Omar’s grey beard photo takes social media by storm
NEW DELHI: A photo of former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah, who has been under detention since August 4, has emerged on the social media and has since caused a sensation — thanks to Abdullah’s new, drastically changed look.
The usually clean-shaven Omar Abdullah is sporting a greyish-white long beard in the photo which has been shared by countless Twitter users. The source of the photo, however, could not be ascertained.
Omar, who has been under preventive detention along with his father and National Conference (NC) chief Farooq Abdullah since August 4, a day before the Centre announced the scrapping of special status of J&K by abrogating Articles 370 and 35A of the Constitution, is seen smiling in the photo. While some users appreciated Omar’s new “smart look”, others sympathised with him . This is Abdullah Junior’s first photo that has emerged since his detention.
SRINAGAR: In an encounter in Pulwama on Saturday, security officials claimed to have killed three militants, including the selfstyled Kashmir chief of Jaish-e-Mohammad who had a supervisory role in February 14 suicide attack of last year. The other two killed were allegedly planning a major attack on Republic Day in Kashmir.
Two army jawans were also injured in the encounter.
Qari Yasir, a Pakistani, was killed at the Hariparigam village of Tral after the day-long encounter. His associates have been identified as Pakistan national Moosa and Tral resident Burhan.
“On Friday evening, Awantipora police generated specific intelligence input about the presence of three militants in a village in Hariparigam, where Qari Yasir was also present,” said Kashmir inspector general of police (IGP)Vijay Kumar at a joint press conference later.
“As per our intelligence, Yasir was the self-styled chief of JeM in Kashmir. He was involved in last year’s February 14 attack. He was an IED expert and would recruit and relocate militants coming from Pakistan,” he said.
“Their names were also cropping up in connection with a possible attack or IED blast on R-day eve,” he said.
Army’s Srinagar-based 15 Corps commander Lt Gen K J S Dhillon seconded that by adding that the Pakistani Jaish module had been planning to do something sensational on Republic Day, for the past four –five days.
“One of the terrorists of the module, Saifullah, was killed in Khrew area of Pulwama (on Wednesday) in which we also lost a soldier and police man …This morning, we got some information about some militants of JeM. The module of JeM, which basically comprises Pakistani militants, had been on the radar for a few days,” he said.
He said the two injured army jawans were being treated at the 92 Base Hospital.
“Today’s operation was based on actual intelligence and I want to say (that by their killing), a major incident on January 26 has been averted,” he said.
Dhillon said that JeM was trying to resurface after its leadership was wiped out by the security forces following the February 14 attack.
“As you are aware, after the Pulwama incident, JeM leadership was targeted and eliminated. JeM has been trying to recover since,” he said.
On a question of the number of militants in the Valley, IGP Kumar said about 125 militants were active in the Valley, mostly locals.
“There are terrorists at launch pads across the LoC and they are trying to infiltrate, but the army was successfully foiling all their attempts,” Dhillon said.