Militant killed in encounter in South Kashmir's Tral
The operation that was launched early Thursday morning following inputs about the presence of militant is under progress.
Officials said a joint team of forces cordoned off Nader village of Tral in South Kashmir's Pulwama district.
As the joint team of forces were zeroing in on the target, the militants hiding in the area opened fire and tried to break the security cordon. The joint team of forces returned the fire leading to a gunfight.
An unidentified militant was killed in the gunfight, but his body is yet to be recovered, officials said, adding that the operation is under progress and a joint team of forces are searching for other possible militants hiding in the area.
The encounter comes two days after security forces killed three Lashkar-e-Toiba terrorists in South Kashmir's Shopian district.
Officials say before the Tuesday encounter, only 14 local militants were listed in Valley.
Bashaarat Masood is a Special Correspondent with The Indian Express. He has been covering Jammu and Kashmir, especially the conflict-ridden Kashmir valley, for two decades. Bashaarat joined The Indian Express after completing his Masters in Mass Communication and Journalism from the University in Kashmir. He has been writing on politics, conflict and development. Bashaarat was awarded with the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Awards in 2012 for his stories on the Pathribal fake encounter. ... Read More
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Hans India
35 minutes ago
- Hans India
From dossier to designation: How India's diplomacy exposed TRF's Pakistan nexus
Bengaluru: The Resistance Front was quick to claim responsibility following the Pahalgam attack in which 26 persons lost their lives. However, in no time, it was the Pakistan establishment that made the TRF withdraw responsibility, and this was out of fear that India might move the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). Pakistan has, with great difficulty, wriggled out of the Grey list of the FATF and in the current economic situation, the country finds itself in, it cannot afford to be on that list once more. Before the TRF was declared a global terror entity by the United States, there was lobbying at the highest levels by Pakistan to prevent this move. Any indication of a TRF involvement in the attacks would be a direct implication for Pakistan. Having this outfit declared a global terror outfit by the United States was important for India, especially in the aftermath of the ghastly Pahalgam attack. In May, China helped Pakistan and ensured that the TRF is not named in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). While Pakistan continued to lobby, India indulged in some high-level diplomacy, which eventually led to the decision by the US. Since the birth of this outfit, which is a proxy of the Lashkar-e-Tayiba, India began preparing a detailed dossier. The outfit posed as a home-grown one and initially only deployed the locals of Jammu and Kashmir in attacks. It spoke about the banes behind the decision to revoke Article 370 and also swore to protect local interests. However, in the Pahalgam attack, the gloves were off, and the investigation by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) managed to establish that there were three terrorists of Pakistan origin involved in the attack. This explains the reason why the Pakistanis were panicky about having this outfit declared a global terror group. The diplomatic charge was led by Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri, who provided detailed dossiers on the outfit prepared by the NIA, Intelligence Bureau, Research and Analysis Wing and Jammu and Kashmir police. The dossiers were presented before the United States and the 1267 Committee of the United Nations. Misri, during his visit to the US on May 27-29, presented the dossier to the US State Department. The same dossier was also submitted to the UN in New York. The dossier said that Sheikh Sajjad Gul alias Sajjad Ahmed Sheikh, the Kashmiri face of the Lashkar-e-Tayiba, was chosen by the ISI to lead this outfit. The TRF has been involved in a series of attacks, including targeted killings in 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024. The attacks were concentrated mainly in central and south Kashmir. In 2023, it carried out a grenade attack in Central Kashmir in which a Jammu and Kashmir police party was ambushed. Similar such attacks have been quoted in the dossier. The dossier was updated with the details relating to the Pahalgam attack. Coming to the funding part of it, the dossier speaks about Parvez Ahmed Sheikh, a former doctor and brother of Gul. He had moved to Saudi Arabia before settling in Pakistan. Since then, he has been a primary fundraiser for the Lashkar-e-Tayiba in Jammu and Kashmir. Following the US decision, External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar thanked the Trump administration. 'Today, the Department of State is adding The Resistance Front (TRF) as a designated Foreign Terrorist Organisation (FTO) and Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT)," US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement on Friday. 'These actions taken by the Department of State demonstrate the Trump Administration's commitment to protecting our national security interests, countering terrorism, and enforcing President Trump's call for justice for the Pahalgam attack," Jaishankar said. The next move by India would be at the FATF. The investigations have revealed several details about Pakistan's involvement in not just providing logistic and material support to The Resistance Front, but financial assistance as well. Pakistan's over-insistence that it wants the TRF mention being avoided at the UNSC, in itself, is suspicious. While it may have managed to dodge the issue at the UNSC, thanks to China, it may not have a free run at the FATF. Officials in New Delhi are likely to take up the issue in October. The plenary meetings of the FATF are usually held every year in October, February and June. Pakistan was removed from the Grey List in October 2022 after being on it since 2018. India will continue to raise concerns about Pakistan's failure to take adequate action against cross-border terrorism. The October meeting would be challenging for Pakistan as there are indications that the country may face renewed scrutiny and a potential return to the Grey List. India is set to present evidence during the next plenary about Pakistan's continued support for terrorist groups. Armed with a dossier, a designation by the United States and India's slick diplomacy, Pakistan may soon face the heat at the Financial Action Task Force again.
