat Shreshth Bharat’, he said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed the county’s gratitude for Sikh Community’s contribution during the freedom struggle and after Independence. He said that ‘Sikh community is synonymous with the courage, prowess and hard work of the country’.

The Prime Minister once again elaborated on his vision of India’s freedom struggle. He said that this struggle is not confined to a limited period but is a manifestation of thousands of years of consciousness, ideals, spiritual values and ‘tapasya’.

The Prime Minister expressed happiness on the good fortune of being associated with the landmark events like Guru Teg Bahadur’s 400^th Prakash Purab, Guru Nanak Devji’s 550^th  Prakash Purab and Guru Gobind Singh Ji’s 350^th Prakash Purab. He also said that events like construction of Kartarpur Corridor, making langars tax free, FCRA permission for Harmandir Sahib and improving infrastructure and cleanliness around Gurudwaras have been done in the tenure of this government.

PM Modi referred to the Gurus’ emphasis on duty and linked it with the same emphasis on sense of duty in the Amrit Kaal and said mantra of Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas and Sabka Prayas is an evocation of this spirit. He said this sense of duty is important not only for the present but also for our future generations. He praised the Sikh community for being always active for the causes of environment, nutrition, and protection of cultural values. He concluded by requesting the gathering to contribute in the recently launched campaign for Amrit Sarovars.

New Delhi:  India logged 3,377 new COVID-19 infections taking the country’s total tally of cases to 4,30,72,176 while the active cases rose to 17,801, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Friday.

Death toll climbed to 5,23,753 with 60 fresh fatalities, the data updated at 8 am stated.

The active cases comprise 0.04 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 98.74 per cent, the health ministry said.

An increase of 821 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours.

The daily positivity rate was recorded as 0.71 % and the weekly positivity rate as 0.63 per cent, according to the ministry.

The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 4,25,30,622 while the case fatality rate was 1.22 %.

The cumulative doses administered in the country so far under the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive has exceeded 188.65 crore.

India’s COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 2020, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16. It went past 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, crossed 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19. I

The country crossed the grim milestone of two crore on May 4 and three crore on June 23 last year.

The 60 new fatalities include 42 from Karnataka, 14 from Kerala, and two each from Delhi and Maharashtra.

A total of 5,23,753 deaths have been reported so far in the country including 1,47,840 from Maharashtra, 68,966 from Kerala, 40,099 from Karnataka, 38,025 from Tamil Nadu, 26,172 from Delhi, 23,506 from Uttar Pradesh and 21,201 from West Bengal.

The ministry stressed that more than 70 per cent of the deaths occurred due to comorbidities.

“Our figures are being reconciled with the Indian Council of Medical Research,” the ministry said on its website, adding that state-wise distribution of figures is subject to further verification and reconciliation.

New Delhi:  Prime Minister Narendra Modi will host a Sikh delegation and address them at his residence on Friday.

“This evening, I will be hosting a Sikh delegation at my residence. The group includes people from different walks of life. I will also be addressing the gathering at around 5:30 PM. Do watch,” he tweeted.

Modi has met members of the Sikh community at frequent intervals for some time. He had recently delivered an address from the Red Fort at an event to commemorate ninth Sikh Guru Tegh Bahadur.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying his federalism is “not cooperative but coercive”.

His remarks came a day after Modi flagged higher fuel prices in many opposition-ruled states and urged them to reduce VAT in “national interest” to benefit the common man and work in the spirit of cooperative federalism in this time of global crisis.

Gandhi alleged that the prime minister is abdicating his responsibility by blaming states for the high fuel prices even when the Centre has taken 68 percent of all fuel taxes.

“High Fuel prices – blame states. Coal shortage – blame states. Oxygen shortage – blame states,” he said in a tweet.

“68% of all fuel taxes are taken by the Centre. Yet, the PM abdicates responsibility. Modi’s Federalism is not cooperative. It’s coercive,” Gandhi charged.

Modi had raised the issue of many states not adhering to the Centre’s call for reducing the Value Added Tax (VAT) on petrol and diesel after his government slashed excise duties on them in November last, and called it “injustice” to people living there and also harmful for neighbouring states.

Two militants affiliated to Al-Badr outfit were killed in an encounter with security forces in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district early Thursday, police said.

The militants, according to police, were involved in attacks on non-local labourers.

A police officer said that a gunfight broke out after a joint team of police and army launched a search operation last evening at village Mitrigam in the district.

In the gunfight, the official said, two local militants of Al Badr outfit were killed. They were identified as Aijaz Hafiz  and Shahid Ayub. This takes the number of militants killed in last twelve days to fourteen.

Two AK rifles were recovered from their possession.

“They had been involved in [a] series of attacks on outside labourers in Pulwama in the month of March-April 2022,” a police spokesman said on Twitter, quoting IGP Kashmir Vijay Kumar. A soldier was wounded in the gunfight, police said.

