english news paper | breaking news | latest today news in … · 2019. 3. 15. · ˘ˇ ˆ˙˝˛...

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A day after India demanded immediate release of an IAF pilot who landed in Pakistan detention on Wednesday following an aeri- al engagement by air forces of the two countries, Pakistan Prime Minster Imran Khan on Thursday announced that Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman will be released on Friday as a gesture of peace and the “first step” to open negotiations with India. The decision comes amid report that the Indian Government reportedly decid- ed that Varthaman cannot be a bargaining chip and New Delhi will not strike any deal with Islamabad for his release. Khan made the announce- ment during a joint session of Parliament soon after Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said Khan is ready to talk to his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi to de-escalate Indo-Pak tensions. “In our desire for peace, I announce that tomorrow (Friday), and as a first step to open negotiations, Pakistan will be releasing the Indian Air Force officer in our custody,” Khan said. The announcement was greeted by thumping of desks by Pakistani lawmakers. The Indian Air Force on Thursday said it is very happy that captured pilot Wing Commander Abhinandan is returning home but dismissed suggestions it was a goodwill gesture, insisting it was in line with the Geneva Conventions. “We are very happy Abhinandan will be freed tomorrow and look forward to his return,” Air Vice Marshal R GK Kapoor, assistant chief of Air Staff, told a news confer- ence. Asked if the IAF sees it as a goodwill move, Kapoor said, “We see it as a gesture in con- sonance with the Geneva Conventions.” The joint session of Pakistan Parliament was held on Thursday to discuss rising tension with India. The Pakistani Air Force on Wednesday carried out a retal- iatory strike, a day after Indian struck inside Pakistan, destroy- ing the biggest terrorist train- ing camp of the Jaish-e- Mohammed (JeM). Addressing the House, Khan said, “The only purpose of our strike was to demon- strate our capability and will. “We did not want to inflict any casualty on India as we want- ed to act in a responsible man- ner.” He warned if India moved ahead with the “aggression”, Pakistan will be forced to retal- iate and urged the Indian lead- ership not to push for escala- tion as war is not solution to any problem. Warning that “any miscal- culation” from India would result in “disaster”, he said, “Countries are ruined because of miscalculation. War is not a solution. If India takes any action, we will have to retaliate.” Khan, however, said Pakistan’s “desire for de-esca- lation” should not be miscon- strued as its weakness. “Our armed forces are battle-hard- ened and they are fully pre- pared to respond to any aggres- sion,” he said. Khan said he “tried to call” the Indian Prime Minister on the phone Wednesday because “escalation is not in our inter- ests nor in India’s”. The Prime Minister urged the interna- tional community to play its role in de-escalation for peace and stability in the region. Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale briefed envoys of sev- eral countries, including from China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States, on the Pakistan Air Force targeting Indian mil- itary installations in an aggres- sive manner, resulting in the escalation of tensions. On US President Donald Trump’s suggesting that the situation between India and Pakistan was de-escalating, the sources said New Delhi has no idea what he was referring to. Pakistan’s efforts to link the release of the pilot with “de- escalation” of tensions with India has not gone down well in New Delhi, they indicated. In Islamabad, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said his Government was willing to consider return- ing the captured IAF pilot if it leads to “de-escalation” of ten- sions with India. According to the sources, Khan has to walk the talk on investigating the February 14 Pulwama attack. India, they stressed, wants immediate, credible and verifiable action against terrorists and their proxies. Pakistan has to take con- crete steps against JeM, the sources said when asked about Khan’s offer of talks with India. They added that Pakistan was deliberately whipping up war psychosis and trying to mislead the international community on the situation. Asked on talks with Khan, the sources said Pakistan must first take “concrete and specif- ic anti-terror steps”. The sources said India did not share actionable intelli- gence with Pakistan about involvement of JeM in the Pulwama terror attack and instead targeted its terrorist training camp in Balakot as no result had yielded after action- able intelligence was shared with Islamabad following the Mumbai and Pathankot attacks. D ebunking Pakistan claims that F-16s were not used in the offensive against Indian military targets in Jammu & Kashmir on Wednesday morn- ing, the Indian Air Force on Thursday said the American aircraft was used in the mis- adventure and also displayed the wreckage of the ‘beyond visual range missiles’ of the US- supplied fighter plane. Air Vice Chief RGK Kapoor, who addressed the media, along with the repre- sentatives of the Army and the Navy, said a variety of aircraft was used by Pakistan Air Force — F-16s, JF 17 Thunder and Mirages. This rejects Pakistan’s claims that its air force did not target the Indian military installations during Wednesday’s air intrusion. Asserting that the IAF strikes hit the intended target and achieved the mission, Kapoor said it’s up to the polit- ical leadership to decide when and how to release evidence of the Balakot strike’s success. He was responding to a question on the scepticism in some quarters about whether IAF fighters had hit the intend- ed targets. Kapoor said there is credible information and evi- dence that “We hit the intend- ed targets” and it was prema- ture to assess the casualties and damage. Sources in the Government said more than 20 Pakistani aircraft had approached the Indian air- space. The IAF also nailed the misinformation by the Pakistan military that it shot down two Indian aircraft and captured three Indian pilots which was later claimed to be two and by the evening on Wednesday they said just one pilot was in their custody. The Army and Navy rep- resentatives asserted that the Armed forces are on high alert and ready to meet any securi- ty challenge on land and sea. But the sources added there has been no mobilisation of ground forces yet. Tensions between the two countries escalated after Indian fighters bombed banned terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed’s biggest training camp near Balakot deep inside Pakistan early Tuesday. It came 12 days after the JeM claimed responsibility for a suicide attack on a CRPF convoy in Pulwama in Jammu & Kashmir, killing 40 paramil- itary men. The IAF showed parts of Amraam missiles as proof that Pakistan used F-16 aircraft to attack Indian military estab- lishments on Wednesday. Pakistan lied that no F-16 was used but there was enough evidence, Kapoor said. Stating that Pakistan air- craft targeted military installa- tions, he added PAF bombs were unable to damage any of India’s defence installations. Addressing the media, Indian Army’s Major General SS Mahal said escalation of ten- sions had been done by Pakistan but India was pre- pared for any contingency if the enemy provoked it. Mechanised forces were put on standby and troops were ready to deal with any security challenge, Mahal said. Rear Admiral of the Indian Navy Dalbir Singh Gujral said the force was in a high state of readiness to deal with any Pakistan misadventure in the maritime domain. The briefing by the tri-ser- vices came after Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a high level meeting amid the height- ened tensions with Pakistan and after Imran Khan announced the release of an Indian Air Force pilot captured by his country. The meeting was attended by chiefs of the three Services, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. A host of other senior officials attended the meeting at the PM’s residence. W ing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman raised patriotic slogans, fired in the air and stuffed his mouth with documents when he land- ed on Pakistani soil after eject- ing from his fighter jet, says the headman of a village on the other side of the border. The Indian Air Force pilot, who has been the centre of global attention since his cap- ture on Wednesday, will be released on Friday, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has announced in Parliament. Recounting the dramatic events leading to his capture, Mohammad Razzaq Chaudhry, the chief of Horran village in Pakistan, told the BBC that he ran to the spot along with other villagers when he saw the MiG 21 crashing to the ground. Varthaman’s first question on landing was whether he was in India, Chaudhry said, dis- closing that the pilot was pelt- ed with stones and also shot in the leg while fleeing. “My objective was to cap- ture the pilot alive. I had seen the Indian flag on his parachute and knew he was Indian,” Chaudhry was quoted as saying. According to the 58-year- old eyewitness, Varthaman asked some of the villagers if he was in India, and the villagers tricked him with an affirmative response, leading the pilot to raise patriotic slogans about India. However, he was in for a shock. “The boys around him responded by saying, ‘Long live Pakistan’!” Chaudhury told the BBC, adding that Varthaman then pulled out his gun and fired in the air to intimidate them. The move led to more hos- tility and the villagers began pelting stones at Varthaman who by then was on the run. “The boys chased him until he fell into a stream and one of my nephews who was also armed shot him in the leg,” Chaudhry said. The pilot was then asked to drop his pistol, and was pinned down by a villager to prevent him from using any other weapon that he might have had. The pilot attempted to destroy the documents in his possession by stuffing them in his mouth. However, the vil- lagers managed to get hold of some papers which were later handed over to the army, the BBC reported. Varthaman was also thrashed by the “angry” mob until the Pakistani Army came to his rescue. “Our boys were angry and continued to force their way closer to him to punch and slap him, though some of them tried to stop the aggressors. I also told them not to harm him, to leave him alone until the army officers arrived,” Chaudhry said. I n signs of the Indian econo- my losing steam ahead of the general elections, GDP growth slowed to a five-quarter low of 6.6 per cent in October- December on the back of lower farm and manufacturing growth and weaker consumer demand, Government data showed on Thursday. Also, economic growth estimate for the current fiscal year ending March 31 has been revised downwards to 7 per cent from the earlier estimate of 7.2 per cent. This is the low- est growth in the last five years. However, the Q3 growth rate, which was lower than the revised estimate of 7 per cent in the previous quarter and 8 per cent in April-June, was faster than China’s 6.4 per cent growth for the three months to December 2018. India thus retains its tag of the world’s fastest-growing major economy. Detailed report on P10 New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday allowed the Delhi Police to arrest and inter- rogate in custody Amrapali group CMD Anil Sharma and two directors on a complaint that homebuyers of their vari- ous housing projects were duped of their funds. The SC, which is seized of several pleas of homebuyers seeking possession of around 42,000 flats booked Amrapali projects, also ordered attach- ment of personal properties of the CMD and two directors — Shiv Priya and Ajay Kumar. The trio, under detention of the UP Police and kept in a hotel at Noida since October 9 last year by the SC for not com- plying with its orders, was in for a shock when a Bench of justices Arun Mishra and UU Lalit ordered the arrest on a plea by Economic Offence Wing of Delhi Police saying that it wanted quiz them in a separate cheating case. PTI Detailed report on P5 T he US, the UK and France have moved a fresh pro- posal in the UN Security Council to designate Pakistan- based terror group JeM’s chief Masood Azhar as a global ter- rorist, a listing that will subject him to global travel ban, asset freeze and arms embargo. The proposal was moved on Wednesday by the three permanent veto-wielding members of the UNSC. The UNSC Sanctions Committee will have 10 working days to consider the fresh proposal submitted by the three mem- bers. It is the fourth such bid at the UN in the last 10 years to list Azhar as a global terrorist. An assets freeze under the Sanctions Committee requires that all states freeze without delay the funds and other financial assets or economic resources of designated indi- viduals and entities. The travel ban entails pre- venting the entry into or tran- sit by all states through their territories by designated indi- viduals. Under the arms embargo, all states are required to prevent the direct or indirect supply, sale and transfer from their territories or by their nationals outside their territo- ries, or using their flag vessels or aircraft, of arms and related materiel of all types, spare parts, and technical advice, assistance, or training related to military activities, to desig- nated individuals and entities. In 2009, India had moved similar proposal to ban Azhar, whose UN-proscribed JeM claimed responsibility for the Pulwama attack. In 2016 again, India moved the proposal with the US, the UK and France to ban Azhar, also the master- mind of the attack on the air base in Pathankot in January, 2016. Continued on Page 4 G oogle-owned YouTube on Thursday removed 11 objectionable video links of Indian Air Force (IAF) Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman, who was captured by Pakistan during an air combat on Wednesday. The YouTube took the decision after the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology asked the video streaming platform to do so. The Ministry had asked YouTube to remove the clips following directive from the Home Ministry, a Government source said, adding that the said links have now been removed. When contacted, a Google spokesperson said the company complies with “valid legal requests from authorities wherever possible, con- sistent with our longstanding policy and act quickly to remove such material”. “Data on Government requests to remove content from Google services is regularly updat- ed in our transparency report,” the spokesper- son added. Videos of the captured Indian Air Force pilot were being released on the internet and netizens shared these videos across social media platforms like Twitter, WhatsApp and Facebook. Continued on Page 4 I ndia on Thursday decided to suspend oper- ations of the Indo-Pak Samjhauta Express from March 4, on its side due to drastic decline in occupancy especially after the Pulwama terror attack and the suspension of the decade-old train services from across the border. Sources said that the Railway Board has decided to cancel all operations from the train’s next scheduled run. The Samjhauta Express runs from New Delhi on Wednesdays and Sundays. From Pakistan side, the train departs from Lahore on Mondays and Thursdays. On Wednesday, only 27 passengers board- ed the train. As many as 375 passengers availed the train service in February. The sources said the footfall on the train, which generally records an occupancy of around 70 per cent, has fallen drastically post the Pulwama attack on February 14 in which 44 CRPF jawans were martyred. Pakistan has indefinitely suspended the Samjhauta Express. The bi-weekly train was scheduled to leave Lahore with 16 passengers when the suspension took effect. Continued on Page 4 RNI Regn. No. CHHENG/2012/42718, Postal Reg. No. - RYP DN/34/2013-2015

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Page 1: English News Paper | Breaking News | Latest Today News in … · 2019. 3. 15. · ˘ˇ ˆ˙˝˛ claims that its air force did not ˇ ˆ˙ ˆ ˝ ˛ ˚ ˇ ˘ ˘ ˜ ˘ !"# $ ˘ ˘ ˆ

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Aday after India demandedimmediate release of an

IAF pilot who landed inPakistan detention onWednesday following an aeri-al engagement by air forces ofthe two countries, PakistanPrime Minster Imran Khan onThursday announced thatWing CommanderAbhinandan Varthaman will bereleased on Friday as a gestureof peace and the “first step” toopen negotiations with India.

The decision comes amidreport that the IndianGovernment reportedly decid-ed that Varthaman cannot be abargaining chip and New Delhiwill not strike any deal withIslamabad for his release.

Khan made the announce-ment during a joint session ofParliament soon after ForeignMinister Shah MehmoodQureshi said Khan is ready totalk to his Indian counterpartNarendra Modi to de-escalateIndo-Pak tensions.

“In our desire for peace, Iannounce that tomorrow(Friday), and as a first step toopen negotiations, Pakistanwill be releasing the Indian AirForce officer in our custody,”Khan said. The announcementwas greeted by thumping ofdesks by Pakistani lawmakers.

The Indian Air Force onThursday said it is very happythat captured pilot WingCommander Abhinandan isreturning home but dismissedsuggestions it was a goodwillgesture, insisting it was in linewith the Geneva Conventions.

“We are very happyAbhinandan will be freedtomorrow and look forward tohis return,” Air Vice Marshal RGK Kapoor, assistant chief ofAir Staff, told a news confer-

ence. Asked if the IAF sees it as

a goodwill move, Kapoor said,“We see it as a gesture in con-sonance with the GenevaConventions.”

The joint session ofPakistan Parliament was heldon Thursday to discuss risingtension with India. ThePakistani Air Force onWednesday carried out a retal-iatory strike, a day after Indianstruck inside Pakistan, destroy-ing the biggest terrorist train-ing camp of the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM).

