Hindustan Times ST (Mumbai) - HT Navi Mumbai Live

8 CRPF jawans killed in Kashmir ambush

- Ashiq Hussain letters@hindustant­imes.com HT Correspond­ent letters@hindustant­imes.com

Eight CRPF jawans were killed and 20 others injured on Saturday in a militant ambush on a convoy in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama district, the highest single-incident casualty in three years in the militancyh­it state. Two militants were also killed in retaliator­y firing by security personnel, police said giving details of the second major attack on a security convoy this month in the Kashmir valley.

The Pakistan-based Lashkar-eTaiba claimed responsibi­lity for the attack. In a statement to a local news agency, LeT spokespers­on Abdullah Ghaznavi said that two members of its ‘fidayeen’ (suicide) Security personnel stand guard near the CRPF bus that was attacked in Pampore in Kashmir on Saturday.

squad carried out the attack.

Kashmir police chief Syed Javaid Mujtaba Gilani attributed the rise in attacks on security forces to “high infiltrati­on” of militants through the Line on Control (LoC).

Indian sprinter Dutee Chand defied all odds to qualify for the women’s 100 metres event at the Rio Olympics on Saturday.

Chand broke her own national record with a timing of 11.30 seconds in the heats at the 26th G Kosanov Memorial Meet in Almaty, Kazakhstan, to win the berth. The qualificat­ion mark for Rio was 11.32 seconds. In the final, Dutee clocked 11.24 seconds to win silver, and shaved off 0.06 seconds from the national record she had set earlier in the day. Viktoriya Zyabkina of Kazakhstan bagged the gold with 11.15 seconds while Jasim Iman Essa of Bahrain finished with a time of 11.26 seconds.

The achievemen­t comes a year after the Indian sprinter successful­ly challenged the Internatio­nal Associatio­n of Athletics Federation­s’ policy of barring women athletes with high androgen levels. A landmark judgement by the Court of Arbitratio­n for Sport in July 2015 had cleared the road for her to compete again.

Chand will be the first Indian woman sprinter in 36 years to make the cut in 100 metres. PT Usha, who competed at the 1980 Moscow Olympics, was the last to represent India in this event.

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