INDIA CONCERNED ABOUT AFGHANISTAN BEING USED BY LeT & JAISH, FOREIGN SECY SHRINGLA SAYS

India Tuesday said it continues to remain “concerned” over developments in Afghanistan, even as it emphasised that the country should not be used for “sheltering, training, planning or financing” terror networks such as the Lashkar-e-Taiba and the Jaish-e-Mohammed.

“As a neighbouring country of Afghanistan, we are naturally concerned about the developments within that country and their external repercussions. India has a civilisational relationship with the Afghan people and those long-standing links guided and will continue to guide our approach,” said Foreign Secretary Harsh Shringla, who was speaking at an online symposium.

He added that while most Indian nationals were able to leave Kabul when Taliban forces took over the Afghan capital on 15 August, the evacuation process could not be completed due to the deteriorating security situation at the airport.

“A number of Afghans, including minorities, who were desirous of travelling to India, also managed to do so. But these processes could not be completed due to the security situation at the airport,” he added. “Resumption of flights from Kabul airport is, therefore, a priority. We are closely monitoring the unfolding situation.”

21ST CENTURY INDIA CORRECTING PAST MISTAKES: MODI IN ALIGARH

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said it is the country's misfortune that generations were not made aware of sacrifices of national heroes, citing example Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh, in whose name a university will come up in Aligarh. The PM said this after laying the foundation stone of the university.

Remembering Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh, Modi said today's India is correcting "mistakes" of the past. It was the country's misfortune that generations were not told about sacrifices of freedom fighters like Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh.

"Today, when the youth sees big dreams, they should remember and study about Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh as it imparts lessons of tremendous willpower," the PM said. "He went to different parts of the world, including Afghanistan, Poland, Japan and South Africa for India's independence," Modi said.

Today, as PM, I feel honoured to lay the foundation of a university named after a visionary and great freedom fighter. He not only fought for India's independence but also actively contributed to laying the foundation of India's future," Modi stressed.

US IN TOUCH TO USE INDIA AS STAGING GROUND FOR STRIKES IN AFGHANISTAN: ANTONY BLINKEN

The US is in touch with India on using it as a staging post for aerial strikes in Afghanistan, while it will reassess its relationship with Pakistan, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations on the pullout from Afghanistan.

Binken’s comments came days before PM Narendra Modi is scheduled to meet US President Joe Biden on September 24 at the Quad summit, possibly followed by a bilateral interaction.

“I’m talking northwest India as a potential because Qatar and Doha are just a little bit too far,” said Blinken, when asked at the hearing by Congressman Mark Green whether the US had reached out to India as a possible staging area for aerial strikes on any terrorist haven that might crop up in Afghanistan.

Blinken refused to elaborate, observing that, “Let me just say generally we’re deeply engaged with India across the board with regard to any specifics about over-the-horizon capabilities and the plans that we put in place.”

NHRC NOTICES TO 4 STATES ON ‘ADVERSE IMPACT’ OF FARM STIR

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has issued notices to the Centre and the Haryana, Delhi, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh GOVTs seeking action taken reports over complaints of alleged inconvenience caused to the general public due to the protests against the farm laws.

Acting on a clutch of complaints alleging that the protests had adversely impacted industrial units, transportation and the livelihood of people, the NHRC also put on notice the chief secretaries and the police chiefs of the four states.

The commission noted that there were allegations of adverse impact on more than 9,000 micro, medium and large industries. It has been alleged that transportation was adversely impacted, causing the commuters, patients, differently abled people and senior citizens to suffer due to heavy congestion on roads occupied by the protesting farmers, the panel said.

