Srinagar: Two Hizbul Mujahideen terrorists, including divisional commander Junaid Ashraf Khan – the youngest son of senior separatist leader and Tahreek-e-Hurriyat chairman, Mohammad Ashraf Khan alias Sehrai, were gunned down in an encounter with security personnel in downtown Srinagar on Wednesday.
Three security forces personnel, including a CRPF jawan, were injured in this encounter
A joint operation was launched by Special Operations Group (SOG) of J&K police and CRPF at around 0200 hrs on Tuesday in the densely populated Kanemazar area of Nawakadal in Srinagar.
According to available information, the terrorists opened fire with automatic assault rifles when the security forces started closing in on the house where they were holed up. After a prolonged exchange of fire at night, the firing resumed in the morning and the two terrorists, both belonging to Hizbul Mujahideen, were killed
Today, 22 April , is celebrated the world over as Earth Day. It is an annual event held to demonstrate support for environmental protection. First celebrated in 1970, this year marks its 50th anniversary. How ironical indeed that this important landmark is being observed digitally because of the global lockdown due to Covid-19!
Yes, it’s Earth Day today but Planet Earth is in jeopardy. Our environment is not protected; it is polluted, and how! Our cities are choking with diesel fumes; our factories and offices are spewing carbon emissions; our rivers are filthy; our water bodies are drying; our seas are plastic-ridden; our forest-lands are depleting; old trees are being cut in cities to widen roads and build apartment blocks; our countryside too is being laid bare of trees to link cities and mofussil towns with multi-lane toll roads; our agricultural lands are increasingly being turned into suburban colonies to house the ever-increasing numbers; our hills have been ruthlessly mined and cut through in the name of development; our hill-towns are not worth visiting anymore because of their unplanned growth, traffic snarls and civic apathy; and even our mountain peaks, including the lofty Everest, have become rubbish dumps.
Yamuna River in New Delhi before COVID-19 lockdown
What is the fallout of our mindless actions? Because of the paucity of clean air in our cities and even in rural areas, respiratory diseases are afflicting large numbers; and because of deforestation, carbon emissions are not being neutralised, exponentially adding to the polluted environment. Our rivers, held sacred for millennia, are no more the lifelines they used to be because of excessive damming, and factory-waste flowing into them all along their route. Birds, butterflies and bees whose role is so very pivotal in our food-chain, are fast disappearing because their habitats are being destroyed. In the big oceans, hundreds of species are dying due to ingesting plastic waste and oil spillages. In the agricultural sector, increasing use of pesticides and weed-killing agents like Roundup have done incalculable damage already, depleting the land of its natural minerals. In our food-chain, the seasonality factor has been systematically destroyed. What was available only in summer or winter is now abundantly available all year round. All sorts of hybrid stuff, chemically-treated to give it increased shelf-life is there for you to pick up anytime you want. Who cares if it does not taste as it used to and has little nutrition value!
So here we are (kind of ) celebrating the Earth Day in the time of Coronavirus. Has Nature issued a warning to us all? Have we been served a notice to clean up our act or else? Draw your own conclusions.
And just FYI, the Tulip Gardens in Srinagar are in full bloom but there’s no one to see them!
Srinagar: Rising Kashmir editor Shujaat Bukhari and his PSO were shot dead by unidentified gunmen outside the newspaper’s office here today.
Bukhari was leaving his office in Press Enclave in Lal Chowk for an iftar party when he was shot fatally.
Between 1997 and 2012, Shujaat was a correspondent for “The Hindu” in Srinagar.
Meanwhile in Pulawama in southern Kashmir the body of Aurangzeb, an Army jawan, who was abducted by terrorists when he was heading towards home for Eid, was recovered a few hours later on Thursday (14 June 2018).
Aurangzeb, of 4 Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry, was posted at the 44 Rashtriya Rifles camp at Shadimarg in Shopian. He was abducted at Kalampora in Pulwama.
Editorial comment
When Shujaat Bukhari, my colleague in The Hindu, was silenced and shot dead by terrorists in Srinagar, PM Modi had other priorities- one of them was his fitness video. It’s release coincided with the assassination of a highly respected scribe, who was devoted to the nation and cause of Kashmir, and the simultaneous abduction and murder of a brave Indian soldier . Modi’s fitness video is vulgar display of prosperity at State expenses. It stares in the face of the families of our brave soldiers who are laying down their lives fighting terrorists in J&K and millions living below poverty line. When will Modi rise to the occasion. – Lalit Shastri
Srinagar: All the three terrorists linked to the banned Pakistani radical outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), who were involved in a suicide attack on the Kashmir Frontier camp of the Border Security Force (BSF) near the International Airport here, were killed on Tuesday (3 October 2017).
One BSF Jawan has been martyred in the deadly gun battle with the terrorists that lasted about 10 hours.
The heavily armed terrorist managed to infiltrate the high security BSF camp in the early hours of Tuesday.
Sonali Mishra
According to the Kashmir Frontier IG of the BSF Sonali Mishra, one terrorist took cover of darkness and managed to reach the top floor of the administrative block and managed to launch an attack from there.
Munir Ahmad Khan
Inspector General of Police (IGP), Kashmir Range, Munir Ahmad Khan said at a press conference here on Tuesday afternoon that a number of militants had infiltrated from across the border. Ten of these have been eliminated and there are still six or seven, he said adding “we are after them and hope to get them soon”.
The IG of Police praised the BSF troops for repulsing the attack and neutralising the militants.
