Mohammed Shafi Armar from Bhatkal killed in US airstrike in Syria

April 25, 2016

Bhatkal, Apr 25: Alleged Islamic State (IS) recruiter Mohammed Shafi Armar, hailing from coastal Karnataka's Bhatkal town, is learnt to have been killed in a U.S. air strike on Syria in the last couple of days.

isisA senior intelligence official in New Delhi tracking developments on IS said that they had received the information from their American counterparts on Sunday night. “We are in the process of cross-verifying it on the ground by our men. From initial reports, he is, in all probability, dead,” said the official. Intelligence agencies are also monitoring pro-IS social media handles for confirmation from the IS side.

Armar was recently in the news after the National Investigation Agency and Intelligence Bureau had, in a countrywide crackdown, arrested 14 men, of which six were from Karnataka, on allegations of being in touch with the IS.

It later turned out that all the 14 arrested were in touch with Armar, who headed the Ansar-Ul-Tawhid, an offshoot of IS previously headed by his brother Sultan Armar. However, investigation had then revealed that he was operating under a new banner Janood Al Khalifa Hind, a local terror outfit.

The new terror outfit had an Amir, a military chief and a treasurer, all of whom were busted in the January 2016 operation. While all those arrested were under the scanner for IS leanings, an intervention was necessitated after agencies observed that the gang was working towards a terror strike within India.

“This clearly shows that Shafi Armar had aspirations to be the new Jehadi terror leader in the country filling the place of the Indian Mujahiddeen,” said the senior intelligence official.

In fact, he started his terror career with Indian Mujahiddeen, when he was recruited along with Sultan Armar to it by Riyaz Bhatkal in 2008, sources said. The brothers were holed up in Pakistan since then, agencies said.

However, in 2011-12, they started the Ansar-Ul-Tawhid, which was first operating from North Waziristan in Pakistan from the training camps of Tehrik-e-Taliban.

In fact, IS chief Abu-Bakr-Al-Bhagdadi in a video message had declared Sultan Armar as an Amir (leader) of AuT. He was killed on March 6, 2015 in a similar air strike in Kobane, Syria.

According to NIA, over the last two years, Shafi Armar had emerged as the chief online recruiter of IS in the country.

Those arrested in Ratlam, Madhya Pradesh in April 2015, the four men arrested in New Delhi and Rourkela in January 2016 were also recruited by him, agencies claim. “Of late, he had emerged as the only common link among many IS recruits in the country,” the senior intelligence official said.

NIA officials had said that he followed a three-step recruitment process — first he would scout for vulnerable Muslim youth on social media like Facebook and Twitter, after which he would get in touch with them directly over web-based applications and brainwash them to join the IS. He would later use encrypted applications like Kik, Telegram to send instructions.

Comments

PK
 - 
Monday, 25 Apr 2016

Wow.... Lets FORGET Malegaon TWist and concentrate on this new terrorist... .... any way our indian people still believing such news flash even after exposing the media LIES ... what to do some Animals are used to accept like donkeys whatever is said in the MEDiA.

Viren Kotian
 - 
Monday, 25 Apr 2016

Hahaha. Idu kanri suddi andre.. Great news. need to eliminate these animals one by one across the world.

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News Network
February 24,2020

Lucknow, Feb 24: The Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board on Monday accepted the five acres of land provided for construction of the mosque in Ayodhya.

The Board also decided to form a trust to oversee the construction of the mosque.

The decision was taken in a meeting chaired by the Board's Chairman Zufar Faruqui.

Apart from this, the trust will also construct a charitable hospital, public library and a centre showcasing the heritage of Indo-Islamic civilisation which will also serve as a research and study centre for the same, according to a press release by the board.

The appointment of members to the trust will be announced following its creation, the release added.

The Supreme Court had on November 9 last year directed the Central government to hand over the disputed site at Ayodhya for the construction of a temple and set up a trust for the same.

The apex court had further directed the government to allocate an alternative five acres of land at a prominent location in Ayodhya for the construction of a mosque to the Sunni Waqf Board.

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April 9,2020

Kalaburagi, Apr 9: An FIR has been lodged against the management and staff of Bahamani Super Speciality Hospital here in Kalaburagi allegedly for not following procedures meant to deal with COVID-19 and hiding details of patients with coronavirus symptoms, said District Deputy Commissioner Sharath B on Wednesday.

The district family welfare department official and nodal officer of KPME Kalaburagi took cognisance of the reports that the private hospitals in the district are not informing the government about patients having COVID-19 symptoms and they are only reporting about such cases at the last moment.

"It has come to our light that some private hospitals in Kalaburagi city are hiding information about the patients who are having COVID-19 like symptoms and these cases are not being reported on time to us," said the District Deputy Commissioner.

"We verified the records of these hospitals and it is clear now that they are revealing the serious cases in the last moment when the treatment has not given any help to patients. Only then such cases are bringing to ESI hospital in Kalaburagi. We have taken steps to quarantine the entire staff member of Bahamani hospital. We have taken legal steps against them for non-compliance of the orders issued to them and for not reporting this matter to us at the earliest stage," he said.

A case has been registered under the Disaster Management Act, 2005 column 51, 58 and sections 269 and 188 of the Indian Penal Code.

He further said that two new cases were reported positive on April 8 and one person has succumbed to the infection because he was having a severe respiratory infection.
He appealed to everyone to strictly follow lockdown restrictions and not violate Section 144 at any cost.

Speaking about the attacks on Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) and Anganwadi workers, who were given a task to collect travel details of locals in view of coronavirus crisis, Sharath said: "Some of the health workers, ASHA and Anganwadi workers, who have been given a task to going from door to door to verify health status were troubled unnecessarily, saying that they have come to collect data for NRC and NPR."

"They are doing a survey on behalf of the district administration as they have to gather travelling information so that a person can be quarantined to contain COVID-19 spread. There has been an attack, a case has been registered in this regard," he said.

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News Network
June 18,2020

Bengaluru, Jun 18: Real estate continues to be a preferred asset class for investors amid the uncertainty emerging out of the pandemic, according to a report by National Real Estate Development Council (NAREDCO) and Housing.com.

Titled 'Concerned yet positive - The Indian Real Estate Consumer (April-May 2020)', the report showed that the real estate consumer remains positive with regard to the economic scenario and income stability for the coming six months.

"Real estate (35 per cent) is still perceived as the preferred mode of investment, followed by gold (28 per cent), fixed deposits (22 per cent), stocks (16 per cent) and homebuyers are likely to slowly return to the market in the coming six months," it said.

Price-points of residential realty have remained muted for the past few years, but are still a key deterrent, with the perception of being still unaffordable, according to nearly half of the potential homebuyers surveyed, who are currently staying in rented accommodation.

A majority of respondents surveyed (73%) comprise 'first time homebuyers', who are looking to buy a 'ready-to-move-in-house' for end-use and are from the age group of 25-45 years. While 60% of respondents opined that for the next six months, they would prefer a ready-to-move-in property, 21% said they were okay with a property with a delivery timeline of maximum one year.

The survey was conducted in April and May 2020, through a random sampling technique for a fair representation across regions. The insights presented in the survey represent the view of more than 3,000 potential homebuyers.

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