kumaraswamy loses trust ‘russian jets’ kill 32 in syrian city...

‘Russian jets’ kill 32 in Syrian cityAmman : Airstrikes on a popular market and resi-dential neighbourhoods killed at least 32 persons and wounded dozens on Monday in an attack on one of the main opposition-held cities in northwest-ern Syria, rescuers and residents said. The raids, believed to be carried out by either Syrian or Rus-sian jets, targeted Maarat al-Numan, a densely popu-lated city in the south of Idlib province, leaving a trail of destruction and carnage, they said.

“Butcher of Beijing” dies at 90 Beijing : Former Chi-nese premier Li Peng -- known as the “Butcher of Beijing” for his role in the Tiananmen Square crack-down -- has died aged 90, state broadcaster Xinhua said Tuesday. The former chairman of the National People’s Congress Stand-ing Committee died of an unspecified illness in Bei-jing on Monday, Xinhua said. The ex-premier had previously battled bladder cancer.

Chandrayaan 2 moving in right directionBengaluru : A day after launching the country’s sec-ond moon mission, the Indi-an Space Research Organisa-tion (ISRO) on Tuesday said the Chandrayaan-2 space-craft is in “good health” and moving in the “right direc-tion”. India had on Monday launched Chandrayaan-2 on-board its powerful rocket GSLV-MkIII-M1 from the spaceport of Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh with the aim of landing a rover in the unexplored lunar south pole.

3 SPOs arrested for carrying heroinJammu : Three special po-lice officers (SPOs) were arrested on the outskirts of Jammu city for allegedly possessing 75 grams of her-oin, police said on Tuesday. Sunny, Khurshid Ahmad and Javed Ahmad Mir were arrested at the Brigade road near Miran Sahib on Monday evening when the trio were travelling in a private car, an officer said. Twenty-two gram of heroin was recovered from Sunny, 26 gram from Kalu and 27 gram from Mir. The ac-cused have been booked un-der the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act and an investigation is on, the officer added.

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PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

New Delhi, July 23|19 : US President Donald Trump on Monday hogged headlines soon after he offered to be the “mediator” between Pakistan and India on the Kashmir dispute. Trump’s offer came during his meet-ing with Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, who is on three-day tour to the White House.While the US President claimed that it was Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who had asked to mediate on the Kashmir matter, the In-dian government on Monday

evening denied to Trump’s bewildering claim. The gov-ernment on Tuesday rebut-ted a claim of US President Donald Trump which said

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had asked him to me-diate between India and Pa-kistan to resolve the Kash-mir issue. External Affairs

Minister S Jaishankar made separate statements in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha saying, “No such request was made by the PM to the US President.” In both Houses, the statements by the op-position were made with a declared intent that nothing said in the House harmed India’s relations with other countries. Jaishankar, who was Foreign Secretary in the first term of Modi (2014-19), before he was made a minis-ter in the present term, added that India’s position is that all issues with Pakistan had

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EARTH NEWS SERVICEEARTH NEWS SERVICE

Srinagar, July 23|19 : NIA car-ries out raids at six locations in Pulwama, Srinagar in fund-ing case “Another raid was carried out at the Parimpora fruit Mandi in Srinagar”, NIA sources said.Sleuths of National Investiga-tion Agency (NIA) on Tuesday carried out raids at the prem-ises of two traders involved in cross Line of control (LoC) trade. The raids were carried in Pulwama and Srinagar dis-tricts.Police sources said NIA offic-ers assisted by Jammu and Kashmir police carried out raid at the house of Ghulam Ahmad Wani in Keller area

of Pulwama district. Sources said Wani was involved in cross LoC trade before its sus-pension by the authorities on February 14, 2019. “Another raid was carried out at the Parimpora fruit Mandi in Srinagar”, NIA sources said. The raids are part of the ongoing NIA investigation against suspected militancy funding. In a statement, is-sued this evening, a spokes-man said that the NIA carried out searches at six locations in connection with the ongoing investigation in the Cross LOC Trade case.“Searches were conducted at Pulwama and also in Srinagar. In Pulwama the searches were conducted in Achgoza at the

premises of Tanveer Ahmad Wani, who is the President of Cross LOC Traders Associa-tion. Searches were also con-ducted in Safakadal, Bemina and Parimpora fruit markets in Srinagar,” he said.NIA teams were accompanied and supported by the teams of CRPF and Jammu & Kashmir Police, he said. “During the searches, NIA teams recovered incriminat-ing documents including photographs and documents relating to cross LOC trade. Besides, electronic devices and other material have also been seized. The connected persons in the case are being questioned,” said the spokes-man.

