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J&K: Govt employee arrested for ‘anti-national’ social media posts

Abid Bashir

Srinagar (NVI): A government employee, working in the higher education department was today arrested by Jammu and Kashmir Police’s Cyber Cell for running an anti-national campaign on social media.

As per the official release, a person identified as Tahir Nazir Shalla, working in the higher education department was arrested for posting the controversial stuff on social media, which as per the police was in contravention of social media policy for the government.

An official in the Cyber Cell said that the employee was allegedly running an anti-national campaign on social media and tried to create a fake narrative. “The accused was circulating highly seditious and provocative posts through his social media accounts, which were highly prejudicial to maintenance of law and order,” he said.

He said that the accused has been handed over to Police Station Sopore in northern district of Baramulla by Cyber Cell. “The employee has also been booked under relevant sections of law for further course of action,” they said.

Meanwhile, Jammu and Kashmir Police’s Cyber Cell said that it has identified many persons who are misusing social media by spreading false propaganda against the government.

The statement further read that the investigation has been set in motion to identify other persons involved in similar anti-State campaigns on social media and spreading false propaganda.

Earthquake tremors felt in Delhi-NCR

New Delhi (NVI): A 4.5 magnitude earthquake was felt in parts of the Delhi-NCR region this evening with its epicenter at 63 km south of Gurugram in Haryana, according to National Centre for Seismology.

Delhi-NCR region has recorded some low-intensity quakes in the recent past also.

Meanwhile, an earthquake of magnitude 4.6 also hit near Champhai in Mizoram earlier today.

(More details awaited)

PM condoles death of Sikh pilgrims in bus-train collision in Pakistan

New Delhi (NVI): Prime Minister Narendra Modi today expressed grief over the tragic demise of Sikh pilgrims in a bus-train collision in Pakistan’s Punjab.

At least 19 Sikh pilgrims were killed today when the passenger vehicle in which they were traveling was hit by a Karachi to Lahore train- Shah Hussain Express- in Sheikhupura district, Pakistan, Geo News reported.

“Pained by the tragic demise of Sikh pilgrims in Pakistan. My thoughts are with their families and friends in this hour of grief. I pray that those pilgrims injured recover at the earliest,” PM Modi tweeted.

According to the news report, the railway officials said that the accident took place at a train crossing without a barrier and all the wounded have been shifted to a nearby hospital.

It was also reported that all the bodies have been shifted to the hospital and rescue operation has been completed. The wounded were given first aid by locals at the time of the accident.

All the dead are said to be from one family and were on their way home from Nankana, one of the pious Sikh religious sites while eight others were hurt.

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan has also issued a statement expressing grief over the loss of lives in the accident and directed authorities to provide best medical treatment to the wounded.

Chief Minister, Punjab, Usman Buzdar also expressed grief, saying that he deeply sympathises with the victims. He gave directions for provision of best treatment to the wounded.

Meanwhile, train accidents in Pakistan have increased in frequency in recent years, according to reports. Last year in November, more than 70 people died when a Karachi-Rawalpindi train caught fire during its journey.

According to the Dawn, more than 100 train-related incidents occurred in 2019 alone, with several resulting in fatalities.

-RJV/ARK

Bangladesh COVID-19 tally surpassed 1.56 lakh

Bangladesh lockdown

New Delhi (NVI): Coronavirus cases in Bangladesh exceeded 1.56 lakh after 3,114 new cases were detected in the last 24 hours.

In addition to this, 42 new deaths were reported during this period, taking the total number of Covid-19 fatalities in the country to 1,968, according to United News of Bangladesh.

The daily infection rate was today recorded at 21.26 percent in the country.

So far, 68,048 people have recovered in the country after 1,606 more patients were recovered during this period.

Against the total number of detected cases, the recovery rate is 43.51 percent and the mortality rate is 1.26 percent in the country.

-CHK

Coronavirus cases exceed 2.21 lakh in Pakistan; death toll at 4,551

New Delhi (NVI): Pakistan reported 4,426 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, taking the nationwide tally to 2,21,896.

Meanwhile, 78 people lost their lives due to the deadly contagion, taking the total number of fatalities to 4,551.

Looking at the breakdown of cases, Sindh province has reported 89,225 coronavirus cases, highest among all the provinces, while Punjab has 78,956 positive cases.

On the other hand, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa has recorded 27,170 cases, Balochistan is at 10,666, Gilgit-Baltistan at 1,524, Islamabad at 13,195 and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir is at 1,160 cases so far, according to media reports.

A total of 1,13,623 patients have recovered from the disease so far, making it almost half of the total cases.

On a positive note, the recovered patients have surpassed the number of active 1,08,273 COVID-19 infections in the country.

-CHK

COVID-19 cases surpass 32,300 in Afghanistan; death toll tops 800

New Delhi (NVI): The Afghan authorities confirmed 302 new coronavirus cases in Afghanistan in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 32,324, according to Afghan media reports.

The country’s Ministry of Public Health said, 17,331 people have been cured and discharged so far, while 819 died from the respiratory disease in Afghanistan.

Among the fresh cases, Herat was on the top of the list with 43 new cases while Nuristan was at the bottom with one positive case in a day.

The ministry also reported 12 new deaths, those deaths were reported in Kabul (6), Kandahar (3), Paktia (2) and Takhar (1).

Kabul once again was on the top of the list of recoveries with 1,150 recovered cases in the last 24 hours followed by Paktia (57), Samangan (28), Kandahar (23), Takhar (20) and Uruzgan (12), as per the reports.

Meanwhile, the ministry has also conducted 74,287 tests since February across the country. These latest figures’ release came as the country is facing shortage of the testing kits.

