Daily Briefing: Kashmiri Pandit shot dead in Valley; Bilkis Bano and kin ‘numb’ over release of 11 convicts

In the third killing of a Kashmiri Pandit in the Valley since October last year, militants shot dead Sunil Kumar Bhat and injured Pritembar Kumar in Jammu and Kashmir’s Shopian. The Kashmiri Pandit Sangharsh Samiti (KPSS), an organisation of Pandits who did not leave the Valley in 1990, said the government had “failed” them and asked members of the community to leave the Valley.

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Bilkis Bano and her family has been left “numb, shocked and shaken” following the release of 11 convicts who were jailed for life in 2008 for gangraping Bilkis and killing 14 of her family members, including her three-year-old daughter, during the 2002 riots. “We had never even heard of the word ‘remission’. We didn’t even know that such a process exists,” her husband, Yakub Rasool, told The Indian Express.

What is the remission and premature release policy under which the Gujarat government allowed the convicts’ release? We explain.

From the Front Page

With its ship docking at the strategically important Sri Lankan port on Tuesday, China said the activities of its vessel will not affect the security of any country and should not be “obstructed” by any “third party” – a reference to India and its security concerns.

Seven Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) personnel died and 30 were injured after a bus carrying 39 security personnel, including J&K police officials, skidded off the road and fell into a riverbed near Pahalgam. The injured personnel have been airlifted to Srinagar for specialised treatment.

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A day after India celebrated 75 years of Independence, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh handed over several new defence systems, including the F-INSAS, the Nipun mines, the Landing Craft Assault (LCA), to the Army.

🔴 What is the F-INSAS system? F-INSAS stands for Future Infantry Soldier As A System, a programme for infantry modernisation aimed at increasing the operational capability of the soldier. As part of the project, soldiers are being equipped with modern systems that are lightweight, all-weather-all-terrain, cost-effective and low maintenance.

🔴 What is it modelled on? Conceived in the 2000s, F-INSAS is one among many soldier modernisation programmes across the world. The US has Land Warrior, while the UK has FIST (Future Integrated Soldier Technology). According to estimates, over 20 armies around the world are following such programmes.

Read our full explainer here.

“You don’t know what it is like to be lonely, until you spend time alone, wishing for companionship,” Tata Sons Chairman Ratan Tata said at the launch of the Goodfellow startup — a Mumbai-based initiative that aims to build nurturing fulfilling friendships between young graduates and senior citizens or ‘grandpals’. Tata provided seed capital for the start-up, which was founded by Shantanu Naidu, a close mentee and general manager in his office.

For the last two years, the Delhi Police has been using facial recognition technology to identify those accused in major clashes that have taken place in the capital over the last two years. Now, records show that police officials considered a match to be “positive” if there was an accuracy rate of 80 per cent. The records, shared under two RTI requests and reviewed by The Indian Express, throw light for the first time on how the Delhi Police uses facial recognition matches during investigations.

In our opinion section today, Abhishek Anand, Navneeraj Sharma and Arvind Subramanian write on the challenges faced by the power sector: “India has made impressive strides in increasing access to the quantity and quality of electricity and in expanding renewable capacity, for which the government deserves credit. But the financial health of the power sector is rapidly deteriorating and flirting with catastrophe.”

And Finally…

A suspension from international football, the appointment of a Committee of Administrators (CoA) to run the Indian Olympic Association (IOA), and uncertainty over hosting the hockey World Cup. Even as the dust settles over a successful Commonwealth Games campaign, Indian sport has been thrown into turmoil.

Delhi Confidential: During a video conference with state health ministers, it is learnt that Health Ministers from Congress-governed Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh remarked how Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya has been working closely with them, without any politics.

In today’s episode of the ‘3 things’ podcast, we discuss the state of the Indian economy after 75 years of independence and the areas that need our attention.

Until tomorrow,
Sonal Gupta and Rahel Philipose

Business As Usual by E P Unny