hubballi l saturday l may 10, 2025 l `9.00 l PAGES 18 l city EDITION Two-dozen CRPF companies moving to J&K to aid army After a high-level security meeting chaired by Union home minister Amit Shah, the govt decided to move additional personnel of the CRPF to Jammu & Kashmir for strategic security adjustment 2,400 personnel of CRPF from two-dozen companies being sent Pak fires drones at 26 sites, debris falls on house in Punjab H arpreet B aj w a & R ajesh A snani @ Chandigarh/Jaipur Ratcheting up its conflict with India, Pakistan launched drones at key Indian locations for the second consecutive night on Friday. Drones were spotted in Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, and Rajasthan, officials said. Reports said Pakistan targeted Srinagar airport and Awantipora air base but Indian forces thwarted the attempts. Some reports said blasts were heard in Jammu and parts of the south Kashmir region. Sources said Pakistani d r o n e s we r e s i g h t e d i n Pathankot, Ferozepur, and Fazilka districts in Punjab and along the Pakistan border areas in Rajasthan, besides Samba and Jammu in Jammu and Kashmir. Indian forces intercepted and nutralised all drones, officials added. However, in Punjab, a drone exploded as it was being neutralised and fell on a house, causing burn injuries to three persons. The condition of one person is said to be critical. “There was heavy drone attack at Khai Pheme Ki village near Ferozepur. One of the drones that was neutralised fell down like a ball of fire on to a house, injuring three. One lady who was cooking at the time of ‘Those in border areas must stay indoors’ Citizens, especially those in border areas, must stay indoors, limit unnecessary movement, and strictly follow safety instructions issued by local authorities, the army said in an advisory. There is no need for panic, but vigilance and precaution are essential, it added the incident suffered extensive bur n injuries. A CNG car parked outside the house caused a blast and the house caught fire,” said an official. Sources said the Village is situated close to the army cantonment, which may have been the target of the attack. “Drones have been sighted at 26 locations ranging from the Baramulla in the North to Bhuj in the South, along both the International Border and the Line of Control with Pakistan. These include suspected armed drones posing potential threats to civilian and military targets,” the Army said. The locations include Baramulla, Srinagar, Avantipora, Nagrota, Jammu, Ferozpur, Pathankot, Fazilka, Lalgarh Jatta, Jaisalmer, Barmer, Bhuj, Kuarbet and Lakhi Nala, it added. India abstains from imf vote on loan to pakistan India abstained from the IMF vote on Pakistan’s loan programmes on Friday, stating its concerns over its funds being misused for state sponsored cross- border terrorism. “Rewarding continued sponsorship of cross-border terrorism sends a dangerous message to the global community, exposes funding agencies and donors to reputational risks, and makes a mockery of global values,” India said. The IMF took note of the abstention Amid fresh escalations from Pakistan, Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a crucial high-level meeting with the chiefs of all three armed services—Army Chief General Upendra Dwivedi, Air Chief Marshal A P Singh, and Navy Chief Admiral Dinesh K Tripathi. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chau- express read Over 1.31 lakh students to write COMEDK UGET Bengaluru: Over 1.31 lakh students will write their COMEDK Undergraduate Entrance Test (UGET) on Saturday. This year, the test will be held across 28 states--covering 179 cities and 248 exam centres. It will be conducted in three sessions throughout the day. Markets tumble: Nifty, Sensex tank over 1% Mumbai: Stock market benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty tumbled over 1% each on Friday as tensions soared between India and Pakistan, fuelling fears of a wider conflict. Extending its previous day’s decline, the 30-share BSE benchmark gauge tanked 880.34 points or 1.10% to settle at 79,454.47. han, and Defence Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh were also there at the meeting held at the PM’s residence on Friday evening. The meeting came in the backdrop of Pakis t a n’s a t t e m p t s t o launch drone and missile strikes in Jammu, Punjab and other parts of the country on Thursday night. During the meeting that lasted more than an hour, Modi commended the success of the @ Bengaluru Starting May 15, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) will be a thing of the past. It will now be Greater Bengaluru Authority, as the state cabinet on Friday gave the nod to issue a notification on May 15. The next course, including splitting of the existing area to three or more municipal corporations and delimitation and reservation of wards, will be decided in the coming days. This also means that the elections to the city corporation will not be held anytime soon. Government sources said the recent appointment of senior drones 400 attack drones on 1 long night Pakistan attempted to target military infra with 300-400 drones across 36 locations from Leh in the North to Sir Creek in Gujarat. Many of them were neutralised. The govt reckons that they were meant to test the Indian air defence systems and collect intelligence M AYA N K S I N G H @ New Delhi Operational details shared by the government on Friday showed the massive scale of Pakistan’s incursion the previous night, as it deployed 300-400 drones across 36 locations from Leh in the North to the Sir Creek region in Gujarat. While the UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) attempted to target the military infrastructure, Indian forces neutralised many of them using kinetic (blowing them away) and nonkinetic (jamming) means, a defence ministry spokesperson said. An armed drone strike on Bhatinda in