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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July 16,2020

Bengaluru, Jul 16: People volunteering as civil police wardens with the city police department will not receive any remuneration, an official said on Wednesday.

“We wish to clarify the rumours floating on social media and confirm that the volunteers helping local police as civil police wardens in enforcement of anti-Covid measures will not be paid any remuneration,” said an official.

On Tuesday, Bengaluru city police commissioner Bhaskar Rao had urged interested people to volunteer for the department, indicating how strained the department has been amid Covid.

“Inviting physically fit and service minded residents of Bengaluru, both men and women, between the age of 18-45 to volunteer as civil police wardens,” said Rao.

The department is offering a choice of the police division, jurisdiction and the shifts one wants to choose to be a civil police warden.

Additional Commissioner of Police Hemant Nimbalkar said volunteers are a welcome support to the police in their field duty but should not be left alone.

“Volunteers are a support to the police in the field and shall not work standalone. They shall be attached with duty police as assistance. A jacket and a cap should be provided to them,” said Nimbalkar.

He reminded that the safety of the volunteers is the responsibility of the policemen.

Many city policemen have been infected with the virus and quarantined while more than six have succumbed.

“It is a tough time for all policemen irrespective of the rank. Four hundred and fifty active cases across the state and the loss of six lives speak volumes about their involvement in the war against Covid,” said Director General of Police Praveen Sood recently.

He expressed hope that the difficult times will pass, saying all the members of the police department are a family.

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News Network
April 17,2020

Bengaluru, Apr 17: The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting on Thursday served a show cause notice to a Kannada news channel for broadcasting a programme in which it purportedly said that the Centre would 'air drop money' to the poor, owing to the COVID-19 lockdown.

The notice said that the channel was "spreading false information, creating panic and social unrest.

" The channel had allegedly aired a show titled, "Helicopter Money" on Wednesday which claimed that the Centre would drop money from helicopters during the lockdown period.

A Twitter user took a serious note of it and complained to the Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Prakash Javadekar.

The fact check team of the Press Information Bureau, under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, refuted the claim.

In its notice to the channel, PIB said, "You are hereby directed to show cause why your channel should not be taken out of air immediately. You are instructed to send your reply in this regard within 10 days of receipt of this notice."

Reacting to the notice, the management of the news channels said, "A programme which has been seen in bits and pieces and those who have not even seen the programme appears to have complained. Notice will be replied accordingly."

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News Network
February 6,2020

New Delhi, Feb 6: BJP MP Tejaswi Surya said on Wednesday that the majority community has to remain vigilant or Mughal rule will return to the country, as he slammed the anti-CAA protest at Shaheen Bagh.

He was participating in the debate on Motion of Thanks on the President's Address in Lok Sabha.

Referring to the ongoing protest at Shaheen Bagh against the Citizenship Amendment Act, he said, "Unless majority community remains vigilant, the days of Mughal Raj may not be far away."

Surya also praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for resolving several critical issues which had been pending for several decades.

The CAA, he said, was aimed at resolving the issues emanating from Partition and added, "The new India cannot to built without healing the wounds of the past."

He said that the CAA was about giving citizenship to persecuted minorities in Pakistan, Bangaladesh and Afghanistan and not for taking away anyone's citizenship.

Under the leadership of Modi, Surya said, several issues of the past have seen closure. These include abrogation of Article 370, construction of Ram temple, Bodo problems and abolition of Triple Talaq.

K Sudhakaran (Cong) said that a time when the economy was going through its worst phase and unemployment was high, the President in his speech talked about making India a USD 5 trillion economy by 2024.

On the comments of the government functionaries that fundamentals of the economy are strong, he said the same expression was used by the then US President George Bush, days before the collapse of the America's iconic investment banker Lehman Brothers.

Not only that, Sudhakaran said even before the Great Depression, the then US President used to say that fundamentals of their economy were strong.

Anupriya Patel (Apna Dal) demanded that the government set up All India Judicial Services Commission to ensure representation of the backward community in the judiciary.

Khagen Murmu (BJP) regretted that West Bengal government was not implementing the welfare schemes of the Centre in the state.

Badruddin Ajmal (AIUDF) said that people of all communities have fought for freedom of the country and it would be incorrect to declare everyone opposing the government's policies as 'gaddar' (traitor).

He said that the government should talk to people protesting against the CAA at Shaheen Bagh and other places, and explain the provisions to them.

Shrirang Appa Barne (Shiv Sena) demanded that the ruling party fulfil all promises it had made to the people of the country.

He regretted that although the government promised to double the income of farmers by 2022, farmers were still committing suicide.

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