'Spy' YouTuber to be produced in Haryana court today as police remand ends
YouTuber and social media influencer Jyoti Malhotra, arrested on suspicion of espionage, will be produced before a court in Haryana's Hisar on Monday after a four-day police remand.Jyoti, 33, was among 12 individuals arrested earlier this month from Punjab, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh in connection with an alleged Pakistan-linked spy network operating in northern India.She was initially sent to police remand for five days and again appeared before the court on May 22. The court granted an additional four-day custody for further interrogation.advertisement
According to sources familiar with the matter, Hisar police won't be seeking her custody for a third time. Hisar police said last week that while no evidence had surfaced indicating Jyoti had access to any sensitive military or defence-related information, she was reportedly in contact with individuals known to be Pakistani intelligence operatives.Police sources claimed that Jyoti had been in contact with Ehsan-ur-Rahim, also known as Danish, a former staffer at the Pakistani High Commission, since November 2023.She was allegedly in touch with Danish during the four-day military clash between India and Pakistan that followed the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam, which left 26 people dead.Danish was expelled from India on May 13 for allegedly engaging in espionage activities.Authorities said Jyoti, who runs the YouTube channel called 'Travel with Jo', had travelled to Pakistan, China, Bangladesh, and several other countries in recent years.advertisementAccording to police, Pakistani intelligence operatives were attempting to develop Jyoti as an intelligence asset.Sources said that during questioning, she allegedly disclosed that she was in touch with Pakistani intelligence agents through encrypted messaging platforms such as WhatsApp, Snapchat, and Telegram.Investigators have sent three of the vlogger's mobile phones and a laptop for forensic analysis. Her four bank accounts are also under scrutiny.Central investigation agencies are questioning Jyoti and police from Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Maharashtra, Goa, and Uttar Pradesh have also sought to interrogate her.Inputs by Praveen KumarTune InTrending Reel
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The Hindu
34 minutes ago
- The Hindu
U.S. lawmaker tells Pakistan delegation to eliminate ‘vile' terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed
A senior American lawmaker has told a visiting Pakistani delegation, led by Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, that the country should do "all it can' to eliminate the 'vile' terrorist group Jaish-e-Mohammed as well as ensure protection of religious minorities. The Pakistani delegation met Congressman Brad Sherman on Thursday (June 5) , timing their visit to the U.S. capital around the same time as a multi-party delegation of Indian parliamentarians led by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor is in Washington DC. The all-party delegation is briefing key interlocutors about Operation Sindoor in the wake of the Pahalgam terror attack and India's strong resolve to fight terrorism emanating from Pakistan. In a post on X, Sherman said that he 'emphasised to the Pakistani delegation the importance of combatting terrorism, and in particular, the group Jaish-e-Mohammed, who murdered my constituent Daniel Pearl in 2002'. During my discussion with the #Pakistan delegation yesterday, I raised the critical issue of water for Sindh. The Indus River is the lifeline for tens of millions of Pakistanis, and protecting that water resource is vital. I am also very concerned to hear of unrest in the city… — Congressman Brad Sherman (@BradSherman) June 6, 2025 Terrorist Omar Saeed Sheikh was convicted of orchestrating the 2002 kidnapping and murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. Mr. Sherman said Pearl's family continues to live in his district and 'Pakistan should do all it can to eliminate this vile group and combat terrorism in the region'. Mr. Bhutto also landed in the U.S. at the same time as the Tharoor-led delegation. Mr. Bhutto met UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres with his delegation as well as Security Council Ambassadors in New York, and later travelled to Washington in Pakistan's bid to internationalise the conflict with India as well as the Kashmir issue but instead got instructed to deal with terrorism emanating from its soil. The U.S. lawmaker also told the Pakistani delegation that the protection of religious minorities in Pakistan remains an important issue. "Christians, Hindus and Ahmadiyya Muslims living in Pakistan must be allowed to practice their faith and participate in the democratic system without fear of violence, persecution, discrimination, or an unequal justice system.' Sherman further urged the Pakistani delegation to relay to their government the need to free Dr Shakil Afridi, who continues to languish in prison for helping the United States kill Osama bin Laden. 'Freeing Dr Afridi represents an important step in bringing closure for victims of 9/11,' he said. Afridi is a Pakistani physician who helped the CIA run a polio vaccination programme in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province to collect DNA samples of bin Laden's family. Afridi was arrested by Pakistani authorities shortly after the American raid on bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad in May 2011. In 2012, a Pakistani court sentenced Afridi to 33 years in prison.
