logo
Major Search Operation In J&K's Kathua After 3 Suspected Terrorists Spotted

Major Search Operation In J&K's Kathua After 3 Suspected Terrorists Spotted

NDTV2 days ago

A major search operation is underway in Jammu and Kashmir's Kathua district after locals reported suspicious activity near a forest area, according to the police.
The operation was launched after a civilian spotted three suspected persons in Saladhi area of Hiranagar, the cops said.
A joint operation team is engaged in the search, and vigilance has been intensified in the area and along the highway.
A similar exercise was undertaken last Tuesday when security forces launched search operations in the higher reaches of Kathua district following information about movement of suspected terrorists, officials said.
Last week, Omar Abdullah took his council of ministers and the whole administrative set up to a resort in north Kashmir's Baramulla district for a meeting aimed at negating the perception of fear in the Valley. This came a day after a meeting of the council of ministers at a resort in south Kashmir's Pahalgam.
On April 22, terrorists attacked holidaymakers enjoying picturesque Pahalgam, in a lush valley beneath snowcapped Himalayan peaks. Survivors said the attackers separated the men, asked several about their religion, and shot them at close range. All 26 killed were Indian nationals, except one from Nepal. Most were Hindus. One was a Kashmiri Muslim who gave horse rides for tourists.
The Pahalgam attackers are still on the run.
Following the terrorist attack, the Border Security Force and Army troops were deployed across sensitive regions including Rajouri and Poonch, while the border force strengthened its forward presence in Jammu, Samba, and Kathua.

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

India's energy transition, grid security hinge on strategic diversification
India's energy transition, grid security hinge on strategic diversification

Business Standard

time21 minutes ago

  • Business Standard

India's energy transition, grid security hinge on strategic diversification

India's meteoric rise in clean energy is an irreversible trend. After all, 2024 proved to be yet another encore for the nation, as it accelerated its ascent among the world's largest developers of renewable energy capacity. With an impressive 220 GW of installed capacity as of March 2025– including a staggering 107.9 GW from solar alone – we've rightfully earned international recognition for our climate leadership. Yet beneath these headline figures lurks a vulnerability that threatens to undermine not just our energy transition but our national security itself: the dangerous concentration of renewable assets in just a handful of states. Between 2018 and 2024, just two states – Rajasthan and Gujarat – added a combined 18,382 MW of renewable capacity, while all thirteen of our northern and north-eastern border states together managed barely 3,384 MW, less than one-fifth of that amount. This glaring strategic vulnerability demands immediate attention. Consider the implications for a moment. A coordinated physical attack on energy infrastructure in just two or three western states could potentially cripple the majority of India's renewable generation capacity. As we increasingly rely on these sources for our energy security, such geographic concentration essentially creates a single point of failure. Would we concentrate our military assets in just two or three locations? Of course not. Yet somehow, we've allowed our energy infrastructure to develop precisely such a vulnerability. The problem isn't one of natural resource distribution. While Rajasthan's desert expanses may offer ideal conditions for solar power, many other states possess their own substantial renewable potential. The hinterland states of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and Bihar receive some of the highest solar radiation in the country. Himalayan states offer tremendous hydropower opportunities. The north-east possesses significant biomass potential. Why, then, has development been so lopsided? The disparity reveals as much a policy disconnect as natural limitations. Compare the growth rates: Himachal Pradesh saw just 7.7 per cent growth in renewable capacity while neighbouring Uttar Pradesh achieved 108 per cent. Nagaland managed only 13.7 per cent growth compared to West Bengal's 102.6 per cent. These stark contrasts cannot be explained by resource differences alone – they reflect structural barriers that market forces haven't overcome. Also, let's not get carried away with percentages – J&K and Ladakh's combined capacity addition over six years amounts to what Gujarat typically adds in just months. What's needed is central government intervention with purpose. Electricity sits on the concurrent list precisely to enable central action on matters of national importance – and few issues matter more than protecting our energy infrastructure from both physical and cyber threats. The existing approach to grid cybersecurity reflects a troubling tendency to secure systems as they are, not as they should be. India's Power Ministry has recognised cyber risks but largely treats them as technical problems requiring technical solutions. The reality is more fundamental: our grid's very architecture – its geographic concentration – represents an inherent vulnerability that no amount of software patching can fully mitigate. Security experts have long advocated "defense in depth" – multiple layers of protection that don't rely on a single safeguard. Geographical diversification represents perhaps the most basic application of this principle to energy infrastructure. A strategically distributed network of renewable assets would create inherent resilience against both physical and cyber threats – the energy equivalent of not keeping all eggs in one basket. The economic arguments against diversification don't withstand scrutiny. Yes, project development in Himachal Pradesh or Arunachal Pradesh costs more than in Rajasthan. But these calculations typically ignore the security premium that geographical diversification provides. When assessing project viability in remote or challenging regions, we must incorporate— the value of grid hardening in vulnerable zones, enhanced cybersecurity infrastructure for distributed assets, risk premiums for challenging terrain and integration costs for hybrid models that improve consistency. Regulatory frameworks must evolve to recognise both 'strategic premium' and 'cybersecurity premium' as legitimate components in tariff determination. Projects enhancing grid security through location diversity deserve differentiated tariff structures that acknowledges their contribution to national resilience. Fortunately, the same technologies making renewable energy increasingly competitive also enable more distributed deployment. Real-time analytics, AI-based intrusion detection, quantum-resistant encryption, and decentralised storage solutions can transform the challenge of managing distributed generation into a strategic advantage – creating a more resilient, secure grid architecture. The path forward requires targeted incentives for underrepresented regions: capital subsidies for hill states and the northeast, customized funding structure for difficult terrains, waived inter-state transmission charges, and expedited renewable certificate approvals. These investments in national security advance energy justice, rural employment, and balanced regional development. India's renewable energy journey stands at a defining moment. Our quantitative achievements deserve celebration, but the qualitative aspects – particularly geographic diversification for security and resilience – can no longer be ignored. We need a comprehensive national roadmap with firm milestones for distributed deployment, especially in strategic border regions and underserved areas. The concentration of renewable assets in just a few states might have expedited our capacity growth, but it has created vulnerabilities we can ill afford. Strategic diversification would inherently enhance security by creating natural redundancy, distributing critical infrastructure across jurisdictions, enabling more effective zero-trust architectures, allowing for isolated operation of grid segments if compromised, and dramatically reducing the impact radius of successful attacks. By transforming India's renewable energy landscape from centralised hotspots to a strategically distributed network, we can ensure that clean energy powers not just our economy but our national security for generations to come.

