QBullet: Pak Prepares for Military Challenges From India and More

1. ‘Pak Fully Prepared to Meet Military Challenge From India'

Pakistani defence forces have readied an “operational plan” to give a befitting response to any “misadventure from war-mongering India” and targets in India have also been selected for an immediate quid pro quo, a Pakistani daily said on Friday quoting defence sources.

Amid the rise in bilateral temperatures, the daily quoted defence sources as saying:

The sources said Pakistan would not digest any aggression from India, The News reported:

Source: The Hindu

Also Read: The Only Indo-Pak War is Between Politicians and the Media

2. Mumbai: Operations Post Sighting of Suspected Terrorists Over, Says Navy

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A high state of alert continues in Uran a day after five or six suspicious armed people were reportedly seen around the Naval Station Karanja near Uran. In a statement on Friday, the Indian Navy said that the operations based on Thursday's sightings of suspected terrorists are concerned are over.

The statement further added:

The Western Naval Command sounded a high alert along the coast of Navi Mumbai, Raigad, Mumbai and Thane after two school children in Uran reported five-six “suspicious men” in the area on Thursday morning.

Source: The Indian Express

Also Read: Mumbai High Alert Day 2: Search On as Cops Fail to Trace Suspects

3. ‘Congress Will Waive Farm Debt in 10 Days'

The Congress will waive the debt of Uttar Pradesh's farmers in just 10 days if it comes to power in the State, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi promised on Friday.

Addressing a meeting at the Chowk area here in the heart of the old city as part of his Deoria to Delhi Kisan Mahayatra, Mr Gandhi said since coming to power, the Modi government had waived loans worth Rs 1 lakh 10 thousand crore, but was mysteriously silent on it.

Mr Gandhi said the farmers trusted the Congress as it had fought to save their land, for instance in Bhatta Parsaul in western UP in 2011.

Source: The Hindu

Also Read: Will Congress' Farm Loan Waiver Gambit Work in Poll-Bound UP?

4. Delhi in Bind Over Bugti

The Indian foreign policy establishment is keen to continue to flirt with Balochistan's separatist movement in a bid to pressure Pakistan over its support to cross-border terrorism, but remains cautious about turning that dalliance into a formal marriage of interests.

Baloch Republican Party leader Brahumdagh Bugti, currently in exile in Geneva, has formally applied for asylum to India and his application is with the ministry of home affairs.

But while India remains willing to support Bugti's call for an end to human rights violations by Pakistan in Balochistan, senior foreign ministry officials told The Telegraph the Narendra Modi government is aware of the challenges that will come with granting him formal asylum.

Source: The Telegraph

Also Read: India Weighs Baloch Leader Brahumdagh Bugti's Asylum Request

5. BJP Plays Down Uri, Then Changes Tune

Worried that its claim of “success” in globally isolating Pakistan after the Uri killings would come unstuck -– Russia has sent its troops to Pakistan for joint military exercises and the US has refused to unequivocally back India – the BJP on Friday took the line that welfare of the poor, not Uri, would dominate its three-day national council that begins on Saturday.

BJP sources said that rather than the party attacking Pakistan, the government would let the army do the job. A 19 September statement from Lt General Ranbir Singh, the director general of military operations, was quoted like a sacred writ:

Source: The Telegraph

Also Read: Kashmir Kal, Aaj, Aur Kal: The Changing Rhetoric of BJP Leaders

6. Karnataka Signals Inability to Spare Cauvery Water for Tamil Nadu

Karnataka's legislature on Friday refused to share Cauvery water with Tamil Nadu, potentially setting the state on a collision course with the Supreme Court days after violence rocked capital Bengaluru over the sensitive issue.

Both the legislative council and lower house adopted similar resolutions saying that the river water will be used only for meeting drinking water needs of villages and towns in the Cauvery basin and Bengaluru.

The resolutions, however, did not mention the top court's order directing the state to release 6,000 cusecs (cubic feet per second) of water to the neighbouring state till 27 September.

Source: Hindustan Times

Also Read: Is the Cauvery River Dispute Meandering Off Course?

7. EU Threatens to Impose Sanctions on Pakistan Over Human Rights Violations in Balochistan

In what would be a shot in the arm for India's stand on Balochistan, the European Union on Friday threatened to impose sanctions on Pakistan for continued human rights violations in its biggest province.

Expressing solidarity with the people of Balochistan, European Parliament vice-president Ryszard Czarnecki has said the EU may impose economic and political sanctions on Islamabad if it fails to stop human rights violation in the province.

“I told the European Union during our human rights debate that if our partner countries do not accept human rights and standards, in this situation we should react and seek sanctions, like some moves in economic fields,” Czarnecki said amid the Indian government's moves to consider application to grant asylum to top Baloch leader Brahamdagh Khan Bugti.

Source: Economic Times

Also Read: For Talks to Happen, Pakistan Needs to Accept It is Wrong: Bugti

8. SC Notice to Lalu's Son, Shahabuddin

The Supreme Court today issued notice to RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav's son and Bihar Health Minister Tej Pratap and gangster-turned-RJD leader Mohammad Shahabuddin, seeking their response to a plea for an FIR against them for allegedly sheltering a person accused of murdering journalist Rajdeo Ranjan.

Rajdeo, 42, was shot dead in a busy fruit market in Siwan on 13 May 2016, following his critical reports on the murder of Chandrakeshwar Prasad's three sons, allegedly at the behest of Shahabuddin.

Source: The Tribune

Also Read: Tejashwi Yadav Evolved into a Natural Leader: Shahabuddin

9. Triple Talaq Has no Place in Secular India: Centre to Tell SC Next Week

The government is set to oppose the controversial triple talaq divorce route for Muslims during a hearing in the Supreme Court next week, ditching a neutral stand on the politically sensitive tradition that the government says has no place in a secular country like India.

According to Muslim personal law based on the Sharia, a Muslim man can divorce his wife by pronouncing talaq thrice, a practice seen as discriminatory against women.

Sources in the Union law ministry said that the government will base its stand on the example of around 20 Islamic nations that regulate matrimonial law.

Source: Hindustan Times

Also Read: Triple Talaq: It's Time To Make Chauvinistic AIMPLB Irrelevant

More From The Quint:

Make No Mistake, Pakistan Is Losing This Battle
For Talks to Happen, Pakistan Needs to Accept It is Wrong: Bugti
BJP's Kozhikode Meet Will Chalk Out Plan for Expansion in South
K'taka Resolution ‘Defies' SC Order on Cauvery: What Happens Now?