Indian Express
42 minutes ago
- Indian Express
After Operation Sindoor, calculate
Writing a postscript to a military engagement that is barely four weeks old may seem premature, more so since Prime Minister Narendra Modi has declared that Operation Sindoor has only been paused. It may, therefore, erupt again. Picking through the smoke-and-mirrors accounts of the four-day clash of arms, one may still reach tentative conclusions and derive some lessons for the future. The aftermath of the four-day 'war' should be read together with the observations I made post-Pahalgam on the strategic calculus driving Pakistani actions, especially the intent of the remarks made by Pakistan Army Chief Asif Munir ('Desperate steps in desperate times', IE, April 24). Irrespective of which side caused more losses to the other, Pakistan has succeeded, at least temporarily, in 're-hyphenating' itself with India in the international arena, the great leveller being its nuclear status. There were heightened external concerns following the Indian attack on Pakistan's Nur Khan base, which is reportedly located near a nuclear command and control centre. Nuclear brinkmanship, implicit or explicit, will always be present in any India-Pakistan war or threat of war. One should also be cautious in claiming to have found 'space' for conventional retaliation under the nuclear overhang. No two military events are the same. The danger of nuclear war will persist as long as atomic weapons are deployed by both sides. The so-called 'space' is notional. In a different war scenario, it may evaporate without warning. A robust Indian response to a cross-border terrorist attack, which India wants to keep limited and non-escalatory, may be interpreted (though not intended) as India acknowledging Pakistan's capacity to hit back and raise the ante. India being committed to 'non-escalatory' action suits Pakistan fine. Is it necessary to make such a declaration? Perhaps India needs to adopt its own version of 'strategic ambiguity' in relation to Pakistan on the lines of the US posture in relation to Taiwan. We should also stop making repeated assertions that the next terrorist attack will invite Indian military retaliation. We should reserve the right to choose whatever may be the most appropriate response. Why tie our hands in advance? Creating a public expectation of a military response limits the options available to a leadership. There should be a whole suite of possible options to choose from — coercive, diplomatic, economic and financial, and combinations thereof. The pursuit of deterrence may be better served by keeping the other side guessing. Operation Sindoor has made it amply clear that China will keep upgrading Pakistan's military capabilities to serve as an effective proxy against India. China was instrumental in enabling Pakistan to acquire a nuclear deterrent even before India and Pakistan became declared nuclear weapon states. But it had been coy about this. With its enhanced military and economic capabilities, it is no longer defensive about its military alliance with Pakistan. The two-front challenge, which India has always been concerned about, is already here. Our strategic calculations and defence preparedness must reflect this reality. Operation Sindoor has provided valuable insights into the technological capabilities of Chinese weapons, the effectiveness of Indian weaponry in outsmarting some Chinese systems deployed by Pakistan and the battle tactics that Pakistan has learnt from its 'iron brother'. These lessons must be internalised in our military strategy and tactics. Credibility is the indispensable asset in handling the diplomatic and domestic fallout from any such crisis. Credibility, in turn, is a function of transparency. What the CDS very sensibly said recently about losses suffered by India in the military exchanges could have been conveyed in the earlier briefings by the Ministry of External Affairs and the armed forces. The'appropriate' time for such information to be released is before the inevitable deluge of misinformation takes hold. The question also arises: Did the all-party delegations sent out to various countries to present India's case have the same brief as the CDS? India still has a lot to learn about information management. One's own learning from several years of diplomatic work is that credibility is indispensable to good diplomacy. This applies to friend and adversary alike. There are some other points to consider. US President Donald Trump's unpredictability is a reality, as is his narcissist penchant for self-adulation. There is no need to rise to the bait and keep denying his role in brokering a ceasefire. A polite refutation having been made, one should move on. The partnership with the US remains important for India's economic and technological capacity building. Indications are that this partnership remains largely intact. One may have views about the efficacy of sending all-party delegations to various countries to present India's case, but it is a surprise that no such demarche was thought necessary for our immediate subcontinental neighbours. This contradicts the Neighbourhood First Policy. Engagement and a structured dialogue must be part of India's Pakistan policy. If nothing else, such dialogue may provide useful insights into the thinking of its rulers. Reliance on coercive instruments alone has not worked so far and is unlikely to in the future. Cross-border terrorism and the status of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir should be part of the agenda, but there should be a deliberate effort to reach out to other constituencies in Pakistan beyond the military and the political and bureaucratic elites. Pakistan is not a monolithic entity and one should not paint its people with the same brush