Indian Navy operated airfield in Goa facilitated the safe recovery of an Israeli flight flying from Bangkok to Tel Aviv. The flight was carrying 276 personnel on board and it made an emergency landing in the early hours of Monday.

“In a swift execution of emergency procedures, Indian Navy operated airfield at Dabolim, Goa facilitated the safe recovery of Flight ELAL-082 en route from Bangkok to Tel Aviv with 276 personnel on board, the flight made an emergency landing in early morning hours of 01 Nov 21,” Navy said.

Indian Army chief General MM Naravane carried out aerial reconnaissance of forward areas in the Jammu region on Wednesday. The army chief was briefed by the commanders on the ground on the prevailing security situation along the Line of Control (LOC). “General MM Naravane #COAS carried out aerial reconnaissance of forward areas in Jammu Region. #COAS was also briefed by the commanders on ground on the prevailing security situation along the Line of Control. #IndianArmy #StrongAndCapable,” the Indian Army tweeted. Earlier in the day, officials informed that Naravane will be given an update on the security situation and operational preparedness on his visit to Jammu.

“General MM Naravane #COAS is on a visit to Jammu Region wherein he will be given an update on security situation & operational preparedness. #COAS will visit forward areas & interact with troops and commanders on ground. #IndianArmy #StrongAndCapable,” the Indian Army said.

Uttar Pradesh’s Department of Tourism and Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Avadh University on Wednesday jointly entered in Guinness World Records for “largest display of oil lamps” during Deepotsava at Ram ki Paidi ghats in Ayodhya. “Today we have lit up 9 lakh earthen lamps. I want to extend my greetings to everyone on this Deepotsav program,” Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said at an event of Deepotsava celebrations in Ayodhya. Colourful lights and laser show organised in Ayodhya as part of the Deepotsav celebration on the occasion of Diwali.

The ‘Deepotsav’ celebrations in Ayodhya last year had set the Guinness World records for ‘the largest display of oil lamps’ after 5,84,572 earthen lamps were lit on the banks of river Saryu.

Uttar Pradesh’s Department of Tourism and Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Avadh University on Wednesday jointly entered in Guinness World Records for “largest display of oil lamps” during Deepotsava at Ram ki Paidi ghats in Ayodhya. “Today we have lit up 9 lakh earthen lamps. I want to extend my greetings to everyone on this Deepotsav program,” Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said at an event of Deepotsava celebrations in Ayodhya. Colourful lights and laser show organised in Ayodhya as part of the Deepotsav celebration on the occasion of Diwali.

The ‘Deepotsav’ celebrations in Ayodhya last year had set the Guinness World records for ‘the largest display of oil lamps’ after 5,84,572 earthen lamps were lit on the banks of river Saryu.

The US added the Israeli spyware company NSO Group—Israeli technological firm and maker of the Pegasus software—to its “entity list,” a federal blacklist prohibiting the company from receiving some American technologies, reported The Washington Post.

The blacklisting came after determining the company’s phone-hacking tools had been used by foreign governments to “maliciously target government officials, journalists, business people, activists, academics, and embassy workers”. The action is part of the Biden administration’s “efforts to put human rights at the centre of US foreign policy, including by working to stem the proliferation of digital tools used for repression”, according to the US Commerce Department.

US Secretary of Commerce Gina M Raimondo said in a statement on Wednesday: “The United States is committed to aggressively using export controls to hold companies accountable that develop, traffic, or use technologies to conduct malicious activities that threaten the cybersecurity of members of civil society, dissidents, government officials, and organizations here and abroad.”

