3 militant attacks in 24 hours injure over 13 jawans along LoC; army on high alert

Agencies
June 14, 2017

Srinagar, Jun 14: In a span of just over four hours, militants carried out series of attacks on Tuesday evening in Kashmir, injuring 13 security personnel. According to an media report, there have been five attacks in south Kashmir and one in north Kashmir in the last 24 hours.

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In south Kashmir's Pulwama district's Tral, terrorists threw a grenade at a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) camp, injuring nine jawans, a police official was quoted as saying by news agency.

"Nine CRPF jawans were injured in the explosion and were shifted to the (army's) 92nd Base Hospital in Srinagar," said a police official, adding, "The area has been surrounded for searches."

In the second attack, militants opened firing on security personnel guarding the residence of a retired high court judge at Anchidora in Anantnag district, resulting in injuries to two policemen, the official said. He said the ultras also snatched four service weapons from the police posted there.

The third attack took place on a CRPF camp at Padgampora in Pulwama, but no one was hurt, as the grenade hurled by the militants exploded mid-air. The ultras also threw a grenade on Pulwama police station, resulting in minor injuries to one cop.

On Monday evening, two soldiers were injured when terrorists attacked a CRPF camp in Pulwama. Police said they had inputs about a possible terrorist attack on Tuesday, and the information was shared with all security agencies.

Last week, a civilian was injured after terrorists attacked a police convoy on the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway, near Kashmir's Qazigund area. Terrorists fired at least 10 rounds of bullets, one of which hit a civilian.

On Monday, soldiers deployed along the Line of Control in Poonch detected suspicious movement at around 03:30 am and engaged "Pakistan-backed terrorists", a defence spokesman said.

As Indian troops fired back, the terrorists returned fire and ran back across the LoC, he said. An intense combing operation was conducted, which resulted in eight rucksacks (one combat jacket each), one Underbarrel Grenade Launchers (UBGL), one binocular, one radio set with antenna, seven shawls medicines, seven ready-to-eat meals, a mobile phone, cells, personal clothing and eatables being recovered, the spokesperson said.

The army had earlier claimed to have thwarted an Uri-style attack (that left 19 soldiers dead last year) by killing five militants on the LoC on Friday in north Kashmir. These militants, according to the army, were wearing "unique body-fitted IEDs", which had been earlier used by militants to carry out suicide attacks along the LoC.

Although the army has been able to keep a tight lid on the infiltration attempts, Firstpost reported, one miscalculation could see another Uri-style attack in the coming days in Kashmir. "We are prepared for any eventuality. We will not allow a repeat of the Uri attack," the army officer told Firstpost.

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News Network
December 13,2025

New Delhi: School-going children are picking up drug and smoking habits and engaging in consumption of alcohol, with the average age of introduction to such harmful substances found to be around 13 years, suggesting a need for earlier interventions as early as primary school, a multi-city survey by AIIMS-Delhi said.

The findings also showed substance use increased in higher grades, with grade XI/XII students two times more likely to report use of substances when compared with grade VIII students. This emphasised the importance of continued prevention and intervention through middle and high school.

The study led by Dr Anju Dhawan of AIIMS's National Drug Dependence Treatment Centre, published in the National Medical Journal of India this month, looks at adolescent substance use across diverse regions.

The survey included 5,920 students from classes 8, 9, 11 and 12 in urban government, private and rural schools across 10 cities -- Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Delhi, Dibrugarh, Hyderabad, Imphal, Jammu, Lucknow, Mumbai, and Ranchi. The data were collected between May 2018 and June 2019.

The average age of initiation for any substance was 12.9 (2.8) years. It was lowest for inhalants (11.3 years) followed by heroin (12.3 years) and opioid pharmaceuticals (without prescription; 12.5 years).

Overall, 15.1 per cent of participants reported lifetime use, 10.3 per cent reported past year use, and 7.2 per cent reported use in the past month of any substance, the study found.

The most common substances used in the past year, after tobacco (4 per cent) and alcohol (3.8 per cent), were opioids (2.8 per cent), followed by cannabis (2 per cent) and inhalants (1.9 per cent). Use of non-prescribed pharmaceutical opioids was most common among opioid users (90.2 per cent).

On being asked, 'Do you think this substance is easily available for a person of your age' separately for each substance category, nearly half the students (46.3 per cent) endorsed that tobacco products and more than one-third of the students (36.5 per cent) agreed that a person of their age can easily procure alcohol products.

Similarly, for Bhang (21.9 per cent), ganja/charas (16.1 per cent), inhalants (15.2 per cent), sedatives (13.7 per cent), opium and heroin (10 per cent each), the students endorsed that these can be easily procured.

About 95 per cent of the children, irrespective of their grade, agreed with the statement that 'drug use is harmful'.

The rates of substance use (any) among boys were significantly higher than those of girls for substance use (ever), use in the past year and use in the past 30 days. Compared to grade VIII students, grade IX students were more likely, and grade XI/XII students were twice as likely to have used any substance (ever).

The likelihood of past-year use of any substance was also higher for grade IX students and for grade XI/XII students as compared to grade VIII students.

About 40 per cent of students mentioned that they had a family member who used tobacco or alcohol each. The use of cannabis (any product) and opioid (any product) by a family member was reported by 8.2 per cent and 3.9 per cent of students, respectively, while the use of other substances, such as inhalants/sedatives by family was 2-3 per cent, the study found.

A relatively smaller percentage of students reported use of tobacco or alcohol among peers as compared to among family members, while a higher percentage reported inhalants, sedatives, cannabis or opioid use among peers.

Children using substances (past year) compared to non-users reported significantly higher any substance use by their family members and peers.

There were 25.7 per cent students who replied 'yes' to the question 'conflicts/fights often occur in your family'. Most students also replied affirmatively to 'family members are aware of how their time is being spent' and 'damily members are aware of with whom they spend their time'.

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