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Subramanium says no to Special Public Prosecutor’s
job in coal blocks cases
NEW DELHI: Slighted by the government’s rejection of his name for Supreme Court judgeship, eminent lawyer Gopal Subramanium has refused to be Special Public Prosecutor in the coal blocks allocation scam cases.
His name had on July 18 emerged as the first choice of Chief Justice of India R.M. Lodha to try the accused in the coal scam cases.
Subramanium’s office said that one of the counsel appearing in the matter had given information about the court’s choice to appoint him as the SPP only if he gives his consent.
However, the former Solicitor General has expressed his difficulty in taking up the job as he has several prior commitments, it said.
“He has many prior commitments, so he would not be in a position to take up the job of SPP,” Subramanium’s personal staff told PTI.
His office said this was a message conveyed to advocate M.L. Sharma, one of the PIL petitioners in the coal scam cases, who had contacted Subramanium’s office on the issue.
The CJI had said “consent” of the person would be necessary for considering him as the SPP and it should not be restricted to the lawyers practising only in Delhi.
The Supreme Court collegium headed by the CJI had recommended names of four eminent persons as judges of the apex court but the government cleared the names of Chief Justices of Calcutta and Orissa High Courts, Arun Mishra and Adarsh Kumar Goyal, respectively, and senior lawyer Rohinton Nariman, leaving out the former Solicitor General.
Subramanium had on June 25 withdrawn from being considered for appointment as a Supreme Court judge. — PTI
NC,
Cong end alliance ahead of J&K Assembly poll
Srinagar/Jammu: The
National Conference-Congress coalition in Jammu and Kashmir today hit the rocks as the two parties announced that they will go it alone in the Assembly polls in the state due later this year.
Congress leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad, Ambika Soni and Saifuddin Soz announced in Jammu that the party will fight the the forthcoming Assembly
poll alone and will not enter into any pre-poll alliance.
"After extensive talks with Congress leaders and workers at all levels, the party has come to the conclusion that we are going to fight the forthcoming Assembly elections on our own strength",
Soni, general secretary AICC and in charge of J&K Congress, told reporters.
"We will put up candidates or support some of the traditional alliance candidates on all the 87 seats in J&K alone", she said.
Minutes later, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, who is working president of
the National Conference, took to social media to announce that he had informed Congress
president Sonia Gandhi 10 days ago that there will be no pre-poll alliance in the state.
"I met Mrs Gandhi 10 days ago & thanked her for all her support. I conveyed NC's decision to fight the elections alone," Omar said on Twitter.
He said he explained the reasons to the Congress president for not entering into a pre-poll alliance "but also told her I wouldn't be making a public announcement because I didn't want it to look opportunistic.
"For it to be spun now as a Cong decision is wrong & a complete distortion of the facts, not surprising but incorrect nonetheless," he added.
Soni, who was flanked by Azad and JKPCC chief Soz, said, "Most of the wokers and leaders of Congress wanted us to go
it alone in elections".
The votes in the Lok Sabha election were not transferred to each other resulting in the debacle, she said, adding, "There was not much of help that came from our alliance partner in previous elections".
Azad said the party wants to emerge as the single largest party in the state and it will focus on completing pending projects in the state.
National Conference and Congress entered into a post-poll alliance following a hung verdict in the 2008 Assembly elections in the state.
Although the coalition government has almost completed its term of six years, the sailing for the two parties has not been smooth as second rung leaders from both parties have indulged in public spats over many issues.
The NC and the Congress contested the recent Lok Sabha poll together and were routed by
the Opposition — PDP and BJP — on all six seats. While the Congress lost Jammu, Udhampur and Ladakh seats to
the BJP, the PDP made a clean sweep against the NC in the three seats of the
Valley.
Congress decision to go alone in the Assembly election has sparked hope of a better showing than the LS
poll among the younger leaders of the party.
"I welcome the decision of the Congress Party to contest the J&K election on its own. This respects the sentiments of our workers," Salman Soz, who is a media panelist for the party, said.
