Jammu, Feb 27: The Indian Army on Thursday denied some media reports that said the army had suffered casualties in terrorist firing in Jammu and Kashmir’s Akhnoor sector.

The firing had taken place on Wednesday. A defence statement said, “Terrorists opened fire at an Indian Army convoy in Sunderbani, Akhnoor, yesterday. The firing was ineffective, and our own troops responded swiftly. Some social media handles are falsely claiming casualties to own troops. This is false and deliberate disinformation. Search operations are presently underway to neutralize the perpetrators.”

Reports said that terrorists fired at a vehicle of the Army in the Sunderbani area of the Akhnoor sector, but no casualty was reported in the attack.

Joint forces had started massive searches in the area after the incident on Thursday, but there were no reports of any ‘contact’ (exchange of fire) with the terrorists.

Due to scant snowfall on the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir this winter, intelligence agencies said all the traditional infiltration routes of the terrorists have remained open. To thwart infiltration from across the LoC, the army and the security forces are maintaining high vigilance on the LoC and the hinterland.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah chaired two top-level security review meetings on Jammu and Kashmir in Delhi earlier this month.

The Home Minister ordered the security forces to ensure zero infiltration and zero tolerance for terrorists.

Lt. Governor Manoj Sinha also chaired two security meetings, one in Srinagar and the other in Jammu. The L-G directed police and the security forces to dismantle the terror ecosystem by targeting terrorists, their overground workers (OGWs) and sympathisers.

L-G Manoj Sinha said that the funds generated by hawala rackets, drug smuggling and drug peddling are finally used to sustain terrorism in J&K, and the war against drugs is also to be seen as the war against terrorism in Jthe union territory.

Hyderabad, Feb 27: The operation to rescue eight persons trapped in the partially-collapsed Srisailam Left Bank Canal (SLBC) tunnel in Telangana’s Nagarkurnool district entered the sixth day on Thursday

Army, Navy, the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and rat hole miners were engaged in intensified efforts to remove silt and debris from the tunnel.

The rescue workers were using gas cutters to detach damaged parts of the Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM).

The rescue agencies intensified the operation late Wednesday after a high-level meeting attended by military tunnel experts and state ministers N. Uttam Kumar Reddy and Komatireddy Venkat Reddy decided to move ahead with a concrete action plan. The meeting decided to go for full-fledged dewatering and desilting.

Irrigation Minister N. Uttam Kumar Reddy is hopeful that a breakthrough in reaching the trapped men could happen ‘very soon’.

The Minister stated that the rescue mission was in the final stage. “With the intensified rescue efforts, deployment of elite forces, and new high-tech interventions, a breakthrough in reaching the trapped workers could happen very soon,” said Uttam Kumar Reddy.

He expressed the hope that the rescue operation would be completed within two days and that new strategies were being implemented to mitigate challenges inside the tunnel.

The Minister said that as part of the intensified rescue operations, the government has also introduced reinforced support structures to stabilise the pathway leading to the TBM, ensuring that rescuers can navigate safely through the tunnel.

“Officials have been instructed to accelerate debris removal and reinforce weakened tunnel sections to prevent any secondary collapses,” said Uttam Kumar Reddy.

The government is also taking the help of experts in the construction of tunnels in border areas and those who participated in rescue operations after similar tunnel accidents in other parts of the country.

Rescue teams had not been able to advance further for the last two days due to 7-9 metre high silt in the last 40-meter stretch.

On a request from Telangana, the National Disaster Management Authority has requested the National Remote Sensing Centre and Geological Survey of India to conduct a surface and sub-surface assessment of the incident site. This assessment is needed for the safety of the teams carrying out rescue operations.

The accident occurred 14 km inside the tunnel. While the rescue teams had already reached 13.5 km, they could not advance further for the last two days due to mud, debris of TBM and seepage of water.

New Delhi, Feb 27: The Union Cabinet has approved the amendments to the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, incorporating the changes recently recommended by the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC), sources said on Thursday.

The Bill will now be tabled for discussion and passage in the second half of the budget session, which will be held from March 10 to April 4. The first part of the budget session was held from January 31 to February 13.

The Cabinet accepted 14 alterations made by the JPC in its meeting on February 19, the sources said.

The Waqf (Amendment) Bill proposed 44 changes to laws governing central and state Waqf boards.

The proposals — which include nominating non-Muslim and (at least two) women members to a Waqf Board — triggered furious protests from the opposition. The Bill was referred to the JPC in August 2024 after it was introduced in the Lok Sabha by the Minister of Minority Affairs, Kiren Rijiju.

The parliamentary panel adopted the report with a majority vote, while all 10 MPs from opposition parties in the panel had objected to the report. They had also moved dissent notes.

Sources have said that the government has incorporated most of the changes recommended by the JPC headed by Jagdambika Pal, and the Cabinet cleared it last week along with the Indian Port Bill.

Key amendments to the Bill include renaming the Waqf Amendment Bill 2024 with the proposed name, ‘Unified Waqf Management, Empowerment, Efficiency and Development (UMEED) Bill’, the State Waqf Boards will include one member from the Muslim OBC community, safeguarding women’s inheritance rights, uploading all Waqf property details on a central portal within six months.

On August 8, 2024, two Bills — the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024, and the Mussalman Wakf (Repeal) Bill, 2024 — were introduced in the Lok Sabha to streamline the Waqf Board’s work and ensure the efficient management of Waqf properties. The objective of the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024, is to amend the Waqf Act, 1995, to redress the issues and challenges in regulating and managing Waqf properties.

The Amendment Bill seeks to improve the administration and management of waqf properties in India. It aims to overcome the shortcomings of the previous act and enhance the efficiency of Waqf boards by introducing changes such as renaming the Act, updating the definitions of waqf, improving the registration process, and increasing the role of technology in managing waqf records. The primary objective of the Mussalman Wakf (Repeal) Bill, 2024, is to repeal the Mussalman Wakf Act, 1923, a colonial-era legislation that has become outdated and inadequate for managing waqf properties in modern India, according to a government press release. The repeal aims to ensure uniformity, transparency, and accountability in the administration and management of waqf properties and eliminating inconsistencies and ambiguities caused by the continued existence of this redundant law.