Punjab was also thwarted. India retaliated by launching drone strikes on four Pakistani air defence sites, destroying a radar. Apart from the aerial attacks, Pakistan resorted to heavy artillery fire across the Line of Control (LoC), resulting in Indian Army casualties. India gave a fitting response, the gov- Congress workers and supporters carry a huge Tricolour during their ‘Tiranga Yatra’ to hail Operation Sindoor, in Bengaluru, on Friday. The party took out similar marches in Jharkhand, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Odisha | PTI ernment shared. In an official briefing, Wing Commander Vyomika Singh said that Pakistan’s shelling using heavy-calibre artillery guns and armed drones caused some BCCI suspends IPL games for a week g o mesh s @ Chennai WITH military operations escalating in the India and Pakistan border, the ongoing edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) has been suspended for one week. The BCCI made the decision public after a meeting with all stakeholders including the franchises on Friday morning. “Further updates regarding the new schedule and venues of the tournament will be announced in due course after a comprehensive assessment of the situation in consultation with relevant authorities and stakeholders,” the BCCI said in a statement. armed forces in repelling Pakistan’s provocations, it is learnt. “Full details were shared with the PM who in turn asked the service chiefs to do the needful to teach a lesson to the enemies,” a source said. Earlier in the day, Rajnath Singh had held a detailed meeting with the three service chiefs to take stock of the evolving situation and a comprehensive national security assessment. Doval, PM one-on-one NSA Ajit Doval stayed back after the meet for a one-onone with Modi. EAM Jaishankar also briefed the PM about the diplomatic measures taken to deal with the India-Pakistan tension It’s goodbye BBMP, welcome GBA; polls not anytime soon E x press N e w s S er v i c e fingerprint seen in downed On May 7, the day India took out Pak’s terror infra, the neighbour did not close its civil airspace while trying to attack Indian installations with drones and missiles. Else, it knew the strikes would draw a swift Indian response. In effect, it used its civil airliners as a shield. The defence ministry shared screenshots of flight movement on the website flightradar24 to prove its point (see map) PM meets defence brass amid fresh escalation R A J E S H K U M A R T H A K U R an d M AYA N K S I N G H @ New Delhi Turkish heartless pakistan military put civilian fliers in harm’s way IAS officer Maheshwar Rao as interim BBMP chief commissioner was part of the plan to split the corporation. The government will now form a committee, which will study and decide on the delimitation of municipal corporations and wards. After that, it will work on reservation of each ward. The Greater Bengaluru Governance Act 2025 specifies that the CM will head GBA, while the Bengaluru development minister will be the vice-chairperson. Managing directors or commissioners of BMTC, BWSSB, Bescom and other agencies associated with Bengaluru will be its members. The Act provides for fixing the term of the mayor and deputy Mayor to 2.5 years.  P4 State Govt postpones 2nd-yr fete Bengaluru: The Congressled state government has postponed the celebration to mark its secondyear term in power in view of the prevailing situation in the country. The government had earlier decided to hold a big event on May 20. losses and injuries to Indian Army personnel. “The possible purpose of such large-scale aerial intrusions was to test air defence systems and collect intelligence. Forensic investigation of the wreckage of the drones is being done. Initial reports suggest that they are Turkish Asisguard Songar drones,” the officer said. Besides, Pakistan showed scant respect for civilians as it kept its civil airspace open during its counter-assault on May 7, the day India took out the terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, said the spokesperson. Pakistan apparently used the civilian fliers as a shield to ward off India’s fierce response. The officer caustically said, “Pakistan is using civil airliners as a shield, knowing fully well that its attack on India would elicit a swift air defence response. This is not safe for the unsuspecting civil airliners, including the international flights which were flying near the International Border between India and Pakistan.” Sharing a screenshot of flight movement on the website flightradar24, the officer underscored that the Indian Air Force demonstrated considerable restraint in its response, thus ensuring safety of the international flights. During the intervening night of May 8 and 9, Pakistan carried out strikes using 300-400 drones against India at 36 locations along the western borders from Leh in the north to Sir Creek in Gujarat Colonel Sofiya Qureshi and Wing Commander Vyomika Singh said preliminary examination of downed drones showed they were Turkey’s Asisguard Songars 1 The Songar has five variants, including a noncombat one. Can be used “effectively in any kind of day/ night military and security operations”. It has a range of about 10 km, with a load carrying capacity of 45 kg, an option for asymmetric threats 2 Developed by Asisguard, an Ankara-based firm, Songar is a low-altitude, quadrotor, UAV that was developed for the Turkish armed forces. Has been in use since 2020 for battlefield operations as well as internal security duties 3 SONGAR has an autonomous take-off and landing capability. It is integrated with a machine gun and grenade launcher. With the capability of real-time image transmission, it can detect target area, neutralise threat and damage detection 4 Pakistan’s drone inventory includes those made by China (CH-4) and Turkey (Bayraktar Akinci). Pakistan also has its own drones and loitering ammunitions 5