Heena Sharma Blog

In a major diplomatic achievement, India for the first time addressed the OIC meeting on Friday here, and asserted that the war against terrorism, which was destabilising regions and putting the world at great peril, was not against any religion. India's participation came despite strong demand by Pakistan to rescind the invitation to External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to address the grouping of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) which was turned down by the host UAE, resulting in Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi boycotting the plenary. "Terrorism and extremism bear different names and labels. It uses diverse causes. But in each case, it is driven by distortion of religion, and a misguided belief in its power to succeed. The fight against terrorism is not a confrontation against any religion," Swaraj, who is the first Indian minister to address the meeting of the 57 Islamic countries, said. Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, a senior mi...

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj is in Abu Dhabi to attend the foreign ministers' meet of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) states where she is expected to raise the issue of terrorism, amidst Indo-Pak tensions following the Pulwama terror attack. Swaraj will attend the inaugural plenary of the two-day meeting on Friday. It is for the first time that India has been invited to a meeting of the OIC, an influential grouping of 57 Islamic countries, as the guest of honour. India's engagement with the OIC comes in the midst of escalating tension between India and Pakistan. The ties strained further after Indian fighter jets bombed terror group Jaish-e - Mohammed's biggest training camp near Balakot deep inside Pakistan early Tuesday. Pakistan carried out a retaliatory aerial raid on Wednesday. Pakistan, a member of the OIC, tried to get Swaraj 'disinvited' from the Abu Dhabi meet following India's air strike on the terror camp in Pakis...

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has suspended all Indian applications to host future events for denying two Pakistani athletes visas to compete in New Delhi. IOC has also urged other international sports federations not to stage any competition in India. The Olympic committee also revoked the Olympic qualification status for the men's 25m rapid fire event from the New Delhi World Cup due to denial of visas to the Pakistani shooters in the wake of last week's Pulwama terrorist attack , in which 40 CRPF personnel were killed. “This happened in the interest of the other 500 athletes from 61 countries participating in the other events who are already in India for their competition.” India has accused its neighbour of not doing enough to control the militant groups responsible for the Kashmir attacks. Pakistan has denied any involvement. The IOC said the refusal of visas for competitors went against the principles of the Olympic charter relating to discriminat...

Prime Minister Narendra Modi continued shooting for a film in the Corbett National Park for his " propaganda and publicity " till the evening of February 14 despite the Pulwama attack taking place in the afternoon that day, the Congress on Thursday alleged, citing reports in a section of the media. There was no immediate reaction from the Prime Minister's Office and the BJP over the allegations. The opposition party also accused BJP president Amit Shah of " politicisation of terrorism " in his speech in Assam following the attack in which 40 CRPF jawans died after a Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist rammed an explosive-laden vehicle into the paramilitary force's convoy in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama . Shah, while addressing a public rally at Lakhimpur in Assam, had said that the sacrifices of the 40 CRPF personnel will not go in vain as there is a BJP government at the Centre now and it, unlike the previous Congress dispensation, will not "comp...

The Congress on Thursday hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the joint statement issued after his talks with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, saying the PM "forgot" to write the name of " terror nourisher " Pakistan in the document. The statement, issued hours after the Modi-Crown Prince talks, said the two leaders condemned the Pulwama terror attack in the strongest possible terms and called on all countries to renounce the use of terrorism as an instrument of state policy. However, it did not name Pakistan in this context. "Modiji on February 18 said 'the time for talks with Pakistan is over, and now action will be taken'," Congress' chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala tweeted. "Modiji on February 20 saying --India and Pakistan will talk as Modiji has been trying for since May 2014," he said, referring to a paragraph in the document that talked about the Indian and the Saudi sides agreeing onthe need for...

Tensions between India and Pakistan have escalated sharply after a suicide bombing in Kashmir killed 40 CRPF jawans, an attack claimed by Pakistan-based militant group Jaish-e-Mohammad . Prime Minister Narendra Modi has vowed a strong response to the attack and said he had given the military a free hand. Pakistan would retaliate if attacked, his counterpart, Imran Khan, has warned. The neighbours have twice gone to war over Kashmir since independence in 1947. Here is how their militaries stack up. MILITARY BUDGET In 2018, India allocated four trillion rupees ($58 billion), or 2.1 per cent of its gross domestic product (GDP), to support its 1.4 million active troops, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS). Last year, Pakistan spent 1.26 trillion Pakistani rupees ($11 billion), about 3.6 per cent of its GDP, on its 653,800 troops. It also received $100 million in foreign military assistance in 2018. Between 1993 and 2006, more than 20 per ...

Indian broadcaster IMG Reliance has withdrawn from its contract to produce coverage of the Pakistan Twenty20 league following the deadly Kashmir attack last week, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) announced on Sunday. The company was televising the Pakistan Super League , which is being played in the United Arab Emirates because of security concerns, and it was also due to televise the last knockout matches to be held in Karachi and Lahore next month. Forty-one Indian soldiers were killed in the suicide bombing which was claimed by a Pakistan-based militant group in the Himalayan region which was the deadliest attack in a 30-year-old armed conflict. The PCB said an announcement of the new live broadcasters of the tournament would be made on Monday. "The PCB always had a contingency plan in place, and we are confident we will be in a position to announce the new partner," PCB's managing director Wasim Khan said in a statement "The PCB has also noted the...

The CRPF on Friday said it won't "forget and forgive" but will "avenge" the death of 40 of its personnel in one of the worst terror attacks on its troops in Jammu and Kashmir . The country's largest paramilitary force put out a tweet from its official handle saying, "We will not forget, we will not forgive." "We salute our martyrs of Pulwama attack and stand with the families of our martyr brothers. This heinous attack will be avenged," it said in the social media post. The force said that "in memory of the martyrs of the terrorist attack ", all formations of the Central Reserve Police Force observed two minutes of silence and the force flag will fly half mast on Friday. The toll in the attack has risen to 40 even as a full Court of Inquiry has been ordered by the CRPF headquarters in Delhi. The over 3-lakh personnel strong paramilitary force is deployed as the lead combat unit against terrorism and insurgency in...

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday promised a strong response to a car bombing in Kashmir that killed 40 paramilitary that his government blamed on Pakistan, ratcheting up tensions with the nuclear-rival. The attack on a military convoy in Jammu and Kashmir where India has been battling an insurgency was the worst in decades and comes just months before Modi’s ruling Hindu nationalists face a tight general election. “ We will give a befitting reply, our neighbour will not be allowed to de-stabilise us,” Modi said in a speech soon after he called his security advisers to consider a response to the attack that has provoked an outpouring of anger on social media and demands for retribution. Paying tributes to around 40 CRPF personnel who lost their lives in the Pulwama attack , he said, "Our security forces have been given full freedom (to carry out anti-terror operations). We have full faith in their bravery." The Pakistan-based Islamist militant group Jaish-e...