Encounter underway in Kashmir's Bandipora; three terrorists 'trapped'

An encounter is underway between terrorists and security forces in Hajin area of north Kashmir's Bandipora district on Thursday.

Two to three terrorists are believed to be trapped in the area.

No report of casualties or injuries has been reported as of now. More details are awaited.

On Wednesday, four policemen lost their lives in a terrorist attack in South Kashmir's Shopian district. According to the police, a police party came under indiscriminate firing by a group of terrorists during the afternoon hours in Shopian's Arhama.

This came after two terrorists from Hizb-ul-Mujahideen were gunned down in an encounter in Jammu and Kashmir's Anantnag district.

Shutdown in Kashmir as clashes erupt on rumours of SC scrapping Article 35A

Spontaneous shutdown was observed at several places in Kashmir after clashes broke out between youths and security forces following rumours about scrapping of Article 35A, a police official said.
Article 35A, which accords special rights and privileges to the citizens of Jammu and Kashmir, is facing a legal challenge in the Supreme Court.

"Spontaneous shutdown is being observed in many places in Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir, and Anantnag district in south Kashmir," the official said.

He said announcements were made on loudspeakers that Article 35A has been scrapped and people were asked to observe a strike and come out to protest.

"Shops and other business establishments, which had opened this morning, downed shutters after rumours of Article 35A being scrapped spread like wild fire and were circulated on social media, the official said.

Stone-pelters clashed with security personnel in Anantnag and in the Safakadal area here in the wake of the rumours, he said.

Army jawan killed in Pakistani firing along LoC in Jammu and Kashmir

An Army jawan was killed in unprovoked firing by Pakistani troops along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir's Rajouri district, the Army said.
Pakistan Army troops initiated unprovoked firing on Indian posts from across the border in the Sunderbani sector, prompting the Indian troops guarding the LoC to retaliate strongly and effectively, an Army spokesman said.
Lance Naik Yogesh Muralidhar Bhadane, 22, from Khalane village of Dhule district in Maharashtra, was critically injured in the firing and later succumbed to his injuries.

Bhadane is survived by his wife.
The incident comes just days after a BSF head constable was killed after Pakistani forces "sniped" from across the International Border in Samba district.
In retaliation, the BSF destroyed two Pakistani mortar positions. It also foiled an infiltration bid by gunning down a Pakistani intruder along the IB near Nikowal Border Out Post (BoP) in Arnia sector.
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PoK belongs to Pak remark: Delhi HC to hear plea against Farooq Abdullah

The Delhi High Court will today hear a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking action against National Conference president Farooq Abdullah for his reported controversial remarks on Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

President of Gharib Nawaz Foundation Maulana Ansar Raza filed the petition on November 17, and demanded that Abdullah's passport should be cancelled.

Recently, Abdullah said that the PoK belonged to Pakistan and the fact would not change no matter how many wars are fought over the issue.

Social activist Sukesh Khajuria also filed a complaint with District Magistrate against Abdullah, on the same day, and sought action against him under section 196 of CrPC, which deals with offences against the State and for criminal conspiracy to commit such offence.

A Bihar court has also ordered filing of FIR against Farooq Abdullah on charges of treason over his remarks on PoK.

India maintains that the PoK was invaded by Pakistan in 1947.

On February 22, 1994, the Indian Parliament passed a unanimous resolution that demanded "Pakistan must vacate the areas of the Indian State of Jammu and Kashmir, which they have occupied through aggression; and resolves that all attempts to interfere in the internal affairs of India will be met resolutely".
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Kashmir terror funding: Rs 36 cr seized in demonetised notes, NIA arrests 9

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Tuesday said it had seized nearly Rs 36.5 crore in demonetised currency and arrested nine persons here in its ongoing probe into the Jammu and Kashmir terror funding case.

Following inputs, an NIA team seized the currency on Monday on Jai Singh Road near Connaught Place -- a business and financial hub of Delhi situated not more than eight km from the counter-terror agency's headquarters.

"Seven gang members were initially apprehended while carrying 28 cartons filled with the demonetised notes in four luxury vehicles. Their other accomplices were apprehended later in the evening. We seized Rs 36,34,78,500 from their possession," NIA Spokesperson Alok Mittal told IANS.

He said after initial questioning at the NIA headquarters, the nine were arrested on Tuesday in the Jammu and Kashmir terror funding case. They will be produced in a Special NIA court on Wednesday.

Those held were Pradeep Chauhan, 47, Bhagwan Singh, 54, Vinod Shreedhar Shetty, 47, Shahnawaz Mir, 45, Deepak Toprani, 60, Majid Yousuf Sofi, 27, Ejajul Hassan, 38, Umar Mushtaq Dar, 27, and Jaswinder Singh, 53.

Three accused hail from Jammu and Kashmir, two from Delhi, two from Mumbai, and one each from Uttar Pradesh and Nagpur.
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Terrorists kill BSF jawan Ramzan Parray, injure family members in Kashmir

Militants on Wednesday stormed the home of a Kashmiri BSF constable on vacation, shooting him dead and inflicting gunshot wounds on four of his family members in Hajjan in north Kashmir, police said.

Rameez Parrey (30) belonged to the 73rd battalion of the BSF.

