Published from Srinagar | Jammu RNI No: 48956/88 Vol: 33 No. 154 Pages: 12 Rs. 5.00

THURSDAY, June 04, 2020 12, Shawwal, 1441 33rd Year of publication

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J&K BANK’S RECRUITMENT: GIVE WEIGHTAGE TO PREVIOUSLY SELECTED CANDIDATES: JKAP

News | Page 02

IAF starts work on 3-km long runway in south Kashmir‘It has nothing to do with Ladakh stand-off’

KHALID GUL

Pulwama, June 3: A Pakistani and two local militants were killed in an encounter with security forces in Kangan village of south Kashmir's Pulwama district on Wednesday. An army personnel was injured in the gunfight.

Police said the Pakistani militant was an IED expert and had participated in the Afghan war, identifying him as Abdul Rehman alias Fauji Bhai.

Two local militants, a police official said, have been identified by their families as Zahid Manzoor Wani of Karimabad Pul-wama and Manzoor Ahmad Kar of Siyun Shopian.

An official said police buried the bodies of the three militants in north Kashmir’s Baramula.

A police official said that in the wee hours a joint team of army’s 55 RR, police and the CRPF laid a siege in Kangan village on the basis of specific lead about the presence of mili-tants.

Huge success: IGP

1 Pakistani, 2 local militants killed in Pulwama encounter

SHABIR IBN YUSUF

Srinagar, June 3: Police today termed the killing of three militants in Pulwama as a "huge success."

“Fauji Bhai alias Abdul Rehman, a top bomb-maker of Jaish-e-Mohammad, was among three militants killed in an encounter with security forces in Pulwama today

SAQIB MALIK

Srinagar, June 3: Jammu and Kashmir admin-istration on Wednesday revoked the Public Safety Act (PSA) of bureaucrat-turned-politician Shah Faesal and two Peoples Democratic Party leaders - Sartaj Madani and Peer Mansoor.

All three leaders have been in detention since the Government of India abrogated the special Constitutional position of J&K and bifurcated the State into two Union Territories in August last year.

Omar welcomes; seeks release of Mehbooba, othersSrinagar, June 3: Former Chief Minister Omar Abdul-lah has welcomed the release of Shah Faesal and others but expressed disappointment over continuous detention of Meh-booba Mufti and other senior leaders.

Omar took to Twitter and appreciated the move of the administration but also expressed concern over continued deten-tion of Mehbooba Mufti and others who still remain detained under the PSA.

"Good to hear that Shah Faesal, Peer Mansoor & Sartaj Madani have been released from their unjust PSA detention. Disappointed that Mehbooba Mufti, Sagar

SHABIR IBN YUSUF

Srinagar, June 3: Amid the India-China stand-off in Ladakh, the Indian Air Force (IAF) has started construction of a 3-kilome-ter long runway along the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway (NH-44) in Bijbeha-ra area of district Anantnag.

The construction work

started on Monday and is going on fast pace. “The runway is being construct-ed by the Air Force,” Major General, A Sengupta, Gen-eral Officer Commanding (GOC), Awantipora-based Victor Force, told reporters during a press conference. However, he declined to fur-ther comment on the issue.

IAS topper-turned-politician Shah Faesal released from 10-month detentionPDP leaders Madni, Mansoor also freed

ZEHRU NISSA

Srinagar, June 3: Continuing with the rise in positive cases of COVID19, 139 new cases were reported today in J&K. A preg-nant doctor and 25 other pregnant women tested positive today.

Only 44 of the total 139 cases today are returnees from outside. Over the past week, the number of positive cases in J&K has been on a rise. In one week, since 29 May, 821 cases have added up to the tally, taking the total number to 2857. While initially the propor-tion of travelers among the total positives was high, the propor-tion has dropped in the past two days.

Plasma therapy safe, effective for severe COVID19 patients: Study

Jammu, June 3: The Government today

said that it has not taken any deci-

sion to reopen the schools on June 15 in Jammu and Kashmir.

This was stated by Lt Governor’s

Advisor KK Sharma, who is also in charge of School Education Department, an official handout said.

He, however, said that instructions have been issued to schools to ensure sanitization of school premises in view of Covid-19 across J&K.

Touching 9K cases a day, India crosses 2 lakh mark

India already Bharat in Constitution: SCNew Delhi, June 3: Hear-ing a petition seeking direction to the Centre to amend the Constitution and change the name of the country from India to Bharat, Chief Justice of India S.A. Bobde told the petitioner on Wednesday that India is already called Bharat in the Constitution.

While declining to enter-tain the plea, the top court said the petition could be

Giant asteroid to fly near Earth on June 6

London, June 3: Stricter lockdowns imposed earlier – such as the two-month intervention imposed in China – are economically preferable to more moderate lockdowns imposed for four or six months, according to a new modelling study pub-lished on Wednesday.

The researchers, includ-

ing those from Univer-sity College London (UCL) in the UK, assessed potential global supply chain effects of COVID-19 lockdowns, model-ling the impact of interventions on 140 countries, including coun-tries not directly affected by

the disease.The study, published

in Nature Human Behaviour, found that stricter lockdowns imposed earlier -- such as the two-month lockdown imposed in

China -- are economi-cally preferable to more

Jitendra Singh asks J&K Govt to defer re-opening schools, quarterly vehicle tax

9 more cases in Ladakh

IRFAN RAINA

Srinagar, June 3: Nine more positive cases of COVID19 have been reported in Ladakh on Wednesday, taking the total number of positive cases in the UT to 90.