Addressing the House,Khan said, “The only purposeof our strike was to demon-strate our capability and will.“We did not want to inflict anycasualty on India as we want-

ed to act in a responsible man-ner.”

He warned if India movedahead with the “aggression”,Pakistan will be forced to retal-iate and urged the Indian lead-ership not to push for escala-tion as war is not solution toany problem.

Warning that “any miscal-culation” from India wouldresult in “disaster”, he said,“Countries are ruined becauseof miscalculation. War is not asolution. If India takes anyaction, we will have to retaliate.”

Khan, however, saidPakistan’s “desire for de-esca-lation” should not be miscon-strued as its weakness. “Ourarmed forces are battle-hard-ened and they are fully pre-pared to respond to any aggres-

sion,” he said.Khan said he “tried to call”

the Indian Prime Minister onthe phone Wednesday because“escalation is not in our inter-ests nor in India’s”. The PrimeMinister urged the interna-tional community to play itsrole in de-escalation for peaceand stability in the region.

Foreign Secretary VijayGokhale briefed envoys of sev-eral countries, including fromChina, France, Russia, theUnited Kingdom and theUnited States, on the PakistanAir Force targeting Indian mil-itary installations in an aggres-sive manner, resulting in theescalation of tensions.

On US President DonaldTrump’s suggesting that thesituation between India andPakistan was de-escalating, thesources said New Delhi has noidea what he was referring to.

Pakistan’s efforts to link therelease of the pilot with “de-escalation” of tensions withIndia has not gone down wellin New Delhi, they indicated.

In Islamabad, ForeignMinister Shah MehmoodQureshi said his Governmentwas willing to consider return-

ing the captured IAF pilot if itleads to “de-escalation” of ten-sions with India.

According to the sources,Khan has to walk the talk oninvestigating the February 14Pulwama attack. India, theystressed, wants immediate,credible and verifiable actionagainst terrorists and theirproxies.

Pakistan has to take con-crete steps against JeM, thesources said when asked aboutKhan’s offer of talks with India.They added that Pakistan wasdeliberately whipping up warpsychosis and trying to misleadthe international communityon the situation.

Asked on talks with Khan,the sources said Pakistan mustfirst take “concrete and specif-ic anti-terror steps”.

The sources said India didnot share actionable intelli-gence with Pakistan aboutinvolvement of JeM in thePulwama terror attack andinstead targeted its terroristtraining camp in Balakot as noresult had yielded after action-able intelligence was sharedwith Islamabad following theMumbai and Pathankot attacks.

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Debunking Pakistan claimsthat F-16s were not used in

the offensive against Indianmilitary targets in Jammu &Kashmir on Wednesday morn-ing, the Indian Air Force onThursday said the Americanaircraft was used in the mis-adventure and also displayedthe wreckage of the ‘beyondvisual range missiles’ of the US-supplied fighter plane.

Air Vice Chief RGKKapoor, who addressed themedia, along with the repre-sentatives of the Army and theNavy, said a variety of aircraftwas used by Pakistan Air Force— F-16s, JF 17 Thunder andMirages. This rejects Pakistan’sclaims that its air force did nottarget the Indian militaryinstallations duringWednesday’s air intrusion.

Asserting that the IAFstrikes hit the intended targetand achieved the mission,Kapoor said it’s up to the polit-ical leadership to decide whenand how to release evidence ofthe Balakot strike’s success.

He was responding to aquestion on the scepticism insome quarters about whether

IAF fighters had hit the intend-ed targets. Kapoor said there iscredible information and evi-dence that “We hit the intend-ed targets” and it was prema-ture to assess the casualties anddamage. Sources in theGovernment said more than 20Pakistani aircraft hadapproached the Indian air-space. The IAF also nailed themisinformation by the Pakistanmilitary that it shot down twoIndian aircraft and capturedthree Indian pilots which waslater claimed to be two and bythe evening on Wednesdaythey said just one pilot was intheir custody.

The Army and Navy rep-resentatives asserted that theArmed forces are on high alertand ready to meet any securi-ty challenge on land and sea.But the sources added there hasbeen no mobilisation of groundforces yet.

Tensions between the twocountries escalated after Indianfighters bombed banned terrorgroup Jaish-e-Mohammed’sbiggest training camp nearBalakot deep inside Pakistanearly Tuesday.

It came 12 days after theJeM claimed responsibility fora suicide attack on a CRPFconvoy in Pulwama in Jammu& Kashmir, killing 40 paramil-itary men.

The IAF showed parts ofAmraam missiles as proof thatPakistan used F-16 aircraft toattack Indian military estab-lishments on Wednesday.

Pakistan lied that no F-16was used but there was enoughevidence, Kapoor said.

Stating that Pakistan air-craft targeted military installa-tions, he added PAF bombswere unable to damage any ofIndia’s defence installations.

Addressing the media,Indian Army’s Major GeneralSS Mahal said escalation of ten-sions had been done byPakistan but India was pre-pared for any contingency if theenemy provoked it.

Mechanised forces wereput on standby and troopswere ready to deal with anysecurity challenge, Mahal said.

Rear Admiral of the IndianNavy Dalbir Singh Gujral saidthe force was in a high state ofreadiness to deal with anyPakistan misadventure in themaritime domain.

The briefing by the tri-ser-vices came after Prime MinisterNarendra Modi chaired a highlevel meeting amid the height-ened tensions with Pakistanand after Imran Khanannounced the release of anIndian Air Force pilot capturedby his country.

The meeting was attendedby chiefs of the three Services,National Security Advisor AjitDoval, Finance Minister ArunJaitley, External AffairsMinister Sushma Swaraj, HomeMinister Rajnath Singh andDefence Minister NirmalaSitharaman. A host of othersenior officials attended themeeting at the PM’s residence.

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Wing CommanderAbhinandan Varthaman

raised patriotic slogans, fired inthe air and stuffed his mouthwith documents when he land-ed on Pakistani soil after eject-ing from his fighter jet, says theheadman of a village on theother side of the border.

The Indian Air Force pilot,who has been the centre ofglobal attention since his cap-ture on Wednesday, will bereleased on Friday, PakistanPrime Minister Imran Khanhas announced in Parliament.

Recounting the dramaticevents leading to his capture,Mohammad Razzaq Chaudhry,the chief of Horran village inPakistan, told the BBC that heran to the spot along with othervillagers when he saw the MiG21 crashing to the ground.

Varthaman’s first questionon landing was whether he wasin India, Chaudhry said, dis-

closing that the pilot was pelt-ed with stones and also shot inthe leg while fleeing.

“My objective was to cap-ture the pilot alive. I had seenthe Indian flag on his parachuteand knew he was Indian,”Chaudhry was quoted as saying.

According to the 58-year-old eyewitness, Varthamanasked some of the villagers if hewas in India, and the villagerstricked him with an affirmativeresponse, leading the pilot to

raise patriotic slogans aboutIndia. However, he was in fora shock. “The boys around himresponded by saying, ‘Longlive Pakistan’!” Chaudhury toldthe BBC, adding thatVarthaman then pulled outhis gun and fired in the air tointimidate them.

The move led to more hos-tility and the villagers beganpelting stones at Varthamanwho by then was on the run.

“The boys chased him until

he fell into a stream and one ofmy nephews who was alsoarmed shot him in the leg,”Chaudhry said.

The pilot was then asked todrop his pistol, and was pinneddown by a villager to preventhim from using any otherweapon that he might havehad. The pilot attempted todestroy the documents in hispossession by stuffing them inhis mouth. However, the vil-lagers managed to get hold ofsome papers which were laterhanded over to the army, theBBC reported.

Varthaman was alsothrashed by the “angry” mobuntil the Pakistani Army cameto his rescue. “Our boys wereangry and continued to forcetheir way closer to him topunch and slap him, thoughsome of them tried to stop theaggressors. I also told them notto harm him, to leave himalone until the army officersarrived,” Chaudhry said.

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In signs of the Indian econo-my losing steam ahead of the

general elections, GDP growthslowed to a five-quarter low of6.6 per cent in October-December on the back of lowerfarm and manufacturinggrowth and weaker consumerdemand, Government datashowed on Thursday.

Also, economic growthestimate for the current fiscalyear ending March 31 has beenrevised downwards to 7 percent from the earlier estimateof 7.2 per cent. This is the low-est growth in the last five years.

However, the Q3 growthrate, which was lower than therevised estimate of 7 per cent inthe previous quarter and 8 percent in April-June, was fasterthan China’s 6.4 per cent growthfor the three months toDecember 2018. India thusretains its tag of the world’sfastest-growing major economy.

Detailed report on P10

New Delhi: The SupremeCourt on Thursday allowed theDelhi Police to arrest and inter-rogate in custody Amrapaligroup CMD Anil Sharma andtwo directors on a complaintthat homebuyers of their vari-ous housing projects wereduped of their funds.

The SC, which is seized ofseveral pleas of homebuyersseeking possession of around42,000 flats booked Amrapaliprojects, also ordered attach-ment of personal properties ofthe CMD and two directors —Shiv Priya and Ajay Kumar.

The trio, under detentionof the UP Police and kept in ahotel at Noida since October 9last year by the SC for not com-plying with its orders, was infor a shock when a Bench ofjustices Arun Mishra and UULalit ordered the arrest on aplea by Economic OffenceWing of Delhi Police sayingthat it wanted quiz them in aseparate cheating case. PTI

Detailed report on P5

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The US, the UK and Francehave moved a fresh pro-

posal in the UN SecurityCouncil to designate Pakistan-based terror group JeM’s chiefMasood Azhar as a global ter-rorist, a listing that will subjecthim to global travel ban, assetfreeze and arms embargo.

The proposal was movedon Wednesday by the threepermanent veto-wieldingmembers of the UNSC. TheUNSC Sanctions Committeewill have 10 working days toconsider the fresh proposalsubmitted by the three mem-bers. It is the fourth such bid atthe UN in the last 10 years tolist Azhar as a global terrorist.

An assets freeze under theSanctions Committee requiresthat all states freeze withoutdelay the funds and otherfinancial assets or economicresources of designated indi-viduals and entities.

The travel ban entails pre-venting the entry into or tran-sit by all states through theirterritories by designated indi-viduals. Under the armsembargo, all states are requiredto prevent the direct or indirectsupply, sale and transfer fromtheir territories or by theirnationals outside their territo-ries, or using their flag vesselsor aircraft, of arms and relatedmateriel of all types, spareparts, and technical advice,assistance, or training related tomilitary activities, to desig-nated individuals and entities.

In 2009, India had movedsimilar proposal to ban Azhar,whose UN-proscribed JeMclaimed responsibility for thePulwama attack. In 2016 again,India moved the proposal withthe US, the UK and France toban Azhar, also the master-mind of the attack on the airbase in Pathankot in January,2016.

Continued on Page 4

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Google-owned YouTube on Thursdayremoved 11 objectionable video links of

Indian Air Force (IAF) Wing CommanderAbhinandan Varthaman, who was captured byPakistan during an air combat on Wednesday.The YouTube took the decision after theMinistry of Electronics and InformationTechnology asked the video streaming platformto do so.

The Ministry had asked YouTube to removethe clips following directive from the HomeMinistry, a Government source said, adding thatthe said links have now been removed.

When contacted, a Google spokespersonsaid the company complies with “valid legalrequests from authorities wherever possible, con-sistent with our longstanding policy and actquickly to remove such material”.

“Data on Government requests to removecontent from Google services is regularly updat-ed in our transparency report,” the spokesper-son added.

Videos of the captured Indian Air Force pilotwere being released on the internet and netizensshared these videos across social media platformslike Twitter, WhatsApp and Facebook.

Continued on Page 4

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India on Thursday decided to suspend oper-ations of the Indo-Pak Samjhauta Express from

March 4, on its side due to drastic decline inoccupancy especially after the Pulwama terrorattack and the suspension of the decade-old trainservices from across the border.

Sources said that the Railway Board hasdecided to cancel all operations from the train’snext scheduled run.

The Samjhauta Express runs from NewDelhi on Wednesdays and Sundays. FromPakistan side, the train departs from Lahore onMondays and Thursdays.

On Wednesday, only 27 passengers board-ed the train. As many as 375 passengers availedthe train service in February. The sources saidthe footfall on the train, which generally recordsan occupancy of around 70 per cent, has fallendrastically post the Pulwama attack on February14 in which 44 CRPF jawans were martyred.

Pakistan has indefinitely suspended theSamjhauta Express. The bi-weekly train wasscheduled to leave Lahore with 16 passengerswhen the suspension took effect.

Continued on Page 4

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Due to erratic rainfall anddrought in around 250

districts across the country,the overall food grain produc-tion may fall by 3.46 milliontonnes (MT) in 2018-19 cropyear (July-June) despite recordrice output. As per the Ministryof Agriculture, overall foodgrain production is pegged of281.37 million tonnes this yearas compared to 284.83 milliontonnes in 2017-18. As per thedata, rice production is esti-mated to touch record 115.60MT in 2018-19 from 112.91MT in the previous year. Inother words, food grain pro-duction may fall by one percent in the current crop year.The second advance estimatesof Ministry of Agriculture

shows, wheat production isexpected to touch 99.12 milliontonnes, lower than the target of102.20 million tonnes.

“Rice production is at anall-time high. We had set a tar-get of 114 million tonnes. Butwe expect the output to reach115.6 million tonnes. There willbe no shortage of foodgrains inthe country. We will be able toexport more if internationalmarkets are competitive,” saida senior agriculture depart-ment official, who did notwish to be identified. Wheatoutput is pegged slightly lowerat 99.12 MT from 99.70 MT inthe previous year.

According to the estimate,pulses production is likely to be24.02 million tonnes, lowerthan the target of 25.95 milliontonnes. However, the estimat-

ed output is more than lastyear’s second advance estimateof 23.95 million tonnes.

The cumulative rainfall inthe country during the mon-soon season (June toSeptember 2018) was 9 per centlower than long period average(LPA). The cumulative rainfallin north west India, centralIndia and south peninsula dur-ing that period has been nor-mal on the whole. As per IMD,250 of the 681 districts acrossthe country have faced defi-cient rainfall this year.

“The production figuresare subject to revision on

account of more precise infor-mation flowing over time, itadded.

The total oilseeds produc-tion in the country during2018-19 is estimated at 31.50million tonnes, 1.62 milliontonnes higher than the 29.88million tonnes output in sec-ond advance estimates of 2017-18. The production of oilseedsduring 2018-19 is 1.85 milliontonnes higher than the averageoilseeds production.

With an increase of 27.61million tonnes over 2017-18,total production of sugarcanein the country during 2018-19is estimated at 380.83 milliontonnes. Further, sugarcane pro-duction during 2018-19 is31.05 million tonnes higherthan the average sugarcaneproduction of 349.78 million

tonnes. Production of cotton has

been pegged lower at 30.09 mil-lion bales (of 170 kg each) from34.88 million bales, while jute& mesta output is seen at 10.07million bales (of 180 kg each)against 10.13 million bales.