KEY COVID NUMBERS

Current Active Cases Countrywide: 3,44,449

New Cases in last 24 hours: 27,486

Recovered in last 24 hours: 37,982

Change in no. of Active cases in last 24 hours: -10,777

No. of deaths in last 24 hours (Total Covid Deaths so far): 281 (4,43,528)

Daily Tests (Monday): 14,30,891

Daily Positivity Rate (Proportion of Positives among total Tested): 1.7%

Percentage of Population Vaccinated (At Least One Dose / Two Doses): 42.8% / 13.6%

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

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US SAYS WILL REVIEW TIES WITH PAK OVER ITS ‘DOUBLE DEALING’

The Biden administration will review US ties with Pakistan in light of Islamabad’s support for Taliban terrorists while professing to help Washington in Afghanistan, the country’s top diplomat told the US Congress on Monday. Amid considerable disquiet among lawmakers and the US commentariat over Pakistan’s duplicity in Afghanistan, US secretary of state Antony Blinken acknowledged at a congressional hearing that Islamabad had played a dodgy role that involved “hedging its bets constantly about the future of Afghanistan,” and in light of this, the US would re-assess ties to formulate what role Pakistan needs to play in the region.

“(Pakistan’s role) is one that’s involved harbouring members of the Taliban, including the Haqqanis... It is one that’s also involved in different points cooperation with us on counter-terrorism. It has a multiplicity of interests some that are in conflict — a clear conflict — with ours,” Blinken said while responding to lawmakers who grilled him on Pakistan’s “duplicitous” role in Afghanistan over the past two decades. Consequently, the US, going forward, would insist that “every country including Pakistan, make good on the expectations that the international community has of what is required of a Taliban-led GOVT if it is to receive any legitimacy of any kind or any support,” Blinken said.

But lawmakers cutting across party lines demanded more severe action against Islamabad for its subversive role, including ending its status as a major non-Nato ally that opened up a military and financial aid spigot that cost US taxpayers billions of dollars. The US bankrolling of Pakistan came even as its support for Taliban terrorists claimed the lives of American soldiers in Afghanistan. In a follow-up Senate hearing on Tuesday, the Republican ranking member of the foreign relations committee, Senator James Risch, said any country that backed Taliban “should risk a strategic downgrade in their relationship with the US”, even as Blinken appeared to warn Pakistan against a hasty recognition of the Taliban GOVT.

US ARMY HEAD SECRETLY CALLED CHINA OVER FEARS TRUMP COULD SPARK WAR: REPORT

The top US general secretly called his Chinese counterpart twice over concerns then-President Donald Trump could spark a war with China as his potential election loss loomed and in its aftermath, the Washington Post reported on Tuesday.

US General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, called General Li Zuocheng of the People’s Liberation Army on Oct. 30, 2020 - four days before the election - and again on Jan. 8, two days after Trump supporters led a deadly riot at the US Capitol, the newspaper reported.

In the calls, Milley sought to assure Li the United States was stable and not going to attack and, if there were to be an attack, he would alert his counterpart ahead of time, the report said.

The report was based on "Peril," a new book by journalists Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, which they said relied on interviews with 200 sources and is due to be released next week.

Trump, in a statement, cast doubt in the story, calling it "fabricated." He said if the story was true Milley should be tried for treason. "For the record, I never even thought of attacking China," Trump said.

Milley's office declined to comment.

Republican Senator Marco Rubio called on President Joe Biden, a Democrat, to immediately fire Milley.

THE REST

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DIAL 100 TO KNOW UP'S CRIME SCENE: AKHILESH TO MODI

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday challenged Prime Minister Narerndra Modi's claim about the crime situation in Uttar Pradesh, asking him to check data of the home department and other central agencies.

At a function after laying the stone of Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh State University in Aligarh, PM Modi earlier in the day said UP was run by gangsters and mafias before 2017. The Samajwadi Party (SP) was ruling the state then.

In a scathing attack at the BJP, Yadav told reporters at a press conference here that it is good to set up a university but the party "runs the best training centre of telling lies".

Yadav also asked Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to get his eyesight tested, replying to the CM's assertion that the Opposition leader lacked vision.

Yadav told reporters that the UP GOVT is not working according to the law and warned officials that his party is preparing a list of those who violated the law, stressing that they won't be spared once his party's GOVT comes to power.

When his attention was drawn to the PM's comment over the law and order, Yadav said, "He should ask for the data of the home department or Dial 100 to see who is increasing the crime." He asked the PM to go through the NCRB report and also see which state has been served maximum notices by the National Human Rights Commission.

