Crackdown intensifies in Kashmir after attack: Homes demolished, hundreds detained for questioning
Srinagar: In the wake of the deadly attack in Pahalgam, authorities in Kashmir have launched a massive crackdown on suspected terrorists and their alleged sympathisers, launching large-scale raids, detaining hundreds of overground workers (OGWs) for questioning, and demolishing properties linked to active terrorists.
Security forces have widened the net across the Valley in an effort to deter any Pahalgam-like attacks. Raids were carried out at more than sixty places on Saturday in Srinagar, including Safakadal, Soura, Pandach Bemina, Shalteng, Lal Bazar, and Zadibal areas "to dismantle the terrorist ecosystem,” The New Indian Express quoted J-K Police spokesperson as saying.
On Thursday night, explosions destroyed the homes of two “active terrorists”—Adil Thoker in Bijbehara and Asif Sheikh in Tral—following raids by security personnel.
Meanwhile, security checkpoints have been established across Anantnag, with vehicles being thoroughly screened. The security forces have also rounded up hundreds of OWGs and their supporters, mostly in four south Kashmir districts, in their bid to track down the terrorists who carried out the attack at Baisaran meadow in Pahalgam on Tuesday that killed 26 people, added TNIE.
Officials revealed that one suspected OWG, identified as Altaf Lalli, was killed in firing by terrorists during one such operation in Bandipora district on Friday. He was killed when security forces took him to a terrorist hideout in the Kulnar area of Bandipora district after he pointed out the location of the extremists. Additionally, two policemen were injured when terrorists opened fire before making their escape.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
'Chor machaye shor': BJP alleges irregularities in voter registration in seats of Oppn leaders
New Delhi (PTI): The BJP on Wednesday claimed irregularities in voter registration in Rae Bareli, Wayanad, Diamond Harbour and Kannauj parliamentary seats and asked Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Abhishek Banerjee and Akhilesh Yadav to resign as Lok Sabha MPs, alleging they secured victory in elections with "vote chori".
Giving a slide-show presentation on the issue at the BJP headquarters here on an 'analysis' of electoral rolls in these constituencies represented by opposition leaders, former Union minister Anurag Thakur also flagged "irregularities" in the voter registration in Kolathur assembly seat in Tami Nadu and in Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat in Uttar Pradesh and asked Chief Minister and DMK supremo M K Stalin and SP leader Dimple Yadav to resign for "rigging" election.
He slammed the Congress, TMC, Samajwadi Party and DMK leaders for raising questions on the Election Commission and accused them of running a vicious propaganda against the special intensive revision (SIR) of the elector rolls, which is currently underway in Bihar and would be launched in other states, to protect their "vote bank of illegal Bangladeshi infiltration" and other "intruders"
"Seeing this 'shor' (hue and cry) being made by the opposition, it now seems that 'chor machaye shor'", he said, suggesting those who are in the wrong are now crying foul.
"Rae Bareli, Wayanad, Kannuaj, to Diamond Harbour -- everywhere one question is coming up -- why did they make fake voters. Will they resign for indulging in 'vote chori' and protecting intruders?" Thakur said.
Levelling allegations of "vote chori", Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi had on Thursday, through a presentation at a press conefrence, cited data from the 2024 Lok Sabha polls to claim that over 1 lakh votes were "stolen" in Mahadevapura assembly segment in Karnataka through five types of manipulation, including duplicate voters, fake and invalid addresses, single-address voters.
On Tuesday, opposition leaders took out a protest march from the Parliament House to the Election Commission's headquarters here on the issue but were stopped and briefly detained by the police.
The Congress on Wednesday stepped up its campaign against alleged 'vote chori' by releasing a new video depicting how "fake votes" were being cast, with party chief Mallikarjun Kharge asking people to raise their voice and save constitutional institutions from the "clutches of the BJP".
Gandhi also shared the minute-long video and said, "Aapke vote ki chori aapke adhikar ki chori, aapki pehchaan ki chori hai".