-RJV

Hundreds of elephants die mysteriously in Botswana

Satellite image of some of the elephant carcasses. (Source: The Guardian)

New Delhi (NVI): Hundreds of elephants have died mysteriously in Botswana’s famed Okavango Delta.

The landlocked southern African country has the world’s largest elephant population, estimated to be around 1,30,000.

A cluster of elephant deaths was first reported in the Okavango Delta in early May, with 169 individuals dead by the end of the month. By mid June, the number had more than doubled, with 70 percent of the deaths clustered around waterholes, according to The Guardian.

The wildlife department has ruled out the possibility of poaching as the tusks were found intact.

Parveen Kaswan, IFS, also tweeted in this regard and stated, “Around 500 elephants have died in Botswana in last few days. Described as a ‘conservation disaster’ in which elephants are dying mysteriously in clusters. Tragic.”

The Botswana government has not yet tested samples so there is no information on what is causing the deaths or whether they could pose a risk to human health.

“This is a mass die-off on a level that hasn’t been seen in a very, very long time. Outside of drought, I don’t know of a die-off that has been this significant,” reported The Guardian, as told by Niall McCann, the director of conservation at UK-based charity National Park Rescue.

However, there have been no reports of elephant deaths in neighbouring countries.

-CHK

Nepal coronavirus tally exceeds 15,000-mark

New Delhi (NVI): The COVID-19 cases in Nepal saw a jump of 740 in the last 24 hours, taking the total number to 15,259 in the country, according to local media reports.

The country’s Ministry of Health and Population said that, this is the highest recorded single-day spike till date in the country.

The ministry also said that, as many as 823 people were discharged from various health facilities upon recover in past 24 hours.

So far, 6143 patients have recovered from the deadly disease.

Meanwhile, one more death was reported today, a 85-year-old male, resident of New Baneshwar in Kathmandu, who was a hypertensive, had Parkinson’s disease and was diagnosed with COVID-19 virus.

He was admitted to a private hospital in the city following complaints of chest pain and urinary issues and was treated in isolation at the hospital’s ICU.

With this, Nepal’s Covid-19 death toll has climbed to 32.

Apart from this, 4,483 swab samples were tested in a day. In total, Nepal has tested over 2,40,000 people for coronavirus so far.

-RJV

WATCH | Give space to elephants or they will create their own!

New Delhi (NVI): The cases of human-animal conflict in India are not new and as we delve deeper into the 21st century, such occurrences don’t cease to surprise us with every passing year.

With expanding concrete jungles, we can’t turn a blind eye to nature. A sensible infrastructure and sensitising people or tourists in wildlife areas is the key to peaceful co-existence.

Here are two such instances that explain why we need special care in wildlife areas and how human infrastructure creates a hindrance to wildlife sometimes.

In an old video shared by an Indian Forest Officer, a herd of elephants is seen pushing two cars in the Bhakrakot area, close to the Corbett Tiger Reserve (CTR) in Uttarakhand.

The video shows an intense road-rage moment as some pachyderms try to make a way for their herd and little ones. In fact, the cars which were pushed by the elephants belonged to tourists who had parked them in the forest area without any valid permission.

However, no one is reported to be injured in the incident and after pushing the cars to some extent, the herd comprising nearly a dozen elephants leave the scene.

In the second video, a mother elephant and her calf can be seen struggling to climb up a road. Such construction of the road in a wildlife area makes it difficult for these animals to pass.

While the mother is able to climb with some effort, the calf is left behind. The baby elephant is finally able to climb on the green patch above the road with the help of his mother, who uses her trunk to pull him up.

The whole scene is captured by a lorry driver on a mobile phone in Kerala.

It is pertinent to mention here that there are wildlife corridors in the country to take care of the animal-human conflict. Yet, data from the environment ministry has shown that by 2018, on average at least 80 elephants were being killed annually by electrocution, poaching, train accidents, and poisoning.

Elephant, being a large herbivorous animal, needs vast areas to roam: browsing, foraging, moving from place to place in search of food and water with the changing seasons.

According to a report, wildlife corridors, used by various species to migrate, breed and feed, are increasingly becoming relevant as essential tools for wildlife conservation. Rapid increase in industrial and infrastructural development, especially around forests, has resulted in widespread habitat fragmentation and isolation.

There are 88 identified elephant corridors in India. Of these, 12 are in northwestern India, 20 in central India, 14 in northern West Bengal, 22 in northeastern India and 20 in southern India. Of the total, 77.3 per cent of the corridors are being regularly used by elephants. The least fragmentation was noted in southern India.

-ARK

India extends ban on international flights till July 31

domestic flights
Representational/file image

New Delhi (NVI): India today further extended the ban on internationals flights till July 31 in the wake of coronavirus pandemic even as the Unlock 2 phase has been rolled out. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) while announcing the ban today, said that only cargo and flights approved by the DGCA will be allowed.

Some scheduled international flights may be permitted on a case to case basis on select routes, the aviation regulator added.

Earlier in its June 26 circular, the DGCA said it was suspending international passenger flights till July 15, 2020. However, it further extended the deadline till July 31, 2020.

A circular released by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) stated, “In partial modification of circular dated 26-6-2020, the competent authority has extended the validity of circular issued on the subject cited above regarding scheduled international commercial passenger services to and from India till 23:59 hours IST of July 31, 2020.”

The official release further said that these restrictions shall not apply to international all-cargo operations and flights specifically approved by DGCA. “However, international scheduled flights may be allowed on selected routes by the competent authority on case to case basis,” it added.

India suspended all the domestic and international passenger flight services on March 23 to contain the spread of coronavirus pandemic.

Meanwhile, under the Vande Bharat Mission, Air India and other private domestic airlines have been operating unscheduled international repatriation flights, one of the largest initiatives to repatriate Indians stranded abroad due to COVID-19 pandemic.

-RJV/ARK

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