India has been witnessingbumper foodgrains, oilseeds,cotton, sugarcane, fruits, veg-etables over the last few years,which has resulted in lowerprices for farmers.

As per data, as many as 100districts of the country havewitnessed a drought like-situ-ation, triggered by failure ofsouth-west monsoon. This fre-quency is now increasing inBihar, Uttar Pradesh,Karnataka, Kerala,Maharashtra, among a fewother States.

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The upcoming Delhi-Mumbai Expressway will

be extended up to the RingRoad near DND flyoverthrough a six-lane, access-con-trolled road from the WesternPeripheral Expressway (WPE)near Sohna that would alsoprovide a fast link to Manesarfrom east and south Delhi.

Over 59-km-long highwayproject will start at Ring Road-DND junction and passthrough Kalindi bypass and therevamped Faridabad-Ballabhgarh bypass finishing atthe interchange of Delhi-

Mumbai Expressway atWestern Peripheral Expresswayand Delhi-Agra Expressway. Itis part of the decongestionplan of Delhi. The total cost ofthe highway project is �3,580crore.

Union Road Transport andHighways Minister NitinGadkari will lay the foundationstone at Kalindi Kunj-Meethapur road in the nation-al Capital on Friday. The pro-ject would be in addition to thenine other projects beingimplemented for decongest-ing the National CapitalRegion.

According to the Ministry

of Road, Transport andHighways (MoRTH), theseprojects include the 3-km sig-nal free corridor from DhaulaKuan to airport at a cost of�280 crore, which is about 40per cent completed; the 22

km, six-lane elevated corridoron Gurugram-Sohna Roadcosting �2,000 crore on whichwork has started and eight-laneDelhi-Panipat highway fromMukarba Chowk to Panipat onNH-1 being constructed at a

cost of �2,300 and nearly 48 percent done. The other projectsfor decongestion include the 29km, eight-lane access con-trolled Dwarka Expresswaycosting about �9,500 crore onwhich work has started; pack-

age II, III and IV of Delhi-Meerut Expressway costing�5,900 crore, where package IIis 36 per cent done, package IIIis 76 per cent done and pack-age IV is 32 per cent done.

“The new link will decon-gest Delhi with reduction oftraffic in Ashram-Badarpur-Faridabad-Ballabhgarh regionas well as to reduce travel timebetween Delhi and Manesar.This is expected to result inreduction of vehicular pollu-tion,” it said. This stretch of theexpressway will enable com-muters coming from EastDelhi, Noida and Ghaziabad tobypass Ring Road and NH 8.The stretch will provide fasterlink from East and South Delhito WPE that already providesdirect connectivity to Manesar.

This 59-km stretch of theexpressway will also involveconstruction of 13 flyovers,two railway under and overbridges and 10 minor bridges.A no-objection certificate hasalready been obtained from theUttar Pradesh and DelhiGovernment.

The other projects which ispart of the decongestion plan

of Delhi include four-laning of124 km Khekra-EPE junctionto Shamli-Saharanpur (NH-709 B) at a cost of about �1,200crore; Rangpuri Bypass to con-nect Dwarka/NH-08 withVasant Kunj-Nelson MandelaRoad at a cost of �1,000 crore;75 km Urban Extension Road(UER-2), third Ring Road forDelhi under Bharatmala at acost of �4,000 crore and the31.3 km, six-lane access con-trolled corridor fromAkshardham NH-24 Junctionto EPE Junction on BaghpatRoad at a cost of about �2,600crore.

“The project will havethree-lane service roads eachon either sides for about 29 km,7.350 km of elevated sectionwith two level crossings at fourlocations of Metro line, 18new underpasses, and nineinterchanges with improvedjunctions”, the MORTH said ina statement.

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Aphoto voter slip would nolonger be used as a stand-

alone identification documentduring elections, and a voterwill have to carry any of thetwelve approved identity cardsto the polling station.

The Election Commissionon Thursday came out with anorder in this regard after rep-resentations were made to itagainst the use of these slips asthey do not have any securityfeature. They are printed afterthe finalisation of the roll anddistributed just close to the pollthrough booth level officers(BLOs).

“The design of the photovoter slip does not incorporateany security feature. In fact, itwas started as an alternativedocument as the coverage ofEPIC (Electoral Photo IdentityCard) was not complete,” itsaid.

The 12 documents accept-ed for identification include —

EPIC, passport, Aadhar card,driving licence, service identi-ty cards with photographsissued to employees by cen-tral/state government, PSUs,public limited companies, pass-books issued by bank or postoffice, PAN card and smartcard issued by the RegistrarGeneral of India underNational Populations Register.

As per available informa-tion, at present, over 99 per

cent electors possess EPIC,and more than 99 per centsadults have been issued AadharCards, the order said.

“Taking all these facts inview, the Commission has nowdecided that a photo voter slipshall henceforth not be accept-ed as a standalone identifica-tion document for voting,” theEC said.

However, such slips willcontinue to be prepared and

issued to electors as part of theawareness building exercise, itsaid.

The slip will also carry adisclaimer in bold letters thatit won’t be accepted for the pur-pose of identification. “In orderto ensure that no voter is leftbehind, henceforth EC directsthat anybody with the photovoter slip, shall bring any of thetwelve approved identity cardsto the polling station for his/heridentification,” a senior officialsaid.

Other approved docu-ments are MNREGA job card;health insurance smart cardissued under the scheme ofMinistry of Labour; pensiondocument with photographand official identity cardsissued to MPs, MLAs, MLCs,the statement said.

“In the case of EPIC, minordiscrepancies in the entriestherein should be ignored pro-vided the identity of the elec-tor can be established by theEPIC,” the statement said.

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Observing that Congresspresident Rahul Gandhi

and his mother Sonia Gandhi-headed firm Young Indianengaged in clandestine ways toacquire the National Heraldnewspaper publishing firmAJL’s assets, Delhi High Court’sDivision Bench ordered theimmediate eviction of HeraldHouse, the headquarters of themedia organisation.

Upholding the SingleBench’s verdict of rejectingAJL’s appeal against evictionorder, the Division Benchheaded by Chief JusticeRajendra Menon and JusticeVK Rao said that there was“press activity” in HeraldHouse and violated and mis-used many norms and leaseconditions.

In a 63-page judgment,the Bench observed that withjust �50 lakh, the Young Indianin “clandestine and surrepti-tious way” got the control of the�400 crore with Herald House,by giving the timeline of trans-actions, how AJL’s more than 99percent shares were taken overby the newly floated firm con-trolled by Sonia and Rahul. In

December 2010, Justice SunilGaur ordered for the evictionof Herald House. The AJL wasrepresented by Congress lawyerAbhishek Singhvi and theUrban Development Ministrywere represented by SolicitorGeneral Tushar Mehta.

“If all these factors aretaken note of and a decision istaken by the respondents(Centre) to say that the domi-nant purpose for which thelease was granted has been vio-lated and there has been mis-use of the conditions of thelease, in the absence of malafides or ulterior motive havingbeen established, the writ courthas rightly refused to interfereinto the matter.

“We also see no reason to

make any indulgence into areasonable order passed by thewrit court in the facts and cir-cumstances of the present case,”the bench said. It said noground is made out for makingany indulgence into the matterand “we dismiss the appeal”.

The Congress leadership isexpected to appeal to SupremeCourt soon as a last resort.Already Supreme Court ishearing the appeal of Sonia andRahul against the Income Taxfine of more than �400 crore inthe National Herald case.Meanwhile, in the main case intrial court, petitionerSubramanian Swamy’s crossexamination by Congresslawyers will resume on March 30.

&���� 0AB�.A1/3

The Supreme Court onThursday allowed the Delhi

Police to arrest and interrogatein custody Amrapali groupCMD Anil Sharma and twodirectors on a complaint thathome buyers of their varioushousing projects were cheatedand duped of their funds.

The top court, which isseized of several pleas of homebuyers seeking possession ofaround 42,000 flats booked inprojects of the Amrapali group,also ordered attachment ofpersonal properties of theCMD and directors — ShivPriya and Ajay Kumar.

The trio, under detentionof the Uttar Pradesh police andkept in a hotel at Noida sinceOctober 9 last year by theapex court for not complyingwith its orders, was in for ashock when a bench of justicesArun Mishra and UU Lalitordered the arrest on a plea byEconomic Offence Wing(EOW) of Delhi Police saying

that it wanted quiz them in aseparate cheating case.

“We had never everstopped any agency from arrest-ing and interrogating the direc-tors,” the bench said, adding,“We make it clear that they(EOW) are free to arrest any orall directors”. The Bench, whichhad taken strong exception ofdiversion of monies of thehome buyers by the directorsand the real estate firm, direct-ed the court-appointed foren-sic auditors to complete theirdetailed investigation on diver-gence of home buyers money byAmrapali group before March22 and listed the matter forhearing on March 24.

The Bench, which hadasked the real estate firm andits directors to either depositthe diverted money or be readyfor consequences, Thursdayordered forthwith attachmentof personal properties of theCMD and the two directors.The attached assets also includ-ed the south Delhi-based bun-galow of CMD Sharma.

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The BCCI on Thursday toldthe Supreme Court that

the life ban imposed on formerIndian cricketer S Sreesanth forhis alleged involvement in the2013 IPL spot-fixing scandalwas “fully sustainable in law” ashe had “tried to influence” amatch.

Countering the argumentsadvanced by the counsel rep-resenting the Board of Controlfor Cricket in India (BCCI),Sreesanth’s lawyer told thebench of justices AshokBhushan and KM Joseph thatno spot-fixing took place dur-ing the IPL match and allega-tions levelled against the crick-eter were not substantiated byevidence.

The 35-year-old cricketerhas challenged in the top courtthe decision of a division benchof the Kerala High Court whichhad restored the life banimposed on him by the BCCI.

A single-judge bench of theKerala High Court had liftedthe life ban imposed onSreesanth by the BCCI and had set aside all pro-ceedings against him initiatedby the board.

&���� 0AB�.A1/3

The Supreme Court onThursday stayed its

February 13 order directing 21states to evict 11.8 lakh illegalforest dwellers whose claimsover the land have been reject-ed by the authorities.

A Bench comprisingJustices Arun Mishra andNaveen Sinha directed the stategovernments to file affidavitgiving details about processadopted in rejecting the claims.

The apex court posted thematter for further hearing onJuly 10.

The top court had onWednesday agreed to hear theCentre’s plea seeking with-holding of its February 13order asking 21 states to evictnearly 11.8 lakh forest dwellerswhose claims were rejected.

After briefly hearing thematter, the bench said: “We stayand hold our February 13order.”

The bench also directedthat the affidavit has to be filedby the chief secretaries of thestates giving details of varioussteps covered for carrying outthe eviction of the forestdwellers.

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RAIPUR: Chief MinisterBhupesh Baghel has appointedone chairman and two deputychairmen each for SargujaRegion Tribal DevelopmentAuthority, Bastar Region TribalDevelopment Authority andCentral Region TribalDevelopment Authority onThursday.

As per order, Khelsai Singhhas been made chairman of theSarguja region while hisdeputies are Brihaspath Singhand Gulab Kamro.

Lakeshwar Baghel hasbeen made chairman of theBastar Region. Santram Netamand Vikram Mandavi havebeen made his deputies.

Similarly, Laljeet Rathiahas been made chairman of thecentral region with LaxmiDhruve and PurushottamKanwar as his deputies.

The chairmen of theseauthorities have been given thestatus of cabinet ministers anddeputy chairmen got the statusequivalent to a minister ofstate.

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As the man-elephant conflictspiked in Surguja and Korba dis-

tricts of the state recently,Chhattisgarh government onThursday decided to convene a meet-ing of all legislators of the affectedareas to work out a solution to theproblem.

Forest Minister MohammadAkbar made an announcement inthis regard in the assembly aftermembers raised the issue.

Expressing concern over the cri-sis, some members attributed theproblem to unplanned exploitation ofcoal in the affected region.

Congress MLA Ambika Singhdeodrawing attention of the Housetowards the conflict, said the situa-tion in the affected areas was grave.

Participating in the debate, JCC(J) legislator and former ChiefMinister Ajit Jogi termed it a seriousproblem.

In the past decade, incidents ofman-elephant conflicts saw 120% riseand people of Surguja and Korba arefacing the fury of wild elephants, hesaid.

Jogi also blamed the previous BJPgovernment for not implementingLemru Corridor and elephant parksin the regions to tackle the menace. Itcould have benefitted both humansand elephants, he added.

Recalling steps taken during hisown tenure, Jogi claimed he stoppedcoal mining activities in HasdeoAranya region during 2002 to avertthe conflict.

Another JCC (J) legislatorDharamjeet Singh too attributed thecrisis to coal mining activities in theregions inhabited by elephants.

He said mining activities were

irritating the animals and makingthem violent.

He claimed elephants have amaz-ing ability to detect vibration causedby a blast even at a distance of 100kilometers and as soon as they feelthe vibration, the start running inopposite direction.

Dharamjeet expressed surprise bythe government’s decision to allot 30coal mines to Adani group.

He demanded that sinceCongress President Rahul Gandhiduring his visit to the region hadopposed the allotment, the govern-ment led by his party should nowcancel the deal. Speaker CharandasMahant intervening into the matter,instructed for sending it to QuestionsReferences Committee of the stateassembly.

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The Bharat Heavy ElectricalsLimited (BHEL) has entered

into an agreement with the RaipurSmart City Limited (RSCL) for theupkeep of Budha Talab, theVivekanand Sarovar in the capitalcity.

The deal was struck in a meet-ing between the two organisationson Thursday.

As per the deal, a sewage treat-ment plant with a capacity to treatthree -million liter of water per daywill be installed for Rs 17.90 croreto clean the lake by 2020.

As per the contract inked, the

BHEL will also look after theoperation and maintenance ofthe lake for the next 10 years.

The RSCL ManagingDirector Shiv Anant Tayal onThursday also issued a workorder to the BHEL for com-mencement of water-treatmentwork.

Official sources in the RSCLinformed that under the proj-ect, sequence batch reactor(SBR) technique will be adopt-ed to treat the polluted water ofthe lake. The treatment plantwill be set up near Marwadi cre-matorium.

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Chhattisgarh State Power RegulatoryCommission has restructured the power

tariff reducing the rate by 10% for economi-cally weaker class and 6% for the middle classconsumers, commission‘s chairman D SMisra informed media on Thursday.

As per the revised tariff, for the con-sumption slab of below 100 units per month,which constitutes 64% of total consumers, thetariff has been reduced from existing Rs. 3.76to Rs. 3.40 per unit.

For consumption units of 101 to 200,which constitutes 16% of consumers, the tar-iff has been slashed from Rs. 3.80 to Rs. 3.60per unit.

Around 91% domestic consumers will bebenefited from the revised tariff.

Similarly, energy charges for agriculturalpumps have been reduced by Rs. 0.30 perunit in addition to withdrawal of power fac-tor surcharge for farmers.

Commission will give chance of hearingto the farmers in load-enhancement cases.The 40W Blub or 20W CFL/LED has beenincreased to 100 Watt near pump set area forfarmers.