TERROR MODULE BUSTED, 6 HELD

The Delhi Police's Special Cell yesterday claimed to have busted "a Pakistan-organised terror module linked to Dawood Ibrahim" with the arrest of six terrorists.

Addressing a press conference, Neeraj Thakur, Special CP (Special Cell), said the module was linked to dreaded gangster Dawood Ibrahim, who is accused of carrying out the 1993 bomb blasts in Mumbai.

The official said two of the arrested terrorists were radicalised and ideologically motivated and had received training in Pakistan for 15 days. One of them, he said, was tasked to identify potential targets for attacks during the upcoming festival season.

Those arrested were identified as Jaan Mohammad Shaikh (47) from Maharashtra, Osama (22) from Delhi, Moolchand (47) from Rae Bareli, Zeeshan Qamar (28) from Allahabad, Mohd Abu Bakar (23) from Behraich and Mohd Amir Javed (31) from Lucknow. They were taken into custody during raids at various places in UP, Maharashtra, Delhi and Rajasthan. "Osama and Zeeshan were trained in Pakistan. They entered India this year. We formed a special team after getting information about them. The first arrest was made in Maharashtra, followed by two from Delhi. Then we tied up with the UP ATS and arrested three persons,” Thakur said. The police have also seized arms, ammunition and explosives.

“Two of them had gone to Muscat and then to Pakistan. They were trained in explosives. It appears there was a close coordination with individuals from across the border. Dawood Ibrahim's brother Anis Ibrahim was part of the team. The funding was being done through hawala,” Thakur said.

COUNTRY BELONGS TO ALL: JD-U CRITICISES YOGI FOR 'ABBA JAAN' REMARK

The country belongs to everybody, be it Hindus, Muslims, Christians or any other community, and political parties should maintain restraint in their comments, Janata Dal-United president Lalan Singh said on Tuesday as Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's abba jaan remark in a public speech stoked a row.

"Terms like 'unity in diversity' are used for our country. The country belongs to all. No remarks should be made that harm the country," Singh, a confidant of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, told reporters when asked for his reaction to the BJP leader's comments.

Addressing a programme in Kushinagar on Sunday, Adityanath had alleged that people did not get rations before 2017 like they do now. "Because then, people who say abba jaan used to digest the rations. The rations of Kushinagar used to go to Nepal and Bangladesh. Today, if anybody tries to swallow the rations meant for poor people, he will land in jail," the chief minister had said.

EX-INDIAN ARMY GENERAL MOCKED FOR SHARING IMAGE OF PAKISTANI ACTORS AS ‘SOLDIERS KILLED’ IN PANJSHIR

Retired Major General Harsha Kakar has found himself in the middle of a controversy on Pakistani Twitter after he shared a tweet that misidentified Pakistani actors as soldiers who were allegedly killed in Afghanistan’s Panjshir.

It all started with a tweet by Major General (retd) G.D. Bakshi on 10 September, in which he claimed that the Pakistani Army had suffered high casualty in Panjshir and several Special Service Group officers had been injured.

A Twitter user named ‘Disgruntled Doc’ responded to Bakshi’s tweet, in what seems to be a dig at hi, with an image from a 2017 Pakistani film, Yalgaar. The photograph features actors Shaan Shahid and Umair Jaswal in the Pakistani Army uniform and the accompanying tweet reads: “My class fellow from school days Maj Aijaj 2nd from left and Capt Jufar 1st from left embraced martyrdom in Panjshir. They were buried yesterday in Peshawar. ISPR is trying to hide these casualties. They fought bravely and should be honoured as such. This is injustice by Pak Army.”

Kakar then posted a screenshot of this tweet on 11 September and called out the “shameful leadership” of Pakistan for not honouring its dead.

The tweet has been liked and retweeted more than 300 times and most of the replies are from Pakistani users taking a dig at Kakar.

Taking the original tweet by ‘Disgruntled Doc’ as frame, several Pakistani users posted similar tweets in reply to Kakar’s tweet.