"By not forming a pre-poll alliance with any party, the Congress expands choice in J&K. This is good for the people of J&K and good for the party," he added. — PTI
INLD not to have pre-poll alliance
NEW DELHI: Ahead of the Assembly poll due in Haryana later this year, the Indian National Lok Dal
(INLD) said it would not enter into a pre-poll alliance with the BJP or any other party.
Dushyant Chautala, 26, the youngest member of Parliament and a leader of INLD today said, "Our party made a decision on April 15, 2014, that we will fight from all the 90 Assembly constituencies in
Haryana. At that time, the results of Lok Sabha election were not even declared. We are ready to fight alone. The party leadership will decide if there is any probability of a post-poll alliance."
The MP from Hisar Lok Sabha constituency said the BJP won't be able to repeat its performance as in the Lok Sabha poll, as it has a leadership crisis in
Haryana.
Attacking the Bhupinder Singh Hooda-led government's advertisement "No. 1
Haryana", Chautala said Chief Minister Hooda says there has been development in the state. But the truth is only few people have benefited. If you see
Gurgaon, only property dealers have benefited there. Development has occurred only in papers but not in reality." — PTI
Pak Rangers target 15 border outposts
JAMMU: In a major ceasefire violation, Pakistan Rangers indulged in heavy firing and shelling on 15 border outposts and several villages along the
international border in Jammu district, damaging houses and livestock.
There was heavy firing and shelling of mortar bombs targeting 15 border outposts (BoPs) and several border hamlets in Arnia and R S Pura belts of Jammu district since 0200 hours today, a senior government official told PTI.
Voicing concern over repeated ceasefire violations, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah today said Prime Minister Narendra Modi should take up the issue with Pakistan.
The official said BSF troops guarding the borderline retaliated to Pakistan shelling, resulting in exchanges, which continued till this morning.
Three heads of cattle were killed and six injured due to mortar shell blast, he said, adding houses were also damaged.
There was no official word on the firing from BSF in Jammu frontier.
Villages and BoP areas of Bakarpur, Gharna, Sai, Kaku-de-Kothey, Pittal, Pindi and Suchetgarh were affected in the fresh round of firing by the forces from across the border.
Villagers preferred to remain indoors and avoided working in their fields, the official said.
Ajit Singh, Deputy Commissioner of Jammu, rushed to Arnia belt and reviewed the security measures for the people.
"We have already identified accommodation for providing safe shelter to border population in case the firing from Pakistan escalates," Sahu said.
Shant Manu, Divisional Commissioner of Jammu region, said Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, who had come to Jammu, had reviewed the situation arising from escalation in firing and shelling from Pakistan.
"We are not worried about China now because they don't harm us anymore. But it (ceasefire violation) has increased from Pakistan's side and is a matter of great concern as they are hampering life.
"I want the Prime Minister to talk to Pakistan authorities that it's not right," Omar said.
"Modi has good relations with Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and they communicate on Twitter. So they should also get this message that India wants peace, friendship and good relations and the way they are harming through ceasefire violation is not right," he added.
This is the fifth ceasefire violation since July 16. On July 18, Pakistan Rangers targeted BoPs with small arms and automatic weapons along IB in Arnia belt of Jammu district. — PTI
Govt deploys 2,000 extra BSF troops along
Pak border in Jammu
NEW DELHI: To check infiltration bids, nearly 2,000 additional Border Security Force (BSF) personnel and special surveillance
equipment have been deployed along the international border in Jammu region for effective domination of the areas.
The additional manpower, surveillance equipment, vehicles and other infrastructure support have been moved into the border
along Pakistan to strengthen intelligence network, coordination with sister agencies and conduct special operations along the
border.
Home Ministry officials said vulnerability mapping of the Border Out Posts (BOPs), which are sensitive with regard to
infiltration, have been carried out and the additional resources have been deployed there.
Continuous efforts are being made to deploy the latest surveillance equipment, fully fitted with day and night vision
devices, for further enhancing the border domination, the officials said.