Commission has also decided not to

invite fresh application with formalitieswithin a year if farmers’ seeks temporaryconnection. Tariff for agriculture alliedactivities has been reduced by around 10%.

The commission states that fixedcharges and energy charges have beenrationalized; tariff for consumers in 0 - 100units slab reduced from Rs. 6.35 to Rs. 5.90per unit. Tariff for electrical vehicle chargingunits reduced from current Rs. 8 to Rs. 5 perunit.

To promote women’s empowerment,agriculture and allied activities and com-mercial activities being run exclusively byregistered women self-help groups shall beentitled for 10% rebate on energy charges.

For LT industries, existing consumptionslab of 15 hp has been enhanced to 25 hpwhile fixed charges and energy chargesreduced by 25% and 5.5% respectively.

For HT industries, in HV Steel con-sumers, load factor incentives, has beenrestructures as 63% to 77% from existingone. For HV-4 Steel Industries, the limit ofLoad Factor for 33 kV and 11 kV supplysub-categories has been increased to 35%from the existing level of 25%, for exclusiverolling mills consumers.

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(4����������� ��SUKMA: Security forcesgunned down a Naxal follow-ing an encounter inChhattisgarh's Sukma districton Thursday, police said. Thegunfight occurred around 9 amin a forest patch ofSinghanmadgu village, locatedaround 500 km from the capitalRaipur, Superintendent ofPolice (SP) Sukma JitendraShukal said.

When one of the patrollingteams was cordoning off theforest of Singhanmadgu, agroup of armed ultras fired atthe security personnel, leadingto the gun-battle, he said.

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To chalk out its strategy on the caseagainst eviction of tribals residing

in the forest land without letters of for-est rights, tribal Wing of theChhattisgarh Pradesh CongressCommittee (CGPCC) went into a hud-dle on Thursday, the day SupremeCourt stayed implementation of its ear-lier eviction order.

The meeting, chaired by chairmanof the tribal wing of the PCC AmarjeetBhagat, was also attended by ChiefMinister Bhupesh Baghel.

While discussing its future courseof action after the apex court stayed itsFebruary 13 eviction order, the meetingobserved that the relief came due to astrong case put up by Chhattisgarh gov-ernment and other Congress-ruledstates against the earlier eviction order.

Addressing the meeting Baghel saidCongress always stood behind the trib-als. He informed the meeting that theSupreme Court had suspended its ownorder of eviction of 11 lakh 80 thousand

tribal families residing traditionally inthe forest regions, till July 10.

The meeting also discussed strategy

for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls andtook a pledge of winning all the 11 con-stituencies in state.

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Welcoming Pakistan PrimeMinister Imran Khan’s

announcement on the release ofIAF Wing CommanderAbhinandan a day after, PunjabChief Minister Capt AmarinderSingh on Thursday termed it a“goodwill gesture” that wouldhelp ease the prevailing tensionsat the border.

Capt Amarinder, interact-ing with the BSF personnel atthe Khalra observation postduring a tour of the border areasas part of his confidence-build-ing measures for the residents,said that the Pulwama attack byPak-back terror forces was anact of cowardice, necessitatingthe retaliation by the Indiangovernment. “I, however, hopethat normalcy would returnsoon at the border,” he said.

The Chief Minister extend-ed all support on behalf of hisgovernment to the BSF to dealwith the current situation in theaftermath of the IAF strikes onterror hideouts across the Lineof Control (LoC). “We are therefor you,” he told the BSF per-sonnel.

During his tour of the TarnTaran region to assess theground situation, the ChiefMinister interacted with theresidents of at least 15 borderarea villages, including ShaheedBaba Tara Singh Wala, Rajoke,Kalia Shatara, Dholan, Lakhnaand Kals. During his interactionwith the residents, he urgedthem to remain calm and not tobe swayed by rumours.

Assuring the huge crowdthat had gathered at Mastgarhvillage, just two kilometers fromthe international border to seehim, the Chief Minister reaf-firmed his commitment toensure the safety and security ofevery citizen.

The Chief Minister, whoshared lunch with them, urgedone and all to guard againstmanufactured hysteria and notget waylaid by rumours.“Punjab Government stands

shoulder to shoulder with youin this critical hour,” CaptAmarinder told the residents inKals village, urging them not topanic.

Earlier, Capt Amarinderalso visited the 14th BSFBatallion Headquarters atKhemkaran, the bravehearts ofwhich are stationed along theinternational border, and wasbriefed about the overall defencepreparedness by IG BSFMahipal Yadav. He was assuredthat the force was fully preparedto thwart any untoward incidentfrom across the border.

The Chief Minister, on hisarrival at Ghariala village inTarn Taran district earlier, tookstock of the situation and wasbriefed by top police andadministrative brass regardingthe prevailing situation andmeasures taken for the securi-ty of citizens.

The Chief Minister askedthe civil and police administra-tion to work in coordination toprevail upon the border resi-dents not to leave their homesin panic but to jointly holdmeetings of village panchayatsand prominent local residents toinstil a sense of confidence.

Capt Amarinder alsoimpressed upon the residentsnot to be swayed by the falsepropaganda and desist fromrumour mongering in the pre-vailing situation.

Reiterating his govern-ment’s firm commitment tostand by the people of the bor-der areas in the tense atmos-phere, the Chief Minister saidthat he was in constant touchwith the Centre and keeping atab on the situation.

The Chief Minister alsoinformed the people that he hadalready directed the state ChiefSecretary and DGP to stay inclose touch with the district andpolice administration of the sixborder districts — Tarn Taran,Amritsar, Ferozepur, Gurdaspur,Fazilka and Pathankot — andwork with them on the contin-gency plans.

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Raking another controversyamidst the volatile situation

between India and Pakistan,the cricketer-turned-politicianNavjot Singh Sidhu onThursday insisted to continuedialogue with the neighbouringnation underlining that the“solution to terror was peace”— something that failed to godown well with his own party.

Sidhu, in a statementreleased on his official letter-head, titled “We have a choice”,said: “Dialogue and diplomat-ic pressure will count for a greatdeal in seeking a long-termsolution at a time when tacti-

cians on both sides of the bor-der are planning for the worst.”

Also thanking PakistanPrime Minister Imran Khan'sannouncement on the releaseof Indian Air Force pilot WingCommander Abhinandan,Punjab Cabinet Minister Sidhusaid that the “goodwill gestureis a cup of joy for a billion peo-ple”.

In his tweet later on, hesaid: “Every noble act makes away for itself...your goodwillgesture is ‘a cup of joy’ for a bil-lion people, a nation rejoices...Iam overjoyed for his parentsand loved ones.”

Taking a line independentof his Congress party on the

prevailing security situationin the country, Sidhu batted forpeace as the sole solution to ter-ror. “I stand by my deeply heldprinciple that a communitycannot be blamed for theactions of a few. A sentimentour Prime Minister echoed,when he said ‘Our fight isagainst terrorism and enemiesof humanity. Our fight is forKashmir not against Kashmir,not against Kashmiris’,” he said.

He claimed that it was asentiment that Union ExternalAffairs Minister Sushma Swarajtoo shared, when she said thatour fight is not with Pakistan,“our fight is with the terrorestablishment”.

He maintained that hestand by “my conviction thatdialogue and diplomatic pres-sure will count for a great dealin seeking a long-term solutionto the presence and practice ofterror outfits that operate with-in and across the border...Thesolution to terror is peace,development and progress. Notunemployment, hatred andfear”.

Sidhu stated, “No son ofour soil should be separatedfrom his loved ones asAbhinandan is today. An esca-lation would mean many moreincidents like this. Irreparableloss and both nations going toa point of no return.”

Quoting his political men-tor, Sidhu said: “Our objectiveshould be to firmly deal withterrorism and its sponsors,financiers and arms suppliers.At the same time, our doorsshould always be open forprocesses which would restorepeace, development andprogress to societies whichhave been devastated by ter-rorism over many generations.”

Going all out to seek a dia-logue between India andPakistan, Sidhu said “fear hasbeen among us these last fewdays an unwelcome guest".

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Congress on Thursdaysnubbed Navjot Singh Sidhu’ssupport for continuing Indo-Pakistan dialogue, saying that“there’s a time to act and there’sa time to talk”.

“If honourable NavjotSingh Sidhu has an opinion, it’shis personal opinion. It’s notthe opinion of the Congress.The time is not conducive fora dialogue”, said Congressnational spokesperson and for-mer Union Minister ManishTewari.

Tewari said that theinescapable facts are thatPakistan has been sponsoringa proxy war against India andPunjab is also one state whichhas suffered from the proxywar and unprovoked cross-border terror using semi-stateactors.

He said that going back to1979-1980, “the first recipientof that proxy war or thatunprovoked cross-border ter-ror using semi-state actors wasPunjab...For 15 long years,Punjab suffered because of theterror unleashed by the ISI andits instrumentality”.

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Hanoi: The US-North Koreanuclear summit in Hanoiended abruptly without a dealon Thursday, with PresidentDonald Trump saying he haddecided to “walk” in the face ofKim Jong Un’s demands todrop sanctions.

The much-anticipated sec-ond meeting between the twoleaders was supposed to buildon their historic first summit inSingapore, but they failed tosign a joint statement as ini-tially scheduled and the talksended in deadlock.

“Sometimes you have towalk and this was just one ofthose times,” an unusuallydownbeat Trump told reporters.“Basically they wanted the sanc-tions lifted in their entirety andwe couldn’t do that,” Trump saidbefore leaving Vietnam aboardAir Force One to head back toWashington.

But Trump insisted he was“optimistic that the progress wemade” before and during thesummit left them “in positionto have a really good outcome”in the future.

“I’d much rather do it rightthan do it fast,” he added. Henoted Kim had vowed not toresume nuclear or ballistic mis-sile testing — something he

previously identified as a yard-stick for success — and reiter-ated their “close relationship”.

“We just like each other...There’s a warmth that we haveand I hope that stays, I think itwill,” he said. The outcome inHanoi fell far short of the pre-meeting expectations and hopes,after critics said their initial his-toric meeting in Singapore wasmore style over substance.

The leaders walked awaywith no set plans for a thirdmeeting, though Trump said hehopes to see Kim again soon.

Ankit Panda, from theFederation of AmericanScientists, warned on Twitterthat the White House’s expec-tation of further talks “does nothave to be a perception sharedin North Korea”. “Kim mayhave left irate, for all we know.He may have no intention ofcontinuing this,” added Panda.

In the original WhiteHouse programme, a “JointAgreement Signing Ceremony”had been scheduled in Hanoiand a working lunch for theleaders. Instead both men leftthe summit venue withoutsigning anything and Trumpmoved up his news conferenceby two hours. “This is a majorfailure,” tweeted Joe Cirincione,

president of the PloughsharesFund peace foundation, sayingit showed the limit of summit-ry, with “not enough time orstaff ” to work out a deal.

Trump flew around theworld for the meeting and Kimundertook a mammoth two-and-a-half-day trek throughChina in his olive green train,travelling 4,000 kms.

Kim will stay on inVietnam for a state visit, whichwill include a wreath-layingceremony at the Ho Chi Minhmausoleum, before his expect-ed departure on Saturday.

The US President, whotouted his “special relation-ship” with Kim, frequentlydangled the prospect of abrighter economic future for anuclear-free North Korea, atone point saying there was“AWESOME” potential.

From the outset, he hadappeared to downplay expec-tations of an immediate break-through in nuclear talks, say-ing he was in “no rush” toclinch a rapid deal and was

content if a pause in missiletesting continued.

But Harry Kazianis,Director of Korean Studies at theCentre for the National Interest,said that no agreement was bet-ter than a bad one. “The chal-lenge is North Korea’s nuclearweapons are already a reality,” hesaid. “Getting a deal that does lit-tle to nothing to remove thatthreat would be far worse thana flawed deal.” In a phone call toSouth Korean President MoonJae-in soon after the meetingended, Trump “expressed regret”at not striking adeal with Kim,the South’s

presidential office said.In Singapore Kim and

Trump signed a vague docu-ment in which Kim pledged to“work toward complete denu-clearisation of the Korean penin-sula”. Progress subsequentlystalled, with the two sides dis-agreeing on what that means, asthe North sought relief fromsanctions and Washingtonpressed for concrete stepstowards it giving up its weapons.

As in Singapore, the twomen put on ashow of bon-homie inV i e t n a m ,appearing to

share jokes in front of reporters.Looking relaxed but appearingto say little, they indulged in apoolside stroll Thursdayaround the gardens of the lux-ury Metropole Hotel.

It was a far cry from theheight of missile-testing ten-sions in 2017 when Trumpslammed Kim as “rocket man”and the younger man brandedthe American president a“mentally deranged US dotard”.

Meanwhile, Japan’s PrimeMinister Shinzo Abe backedDonald Trump on Thursdayafter the US president’s talkswith North Korea’s leaderended without a deal. Tokyohas regarded the US-led diplo-

matic push with Pyongyangwith suspicion, and hassought to keep its interestson the table in the dis-cussions by coordinatingclosely with its allyWashington.

“Japan fully supportsPresident Trump’s deci-sion to make no easycompromise and at thesame time continue pro-ductive discussions, andurge North Korea to takeconcrete action,” Abe

told reporters after aphone call with Trump.

London: A lurcher called Hector, branded as the ‘loneliest dogin Britain’ has finally found a home. The two-year-old lurcherhad been in a shelter for over 500 days since he was rescued overwelfare concerns in 2017. A lurcher is a sighthound such as aGreyhound crossed with a terrier, herding breed, or large scen-thound. Lurchers are primarily hunting dogs.

Hundreds of people from all over the world offered to re-home him after a campaign by Little Valley Animal Shelter inExeter, Devon, went viral, the BBC reported. The lonely lurcher,who spent more than 500 days at the shelter, had been its longest-staying resident.

“We couldn’t be happier for him,” the shelter said. PTI

Hanoi: US President DonaldTrump defended BenjaminNetanyahu on Thursday as theIsraeli premier reportedlyawaits a decision on whether hewill be indicted on corruptioncharges. “I can say this, he’sdone a great job as prime min-ister,” Trump said in Hanoiafter his summit with NorthKorean leader Kim Jing Un.

“He’s tough, smart, andstrong. He’s very defensive, hismilitary has been built up a lot,”Trump said. Israel’s attorneygeneral was expected toannounce Thursday a decisionon whether he intends to indictNetanyahu on corruption

charges, Israeli media reported.The reports come with

Netanyahu in the midst of atough re-election campaignahead of April 9 polls.

Trump said he was not in aposition to comment on the cor-ruption allegations. Trump againdepicted himself as a consum-mate dealmaker as he discussedprospects for peace betweenIsrael and the Palestinians. Hesaid, “We have a good shot atpeace.” “All my life, I’ve heard thattoughest of all deals, when theytalk about tough deals, thetoughest all of deals would bepeace between Israel and thePalestinians,” he said. AFP

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Seoul: The abrupt end to thesummit between DonaldTrump and Kim Jong Uncame as no surprise to NorthKorean defectors in theSouth, with one saying sim-ply, “I told you so!”

