Pak warns India against ‘provocative’ statements
Foreign office spokesperson says India is using ’Pakistan card’ to divert world attention from its ‘atrocities’ in Kashmir
Pakistan on Thursday said “provocative statements” by India will further vitiate the regional environment, a day after New Delhi asserted that the mutilation of Indian soldiers’ bodies was carried out with the active participation of the Pakistani Army.
Foreign office spokesperson Nafees Zakaria, while reacting to defence minister Arun Jaitley’s remarks, told Radio Pakistan that the country had made it clear that no incident of mutilation of bodies of Indian soldiers had taken place.
India has lost every right to take any of its allegations before the United Nations because it has never abided by the world body, neither has it cooperated with the UN Military Observers Group established for the purpose, Zakaria claimed.
He said India had always used the “Pakistan card” for its internal political manoeuvring and diverting world attention from its “atrocities” in Kashmir.
On Wednesday, Jaitley had rubbished Pakistan’s claim that its military was not involved in mutilating the bodies of two Indian soldiers at the LOC, asserting that the denial of the “barbaric act” carried no credibility.
Jaitley had said cover fire was provided to those who killed and mutilated the bodies of the two soldiers and Pakistan had helped the perpetrators escape.
Naib Subedar Paramjeet Singh and BSF Head Constable Prem Sagar were slain by Pakistan’s Border Action Team (BAT), which sneaked 250 metres into the Indian territory in Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir on May 1.
Kashmir has been rocked by a string of armed bank robberies in the last few months, which the J&K police say is a sign of cash-starved militants trying to keep the funds flowing.
Militants, however, are vehement in their denial. They have enough cash, they are freedom fighters and wouldn’t stoop to robbing, they say.
NINE ROBBERIES AFTER NOVEMBER 8
The fact, however, is that Kashmir Valley has reported at least nine bank robberies and several such bids after the Centre announced scrapping of ₹500 and ₹1,000 bank notes on November 8. On Wednesday, gunmen targeted two banks in Pulwama.
They took away ₹5 lakh from a branch of Ellaquai Dehati Bank (EDB). The men who robbed J&K Bank in Nehama of ₹1.3 lakh also smashed the CCTV to avoid being identified. In nearby Kulgam district, some gunmen had barged into a bank a day earlier and walked away with ₹65,000.
The robbery came a day after militants attacked a J&K Bank cash van and killed five policemen and two bank guards.
LASHKAR, HIZBUL SHORT OF FUNDS?
Snatching of weapons is not new to the Valley but bank robberies are. Since demonetisation, more than ₹50 lakh has been looted.
“For any militant organisation to thrive, you need funds and weapons,” said deputy inspector general of police (south Kashmir) SP Pani. “And when there is a scarcity of these, it turns to robberies and weapon snatching.”
Police blame the Lashkar-etaiba and the Hizbul Mujahideen for the robberies.
Barely two weeks after Modi’s announcement, gunmen took away ₹14 lakh from a bank in Chrar-e-sharief in central Kashmir. Next month, ₹24 lakh was taken away from two branches of J&K Bank in Pulwama district.
It is difficult to independently get a response from the two outfits, but they have been issuing statements denying their role.
SMARTPHONE CRAZE AMONG MILITANTS
Not just demonetisation, but militants’ spending habits too could be responsible for the cash hunt.
They have moved from lowcost basic phones to high-end smart phones, Pulwama SP Bhat said. Militants also need cash to pay overground workers, or sympathisers, and to get vehicles and army uniforms. They could still be getting money through hawala channels, but the amount would be smaller compared to ₹50 lakh they stole.
“Besides that, through robberies you are making news and creating chaos,” he said.
Gonda wears the weary appearance of a town that appears to have given up.
Mounds of garbage are piled up on either side of narrow streets that residents say haven’t been swept in days. Drivers of autos or other public transport have to swerve around the muck and local administration is practically absent.
The eastern Uttar Pradesh town is also India’s dirtiest city, according to a government survey released on Thursday.
Gonda was ranked 434th and fared poorly on all parameters — waste collection, solid waste management, construction of toilets, sanitation strategies and behaviour change communication. “The ranking is no surprise for us. Last year in another statelevel survey, Gonda had performed poorly,” said a resident.
Officials blame the performance on poor resources and manpower.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s constituency, Varanasi, has soared up the cleanliness scale, occupying the 32nd position in Swachh Survekshan 2017, which is part of the Modi government’s flagship Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (SBA) programme. It ranked 65th last year and 418th in 2014.
Incidentally, Varanasi is the lone city from UP to figure in the top 100 cleanest cities, followed by Aligarh at a distant 145th rank and Jhansi at 166th rank. UP has 25 cities in the bottom of the list.
The urban development ministry launched the Swachh Survekshan 2017 on January 4. The survey, conducted by the Quality Council of India, ranked 434 cities across the country on cleanliness and other aspects of urban sanitation. Around 37 lakh people submitted their responses.
Swachh Bharat Abhiyan which was launched on Octobe 2014, got a push in Varanasi when PM Modi wielded a spade and dug up silt at the iconic Assi Ghat on November 8 that year.
Varanasi Nagar Nigam (VNN is the nodal body for the mission here. VNN, in association with local NGOS and volunteers, car ried out over 150 cleanlines awareness drives.
Sanitation volunteer knocked on the doors of each house in the old city and appealed to people not to throw garbage in the open and instead use dust bins. Simultaneously, sanitation efforts included door-to-door gar bage collection in association.
Chief health officer at VNN D AK Dubey, who is also the noda officer of Swachh Bharat Abhi yan, said, “The awareness drive have brought a positive change in people’s mindset. Now, instead o dumping garbage on roads and lanes, they look for a dustbin.”