Maruti Eeco used in Pulwama terror attack, owner on the run: NIA

Agencies
February 26, 2019

New Delhi, Feb 26: A Maruti Eeco minivan was used in the Pulwama terror attack and it was bought by a Jaish-e-Mohammed operative just 10 days before the February 14 strike that claimed the lives of 40 CRPF personnel, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) said Monday.

The JeM operative, identified as Sajjad Bhat, a resident of Bijbehara in south Kashmir, has since been on the run and is believed to have become an active militant now, an NIA spokesman said.

The spokesman termed this as a "significant breakthrough" in the investigation into the terror attack.

Piecing together remnants of the vehicle recovered from the scene of the blast, the NIA investigators, with the support of forensic and automobile experts, have been able to identify the vehicle as a Maruti Eeco having chassis number MA3ERLF1SOO183735 and engine number G12BN164140, the spokesman said.

The vehicle was sold to Mohammed Jaleel Ahmed Haqani, a resident of Heaven Colony in Anantnag in 2011, and subsequently it changed hands seven times and finally reached Sajjad Bhat, a student of Siraj-ul-Uloom, Shopian.

The vehicle was purchased by Sajjad Bhat on February 4, the spokesman said.

Raids were conducted by a team of NIA and police at his house on Saturday but Sajjad was not present.

He has reportedly joined Jaish-e-Mohammed and his photograph also appeared on social media where he is seen holding weapons.

The NIA, a central agency established by the government to combat terror, took over the probe into the Pulwama attack from the Jammu and Kashmir Police on February 20 and re-registered the case.

NIA Director General Y C Modi, accompanied by senior officers of the agency, has visited the site of the attack, 33 km from Srinagar, where he was briefed by the police and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF).

The state police had registered a case at the Awantipora police station on February 14 after a suicide bomber rammed his explosive-laden vehicle into a CRPF bus, which was part of a 78-vehicle convoy carrying over 2,500 personnel from Jammu to Srinagar.

The NIA has already gathered crucial material from the blast site in Lethpora in Pulwama district of south Kashmir and has been involved in the questioning of around a dozen people detained by the police following the blast, officials said.

The NIA is probing planning and execution of the terror attack, the second such strike in three decades of militancy in the state. In 2000, a 17-year-old Kashmiri boy had blown himself outside the Srinagar-based army cantonment, killing two Army men.

Comments

Ansar balli
 - 
Tuesday, 26 Feb 2019

One man killed 47 army,.. this is very very insult to our country, in abroad people are laughing on our capability.
and some hindutva activists who put big big poster of lion and say they are lion but in reallity thet are the cowards, they dont have courage to go to border and face the real terror but they attack innocent indian muslim who is weak..
Jai Hind

 

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News Network
February 3,2020

New Delhi, Feb 3: In the third such incident inside of a week, two unidentified persons opened fire outside Gate No. 5 of Jamia Millia Islamia on Sunday night, the Jamia Coordination Committee (JCC) said.

A statement issued by the committee, a group comprising students and alumni of the university formed to protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act, said the attackers were on a red Rcooty.

No one was injured in the attack. One of the miscreants was wearing a red jacket, the statement said.

"Firing has taken place at Gate No.5 of Jamia Millia Islamia right now by two unidentified persons. As per report, one of them was wearing a red jacket and driving a red Scooty having vehicle no. 1532 or 1534," the statement said.

Police said they were verifying the JCC's claims.

Asim Mohammed Khan, former Congress MLA from Okhla, said the incident occurred around 11.30 pm. "We heard the gunshot. That is when we stepped out to see and the two men left on a Scooty," a student said.

"We have taken down the vehicle number and called police," he added.

This is the third firing incident in the Jamia Nagar area in a week.

On Thursday, a minor fired at anti-CAA protesters marching towards Rajghat, injuring a student.

Two days later, a 25-year-old fired two rounds in air in Shaheen Bagh in Jamia Nagar. No one was hurt in the incident.

The incident on Sunday night triggered panic in the area. A police vehicle had reached the spot after the incident but was chased away by angry students.

Hundreds of students and locals gathered outside the university.

Many raised slogans against the Delhi Police. They also staged a dharna outside the Jamia Nagar police station.

Shezad Ahmed, a JMI student and resident of Zakir Nagar, said they were not even allowed to protest peacefully.

"We are not going to be deterred by such incidents. We will continue with our protest," he added.

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News Network
March 19,2020

New Delhi, Mar 19: Hit hard by coronavirus, budget carrier IndiGo today announced that it will cut salaries of senior employees. IndiGo CEO Ronojoy Dutta, who will himself take a 25% cut in salary, said senior vice presidents and above are taking a 20% pay cut while vice presidents and cockpit crew are taking a 15% pay cut.

With precipitous drop in revenues, the very survival of airline industry is now at stake, Dutta said while announcing the pay cut. "We have to pay careful attention to our cash flow so that we do not run out of cash," Dutta said adding that he knew how hard it was for families to take a cut in "take-home pay".

"With a great deal of reluctance and a deep sense of regret, we are therefore instituting pay cuts for all employees, excluding Bands A and B, starting April 1, 2020," the chief executive officer said. Band A and B are the lowest brackets in salary class, where most of the employees are.

IndiGo's flight operations chief Ashim Mitra had written an email to pilots this morning saying that the economic environment has deteriorated significantly and no airline is insulated from this severe downturn.

"It has become a necessity to initiate some tough calls and we are working on a string of measures that will be shared and implemented over the next few days and weeks," Mitra said.

With countries sealing their borders partially or fully across the world due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, aviation sector has been hit extremely hard as most airlines globally have drastically curtailed their flight operations.

Another budget airline GoAir has already terminated contracts of expat pilots amid curtailed operations due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Citing "unprecedented" decline in air travel, the budget carrier announced it was suspending international operations and offering leave without pay programme to its staff on a rotational basis.

Government-owned Air India may also cut salary of employees by 5% amid its growing financial woes particularly in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, which has nearly grounded its entire international operations. The reduction will be across the board, according to a PTI report.

The loss-making airline, which is in the process of a second attempt of privatization after failing to get a single buyer nearly two years ago, has already taken some steps such as reduced flying allowances to cabin crew besides withdrawing entertainment allowance to executive pilots, among others.

“Air India is considering a 5 per cent pay cut to its employees as it faces huge financial crisis due to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak, which has brought almost its entire international operations save the US, Canada and a few other markets, to the ground," a source told news agency.

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News Network
March 28,2020

New Delhi, Mar 28: The total number of coronavirus positive cases in the country has risen to 918 that include foreign nationals, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said on Saturday.

The ministry said: "The total positive cases of coronavirus are 918. The active COVID-19 cases are 819. Cured and discharged are 79. While 19 deaths have occurred so far. One person with COVID-19 migrated. As many as 15,24,266 passengers were screened at airports."

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday announced a 21-day lockdown in the entire country to deal with the spread of coronavirus, saying that "social distancing" is the only option to deal with the disease, which spreads rapidly.

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