NEWS

The Budget Session of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly got off to a stormy start on Thursday as Opposition members, especially those from the Samajwadi Party (SP), raised a ruckus over the alleged killing of two Dalit girls in Unnao district, atrocities on the backward and minority communities, farm Bills and the soaring prices of petroleum products.

Amidst heavy security deployment at the House, including ATS commandos, on the opening day, the SP members, who reached the Assembly on tractors carrying sugarcane and wheat as a mark of protest against the Centre’s farm Bills, held a ‘Kisan Panchayat’ near the statue of farmer leader Chaudhary Charan Singh on the Vidhan Sabha premises before the start of the session.

Alleging that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had lost its hold on law and order in the state and failed to protect women and safeguard the interests of farmers, the Opposition MLAs raised slogans and held up placards as soon as Governor Anandiben Patel began her customary address at the joint session.

Security forces on Wednesday arrested three terror associates of proscribed outfit Hizbul Mujahideen from Tral area of Pulwama district in Jammu and Kashmir. Acting on specific information of terrorist movement, a joint team of security forces launched a search operation in Batagund and Dadsara village in Tral.

The police have registered a case against the arrested terror associates in Tral Police Station under relevant sections of law. The arrested terror associates were involved in providing shelter, logistics and transportation of arms and ammunition to the HM terrorists in Tral and Awantipora area of south Kashmir. IED material was recovered from the house of one of the arrested terror associates.

During the operation, a terror module of three HM associates was busted a police handout read. A Jammu and Kashmir police official said, “The arrested terror associates were involved in providing shelter, logistics and transportation of arms/ ammunition to the Hizb terrorists in Tral and Awantipora area of south Kashmir."

The Delhi Police Thursday told the Delhi High Court that it has not leaked any probe material to the media in connection with the FIR lodged against climate activist Disha Ravi for her alleged involvement in sharing a toolkit backing the ongoing farmers' protest.

The court was hearing a plea filed by the climate activist to restrain police from leaking to the media any probe material in relation to the FIR lodged against her.

The submission was made before Justice Prathiba M Singh by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who appeared on behalf of the police.

Tushar told the court that an affidavit will be filed regarding the same by the police tomorrow. However, Justice Prathiba M Singh said that Ravi's petition is "something that requires consideration".

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday said that he still carries his father Rajiv Gandhi inside him. Interacting with a group of students in Puducherry, Gandhi said that violence cannot take anything from you.

The response came after a student asked Gandhi how he feels about LTTE members who assassinated Rajiv Gandhi.

"I don’t have anger towards anybody. Of course, I lost my father and for me it was a difficult time. It's like someone has cut your heart out. I felt tremendous pain. But I don’t feel angry. I don’t feel any hatred. I forgive," the former Congress president said at the Bharathidasan College for Women.

"I still carry my father with me. Understand something - violence cannot take away anything from you. It doesn't have that power. You can give up something but violence cannot take anything from you. My father is alive. A lot of things you have heard today, they came to me from my father. So my father is talking through me. So it’s not that my father is not here today," Gandhi added.