Doda, 21 February 2026:

In a continued effort to curb illegal bovine smuggling and enforce the orders of District Magistrate Doda, Police Post Assar under the jurisdiction of Police Station Assar successfully intercepted a vehicle carrying bovine animals in a cruel and illegal manner during early morning patrolling.

At approximately 03:40 hours today, a patrolling party led by Incharge Patrolling HC Mohd. Maroof Ahmed intercepted a Tata Mobile vehicle bearing registration number JK06B-4351 at Trungal Assar, which was proceeding from Thana Pani towards Batote. Upon inspection, the vehicle was found loaded with five bovine animals being transported without food or water and in conditions amounting to utmost cruelty, in violation of the District Magistrate Doda’s standing notification and relevant legal provisions.

The driver of the vehicle fled from the spot under the cover of darkness, abandoning the vehicle and the animals. The vehicle along with the bovines has been seized.

In this connection, FIR No. 04/2026 has been registered at Police Station Assar under Section 223 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and Section 11 of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act. Investigation has been entrusted to PSI Amit Singh (EXJ-196477). Efforts are underway to identify and apprehend the accused involved in the illegal smuggling network.

Doda Police reiterates its commitment to strictly enforce the law and urges the public to share any information related to illegal transport or smuggling of animals with the nearest police unit.

 Leader of Opposition (LoP) Sunil Sharma on Saturday accused the Jammu and Kashmir government of “shattering the dreams of unemployed youth” in the Union Territory by outsourcing around 23,000 jobs instead of filling them through a transparent recruitment process.

Addressing reporters after a mega BJP joining event at Sher-i-Kashmir International Conference Centre (SKICC), Sharma urged the Omar Abdullah government to revoke the order, warning of the “wrath of the youth” if it was not rolled back.

“The Abdullah government has outsourced, sold around 23,000 jobs instead of conducting transparent recruitment. It has shattered the dreams of poor, unemployed youth. This is a huge betrayal with the youth of J&K,” he said.

Citing a written reply by the government in the assembly to MLA Handwara Sajad Lone, Sharma noted that 22,886 positions were outsourced in the past two years across the region.

Sharma also alleged that the Abdullah and Mufti families misled people about the BJP to keep them away from the party. “Now the youth and political activists are joining the BJP, which proves the party’s growing acceptance in Kashmir and exposes the Abdullah family,” he said.

He further claimed, “The Abdullah family has lied, betrayed Kashmir, and spilled blood. Today, when the people of Kashmir are questioning them, it is BJP’s biggest success.”

On PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti questioning the Indo-US trade deal, Sharma said she was targeting Delhi instead of holding the National Conference government accountable in the Union Territory. “When Mufti should have questioned the government here for the youth of J&K, she is questioning Delhi. The people had voted you to sit in opposition and hold the NC accountable,” he remarked.

Sharma accused the PDP of being “friends with the NC,” revealing a “dual character,” and asserted, “The people of Kashmir should trust the BJP, and we will take both these families to task.”

Srinagar, Jammu & Kashmir — Former bureaucrat Shantmanu was sworn in on Saturday as the State Election Commissioner of Jammu and Kashmir for a five-year term, emphasizing the urgent need to hold the long-pending panchayat and urban local body elections in the Union Territory.

The oath of office was administered by Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha at Lok Bhavan, in a ceremony attended by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, Deputy Chief Minister Surinder Choudhary, Speaker Abdul Rahim Rather, Chief Secretary Atal Dulloo, and Director General of Police Nalin Prabhat.

Speaking to the media, Shantmanu described taking charge as a matter of “great happiness and pride.” He stressed that local body elections are vital for strengthening decentralized governance and grassroots development, noting that the long delay in conducting these polls makes them even more crucial. “I am happy to formally begin my responsibilities. I will work with full commitment to ensure effective discharge of my duties,” he said.

