Sheikh Salim who saved Amarnath pilgrims gets 2nd highest award

Agencies
January 24, 2018

New Delhi, Jan 24: Gujarati bus driver Sheikh Salim Gafur, who defied terrorists' bullets and saved 52 Amarnath pilgrims, has been awarded the 'Uttam Jeevan Raksha Padak', the second highest honour given to civilians for gallantry.

This was announced by the Home Ministry ahead of the Republic Day today.

Sarvottam Jeevan Raksha Padak is the highest honour given to civilians for gallantry.

Gafur has been selected for the honour as he displayed some rare grit and bravery and continued to drive the bus of the Amarnath pilgrims, which came under attack by the militants on July 10, 2017, in Jammu and Kashmir, a home ministry official said.

Seven Amarnath pilgrims were killed and 14 others injured when terrorists opened fire on the bus Gafur was driving near Batengoo in Anantnag district of Jammu and Kashmir while around 52 other bus passengers escaped unharmed due to the presence of mind and bravery of the driver.

Besides, the award, Gafur will also be honoured with Rs one lakh cash at a special function later.

A total of 107 police gallantry medals have been given this year to police personnel with the maximum for Jammu and Kashmir Police (38 medals), followed by CRPF (35 awards), Chhattisgarh (10), Maharashtra (7), Telangana (6) among others. These also include 5 IPS officers.

The data shows that the maximum gallantry awards were given to the security personnel involved in counter-terror operations in Jammu and Kashmir.

Police medals for gallantry have been given to 35 personnel serving in Naxal affected areas and three in the Northeastern region.

As many as seven police officers were awarded police medal for gallantry posthumously. Among them six were from Chattishgarh Police who laid down their lives in anti-Naxal operations at Chintagufa in Sukma district.

CRPF ASI Nand Kishore Prasad has been decorated with police gallantry medal for showing exemplary courage in counter-operation against terrorist who attacked bus carrying BSF personnel on June 3, 2016.

A total of 785 police medals were announced for 2018 of which 616 were for Police Medals for Distinguished Service.

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Agencies
August 6,2020

New Delhi, Aug 6 : With a single-day spike of 56,282 new COVID-19 cases and 904 deaths in the last 24 hours, India's COVID-19 tally reached 19,64,537 on Thursday.

With the increase of 904 deaths, the toll due to the disease now stands at 40,699 in the country, according to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW).

The COVID-19 count includes 5,95,501 active cases and 13,28,337 cured/discharged/migrated patients.

Meanwhile, as per the MoHFW, the percentage of discharged patients stands at 67.62, while the active cases are at 30.31 in the country as of today.

The deaths reported due to the infection are currently at a little above two per cent of the total confirmed cases in the country.

Maharashtra with 1,46,268 active cases and 3,05,521 cured and discharged patients continues to be the worst affected. The state has also reported 16,476 deaths due to the infection.

Tamil Nadu has 54,184 active cases while 2,14,815 patients have been discharged after treatment in the state. 4,461 deaths have been reported due to COVID-19 in the state.

Andhra Pradesh with 80,426 active cases is the third on the list. There are 1,04,354 cured and discharged patients and 1,681 deaths reported from the state.

The national capital's active cases tally once again crossed the 10-thousand mark with 175 new cases being reported. Delhi now has 10,072 active cases and 1,26,116 cured and discharged patients. 4,044 people have lost their lives due to the disease in the Union Territory so far.

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News Network
July 2,2020

Geneva, Jul 2: The World Health Organization (WHO) has estimated the overall number of coronavirus cases globally at 10,357,662, with 508,055 people having died from the disease.

The UN health agency said in the situation report published on late Wednesday that 163,939 new cases had been recorded in the past day, while further 4,188 patients had died.

Americas continue to lead the count with over 5.2 million cases, followed by Europe with more than 2.7 million.

The WHO declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic on March 11.

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News Network
April 22,2020

Mumbai, Apr 22: Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh on Wednesday said none of the 101 people arrested in connection with the Palghar lynching case is a Muslim, and accused the opposition of giving a communal colour to the incident.

Terming the incident as unfortunate and a blot on humanity, Deshmukh in a Facebook address said this is not the time to play politics, and urged all to engage in collective efforts to defeat the deadly coronavirus.

Without naming any leader or party, Deshmukh, who is an NCP leader, said some people were seeing Mungerilal ke haseen sapne (referring to a fictional character from a TV show who daydreams) of returning to power in the state.

He said in the run up to the incident, a rumour did rounds in Palghar that some people were lifting children during night.

The entire episode is being investigated by a special inspector general and the probe has been handed over to the Crime Investigation Department (CID), he said.

"The police arrested 101 people in connection with the incident within eight hours after it took place. They had run into neighbouring jungles, but were caught by police. There is no Muslim brother among these 101 people, Deshmukh said.

The minister said someone was heard as saying oye bas (please stop) in the video clip of the incident, but it was allegedly distorted as Shoaib.

An attempt was made to give a political colour to the incident. And this is very unfortunate...communal politics is being played, Deshmukh alleged.

He said such politics is being played at a time when the entire state is engaged in a battle against coronavirus.

"It is not the time to play politics, but to fight coronavirus collectively. It is unfortunate some people are seeing 'Mungerilal ke haseen sapne' at this juncture, the minister said.

The incident took place on the night of April 16 when three men - two seers and their driver - were going from Mumbai in a car towards Surat in Gujarat to attend a funeral.

Their vehicle was stopped near a village in Palghar district where the three were dragged out of the car and beaten to death with sticks by a mob on suspicion that they were child-lifters.

The deceased were identified as Chikne Maharaj Kalpavrukshagiri (70), Sushilgiri Maharaj (35), and driver Nilesh Telgade (30).

The Maharashtra government earlier ordered a high- level probe into the incident, and two policemen from Palghar were suspended on Monday for alleged dereliction of duty.

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