NIA raids at 6 locations in Pulwama, Srinagar in terror funding case


Bengaluru, July 23|19 : The Congress-JDS government in Karnataka collapsed on Monday after the confidence motion moved by Chief Min-ister H D Kumaraswamy was defeated in the assem-bly, ending his 14-month long turbulent tenure.Capping a three-week long high-voltage intense power struggle triggered by a raft of resignations by rebel lawmakers, that pushed the government to the brink of collapse, the motion was defeated with 99 members voting for the motion and 105 against it. “The motion

moved by the Chief Minister has fallen through,” Speaker K R Ramesh Kumar an-nounced. Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy watched the proceedings sitting in a pen-sive mood after a spirited re-ply to the debate.With rebellion exploding in its face, the coalition gov-ernment was hanging by a thread for the last three weeks, with the Supreme Court verdict that rebel law makers ought not to be com-pelled to attend the session tipping the scales in favour of the BJP. Outwitted in the numbers game and defeat staring in his face with the

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Kumaraswamy loses trust vote; Karnataka govt falls


Srinagar, July 23|19 : The In-come Tax Department said on Tuesday that it has con-ducted raids against a Kash-mir-based business group and seized unaccounted assets worth Rs 1.28 crore in connection with its tax evasion probe against enti-ties linked to the financial operations of J&K Bank.Alleged irregularities in loan disbursal activities and appointments at the stateowned lender came to light recently after the Jammu and Kashmir Anti-corruption Bureau initiated action against it, its former Chairman Parvez Ahmad and others.“In another such follow-up

action, a search and seizure operation has been con-ducted on a group that is in the business of providing security to business estab-lishments and prominent individuals as well as in running hotels in Jammu and Kashmir and other parts of the country,” the CBDT said in a statement without identifying the group.The action led to the sei-zure of unaccounted jewel-lery and undisclosed cash of more than Rs 1.28 crore from the promoter of the group, it said. The Cen-tral Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) frames policy for the I-T Department. It said the group that was

raided faces allegations of “defrauding public sector banks including J&K Bank in connivance with bank of-ficials, having unexplained cash deposits in the group entities and large scale diversion of funds taken for development of an im-pugned medical college as well as hotels of the group for private gain of the pro-moters.”The statement said the raids revealed, “apparent siphoning of loans of more than Rs 74 crore.” Digital and documentary evidence found during search clearly reflect machinations of the bank officials in violating prudence norms as well as

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IT raids Kashmir business group, seizes Rs 1.28 cr assets

Opposition stages walkout in Lok Sabha, seeks clarifi cation

Trump claims PM Modi asked him to mediate on Kashmir issue, India denies claim

STATE P-5

Youth holds the baton to change political destiny of state Mehbooba

BJP pays tributes to 2008 martyr, Kuldeep Verma-i

STATE P-3 NATIONAL P-7

Parliament passes Protection of Human Rights Amendment Bill

INTERNATIONAL P-8We knew about

Osama’s presence in Pakistan, ISI

helped CIA: Imran Khan

Saka: 21 Ashad 1941 Bikrami: 21 Ashad 2076 Volume: 06 Issue: 278 www.earthnews.in e-mail: [email protected]

WEDNESDAY24 July, 2019-Jammu-India

An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.

Mahatma Gandhi

IMF projects slower growth rate for IndiaPRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Washington, July 23|19 : The IMF on Tuesday pro-jected a slower growth rate for India in 2019 and 2020, a downward revision of 0.3 per cent for both the years, saying its GDP will now grow respectively at the rate of 7 and 7.2 per cent reflecting a weaker-than expected outlook for domestic demand. How-ever, India will still be the fastest growing major economy of the world and much ahead of China, the Washington-based global financial institution said. This is a downward

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New Delhi, July 23|19 : Ter-ror attacks in the hinterland have reduced by 70 per cent while coming down to 86 per cent in Jammu and Kashmir during the last decade due to government’s zero-tolerance policy, the Central govern-ment said on Tuesday.The information was given by Union Minister of State for Home G Kishan Reddy in a written reply to the ques-tion of Congress MP from Punjab Manish Tewari in the Lok Sabha “Terror attacks in the hin-terland during the last dec-ade as compared to the pre-vious decade have reduced by 70 per cent from 71 to 21 and the number of terror-

ist incidents in Jammu and Kashmir has reduced by 86 per cent, that is, from 23,290 to 3187,” said the minister. Tewari, a former Union Min-ister, had sought to know whether the number of ter-ror attacks has substantially reduced during the period between April 2009 and June

