SOURCE: ANI

Pakistan appears to be counting on China to diplomatically shield Islamabad from accountability for its terror activities while Beijing’s desire is to use terrorism as a tool to counter India, according to Public Policy Researcher Michael Rubin.

In an opinion piece for The Washington Examiner, Rubin said, “Beijing appears less committed to counterterrorism and more to a desire to use Pakistani terrorism as a tool to harass India with whom it is locked in a border clash in Ladakh.”

SOURCE: OPINDIA

On Friday, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi yet again lied about China transgressing into Indian territories by falsely claiming that the Chinese troops had occupied nearly 1,200 kilometers of land.

Speaking at an election rally at Nawada ahead of the Bihar assembly elections, Gandhi-scion Rahul Gandhi resorted to blatantly mislead people by making false claims that the PLA soldiers have occupied Indian lands up to 1,200 km deep inside into country’s territory after the clashes between Indian and PLA troops in early May.

SOURCE: SPUTNIK

India’s state funded Defence Research and Development Organisation has tested over a dozen missiles including the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile and Abhyas high-speed expendable aerial target since September of this year. The Indian media played up these tests as a warning to Beijing amid an ongoing border standoff with China.

The Indian Navy has uploaded incredible footage of its warship Prabal launching a KH-35 Uran anti-ship missile during a practice drill. The missile was launched on Friday morning somewhere from the Arabian Sea. The latter hit its target, a decomissioned Godavari class frigate, with pinpoint accuracy at its maximum range.

SOURCE: Tribune News Service

The situation on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) will be discussed during the simultaneous visit to India next week by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Secretary of Defence Mark Esper, senior State Department officials have said at a media briefing late on Thursday.

When asked if the LAC tensions will figure, an official said: “We’re watching the situation closely. I think both sides have expressed a desire to de-escalate violence.”

SOURCE: FIRST POST

The trans-continental bridge between civilisations, continents, religio-ethnicities and political-systems has afforded Turkey the rare spotlight to partake significant role, globally. No less than Napoleon Bonaparte had famously said, ‘If the world were a country, Istanbul would be its capital’. The Indian civilisation has connected with ancient Anatolia in Vedic times and the formal exchange of diplomatic missions between the Ottomans and the Mughals, dates back to 1481.

The intermingling of ethnicities in the Central Asian swathes also saw the raid and reign of Turkic Khalji dynasty over the Delhi Sultanate (1290-1320), amongst whose dominion was the notoriously bigoted, Allaudin Khalji (1296-1316).

SOURCE: ANI

Without the support of the Indian Air Force, it would not have been possible for DRDO to carry out many of its weapon trials at short notice and transport material for its anti-Covid-19 equipment, DRDO chairman Dr G Satheesh Reddy said.

“The Indian Air Force has given us active support for our trials and anti-COVID-19 measures. Without their active support, it would not have been possible to carry out many of our weapon trials at short notice as well as transportation of men and material to fight against COVID-19,” Reddy told ANI when asked about the role of Air Force in supporting DRDO in recent times.

SOURCE: THE PRINT

Terrorist-induced incidents in the Kashmir valley have come down over the last one year, and so has the infiltration even though local terror recruitment has seen a rise. An uneasy calm that had prevailed in the Valley after the revocation of Article 370, 35 A and the division of the state into two Union Territories, has now paved way for a more confident one despite the threat of Pakistan-sponsored terrorism looming large on the people.

The fears of large-scale violence and protests that many had prophesied is behind us now. This is significant since a large number of additional troops deployed last year have now been withdrawn. Panchayat by-polls are set to be held soon and there is genuine interest among the people of the Valley to take part in the electoral process because they eye development and better quality of life for themselves and their future generations.

SOURCE: NDTV

Peoples Democratic Party chief Mehbooba Mufti today said her party will continue the fight to “bring back the state flag” and “won’t abandon Kashmir’s battle” for special status, a year after the centre divided the state into two Union Territories and scrapped special status under Article 370 of the Constitution.

After spending over a year under arrest, Ms Mufti said, “Those who feel we will abandon Kashmir are mistaken.”

SOURCE: THE PRINT

A official in the Donald Trump administration has sought to push India to remove Chinese firms Huawei and ZTE from India’s upcoming 5G trials and other Information and Communication Technology (ICT) networks as the US and India explore ways to improve commercial ties in the sector.

“I would encourage the Government of India to review the risk to India’s communications networks to undertake appropriate measures to remove and exclude equipment from Huawei, ZTE, and other untrusted vendors from India’s 5G networks and broader ICT infrastructure,” said Greg Kalbaugh. He is the deputy under secretary for policy at the International Trade Administration, an agency functioning under the US Department of Commerce.

SOURCE: ANI

Pakistan decided to approve the bill for review of Kulbhushan Jadhav’s conviction to avoid sanctions from United Nations Security Council (UNSC), Jadhav’s friend Arvind Singh said on Friday.

“I see it as positive news. They (Pakistan) also fear if they would not have approved the bill they could have got sanctions from the UNSC. Now, this has given us hope that things will happen in a structured way,” Singh told ANI.

SOURCE: TIMES NOW

he resounding voice of dissent against Pakistan and its atrocities against Kashmiris is getting louder by the day and the international community is taking note of the horrific human rights violations in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

With the same objective in mind, the Global Kashmiri Pandit Diaspora (GKPD) and several other organisations on Thursday held a car protest rally outside the Pakistan Embassy in the United States to commemorate Pakistan’s invasion of Kashmir during the independence movement in 1947.

SOURCE: TIMES NOW

The controversial Islamic preacher Zakir Naik has instigated the gulf countries to put non-Muslim Indians in jail as and when they arrive there in case they insult Islam or the Prophet. He also asked them to create a database of such Indians so that they can be booked when the visit their countries.

In a video accessed by the Times Now, the Naik can be heard urging the Islamic countries to create a database of all the negative remarks and abuses from the non-Muslims in India and store in a computer.

SOURCE: The Shillong Times

Sardar Masood Khan, President of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) aka Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK) has said that Pakistan should make it a matter of principle that “talks with India should be held only under the UN auspices”.

“Side-by-Side with Pakistan and India, and presence of Kashmiris on the negotiations table in a must”, he said. “The UN supervision of the talks is essential in order to carry forward an implement the Security Council resolutions on Kashmir”, he added.

SOURCE: HT

Pakistan is at another of the inflection points that seem to crop up in the nation’s path every few years largely because of the imbalance in relations between the military and the civilian government. This time, the trigger is a movement launched by opposition parties with the stated aim of removing what they describe as the “selected” government of Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan.

Former premier Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) and the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) have created the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) and organised a series of “jalsas” or rallies in major cities.

SOURCE: PTI

India is working on relief and return of 33 Indians stuck in Somalia and the High Commission in Nairobi has taken up their predicament with Somalian authorities, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Friday.

Thirty-three Indian labourers, including 25 workers from Uttar Pradesh, have been allegedly held hostage by a company in Somalia for the last eight months.