The move is a significant sanction against a company spotlighted in July by the global Pegasus Project consortium, including The Washington Post and 16 other news organisations worldwide. The consortium published dozens of articles detailing misuse of the Pegasus spyware by customers of NSO. The NSO Group has consistently denied the findings of the Pegasus Project, which found that some of NSO’s dozens of law enforcement, military and intelligence customers in more than 40 countries target journalists, politicians and human rights workers on a routine basis with Pegasus, which can hack into a victim’s cellphone. NSO has acknowledged problems with certain customers in the past, according to The Washington Post.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has arrested a Bangladeshi national on suspicion of being a Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) terrorist, from Subhashgram in South 24 Parganas district in West Bengal. The man’s name is Abdul Mannan. Recently, some members of the banned terror outfit JMB were caught from Haridebpur in Kolkata. As per intelligence, Abdul Mannan had contacts with JMB. Detectives interrogated Abdul and found that he had entered the country from Bangladesh two years ago. A fake Aadhaar card was found from him.

The case relates to a conspiracy of online radicalisation and recruitment of vulnerable Muslim youth by JMB/AQIS in India and Bangladesh. NIA had registered the case on 06 August 2021. Till now, five have been arrested in this case. The arrested were involved in arranging fake Indian identity documents for the terrorists of JMB who had illegally entered India.

Arrested Abdul Mannan will be produced before the NIA special court. Investigators want to know more about JMB’s Kolkata module.

Investigators want to know when Abdul Mannan joined the organization, what his work was, and where he spread his branches. Detectives want to take Abdul Mannan into their custody to know how he came to India from Bangladesh and with whose help.

On 11 July, three suspected terrorists were arrested from Haridebpur. Investigators claim the JMB has linkswith them. The STF later arrested a suspected terrorist from Barasat. Eventually, on the instructions of the Union Home Ministry, the investigation into the arrests went to the NIA. It is to be mentioned that after the arrest of three suspected JMB terrorists of Bangladesh from the Haridebpur police station area, one shocking information after another has been coming. The most shocking information is that multiple leaflets in Bengali script were found from there in which it was said that bombs should be made in the kitchens of mothers in Bengal. Three youths had rented a house in Haridebpur, South Kolkata. They had been living in that house for about a year. They changed their names and introduced themselves as Indian citizens. The work of the arrested three JMB terrorists (Kolkata JMB) was to spread jihadi ideology through social media and radicalise the Muslim youth. Multiple mobile phones were used to run campaigns by opening fake accounts under different names. Investigators also found that the SIM cards were used with fake documents. Jihadi writing was posted through Facebook from a Facebook account named Sheikh Sabbir.

The forward area of Nowshera sector in Jammu & Kashmir’s Rajouri is gearing up for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Diwali visit on Thursday, 4 November. Prime Minister Modi is expected to visit the border outposts to spend Diwali with the troops.

Ever since he became the Prime Minister in 2014, Modi has been a regular visitor to the border outposts on Diwali. He gifts sweets and other gifts to the jawans. Modi had spent Diwali with the troops in Rajouri in 2019 as well. Army personnel are conducting a massive search in the forest belt of Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch and Rajouri to flush out terrorists. Poonch has seen a number of casualties of Army personnel in fights against terrorists. An officer and a jawan of the Indian Army were killed in a mine blast near a forward post along the Line of Control (LoC) in Rajouri on Saturday. Another soldier was injured in the incident.

Another important sector for the Indian Army is the Ladakh sector, where troops have been deployed along the India-China border for more than 18 months now to check any incursion by the neighbouring country. Since assuming office in 2014, the Prime Minister has been celebrating Diwali by spending time with soldiers in the forward areas in states like Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab, and the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir.

On Friday, PM Modi will visit Kedarnath Temple in Uttarakhand where he will unveil the statue, and inaugurate the samadhi of Adi Shankaracharya which has been reconstructed after its destruction in the 2013 Uttarakhand floods. As per a release by the Ministry of Culture, PM Modi will also inaugurate key infrastructure projects worth Rs 130 crore, including Saraswati Retaining Wall Aasthapath and Ghats, Mandakini Retaining Wall Aasthapath, Tirth Purohit Houses and Garud Chatti bridge on river Mandakini. He is also scheduled to address a public rally during his visit.