KATHMANDU: There has been an escalated tension between the two nuclear powers – India and Pakistan—after both the countries have claimed of shooting down one another’s aircraft on Wednesday, reports have said.
Pakistani army has claimed they have shot down two Indian aircraft on Wednesday.
Maj. Gen. Asif Ghafoor, spokesperson of the Pakistan Armed Forces tweeted that Pakistani army shot down two Indian aircraft inside Pakistani airspace. According to him, one of the aircraft fell inside AJ&K while other fell inside IOK.
Ghafoor claimed that one of the aircraft fell in Pakistan-controlled territory while the other fell in the Indian side, according to India media.
Meanwhile, India has claimed of shooting down Pakistan F-16 that violated the Indian space on Wednesday.
India’s Home Minister Rajnath Singh is holding a high-level meeting in the Indian capital of New Delhi to discuss row between the two countries.
According to reports, two pilots are feared dead when an Indian Air Force helicopter – Mi-17V-5 — crashed in Budgam of Jammu and Kashmir this afternoon.
Tensions have escalated after Indian fighter jets crossed the Line of Control (LoC) and carried out “pre-emptive air strikes” targeting terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed’s camp in Pakistan.
India’s External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, who is currently in China, said the objective of the pre-emptive attack on the terrorist camp was based on attack on terrorism. India attacked the camp after Pakistani government refused to acknowledge and act against terror camps in Pakistan.
Meanwhile, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has called a meeting of the National Command Authority (NCA). It is a body that controls Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal.
Earlier on Wednesday, an Indian army official said the Indian air-force jets intercepted three Pakistani warplanes that crossed into the Indian side of Kashmir. (Agencies)
Also read: Pak. claims of shooting down two Indian aircraft; India follow-suits
INDONESIA: At least 60 people are feared to have been buried by a landslide at a gold mine in the island of Sulawesi, Indonesian.
Rescue and search for survivors operations are on, agencies quoted officials as saying.
According to Indonesia’s disaster agency, one person had been found dead. At least 13 people have been rescued so far, according to news agencies adding that it has been estimated that as many as 60 people are buried under landslide.
Despite the ban on small-scale gold mining, it widespread in rural areas in Indonesia. (Agencies)
HANOI: American President Donald Trump says North Korea could thrive economically if it would give up its pursuit of nuclear weapons.
North Korea could thrive very quickly as the other developed countries if it would denuclearize, Trump tweeted before sitting down with Kim later Wednesday in Hanoi.
“North Korea would be the same, and very quickly, if it would denuclearize. The potential is awesome, a great opportunity, like almost none other in history, for my friend Kim Jong-Un,” Trump tweeted.
Vietnam is thriving like few places on earth. North Korea would be the same, and very quickly, if it would denuclearize. The potential is AWESOME, a great opportunity, like almost none other in history, for my friend Kim Jong Un. We will know fairly soon – Very Interesting!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 27, 2019
Meanwhile, he asked the democrats in Washington why they did not tell North Korea to denuclearize during the eight years of the Obama Administration.
American Donald Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jong-Un are holding their second nuclear summit with a one-on-one discussion in the capital city Hanoi as the world is watching on curiously what negotiations will take place between the two.
The two leaders first met last June in Singapore, a summit that was long on historic pageantry but short on any enforceable agreements for North Korea to give up its nuclear arsenal.
(With inputs from Agencies)
NEW DELHI: The Indian airstrike in Pakistani territory this morning killed at least 300 suspected militants, news agencies said quoting an unnamed senior Indian official.
The Indian strikes on a training camp of a Pakistani-based militant group this morning have escalated tensions between India and Pakistan, who have fought three wars.
On Tuesday morning, Indian Air Force (IAF) jets crossed the Line of Control and destroyed terror camps in Pakistan, according to reports.
Reports said the IAF used laser-guided bombs in the air strike that lasted for 21 minutes. (Agencies)
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un arrived in Vietnam for the second round of summit with US President Donald Trump.
The second summit follows the first round of talks in 2018 in Singapore.
Ceremonial guards and flag-waving crowds welcomed him at the station, according to reports.
Likewise, US President Trump is due to arrive in Hanoi, the Vietnamese capital, on Tuesday evening.
The two leaders will meet for a one-on-one conversation on Wednesday evening, reports said. (Agencies)
KATHMANDU: Indian fighter jets have carried out surgical strikes on a terrorist camp across the Line of Control in Balakot, a town in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan, on Tuesday, reported a news agency.
According to the report, a group of 12 Mirage 2000 jets of Indian Air Force dropped 1,000 kilograms of bombs on the major terrorist camp and destroyed it completely.
However, major general Asif Ghafoor of Pakistan, in a tweet, said Indian fighter jets violated an agreed border between the two countries. Balakot is about 50 kilometers from the LoC.
The attack comes 12 days after Pakistan-based terror group JeM carried out the deadly attack in Pulwama which left 40 Indian soldiers dead.
Major General Asif Ghafoorn Pakistan army spokesperson, has alleged that the Indian Air Force (IAF) had violated the Line of Control (LoC).
Pakistan’s claim came amid escalated tension between the two nuclear giants following the February 14 attack by Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad that claimed lives of at least 40 Indian soldiers in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama district.
Amid heightened tension, Prime Minister Naredra Modi had said the security forces were given a free hand to retaliate the evil attack.
