Page 461 - War Conflict
Arms and ammunition seized in Kalyani
Several arms and ammunition were recovered from a house during a raid at Atghara in Nadia district, the police said. Acting on an information, police raided the area under Kalyani police station and recovered two firearms and 36 cartridges of various weapons from the house of one Arun Mondal on Monday, Superintendent of Police Nadia Rupesh Kumar said. Mondal was arrested.
Militants kill SPO in J&K
Militants killed a special police officer (SPO) in Jammu and Kashmir's Shopian district on Wednesday.
BJP activist abducted, killed in J&K
A Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) activist was abducted and killed by militants in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district, police said on Wednesday.
Morocco king pardons 188 people linked to Hirak protests
Morocco's King Mohammed VI has pardoned a total of 188 people linked to the "Hirak" protest movement on the occasion of Eid al-Adha religious feast, the National Council on Human Rights said. The council initially reported yesterday that royal pardons had been granted to 11 activists serving sentences of two to three years in prison for their part in the Al-Hirak al-Shaabi, or "Popular Movement" whose protests rocked the northern Rif region in 2016-2017. The other pardons concern people sentenced in connection with the demonstrations in the disadvantaged region, according to the Moroccan press. It was not immediately possible to get confirmation from the justice ministry, which published the list of people granted royal pardons. The social unrest linked to Hirak began in October 2016 after the death of a fisherman and spiralled into a wave of protests demanding more development in the neglected Rif region and railing against corruption and unemployment. The pardoned Hirak detainees ...
UN chief urges global support for victims of terrorism
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has urged people everywhere to support victims of terrorism and their families, saying it is "a moral imperative" to promote, protect, and respect their human rights. The UN chief said in a statement on the first International Day of Remembrance of and Tribute to the Victims of Terrorism yesterday that "caring for victims and survivors and amplifying their voices helps to challenge the narrative of hatred and division that terrorism aims to spread". "When we lift up the victims and survivors of terrorism, listen to their voices, respect their rights and provide them with support and justice," Guterres said, "we are honouring our common bonds, and reducing the lasting damage done by terrorists to individuals, families and communities". The UN General Assembly adopted a resolution last December "deeply deploring the suffering caused by terrorism to the victims and their families" and proclaiming August 21 as the annual day to honour and support ...
Russia says Taliban plan to attend Afghan talks in Moscow
Russia today said that the Taliban have accepted an invitation for talks next month, in what promises to be one of the insurgent group's biggest diplomatic forays since the 2001 US-led invasion. The announcement of the planned talks comes as the Taliban have expanded their footprint across Afghanistan and launched an unrelenting wave of attacks, including a prolonged assault on Ghazni, a strategic city near Kabul, earlier this month. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscow invited the Taliban to the Sept. 4 talks and was hoping for "productive" negotiations. "The first reaction was positive, they are planning to take part in the meeting," he said. There was no immediate comment from the Taliban. Lavrov reaffirmed that Russia's contacts with the Taliban aim to ensure the safety of Russian citizens in Afghanistan and encourage the insurgents to abandon hostilities and engage in a dialogue with the government. He rejected claims by the Afghan government that Russia is hoping ..
Lanka, Japan to boost maritime defense cooperation
Japan today pledged to strengthen its maritime defence cooperation with Sri Lanka and donated two coast guard patrol vessel costing over USD 11 million, a move by Tokyo to counter China's grip over the strategic Indian Ocean island. The announcement was made following a meeting between Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena and visiting Japanese Defence Minister Itsunori Onedera. "Sri Lanka and Japan are looking for closer maritime defense cooperation," a statement from President Sirisena's office said. Onedera, who is the first Japanese defence minister to visit Sri Lanka, will also visit the Hambantota port which Colombo was forced to lease to a Chinese state-owned company for 99 years in December 2017 after it failed to service loans from Beijing to build the USD 1.1 billion facility. Hambantota, about 230-km south of Colombo, is situated on the world's busiest east-west shipping route and gives China a foothold in a region which was said to be long dominated by India. The ...