SMALL EATERIES TO BE CAUGHT IN GST NET VIA ZOMATO, SWIGGY

Online food-delivery operators such as Swiggy and Zomato may have to pay GST on restaurant services supplied through them. The GST Council in a meeting on Friday in Lucknow will take this up. Estimating GST losses of Rs 2,000 crore in 2019-20 and 2020-21, the fitment panel has recommended food aggregators be classified as e-commerce operators and pay GST on behalf of the restaurants concerned.

Many restaurants are not depositing GST, while some are not even registered. The rate fitment panel has suggested the change come into effect on January 1, 2022, to allow food-delivery aggregators to make changes in their software.

GST authorities discovered cases where small eateries had a taxable turnover gap running into several crores. This means that the turnover declared by Swiggy or Zomato in their GSTR 8 returns was higher than the turnover declared by the eatery in its GSTR 3B, the summary return form.

The GST Council may take up taxing cloud kitchens. The fitment panel has recommended these be classified as restaurants only and taxed at 5 per cent without input tax credit, and not 18 per cent.

APPLE IPHONE 13 SERIES LAUNCHED: HERE’S EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW

Apple yesterday announced its much-anticipated iPhone 13 series, which once again features four variants with shuffled storage variants, new improvements both on the design front and under the hood. The new iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Mini feature a diagonally placed dual-camera system and all the new four new phones are now powered by the Apple A15 Bionic chip, also coming straight with iOS 15.

All iPhones now start at 128GB storage for the base variant, and not just the Pro variants as in the previous generation.

The Apple iPhone 13 mini is a follow up to the 12 mini and as the name suggests, features the most compact form of the new series. The iPhone 13 mini sports a 5.4-inch screen with a smaller notch. This is a Super Retina XDR display. The phone is powered by the Apple A15 Bionic chip and comes with based 128GB storage.

Prices for the iPhone 13 mini will start at Rs 69,900 and go up to Rs. 1,29,900 for the topmost variant.

SLINGER MALINGA ANNOUNCES RETIREMENT FROM ALL FORMS OF CRICKET

Sri Lanka pace veteran Lasith Malinga on Tuesday announced his retirement from all forms of cricket after terrorising the world's best batsmen for over a decade and a half with his toe-crushing yorkers delivered from a low and distinct sling-arm action.

A white ball legend in his own right and one of the greatest T20 bowlers, the 38-year-old was captain of Sri Lanka's 2014 T20 World Cup winning team. He posted a message on his social media account announcing his decision.

"Hanging up my T20 shoes and retiring from all forms of cricket! Thankful to all those who supported me in my journey, and looking forward to sharing my experience with young cricketers in the years to come," Malinga tweeted.

ROHIT SHARMA TO REPLACE VIRAT KOHLI AS CAPTAIN? BCCI NOT SO SURE

Amid reports that the BCCI is planning to remove Virat Kohli as captain of ODI and T20 and give the mantle to Rohit Sharma, BCCI secretary Jay Shah on Monday (September 13) said that Kohli will remain the Team India captain as long as India continues to perform on the field.

Kohli the batsman has a superb record across formats as a captain but he has failed to win a major ICC trophy as captain so far. Kohli-led Team India came very close to winning the ICC World Test Championship where the team lost to New Zealand.  India last won the ICC Trophy in 2013 when MS Dhoni led the Men In Blue to glory at the Champions Trophy.

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THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

To know what you know and what you do not know, that is true knowledge. – Confucius

OFF TRACK

A truck loaded with thousands of copies of Roget's Thesaurus crashed with a high speed bullet train at an unmanned level crossing in Japan, Associated Press reports. The accident scene appeared to be a massive carnage of torn metal and shredded paper, according to the report. Witnesses were stunned, startled, aghast, taken aback, stupefied, confused, shocked, rattled, paralysed, dazed, bewildered, mixed up, surprised, awed, dumbfounded, nonplussed, flabbergasted, astounded, amazed, confounded, astonished, overwhelmed, horrified, numbed, speechless and perplexed.