Time of India
an hour ago
- Time of India
Dam on upper reaches Brahmaputra will not impact India, Bangladesh: China
China on Wednesday defended the launch of the construction of a dam over the Brahmaputra river in the ecologically sensitive Tibet region and allayed concerns over its impact in the lower riparian countries such as India and Bangladesh. It is learnt that India is keeping a close eye on the construction of what is said to be the world's largest hydropower dam. Explore courses from Top Institutes in Please select course: Select a Course Category Data Science Data Science Cybersecurity Degree others MCA Technology healthcare Others Public Policy Project Management Artificial Intelligence Data Analytics Healthcare Operations Management CXO Leadership Product Management PGDM Finance Digital Marketing MBA Management Design Thinking Skills you'll gain: Duration: 10 Months E&ICT Academy, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati CERT-IITG Prof Cert in DS & BA with GenAI India Starts on undefined Get Details Skills you'll gain: Duration: 11 Months E&ICT Academy, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati CERT-IITG Postgraduate Cert in AI and ML India Starts on undefined Get Details Skills you'll gain: Duration: 30 Weeks IIM Kozhikode SEPO - IIMK-AI for Senior Executives India Starts on undefined Get Details Skills you'll gain: Duration: 10 Months IIM Kozhikode CERT-IIMK DABS India Starts on undefined Get Details Skills you'll gain: Duration: 11 Months IIT Madras CERT-IITM Advanced Cert Prog in AI and ML India Starts on undefined Get Details Chinese Premier Li Qiang on Saturday announced the start of the construction of the dam in the lower reaches of the Brahmaputra River, locally known as Yarlung Zangbo, at Nyingchi City located close to the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Arunachal Pradesh sector. The project "will not have any negative impact on the downstream regions", Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said at a media briefing, while responding to a question on concerns in India and Bangladesh over the dam. There have been mounting concerns in India over the potential environmental impact of the dam. Live Events Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu recently called it a ticking "water bomb", an existential threat and a bigger issue than anything else apart from the military threat. In an interview to PTI Videos on July 8, Khandu said the world's largest dam project on the Brahmaputra river is a matter of grave concern as China is not a signatory to the international water treaty that could have forced it to abide by international norms. "The issue is that China cannot be trusted. No one knows what they might do," said Khandu. The dam is expected to generate more than 300 billion kWh of electricity each year, enough to meet the annual needs of over 300 million people. Concerns arose in India as the dam besides empowering China to control the water flow, the size and scale of it could also enable Beijing to release large amounts of water that could flood border areas on the Indian side. Playing down the concerns of the lower riparian states, Guo said China has cooperated with them by sharing hydrological data, flood prevention and disaster alleviation. China had necessary communication with the two countries on the project, he said, adding that China would continue to enhance cooperation with downstream countries to benefit the people along the river. The Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said the development of the project in the lower reaches of the Yarlung Zangbo River is a matter of China's sovereignty. The project was aimed at building clean energy, improving local people's lives and in response to climate change, he added. In the planning, design and construction of the hydro power projects in the lower reaches, China strictly follows the highest industrial standards in protecting ecological environment in an all-round way, he said. He also claimed that the development of the project will help prevent disasters along the whole river and will not have a negative impact on the downstream regions. China has already operationalised the USD 1.5 billion Zam Hydropower Station, the largest in Tibet, in 2015, which raised concerns in India. Critics point out that the dams in Brahmaputra present an enormous engineering challenges as the project site is located along a tectonic plate boundary where earthquakes occur frequently. The Tibetan plateau, regarded as the roof of the world, periodically experiences earthquakes as it is located over the tectonic plates. India and China established the Expert Level Mechanism (ELM) in 2006 to discuss various issues related to trans-border rivers under which China provides India with hydrological information on the Brahmaputra and Sutlej rivers during the flood seasons. However, the sharing of hydrological data between the two countries hit a roadblock following the eastern Ladakh border row. Data sharing of trans-border rivers figured in the talks between India, China Special Representatives (SRs) for border question, NSA Ajit Doval and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, held here on December 18 last year. Reports from Dhaka said the Chinese envoy to Bangladesh Yao Wen has assured that its dam is solely for electricity generation and will not affect water flow to downstream countries. Yao conveyed the message during a meeting with Bangladesh Foreign Affairs Adviser Md Touhid Hossain during their meeting on July 21. "China will not withdraw or use any water from the project and the project will not affect downstream countries," he was quoted as saying in a media report.