J-K: One terrorist gunned down in Kupwara fire exchange
One terrorist has been gunned down by the security forces in an encounter, which broke out in Handwara town of Jammu and Kashmir's Kupwara district on Tuesday.The body of the deceased is yet to be recovered as the operation is underway.A brief exchange of gunfight took place between militants and security forces at Yaroo area of Langate, Handwara late afternoon.Earlier, two incidents of ceasefire violation were also reported. An army jawan was injured in an unprovoked firing from Pakistan in Tangdhar sector of the district.The Pakistani forces also engaged in another ceasefire violation along the Line of Control (LoC) in Kamalkote village in Baramulla district's Uri.
Pakistan on course to defeating terrorism: Army chief
Pakistan is on a "positive trajectory" to defeat terrorism, Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa claimed today as he vowed to defeat "all inimical forces" which have tried to push the country towards darkness. Terrorism is a global menace and requires collective response, he said as international pressure was mounting on Pakistan to rein-in terror groups having safe havens in the country. He said Pakistan has "remained subjected to this threat for quite some time especially during the last two decades", he said in a message on the 'International Day of Victims of Terrorism'. The "Pakistani nation and its armed forces have bravely and successfully stood up to this challenge and is on a positive trajectory to defeat it effectively," he was quoted as saying by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the media wing of the Pakistan armed forces. He expressed solidarity with the courageous families of the victims of terrorism including security forces who fought valiantly against the ...
Britain presses for more EU sanctions against Russia
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain pressed the European Union on Tuesday to increase sanctions against Russia, saying it should stand "shoulder to shoulder" with the United States, which hit Moscow with new economic restrictions this month.
HC seeks status of Jaya's plea in SC on Katchatheevu retrieval
The Madras High Court today asked the Tamil Nadu government to inform it about the status of late chief minister J Jayalalithaa's petition in the Supreme Court seeking retrieval of Katchatheevu islet ceded by India to Sri Lanka in the 1970s. It gave the directive during a hearing of a petition by Fishermen Care, an NGO, seeking to refer the matter of alleged human rights violations of Indian fishermen by the Sri Lankan Navy for the past 34 to the International Court of Justice for 'breach' of the Indo-Sri Lanka agreement. Jayalalithaa had in 2008 moved the apex court in her capacity as the AIADMK general secretary, seeking a direction to the Union government to declare as null and void the 1974 and 1976 agreements under which Katchatheevu was ceded, saying the accords were the root cause of the untold misery suffered by the state's fishermen. When the petition by Fishermen Care came up for hearing, a division bench comprising justices S Manikumar and Subramonium Prasad ordered the ..
IS claims responsibility for deadly attack in Chechnya
The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for a series of attacks on Chechen police in Russia's Northern Caucasus. The attacks yesterday in three locations in Russia's predominantly Muslim Chechnya left several policemen injured. Five militants, aged between 11 and 16, were killed. IS today claimed responsibility for the attack in the regional capital Grozny and in the Shali area just south of Grozny. Radical Islamic militants, some of whom have sworn allegiance to IS, have conducted sporadic raids in Chechnya in the past, defying the rule of the Kremlin-friendly leader Ramzan Kadyrov. Yesterday's violence indicated the Islamist insurgency remains active in the province despite authorities' claims that it has been eradicated.
One injured as bank guard fires 'accidentally'
A bank customer was injured at a bank in south Delhi on Tuesday after the bank guard's service weapon went off accidentally.
Moscow signs military cooperation pact with Central Africa
Moscow and the Central African Republic signed a military cooperation agreement today, less than a month after three Russian journalists were killed in the strife-torn CAR while probing alleged Russian mercenaries. Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and his CAR counterpart Marie-Noelle Koyara signed the document on the sidelines of defense expo Army-2018 outside Moscow, Russian agencies reported. The deal "will help strengthen ties in the defence sphere," Shoigu was quoted as saying after the ceremony. There were no immediate details. The agreement is set to deepen Moscow's involvement in the impoverished CAR, where the government is desperate to boost its armed forces in the fight against militias which control most of the country. A UN arms embargo imposed in 2013 was last year lifted exclusively for Moscow. It has since then sent instructors and some equipment and now provides security for President Faustin-Archange Touadera. The deal follows the murder in late July of three ...
