NEWS OF THE DAY Pulwama attack: Suicide car bombing returns to the Valley after 18 years

Suicide car bombing returned to the Kashmir Valley after 18 years on Thursday, when a vehicle loaded with explosives rammed into a CRPF bus near Pulwama. While there were 2,547 CRPF personnel in the 78-vehicle convoy, the bus that bore the direct impact of the explosion was transporting 37 troops.

Officials said they were struggling to count the dead as the bodies had been mutilated beyond recognition by the explosion.

In 2001, at least 38 people were killed when a car full of explosives drove into the J&K legislative Assembly complex. That attack was claimed by the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM).

Thursday’s incident, in which 37 personnel were killed, was also claimed by the JeM.

1. Vijay Kumar, advisor to J&K Governor Satyapal Malik, told The Hindu that while this was not the first time such an attack had taken place in the Kashmir Valley, it had happened after “a gap.”

According to a senior Home Ministry official, the explosives-laden car had been driving beside the convoy and after moving ahead of it had suddenly turned back and rammed into one of the buses.

Mr. Kumar said more than 2,500 personnel had been travelling together as the roads had been blocked for many days due to snowfall and subsequent pile-up of traffic. “Due to snow and lot of blockade, the movement of vehicles was barred on the road leading to Srinagar. The convoy was coming from Jammu and the road opening party [which sanitises the route] was in place,” he said.

On reports that the suicide bomber’s car had been laden with RDX, Mr. Kumar said an expert team would reach the site of the attack on Friday to ascertain the nature of explosives used in the terror attack.

A National Investigation Agency (NIA) team, with a suitable forensic component, would also be leaving on Friday to assist the J&K police in forensic evaluation of the scene of crime.

JeM released a video claiming credit for the attack. They identified the attacker as Adil Ahmed Dar, a resident of Kakapora in Pulwama, who joined the outfit last year. In the video, Dar, who was seen sitting with sophisticated weapons in front of a backdrop of a black and white flag, was heard saying that by the time the video was released, he would be in heaven. JeM, headed by Masood Azhar, is backed by Pakistan.

Last year, 614 terrorist-related incidents were reported in J&K, the highest in the past six years. A total of 91 security personnel were killed in these incidents.

Home Minister Rajnath Singh tweeted, “today’s dastardly attack on CRPF in Pulwama (J&K) is extremely painful and disturbing. I bow to each and every CRPF jawan who has sacrificed his life in service to the nation. I pray for the speedy recovery of the injured.”

Trump to declare national emergency to build border wall

The move would help Mr. Trump get $5.6 billion for the construction of the wall that, he has asserted, is essential for national security.

 US President Donald Trump will sign an executive order declaring a national emergency, which will empower him to fund the construction of a massive wall along the US-Mexico border to prevent illegal immigrants from entering the country and curb drug smuggling.

The move would help Mr. Trump get $5.6 billion for the construction of the wall that, he has asserted, is essential for national security.

President Trump will sign the government funding bill, and as he has stated before, he will also take other executive action – including a national emergency – to ensure we stop the national security and humanitarian crisis at the border, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement.

The President is once again delivering on his promise to build the wall, protect the border, and secure our great country, she said.

The White House statement came soon after Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell made the move public.

“I had an opportunity to speak with President Trump and he, I would say to all my colleagues, has indicated he’s prepared to sign the bill. He also (will) be issuing a national emergency declaration at the same time. I indicated I’m going to support the national emergency declaration,” Mr. McConnell said.

On the Democrats saying they will challenge the move in the Supreme Court, Sanders said, “We’re very prepared, but there shouldn’t be [legal challenges]. The president’s doing his job. The Congress should do theirs.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that declaring a national emergency would be a lawless act, a gross abuse of the power of the presidency and a desperate attempt to distract from the fact that Trump broke his core promise to have Mexico pay for his wall”.

It is yet another demonstration of President Trump’s naked contempt for the rule of law. This is not an emergency, and the president’s fearmongering doesn’t make it one, they said in a joint statement.

He couldn’t convince Mexico, the American people or their elected representatives to pay for his ineffective and expensive wall, so now he’s trying an end-run around Congress in a desperate attempt to put taxpayers on the hook for it. The Congress will defend our constitutional authorities, they said.

Opposing the proposed move, American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said that Mr. Trump’s hankering for a wall at the southern border cannot be justified by calling a national emergency.

 This would be a clear abuse of presidential power — one that sidesteps the role of Congress in the appropriation of funds. Shame on any member of Congress who doesn’t clearly and vigorously speak out on this illegitimate invocation of emergency authorities, ACLU said.

Senator James Inhofe said Mr. Trump had no choice but to declare a national emergency.

I want to make sure this declaration has minimal, if any, impact on our military and reimburse all the necessary accounts affected by the decision. As I heard in a hearing yesterday, military housing and all military installations are facing disrepair and poor conditions. We cannot afford to allow them to be further impacted, he said.

SOURCE- THE HINDU

For a FREE DEMO call @ +91-88009-99280/84

Important Tags : Gktoday 2019 & Current affairs in Hindi & English / Today Current affairs / Daily Gk Update / Daily Current affairs / Today Current affairs in Hindi 2019 / Today GK updates /13 February 2019/ Banking Classes

shivam