Indian Sub-continent

ISLAMABAD, Sep 18 (APP): Chairman Kashmir Committee Syed Fakhar Imam Wednesday said Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi would be put on trial in the court of law soon for committing crimes against humanity in Kashmir.

Addressing a conference on Kashmir arranged by Senate of Pakistan, he said India had crossed all limits of tyranny and carried out human rights violations in occupied Kashmir.

He said Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was trying to put at stake the regional peace with its unconstitutional steps and narrow minded approach.

KABUL (Reuters) - Gunmen and at least one suicide bomber attacked a government building in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, wounding nine people including a child and a woman, officials said.

Attackers detonated explosives outside the building, used for the distribution of electronic identity cards, in the city of Jalalabad in eastern Nangarhar province, said the provincial governor’s spokesman and a provincial council member.

Gunmen then poured into the building and fighting is ongoing, they said.

(Reuters) - The Muslim-majority Himalayan region of Kashmir has been at the heart of more than 70 years of animosity since the partition of the British colony of India into the separate countries of Muslim Pakistan and majority Hindu India.

Here are some facts about the region:

KASHMIR DIVIDED

India rules the populous Kashmir Valley and the Hindu-dominated region around Jammu city, Pakistan controls a wedge of territory in the west, and China holds a thinly populated high-altitude area in the north.

Balasore (Odisha), Sep 17 (PTI) India on Tuesday successfully flight-tested its indigenously developed air-to-air missile Astra, off the coast of Odisha.

The state-of-the-art missile was launched from Sukhoi-30 MKI as a part of user trials by the Indian Air Force, an official statement said.

"The live aerial target was engaged accurately demonstrating the capability of first indigenous air-to-air missile," it said.

Mumbai, Sep 17 (PTI) A Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) worker has been arrested here for allegedly raping, assaulting and threatening a woman colleague, the police said on Tuesday.

Satish V Vaidya, the accused, is a local MNS worker from Chembur area, said a police official.

New Delhi, Sep 17 (PTI) The Delhi government is likely to provide coaching to IAS aspirants in Urdu, taking steps towards making the language a means to build a career, an official statement said on Tuesday.

It stated Deputy Chief Minister and Minister for Art, Culture and Languages Manish Sisodia interacted with toppers in Urdu language hailing from various universities of Delhi on Monday evening.

"The Urdu Academy should start providing coaching to interested students," the statement quoted Sisodia as saying at the event.

Bhopal, Sep 18 (PTI) The BJP will stage protests across Madhya Pradesh on Friday against the Congress-led state government's "apathetic attitude" towards the flood-affected people, a saffron party leader said on Wednesday.

The Congress government has "turned a deaf ear" to the problems being faced by cultivators and other people due to heavy rains and subsequent floods in parts of MP, state BJP Chief Rakesh Singh alleged.

New Delhi, Sep 18 (PTI) Senior Congress leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad and Ahmed Patel met former finance minister P Chidambaram at Tihar Jail on Wednesday morning, sources said.

They were accompanied by Chidambaram's son and Congress MP, Karti.

The leaders are learnt to have discussed the current political situation, including Kashmir, upcoming elections and the economic situation in the country, during the half-hour meeting, the sources added.

Chidambaram has been lodged in Tihar jail since September 5 on charges of corruption in the INX Media case.

Thiruvananthapuram, Sep 18 (PTI): After their success in dishing out delicious and cost-effective food items, prisoners in Kerala are now gearing up to manage fuel stations, thanks to an innovative government initiative.

Drawing inspiration from their counterparts in Tamil Nadu and Punjab, the Prison Department is all set to open petrol pumps in the outer campuses of three central jails in the state, envisaged to be run by selected inmates.

The Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) is setting up the pumps in the land, identified by the prison department.

Kochi, Sept 18 (PTI) In a suspected case of theft, some computer hardware has gone missing from the country's first indigenous aircraft carrier being built in the Cochin Shipyard Ltd (CSL) here, police said.

A Special Investigation Team (SIT) has launched a probe into the matter following a complaint regarding the missing hardware even as the City Police Commissioner was monitoring the investigation.

"Although reported missing from the carrier, the hardware does not form part of the equipment of the vessel," they said.