Jammu Mar 26 PTI Extending an indirect invitation to National Conference president Farooq Abdullah to join his party Jammu and Kashmir BJP president Ravinder Raina said the saffron party will form government in the union territory and have its own chief minister You cant achieve anything by playing drums there If you wish come and play it here he said referring to Abdullah Raina also reiterated that several family members of veteran Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad have already joined the BJP and more are in queue to come into the saffron fold Azads nephew Mubashir joined the BJP recently Addressing a public rally in the mountainous Doda district here as part of the partys outreach programme on Friday he said the government belongs to that party which that has its own chief minister In 2016 the BJP Legislature Party formed government in Jammu and Kashmir with coalition partner Peoples Democratic Party and Mehbooba Mufti became the chief minister In June 2018 the alliance came to and end We are witnessing huge enthusiastic crowds irrespective of their religion at our rallies everywhere be it Ramban the day before yesterday Kishtwar on Friday or Doda All ways are leading to the BJP No one can stop us from forming the next government with our own chief minister in Jammu and Kashmir he said in the event held to garner public support for the party as the assembly elections are likely to be held later this year The BJP is the fastest growing party in both regions -- Jammu and Kashmir -- as the people have rejected the National Conference PDP and Congress who have only sucked the blood of the poor over the past many decades of their rule he said Raina alleged that the Peoples Alliance for Gupkar Declaration a coming together of several parties including the National Conference PDP and Communist Party of India Marxist was poisoning the minds of the people in a bid to divide them in the name of Muslims and Hindus However he said the Gupkar Aliance will not succeed and the BJP will win more than 50 assembly seats to form its government and have its first chief minister in Jammu and Kashmir Our government will provide free electricity water and Rs 1000 to poor families besides the special package for unemployed educated youth We will not differentiate on the basis of religion and region and we will ensure development of every nook and corner of Jammu and Kashmir he said PTI TAS TAS CJ CJ CJ

New Delhi Feb 28 PTI The Delhi High Court Monday sought the stand of several political leaders including Anurag Thakur BJP Sonia Gandhi Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra Congress Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and others on pleas to make them parties to proceedings seeking FIR and investigation against them for allegedly delivering hate speeches leading to the February 2020 riots amidst protests against the Citizenship Amendment ActA bench of Justices Siddharth Mridul and Anoop Kumar Mendiratta dealing with a batch of petitions concerning the 2020 riots in north-east Delhi issued notice to all proposed respondents -- persons against whom action is sought in two petitions One impleadment is filed by petitioner Shaikh Mujtaba Farooq who has sought FIR for hate speech against BJP leaders Anurag Thakur Kapil Mishra Parvesh Verma and Abhay VermaThe other application is by petitioner Lawyers Voice which has sought the registration of hate speech FIRs against Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra as well as Deputy CM Manish Sisodia Aam Aadmi Party MLA Amanatullah Khan AIMIM leader Akbaruddin Owaisi former AIMIM MLA Warris Pathan Mehmood Pracha Harsh Mander Mufti Mohammad Ismail Swara Bhasker Umar Khalid BG Kolse Patil former Bombay High Court Judge and othersBefore we implead we will have to give them an opportunity We cant implead without hearing if they oppose it the court saidSenior advocate Colin Gonsalves appearing for Farooq asked the court to issue notice on his petitionSenior advocate Sonia Mathur appearing for Lawyers Voice said that apart from political figures certain religious leaders are also being sought to be joined as parties and their speeches are mentioned in the applicationWe will come to speech once we have issued notice on the application seeking impleadment the court saidLawyer Amit Mahajan appearing for Delhi Police said it would not file a fresh response to the applicationsThe court had earlier granted time to petitioners advocates for filing of applications for adding as parties certain political leaders to the pleas alleging that they delivered hate speeches which led to the 2020 violenceIn the application filed by lawyers Sneha Mukherjee and Siddharth Seem Farooq has stated that after the political leaders named in his plea engaged in the hate speech and exhortation to murder peaceful protestors attacks broke out all across DelhiLawyers Voice represented by advocates Satya Ranjan Swain and Archana Sharma has stated in the application that public discourse cannot become a tool to promote speech that is inimical to public order and if FIR is not registered the wrongdoers will be encouragedOur Constitution stands for communal harmony and peace The misinformationhate campaigns run in the name of Anti-CAA protest is aggravated by such speeches A provoked mind is prone to violence and has the potential to bring along insurmountable and unimaginable sufferings the application statedApart from seeking action against those who allegedly gave the hate speeches the other petitions have also sought reliefs which include setting up of an SIT FIRs against police officers who were allegedly involved in the violence and disclosure of persons arrested and detainedIn its response to these prayers police has earlier said it has already created three special investigation teams SITs under the crime branch and there was no evidence till now that its officers were involved in the violenceThe police in its affidavit earlier has said that investigation into the riots have not revealed any evidence till now that political leaders instigated or participated in the violenceEarlier while asking the parties to collate the issues the court had noted that the Supreme Court in an order of December 17 2021 has requested it to dispose of expeditiously preferably within three months a plea seeking registration of FIR against some politicians for their alleged hate speeches which purportedly led to the north-east Delhi riots last yearThe matter would be heard next on March 22 PTI ADS SA

