Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist Razaullah Nizamani Khalid killed by unidentified gunmen in Sindh
New Delhi, May 18 (PTI): Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist Razaullah Nizamani Khalid alias Abu Saifullah Khalid, who was the brain behind the 2006 attack on the RSS headquarters, was killed by three unidentified gunmen in Sindh province of Pakistan on Sunday, officials here said.
Khalid used to head the terror operations of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) from Nepal in early 2000 and had many aliases including Vinode Kumar, Mohammed Salim and Razaullah. He was involved in multiple terror strikes in India, they said.
He left his residence at Matli this afternoon and was gunned down by assailants near a crossing at Badni in Sindh province, the officials said.
A close associate of Abu Anas of Lashkar, Khalid was the mastermind of the attack on the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) headquarters at Nagpur in which all three terrorists were shot dead.
Besides the RSS attack, the Lashkar operative was involved in the Indian Institute of Science terror attack of 2005 in Bengaluru, in which IIT professor Munish Chandra Puri was killed and four others injured.
The terrorists had escaped from the scene. Later, police investigated the case and chargesheeted Abu Anas, who is still at large.
Khalid was also the mastermind of the 2008 attack on a CRPF camp at Rampur in Uttar Pradesh in which seven personnel and a civilian were killed. The two terrorists escaped under the cover of darkness.
From mid-2000, Khalid was the in-charge of the Nepal module of LeT, responsible for the recruitment of cadres, providing financial and logistic support and facilitating the movement of LeT operatives across the Indo-Nepal border.
Khalid was working closely with LeT's so-called "launching commanders" -- Azam Cheema alias Babaji and Yaqoob (LeT's chief accountant).
Khalid left Nepal and returned to Pakistan after Indian security agencies exposed the module. He later worked closely with several leaders of LeT and Jamaat-ud-Dawah, including Yusuf Muzammil, LeT commander for Jammu and Kashmir, Muzammil Iqbal Hashmi and Muhammad Yusuf Taibi.
Khalid was tasked by the LeT and JuD leadership in Pakistan to undertake the recruitment of fresh cadres from the areas of Badin and Hyderabad districts of Sindh and collect funds for the organisation.
According to media reports from Sindh, Khalid was declared brought dead at hospital after being shot. These reports also termed it a case of personal enmity.
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Bill to set up single higher education regulator likely to be tabled in Parliament next week
New Delhi (PTI): A Bill which seeks to set up a single regulator for institutions of higher education is required to facilitate universities and other higher educational institutes become independent and self-governing, officials said.
The Bill is likely to be introduced in Parliament next week after it got the Union Cabinet's nod on Friday.
The proposed legislation, which was earlier christened the Higher Education Commission of India (HECI) Bill, has now been named Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhikshan Bill.
A single higher education regulator, which was proposed in the new National Education Policy (NEP), looks to replace the University Grants Commission (UGC), the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), and the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE).
"The Bill proposes to set up a Higher Education Commission of India to facilitate universities and other higher educational institutes become independent and self-governing institutions and to promote excellence through a robust and transparent system of accreditation and autonomy. It is likely to be introduced (in Parliament) in the coming week," an official said.
While the UGC presently oversees non-technical higher education in the country, the AICTE oversees technical education, while the NCTE is the regulatory body for teachers' education.
The Commission is proposed to be set up as a single higher education regulator, but medical and law colleges will not be brought under its ambit.
It is proposed to have three major roles -- regulation, accreditation and setting professional standards, officials said.
Funding, which is seen as the fourth vertical, is not proposed to be under the regulator so far. The autonomy for funding is proposed to be with the administrative ministry, they said.