India Today
an hour ago
- India Today
How the 2006 Mumbai train blasts case was cracked
(NOTE: This article was originally published in the India Today issue dated October 16, 2006)They could have been just another group of young men travelling from the dust bowls of Bihar, seeking respite from the darkness of poverty and pursuing a dream of prosperity. The dark night of June 25 provided the perfect setting, camouflaging the motive of two men from across the border who boarded the train from Patna. A tall, hefty Kamal Ahmed Ansari escorted the two inconspicuous passengers into a seemingly unknown territory. The men didn't exchange words for two days in the Mumbai-bound train and melted into the populated suburbs as soon as they and his wards, though, were only a part of the big team. By the time they reached Mumbai, the entire team of 11 Pakistanis-who had sneaked through the porous border- was in place. So was the Indian contingent. Seven two-member teams with one Indian and a Pakistani were formed for the operation Terror, you could say, had arrived in Mumbai. It had taken the group three months-from one fateful rainy night in Bahawalpur, Pakistan, in March 2006-to plan and execute an attack that shook the commercial capital and shocked the country yet to Lashkar-e-Taiba's (LeT) India commander Azam Cheema's palatial house in Bahawalpur, Pakistan, where he was playing host. It was the congregation of the faithful, the new converts and pilgrims to the world of terror. Like-minded or rather mindless jehadis from various parts of the world had assembled for their sermon. Sitting in a regal room were the Indian visitors who had reached his place via Bangladesh, Nepal and Iran. The air was thick with idealism. One cue from Cheema was enough to kickstart another round of bloody "freedom struggle". LeT training camps at Bahawalpur were now swarming with 50 men waiting to become jehadis. Situated right in the middle of a jungle, the camp is the school for terror, which trains men in identifying, handling, firing and dismantling weapons. A major chapter involves education in making, planting and finally testing explosives in special water trainees are also taught the use of modern communications tools-from Internet to satellite phones-to effectively and efficiently carry out their intent. That night, says the police, the blueprint of a plan designed by the ISI and executed by the LeT was drawn. The joint force was all set to orchestrate one of the biggest carnages that Mumbai was to witness in days to come-the serial bomb blasts that killed 187 COUNTDOWN BEGINSBy July 8, the Pakistanis had already settled in the new environment in middle and lower class Muslim localities in the suburbs and Mumbra. The RDX was on its way to Mumbai. Smuggled through the Kandla port in Gujarat, it was transported by road to Mumbai. Ehsan Ullah, the dark and well-built man accompanying the most deadly contraband from Kandla port, had procured 20 kg of RDX, roughly the amount that caused the maximum casualty at Century Bazaar in 1993. Since the beginning of the year, the Maharashtra Police had seized over 400 kg of RDX, but this was one shipment that slipped the dragnet. What is worse, the police fear some other consignments too may have reached their destination and may be with sleeper the 1993 blasts, this time RDX was not the only substance used to shake up Mumbai. Dr Tanvir Ansari, a unani medicine practitioner at the Saboo Siddique hospital at Byculla, procured 20 kg of ammonium nitrate, which when mixed with RDX, increased the explosive force by a factor of three. Ammonium nitrate was procured from the quarries in Thane where the chemical is available for the well-connected. Money was no problem. Hawala payments from Saudi Arab via a techie, Rizwan Ahmed Davre, were sent to Faizal Sheikh, who is suspected to be the LeT chief of Mumbai. The Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS), which recovered 26,000 riyals (Rs 3,16,956) from Sheikh's house, estimates that over Rs 60 lakh had been sent to Faisal via hawala in two the morning of July 9, somewhere in Orissa, India was preparing to test its longest surface-to-surface nuclear-capable ballistic missile Agni III which could cover 3,000 km to strike as far as China. But the real enemy was under her nose, on her soil, all set to target the softest core, Mumbai. In a dingy one-room flat owned by Mohammed Ali (an alleged LeT operative), at Shivajinagar in Govandi, locally made Kanchan pressure cookers were filled with 2 kg of RDX and 3.5 kg of ammonium nitrate to create a lethal concoction. Once ready, the 'bombs' were transported to Sheikh's one-room tenement in upmarket Perry Cross lane in in Mumbai, it was a usual Tuesday evening on July 11. The pressure cookers were wrapped in newspapers and carried in black rexine bags. The bombers left Bandra by 4 p.m. and reached Churchgate by 5.15 p.m. Taxis from respective hideouts were abandoned at Churchgate as the groups headed for the subway. The groups emerged separately on the fast train platform numbers 3 and 4, slipping into the first-class compartment of the crowded six o'clock bags were strategically placed on luggage overheads under wet umbrellas used on rainy monsoon days. As the moment of insanity drew closer, the groups got off the respective trains at different stations. Seven bombs exploded between 6.24 p.m. to 6.35 p.m. on Matunga, Mahim, Bandra, Khar Road, Jogeshwari, Bhyander and Borivli. Barring the one bomber killed at Khar, the operation was a AND CLUELESSLike most of Mumbai, the police too was shocked at the magnitude of the attack. The first clues emerged from the tests at the forensic laboratory at Kalina when the substance used in the blasts was identified as RDX mixed with ammonium nitrate. As the sleuths worked through the night, it was clear that this was no rogue attack but a well-planned terror onslaught. Mumbai Police Commissioner A.N. Roy said a few hours after the attack, "Blasts were planned with great precision and there was no spot evidence."It was also clear that piecing together the jigsaw would be tough. The biggest hurdle was the magnitude of the tragedy. Minutes after the blast ripped the first class compartments of the seven Western Railway trains, panic-struck passengers and rains played deterrent in collecting evidence. Strewn between the remains of the train's compartments and charred bodies were going to be pieces of evidence, key to the trail that would later lead to people and places across the border. But, in those initial hours, with rain playing a farewell shower to the dead, the situation for the investigators was what Roy describes best: "It was nearly a blinder for us."advertisementThe night that followed brought into action the otherwise ignored Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad (BDDS). Twenty officers, 50 constables and five dogs worked round the clock to find clinching evidence on the spot. Well into the night, the teams, wearing gloves and carrying umbrellas, split across the different blast spots and scanned through mounds of wreckage for that shred of vital first big break came from the Jogeshwari blast site where the BDDS sleuths found pressure cooker handles. The squad also traced charred pieces of aluminum lids of the cookers. Investigations by local police stations in their respective areas revealed that Kanchan pressure cookers were purchased from two shops in Santa got the first leads, ATS chief Krish Pal Singh Raghuvanshi put together a team. The team of four IPS officers and over 40 policemen worked overtime to crack the case. The arithmetic was simple: seven teams for seven blasts, assisted by two technical support teams. Intelligence was sought from IB, RAW and the state police. Raghuvanshi set the pace for the probe team. "We were humbled by our chief who himself slept for less than four hours every day for the first month," says an ATS official. The police began by detaining around 400 Muslims from across Maharashtra on grounds of suspicion. However, not a single clue led the investigators to the real culprits. It seemed to be a PHONE CALLSOn July 18, ATS intercepted telephone calls of a certain Mumtaz Choudhary of Navi Mumbai to Kamal Ahmed Ansari in Basupatti in Bihar, near Nepal border. What intrigued the investigators was the number of calls that were exchanged between the duo, and the location of Ansari, very close to the infamous Nepal border. While Choudhary's records seemed clean, it was Ansari who, according to IB, had been trained in Pakistan. A separate team of ATS officials flew to Bihar to arrest Ansari, while Choudhary was arrested from his house in Navi Mumbai. So dramatic was Ansari's arrest that an Indian Air Force aircraft was drafted to bring him to Mumbai. The other arrest was of a shoe shop