Gurdaspur (Punjab), Sept 12: A Pakistani drone was spotted near the International Border in Punjab’s Gurdaspur early Monday morning.
According to the information, the drone flew back towards the Pakistani side as the alert troops of the Border Security Force (BSF) fired several rounds at it.
The drone was spotted near the International Border at around 5 am, in the area of BSF’s Rosa Post BOP 89 Bn in Gurdaspur, Punjab.
However, a search operation by BSF and Police is underway.
This was the third recent incident and the number of drones being sighted in Punjab, coming from Pakistan has seen a significant rise this year as compared to the Jammu sector.
According to BSF, till July this year total of 107 drones flying from across the border were spotted inside Indian territory, as compared to 97 drones spotted the whole of last year.
As many as 97 drones coming from across the border were sighted by the BSF in 2021 along International Border (IB) including 64 such cases in Punjab, 31 in Jammu, and two drones were seen entering from the Line of Control (LOC) in Jammu.
Till July 2022, as many as 107 drones were sighted along IB that including 14 in Jammu and 93 in the Punjab sector.
A senior BSF officer said that most of these drones have come from Pakistan and are used to deliver narcotics, weapons, explosives, and ammunition.
“There are teams with anti-drone guns deployed in borders. The patrolling parties keep watch on any suspicious aerial activity and often they recover narcotics substances and arms delivered from these drones,” he said.
In 2021, BSF shot down one drone in the Ferozpur sector while this year seven drones were shot down and a huge quantity of narcotics that was supposed to be delivered through drones was also recovered.
The total length of Punjab’s border with Pakistan is 553 kilometres and the 198-km stretch of the India-Pakistan border in the Jammu region is guarded by BSF. Another BSF officer said that there is no effective anti-drone technology available to shoot down every drone crossing the international border but their men on the ground keep watch on drones or any aerial object crossing the border.
“Not only ground, but we also keep an eye on the sky, and BSF personnel are trained to shoot down unidentified UAVs. Sometimes drones fly too high to get detected, we only detect it by humming sound when it comes close to ground,” he said. (Agencies)

With an aim to unite the entire Opposition to counter the Bharatiya Janata Party in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and ally RJD chief Lalu Yadav will soon meet Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi.

“Yes, once she comes back there will be a meeting. Both of them (RJD chief and Bihar CM) will go together (to meet her)”, TejashwiYadav said in Patna when asked if RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav and Bihar CM Nitish Kumar will meet Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi together, in Delhi.

Earlier, Poll strategist Prashant Kishor said there is a need for a “credible face” and mass movement to seek people’s vote in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, and opined that meeting leaders of various political parties “would not make much of a difference”.

He said such meetings cannot be seen as Opposition unity or political development.

He further said, “Those who don’t believe this need to wait and watch. It will certainly happen. I won’t comment on whatever someone says”.

When asked about the promise Nitish gave about providing jobs for youth under various arrangements in the state, he further asserted, “we would definitely fulfill the promise of providing 20 lakh jobs. We are in the government and this will happen.”

Tejashwi Yadav reiterated that if all the Opposition parties unite then they will be successful in defeating the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 2024 general elections.

“It is a good thing. It has been clearly said that if all of us are united, we will be successful (in defeating BJP)” Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav told media persons here when asked about CM Nitish Kumar’s recent meetings with Opposition leaders in Delhi.

Kishor’s remarks came on the backdrop of his former ally Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s visit to the national capital recently to meet Opposition leaders.

Speaking to ANI, Kishor who was earlier given the post of national president in Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) and was later expelled from the party, said, “Such meetings and discussions taking place will not change the political situation on the ground. I do not have such an experience. He is more experienced than me. But I do not see the meeting of some leaders individually or collectively, holding discussions or press conferences, as an Opposition unity or a political development.”

“Unless you create a people’s movement and generate a popular narrative, form a formidable entity, and a credible face that can make the public believe that he can be a better alternative to the BJP, only then they (people) will vote for you,” he said.

Nitish Kumar met Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Samajwadi Party leaders Mulayam Singh Yadav and Akhilesh Yadav, Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Sitaram Yechury, and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

This came days after Nitish Kumar broke the alliance with the BJP in August and formed the government with RJD in Bihar.

Earlier Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao had also visited Bihar and met Nitish Kumar, and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav as part of efforts toward forging opposition unity.

