The Indian Express (Delhi Edition)
Sasikala goes back to jail, it’s now EPS vs OPS at Chennai Raj Bhavan
AS CONVICTED AIADMK general secretary V K Sasikala surrendered in a Bengaluru court Wednesday to serve the remainder of a four-year jail term in a disproportionate assets case, the political drama in Chennai shifted to Raj Bhavan where her nominee Edappadi Palanisamy and rival O Panneerselvam again called on Governor C Vidyasagar Rao to claim majority support of MLAS for government formation.
With no word from Raj Bhavan on what the Governor intends to do — legal experts have advised him to consider, among other options, convening a special session of the assembly within a week for a floor test — charges flew thick and fast between the warring AIADMK factions.
Late Wednesday, AIADMK spokesperson Nanjil Sampath called the delay “an injustice to democracy”.
“We had to remind the A DAY after four Army personnel, including a Major, were killed in two separate encounters in the Valley, Army Chief General Bipin Rawat said on Wednesday that security forces in Kashmir were suffering higher casualties as the “local population” was “preventing” them from conducting their operations and “at times even supporting the terrorists to escape”.
Warning that those who create such “hurdles” during security operations and help the “terrorists to escape”, or display flags of Pakistan and the Islamic State, would be treated as “anti-nationals”, he said the Army would “get them” and take “tough action”.
The Army chief was speaking to mediapersons after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and he paid tributes to the soldiers killed in Kashmir on Tuesday.
Two Army men were killed in another encounter in Kashmir on Sunday too.
“These terrorists who have now graduated to the villages... as we are conducting operations against them, we find that the local population is somehow not supportive of the actions of the security forces.”
“While our aim has been to conduct people-friendly operations, the manner in which the local population is preventing us from conducting the operations, at times even supporting the terrorists to escape... It is these factors which are leading to higher casualties among the security forces,” General Rawat said.
“We would now request the local population that people who have picked up arms — and these are the local boys — if they want to continue with the acts of terrorism, displaying flags of IS and Pakistan, then we will treat them as anti-national elements and go helter-skelter for them. They may survive today but we will get them tomorrow. Our relentless operations will continue,” he said.
If “they do not relent and create hurdles in our operations, then we will take tough action,” he added.
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