2019 as compared to the pre-vious decade. “As compared to the corresponding period of 2018, the first half of this year witnessed a reduction of 28 per cent in terror at-tacks and an increase of 59 per cent initiated by the security forces against ter-rorists in Jammu and Kash-

mir,” said Reddy. “Forces have been taking effective and continuous action in countering terrorism,” said the Minister. Reddy said government’s “zero toler-ance” policy against terror-ism has led to a reduction in the terror attacks. “Close and effective coordination mechanism exists between intelligence and security agencies at the Centre and the state level,” the Minis-ter said. “The Multi-Agency Centre (MAC) has been strengthened and re-organ-ised to enable it to function on a 24x7 basis for real-time collation and sharing of intelligence with the cen-tral and state agencies con-cerned,” Reddy added.

Terror attacks reduced by 86 percent in J-K: Govt


Srinagar, July 23|19 : Police in Srinagar on Tuesday said they have arrested three Hizb militants who were in-volved in firing on a special police officer and grenade throwing incidents.In a statement, a police spokesman said the trio was involved in firing at SPO Romaan Rayees at Barzulla. “They have been identified as Asif Iqbal Dar & Shahid Hassan Dar residents of Soura and Rasheed Lateef Mir resident of Barzulla,” he said.The youth were affiliated with proscribed outfit HM and were wanted by law for

their complicity in a series of crimes. “The arrests were made after series of human and technical investigative techniques used by the po-lice.”As per police records, they had history of crime records and were involved in plan-ning and executing several crimes in J&K along with their associates. “During in-vestigation it was learnt that Junaid Sehrai commander of proscribed outfit HM was part of this group which car-ried out these attacks,” said the spokesman.He said they were involved in attack on SPO Romaan

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Jammu, July 23|19 : The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Tuesday said it had registered a case against sacked Jammu and Kashmir Bank chairman Parvez Ahmad Nengroo, his relative Asif Mansoor Beigh and others for sign-ing an insurance deal on the bank’s behalf with IFF-CO TOKIO in violation of norms. The ACB said it has also carried out searches at the IFFCO TOKIO prem-ises in Srinagar and seized several incriminating doc-uments.According to the ACB statement, Nengroo, as chairman of J&K Bank, on 13 February 2019 signed an insurance deal with IFFCO TOKIO, in which his close relative Beigh was em-ployed, giving undue ben-efits to the company. Inves-tigation revealed that J&K Bank had in 2000 entered into venture with PNB Metflife Insurance compa-ny for sale of its insurance products, and then in 2002 tied up with Bajaj Allianz Insurance Company in a similar venture for sale and distribution of its non-life insurance products, in-cluding health product.According to the investiga-tion, as a result of its deal with J&K Bank, IFFCO TOKIO was conferred the bank’s insurance business in Srinagar and Anantnag at the cost of the resources of the bank as well as Bajaj

Allianz Insurance Com-pany Ltd.The ACB statement said that probe further revealed that in the first quarter of financial year 2018-2019, J&K Bank received Rs 159 lakh as commission from Bajaj Allianz against a Rs 88 lakh commission re-ceived from IFFCO TOKIO General Insurance Compa-ny Ltd for the same period, thus causing a loss of Rs 71 lakh to J&K Bank.The ACB alleged that by re-sorting to favouritism and abuse of his official posi-tion, Chairman J&K Bank Nengroo in connivance with the IFFCO TOKIO General Insurance Compa-ny MD got his relative Asif Manzoor Beig appointed in the insurance company on an annual salary pack-age of Rs 19.28 lakh, which was approximately two-and-a-half times higher than his package at Bajaj Allianz General Insurance Company, where he earli-er worked as deputy man-ager. Beigh is currently working as Chief Manager in IFFCO TOKIO General Insurance Company’s Sri-nagar office.

ACB books ex-JK Bank chairman, kin in insurance deal case

Three newly-recruited HM terrorists arrested in Srinagar

Rs 25 lakh in demonetised notes seized


Srinagar, July 23|19 : Police said on Tuesday that it has seized demonetised currency notes with face value of Rs 25 lakh from a person in Rajbagh area of the city.“On a specific input, police station Rajbagh quizzed one person—Mohammad Iqbal Dar, a resident of Kulgam—and recovered demonetised currency notes amounting to Rs 3 lakh from his posses-sion,” a police spokesman said. During questioning, Dar told police that he has dumped more such notes in a hideout in Jawahar Nagar area of the city, the spokesman

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kumaraswamy loses trust ‘russian jets’ kill 32 in syrian city...

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