Khurshid seeks TMC support on India-Bangla border deal

November 25, 2012
SalmanKhurshid

New Delhi, November 25: Notwithstanding the bitterness between the Congress and its estranged ally Trinamool Congress, External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid has reached out to Mamata Banerjee’s party to seek its support on a proposed bill to amend the Constitution for ratification of a boundary deal between India and Bangladesh.

Though Banerjee and her government in West Bengal are believed to have reservations over the additional protocol that New Delhi and Dhaka last year agreed to add to the 1974 Land Boundary Agreement, Khurshid offered to arrange a briefing by the Ministry of External Affairs for the Trinamool Congress MPs in Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha.

The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance Government also sought help from the Bharatiya Janata Party for the passage of the proposed bill for amendment of the Constitution by both Houses of Parliament. But the principal opposition party is likely to oppose the ratification of the deal since it had earlier joined the clamour against it in Assam, which, like West Bengal, also has a stretch of the 4,096.70 km-long India-Bangladesh border.

The External Affairs Minister wrote to the chairman of the Trinamool Congress Parliamentary Group, Mukul Roy, pointing out that the implementation of the 1974 Land Boundary Agreement and its additional protocol would “result in better management and coordination of the border and strengthening” India’s efforts to deal with smuggling and other crimes across the country’s border with Bangladesh.

Khurshid reminded Roy that the Centre obtained “written concurrence of the state governments concerned” before signing the additional protocol to Land Boundary Agreement with Bangladesh.

The protocol was signed during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Dhaka on September 6 and 7 last year. It seeks to resolve pending disputes on un-demarcated stretches, facilitate exchange of 111 Indian enclaves in Bangladesh with 51 Bangladesh enclaves in India and preserve status quo on territories in adversely possessed land.

“Since the proposal of exchange of enclaves and redrawing of boundary involves transfer of territories, it requires an Amendment to the Constitution,” wrote Khurshid.

Sources told Deccan Herald that the government was keen to introduce the bill to amend the Constitution in Parliament soon, since New Delhi wanted to send out a message to Dhaka that Singh’s Government was committed to ratifying both the 1974 deal and its additional protocol.

Singh is understood to have taken up the issue with BJP top brass L K Advani, Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley during the dinner he hosted for them last Thursday. Sources, however, said that the BJP troika had refused to commit the party’s support to the government for passage of the bill.

Troubled ties

Trinamool Congress’ troubled ties with Congress worsened after Banerjee pulled out of the prime minister’s entourage to Dhaka in September 2011, because she had reservations over the proposed India-Bangladesh agreement for sharing of the water of common river Teesta. New Delhi put the deal on Teesta on the backburner, but signed the protocol to the Land Boundary Agreement with Dhaka during the prime minister’s visit to Bangladesh. The chief ministers of northeastern states having stretches of India-Bangladesh border accompanied Singh.

The deal however triggered protests from social organisations and political parties in Assam and Meghalaya, as it was alleged that the new protocol added to the boundary deal would make the States lose territories to Bangladesh.

The government needs two-third majority in both the Houses to get any constitutional amendment bill passed and the UPA at present does not have the support of enough MPs.


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News Network
February 29,2020

New Delhi, Feb 29: The father of Intelligence Bureau staffer Ankit Sharma, whose body was pulled out of a drain in northeast Delhi's riot-hit Chand Bagh, complained to police that goons had assembled at the residence of former AAP counselor Tahir Hussain and were throwing petrol bombs from the rooftop.

According to the FIR which was registered on Thursday on the basis of the complaint lodged by Ankit's father Ravinder, the goons were also firing from the rooftop.

On Tuesday, Ankit returned from his office at 5 pm and then went outside to buy groceries. When he did not return, the family started looking for him and later filed a missing report, the FIR stated.

They got to know from their neighbours that a body has been recovered from a drain… later it was found to be that of Anikt, it said, adding the body had multiple stab injuries on the face, head, back, and chest.

The family has alleged in the FIR that it was Hussain and the goons at his residence who killed Ankit. In the FIR, Hussain has been accused of murder, destruction of evidence and abduction.

