Jammu, Feb 27: A Pakistani Air Force F-16 fighter jet was shot down by Indian air defence forces in Rajouri sector of Jammu region on Wednesday morning, officials said.
The aircraft was brought down in Jhangar area of Jammu and Kashmir's Rajouri sector, officials in the Army said.
Details were awaited.
The Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) has given nod to the Serum Institute of India (SII) for conducting phase 2 and 3 human clinical trials of the Oxford University developed Covid-19 vaccine candidate in the country.
Government officials said that the approval for conducting phase 2 and 3 clinical trials by the SII was granted by DCGI Dr V G Somani late Sunday night after a thorough evaluation based on the recommendations of the Subject Expert Committee (SEC) on Covid-19.
"The firm has to submit safety data, evaluated by the Data Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB), to the CDSCO before proceeding to phase 3 clinical trials," a senior official said.
"As per the study design, each subject will be administered two doses four weeks apart (first dose on day one and second dose on day 29) following which the safety and immunogenicity will be assessed at predefined intervals," the official said.
As a rapid regulatory response, the expert panel at the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) on Friday, after a detailed deliberation and considering the data generated on the vaccine candidate in phase 1 and 2 of the Oxford University trial, had recommended granting permission for phase 2 and 3 clinical trials of the potential vaccine, 'Covishield', on healthy adults in India, the officials said.
Currently, phase 2 and 3 clinical trials of the Oxford vaccine candidate is going on in the United Kingdom, phase 3 clinical trial in Brazil and phase 1 and 2 clinical trials in South Africa.
The officials said that the SII had submitted a revised proposal on Wednesday after the SEC on July 28, following deliberation over its application, had asked it to revise its protocol for the phase 2 and 3 clinical trials besides seeking some additional information.
The panel had also recommended that the clinical trial sites which have been proposed for the study be distributed across India.
According to the revised proposal by the SII, 1,600 people aged above 18 years will participate in the trials across 17 selected sites, including AIIMS-Delhi, B J Medical College in Pune, Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences (RMRIMS) in Patna, Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research in Chandigarh, AIIMS-Jodhpur, Nehru Hospital in Gorakhpur, Andhra Medical College in Visakhapatnam and JSS Academy of Higher Education and Research in Mysore.
"According to the application, it would conduct an observer-blind, randomised controlled study to determine the safety and immunogenicity of 'Covishield' on healthy Indian adults," the official said.
The SII, which has partnered with AstraZeneca, for manufacturing the Oxford vaccine candidate for Covid-19 had submitted its first application to the DCGI on July 25 seeking permission for conducting the phase 2 and 3 trials of the potential vaccine.
Initial results of the first two-phases of trials of the vaccine conducted in five trial sites in the UK showed that it has an acceptable safety profile and homologous boosting increased antibody response, sources had said.
To introduce the vaccine, SII, the world's largest vaccine maker by number of doses produced and sold, has signed an agreement to manufacture the potential vaccine developed by the Jenner Institute (Oxford University) in collaboration with British-Swedish pharma company AstraZeneca.
Patna, Feb 28: Social and cultural activists from far and wide converged here on Thursday to lend their support to a massive rally that marked the conclusion of Kanhaiya Kumar's 'Jan Gan Man Yatra' across Bihar to galvanise public opinion against CAA-NPR-NRC.
Medha Patkar of the Narmada Bachao Andolan fame, Mahatma Gandhi's grandson Tushar Gandhi and former IAS officer Kannan Gopinathan, who gave up his career at a young age in protest against abrogation of Article 370, shared the stage with the former JNU students' leader.
Shabnam Hashmi -- founder of socio-cultural organisation ANHAD and sister of slain Marxist playwright and director Safdar Hashmi -- also joined them.
Congress MLA Shakil Ahmed Khan, a former president of JNU students' union himself who accompanied Kanhaiya during his tour that commenced at Champaran on January 30, Mahatma Gandhi's death anniversary, and leaders of state units of CPI and CPI(M) also addressed the rally held at Gandhi Maidan.
Kanhaiya began his speech with a one-minute silence held in the memory of those who lost their lives in Delhi violence.
Defending his frequent use of the term "azadi" (freedom) which supporters of the Sangh Parivar hold to be tantamount to supporting secession, Kanhaiya said, "We must talk about the virtues of azadi here since today happens to be the day when legendary revolutionary Chandrashekhar Azad had given up his life fighting the British."
Charging the ruling BJP with pitting Hindus against Muslims, he said, "Let us resolve to defeat their agenda by emulating the fabled friendship of Ram Prasad Bismil and Ashfaqullah Khan."
The young CPI leader, who made an unsuccessful debut from his native Begusarai Lok Sabha constituency last year, seemed unimpressed with the resolution passed by the Bihar Assembly earlier this week against NRC and inclusion of contentious clauses in NPR forms.
"Both the government and the opposition are busy congratulating themselves. I extend my congratulations as well. But to all those who are present here, I would say it is a half-victory. We must not allow our movement to fizzle out and draw inspiration from Gandhi's model of civil disobedience when the NPR exercise gets underway," he said.
"Villagers should ask their respective panchayat heads to ensure that no NPR official is allowed to come knocking in their areas of jurisdiction when NPR is scheduled to be undertaken in May," the CPI leader said.
