Month: May 2025

[ad_1] DAOKE (AMRITSAR): Daoke, an Amritsar village surrounded on three sides by Pakistan and connected to the rest of India by a narrow road, is cautious but not unnerved by the rising tensions between India and Pakistan.TOI visited the village on Thursday and found villagers huddling at large wooden tables, laughing and discussing local issues, while also commenting on what they perceive as the "media exaggeration" of the ongoing conflict.In another corner, a group chat cosily under a shaded tree, with a barbed wire fence stretching out behind them, beyond which lay Pakistan.While tending his fields, Kulwant Singh, a farmer, said if Pakistan blasts the single road connecting Daoke, they would be cut off from the rest of India and trapped. "But we are not running away. This is our home, and we trust the Indian Army to protect us," […]

[ad_1] NEW DELHI: Flights between north India and parts of west India and the west may get even longer in case of diversions after 27 airports were closed, as of Saturday morning. Rajkot was among the diversion/alternate airports for single aisle aircraft taking the longer route to and from the west after the closure of Pakistan airspace on April 24."Now the diversion airports are more distant, like Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Vadodara and Goa.So, in case of diversion, aircraft will have to fly for a longer distance both while headed there and then when resuming their journey to north India," said a senior pilot.Airports that have been closed - till Saturday morning as of now - are Srinagar, Jammu, Leh, Chandigarh, Amritsar, Ludhiana, Patiala, Bhatinda, Halwara, Pathankot, Bhuntar, Shimla, Gaggal, Dharamsala, Kishangarh, Jaisalmer, Jodhpur, Bikaner, Mundra, Jamnagar, Rajkot, Porbandar, Kandla, Keshod, Bhuj, […]

[ad_1] View of the deserted Shaheed Bhagat Singh International Airport. NEW DELHI: The govt has stepped up security at all Indian airports and flights to the highest level with immediate effect, with Bureau of Civil Aviation (BCAS) on Thursday mandating secondary ladder point security check, or pre-boarding check, for all passengers at all airports across the country. Additionally, visitor entry to terminal buildings has been prohibited.Airport operators have been ordered to ensure all CCTV cameras are operational.Air marshal deployment will be aligned accordingly. Intensive checking of vehicles and persons will be undertaken at the approach to airport terminals/installations and parking areas. Proper checking of IDs of passengers and staff before entering the airport - apart from random checking of passenger baggage - will be conducted.There will be strict on-ground monitoring of operations of microlite aircraft, aero models, para gliders, unmanned […]

[ad_1] NEW DELHI: India's executive director at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will place the country's position at a board meeting of the multi-lateral agency on Friday which is expected to discuss a $1.3 billion loan to Pakistan, a top official said on Thursday."We have an executive director at the IMF. Tomorrow (Friday) there is a meeting of the board of the IMF, and I'm sure that our executive director will put forward India's position," foreign secretary Vikarm Misri told a news conference when asked about India's position about the IMF loan to Pakistan which would be discussed.The IMF executive board is scheduled to meet Pakistan officials on May 9 for first review of the extended funding facility, and a request for an arrangement under the resilience and sustainability facility. Misri said the IMF board members will have to take […]

[ad_1] NEW DELHI: Amid the threat of an all-out war between India and Pakistan, US secretary of stateMarco Rubio dialled his counterpart S Jaishankar and Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif, seeking immediate de-escalation and expressing support for direct dialogue between the two countries.While the US readouts of the two conversations said Rubio encouraged continued efforts to improve communications, Jaishankar later on X said he told Rubio that India will firmly counter any escalation by Pakistan.In the case of Shehbaz, while he expressed sorrow for the reported loss of "civilian lives in the current conflict", Rubio reiterated his calls for Pakistan to take concrete steps to end any support for terrorist groups. Pakistan has accused India of killing civilians but India has maintained that its May 7 strikes were targeted only at terrorists and their infrastructure, not civilians.In the case of India, […]

[ad_1] India registered around 25.8 lakh more deaths in Covid year 2021 compared to 2019, the last pre-Covid year, as per official data based on the civil registration system (CRS) that was released on Wednesday. After accounting for a natural increase in population over the two-year period, the spike in deaths in 2021 is about 20 lakh, nearly six times the official Covid death tally of 3.3 lakh in that year.The highest undercounting of deaths was in Gujarat, which saw nearly 2 lakh excess fatalities, more than 33 times the state's official count of just over 5,800 Covid deaths in 2021, the data revealed.Excess deaths were 18 times higher than the official Covid toll in Madhya Pradesh and 15 times higher in West Bengal. In Bihar, Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh too, excess deaths were more than 10 times higher […]

[ad_1] NEW DELHI: Exploding hostilities with Pakistan has trained the spotlight once again on the audacious deception attempted by Islamabad to shield one of its serving army officers who was "pronounced dead" to deceive the world, but who had to be resurrected and put in prison when the global community discovered the fraud.Sajid Mir, a serving major who had been loaned to LeT - a common practice used by the ISI to groom young jihadis into fanatical terrorists - and played a key role in scripting the Mumbai 26/11 attack was declared dead to deflect the world's attention from India's charge of state-sponsored terrorism and to keep up the fiction that jihadi terrorism was the handiwork of "non-state actors".The deception went to the extent of Pakistan even staging a fake burial for him. However, when the charade was found out, […]

[ad_1] NEW DELHI: The IPL clash between Punjab Kings and Delhi Capitals on Thursday was abandoned midway following air raid alerts in the nearby cities of Jammu and Pathankot, triggering serious concerns over the continuation of the tournament amid escalating cross-border tensions.Punjab Kings were cruising at 122 for 1 in 10.1 overs when the match came to an abrupt halt after a sudden power outage, initially believed to be due to floodlight failure.The game had already been delayed by rain, and shortly after resumption, the entire hill town was plunged into darkness.Security concerns quickly took precedence as both teams, along with spectators, were evacuated from the stadium as a precautionary measure.Amid the unfolding situation, a cheerleader shared a video on social media describing the atmosphere as “very scary,” capturing the anxiety that gripped the venue.BCCI is in a huddle after […]