New Delhi Feb 24 PTI The Delhi High Court Thursday refused to entertain an application challenging the maintainability of a petition which sought investigation against certain political leaders for allegedly delivering hate speeches which led to violence in February 2020 in the backdrop of protests against the Citizenship Amendment ActThe court said it was not allowing the intervention application and also refused to keep it pending for futureWe are telling you our decision it is dismissed You are not a necessary or a proper party We do not propose to allow you to intervene Dont try to turn it into a circus We are not keeping it pending Your client is a gate crasher a bench of Justices Siddharth Mridul and Anup Jairam Bhambhani saidThe court was hearing an intervention application filed on behalf of a lawyer in a pending petition filed by Shaikh Mujtaba Farooq seeking registration of FIR and investigation against BJP leaders Anurag Thakur Kapil Mishra Parvesh Verma and Abhay VermaAdvocate Pavan Narang representing the lawyer who filed the application claimed that petitioner Farooq has no locus standi to file the petition as according to a Supreme Court judgement PILs where the petitioners have not even gone to police should not be entertained The counsel alleged that it was not a public interest litigation but a publicity infused litigationTo this the bench shot back Who are you to say this You are not a concerned party Whether it is publicity for the petitioner or for you we do not know We are conscious of the Supreme Court judgement We are not permitting you to intervene Dont tell us what to do We know what is the scope of a PIL The court further said See the irony of the situation here that the intervenor files a plea that the petition is not maintainable There is no question of even allowing an impleadment to remain pending If the petitioner has no locus then the intervenor should be nowhere in the scene nowhere around Thereafter Narang sought to withdraw the application and it was permitted by the benchThe high court is seized of several petitions concerning the 2020 riots in north-east Delhi and alleged hate speeches by leaders which led to violence in the backdrop of protests against the CAAIt had earlier granted time to petitioners advocates for filing of applications for adding as parties certain political leaders to the pleas alleging that they delivered hate speeches which led to the 2020 violenceSenior advocates Colin Gonsalves and Sonia Mathur who appeared for petitioners Farooq and Lawyers Voice respectively said that they have filed applications for the impleadment of the concerned persons to their petitions seeking registration of FIRs against the alleged wrongdoersHowever as Gonsalves application was not on record the court directed the registry to bring it on record subject to the petitioner removing the objections and listed the matter for further hearing on February 28These petitions are in the nature of cross PILs This is the new trend the court orally observedThe other petitioner Lawyers Voice has sought the registration of hate speech FIRs against Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra as well as Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia Aam Aadmi Party MLA Amanatullah Khan AIMIM leader Akbaruddin Owaisi and former AIMIM MLA Warris Pathan and has filed an application for impleading them as respondents in the petitionBesides them it has sought to implead activist Harsh Mander Bollywood actress Swara Bhaskar Umar Khalid and several othersThe court said it will hear the impleadment application on February 28The court had earlier questioned the petitioners if any order having criminal consequences can be passed in the absence of the parties getting affected as it emphasised that the presence of all necessary and proper parties was required for adjudicationAdditional Solicitor General Aman Lekhi appearing for Delhi Police had urged the court to defer hearing on the petitions until affected parties are impleaded and said he would bring on record a list of issues that survive at this stage in the pleasApart from seeking action against those who allegedly gave the hate speeches some pleas have also sought other reliefs which include setting up of an SIT FIRs against police officers who were allegedly involved in the violence and disclosure of persons arrested and detainedIn its response to these prayers the police had earlier said it had already created three special investigation teams SITs under the crime branch and there was no evidence till now that its officers were involved in the violenceThe police in its affidavit earlier has said that investigation into the riots have not revealed any evidence till now that political leaders instigated or participated in the violenceEarlier while asking the parties to collate the issues the court had noted that the Supreme Court in an order of December 17 2021 has requested it to dispose of expeditiously preferably within three months a plea seeking registration of FIR against some politicians for their alleged hate speeches which purportedly led to the north-east Delhi riots last year PTI SKV SA