as its entrenched elites. Domestic politics will influence foreign policy but foreign policy should not become a tool to be used in domestic politics. Diplomacy is outward-oriented. Its audience is the international community, including friends and adversaries alike. Inward-oriented diplomacy, seeking validation from a domestic audience, will undermine the pursuit of national interests. Pakistan has become an issue not just in, but of, domestic politics. It has become entangled with the politics of communalism. Pakistan should be dealt with as just another state that poses a foreign policy and security challenge to India. Its identity as an Islamic state should be irrelevant. Finally, while punishing Pakistan over cross-border terrorism, should there not be accountability for the security lapses that made ordinary Indian citizens vulnerable to the violent outrage in Pahalgam? Retaliation against Pakistan must not deflect attention away from the urgent need to plug the gaps that give our adversaries the opportunity to deliver such humiliating blows against us. The writer is a former foreign secretary
News18
an hour ago
- News18
Operation Sindoor: 6 Pak Jets Downed, Bahawalpur & Muridke Pegged On Apr 23, Say Sources
Last Updated: Top defence sources also said it was false that India came under pressure from the US or Donald Trump to enter a ceasefire with Pakistan on May 10 India downed at least six Pakistani jets as well as a military transport aircraft during Operation Sindoor, top defence sources have told CNN-News18. The terrorist headquarters of Bahawalpur and Muridke in Pakistan were chosen as the prime targets by the Narendra Modi government on April 23, a day after the Pahalgam terrorist strike, they added. Top defence sources also said it was false that India came under pressure from the US or Donald Trump to enter a ceasefire with Pakistan on May 10. 'The fact is that Trump and PM Modi never spoke. Even when JD Vance called, the PM was very firm and did not yield," these sources said. The Congress and Rahul Gandhi have been targeting the Prime Minister, asking why he had allegedly 'surrendered to US pressure". The sources said, 'Rahul Gandhi is being immature in targeting PM Modi on this count, and it will backfire on the Congress when Parliament begins." The Planning The sources said Muridke and Bahawalpur were proposed as the prime targets for India's strike at the long meeting that defence minister Rajnath Singh chaired with the three service chiefs, the chief of defence staff (CDS) General Anil Chauhan, and national security adviser (NSA) Ajit Doval on the morning of April 23, a day after the Pahalgam strike. The service chiefs had said at this meeting that they were fully prepared for the counterstrike. These options were laid out at the cabinet committee of security (CCS) meeting chaired by PM Modi on the evening of April 23. The PM had cut short his Saudi Arabia trip to return to India that day. Multiple dates were considered for the strike, and the time was decided to be between 12.30 am and 2 am. It was ensured that cameras must be able to capture the destruction caused at the targets even at night in the dark, top defence sources said. It was a conscious decision not to cross the international border or the Line of Control (LoC) for the strike, as India now had the capability to hit anywhere in Pakistan without crossing the border, the sources said. This ensured the safety of Indian pilots, learning from the Abhinandan Varthaman case during the Balakot strike in 2019. The Losses India ultimately struck multiple terrorist headquarters in Pakistan and PoK on the morning of May 7 between 1.05 and 1.30 am within 22 minutes. The CDS has recently admitted that India did suffer some combat losses in terms of jets in the initial stage of this operation due to 'tactical mistakes" but rubbished Pakistan's count of six Indian jets downed. Top defence sources said the government is inquiring into the reasons for these 'tactical mistakes" that led to a few Indian planes being downed. 'But all Indian pilots returned safe," the sources said. India, however, has confirmed inputs that over six Pakistani jets were downed in Indian strikes in the early hours of May 7 and May 10, alongside a C-130J military transport aircraft of the Pakistani army. Top defence sources said these include F-16 and JF-17 fighter jets of the Pakistani air force and a Pakistani SAAB-2000 AWACS. The Indian Navy did not enter the actual combat but was ready to go, the sources added. They said Pakistan feared that the Indian Navy could attack the Karachi Port, and this may have led it to wave the white flag. Advertisement top videos View All The emergency powers for procurement granted to the three service chiefs by the defence minister after the Galwan clash on the LAC in 2020 had played a significant role in the strong preparation of the forces for a war-like situation during Operation Sindoor, the sources said. Sources also pointed out that the multi-party delegations had been a good success, and opposition members included in the teams were decided by top ministers who spoke to their party heads. Salman Khurshid, Shashi Tharoor, Asaduddin Owaisi, and Kanimozhi were deliberate choices that sent a strong message abroad as well as domestically, the sources said. About the Author Aman Sharma Get breaking news, in-depth analysis, and expert perspectives on everything from politics to crime and society. Stay informed with the latest India news only on News18. Download the News18 App to stay updated! tags : donald trump Operation Sindoor Pahalgam pakistan terror Location : New Delhi, India, India First Published: June 07, 2025, 07:00 IST News india Operation Sindoor: 6 Pak Jets Downed, Bahawalpur & Muridke Pegged On Apr 23, Say Sources | Exclusive