owner Khalid Aziz Sheikh at Madhubani in Bihar. Ansari and other LeT operatives allegedly used the shop premises as a meeting Mumbai, another team of ATS was designated to investigate the alleged LeT leader Raheel Sheikh's involvement in the blast. He was wanted in the October 2005 blasts in Delhi. Raheel, although cornered in Mumbai, managed to escape. But a Crime Branch team cracked the connection while interrogating Pune based ex-SIMI activist Feroz Deshmukh. He revealed that Raheel had taken a loan of Rs 15,000 in May 2006 and promised him that a certain Noman would return it to him. The trail led to Noman who confirmed that he was supposed to collect the same amount from Faisal Sheikh. While the police couldn't get Raheel it managed to nab Faisal Sheikh, alleged to be closely associated with Azam Cheema, on July 27 from it turned out, is alleged to be the western India commander for LeT and one of the key players in the conspiracy. The loan loop only confirmed ATS' allegation of Raheel's links. Faisal's brother Muzzammil, was also arrested. Similarly Ehtesham Siddiqui, Maharashtra general secretary of SIMI, was arrested from Navi Mumbai after another accused Tanvir Ansari revealed that he was asked to pick up explosive substance by Siddiqui. Interestingly, investigators discovered a series of calls from a phone booth to Faisal's phone. The calls were by 25-yearold bar girl Manisha Chavan, who had been in a relationship with Faisal for 18 months. Manisha, who knew Faisal as Sameer, helped the police to identify him and corroborate their a sense the core had been cracked, but the police were careful to collect substantive evidence. This came from the narco-analysis tests of Faisal, Kamal Ansari and Siddiqui at the Forensic Sciences Laboratory at Bangalore. Although the tests could not be used as evidence against the accused, they helped the police in putting together pieces on how the blasts were carried out. The tests also confirmed that an unclaimed body from the blasts lying at the Sion hospital was that of Salim, a terrorist from Lahore who had planted one of the to Roy, the entire investigation was carried out in small logistical steps. "It has been a beautiful piece of highly professional investigation by our team," he says. Indeed scientific tests such as narco-analysis, telephone analysis and the cotton swab method to determine the presence of RDX gave the police quite a few clues. Tanvir Ansari also revealed during narco-analysis that he had guests from across the border. "Kuch mehman Pakistan se aaye the," he LINKSThe case may have been cracked but the police are yet to get answers for some vital questions. Even though the circumstantial evidence of ISI involvement through proxies and terror groups is clear, they will need conclusive evidence to make the charge of Pakistani involvement stick. Unlike the earlier bomb blast case, there have been no confessional statements as yet. The question, how the RDX came in through the Kandla port, is not the police have claimed that Abu Osama, the Pakistani national killed in an encounter at Antop Hill a few days after the blasts, was also one of the accused in the 7/11 blast case. When nine of the Pakistani accused fled the country, it is rather curious why Osama would stay back for a good 10 days before being killed in an Commissioner Roy is not perturbed by these. "We are not making any diplomatic or political statements. The accused are giving us vital information and admitting their guilt after being made aware of their repercussions. We don't have any reason to disbelieve the accused." When asked about the RDX trail, Roy said it needed to be there is more work to be done and the police hope to follow the missing links through further interrogations of those now in custody under the MCOCA. The idea is to use the law to convert any confession into evidence. Among the questions the police must be seeking answers to are how many groups have filtered through, how many modules are active and what the extent of the sleeper network in Maharashtra and elsewhere the evidence has to be credible but patching the missing links is vital not just to prove a point to Pakistan. Tying up the loose ends and the success of the investigations will be the first step towards preventing the next attack. Or else the loose ends could become the beginning of the next terror to India Today Magazine- EndsMust Watch