The tenures of municipal councils ended in October-November 2023, while panchayats and block development councils completed their five-year term on January 9, 2024. District development councils’ tenures end on February 24, leaving Jammu and Kashmir without functioning elected local bodies.

Officials said delays in holding elections were caused by multiple factors, including the delimitation exercise and reservation of wards for Other Backward Classes. Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had earlier stated that the government was making arrangements to conduct these elections at the earliest, but the vacancy of the State Election Commissioner had been a major hurdle.

Under the Jammu and Kashmir Panchayati Raj Act and relevant Municipal Acts, the State Election Commission is responsible for preparing electoral rolls and conducting local elections. On February 17, the Lieutenant Governor appointed Shantmanu as the new State Election Commissioner for a period of five years or until he attains the age of 70, whichever is earlier.

Shantmanu, a 1991-batch AGMUT cadre IAS officer, recently retired as Additional Chief Secretary and Financial Commissioner in Jammu and Kashmir. He succeeds B.R. Sharma, who completed his tenure in April 2024.

Jammu, February 20, 2026 – Zscaler, Inc., the leader in cloud security, in partnership with Bharti Airtel (“Airtel”), one of India’s largest telecommunication service providers, today announced the launch of the AI & Cyber Threat Research Center – India. This multi-stakeholder digital initiative is dedicated to advancing national cyber resilience, protecting sectors, industries and assets that are essential to India’s economic and national security, such as telecommunications, banking, and energy, as well as digital users, and accelerating trusted AI adoption across India’s rapidly expanding digital ecosystem. 

India has long been a key hub for Zscaler’s technology innovation and cyber research, with a significant share of Zscaler’s research talent based in the country. The research center will serve as an expansion of Zscaler’s operations into a national platform for collaboration between the private sector, public sector, academia and the government. The center is designed “In India, For India,” with the goal of strengthening the nation’s cyber defenses and building a future-ready talent pipeline to support India’s progress toward Viksit Bharat and a peaceful, secure, and digitally self-reliant future.

India is in the midst of a generational digital transformation, building systems not at enterprise scale, but at population scale across critical sectors – dramatically expanding the national attack surface. At the same time, the threat landscape is evolving at machine speed, with nation state and financially-motivated attackers increasingly leveraging AI to probe, target, and weaponize vulnerabilities in minutes. Zscaler’s research arm, ThreatLabz India, has observed millions of infiltration attempts each month, including notable campaigns such as:

● Nation-state cyber espionage activity using the theme of regional geopolitical tensions, which attempted to target multiple Indian entities;

● A surge in attempts to infiltrate India’s private and public sectors, with 1.2 million intrusion attempts originating from 20,000 sources targeting 58 Indian digital entities; and 

● An increase in zero-day exploit attempts aimed at multiple industries in India. 

As threats grow in sophistication, traditional perimeter-based security models are no longer adequate, and disruptions to essential services can threaten national economic stability – making secure-by-design foundations and a modern architectural shift imperative to protect national digital systems in an increasingly borderless, AI-enabled environment.

The objectives of the AI & Cyber Threat Research Center – India are anchored in four strategic pillars: 

1. Protect: Deliver real-time, actionable intelligence to strengthen India’s national cyber resilience and digital-first businesses.

2. Remediate: Partner directly with government agencies to neutralize and prevent cyber-attacks.

3. Facilitate: Drive the adoption of modern security frameworks, specifically focusing on AI-driven defenses and Zero Trust architecture.

4. Build: Strengthen the cybersecurity talent pipeline through specialized AI and Zero Trust certifications to bridge the national skills gap. 

As founding members, Zscaler and Airtel will combine the former’s global intelligence with the latter’s local operational reach to create a stronger, faster research-to-response loop for India. Zscaler will deploy a specialized threat research team focused on India. This team will leverage the Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange™ platform, which processes over 500 billion daily transactions, to extract threat intelligence to secure India’s public and private sectors. Airtel will contribute deep visibility into IoT and mobile traffic, collaborating with Zscaler to monitor networks and develop new solutions, enabling faster identification of suspicious activity and more effective coordination with ecosystem stakeholders. Looking ahead, additional members from India’s critical public and private sectors will be invited to join the center to expand collaboration and strengthen cyber resilience across India.