Ladakh reported first COVID death on Monday after an elder-ly person from Leh died and his samples later tested positive.

Washington, June 3: NASA is tracking a giant asteroid which may be taller than the Empire State Building in the US, and it will be flying near the Earth on June 6 (Sat-urday).

Given the name rock 163348 (2002 NN4), the space rock is believed to be travelling at a speed of 5.2 km a second or 11,200 miles per hour and will pass by near the Earth's orbit this week.

According to the daily-star.co.uk, it is estimated to be between 250m and 570m (820ft and 1870ft) -- so it could be taller than

the Empire State Build-ing (443m or 1453ft) and the London Eye (135m or 443ft) combined.

The International space agency has classed the asteroid as an Aten asteroid, which is a space rock following a very wide orbit around the Sun.

Scientists do not think the asteroid will col-lide with Earth but will keep an eye on it in case it enters Earth's atmo-sphere by chance. Aster-oid 163348 (2002 NN4) is expected to zoom past Earth at 12:50 pm (IST) on Sunday this week.

IANS

ACB nabs former JK Cooperative Bank head

COVID19

J&K total 2857 with 139 new cases26 pregnant women, including a Baramulla doctor, among positives

Shorter, stricter lockdowns may be better for economy: Study

KASHMIR INC SEEKS ‘STIMULUS PACKAGE’ FOR REVIVAL OF ECONOMYNews | Page 03

inside

ZEHRU NISSA

Srinagar, June 3: An elderly Baramulla man who died on 29 May was reported COVID19 positive today, taking the death toll of the viral infection in J&K to 34.

The 86-year old man admitted at Trauma Hos-pital Pattan died on 29 May. His sample had been taken for COVID19 testing and it was reported pos-itive today, five days after his death. The delay in reporting the sample result of a deceased person, an official in the health department said, could put lives of family and others at risk.

Baramulla man reported COVID19 positive 5 days after death

IANS

New York, June 3: A new trial has found that con-valescent plasma therapy is a safe treatment option for patients with severe Covid-19 symptoms, say researchers.

For the findings, published in The Amer-ican Journal of Pathology, researchers from the Houston Methodist Hospital in the US began clinical trials to transfuse plasma from recovered Covid-19 patients into critically ill patients on March 28.

P RO POS E D R EO P E N I N G O F SC H O O LS

Govt to consult parents, sarpanchs and ‘stakeholders’

GK NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi, June 3: Union Minister of State in PMO, Dr Jitendra Singh, has asked the J&K government to defer plans for reopen-ing of schools and collec-tion of vehicle tax.

The move comes days after the department of school education asked

the school heads to put in place all precautionary measures as the govern-ment “intends” to reopen the schools from mid-June.

“Have spoken to #Jam-muAndKashmir UT Gov-ernment and suggested that decisions regarding 1) Vehicle Registration Tax and 2) Reopening of schools

No decision taken yet: Sharma

Mir Wasim/GK

Mir

Was

im/G

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Mubashir Khan/GK

See 1 Pakistani...on Pg-08

See J&K total...on Pg-08 See Baramulla...on Pg-08

See Touching 9K...on Pg-08

See Plasma...on Pg-08 See Govt to...on Pg-08 See Jitendra...on Pg-08

See Shorter...on Pg-08

See IAF starts...on Pg-08 See India already...on Pg-08

See Huge success...on Pg-08

See Omar...on Pg-08 See IAS topper-turned...on Pg-08

IANS

New Delhi, June 3: India witnessed closed to 9,000 new cases on Wednesday as the total case count of coro-navirus mounted to 2,07,615, the Health Ministry data revealed.

With 8,909 new cases and 217 fatalities report-ed in the last 24 hours, India is now poised at the seventh place on the world tally table with just 25,000 cases behind Italy.

Of the total cases 1,01,497 are active and 1,00,303 have been cured and discharged while 5,815 have died from the disease.

SYED RIZWAN GEELANI

Srinagar, June 3: The government has asked the school education depart-ment to hold d e l i b e r a t i o n s with the heads of the schools, sar-panchs and other stakeholders for proposed reopen-ing of the educa-tional institutions in J&K.

The directions have come in the wake of a DO by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to the J&K government seeking its feedback on the proposed reopening of the education-al institutions.

The MHA has asked all state and UT governments to send feedback within a week so that final decision is taken on the matter.

Meanwhile, Lt Gover-nor’s Advisor, K K Sharma who heads the education

GK NEWS NETWORK

Srinagar, June 3: Days after issuing lookout notice, Anti Corruption Bureau Wednesday arrested former chairman of J&K Coopera-tive Bank Ltd, Muhammad Shafi Dar in the alleged Rs 223 crore bank loan fraud.

“Dar who was evading

arrest since the registration of the case, was today arrest-ed and taken into custody. His interrogation is going on,” ACB spokesperson said in a statement.

The ACB Jammu, accord-ing to the statement, has con-ducted a preliminary enqui-ry into the alleged fraud.

See ACB nabs...on Pg-08

CMYK