HM Shah to chair crucial J&K security review meeting today

Posted on by Vividh Bharathi

Jammu, Dec 19 (IANS) Union Home Minister, Amit Shah is scheduled to chair a high level Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) security review meeting on Thursday, which will be the first such meeting after an elected government took office in the Union Territory.

Security and law & order continue to remain the responsibility of the Union government since J&K is a Union Territory.

The meeting will be attended by J&K Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha, senior officers of the Ministry of Home Affairs, chiefs of Intelligence agencies, J&K DGP, chiefs of CAPFs and others connected with the anti-terrorist grid.

The meeting will especially address the issues related to the series of terror attacks that took place immediately after an elected government took office in J&K.

On October 20, two terrorists, a foreign mercenary and a local terrorist entered the workers camp of an infrastructure company in Gagangir area of Ganderbal district and fired indiscriminately.

Seven civilians including six workers of the company and a local doctor were killed in this attack.

On October 24, terrorists attacked an Army vehicle in Botapathri area of Gulmarg killing three soldiers and two civilian porters.

On November 2, terrorists hurled a powerful hand grenade at the busy Sunday Market near the Tourist Reception Centre (TRC) in Srinagar. A 42-year old woman, mother of 3 children, was killed this explosion and 9 other civilians were injured.

Intelligence agencies believe that the handlers of terrorism sitting across the border have got frustrated after the peaceful, people participative Lok Sabha and legislative elections in J&K and the terrorists have been directed to give the dying terrorism the last push in J&K.

Even though the statistics stand to prove that both the number of terrorist attacks and casualties have come down since 2019 when article 370 was abrogated and J&K divided into two UTs, yet the attempts to revive terrorism by the enemy remains a major security concern for the union home ministry.

In 2019, 50 civilians were killed in terrorist attacks while 14 have been killed this year till date. Statistics apart, the thrust of terrorism has remained on non-local foreign mercenaries after 2019 while local youth have largely dissociated from joining militant ranks.

–IANS

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Sukhbir Badal seeks President’s Police medal for officer who saved his life

Chandigarh, Dec 23 (IANS) Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Sukhbir Singh Badal on Monday recommended a President’s Police medal for Punjab Police Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) Jasbir Singh for “an act of exceptional and exemplary courage and selfless devotion to duty” at the entrance of the Golden Temple in Amritsar on December 2 when an assassination attempt was made on his life.

In a letter to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Sukhbir Singh Badal said, “It was only because of the blessings and grace of the almighty that ASI Jasbir Singh happened to be present there that day.”

“It was remarkable how Jasbir Singh displayed a rare courage and commitment to his duty and risked his life to safeguard the sanctity of Sikhism’s most sacred shrine, Shri Harmandar Sahib, and to save my life,” he added.

He said, “The prevention of the tragic sequence of events was nothing short of providential, especially as those bent upon vitiating the sanctity of the place and the atmosphere of peace and communal harmony in Punjab, seemed to enjoy the brazen patronage of the high and mighty in the state.”

Joining the issue, SAD Lok Sabha MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal also wrote to Amit Shah, demanding a high-level judicial probe into the incident.

In addition to recommending that Jasbir Singh’s act of bravery on duty be acknowledged at the national level through an award of the President’s Medal, she slammed Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and his government in Punjab for “issuing provocative justifications for acts amounting to killings of political rivals”.

She said that minutes before the assassination attempt on Sukhbir Singh Badal’s life, senior officers of the police were busy chatting about controversial figures who have a criminal track record.

She said in a statement that the assassination attempt was neither a stray incident nor was it an individual act by “a lone wolf”.

It was a clearly sponsored, pre-planned, pre-meditated act and a part of a deep-rooted conspiracy to weaken and eliminate the Sikh leadership, she added.

–IANS

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SC expunges adverse remarks made by Uttarakhand HC against advocate

New Delhi, Dec 17 (IANS) The Supreme Court has ordered the expunging of the adverse remarks made by a judge of the Uttarakhand High Court against an advocate.

A bench of Justices B.R. Gavai and K.V. Viswanathan, hearing an appeal challenging certain adverse observations made by a judge of the Uttarakhand High Court against the appellant, said: “The appellant is a lawyer by profession. He was neither appearing for any party in the matter nor was he indirectly connected.”

It stressed the necessity of the courts, including the highest court of the country, to observe the principle of natural justice. “Nobody can be condemned unheard,” the apex court said.

It held that “the approach of the Uttarakhand High Court in making the observations against the appellant without giving him any opportunity of being heard is totally unsustainable in law”.

In its impugned decision, the Uttarakhand HC had said that the false assurance extended by advocate Dushyant Manali, for the revisionist, would amount to professional misconduct.

Taking a suo moto cognisance, the high court “referred the matter to the Bar Council to draw appropriate disciplinary proceedings against the advocate for the wrongful extension of information to the litigant due to which the revisionist had preferred the revision at a belated stage, when the revisionist faced the order passed by the executing court in pursuance to the impugned decree which has been put to challenge in the present revision.

“The Bar Council is directed to proceed strictly in accordance with the procedures governing the disciplinary proceedings of the Bar Council as well as under the provisions of the Advocates Act,” it had ordered.

Allowing the appeal, the Supreme Court said that the portion of the impugned judgment and order containing adverse remarks will stand deleted from the records.

In October this year, the top court had directed expunging the “unjustified and illegal” remarks made by a judge of the Uttarakhand High Court against an advocate.

It disapproved “the proclivity of the learned Judge of the High Court in making remarks against advocates for nothing so serious to take note of”.

Similarly, the Supreme Court had in similar circumstances set aside all comments made by the same Uttarakhand HC judge against another practising advocate.

–IANS

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