NEWS

Three security personnel and an arrested Pakistani terrorist were injured on Sunday when terrorists opened fire on a joint search party of the Indian Army and police inside a forest in Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir on the 14th day of a massive operation against militants hiding in the area, a police officer said.

The arrested Pakistani terrorist, Zia Mustafa, who got injured at the encounter site where he had been taken by the security forces to identify a hideout in Bhata Durian forest, couldn’t be retrieved because of the heavy volume of fire, said the officer.

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee is keen on adding to the Trinamool Congress' growing kitty of leaders poached from the Congress. In the past few weeks, she has picked up Congress leader Sushmita Dev from Assam, veteran Goan leader Luizinho Faleiro and more than a dozen Congress leaders from Tripura. Now it has set its eyes on Uttar Pradesh's Lalitesh Tripathi, who resigned from the post of state Congress vice-president a fortnight ago for reasons not yet known. Tripathi is the Brahmin face from eastern Uttar Pradesh and was handpicked by Priyanka Gandhi to be on her team after she took charge of the state in 2019.

Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday promised equitable development of both the Jammu and Kashmir regions, and said “no one” would be allowed to disrupt the process of development initiated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Union Territory.

“From this land of temples and of Mata Vaishno Devi, which is also the birthplace of Pandit Prem Nath Dogra and the martyrdom of Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee, I want to say that those bent upon disrupting this era of development are causing disruptions, but rest assured no one will be able to disrupt and stop the pace of development in Jammu and Kashmir,’’ Shah told a public rally in Bhagwati Nagar in Jammu.

“Some people” were raising questions about the security situation in J&K, Shah said.

The Central Bureau of Investigation on Friday arrested six more accused from Andhra Pradesh in connection with derogatory posts on social media against judges and the judiciary, officials said.

Sridhar Reddy Avuthu, Jalagam Venkata Satyanarayana, Guda Sridhar Reddy, Sreenath Suswaram, Kishore Kumar Darisa and Sudduluri Ajay Amruth were arrested by the CBI for their alleged role in the crime.

The CBI had registered a case on November 11, 2020, against 16 accused and took over the investigation of 12 FIRs from Andhra Pradesh Police on orders of the High Court.