The defectors, who nowlive in Seoul, chatted andlaughed at the office of NorthKorea Free Radio as theyawaited news from the USpresident and the leader oftheir former homeland.

But they quickly fellsilent as it became clear thetalks were deadlocked.

AFP

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Beijing: Beijing expressed hopeon Thursday that the US andNorth Korea will keep talking,saying the nuclear issue will notbe solved “overnight”, after amuch-anticipated summit inHanoi ended without a deal.

China is Pyongyang’s solemajor ally and North Koreanleader Kim Jong Un travelledacross the neighbouring coun-try by train to his second meet-ing with US President DonaldTrump, which ended ahead ofschedule without any jointannouncements. AFP

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Acouple of weeks ago, TheWashington Post published anarticle titled, ‘In Central Asia’sforbidding highlands, a quietnewcomer: Chinese troops’. It

reported: “Two miles above sea level in theinhospitable highlands of Central Asia,there’s a new power watching over an oldpassage into Afghanistan: China.”According to interviews, satellite images,photographs and first-hand observationsby a Washington Post journalist, it wasfound that Chinese troops have settled inone of the most strategic areas of centralAsia, termed “a choke point in Tajikistan.”

The US newspaper said, “Tajikistan —awash with Chinese investment — joins thelist of Chinese military sites that includesDjibouti in the strategic Horn of Africa andman-made islands in the South China Sea,in the heart of Southeast Asia”, adding “themodest facility in Tajikistan — which offersa springboard into Afghanistan’s WakhanCorridor a few miles away — has not beenpublicly acknowledged by any Government.But its presence is rich in significance andsymbolism.” The region has been (and is)still highly strategic. Last year, a publication,‘The 1959 Tibetan Uprising Documents:The Chinese Army Documents’ wasreleased on Kindle. It was a collection of topsecret documents of the military intelligenceof the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), dat-ing from the end of the 1950s till the 1962war with China.

At that crucial time, China had a seri-ous problem — it did not have an Air Forcein a position to take on the Indian AirForce. The compiler of the above men-tioned paper noted: “Disadvantage of theChinese Air Force is still a major problemin case of a conflict with India. Indian jetscan start at a low altitude with a full loadof bombs and plenty of fuel. Also, India hasmany airports only about a 100 kilometresfrom the highest peaks of the Himalayas.Short distance and higher bomb load meaneach Indian jet is at least twice if not threetimes more effective than a Chinese air-craft.” Apart from the fact that many air-planes had been sent to the Korean frontand that the Soviet Union had stopped sup-plying spare parts for the MiG fighterplanes, the PLA Air Force (PLAAF) had amajor hurdle: No fuel for its few planes.

The amount of gasoline reaching theplateau from China via the Qinghai-Tibetor the Sichuan-Tibet highways was notenough to maintain a large occupationforce on the Tibetan plateau (read theIndian borders) and at the same time, pro-vide the necessary fuel for the PLAAF. Oneof the published documents mentionedsecret statistics for “border trade” and theimport of fuel, gasoline and other com-modities between 1953 and 1967.

What do the statistics show? In 1958,gasoline of 380 tonnes was imported intoTibet; in 1959, nothing; in 1960, 2,220

tonnes, in 1961, 96 tonnes andin 1962, 30 tonnes. This meansthat in 1960, there was a hugesurge in fuel import. Butimport from where?

There was no possibility ofany gallon passing unnoticedthrough Nathu-la or Jelep-la —the two main passes betweenSikkim and Chumbi Valley(Tibet) — ditto for the passesin Uttarakhand or North-EastFrontier Agency (NEFA)(Arunachal Pradesh today) oreven Demchok in Ladakh,which had been closed fortrade by the Chinese.

The author of the publica-tion presumed that “corrupt”Indian officials had let the fuelbe smuggled in. That, too, wasnot possible. First, the officersof the Indian FrontierAdministrative Service, postedin these areas, were the mostupright people, and in anycase, considering that a mulecould only carry 40 kg per trip,it would have meant thou-sands and thousands of mules,which did not exist on theplateau …and they would haveto have been transparent.

After pondering over theissue, my conclusion was thatthis amount of gasoline couldnot have crossed any Indian orNepalese border post into Tibet.It left few other possibilities.One was the Soviet Union.Though it had just split withChina, relations between Beijing

and Moscow had reached abreaking point by 1959.

The only possibility wassome under-the-table purchas-es through corrupt officials inTajikistan or Kyrgyzstan. I gotconvinced that the gasolinehad come from the same areain Tajikistan where China istoday building a new base, atthe edge of the Wakhan corri-dor and Xinjiang.

An interesting lead:Tursun Uljabayev, the partysecretary of Tajikistan in 1960,was sacked and imprisoned forserious corruption a year later.In all probability, gasolinefrom Tajikistan was trans-ported to Kashgar (orTashgurgan) in Xinjiang andthen taken over the AksaiChin to be used in westernTibet. It could have been doneat night via the road cuttingacross Indian territory, whichwas the best protected arteryin China in the 1950s andearly 1960s as only the PLAwas allowed to use it; the traf-fic could have gone unnoticedfor several months. It wasprobably why Uljabayev wascaught and the import of gaso-line into Tibet drastically fellin 1961 …and by 1962 Chinahad no fuel for its aircraft.

The above findings havetwo important corollaries. One,it confirms that the Chinesehad no Air Force in flying con-dition at the time of the 1962

conflict with India, having nospares and no fuel. This wasrecently confirmed to thiswriter by Wing Commander‘Jaggi’ Nath, who extensivelyflew over Tibet in secret mis-sions between 1960 and 1962.He was awarded his first MahaVir Chakra medal for this (hegot his second in 1965 for map-ping the Pakistani defences).

The second upshot is thatthe area, where the Chinese aretoday building their new base,is highly strategic, being a rela-tively easy link between the oil-rich Central Asia, Afghanistan(through the Wakhan corri-dor), the restive Xinjiang (thehub of Xi Jinping’s Road and BeltInitiative) and Tibet.

This raises another issue:Why did the IndianGovernment, which had all theinformation about the situationin Tibet, the deployments ofthe PLA on the plateau and thelack of Chinese Air Force(‘Jaggi’ Nath was never attackedor even followed during hisregular sorties over Tibet), notuse its jets to pound the PLAconcentration near the Thaglaridge in the Tawang sector inWalong area of eastern NEFAor in Rezang-la in Ladakh? Theonly answer is a woeful lack ofleadership. Let us hope that thepresent bosses watch what ishappening in this area.

(The writer is an expert onIndia-China relations)

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Sir — This refers to the editorial,“Pakistan cornered” (February 28).The best part about the air attackby the Indian Air Force (IAF) wasthat it caught Pakistan unawares.Kudos to our intelligence systemwhich provided crucial inputs andwe acted judiciously with laser-guided bombs in the wee hours.This is our first air raid after 1971and now we not only know of ourcapabilities but have also shown toboth Pakistan and the world whatwe can do if need arises.

Credit also goes to ourGovernment that we did not tar-get any military establishment orcivilian areas in Pakistan but justterrorists camps. As expected,Pakistan retaliated but was cor-nered by the IAF. Now the obviousoption for them will be to increaseterrorist activities in India.Nevertheless, the IAF must becommended for meticulous plan-ning and execution, like what ourArmy did during the 2016 surgi-cal strikes. Hopefully, Pakistanwill learn from this and ensure itdoes not allow its turf to be usedfor anti-India activities.

Bal GovindNoida

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Sir — The recent announcementof privatisation of major airportsunder the Public-PrivatePartnership (PPP) model is arefreshing move at a time whenthe Ministry of Civil Aviationhas turned its attention toimprove non-metro airports likeLucknow, Guwahati, Mangaluru,

Jaipur, Thiruvananthapuramand Ahmedabad. Major airportsin New Delhi, Mumbai andBengaluru are witnessing hugepassenger influx and requireequal attention.

Airports across India arenow undergoing a massive infra-structure facelift owing toincreased domestic and passen-ger traffic. Further, with theinception of the UDAN scheme,

which is now in the third stage,infrastructure at regional air-ports, too, needs to be improved.

The Nextgen airports ForBharat Nirman initiative aimedat easing land-acquisitionprocess to enable the development of regional andgreenfield airports now needs afurther push.

Undoubtedly, the PPPmodel is an excellent opportu-

nity for regional airports togain a major infrastructureboost.

Varun SDBengaluru

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Sir — This refers to the editorial,“Pakistan cornered” (February 28).In a mini throwback to the1971 engagement on Pakistansoil, India has done well to resetits regional equations. We mustexpect international repercus-sions. Now that we have shuffledthe pack overnight, a new dealis in order. Post Balakot, intru-sions into Jammu & Kashmirfrom across the border willalmost certainly intensify. Wewould need additional thought-ful strategies on Pakistan-occu-pied Kashmir.

If 1971 created a changedcontour for Pakistan, 2019 couldas well signal a reconfiguredLine of Control — our recalci-trant neighbour has had scantrespect for it anyway.

R NarayananNavi Mumbai

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It was the military disaster of 1971 thatforced the Pakistani establishment and itsmilitary, which runs the country for all

practical purposes, to face up to the fact thatthey could never win a conventional waragainst India. If Pakistan was to avenge itshumiliation and cut India down to size, it hadlittle choice but to fight through proxies andbleed India through a thousand cuts.

This idea must surely have germinatedfrom its successful employment of Islamic mil-itants — the forerunners of the Taliban — tooppose the rule of the Marxist People’sDemocratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) thathad deposed former President of AfghanistanMohammed Daoud Khan in what came to beknown as the Saur or April Revolution of 1978.It was this Pakistani-fomented insurgency thatfinally led to the Soviet intervention and occu-pation of Afghanistan in December 1979.

Incidentally, while conventional wisdomwould have us believe that it was the CentralIntelligence Agency (CIA) that came up withthe idea of using militants to fight the Soviets,facts show that it came to the party much laterand only added its considerable resources tothe techniques perfected by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence in the use of irregulars forits own ends.

Thus, from the early 1980s, Pakistancommenced its support for secessionist ele-ments within India that were involved in fight-ing against the state. First, the KhalistanMovement and subsequently, with greater suc-cess, in Jammu & Kashmir. It clearly hadadvantages as there was credible deniabilityand the economy of effort with the dirty workbeing done by proxies, keeping the Indiansecurity forces tied down and finally, the mostimportant of all, creating fear and anxiety with-in the general population that impacted everyaspect of our democratic way of life.

There is, of course, one major disadvan-tage of using proxies. They tend to have a mindof their own and often times, respond inap-propriately or work at cross purposes to whatits mentors may be wishing to achieve. ThePulwama suicide attack falls in this category.There have been numerous statements over thepast four years that have made it clear thatPakistan prefers to deal with IndianGovernments run by the more “liberal and sec-ular” parties, compared to having to deal withthe more conservative, Hindutva-drivenBharatiya Janata Party (BJP). With electionsaround the corner and with the BJP facing thevery real likelihood of a serious decline, if therecent State elections were any indication, itwould have been in Pakistan’s best interest tomaintain a low profile.

Masood Azhar, the Jaish-e-Mohammed(JeM) supremo, obviously had a different view.Not only did his organisation carry out the sui-cide attack that led to the death of 44 CRPFjawans but also went on to take credit for theaction. Thus, in one thoughtless act, he notonly destroyed the Pakistan Government’sattempts at deniability but also made ImranKhan’s call for India to provide credible evi-dence infructuous.

Most importantly, the timing of the dev-astating attack left the Modi Government withlittle choice but to respond overtly and withspeed, if it was to still retain any hope of doingwell at the hustings. There was also a possi-bility that if India responded in an effectivemanner to the outrage, the Government’s stockwould go up rapidly and that would enhanceModi’s reputation and chances of return topower, just as the earlier cross-border strikehelped the BJP in the Uttar Pradesh elections.This could hardly have been to Pakistan’sadvantage and in the event the attack was facil-itated by the Army, then General Bajwa hascertainly made a serious miscalculation.

Regardless of the number of casualties thatthe Indian Air Force’s attack on terror campsdeep inside Pakistan may have caused, the veryfact that the Indian Government displayed theintent to take on terrorists inside Pakistan hasclearly changed the narrative prevalent for thepast four decades. It has also shown upPakistan’s repeated threats of a nuclear riposteas sheer hyperbole and bluster.

More importantly, the initiative has final-ly shifted in India’s favour along with worldopinion, which has had enough of Pakistan’sduplicitous behaviour. Moreover, any escala-tion above a perfunctory retaliation, which wasto be expected to assuage domestic opinion,by Pakistan would destroy the fig leaf of deni-ability it has used over the years. Crucially, itwould force their military into a direct con-frontation, something that the proxy warwaged by them over the years allowed themto avoid.

In this context, one can only hope bettersense will prevail and we will be able to avoidserious escalation of the conflict, which can

hardly help either side, given the huge chal-lenges we face in lifting vast swathes of ourpopulation out of the twin evils of poverty andilliteracy.

However, it must be emphasised that trueprogress will only occur as and when Pakistanstarts to wind up the jihad factory it has builtover these years. In any case, the Indian cross-border raid cannot be a one-off affair and wemust be willing to do all that it takes to neu-tralise the jihadi network and its vast army offinanciers, managers and facilitators.

Finally, while all our attention may betaken in dealing with the issue at hand, the factas to what led to the Pulwama attack must notbe lost sight of. For this serious lapse on thepart of our intelligence services, it is impera-tive that heads must roll. There have also beenclear indications that despite increasing num-bers of militants being neutralised in the Valley,the Army and other security forces were beingincreasingly marginalised, especially in southKashmir, because of popular discontent.

They had consequently lost their ability todominate the countryside, thereby losing outon intelligence. These aspects continued to beignored by the Central Government and themilitary hierarchy. Little thought was given tothe necessity for reviewing either counterinsurgency strategies or tactical procedures andthe leadership continued to be swayed by tac-tical successes with little attempt to resolve thegrowing disillusionment and radicalisationwithin the population, especially the youth.This must certainly change.

(The writer is a military veteran, a consul-tant with the Observer Research Foundation andVisiting Senior Fellow with The PeninsulaFoundation, Chennai)

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In his 1934 book, The Story ofMy Life, the early Hindu nation-alist and author, Bhai

Parmanand, lamented that whenhe visited the United States in 1914,many Americans asked him, “Areall Hindus Muslim?” The Indianhistorian, Gyanendra Pandey, inhis essay for the anthology, Hindusand Others, wrote that even till thelate 19th century, being a Hindulargely meant being an inhabitantof India, no matter what religionhe or she belonged to.

Both Hindu and Muslimnationalisms in India have theirroots in the aftermath of the fail-ure of the 1857 War ofIndependence. Nationalism as anidea was largely foreign to bothcommunities. It was uncannilyintroduced in the subcontinent by

the British. Eminent historianAyesha Jalal in her book, Self andSovereignty, wrote that at leastone of the reasons behind theemergence of Hindu and Muslimnationalism was the introductionof the holding of a nation-widecensus by the British, who insist-ed that the natives declare theirfaith.