The militants, after forcing their way into the house in Parrey Mohalla, fired indiscriminately at the family.

The jawan died on the spot. Four of his family members -- his father, two brothers and an aunt -- suffered gunshot wounds, police said.

The condition of the jawan's aunt was stated to be serious, while that of the three others was stable.

The Director General of Jammu and Kashmir Police, S P Vaid, termed the incident as "barbaric and inhumane" and said the guilty would be punished.

Parrey served the BSF for six years.

The BSF, India confirmed the news on Twitter: "Prahari Pariwar stands by the family of one of our member Constable Md Ramzan who was cowardly killed by terrorists today.He was on leave"

Nitish Kumar, who heads the police in North Kashmir, tweeted that the four were "critically injured".
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Kulgam encounter: Two Hizbul Mujahideen militants killed, one arrested

At least two Hizbul Mujahideen terrorists were killed and another arrested in an encounter with the security forces in the Khudwani village of Jammu and Kashmir's Kulgam.

The security forces launched a cordon and search operation in the Khudwani area of Kulgam district yesterday following specific information about the presence of several terrorists.

The killed terrorists have been identified as Dawood Ahmed Ali and Shaiyar Ahmed Wani. The arrested terrorist has been identified as Arief Sofi.

Two weapons were also recovered - one AK47 and one INSAS rifle.
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Kashmir-born doctor helps develop genetically modified human embryos

For the first time, genetically modified human embryos have been developed in the US and Kashmir-born doctor Sanjeev Kaul has played a lead role in this breakthrough.

Scientists have now demonstrated an effective way of using a gene-editing tool to correct a disease-causing gene mutation in human embryos and stop it from passing to future generations.

Though this is not a full-fledged start of a revolution of having 'designer babies', the first steps, however, have been laid. China attempted this earlier.

A team of scientists has altered human embryos using a new technique called CRISPR CAS9 that edits genes and in this case it helped remove a fatal mutation that leads to heart attacks.

This now opens up an ethical 'Pandora's Box' if germline repairs and enhancements may become a thing in vogue.

As of now, the human embryos were not implanted in humans. But this now opens up exciting prospects of the world having designer babies soon.
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Kashmir's millennials are taking on heavily-armed forces to save militants

It was a typically warm July evening in Kashmir. I was at my home in Zaldagar, a tightly-packed neighbourhood in downtown Srinagar. I was about five years old. My cousins had come over that day, there were a lot of people in the house. We were playing outside underneath a chinar tree. That’s when the distinct – but not unusual, in those days – sound of gunfire changed the mood all of a sudden. Within a few seconds, my uncle rushed out and carted us kids back inside. Everyone had been bundled together in the kitchen. Nobody knew what was going on, but everyone seemed very scared.

It didn’t take long for murmurs of what was happening to pass through the windows. An encounter had started in the neighbourhood, a frequent occurrence in Kashmir in the 1990s. A local militant, who went by the nom de guerre of ‘Alu’ve’ (potato), had been cornered by government forces inside a house nearby. I overheard the elders saying that his family lived in the same area, but I never found out what his real name was. As the gunfight started raging and additional forces started laying a second cordon of the site, all the men in house and the neighbourhood – even the teenagers – fled, fearful of either being killed, harassed or picked up by the forces. As it grew dark, the only man left in the house was my grandfather, everyone else was either a child or a woman. This was 1995. Armed militants were in almost every corner of the Valley. There was a popular sympathy for them. But there also was a deep-rooted fear of retaliation from the state.

Fast forward 22 years, and armed militancy has been largely restricted. Now only a handful of predominantly local young armed rebels (around 200 according to police) are operating, mostly in villages and in the forests. But the fear, it seems, has almost completely disappeared among the people, especially the young.

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London Bridge attack: Khuram Butt and the history of the 'Islam4UK' group

As part of ongoing research on both radical Islamist and far-right extremism, I spent the best part of 2009 following the activities of one British city’s al-Muhajiroun group. Also known as Islam4UK, this small group led by Omar Bakri and then Anjem Choudary has been a long-term irritant to the government, as well a staging post in the lives of many British terrorists.

Khuram Shahzad Bhat, Shahzad Bhat, Bhat, Pakistan-born British terrorist, British terrorist, terrorist Pakistan-born British terrorist Khuram Shahzad Bhat. Photo: PTI
Many of those who have committed terrorist violence in the UK and abroad have been part of or connected to the group. Khuram Butt – one of the three London Bridge attackers – is just the latest. Butt was a known follower of the al-Muhajiroun network.

Demonstrations and media appearances by its leaders have caused outrage time and time again – and led to the forming of the right-wing English Defence League (EDL) in opposition to its ideas. In both 2006 and 2010, the group was banned on the grounds of glorification of terrorism, only to reappear under other names.

The group was formed in 1996, when Omar Bakri was expelled from Hizb ut-Tahrir, an Islamist group that aims to restore the historic Caliphate to unite all Muslims. Hizb ut-Tahrir works politically and intellectually, and so did not appreciate Bakri’s “aggressive populist approach and high media profile … street demonstrations, mass rallies and public conversions”. While al-Muhajiroun shared some of Hizb ut-Tahrir’s long-term goals, it seems its immediate aim was to be visibly disruptive.
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