Day: March 4, 2026

The J&K Police on Tuesday (March 3, 2026) filed First Information Reports (FIRs) against National Conference leader and Member of Parliament (MP) Aga Syed Ruhullah and former Srinagar mayor Junaid Azim Mattu for allegedly “creating fear, disturbing public order, and inciting unlawful activities”.

“The police acted on credible inputs regarding the circulation of false, fabricated and misleading content across digital and social media platforms with the intent to create fear, disturb public order, and incite unlawful activities and has registered cases against Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi and Junaid Azim Mattu in connection with the matter,” a police spokesperson said. 

The police claimed that the content in question, prima facie, “reflected dissemination of distorted narratives and unverified information capable of causing public unrest and societal disharmony”.

The police said two FIRs were registered under Sections 197(1)(d) and 353(1)(b) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) at Cyber Police Station, Srinagar. “Investigation into both cases has been initiated and is underway. Further legal action shall follow as warranted under law,” the police said.

The FIRs came as Kashmir was engulfed in three days of street protests by locals over the killing of Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei in an attack on February 28 in Iran. Both Mr. Ruhullah and Mr. Mattu had shared posts on social media handles pertaining to these protests.

Earlier in the day, Mr. Ruhullah said his Facebook account was suspended and his security detail thinned. “Some fools in J&K Police and administration think that by withdrawing or downgrading my security detail and suspending my Facebook account will stop me from calling out their atrocities. It is laughable,” MP Ruhullah said.

He said his father was “martyred standing for his people and that’s what fascinates me”. “I am a citizen of this country and I will exercise my rights to stand up against your atrocities, violation of laws, freedom and democracy given to us by the Constitution, to the last drop of my blood,” MP Ruhullah said.

Mr. Mattu, in a post on X, said his security was “effectively withdrawn with immediate effect”. “A measure aimed to silence me,” Mr. Mattu said.

He claimed the move was in response to his statements on Iran and Ayatullah Syed Ali Khamenei’s martyrdom, and “for speaking against the BJP-led Government’s moral abdication and deafening silence on the issue of the illegitimate barbaric onslaught on Iran by U.S. and Israel”.

He said in a Kashmir today fellow mainstream leaders have “surrendered and sold their tongues to the BJP-led Government and chosen to sound shamefully diplomatic over the assassination of Khamenei and the brutal war on Iran and Palestine”.

“I will continue to commit the crime of having a conscience. Such measures aimed to suppress my voice however won’t stop me from speaking up for humanity, justice and to seek answers about my country’s and its leadership’s unprecedented moral abdication when it comes to Iran,” the former Srinagar mayor said.

Several workers enrolled under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) have complained about glitches following the latest update to the National Mobile Monitoring System (NMMS), the mobile application used to record their attendance.

From March 1, the government has made facial recognition mandatory for marking attendance, but several workers say the new feature is not functioning properly, making it difficult for them to register their presence.

The Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS) shared videos on social media showing MGNREGS workers in parts of Rajasthan struggling to mark attendance. Women workers complained that they were unable to download the muster rolls, while in other locations, the facial recognition system allegedly failed to authenticate users. They also said attempts to reach district and State officials had yielded no response.

MKSS leader Nikhil Dey, one of the key authors of MGNREGA, questioned the efficacy of the NMMS. “In the two years since it became operational, no review has been held to assess how effective this system has been in curbing corruption. Creating technological barriers for workers hardly helps advance the government’s stated objective. Instead, the engineers who are supposed to supervise these sites should be held accountable for malpractices,” Mr. Dey said.

Senior government officials, however, claimed that on Tuesday (March 3, 2026), over 22 lakh workers using the new facial recognition feature successfully recorded their attendance on NMMS. Facial recognition was introduced following the government’s e-KYC drive for MGNREGA workers, aimed at eliminating ineligible beneficiaries.

Under the process, mates or supervisors take photographs of workers and upload them to the NMMS application, where they are matched against Aadhaar data. Officials said the additional verification layer was necessitated after the discovery that the NMMS platform had been “misused.”