Payload of hastily escaping Indian aircraft fell in open. pic.twitter.com/8drYtNGMsm
— Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor (@OfficialDGISPR) February 26, 2019
WASHINGTON: U.S. President Donald Trump said he would be ‘happy as long as North Korea maintains its pause on testing of its weapon. He also said he was in no rush to strike a nuclear deal with its leader, Kim Jong Un, during their second summit this week, reports have said.
Trump and Un are meeting in Vietnam’s Hanoi on Wednesday and Thursday. The Hanio summit is being held eight months after their Singapore summit.
The two leaders have already pledged to work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.
Kim has already made his way across China by train for the summit. Meanwhile, media reports have said that North Korean state media has warned Trump to refrain from listening to U.S. critics who were trying to “disrupt the efforts to improve ties”. (Agencies)
DHAKA: The death toll from a fire in Chawkbazar, a centuries-old area in the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, reached to 70, officials said.
The toll could even increase, they said. So far, 70 bodies have been recovered for the wreckage of the building, officials informed. They said the number could rise further as the search is continuing, agencies said.
The fire that began a four-story building last night spread to nearby buildings in the area of Old Dhaka that which dates back to the Mughal period more than 300 years ago, reports said.
Officials have said that more than 50 people had been taken to hospital, some in critical condition.
Reports said about 200 firefighters fought for more than five hours to bring the blaze under control. According to reports, the building where the fire began had housed a plastics warehouse and contained flammable material. (Agencies)
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi received Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the airport signaling the significance that India attaches to its strategic relationship with Saudi Arabia.
The Crown Prince touched down in New Delhi late on Tuesday. PM Modi, in a break from normal protocol, welcomed the Saudi prince at the airport with a warm hug.
PM Modi later tweeted: “India is delighted to welcome HRH Mohammed Bin Salman, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia.”
Saudi Crown Prince’s two-day visit takes place against the backdrop of an escalation in tensions between India and Pakistan after the February 14 Pulwama terror attack in which 44 personnel of the CRPF lost their lives.
The terrorist attack by the Pakistan based Jaish-e-Mohammed Pulwama in India’s Jammu and Kashmir has heightened a sense of regional terrorism in South Asia.
On the 14th February, the militant group launched a suicide attack on a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) convey killing over 40 security personnel.
Pakistani spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) apparatus is still providing shelter to the anti-American Taliban group even as it had joined US-led allies on the war against terrorism.
What might be the Indian punitive action against Pakistan over the terror attack in Kashmir is still a matter of speculation. However, Pakistani-backed terrorism threat in the South Asian region is getting serious. Pakistani intelligence establishment still uses terrorism as its tool. Pakistan is a safe haven to terrorist outfits such as Jaish-e-Mohammed Lashkar-e Taiba, Hizbul Mujahideen, among others.
Pakistani spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) apparatus is still providing shelter to the anti-American Taliban group even as it had joined US-led allies on the war against terrorism.
It should not be forgotten that the ISI had used Haqqani Network to launch vicious attacks on the U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan as well as in the US Embassy in Kabul.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh, which has suffered from Pakistani-based terrorist outfits, has been cracking down on the ISI-backed terror groups, including Harkat-ul Jihad Islami in its territory.
What is even more worrying is that Pakistan uses the third-country ground for their hostile acts against its neighboring countries.
Pakistan has been using its proxy terrorist outfits against neighboring countries such as Afghanistan, India or even Iran. Pakistani intelligence facilitates the entry of Maldivian nationals in Afghanistan who are trained to become Jihadists in Afghanistan.
In fact, the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) faces an uncertain future with one of its members Pakistan, pampering various terrorist outfits.
What is even more worrying is that Pakistan uses the third-country ground for their hostile acts against its neighboring countries.
Defeating terrorism is not possible without a decisive action against Pakistan. One option would be a direct counterterrorism target on the Pakistani soil. But these need to be more than the U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan and Abbottabad raid that had killed al-Qaeda leader Bin Laden.
The question now is how Nepal engages with Pakistan and how it can play a key role in contributing to the security of neighboring India and the SARRC region.
We cannot afford to damage our relations with India at the cost of Pakistan. Nepal should remain alert on Pakistan’s activities and it should bolster counterterrorism cooperation with India, regional nations and the United States.
It is an open secret that Pakistan for long has been active in Nepal especially on the Indian border area. It has often come to fore how Pakistan used Nepal to transport fake Indian currency to India.
Prime Minister KP Oli telephoned Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi and condemned Thursday’s terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir. In a tweet, PM Oli stated he also conveyed ‘our heartfelt condolences and sympathies to the families of the victims’.
Pakistan’s ties with radical extremists remain a threat to Nepal as well. Pakistan should be held accountable for its terrorist tactics throughout the region. Nepal also should take a firm stand in forcing Pakistan in not harboring terrorist groups and protecting them or sponsoring terrorist activities against India or other countries.
Pakistan is reported to have inclined to operate from Nepal in launching terrorist acts against India. That is why it wants to maintain close diplomatic ties with Nepal. After two decades of Benazir Bhutto’s diplomatic visit to Nepal in 1994, Pakistani Prime Minister Shahid Khaquan visited Nepal on March 5, 2018.
Prime Minister KP Oli telephoned Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi and condemned Thursday’s terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir. In a tweet, PM Oli stated he also conveyed ‘our heartfelt condolences and sympathies to the families of the victims’.
However, a mere expression of condolences at the hour of crisis is not enough. Nepal needs to take concrete action in cooperation with India to force Pakistan in renouncing terrorist activities.