"We have to brace for a long and tough fight. We are living under a regime which sends conscientious professionals like Dr Kafeel Ahmed behind the bars and declares anybody questioning its actions as an anti-national," said Kanhaiya, who has himself been slapped with a sedition case.
Earlier, in his address, Tushar Gandhi likened CAA, NPR and NRC to the "three bullets that killed the Mahatma" and asserted that these measures would "harm the poor, belonging to all religious communities and not just the Muslims".
"If the government does not care about the poor, we must tell those in power -- 'chale jaao' (go away) just as we had done to the British colonisers... it is going to be a long fight. Independence was achieved five years after the call for Quit India Movement," he said.
"We need to keep repeating the importance of non-violence over and over again while those with other value systems simply have to utter inciting statements," he said, in an oblique reference to the controversial poll campaign of Union minister and BJP leader Anurag Thakur during the recently-held Delhi Assembly elections, which the party lost.
Kannan Gopinathan said, "The claim that CAA is all about granting citizenship and not taking it away is bunkum. Any law which seeks to favour one section of the society on the basis of religion can be tweaked to harm another social segment... people say this government is Fascist. I am not sure of that but it is certainly stupid."
"This government brought in demonetisation and wrecked the economy but failed to achieve its promise of eradicating black money. It abrogated Article 370 and now it is clueless as to what to do with the situation in Kashmir," he said.
"Union minister Amit Shah had declared in Parliament that NRC will be implemented. Faced with public resistance, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had to say he does not know what NRC is. Keep up the stir for a little longer, he will start saying he does not know Amit Shah," said Kannan, evoking peals of laughter.
In the course of his speech, Kanhaiya also made the crowds sing after him the National Anthem but skipped a few words towards the end. Participants at the rally were viciously trolled on social media for the slip-up.
Jammu, Jan 1: As many as 160 terrorists were killed in Jammu and Kashmir this year, while 250 terrorists, including 102 of Pakistani origin, were active in the Valley, Director General of Police (DGP) Dilbag Singh said on Tuesday, noting that terror incidents and the number of local youths turning towards terrorism have decreased.
"250 terrorists have been active in Jammu and Kashmir. There is a decrease in number of active terrorists as compared to last year," Mr Singh said at the annual press conference at police headquarters in Jammu.
The DGP said that there is 30 per cent fall in terrorist incidents, less civilian killings and 36 per cent decrease in law and order incidents as compared to 2018.
"218 such (local) youths joined militant outfits in 2018 but only 139 joined in 2019," he said. Out of these new recruits only 89 have survived.
"The rest have been eliminated as their shelf life is between 24 hours to 2-3 months after joining militancy. There are hardly few old terrorists surviving, which include Jehangir Saroori and Riyaz Nayikoo", he said.
There have been only 481 law and order incidents this year as compared to 625 last year, he said.
There were 80 per cent successful anti-terror operations in which 160 terrorists, including foreigners, have been killed during the year.
Mr Singh said 102 terrorists have been arrested and 10 terrorists surrendered during the year.
He said that 102 Pakistan origin terrorists are still operating in Kashmir.
"Eleven valiant police personnel from Jammu and Kashmir besides 72 from other other security forces have been martyred," he said.
There was no collateral damage during anti-terror operation as people fully cooperated. "There was zero law and order problem this year (during anti terror operations)," he added.
The DGP said that "there has been a high degree of incidents of infiltration attempts from across the border this year and also ceasefire violations. But security forces have successfully foiled these attempted as 130 infiltrators have entered in 2019 as compared to 143 last year".
He said Jammu and Kashmir Police has set an example by handling the law and order situation in the most "exemplary" way following the abrogation of Article 370 provisions.
It was the biggest challenge faced by the force in 2019, but "we handled the most critical phase in the best way" and there was no civilian casualty during the period, he said.
Dismissing claims of minors being arrested by police in Kashmir, he said that it is being used as propaganda by some people and asserted that the J-K police has acted within the limits of law.
"We are open to scrutiny. The issue reached the Supreme Court which referred it to Jammu and Kashmir high court. The matter was inquired by the HC committee. The SC said that there is no misuse of law by law enforcement agency. J-K police has acted within the limits of law," he said.
Replying to queries on restoration of internet, the DGP said it is under consideration. "I think J-K is moving towards such a situation (on law and order front). Very soon you will hear positive announcement," Mr Singh said.
He said that though some people will try to misuse internet, "in the past, we took care of them and we will take care of such people in the future too".
Internet services in all government-run hospitals and SMS to all mobile phones will be restored from December 31 midnight in the Kashmir Valley, Jammu and Kashmir official spokesman Rohit Kansal said on Tuesday.
On December 10, some short message service (SMS) were enabled on mobile phones in order to facilitate students, scholarship applicants, traders and others. It has now been decided to fully restore the service throughout Kashmir from midnight of December 31, Kansal said.
Mobile Internet services were restored in Kargil district of Ladakh on Friday after remaining suspended for 145 days in the wake of the Centre abrogating provisions of Article 370 of the Constitution, officials said.
Internet services were suspended on August 4, a day before the Centre announced abrogation of Article 370 and division of the state into the union territories of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.
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