The Home Ministry has also directed for effective domination of the border by carrying out round-the-clock surveillance of
the borders through patrolling, border ambushes and by deploying observation posts all along the international border.
The riverine segments of international border being patrolled and dominated with the help of water crafts and speed boats of
BSF’s water wings, the officials said.
Security forces have killed five infiltrators and apprehended 13 others in Jammu and Kashmir this year so far.
In 2013, 39 infiltrators were killed and 16 others were apprehended in the state. A total of 16 infiltrators were killed and
nine others were apprehended in Jammu and Kashmir in 2012.— PTI
Bodies of MH17 victims put on refrigerated train bound for rebel-held city
HRABOVE: Armed rebels forced emergency workers to hand over all 196 bodies recovered from the Malaysia Airlines crash site and then had them loaded onto
a refrigerated train bound for a rebel-held city, Ukrainian officials and monitors said on Sunday.
The surprising, rapid-fire developments on Sunday morning came after a wave of international outrage over how the bodies of plane crash victims were being handled and fears that the armed rebels were tampering with evidence at the crash site.
Ukraine and the separatists accuse each other of firing a surface-to-air missile at Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 as it flew from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur some 33,000 feet (10,000 meters) above the battlefields of eastern Ukraine. Both deny shooting down the plane. All those onboard the flight — 283 passengers and 15 crew — were killed.
Ukraine says Russia has been sending sophisticated arms to the rebels, which Moscow denies. The crash site is close to the Russian border.
The rebels have been strictly limiting the movements of international monitors and journalists at the crash site, and Ukraine's
Emergency Ministry said its workers were laboring under duress and forced to hand over the bodies to the armed rebels.
Associated Press journalists saw reeking bodies baking in the summer heat Saturday, piled into body bags by the side of the road or still sprawled where they landed in the verdant farmland in eastern Ukraine after their plane was shot out of the sky Thursday.
By Sunday morning, AP journalists saw no bodies and no armed rebels at the crash site. Emergency workers were searching the sprawling fields only for body parts.
It was immediately not clear Sunday if the rebels and the Ukrainian government were working together or at odds with each other on the bodies — and from their comments, many of officials didn't appear to know either.
Nataliya Khuruzhaya, a duty officer at the train station in Torez, 15 km from the crash site, said she saw emergency workers loading plane victims' bodies on Sunday morning into five sealed, refrigerated
train bogies .
She said the train was scheduled to head to the town of Ilovaysk, 35 km further east toward the Russian border, but no instructions had been given about when it would leave or any possible destinations beyond Ilovaysk.
Russian news agencies said the bodies were heading to the rebel stronghold of Donetsk. Ukrainian officials say they expect to have the bodies eventually delivered to government-held city of Kharkiv, but it's unclear if the rebels will agree to do so.
Earlier, Ukrainian emergency ministry spokeswoman Nataliya Bystro said recovery workers in the rebel-held territory were forced to give the bodies to the armed gunmen and didn't know where they were going.
"Where they took the bodies — we don't know," Bystro told Associated Press on Sunday.
Separatists were not immediately available to comment on her statement.
Alexander Pilyushny, an emergency worker combing the crash site for body parts Sunday morning, told the AP it took the rebels several hours to take away the bodies on Saturday. He said he and other workers had no choice but to hand the bodies over to the rebels.
"They are armed and we are not," Pilyushny said. "The militiamen came, put the bodies onto the trucks and took them away somewhere."
Neither Bystro nor Pilyushny could explain what happened to the 102 bodies of plane victims that have not yet been recovered.
The US has pointed blame for downing the plane at the separatists, saying Washington believes the jetliner was probably downed by an SA-11 missile from rebel-held territory and "we cannot rule out technical assistance from Russian personnel."
An Associated Press journalist saw a Buk missile launcher in rebel-held territory close to the crash site Thursday just hours before the plane was brought down.
The latest US intelligence assessment suggests that more than one missile system was given to the separatists by the Russians in the last week or so. But both Russia and the rebels vehemently deny any role in downing the plane.