Bhai Parmanand should nothave been surprised by what theAmericans asked him. The idea ofdefining the Hindus and Muslimsas separate communities of Indiawas still new to those living thou-sands of miles away. To them, Indiawas Hindustan and its citizenswere Hindu just as America’s citi-zens were American — be theyChristian or otherwise. ButParmanand was aware of the factthat unlike Islam, Judaism orChristianity, Hinduism was a dis-persed faith, which did not have acentre.

According to author and his-torian Craig A Lockhard, in hisbook, Societies, Networks andTransitions, Hinduism emergedover centuries as a synthesis andfusion of various cultures and

beliefs which sprang up in theregion. But this synthesis wasmore cultural and geographical innature. It wasn’t tied together by asingle, over-arching theologicalthread.

The British scholar of compar-ative religion, GD Flood, wrote inhis tome, An Introduction toHinduism, that the word “Hindu”was first used as a geographicalterm in the Persian texts of 6thcentury BCE to describe peoplewho lived beyond River Indus (inpresent-day Pakistan).

Flood also wrote that thePersians formulated this wordfrom the original local name of theIndus, which was Sindhu.According to Indian historianRomila Thapar, the term “Sindhu”was derived from “Sapta Sindhu”mentioned in the Rig Veda — abook of Sanskrit hymns composedbetween 1500 and 1200 BCE. TheSapta Sindhu is described as a riverin the Rig Veda. The post-seventhcentury Arabs picked up on theword “Hindu”, first coined by thePersians to form the word “al-Hind” or “Hindustan.” By this, theymeant a region inhabited by the

people of the Indus.JT O’Connell, in his 1973 essay,

‘The Word Hindu’, published inGaudiya Vaisnava Texts, wrotethat it was only in the 16th centu-ry CE that the word “Hindu” ini-tially emerged in the context ofbeing a faith. According to him, itis described as a religion in the16th centur y Bengali tomeChaitanya Charitamrita, whichuses the term “Hindu dharma.”

Pandey wrote that to overcomethis realisation, early Hindunationalists claimed that a major-ity of non-Hindu people living inthe region had originally beenHindu and were converted. On theother hand, also in the 19th cen-tury, early Muslim nationalistsclaimed that their ancestors werenon-Indian and had roots inMuslim Arabia and Central Asia.But the early Muslim nationalistshad an established monotheistfaith to help them concoct a socialand political link with Muslim-majority regions; early Hindunationalists struggled to formulatea coherent history of Hinduism.

Whereas it was somewhat sim-pler for 19th century Muslim

reformers of India to work with anestablished monotheist faith withan organised “history” to expresstheir cultural and political sepa-rateness, Hindu reformers had tostart almost from scratch.

Therefore, early Hindureformist organisations such as theArya Samaj (formed in 1875)based their Hindu reformism onthe idea that Hinduism, too, was amonotheistic faith, which had justone God and that all other deitiesworshipped in India were justmanifestations of this one God.The aim was to shape a dispersedcultural synthesis into an organisedmonotheist faith so that it could beused to form a cohesive Hindunationalist narrative and polity.

In Modi’s India today, histori-ans who hold the above-men-tioned view, are under attack. Forexample, a textbook authored byThapar was removed from thecurriculum. The book was replacedby one authored by MeenakshiJain, a political scientist and a vocalsupporter of Hindu nationalism.

Jain accused Thapar of tryingto portray Hindu nationalism as amodern political construct which

had no roots in antiquity. Then,there was the case of American his-torian James Laine’s 2004 book,Shivaji: Hindu King in IslamicIndia, on the 17th century “warriorking” hailed as an unmatchedhero by Hindu nationalists. ButLaine did not treat any of themyths related to the king as facts.A group of men belonging to thefar-right Shiv Sena stormed thelibrary where Laine had done hisresearch. They broke its windowsand doors and set fire to a numberof books.

One of Laine’s Indian collabo-rators was thrashed and his faceblackened. The BJP Governmentdecided to ban the book in India.In 2002, prolific historian Prof DNJha completed his book, Myth ofthe Holy Cow. Drawing from var-ious historical sources, Jha estab-lished that the cow was not alwayssacred in what became Hinduismand that ancient Hindus regularlyate beef. He used the word “ancientHindus” because they were prob-ably not called that at the time. ToJha, the issues of cow worship andbeef in India today are more polit-ical and ideological in nature than

theological.After word got out about the

contents of his book, its appoint-ed publishing house was threat-ened. The publisher withdrew andJha had to look for another pub-lisher. The book was finally pub-lished, but Hindu nationalistgroups demanded that Jha bearrested for heresy. As threatsgrew, Jha secretly left India.

The Muslim religious-nation-alist narrative in Pakistan, too, hascaused fissures. But ever since the1990s, it has developed a less reac-tive tendency to absorb thecounter-narratives which chal-lenge the “mythical” aspects of thereligious-nationalist narrative. InIndia, the Hindu religious-nation-alist narrative constituted a lesserpart of the overall Indian nation-alist narrative.

It only began to assert itself inthe late 1980s. Challenging it caus-es more bitterness and violencethere — especially by that sectionof the polity which accuses theoriginal Indian nationalist narra-tive of suppressing Hindu majori-tarianism.

(Courtesy: The Dawn)

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A33-year-old woman waskilled and an Indian Army

jawan, currently on leave,received critical injuries inintense cross-border shellingalong the Line of Control inMendhar sector of Poonch onThursday.

According to field reports,“the woman was sitting in anopen area of her house in vil-lage Chajjala when a mortarshell landed there causinggrievous injuries”. She suc-cumbed to her fatal injuriesbefore being rushed to thehospital.

Police said, “the deceasedwoman was identified asAmin Akhtar, D/O MohdSadiq while Lance Naik ZakirHussain, S/O Abdul Hameedof Balnoi in Mankote receivedsplinter injuries while he wasmoving through the lane nearhis house”. He was referred toGovernment Medical Collegehospital in Jammu.

Through out the day theborder residents in the areafaced brunt of intense shellingas Pakistan escalated tensionby targeting several civilianareas.

However, shortly afterPakistan Prime Minister ImranKhan made an announcementto release Wing commanderAbhinandan Varthaman fromits custody the roaring gunsstopped firing artillery shells

which had triggered panic inthe area.

Earlier, Pakistan Air Forcejets also attempted to violate airspace in Mendhar sector butalert air patrol of the Indian AirForce chased them away andprevented targeting of vitalmilitary installations.

According to Defence PROLt- Col Devender Anand,"Pakistan initiated 'unpro-voked' ceasefire violation ataround 6.00 a.m by shellingwith mortars and firing ofsmall arms in Krishna Ghatisector". As the day progressed,Pakistan army targeted for-ward Indian posts in other sec-tors using heavy calibreweapons. In response the

Indian army retaliated strong-ly and effectively.

Firing in the KG sectorwas initiated around 1.00p.m.After about one hour,Kalal and Baba Khori area ofNowshera witnessed heavyshelling. Several local resi-dents in the forward areasremained indoors as theycould not move out due to fearof getting caught in the cross-fire. In response the Indianside responded strongly andeffectively. Tension in the areaescalated further around 3.00p.m after both the sidesexchanged heavy volume fir-ing in Sunderbani, Mankote,Khari Karamara and Degwarsectors.

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In the backdrop of the Indo-Pak conflict on the borders,

Prime Minister Narendra Modion Thursday called for notdoing anything that wouldimpact the morale of armedforces as he also announcedthat India would work and winand continue its march towardsdevelopment.

“The enemy is trying todestabilise us, carry out terrorstrikes... They want to stop ourgrowth... We will fight, live,work and win as one,” he said.

Modi was interacting with

about one crore BJP workers in15,000 locations through whatthe party said was the “world’slargest video conference”.

Modi said in his addressthat the 2014 election was amandate for fulfilling people’snecessities and the 2019 pollswill be about fulfilling people’saspirations.

Indians have to be hardworking in all spheres andshould be grateful to all thosewho are protecting the country,the Prime Minister said.

Some people, for their self-ish interests, dislike a strongGovernment, he said. BJP

workers need to tell people thebenefits of a strongGovernment, he added.

Prime Minister said it isnecessary to ensure that noth-ing is done to dent the moraleof the security forces.

Modi said India will fight,live, work and win as one andnobody can create hurdles in itsmarch towards development.

On the political front,Prime Minister Dismissed the‘mahagatbandhan’ ofOpposition parties as‘mahamilavat’ which he saidwould send the country to theIntensive Care Unit (ICU).

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The Congress on Thursdayalleged that the Prime

Minister Narendra Modi has“misplaced priorities” and thathe was “desperate only for re-election”. It also accused the saf-fron party leaders of politicis-ing the bravery of the armedforces, while referring toKarnataka BJP leader BSYeddyurappa’s comment thatIndia’s “pre-emptive strikes”on terror camps in Pakistanhave created a wave in favourof PM Modi and will help hisparty win over 22 out of 28 LokSabha seats in the State.

The Congress simultane-ously distanced itself from thesuggestions by Punjab MinisterNavjot Singh Sidhu for a dia-logue with Pakistan and termedit as his personal opinion andnot that of the party. “There isa time to act and there is a timeto talk. Dialogue can only takeplace when the atmosphere isconducive for dialogue andthe current atmosphere is notconducive for a dialogue,”Congress spokesperson Manish

Tewari said.The party’s chief

spokesperson RandeepSurjewala alleged that theprime minister was “hell-benton creating a video-confer-ence record” when the entirecountry was praying for thereturn of its braveheart pilot.An IAF pilot was captured byPakistan after an air combat onWednesday during which thetwo sides said they shot downeach other’s warplanes thatfollowed an unsuccessfulattempt to target Indian mili-tary installations in retaliatorystrikes that sparked fears of war.IAF sources identified the pilotas Wing CommanderAbhinandan Varthaman.

“Glaring case of misplacedpriorities! 132 Cr Indians prayfor safe & immediate return ofIndia’s brave-heart WingComm, Abhinandan butModiji desperate only for re-election. Congress cancelledits imp CWC & Rally today.Pradhan Sevak hell-bent oncreating a Video Conf. Record(sic)!” Surjewala wrote onTwitter.

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New Delhi: Prime MinisterNarendra Modi on Thursdayappeared to be making a ref-erence to India’s air strikes onterror camps in Pakistan whenhe said a “pilot project” wasrecently carried out and nowthe “real one” has to be done asthe earlier exercise was a prac-tice.

Speaking at an award cer-emony for scientists, he said,“You spend your life in labo-ratories. You have a tradition of

first doing a pilot project. It islater scaled up. So recently apilot project happened”, as theaudience burst into applause.

Modi continued, “Now thereal one has to be done. Earlierone was a practice. And the realis to actually give a standingovation to today’s award win-ners. We will will give a stand-ing ovation.”

These remarks of thePrime Minister were latertweeted by the ruling BJP.

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Mumbai: The Indian Navy onThursday said it is in a high stateof readiness to deal with any Pakmaritime misadventure amidrising tensions between the twoneighbours.

Pakistani Air Force onWednesday carried out a retal-iatory strike across the Line ofControl(LoC) in Jammu andKashmir and attempted to tar-get military installations, a dayafter India’s strike on the JeMfacility in Balakot. “The Navy isdeployed in a high state ofreadiness and remains poised onsurface, under sea and in air todeter, prevent and defeat anymisadventure by Pakistan inmaritime domain,” a Defencespokesperson said in a state-ment.”The Navy assures of a res-olute, swift and strong responsewhen needed. We stand with theArmy and Air Force to ensurethe safety and security of thenation,” he said. PTI

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Mamata Banerjee onThursday expressed con-

cern over the safety of WingCommander Abhinandan andat the same time faulted PrimeMinister Narendra Modi foravoiding an all-party meetingpost Balakot strike wonderingas to whether the air raid on theintended cross-border targetwas a genuine hit or a miss “as

is being claimed by some for-eign media.”

Abhinandan’s Mig 21 Bisonon Wednesday went down incourse of shooting down anenemy F-16 while chasing awaythe enemy squadrons that hadintruded into Indian territoryin Jammu & Kashmir.

The fighter pilot was cur-rently in Pakistani custody andwas likely to be released by thatcountry on Friday. “We areanxiously waiting for the safereturn of our brave pilotAbhinandan who was capturedby Pakistan,” while defending

India, the Chief Minister saidbefore squarely accusing theCentre of playing politics withthe soldiers’ blood.

Questioning the impact ofthe Indian Air Force strike onJaish-e-Mohammed terrorcamps on a hill top nearBalakot Banerjee said, “wewant to know how much truthis there in the claim of theGovernment,” questioning why“the Prime Minister is avoidingan all-party meeting to brief theopposition parties about thesuccess of the air raid,” on ter-ror camps.

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Maharashtra NavnirmanSena (MNS) chief Raj

Thackeray said here onThursday that if Pakistanreleased India’s in-custodypilot Abhinandan Varthamanand called for ceasefire, thenPrime Minister NarendraModi should not refuse toaccept his Pakistani counter-part Prime Minister ImranKhan’s offer for “constructivetalks” between the two coun-tries.

“If Pakistan is really sin-cere in their offer of con-structive talks, then the firststep in this direction mustcome from them. They have torelease our pilot Abhinandan

immediately and call for cease-fire in the border. If this canbe achieved, then we canbelieve that Imran Khan’sintentions are noble. If all thistakes place, then Modi shouldnot let this opportunity passby,” Raj said.

Raj, who issued a state-ment to this effect hoursbefore Imran Khan made a“gesture of peace” in the formof announcement thatAbhinandan would be releasedon Friday, said: “Both thenations should resolve theissues through constructivetalks and foster a peacefulenvironment. That is what Ihope and wish for”.

“A war can never be asolution to any issue. In fact,

a war is damaging and takescountry back on all levels.Terrorists and terrorism mustbe ruthlessly eradicated but forthat, to wage a war or (create)a war-like situation for one’spolitical interest is not right,”Raj said, while taking an indi-rect dig at Modi and the rul-ing BJP for politicising theongoing military conflict withPakistan.

“I reiterate my stand that a war or a war-like situation is not the answer toany problems. To take advantage of such situationsshould not be disposition ofany good government and allpower bearers should keep this in mind,” the MNSchief said.

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Shillong: Rescuers haveretrieved the second heavilydecomposed body of anunidentified digger from a370-feet illegal rat-hole mine inMeghalaya's East Jaintia Hillsdistrict, 77 days after 15 mengot trapped inside the floodedcoal quarry, an official saidThursday.

The body, located 200 feetaway from the bottom of themine, was brought out usingthe Indian Navy's underwaterremotely operated vehicle(ROV) and an NDRF boat onWednesday, operationsspokesman R Susngi told PTI.

This is the second heavilydecomposed body to be liftedfrom the mine after it floodedaccidentally on December 13,2018.

The first body, identified asthat of Amir Hussain fromAssam's Chirang district, was

pulled out of the mine onJanuary 24.