New Delhi, Sept 12: Making a scathing attack at Rahul Gandhi for meeting people including controversial Catholic priest George Ponnaiah, Union Minister Ajay Bhatt slammed for supporting people who are hell-bent on dividing India, and said that Congress has been opposing every decision of PM Modi including the scrapping of Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir and the surgical strikes in Pakistan.
Reacting to Catholic priest George Ponnaiah’s controversial statement “Jesus Christ is the real God, not like Shakti,” Bhatt said that Rahul Gandhi is meeting “divisive personalities, Congress has consistently stood in support of former party president Rahul Gandhi on the priest controversy. The party claims that they don’t meet people after doing background checks and in Parliament, their MPs sit with the worshipers of Godse”.
Bhatt said, “The people who have tried to divide the country and those who used to say that India will be divided into pieces, the Congress give respect to them, which clearly shows that those who work to divide the country, agitate, and break people are today talking about connecting India. First of all, Congress should answer why they have kept those people who talk about dividing our country. Those who were talking about breaking the country were doing big agitations, are today saying that they are working to unite India.”
Referring to the development in Jammu and Kashmir post the abolition of Article 370, he further slammed Congress for opposing the abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir and said Congress stated that with the change in the status of Jammu and Kashmir rivers of blood will flow.
“Whether there has been a surgical strike or an air strike, a country that differs from us is our neighbour, the questions they raised, the same questions were raised by these people (Congress) who are today talking about connecting India,” he said.
“The public is much aware and understands everything and they don’t believe such people at all. Very irresponsible statements keep coming again and again from them. Democracy is strengthened if the opposition is sensible. It is very good that in a democracy there is a ruling party and Opposition and when both work properly, the purpose is served. But here, whatever Prime Minister Narendra Modi does, it has become a habit of the Opposition to find fault in it. This Bharat Jodo Yatra is nothing but their inability to do anything,” he said while several criticizing Congress for not supporting the government for the welfare of the people.
What Prime Minister did in Har Ghar Tiranga is called an attempt to connect India. All castes, religions, classes and regions came up with a flag, this is called connecting India.
Rahul Gandhi, who is on a 150-day-long Bharat Jodo Yatra, on Friday met a controversial catholic priest George Ponnaiah in the Kanyakumari district of Tamil Nadu.
A video clip of Rahul Gandhi’s interaction with the Tamil Nadu pastor went viral, in which Rahul Gandhi can be heard asking, “Jesus Christ is a form of God? Is that right?” to which the Tamil Nadu priest George Ponniah replied, “He is the real God.”
Ponniah goes on to say, “God reveals him(self) as a man, a real person…not like Shakti…so we see a human person.”
Ponniah has a history of delivering provocative statements that have landed him in trouble in the past. He was arrested last year in July in Kallikudi, Madurai for allegedly making a ‘hate speech’ against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, DMK Minister and others. (Agencies)

NEW DELHI, Sept 12: The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a plea of a father to hand over the body of his son, who was killed in the Hyderpora encounter in Kashmir in November last year.
A bench comprising Justices Surya Kant and J.B. Pardiwala said once buried the body should not be disturbed and the Jammu and Kashmir has submitted that the deceased was buried with all honour, and nothing to indicate that the body was not given a decent burial.
The bench said it respects the sentiments of the father, but the court cannot decide matters on sentiments and the relief granted by the Jammu and Kashmir High Court was just and equitable and dismissed the appeal filed by Mohammad Latief Magrey.
The top court directed the state government to comply with the high court direction in connection with the compensation to the family and also allow them to offer prayers at the grave.
During the hearing, the advocate representing the Jammu and Kashmir administration had submitted that it was not in dispute that the deceased was a terrorist and the CD submitted to the high court showed that all Islamic last rites were performed as per the book.
The J&K administration counsel added that eight months have passed, the body would have decomposed and now exhuming the body will only lead to law-and-order problems, and he has lost his son but he was a terrorist. Jammu and Kashmir administration was represented by standing counsel Taruna Ardhendumauli Prasad.
Magrey moved the apex court challenging the Jammu and Kashmir high court order, which did not allow exhumation of his son’s body. Four people were killed in the encounter, including Aamir Magrey, on the outskirts of Srinagar on November 15 last year. The petition was filed through advocate Nupur Kumar. (Agencies)

NEW DELHI, Sept 12: The NIA on Monday carried out raids in three States in connection with a case related to narco-terrorism by alleged gangsters, some of whom were also involved in the killing of Punjabi singer Sidhu Moosewala, officials said.
Raids were being carried out in Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana and the sites included the residences of Goldy Brar and Jaggu Bhagwanpuria who are also accused in the killing of Moosewala, they said.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) is probing a case of the alleged involvement of gangs in Punjab in smuggling drugs from Pakistan and the money later being pumped into terror-related activities.
The raids were carried out at Yamuna Nagar, Majitha road, Muktsar, Gurdaspur and Gurugram, they said.
The case of Moosewala’s murder is being probed by the Punjab Police which has arrested 23 people in connection with it.
Moosewala was killed in Mansa on May 29 when he along with his friend and cousin was travelling in a jeep to Jawahar Ke village. A day earlier, the Punjab police had pruned his security cover on a temporary basis. Goldy Brar, who is a member of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang, had claimed the responsibility for the murder. (Agencies)