In a blistering article for the Sunday Times, British Prime Minister David Cameron called the attack a "direct result of Russia destabilizing a sovereign state, violating its territorial integrity, backing thuggish militias and training and arming them."
"We must turn this moment of outrage into a moment of action," he wrote.
In a coded rebuke of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other European leaders who have blocked efforts to impose tougher sanctions on Russian President Vladimir Putin for Russia's actions in Ukraine, Cameron said Europe must now "respond robustly."
"For too long, there has been a reluctance on the part of too many European countries to face up to the implications of what is happening in eastern Ukraine," Cameron wrote.
Despite calls by world leaders for an independent, international investigation into the plane's downing, armed separatists limited observers' access to the crash site for the first few days.
The US State Department described the rebels' refusal to give monitors a full access to the site "an affront to all those who lost loved ones and to the dignity the victims deserve."
Despite the restrictions seen by journalists and observers at the crash site, separatist leader Alexander Borodai insisted Saturday the rebels have not in any way interfered with the work of observers.
The Dutch led the way in outrage over how the victims' bodies were being treated.
"The news we got today of the bodies being dragged around, of the site not being treated properly, has really created a shock in the Netherlands," Dutch foreign minister Frans Timmermans told the Ukrainian president in Kiev on Saturday. "People are angry, are furious at what they hear."
Timmermans demanded that the culprits be found.
"Once we have the proof, we will not stop until the people are brought to justice," he said.
Putin and Merkel agreed on Saturday in a phone call that an independent commission led by the International Civil Aviation Organization should be granted swift access to the crash site. — AP
Death toll nears 400 in Israel's Gaza offensive
Gaza/Jerusalem:
Over 40 Palestinians were killed today in Israel's fiercest attack on Gaza since the start of its offensive 13 days ago, as the death toll in the conflict spiralled towards 400 after the Israeli assault was expanded to pound Hamas targets.
Hundreds of Palestinians fled in panic into Gaza City today as Israeli troops focused their firepower on the nearby town of Shaja'ia.
The shelling and bombing killed over 40 people and injured about 380 others, a Gaza hospital spokesman said.
More bodies lay in the streets under gashes blasted into apartment buildings, people who had escaped the violence said, as the shelling continued.
The Palestinian death spiralled towards 400, with medics warning it could rise further due to the ongoing bombardment of areas north and east of Gaza City.
The death toll on the Palestinian side included children and women, with over 2,500 injured and almost 61,000 displaced seeking refuge in 49 UN Relief and Works Agency run centres, sources in the Gaza Strip said.
Over 40 Palestinians were killed today, including Osama Al-Haya, son of Hamas leader Khalil al-Haya. The IDF bombed the house in which he was staying.
There were reports of multiple deaths in Israeli attacks on Shejaiya and the neighbouring Zeitun district, as well as in Jabaliya to the north. The streets of Shejaiya were filled with thousands of people fleeing for their lives.
Seven Israelis, including five soldiers, have been killed in the fighting and dozens others injured while a large section of the Israeli population struggles to carry out normal life under attack, trying to stay put close to safe shelters under instructions from the Home Front.
Four soldiers were killed yesterday, including two who died when militants disguised in military uniforms emerged from a tunnel shaft and opened fire at them inside Israel.
One of the militants was also killed on Israeli soil while the rest fled back to Gaza and were killed by a helicopter gunship.
Describing Israel's overnight offensive in Gaza as "a war crime", Hamas asked for a two-hour humanitarian ceasefire through Red Cross.
Hamas made the request around noon today to rescue the wounded and to retrieve the dead in the Saja'iyya.
Palestinians have released gruesome images of the dead and wounded, including children, who were killed overnight in the massive IDF attack in the area.
"The massacre of civilians in Saja'iyya is a war crime that will not break the will of our people. The resistance will not allow the enemy to trample over the soil of Gaza," Hamas' armed wing said in a statement.
