1. BHU Tense, Breaks Early for Dussehra After Police Crackdown on Students
Tension ran high at Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi on Sunday after an overnight police crackdown on students demonstrating against an alleged molestation on the campus and demanding bringing the culprits to justice.
Several students, mostly women, and policemen were wounded in clashes after university guards and cops cane-charged protesters in front of the vice chancellor’s home and at the main entrance to the century-old institution’s sprawling campus around midnight.
“A lot of students arrived at the trauma centre and the situation is tense, but there are no major injuries,” a BHU hospital official said.
Source: Hindustan Times
2. Pakistan Envoy Commits Embarrassing Blunder at UN, Calls Gaza War Picture ‘Face of Indian Democracy’
Maleeha Lodhi, Pakistan’s permanent representative to the United Nations, was left red-faced on Sunday after she committed an embarrassing gaffe by labelling a picture taken from Gaza as the “face of Indian democracy”. Lodhi was attempting to counter India at the UN General Assembly, a day after External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj branded Pakistan as “preeminent export factory for terror”.
While exercising her right to reply, Lodhi flashed a picture of an injured Gaza woman, whose face was peppered with alleged pellet gun wounds. “This is the face of Indian democracy,” Lodhi claimed, alleging that the woman shown in the picture was a victim of pellet guns in Kashmir.
However, the picture Lodhi displayed at the UN was of 17-year-old Rawya abu Joma’a of Gaza, who was injured when two Israeli air strikes pummelled her family’s apartment in Gaza in 2014.
Source: The Indian Express
3. Slain Journalist KJ Singh Had 14-16 Stab Wounds: Report
The body of senior journalist KJ Singh, who was found murdered in his house in Mohali on Saturday, bore 14-16 stab wounds, according to the report of a panel of doctors who conducted post-mortem in Mohali civil hospital.
“Apart from Singh’s throat being slit, the body had 14-16 stab wounds, one right next to the heart. The fingers of the right hand had also been slit and the crime might have occurred between midnight and 2 am on the intervening night of Friday and Saturday. His mother was strangled with a cloth soon after he was killed,” one of the doctors said.
The house of murdered journalist K J Singh was ransacked and gold ornaments that his 92-year-old mother used to wear are missing, police said on Sunday.
Source: The Times of India
4. Bird-Hit Cases Soar Across Indian Skies
At least two planes are struck every day in India by airborne birds or animals on runways, accidents that pose a serious risk to human lives and the aviation industry.
According to latest data obtained through the RTI law from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), more than 4,000 aircraft suffered wildlife strikes – hit by birds or animals – in about 80 airports over the past five years.
Such collisions increased substantially from 607 in 2012 to 839 in 2016.
The airports in New Delhi and Mumbai, the busiest in the country, report the maximum number of bird hits. Data show the Capital registered 135 cases in 2016, followed by Mumbai’s 72.
Source: Hindustan Times
5. Doklam Faceoff: China Deployed More, Standoff Began Earlier
Contrary to public perception that the border standoff between India and China at Doklam involved a small number of troops, the Chinese had posted more than 12,000 soldiers, 150 tanks, and artillery guns opposite Sikkim at Phari Dzong in Chumbi Valley during the 73-day standoff, a new book has revealed.
The book, Securing India The Modi Way: Pathankot, Surgical Strikes and More (Bloomsbury), written by Nitin A Gokhale, also contains Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) images of the site, which shows that the standoff had actually started in the third week of May – it was made public by the Chinese on 26 June.
Apart from a blow-by-blow account of the standoff, the book includes extensive quotes from National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, military chiefs and other senior Indian officials on Modi government’s approach to security issues. A chapter of the book, which will be released by Vice President Venkaiah Naidu in Delhi on Friday, was exclusively accessed by The Indian Express.
Source: The Indian Express
6. India beat Australia by 5 Wickets to Clinch ODI Series, Grab Number 1 Spot
All-rounder Hardik Pandya rose to the occasion yet again with a fluent 78-run knock as India registered a comfortable five-wicket win over Australia in the third ODI to grab the number one spot, on Sunday.
Chasing 294 for a win, India overhauled the target with 13 balls to spare in front of a packed Holkar stadium to take a series-clinching 3-0 lead.
Openers Rohit Sharma (71) and Ajikya Rahane (70) set the platform for the win with their 139-run partnership, while Pandya steered the side to victory with his crucial knock, which came off 72 balls.
Source: The Times of India
7. Post-NEET: Only Two From Govt Schools in TN Govt Medical Colleges
Only two government school students have cleared NEET in Tamil Nadu in 2017 for admission to 2,503 MBBS seats in the state’s 22 government medical colleges. Last year, the figure was 30. Namakkal, a district with among the highest-scoring students in the state board exams, of which a large percentage get into professional courses, saw 109 students clear NEET, against 957 who got into medicine last year.
On 1 September, 17-year-old S Anitha of Ariyulur district in Tamil Nadu, who was a petitioner in the Supreme Court against imposition of NEET in the state, committed suicide after failing to get a medical seat. Anitha had scored 98 percent in Class 12, with her marks ensuring her a seat in both medicine and engineering streams without NEET.
Source: The Indian Express
8. Pak Nukes Hidden at Nine Places, at Risk of Being Stolen by Terrorists
Pakistan PM Shahid Khaqan Abbasi last week yet again flaunted his country's tactical or nonstrategic nuclear weapons, saying they were meant to deter the Indian Army's 'cold start' doctrine.
While Abbasi declared that Pakistan’s nuclear assets, including the tactical nukes, were under a robust command-and-control system, the short-range weapons meant to be used early in a conventional conflict with India are vulnerable to accidents and risk of landing up with terrorists.
According to a recent report by the Federation of American Scientists (FAS), Pakistan has stored its nuclear forces at nine different locations across the country.
Source: The Times of India
9. ‘Mallya Diverted Most of Rs 6,000-Crore Loan to Shell Companies’
In another potential setback for Vijay Mallya, the CBI and Enforcement Directorate are preparing to chargesheet the controversial tycoon for allegedly diverting a large chunk of funds from the Rs 6,027-crore loan he took for his now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines from a consortium of banks led by State Bank of India.
The money was allegedly diverted to shell companies in seven countries, including the US, UK, France and Ireland, official sources said.
CBI and ED sources claimed the evidence would strengthen their case for Mallya's extradition from the UK.
Source: The Times of India
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