Assistant Commandant ofGuwahati-based NationalDisaster Response Force(NDRF) battalion, SantoshSingh, who has been leading ateam of rescuers from the start-ing day of the tragedy, told PTIThursday three more bodies ofthe miners were sighted in last

few days but they slipped andvanished in course of beingpulled out of the narrow shaftof the mine.

"Efforts are on to relocatethese bodies and bring themout of the mine," he said fromthe mine site located on thewestern side of a small hillockin Khloo-Ryngksan area bythe side of Lytein river.

The body pulled out of themine Wednesday was dis-patched to the civil hospital atthe district headquarters atKhliehriat for postmortemexamination, Susngi said.

Fifteen miners weretrapped deep inside the coal pitafter water from the nearbyLytein river had gushed into themine at Lumthari village in theKsan area of East Jaintia Hillsdistrict on December 13 lastyear.

Apart from the IndianNavy, the Army and the NDRF,the state's agencies are engagedin the operations that beganhours after the accident tookplace.

Giving details of theWednesday operation, theNDRF officer said five persons,four NDRF rescuers and onefrom Navy, went down into themain shaft number 26. PTI

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Mumbai: Prime MinisterNarendra Modi on Thursdaysaid his act of washing the feetof sanitation workers inAllahabad recently was notintended for political gains,but an outcome of his 'sanskar'(values).

He was responding to aquestion by a BJP corporatorfrom Pune in Maharashtra viavideo link from Delhi, duringthe party's 'Mera Booth SabseMazboot' programme.

During the programme,which the BJP described as the"world's largest video confer-ence", Modi had direct dialoguewith BJP workers and volun-teers across the country.

"I have been to Kumbh(Mela) in Uttar Pradesh, whichwas widely appreciated for itscleanliness. Around 22 crorepeople visited the Kumbh. It ledme to think about the effortsput in by the sanitation work-ers and I decided to express mygratitude towards them bycleaning their feet," Modi said.

He said people dubbing hisact as a political gimmick donot know him well.

Modi recalled his housewarming ceremony when hebecame the chief minister ofGujarat for the first time.

"When people from theadministration asked me howI want to perform the housewarming of my official resi-

dence, I had plainly askedthem to get someone whoworks as a class four employeein the government. They founda Dalit person, and I placed the'kalash' in his daughter's hands,"he said.

"It is part of culture, mysanskar," Modi said.

Modi Sunday took a holydip at the Sangam in Allahabadand interacted with sanitationworkers who ensured cleanli-ness during the ongoingKumbh Mela. He describedthem as "real karma-yogis"whose contributions are beinglauded all over.

Modi also performed theGanga aarti and conducted'Charan Vandana' (washing thefeet) of select sanitation work-ers, as a mark of respect to theirefforts in ensuring a cleanKumbh. He presented them'angvastram' and said he wouldforever carry the memory ofwashing the feet of the 'safaikaramcharis'. PTI

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Lucknow: Amid reports of dif-ferences with its ally BJP, ApnaDal (Sonelal) chief AshishSingh Patel on Thursday said hehad a "positive" meeting withAmit Shah, but all options wereopen if a certain section of saf-fron party leaders "do notchange their attitude".

Ashish Singh Patel, thehusband of Union MinisterAnupriya Patel, had met BJPnational president Amit Shahat New Delhi on Wednesday.

"We have put up variousissues before Shah. Overall,the meeting was positive," hetold PTI, adding the talks wereregarding the "problems" hisparty was facing with the BJP'sUttar Pradesh unit.

Anupriya Patel had last weekaccused the BJP of "apparentlynot taking care of its allies" andsaid that her party was "free totake its own decisions" regardingthe upcoming general elections.

"Some differences croppedup between the Apna Dal andthe BJP. We had given themtime till February 20 to resolvethe issues, but there is noanswer from the BJP. It appearsthey are not interested in tak-

ing care of their allies," ApnaDal leader and Union MinisterAnupriya Patel had toldreporters in Bareilly last week.

"Now, the Apna Dal is freeto make its own decision. Aparty meeting has been calledto chalk out our future courseof action," she had said.

On Thursday, Ashish SinghPatel alleged that a section of BJPleaders did not want Apna Dal(Sonelal) stay in alliance with thesaffron party. "This section usedto create many problems for us.If they do not change attitude ouroptions are open," he said.

Ashish Singh Patel said ameeting of all the office-bearersof his party, which was supposedto be held in the state capital onThursday, has been rescheduleddue to India-Pakistan tensions.

"Our party demandsappointment of Dalits and(people belonging to back-ward communities on 50 percent police stations of the statebesides giving either DM or SPpost in districts to these cate-gory officers. Our party work-ers should be considered inappointment in various Statecorporations," he said. PTI

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Gorakhpur: Two weeks after hewas injured in the Pulwama ter-ror attack that left 40 of his col-leagues dead, CRPF constableAwadhesh Kumar on Thursdayreturned to his native villagehere and celebrated his daugh-ter's birthday.

The trooper received agrand welcome at his villageAabadi Sakhni on Wednesdayevening as he was greeted by a

large number of locals as well aspolitical leaders including thosefrom the ruling Bharatiya JanataParty (BJP).

Not willing to speak aboutterror attack, Kumar said he washappy to celebrate the birthdayof his daughter, who turned twoon Thursday.

"I am very happy that I amcelebrating the second birthdayof my beloved daughter Jyoti,"

he said.Asked about his injuries, the

CRPF constable who had joinedthe force in 2011 said, "My headand hands were injured. Now Iam better and ready to leavehome on call (of duty)."

Forty CRPF personnel werekilled in a suicide attack inJammu and Kashmir's Pulwamadistrict on February 14 orches-trated by Pakistan-based terror

group Jaish-e-Mohammed(JeM). Following the incident,India bombed and destroyedJeM's biggest training camp inBalakot in Pakistan's restiveKhyber Pakhtunkhwa province,about 80-km from the Line ofControl (LoC).

The Central Reserve PoliceForce (CRPF) jawan's father toowas overjoyed to see his sonback home. PTI

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Amid concerns arising out of theongoing military conflict with

Pakistan, the MaharashtraGovernment on Thursday curtailedthe ongoing Budget session of the Statelegislature, by two days.

Prefacing his announcementabout the curtailment of the budgetsession of the Maharashtra Legislature,chief minister Devendra Fadnavisalluded to the surgical strike carriedout by Indian Air Force (IAF) on ter-ror camps in Pakistan and said in theState Assembly: “In view of the IAF’sairstrike and yesterday’s develop-ments, there is tension on the Pakistaniborder.. While the Army is capableenough to look after the country’ssecurity needs, it is but necessary thatwe take care of internal security in thecountry. In cities like Mumbai, we haveto maintain extra vigil security mat-ters”.

“There is no situation or need forus to panic. It is but essential that we

take necessary precautions in view ofthe situation in the country. This ses-sion would have gone on for next twoto three days. In view of the involve-ment of property like Vidhan Bhavan,we deploy as many 6,000 police per-sonnel during the legislature ses-sions,” Fadnavis said.

“After getting feedback from thetop police officials that they need moreforce to take care of security issues, Ideliberated the matter with leaders ofvarious political parties yesterday.Top police officials briefed us about thesituation. I had one more meeting withthe leaders of the Opposition in themorning today. At that meeting, weunanimously decided to complete allthe pending business today and cur-tail the session by two days so as tomake available more police personnelto take care of the security needs in thecity,” the Chief Minister said.

Fadnavis thanked leaders of theOpposition and leaders of variouspolitical parties in both the Houses fortheir co-operation in curtailing the

budget sessions by two days.In a tweet put out later in the after-

noon, Fadnavis said: “In view of thedevelopments in country and to keepavailability of our forces free fromother responsibilities, it is unani-mously decided to end#MaharashtraBudget session. No rea-son to get panic, this decision is onlyto make available forces with policedept:CM @Dev_Fadnavis”.

The budget session, which com-menced on Monday, was earlierscheduled to end on Saturday.

Maharashtra’s Finance MinisterSudhir Mungantiwar on Wednesdaypresented an interim budget for 2019-20 which showed an estimated rev-enue deficit of �19,784 crore and madea provision of special fund for farmloan waiver.

The vote-on-account budget,which has fiscal provisions for fourmonths of the next financial year —from April to July 2019, was passed byboth the Houses of State Legislatureon Thursday, without any debate.

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Mumbai: The Bombay HighCourt asked the MaharashtraGovernment on Thursdaywhat prompted the Marathacommunity to agitate forreservation only in the recentpast.

A division bench ofJustices Ranjit More andBharati Dangre was hearing abunch of petitions challengingthe State Government's deci-sion to grant 16 per centreservation to the communi-ty in Government jobs andeducational institutions.

The demand for Marathareservation was not raisedafter the Mandal commissionsubmitted its report in 1980 orwhen the state backward class-es commissions submittedtheir reports, the court said.

"What was the suddenchange in scenario in therecent past that prompted thestate government to seek dataon the condition of theMaratha community?" JusticeDangre asked.

"After the Mandal com-mission report, there was noviolence or agitation by thecommunity demanding reser-vation. What happened sud-denly that prompted suchprotests?" she asked.

The State Government'slawyer V A Thorat said thecommunity was realising onlynow that it was being neglect-ed.

"The previous govern-ments, whom the Marathacommunity was voting for,made the community thinkand live under the perceptionthat they were forward. Butnow as time passed by, thecommunity has started feelingthat they are backward andneed protection," he said.

"We are only correctingthe mistakes committed in thepast," Thorat added. PTI

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In signs of the Indian econo-my losing steam ahead of the

general elections, GDP growthslowed to a five-quarter low of6.6 per cent in October-December on the back of lowerfarm and manufacturinggrowth and weaker consumerdemand, Government datashowed on Thursday.

Also, economic growthestimate for the current fiscalyear ending March 31 hasbeen revised downwards to 7per cent from the earlier esti-mate of 7.2 per cent. This isthe lowest growth in the lastfive years.

However, the third quartergrowth rate, which was lowerthan the revised estimate of 7per cent in the previous quar-ter and 8 per cent in April-June,was faster than China’s 6.4 percent growth for the threemonths to December 2018.India thus retains its tag of theworld’s fastest-growing majoreconomy.

Data from the CentralStatistics Office (CSO) showedslower consumer spending at8.4 per cent as compared to 9.9per cent in the previous quar-ter. Farm sector growth slowedto 2.7 per cent from 4.2 percent in Q2 and 4.6 per cent inQ1.

The Reserve Bank of India

(RBI) had earlier this monthcut the key interest rate by 25basis points and changed itspolicy stance to “neutral” from“calibrated tightening”, sayingthe shift provides flexibilityand room to address chal-lenges to the sustained growthof the Indian economy over thecoming months.

Parallelly, eight core infra-structure industries’ growth inJanuary declined to a 19-monthlow of 1.8 per cent (December2018: 2.7 per cent, January2018: 6.2 per cent) on con-traction in refinery productsand electricity. Electricity sec-tor, which last witnessed acontraction in February 2013,posted a growth of (-) 0.4 percent in January — the lowest inthe last 71 months.

Devendra Kumar Pant,chief economist at IndiaRatings, said size of the econ-omy (nominal GDP) in FY19is now estimated at �190.54lakh crore compared to �188.41lakh crore, which “will helpgovernment to achieve fiscaldeficit/GDP target for FY19even though the fiscal deficit tillJanuary 2019 is 121.5 per centof FY19 (revised estimate).”

FY19 GDP growth at 7 percent “indicates that the econo-my is losing steam,” he said,adding the GDP growth in Q4has to be 6.5 per cent to attainoverall 7 per cent growth in

FY19. “This on the face of itlooks plausible; however, unlessexports in Q4 grow 14 per cent,attaining 7 per cent growth willbe difficult.”

According to CSO, whileagriculture is estimated to growat 2.7 per cent, manufacturinggrowth is expected to acceler-ate to 8.1 per cent in 2018-19.However, trade, hotel andtransportation sector growth isexpected to decelerate to 6.8per cent during the year.

The Gross DomesticProduct (GDP) at constantprices (2011-12) had grown at7.7 per cent in the October-December quarter of the pre-vious financial year. Thegrowth rate was revisedupwardly from 7 per cent.

“GDP at Constant Prices inQ3 of 2018-19 is estimated at�35 lakh crore, as against�32.85 lakh crore in Q3 of2017-18, showing a growthrate of 6.6 per cent,” the CSOsaid.

The CSO also revised GDPgrowth figures for April-Juneand July-September quarters ofthis fiscal to 8 per cent and 7per cent from 8.2 per cent and7.1 per cent.

The GDP growth rates forApril-June and July-Septemberof last fiscal were also revisedto 6 per cent and 6.8 per centfrom 5.6 per cent and 6.3 percent, respectively.

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Xiaomi on Thursdaylaunched Redmi Note 7

and Redmi Note 7 Pro. With both the front and

rear covered in CorningGorilla Glass 5, Redmi Note isno more only about puregrunt, marrying style andfunction. The Dot Notch dis-play, measuring 6.3 incheswith a 19.5:9 2340 x 1080-

pixel LTPS panel tops off theAura Design. Redmi Note 7Pro will feature a gradientdesign in the Nebula Red andNeptune Blue colour variants.The Aura Design that RedmiNote 7 Pro adopts isn’t justabout the colours or theGorilla Glass 5 body, butabout how all componentscome together to make RedmiNote 7 Pro one beautifullyfunctional device.

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Waaree Energies, an Indiansolar PV manufacturer,

aims at adding close to �400crore for the financial yearending 2020, exclusivelythrough the segment. Rooftopsolar will be one of the keyfocus segments for WaareeEnergies as it plans to add 100MW to its overall capacity inthe financial year 2019-2020.

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Capital markets watchdogSebi wants the Government

to do away with the practice ofits board having a nomineefrom the Reserve Bank of India,or alternatively provide for across-representation of the tworegulators on each other’s boards.

Officials said the Securitiesand Exchange Board of India(Sebi) first proposed to theMinistry of Finance to amendthe relevant provisions in theSebi Act to discontinue RBI’srepresentation on its board, asit already has adequate pres-ence of the Government nom-inees and in its over 25 years ofexistence the regulator hasevolved as an “effective and oneof the best in the world”.

Besides, the boards of otherregulators such as IRDAI forinsurance sector and PFRFAfor pension sector do not havenominees from other regula-tors, while there is no corre-sponding representation ofother regulators on the RBI’sboard, Sebi has contended.

However, the FinanceMinistry opined that the role ofthe RBI (Reserve Bank of India)in the financial sector cannot bediscounted and that the RBIpresence helps in bringing “over-all economic view and valuableinputs to the Sebi board”.

The capital markets regula-tor, however, feels that the inputsof the RBI on policy issues canbe taken through formal dis-

cussions and correspondencebetween the two regulatorybodies, the officials said.

Besides, Sebi feels there isalso the FSDC (FinancialStability and DevelopmentCouncil), an apex level bodycomprising of members fromthe Government and variousregulators, that has been set upto deal with inter-regulatoryissues and overlap of regulato-ry jurisdiction.