“At Airtel, our commitment has been to safeguard our customers and the nation’s digital fabric. This partnership with Zscaler marks a significant extension of this commitment that will combine the power of our AI capabilities and deep scale for cybersecurity research to protect the country’s expanding digital ecosystem,” said Gopal Vittal, Executive Vice-Chairman, Bharti Airtel. “We will focus on addressing challenges unique to our market to build a safer, more resilient digital India where every citizen and enterprise can connect and thrive with confidence. Our research-backed preventive mechanism will also encourage peaceful and secure engagements on digital platforms.”

“India is building digital systems at an unmatched population scale. You cannot secure this level of ambition with legacy firewalls and VPNs that were never designed for a hyper-connected world. It demands a modern Zero Trust architecture that is secure-by-design,” said Jay Chaudhry, CEO, Chairman, and Founder, Zscaler. “With the AI & Cyber Threat Research Center – India, we will bring the full power of the world’s largest security cloud to protect the nation’s public and private sectors. By combining actionable intelligence from over 500 billion daily transactions with local expertise, we aren’t just building readiness; we are empowering a new generation of defenders to stay ahead of the adversary.”

Jammu & Kashmir: Once facing the possibility of abandonment amid legal and environmental hurdles, the world’s highest railway bridge over the Chenab river has emerged as one of India’s most iconic engineering achievements. The historic Chenab Rail Bridge was formally inaugurated as part of the Katra–Srinagar railway section when Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off the Vande Bharat Express between Katra and Srinagar on June 6, 2025.

Towering 359 metres above the riverbed — 35 metres higher than the Eiffel Tower — the 1,315-metre-long steel arch bridge is a central component of the 272-km Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link (USBRL), aimed at integrating the Kashmir Valley with India’s broader railway network.

A Project Once on the Brink

The bridge’s journey was far from smooth. Around 2008, amid legal challenges and environmental concerns that escalated to the Supreme Court of India, the project was suspended for over 90 days. The Railway Board reportedly explored alternatives, including replacing the arch bridge with a tunnel.

At that critical juncture, the Board informed Afcons Infrastructure Limited that it could exit the contract if it chose to do so. The company, however, decided to stay despite mounting financial risks.

Executive Chairman Krishnamurthy Subramanian recalled deliberations with then chairman Cyrus Mistry, who later died in a road accident in 2022. “If we walked away, there would be difficulties in completing it. We took the risk to stay put and finish the job,” Subramanian said, describing the project as one of international significance.

Engineering Against the Odds

The original plan always envisaged an arch bridge, but environmental litigation temporarily halted progress before the Supreme Court restored the original alignment. Over time, additional technical requirements — including blast load considerations — were introduced, requiring design adjustments as construction advanced.

Subramanian noted that no bridge of this magnitude had previously been built in India. “Where everybody thought it was not doable, if we could show that it can be done, the company could establish itself as a pioneer in engineering,” he said.

Completed after more than two decades from contract signing in 2004 to inauguration in 2025, the Chenab Arch Bridge now stands as a testament to persistence, innovation and complex project execution under extreme geological and climatic conditions.

Beyond Chenab

Afcons has also delivered other landmark infrastructure projects, including India’s first underwater metro tunnel beneath the Hooghly River in Kolkata. The company is currently engaged in constructing an undersea tunnel in Thane, Maharashtra, for the Mumbai–Ahmedabad bullet train corridor.

With the operationalisation of the Chenab Bridge and the Katra–Srinagar section, the USBRL project has achieved a milestone long envisioned — physically linking Kashmir to the rest of the country by rail and showcasing India’s growing engineering capabilities on the global stage.