Hours-long battle ends in Kabul after militants killed
An hours-long battle in the Afghan capital involving insurgent rocket attacks and military airstrikes ended today with the death of two militants, authorities said. The assault came as President Ashraf Ghani was making a speech marking the first day of the Islamic Eid al-Adha holiday, days after he offered the Taliban a conditional three-month ceasefire. It was not clear who carried out the attack. "Two attackers were involved. The enemy was firing mortars," General Murad Ali Murad, commander of Kabul's garrison, told a press conference. They were killed and at least six civilians or security force members were injured, he said. Police said the attackers used rockets, several of which landed in at least two areas of Kabul around 9:00 am. During the battle an Afghan army helicopter swooped in low near the Eidgah Mosque in a central district and fired a rocket at a militant position, sending a plume of dust into the sky. Shoppers who moments earlier had been buying livestock for the ..
Pak agencies foil IS plot to bomb ISI office in Multan; 2 arrested
Pakistan's security agencies claimed to have foiled a terror plot to bomb the offices of spy agencies - the ISI and the Intelligence Bureau - and arrested two suspected Islamic State terrorists in Multan city in Punjab province. "A CTD team along with police arrested two suspects belonging to the militant Islamic State (IS) group during a raid in Multan. A huge cache of explosives and weapons, including hand grenades, were seized during the raid," said the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) of the Punjab Police. It also said that money that was to be used for terror financing has also been recovered from them. The suspected IS members arrested yesterday from Multan district, some 350-km from Lahore, had plans to bomb the buildings that house offices of intelligence agencies -- Inter-Services Intelligence and Intelligence Bureau -- in the city. The police said it received information that IS terrorists possessing arms and explosives were present at Vehari Road, Multan and planning to ..
5 injured in BSF firing after altercation with villagers
Five persons were injured in firing by BSF personnel during an altercation with villagers in Malda district after they tried to stop smuggling of cough syrup to Bangladesh from Malda district, police said today. Three Border Security Force (BSF) personnel were also injured in the brickbatting by the smugglers. A group of people were trying to smuggle to Bangladesh a particular brand of cough syrup which is used by some people as an intoxicant, at Par Baidyanathpur village yesterday night. Police said a group of people was trying to smuggle the cough syrup and the BSF personnel of Shobhapur border outpost (BOP) challenged them. The smugglers pelted stones to the border guards injuring three of them. The men in uniform then chased the smugglers who fled to Par Baidyanathpur village. When the BSF men captured one alleged smuggler from the village, an altercation began with local people who claimed that man was innocent, police said adding that the BSF personnel then fired ..
Maha to set up study chairs in 13 varsities after Vajpayee
The Maharashtra government will set up a study chair in the name of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in each of the 13 universities in the state, Finance Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar announced here today. The Maharashtra unit of the BJP will pay rich tributes to Vajpayee at a function to be held in Mumbai tomorrow and in 13 other cities in coming days. Mungantiwar told reporters that Union ministers Piyush Goyal and Prakash Javadekar and Maharashtra BJP chief Raosaheb Danve will arrive with a urn containing ashes of Vajpayee in a flight tomorrow. The urn will be taken to the NCPA (National Centre for the Performing Arts) in south Mumbai where tributes will be paid to the BJP patriarch at a function being organised by the state BJP unit at 6 PM. "Leaders of other parties can also join us in offering their tributes to Atalji," the minister said. Mungantiwar said the ashes of Vajpayee will be immersed into 11 rivers in 13 cities including Mumbai and Pune across ...
Rocket attacks hit Kabul during Ghani's Eid speech
A series of rocket attacks shook the Afghan capital on Tuesday during President Ashraf Ghani's address to the nation on the eve of Eid-ul-Zuha.
Israel eases gun controls following lone-wolf attacks
Israel has changed its gun regulations to enable hundreds of thousands more civilians to apply for licences, a move authorities say will increase security but others argue will stoke violence. The shift in policy, announced by the public security ministry late yesterday, means that up to 600,000 Israelis could apply for gun licences, a dramatic increase on the current 140,000 civilians with permits. A source in the public security ministry, however, estimated that only 35,000 people will be interested in applying for gun licences under the new regulations. Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan said the change could help thwart "lone-wolf attacks" by Palestinians, who have carried out gun, knife and car-ramming assaults that have at times been deadly. A number of people have been shot by accident, however, in the chaos resulting from such attacks, while Israeli security personnel have in some instances been accused of excessive force. "Many civilians saved lives during attacks and, in .