Mumbai Feb 20 PTI Seven persons were held with MD drug worth Rs 25 lakh and 200 bottles of cough syrup in two operations conducted in Ghatkopar and Govandi areas of Mumbai a police official said on Sunday On Saturday Rohit Jaiswal 23 was nabbed from Ghatkopar with 250 grams of MD drug worth Rs 25 lakh while Shivaji Nagar police held Atif Sheikh Gulzar Sheikh Shahnawaz Khan Farooq Maniyar Ashish Jaiswal and Sorab Khan from Govandi with 200 bottles of cough syrup he said A probe has revealed Farooq and Ashish hailing from Vapi in Gujarat were supplying cough syrup for illegal sale as an intoxicant he said adding that all seven have been charged under NDPS provisions PTI ZA BNM BNM BNM

Islamabad [Pakistan], January 18 (ANI): The Islamabad High Court (IHC) wants Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan and his cabinet to act against the ex-naval chief Admiral (retd) Zafar Mahmood Abbasi in the case of unauthorized construction of Navy Sailing Club.

Jammu (Jammu and Kashmir) [India], January 6 (ANI): The strength of Special Security Group (SSG) protecting the four former Chief Ministers of Jammu and Kashmir-- Omar Abdullah, Mehbooba Mufti, Farooq Abdullah, Ghulam Nabi Azad-- will be reduced, as per an order by Jammu and Kashmir government.

Islamabad [Pakistan], January 1 (ANI): At least one was killed and 17 people suffered bullet injuries on New Year's eve during the "celebratory gunfire" in Pakistan's Karachi, local media reported on Saturday.

Hyderabad, December 20: A shocking incident has come to light from Asif Nagar where a 26-year-old man was murdered by a friend on Sunday after an argument over a mobile phone broke out between them. The deceased was identified as Jitender, a native of Uttar Pradesh who was working as a carpenter at a furniture […]

Jammu Oct 17 PTI After ending his long association with the National Conference NC the new entrant in the BJP Devender Singh Rana on Sunday said he will continue to respect former chief ministers Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah with whom he had worked for over two decades He termed the civilian killings in Kashmir a conspiracy hatched by Pakistan to harm communal harmony and said that India under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah will defeat the nefarious designs of the neighboring country I have worked with NC president Farooq Abdullah and vice president Omar Abdullah for the past nearly 23 years I have respect for both of them and it will continue Rana told reporters at the BJP headquarters where he was accorded a warm welcome after joining the party in Delhi on Monday He was responding to a question about Omar Abdullahs recent statement that Ranas departure from the NC was more of a personal loss to him rather than the party as he had invested a lot in him Rana the younger brother of Union minister Jitendra Singh had taken over the post of provincial president of the NC in 2011 after relinquishing his office as political advisor to the then chief minister Omar Abdullah He along with senior party colleague and former minister S S Slathia joined the BJP in Delhi on Monday Politics brought me at a stage where I had to change the direction and way he said In reply to a question about the recent targeted killings in the valley the BJP leader said these are part of Pakistans conspiracy aimed at harming the communal harmony and brotherhood in Jammu and Kashmir Terrorism has no place in civil society Under the leadership of Modi and Shah a befitting response will be given to Pakistan The people of Jammu and Kashmir will also stand united to defeat the designs of Pakistan and the forces who want to harm our brotherhood he said The BJP leader said Jammu and Kashmir is an example of brotherhood and we will join hands to uphold it and defeat the inimical elements who are out to harm it They will get the answer and will be finished here Asked about his reaction to the ongoing operation in the forest areas of Poonch and Rajouri which left nine Army personnel dead in two separate encounters with terrorists over the past week he said nobody has the right to speak on the security operations Our Army and other forces are strong enough to give a befitting response to their adversaries I am fully confident that our Army which is known for its professionalism around the globe will achieve all the success as it cannot be defeated by anyone he said PTI TAS AAR

Srinagar (Jammu and Kashmir) [India], October 4 (ANI): Minister of State for Railways & Textiles Darshana Jardosh on Sunday facilitated artisans including silk artisans Jammu and Kashmir with certificates who received training in different areas of crafts like papier-mache, willow wicker, etc.