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri accused Israel of trying to compensate for its failure in the campaign against the group's military wing by taking its revenge out on the civilian population.
The Islamist faction is trying to draw the attention of the international community, especially the Arab world, to pressurise Israel to end its operation.
Amid raging violence, Qatar was to host a meeting between Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and UN chief Ban Ki-moon in attempts to reach a ceasefire agreement.
Abbas will also meet exiled Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal following his meeting with the UN chief, reports said.
The meetings come after French-led efforts to reach a ceasefire failed and Hamas rejected an Egyptian proposal.
The meeting in Doha will be headed by Qatar's emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, who has been acting as a "channel of communication" between Hamas and the international community, local media reports said.
Islamist Hamas' fighters infiltrated nearby parts of Israel via underground tunnels and clashed with Israeli troops yesterday. The clashes demonstrated how Israel's conflict with Hamas has now spilled outside, and even underneath.
"Controlling tunnel shafts doesn't give us full control of the entire tunnel," security sources said, adding troops have been focussing on destroying the tunnel network which have emerged as a major threat with some finding their way inside Israeli territory.
"The increased presence in Gaza is aimed at destroying Hamas infrastructure", the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said.
"In preparation for the mission, the forces have undergone an intensified training and thorough planning period and are prepared and stand ready for the task at hand," IDF spokesman Lt Colonel Peter Lerner said in a statement.
Sixty-two people in Gaza had been killed yesterday, the highest daily death toll so far, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
"We know that Hamas terrorists are operating underground, and that's where we will meet them," the IDF said, adding that it found 13 tunnels across Gaza, with 34 access points.
In one of the foiled infiltrations, a killed Hamas fighter was found with tranquilizers and cuffs, "carried with intention to abduct Israelis," the Israeli military said.
The Israeli military also encountered a suicide donkey, one loaded with explosives, approaching soldiers near Rafah.
The troops fired on the animal, detonating the bombs and killing the donkey on Friday night.
Warnings of rockets sounded yesterday over the Israeli cities of Ashkelon, Rishon Letzion, Rehovot and Beer Sheva.
Militants in Gaza have launched 1,770 rockets on Israel since the start of Operation Protective Edge on July 8, the IDF said. The Israeli anti-missile defence system, Iron Dome, is said to have intercepted 360 of them. The IDF has struck "2,300 terror targets" in Gaza.
— PTI
Speaker's decision on LOP may be influenced
by govt: Amarinder
NEW DELHI: Questioning the delay in granting the Leader of Opposition's post to his party, Congress leader Amarinder Singh
today said no decision by Speaker Sumitra Mahajan in this regard till now has raised fears that she could be "influenced" by
the government.
The deputy leader in Lok Sabha charged the Narendra Modi government with being "petty" and "unfair" to the Congress in not
granting the official Leader of Opposition's post and feared that key appointments like that of Central Vigilance
Commissioner and others would not be made fairly.
"The Congress has formally written to the Speaker for over 10 days now, but she is yet to give her decision. I wonder what is
delaying the decision. The delay raises fears that her decision may be influenced by the government," the former Punjab chief
minister told PTI.
He said the Speaker does not belong to any particular party and is supposed to take decisions independently and cannot be
influenced.
Asked about the manner in which government was behaving on the issue of granting the post to Congress and also the seating
arrangements in Lok Sabha, he said, "Government is acting petty. They are being unfair to the Congress." He said if there was
no Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, key appointments will be made only by the government and that would not be
appropriate as their independence could be affected.
"The LOP has to be there. If you do not have an LOP then the independence of key positions like that of CVC could be
affected. If only the government would make such appointments, then that would not be appropriate," he said, adding that the
Congress has the option of going to court if it is denied LOP.
Singh also differed with his colleague Anand Sharma on arresting Ved Pratap Vaidik for meeting 26/11 mastermind Hafiz Saeed
in Pakistan and said, "There should be a probe and the matter be investigated first on whether Vaidik has links with an
anit-national. He could be detained first rather than arresting him straight away."
— PTI
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