Current Affairs for IAS Exams

Current Affairs for IAS Exams – 25 October 2016

In a coordinated joint operation by the elite anti-Naxal strike force of Andhra Pradesh, the Greyhounds and the Special Operation Group of Odisha, 24 members of the banned CPI (Maoist) including a few top leaders, were shot dead.
This is the biggest blow the police have inflicted on the Maoists in a single operation in this area. Earlier, in the Kopparadangi encounter, 17 Maoists (then with People’s War Group) were killed.
Though the DGP of AP N. Sambasiva Rao claimed that routine combing party chanced upon the Maoist camp and an exchange of fire took place, sources in the police say that it was a planned operation.
Odisha Police had the information of the Maoist camp and sought the help of the Greyhounds.

In a huge victory for equal right to worship for women, the Haji Ali Dargah Trust conceded before the Supreme Court that it has resolved to allow women to enter the sanctum sanctorum of the famed dargah in Mumbai on a “par with men”.
“The foundations of the value of equality are deeply-rooted in the structure of Islam, the value of equality is not simply a matter of constitutional rights or agreement of noblemen or condescending charity,” the Trust said in an affidavit.
The affidavit said the “Trust believes in the complete equality of men and women as envisaged in Islam and to give effect to the said principle of equality have decided that both men and women shall be allowed to enter the room.

Adispute between Iraq and Turkey has emerged as a dramatic geopolitical sideshow to the complicated military campaign to retake Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, from the Islamic State (IS).
President of Turkey has insisted on a role in the battle for Mosul, trying to ramp up an involvement in Iraq that has already alarmed the Iraqi government.
In response, the normally mild-mannered Iraqi Prime Minister, warned last week of a military confrontation between Turkey and Iraq. If Turkish forces intervene in Mosul, he said, they will not “be in a picnic.”
The rift is no mere diplomatic row; it is a stark example of the complete breakdown in sovereignty of not just Iraq but Syria as well.
For almost a year, U.S. diplomats have sought to contain the crisis. They have encouraged the Turks to respect Iraq’s sovereignty and aid the fight against the IS by carrying out activities under the umbrella of the U.S.-led coalition.
But Turkey has kept its troops in Bashiqa, a deployment the Iraqi government says it never approved.
Turkey has a number of strategic reasons for maintaining a military presence in northern Iraq.
It wants a bulwark against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which is waging an insurgency in southeast Turkey and keeps bases in the mountains of northern Iraq.