Following the reservationsexpressed by the FinanceMinistry on its original pro-posal and after taking intoaccount the fact that certainsecurities are under the purviewof both Sebi and RBI that aretraded on stock exchanges, thecapital markets regulator hasnow made alternative sugges-tion to provide for cross-repre-sentation of the two regulatorson each other’s boards.

The alternative proposal islikely to be discussed by Sebi’sboard in its next meeting onFriday and will be subsequentlysent to the Finance Ministry forfurther action.

Under the Sebi Act, the reg-ulator’s board should consist ofa Chairman; two nomineesfrom the Ministry of the CentralGovernment dealing withFinance and administration ofthe Companies Act; one nom-inee member from the RBI; andfive other members to beappointed by the Governmentof whom at least three should bewhole-time members.

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Fraud-hit Punjab NationalBank has been ranked first

among public sector banks inthe implementation of ’reformsagenda’, followed by Bank ofBaroda and State Bank of India,said a report on Thursday.

The BCG-IBA report –EASE Reforms for PublicSector Banks — measures per-formance of each PSB on 140objective metrics across 6themes, including customerresponsiveness, credit off-takeand digitalisation.

PNB with a score of 78.4 outof 100 has been ranked first inthe EASE (Enhanced Access &Service Excellence)-index, fol-lowed by BoB (77.8), SBI (74.6),Oriental Bank of Commerce(69), Canara Bank (67.5) andSyndicate Bank (67.1).

PNB has shown “strongperformance” in the parameterslike customer responsiveness,responsible banking, credit off-take and financial inclusion.

Releasing the report, FinanceMinister Arun Jaitley said suchrankings brings about competi-tiveness and encourages banks toperform better than peers.

It then emerged as the bestperforming bank (in EASEreform ranking)”.

PNB, which was involvedin a �14,356-crore scam byNirav Modi, swung into blackin the October-Decemberquarter after posting losses inthe three previous quarters.

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Shares of Jet Airways fell byover 6 per cent on Thursday

after the company said sevenmore aircraft have beengrounded due to non-paymentof lease rentals.

Shares of the companydropped 6.15 per cent to �211on BSE.

On NSE, the sharesslumped 6.30 per cent to�210.15. So far this month, asmany as 13 planes of the com-

pany have been grounded onaccount of non-payment ofrentals to lessors.

In a filing to the stockexchanges on Wednesday, thefull-service airline said “anadditional seven aircraft havebeen grounded due to non-payment of amounts out-standing to lessors under theirrespective lease agreements”.

Faced with acute financialwoes, the airline is looking torestructure its debt as well asraise funds.

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Lawyers for former Nissanchief Carlos Ghosn on

Thursday filed a fresh bailrequest for the auto titan whohas been detained for morethan three months, the TokyoDistrict Court said.

It is the first bail requestfiled by the 64-year-old since heshook up his legal team as hecrafts his defence to threecharges of financial miscon-duct.

The former high-flyingexecutive has been in detentionsince his shock November 19arrest, and has tried repeated-ly without success to securebail.

Reached by AFP, an assis-tant lawyer for Ghosn’s leadattorney declined to explainhow the bail request would dif-fer from previous filings. “Wecan’t comment on details,including any differences inapproach this time.

We plan to explain aboutdetails when we hold a newsconference next week,” he said.

Ghosn’s previous legal teameven deployed a rarely-usedarticle of the Japanese consti-tution to force the court toexplain why the Franco-Lebanese-Brazilian remainedin detention.

A judge said Ghosn’s con-tinued detention was justifiedbecause he posed a flight riskand there was a possibility hewould conceal evidence. Ghosnand his lawyers have arguedthat neither of those is the case,and he even offered to wear atracking bracelet and hireguards to monitor his where-abouts, pledging to stay inJapan.

But so far the courts haveshown no inclination to end hislengthy pre-trial detention,which has drawn some criti-cism internationally and fromrights groups.

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With the general electionsround the corner, the

Government has authorisedState Bank of India to launchthe sale of electoral bonds inthe months of March, April andMay.

The Government hadbrought in electoral bondscheme as an alternative to cashdonations made to politicalparties as part of its efforts tobring transparency in politicalfunding.

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England women on Thursdayscripted a sensational recoveryfrom a difficult position to regis-

ter a consolation two-wicket win in thethird and final ODI to prevent hostsIndia from completing a whitewash inthe three-match series.

Chasing India's total of 205/8,England were struggling at 49/5 beforeall-rounder Danni Wyatt (56 off 82balls) stitched two crucial partnershipswith skipper Heather Knight (47 off 63balls) and Georgia Elwiss (33 not outoff 53 balls) to pave the way for theirvictory.

England scored 208-8 in 48.5 oversto grab two crucial points as the three-game series is part of ICC Women'sChampionship.

The World Champions are placedin seventh place and need to be in thetop four to qualify directly for the 2021World Cup.

India had already sealed the seriesafter the winning the first two games.

Defending the target, veteran pacerJhulan Goswami (3-41) rattled theEngland top-order, removing AmyJones (13), Lauren Winfield (2) andTamsin Beaumont (21).

Soon, it became 40-4 after off-spin-ner Deepti Sharma caught and bowledin-form Natalie Sciver (1) and thenpacer Shikha Pandey trapped SarahTaylor (2) as England lost half their sideat 49.

But then Wyatt and Knight con-jured an important 69-run stand for thesixth wicket.

After Knight fell, Wyatt added 56runs for the seventh wicket with Elwiss

to bring the visitors close to the target.Elwiss and Anya Shrubsole (4 not

out) then held their nerve to guide theside home.

Earlier, medium-pacer KatherineBrunt (5-28) grabbed a five-wickethaul to restrict India for 205/8.

India women had fritted away thefoundation laid by Smriti Mandhana(66) and Punam Raut (56) after suf-fering a middle-order collapse.

Brunt, 33, was the wrecker-in-chief as the hosts suffered a middle-order collapse after they slumpedfrom 129/1 to 150/7.

However, Deepti Sharma (27 notout) and Shikha Pandey (26) laterensured that the hosts crossed the 200-run mark.

Opting to bat, India lost JemimahRodrigues (0) early. But thenMandhana and Raut steadied theship with their 129-run second wick-et stand.

They initially played with cautionand later hammered the loose deliv-eries, putting the English attack underpressure.

Mandhana, who mostly relied onpulls and drives, stuck eight fours anda six, while Raut hit seven boundaries.

But Brunt brought England backin the game by removing bothMandhana and Raut in the 29th over.

While Mandhana gave a sitter toDannie Wyatt at deep-mid wicket,Raut was cleaned up.

Brunt then trapped MonaMeshram (0) in front of the wicket andlater sent Mithali Raj (7) back to com-plete her fifer.

Taniya Bhatia (0), Jhulan Goswami(1) also fell cheaply as the visitors madea splendid comeback in the middle-overs.

The two teams will now head toGuwahati to play the three-match T20Iseries. ���� �$�'��������$������������

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Comeback man K L Rahul wasthe lone Indian to feature in the

top 10 batting list, even asAfghanistan's Hazratullah Zazaijumped 31 spots to be placed atcareer-best seventh position in thelatest ICC T20I Players Rankingsissued Thursday.

Rahul, who made a successfulcomeback with scores of 47 and 50in the just-concluded T20 seriesagainst Australia after going througha tough time due to a chat show con-troversy, jumped four rungs to thesixth position with 726 rating points.

Formerly top-ranked ViratKohli (up two places to 17th) andformer captain Mahendra SinghDhoni (up seven places to 56th) havealso gained among Indian batsmen.

Fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah (up12 places to 15th) and left-arm spin-ner Krunal Pandya (up 18 places toa career-best 43rd) have alsoadvanced.

However, chinaman Kuldeep

Yadav has dropped two places tooccupy the fourth spot.

Among others, Australia bats-man Glenn Maxwell rose signifi-cantly in the recent ICC T20I PlayerRankings after superb show with thebat in the series against India.

Maxwell, who was the top-ranked batsman in the format a yearago, has gained two slots to reachthird position after scores of 56 and

113 not out that helped complete a2-0 victory in India, Australia's firstseries win in over a decade againstthe 2007 T20 World Cup champions.

Hazratullah has gained a whop-ping 31 slots to reach a career-bestseventh position after aggregating204 runs in the 3-0 series victoryover Ireland, that included anincredible 162 not out, the secondhighest score in T20Is.

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The "hard time" that he endured in the wakeof a chat show controversy has "humbled"

K L Rahul and the Indian batsman says he nowvalues his national cap more than ever.

Both Rahul and Hardik Pandya were pro-visionally suspended for their loose commentson women during a popular chat show. Theirbans were later revoked pending an inquiry.

The off-field controversy erupted afterRahul endured a dismal run in the four-Testseries in Australia but he is back in the nation-al team after finding his feet with the IndiaA side.

"It was a hard time no doubt. I mean, asa player, as a person, everyone has to gothrough difficult times and it was my time togo through that and I like I said it gave metime to reflect on my game, on myself. I havealways been someone who takes things as itcomes," said Rahul after the second T20International.

India lost the short series 0-2 but Rahulmade a successful comeback with scores of 47and 50.

Asked if the entire controversy haschanged him as a person, the 26-year-oldsaid:"It has humbled me a little bit and youknow. I respect the opportunity that I havegotten to play for the country. The dream ofevery kid is to play for the country and I amno different.

"Just to value where I am, just to keepmaking opportunities count and put myhead down and keep working on my cricket,"said the man from Karnataka.

Rahul said the India A stint under coachRahul Dravid helped him immensely.

"I got some time off from internationalcricket, so I could come back to India andreflect on what was not going right for me.Fortunately, I got to play some India Agames where the pressure is a bit less andwhere I could focus on my skill and my tech-nique," said Rahul.

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Glenn Maxwell would prefer batting higher upthe order in ODIs, following his series-winning

113 at number four in Australia's seven-wicket vic-tory against India in the second T20 International.

Maxwell bats at number 7 in ODIs and wouldhappily take a promotion in the five-match ODIseries starting in Hyderabad on March 2.

The 30-year-old slammed his third T20 inter-national hundred on Wednesday night, an unbeat-en 113 off 55 balls, to blow away India and win theseries 2-0.

"In my case tonight, when I came out, it was15 overs to go I think. And as long as I get a 80 ora 100 out of that even, if I am doing that at a No 6or a 7, it doesn't really matter. It's just me makingthe most of the opportunities when I get them," saidMaxwell.

"It's not easy tojust come here and golike that because theball is a lot older, thewicket's gone a lotquicker here. Eventonight at the end ofthe game, the wicket'ssort of drying out andthere was scuffs allover it," he added.

Maxwell believes thatin ODIs, he will find itdifficult to make a differ-ence at No 7 in mostoccasions and a promo-tion up the order may justsuit his game.

"In one day cricket, it'snot as easy to go at theend. So it would benice to bat higher upbut it depends onwhat happens in thetop four or top five.If the opportunitydoes come up, I'dlike to take," hesaid.

Maxwell wason a rampage,hitting bowlersto all corners ofthe park for ninesixes and seven fours. However, he felt that he didnot take any needless risk.

"I think it's just got to be about picking yourmoments. I think a little bit of it is that I have togo hard but I think I had been just picking off ballsI can hit the boundaries in.

"Like today, I don't think I took too manyridiculous risks and I feel I read the game really welland was able to hit the ball in areas where the field-ers weren't at all. There's not many times I hit theball straight over a fielder's head but just place itin the gap and I feel that's okay for me.

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Adil Rashid snared four wickets in five balls asEngland resisted a determined West Indies

effort to claim a 29-run victory in a high-scoringfourth One-Day International at the National

Stadium in Grenada on Wednesday.Responding to the tourists' mammoth total

of 418 for six, the highest ever in an ODI in theCaribbean, the home side were set on courseby a rampaging 162 off 97 balls by veteran

opener Chris Gayle.They remained in the hunt until the 48th over

when leg-spinner Rashid, who had taken a fearfulhammering in his first four overs, broke an 88-runseventh-wicket partnership between CarlosBrathwaite and Ashley Nurse.

He then scythed through the tail — taking thelast three wickets in the next four balls — to finishwith figures of five for 85 off his allotted ten overs.

Despite Rashid finishing as the match-winnerwith the last five wickets of the innings, it was fastbowler Mark Wood who prevented the home sidefrom running away with the game as he completedhis ten-over spell with excellent figures of four for60 on a pitch tailormade for batting.

Windies’ total of 389 was their highest-ever inODIs but it will be of little consolation given the finalcapitulation which saw the last four wickets fallingat the same score to leave Eng with an unbeatable2-1 lead going into the final fixture on Saturday inSt Lucia.

Persistent rain prevented a ball being bowled inthe scheduled third match, also in Grenada, on

Monday.Setting a target for the first time in the series after

West Indies captain Jason Holder won the toss,England underscored the reputation acquired by theirbatting line-up since the disappointments of the 2015World Cup in racing to what looked an unassailabletotal.

Jos Buttler led the way with a rampaging inningsof 150 off just 77 balls with 12 sixes and 13 fours.Their fourth-wicket partnership of 204 came in lessthan 21 overs and followed an excellent comebackinnings of 82 by Alex Hales at the top of the order.

Having been selected to bat in the middle-orderfor the abandoned third match, he replaced theinjured Jason Roy as opener and made full use of theopportunity in ideal batting conditions, putting onexactly 100 with Jonny Bairstow for the first wick-et.

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India women's ODI team cap-tain Mithali Raj is disappoint-

ed for not being able to completea series whitewash againstEngland, but said the 2-1 winover the current world champi-ons would act as a huge confi-dence booster for her side.

Mithali rued the missedopportunity to not only completea 3-0 series whitewash against a

quality side like England, but alsolose out on crucial two points inthe ICC Women'sChampionship.

"Well, it does play a veryimportant part because, obvious-ly we are not playing Pakistanand we just have one more teamthat we are still to play, the WestIndies," said Mithali after thehosts lost the third and final ODIof the series by two wickets hereon Thursday.

Putting things in perspective,Mithali said India now has onlythe contest against the WestIndies to look for after havinglost two points each against SriLanka, South Africa and also inNew Zealand.

"So pretty much in totalitywe lost eight points when wewere in a position to grab those2 points in all those series. So itis disappointing but winningagainst one of the quality sides

with full strength gives lot ofconfidence to this side," sheadded.

She said only against NewZealand the team became a bitcomplacent after wrapping upthe rubber.

"Only in New Zealand, wefelt it was a one-sided game inthe third ODI. But it was a wellfought match against Sri Lanka,which went till the last over andalso in South Africa when we

played South Africa, so thosematches were well fought,"Mithali said.

She said the issue wasaddressed before the seriesagainst England and the teamwas determined to make it 3-0.

"But this (issue) we didaddress and the girls do under-stand. We will definitely work onit, so that in the coming series,if we are in a similar position, wewould like to make it 3-0."

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