1. Uri Attack: BSF Jawan Succumbs to Injuries, Death Toll Rises to 19
On the evening of 22 September , Rashtriya Rifles gunner Pitabas Majhi had called up his wife Bedamati from Uri, telliing her that he would be home on 25 September.
But little did Majhi, 30, a gunner with Army’s elite counter-insurgency unit 34 Rashtriya Rifles Battalion since 2008, know that his body would arrive at his native village Danajhola in Komna block of Nuapara district.
“He seemed so happy and told his wife that his leave application has been approved and he would dance after reaching home,” said his uncle Bhuban Singh Majhi.
The young gunner, married since 2013, was expecting his first child in a month’s time and was expectedly eager to meet his wife.
Source: The Indian Express
2. Departments Will Brief PM Narendra Modi on Indus Waters Treaty Today
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called a meeting on Monday of the departments concerned with the implementation of the Indus Waters Treaty with Pakistan. Sources said the meeting should not be read as anything more than an attempt to understand the intricacies of the 56-year-old treaty.
In the wake of the Uri attack, there have been calls to abrogate the Indus Waters Treaty. Last Thursday, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Vikas Swarup, responding to a query on the Indus Waters Treaty, said “for any such treaty to work, you need mutual trust and goodwill. I will leave it at that.”
The 1960 treaty has survived wars and phases of frosty ties between India and Pakistan.
Source: The Indian Express
3. ISRO to Put 8 Satellites in Two Orbits Today
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will launch a PSLV rocket from Sriharikota at 9:12 am on Monday to put eight satellites into two different orbits.
Besides SCATSAT-1, a 371-kg satellite for weather studies, the ISRO would launch two satellites designed by Indian educational institutions (PISAT and PRATHAM), three commercial ones from Algeria (ALSAT-1B, 2B and 1N) and one each for Canada (NLS-19) and the United States (Pathfinder-1).
The ISRO said on Sunday that the countdown for the launch from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota was progressing smoothly. This would be the first mission of the PSLV to launch its payloads into two different orbits, it said.
Source: The Hindu
4. Modi Chants Purification Mantra, Echoes Deendayal on Muslims
Prime Minister Narendra Modi invoked the BJP’s prime ideologue Deendayal Upadhyaya on Sunday to articulate in public his views and reflections on Muslims at some length for the first time.
At the conclusion of the BJP’s national council in Kozhikode, Modi contextualised his thoughts, drawn from Upadhyaya’s writings, in the current debate on the interpretations of the word “secularism”.
Upadhyaya was a founder of the Jana Sangh, the BJP’s predecessor. The national council was convened to launch the commemoration of Upadhyaya’s birth centenary this year and, more importantly, to enshrine him in India’s political pantheon and place him on the same pedestal as Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru.
Source: The Telegraph
5. Srinagar Opens During the Day After 13 weeks
For the first time in 13 weeks of unrest that has paralysed the region’s businesses, major markets in Kashmir’s main city, Srinagar opened during the day and received a huge rush of shoppers on Sunday, as separatists called for a 16-hour-break in shutdown, the lengthiest so far.
The city’s commercial heartland, Lal Chowk, opened at 2 pm as the longest spell of relaxation in shutdown began. As shops opened in the afternoon – for the first time in three months since the unrest began on 8 July – shoppers thronged markets, jamming the city roads at several places.
Almost every shop in Lal Chowk, whether of phone repair or bicycles, was jam-packed in a rush reminiscent of a pre-festivity shopping spree.
Source: The Tribune
6. Delhi Under-Reporting Dengue Toll, Cases: CAG
Delhi has been hugely under-reporting dengue cases and deaths, says a report of the comptroller and auditor general on the preparedness of the city government, municipal bodies and others in control and prevention of the disease.
The report comes in the midst of a chikungunya and dengue outbreak, with a Delhi government panel earlier this month dismissing all deaths attributed to the diseases so far this year.
The CAG, which examined dengue cases from 2013 to 2015, said while hospitals reported 409 dengue deaths in 2015, the state’s “death review committee” confirmed only 60-46 from Delhi and 14 from other states. The committee comprises city government doctors as well as municipal health officers.
Source: The Times of India
7. FIR Over Missing Files in Ishrat Jahan Case Could Reopen Political Can of Worms
Police lodged an FIR on missing documents from the Union Home Ministry’s files related to the alleged extra-judicial killing of Ishrat Jahan, a Mumbai college girl suspected to be a terrorist and shot dead in 2004.
The investigation may trigger a fresh round of Congress-BJP slugfest since the probe may focus on former home minister P Chidambaram.
Gujarat police killed the 19-year-old girl in Ahmedabad along with Javed Shaikh alias Pranesh Pillai and two Pakistanis, saying they were Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists on a mission to assassinate Narendra Modi, the the chief minister.
The allegation was contested after Pillai’s father and Ishrat’s mother approached the Gujarat high court, leading to suspicion of a staged police shooting, or “fake encounter”, and triggering a long political battle between the Congress and BJP.
Source: Hindustan Times
8. China Uses Pakistan to Blunt India’s NSG Membership Bid
As India mounts a diplomatic offensive against Pakistan over the issue of terrorism, China has again signalled it will continue to prop up Islamabad as a counterpoise against India’s bid for membership of Nuclear Suppliers Group.
Last week, China held another round of Arms Control Consultation with Pakistan in which it discussed Islamabad’s application for NSG membership and also “indicated” on placing Pakistan’s views and inputs to the group for consideration. The China-Pakistan dialogue comes within days of India’s “candid and substantive” talks with Beijing on its NSG bid.
According to Chinese authorities, Beijing shared with Pakistan its views on recent developments and also its principled position over the issue of participation of non-NPT countries in the NSG.
Source: The Times of India
9. PM’s Poverty War: How the Neighbours Stack Up
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s exhortation to Pakistan on Saturday to join India in a race to fight illiteracy, unemployment and poverty has prompted Mayawati to urge him to introspect on India’s similar challenges and his government’s “deplorable” record in tackling them.
Modi “should see the situation in India before advising Pakistan and its people”, the Bahujan Samaj Party president told reporters in Lucknow on Sunday.
By urging Pakistanis to join India in battling terror, Mayawati alleged, Modi was trying to “divert attention” from his own failure to make “concrete, long-term plans” to prevent terror attacks in India.
Source: The Telegraph
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