Soon after the FIR was registered on Thursday, the AAP suspended Tahir Hussain from the primary membership of the party till the police completed its probe.

The death toll in Delhi's communal violence rose to 42 on Friday as the situation showed some signs of returning to normalcy and clouds of smoke cleared to reveal the extent of the damage from the worst riots in the city in over three decades.

A total of 148 FIRs have been registered and 630 people have been either arrested or detained so far in connection with the communal violence, a Delhi Police spokesperson said.

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Agencies
July 30,2020

New Delhi, Jul 30: India witnessed a single-day spike of 52,123 COVID-19 cases as the total cases in the country reached 15,83,792, the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said on Thursday.

The total cases include 5,28,242 active cases and 10,20,582 cured/discharged cases, the Health Ministry added.

A total of 775 deaths were reported in the last 24 hours taking the death toll to 34,968.

Maharashtra continues to be the worst-affected state as it reported 9,211 new COVID-19 cases 298 deaths on Wednesday. The total number of cases is now at 4,00,651 including 2,39,755 recovered cases, 1,46,129 active cases and 14,463 deaths.

The total number of cases in Tamil Nadu reached 2,34,114.

Delhi reported 1,035 COVID-19 cases yesterday, taking the total number of cases in the national capital to 1,32,275.

The total number of COVID-19 samples tested up to July 29 is 1,81,90,382 including 4,46,642 samples tested yesterday, said the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

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News Network
March 7,2020

Srinagar, Mar 7: Two more accused, including a man who allegedly bought chemicals online for making improvised explosive device (IED) to be used in an attack on a convoy of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama last year, were arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Friday, an official said.

The terror attack left 40 CRPF personnel dead in south Kashmir's Pulwama last year.

Waiz-ul-Islam, 19, from Srinagar and Mohammad Abbass Rather, 32, from Pulwama were arrested by the NIA, taking the number of those arrested in the case in the past week to five.

"During initial interrogation, Islam disclosed that he used his Amazon online shopping account to procure chemicals for making IEDs, batteries and other accessories on the directions of Pakistani Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terrorists," the official said.

He said Islam personally delivered the items to the JeM terrorists after buying them online as a part of the conspiracy to carry out the attack.

"Rather is an old overground worker of the JeM. He has disclosed that he gave shelter at his home to Jaish terrorist and IED expert Mohd Umar after he came to Kashmir in April-May 2018," the official said.

Rather also sheltered other JeM terrorists - suicide bomber Adil Ahmad Dar, Sameer Ahmed Dar and Kamran, a Pakistani -- at his house before the Pulwama attack, the official said.

"He also facilitated safe shelter for the JeM terrorists, including Adil, at the house of accused Tariq Ahmed Shah and his daughter Insha Jan of Hakripora, who were arrested on March 3," the official said.

He said Islam and Rather will be produced before the NIA special court in Jammu on Saturday, while further investigation in the case continues. The NIA took over the case to probe the conspiracy behind the February 14, 2019, attack in Pulwama.

The last video of Adil, which was released by the JeM from Pakistan after the terror attack, was filmed at the home of Tariq Ahmed Shah. On February 28, the NIA achieved a major breakthrough in the case when it arrested 22-year-old Shakir Bashir Magrey, a furniture shop owner and resident of Pulwama.

Magrey had given shelter and other logistical assistance to suicide bomber Adil. He was introduced to Adil in mid-2018 by Pakistani terrorist Mohammad Umar Farooq and he became a full-time OGW of the JeM.

The explosives used in the attack were determined through forensic probe to be ammonium nitrate, nitro-glycerin and RDX. During investigation into the attack, the identity of the suicide bomber to be Adil Ahmad Dar was confirmed through DNA matching with that of his father.

The other key terrorists involved in the attack have been found to be JeM's south Kashmir divisional head Muddasir Ahmad Khan, killed in an operation by the security forces on March 11 last year; Pakistani terrorists Muhammad Umar Farooq and IED expert Kamran, both killed on March 29 last year; the owner of the car Sajjad Ahmad Bhat, a resident of Anantnag who was killed on June 16 last year, and Qari Yassir, JeM's commander for Kashmir who was killed on January 25 this year.

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