Findings to spruce up economic data, urban-rural gauges
Findings to spruce up economic data, urban-rural gauges

Business Standard

time21 minutes ago

  • Business Standard

Findings to spruce up economic data, urban-rural gauges

The upcoming population census will improve the representativeness of sample surveys conducted to track important economic metrics and the changing equations between urban and rural agglomerations in the country, thus aiding more informed policy making, experts reckoned. Pronab Sen, former chief statistician of India says that the recent surveys being conducted by the National Statistics Office (NSO) have become less reliable as they have been drawing their samples from the previous census, which was conducted way back in 2011. 'The new census data will help in improving the samples that are used for NSO surveys, thus increasing their representativeness of the things happening in the Indian economy, particularly on parameters like consumption, health and labour markets,'he noted. TCA Anant, adjunct professor, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, and a former chief statistician said the census will be helpful in determining the true extent of urbanisation as well as the gender mix of the population. 'A lot of economic data is based on samples drawn from rural and urban stratums. Data on rural-urban division is quite fuzzy. From the time the last census was conducted, urbanisation has occurred at a rapid pace and we have been underestimating it since then… so the new data will help define urban-rural areas better,' he said. The next census' findings will also help identify the extent of India's ageing population and vulnerability levels. 'We have no reliable estimates of the senior citizens in the country, which affects our measure of the penetration of pension products in the country,' pointed out said Mukesh Anand, assistant professor at the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy. PC Mohanan, former acting chairman of the National Statistical Commission, said the Census 2027 data will be helpful to arrive at better estimates of employment indicators, particularly for the Periodic Labour Force Surveys (PLFS) and the Reserve Bank of India's KLEMS database. Moreover, the universal survey's data will also be used to update the National Population Register. 'However, one thing that will be a bit tricky will be the conduct of caste census, as the government is yet to come up with the methodology and the questionnaire,' Mohanan averred. In 2023, Shamika Ravi, member EAC-PM had said all major surveys in India that were conducted after 2011, and used the Census 2011 for the sampling frame, have significantly overestimated the proportion of the rural population.

Army ramps up trials of indigenous drones, loitering ammunition after Op Sindoor
Army ramps up trials of indigenous drones, loitering ammunition after Op Sindoor

India Today

time29 minutes ago

  • India Today

Army ramps up trials of indigenous drones, loitering ammunition after Op Sindoor

After Operation Sindoor, the Army has intensified efforts to boost its air defence and battlefield readiness by testing a wide range of homegrown defence technologies. These include drones, loitering munitions, radar systems, and electronic warfare platforms -- all being put through rigorous trials at multiple field firing ranges across the Operation Sindoor, loitering munitions — unmanned aerial weapons that hover over an area before striking a target — were widely deployed, and hundreds of enemy drones from Pakistan were detected and neutralised by India's air defence the Army is building on those lessons by conducting field trials of indigenous systems at locations like Pokhran, Babina, and Joshimath, with dedicated air defence demonstrations underway in Agra and Gopalpur. These trials are designed to simulate real combat conditions, including the use of electronic warfare tools to assess how modern military systems perform under pressure. The platforms under evaluation include the unmanned aerial system, precision-guided munitions, drone systems that can fly without a runway, counter drone solutions, loitering munitions, drones with special vertical launch, precision multi-munition delivery systems, integrated drone detection and interdiction systems, light radars that work at low altitudes and electronic warfare to the Indian Army, all these state-of-the-art technologies are being tested keeping in mind the needs of the future battlefield. The aim is to rapidly adopt new technologies in accordance with the changing conditions of the field trials aim to evaluate new-age battlefield technologies under near-combat conditions, including integrated electronic warfare (EW) InTrending Reel

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store