New Delhi: India on Thursday reported 3,303 fresh COVID-19 cases that took its tally to 4,30,68799 while the active cases increased to 16,980 according to Union health ministry data.
Daily cases crossed the 3,000-mark after 46 days. The death toll due to COVID-19 climbed to 5,23,693 with 39 more fatalities, the data updated today at 8 am stated.

The active cases comprise 0.04 %  of the total infections. The national COVID-19 recovery rate stood at 98.74 % the health ministry said.

An increase of 701 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours. The daily positivity rate was recorded at 0.66 %  and the weekly positivity rate was recorded at 0.61 % the health ministry said.

The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 4,25,28,126 while the case fatality rate stands at 1.22 % , it said.

The total number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the country so far under the nationwide vaccination drive has exceeded 188.40 crore.

India’s COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 2020, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16. It went past 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, crossed 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19.

India crossed the grim milestone of two crore on May 4, 2021 and three crore on June 23.

The 39 new fatalities include 36 from Kerala, and one each from Delhi, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.
Of the total 5,23,693 deaths reported so far in the country, 1,47,838 were from Maharashtra, 68,952 from Kerala, 40,057 from Karnataka, 38,025 from Tamil Nadu, 26,170 from Delhi, 23,506 from Uttar Pradesh and 21,201 from West Bengal.

Union health ministry stressed that more than 70 %  of the deaths occurred due to comorbidities. “Our figures are being reconciled with the Indian Council of Medical Research,” the ministry said on its website, adding that state-wise distribution of figures is subject to further verification and reconciliation.

New Delhi : BJP leader and former Union minister Vijay Sampla has been appointed as the chairperson of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) for a second time.
The official order for his appointment was issued by President Ram Nath Kovind on Wednesday.

Sampla had resigned as the NCSC chairman ahead of the Punjab elections and had contested the polls.

Sampla, a prominent Dalit face of Punjab, began his political career in 1998 as the Sarpanch of Sofipind village in Jalandhar Cantonment.

Chandigarh: Yesterday  after the Congress disciplinary panel recommended his two-year suspension on Tuesday, former Punjab unit chief Sunil Jakhar wished his party good luck while refusing to reveal his own plans.

I wish the Congress good luck, Jakhar said when reporters sought his reaction to the disciplinary committee’s recommendation. He refused to comment when asked what would be his next step.

The committee, which met Tuesday morning in Delhi, gave its recommendations to party president Sonia Gandhi, who will take the necessary action.

Ahead of the panel’s meeting, Jakhar had said those who still have a conscience will be punished.

Aaj, sar kalam honge unke jinme abhi zameer baaki hai. (Today, those with a conscience will be beheaded). (My apologies to Javed Akhtar Saheb), the former MP said in a tweet earlier in the day.

The party disciplinary committee had on April 11 given a show-cause notice to Jakhar for alleged anti-party activities and sought a reply within a week. But he chose not to reply.

Jakhar had criticised former Punjab chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi and termed him a liability for the party after the Congress lost the Punjab Assembly polls to the Aam Aadmi Party.

Some party leaders, including former minister Raj Kumar Verka, had also demanded action against Jakhar, accusing him of using objectionable language against Channi and the Scheduled Caste community during a TV interview.

But Jakhar had rejected the charge, saying his remarks were twisted out of context. He had also expressed regret if anybody was hurt by his comments.

He had earlier created a flutter claiming that 42 MLAs wanted him to be the chief minister and only two backed Channi after the unceremonious exit of Amarinder Singh last year.

He was among the frontrunners for the CM’s post after Amarinder Singh was unseated by the party.

Earlier, Jakhar was replaced by Navjot Singh Sidhu as the Punjab Congress president.

His chances of becoming the CM were scuttled after party veteran Ambika Soni said the Congress should go with a Sikh face in Punjab.

The disciplinary panel also recommended the suspension of five Meghalaya MLAs who had supported the ruling Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA), defying the party directives.

Twelve militants have been killed in Kashmir in last ten days in a surge in violence across Kashmir Valley. The slain militants include some top local and foreign commanders.

The encounters have taken place in South and central Kashmir showing the militancy is again spreading across the Valley. Significantly, among the slain militants are the foreigners too, two of them were killed in Srinagar city soon after they shot dead a CRPF personnel at Maisuma in downtown Srinagar and injured his colleague.

According to official figures, 65 militants, both locals and foreign, have been killed by security forces in the Valley this year in addition to 12 security personnel and 10 civilians.

On Sunday, three militants affiliated with the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) outfit, including a teenager from Srinagar, who had gone missing on April 16, were killed in an encounter with security forces in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district.

But the successive killings of the militants has not stopped the targetted killing of civilians including grassroots workers, minorities and the non-local labourers in the Valley.