“This new update was rolled out only after prior preparation. In October last year, we began a pilot in three districts, which was later expanded to one district per State,” a senior official said, adding that exemptions are available in cases of technical difficulty. There has been no extensive outage, the official asserted, and the government is handholding workers through the transition.

A drone attack caused a fire near the U.S. consulate in Dubai on Tuesday (March 3, 2026), a government statement said, after the U.S. embassy in Riyadh was hit by an Iranian strike.

Nearby residents told AFP they heard a loud bang, and one person said she then saw a fire at the consulate.

Dubai and other Gulf cities have been under bombardment since Saturday (February 28, 2026) in a retaliatory attack from Iran after it was attacked by a joint operation by Israel and U.S. on Saturday (February 28, 2026).

“Dubai authorities have confirmed that a fire resulting from a drone-related incident near the US Consulate has been successfully contained,” the Dubai Media Office posted on X.

Streets around the area were cordoned off, while police in plain clothes shooed away onlookers trying to see the consulate.

Earlier, loud jet sounds could be heard over Dubai, the West Asia commercial hub.

Rubio on fire in U.S. consulate in Dubai

Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed the drone strike adjacent to the U.S. consulate in Dubai and said all personnel were safe.

“A drone unfortunately struck a parking lot adjacent to the chancellery building and then set off a fire in that place. All personnel are accounted for,” Mr. Rubio told reporters in Washington.

The attack came after two drones sparked a small fire at the U.S. embassy in the Saudi capital Riyadh in the early hours of Tuesday (March 3, 2026) the Saudi Defence Ministry said.

The U.S. embassy in Kuwait City was struck by drones on Monday (March 2, 2026), three diplomatic sources told AFP.

An AFP correspondent saw smoke pouring out of the building.

U.S. President Donald Trump welcomed German Chancellor Friedrich ‌Merz at the White House on Tuesday (March 3, 2026), thanking the German leader for his support of the widening ​U.S.-Israel war against Iran.

Mr. Trump, speaking in the Oval Office alongside Mr. Merz, told reporters that Germany had been “helping ⁠out” by allowing U.S. forces to access certain bases, and drew a sharp contrast to the actions of two other European countries: Britain and Spain.

Mr. Merz said Germany and the United States shared a desire to get rid of Iran’s current regime and said he would discuss ‌with Mr. Trump what happened once the military operation ended.

Mr. Merz became the first foreign leader to see Mr. Trump after the United States and Israel began bombing Iran on Saturday (February 28, 2026).

Referring to the Israel-U.S. attack on Iran Mr. Merz told reporters, “This is, of course, damaging our economies. This is true for the oil prices, and this is true for the gas prices as well.”

“So that’s the reason why we all hope that this war will come to an end as soon as possible,” Mr. Merz said.

“We are on the same page in terms of getting this terrible regime in Iran away, and we will talk about the day after,” Mr. Merz said, adding ‌he would also speak with Mr. Trump about Russia’s war in Ukraine and the U.S.-European Union trade agreement.

The war in ‌Iran ⁠is politically sensitive for Mr. Merz, who faces potential backlash at home over Germany’s support for the U.S.-Israeli ⁠operation.

On Sunday (March 1, 2026), he expressed no criticism of the U.S. airstrikes but stopped short of endorsing an operation which Trump’s critics have said was undertaken without sufficient explanation and the required legal backing in international law.

Mr. Trump said Germany was letting U.S. forces land in “certain areas,” but that the U.S. was not asking ​Germany to provide troops. “They’re letting us land in certain ‌areas, and we appreciate it, and they’re just making it comfortable. We’re not asking them to put boots on the ground.”

The U.S. president said he had a good relationship with Germany and Mr. Merz in particular, calling him an “excellent leader”. That marked a big change from Mr. Merz’s fellow Christian Democrat and former Chancellor Angela Merkel, Mr. Trump said, adding that he had differences ‌with Ms. Merkel over immigration and energy.

(With inputs from AFP)