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[ad_1] NEW DELHI: Blaming "security lapses and intelligence failure" for the Pahalgam attack, Congress Thursday said the deliberate targeting of Hindus in the heinous act "masterminded by Pakistan" is designed to inflame passions across India, even as it accused the governing BJP of exploiting the tragedy by using social media to sow discord and create polarisation. Congress warned Modi govt that counter measures announced against Pakistan should not be "symbolic".The Congress Working Committee meeting, attended by party president Mallikarjun Kharge, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi underlined that the terror-hit area is protected by a three-tier security arrangement and falls under the purview of Union home ministry. It demanded a comprehensive analysis of the "failures"."These questions must be raised in the larger public interest. This is the only way justice can truly be seen to be served for the families whose […]

[ad_1] NEW DELHI: After travelling across three states and an international border, the body of Sudeep Neupane, 27, the only foreign national killed in the terror attack on tourists in Pahalgam, reached his home in Kalikanagar, a neighbourhood in Butwal, western Nepal, draped in the national flag. He was cremated around noon.Sudeep, his family said, was shot immediately after he identified himself as a Hindu and had no time to explain that he was not from India. Butwal, a city in Lumbini province, sits just 25km north of the Indian border at Sunauli, close enough for shared economies and quiet daily crossings. It is not the kind of place where news arrives quickly, and yet by the time the ambulance reached Sudeep's home, the neighbours had already gathered.Sudeep had travelled to Kashmir with his mother Reema, sister Sushma, and brother-in-law […]

[ad_1] PATNA: Bihar Police's special task force, in a joint operation with the economic offences unit (EOU), arrested Sanjeev Mukhia, the alleged mastermind behind the NEET-UG 2024 paper leak, from an apartment in Danapur in Patna late Thursday.Mukhia had been absconding since the medical entrance exam was held in May last year. The police headquarters had announced a reward of Rs 3 lakh for any information leading to his capture.Investigators found Mukhia's network active in Rajasthan, Bihar, UP, Haryana, and Punjab, linked to leaks in recruitment exams for veterinary doctors, English teachers, and others. [ad_2] Source link

[ad_1] MEERUT: Supreme Court has ordered a fresh probe into the 2022 killing of a 20-year-old man in UP's Saharanpur, setting aside the orders of Allahabad high court and a lower court that applied the lesser charge of "culpable homicide not amounting to murder".Ziaul Rahman, 20, was allegedly beaten to death on November 1 that year by the family of his partner, 19-year-old Tanu Saini, who died by suicide 10 hours later. Ziaul's father, Ayyub Rahman, later approached the apex court after HC upheld the application of the "lesser charge".Calling it a "clear case of killing", the apex court directly cited the autopsy report that showed "14 injuries on Ziaul's body". SC gives UP 6 weeks to complete trial The court stated: "In this case, on the basis of the facts noted above, we find the charge should be framed […]

[ad_1] NEW DELHI: The Union government on Friday informed Supreme Court that deletion of a provision in the 1995 Waqf Act barring enforcement of rights over unregistered waqfs through an amendment in 2013 resulted in a massive rise in Waqf Board properties country-wide from 2,07,394 to 8,72,870 and a corresponding increase in area from 18.3 lakh acres to 39 lakh acres.Delhi Waqf Board in 2013 had just nine properties having an area of 0.03 acres. By 2025, the number of properties under its control increased to 1,047 having an area of 28 acres. This phenomenon was more accentuated in Jammu & Kashmir, where the Auqaf Board had just one property with 0.42 acres in 2013, which increased to 32,533 with an area of 31.4 acres by 2025, the Centre's affidavit said.Even in the remote Andaman and Nicobar Islands, waqf properties […]

[ad_1] RANCHI: A Jharkhand minister facing a backlash for getting his facts in a twist and demanding Himachal Pradesh CM Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu's resignation for the April 22 terror attack in J&K's Pahalgam claimed Friday that the remark was meant to be "purely sarcastic".Higher and technical education minister Sudivya Kumar Sonu of JMM said he didn't intend to "politicise a tragedy", as accused by his critics, but to criticise the BJP-led Centre's response to security challenges. "So, why would a Congress CM of a state other than J&K "resign on moral grounds" for what he perceives as the Centre's failure? That's the irony! When those in govt are silent, I asked an unconnected person in power to resign as a token of protest...My statement was supposed to highlight the persistent silence of our country's top leadership in the face of […]

[ad_1] KOLKATA: The West Bengal government shifted out the police superintendents of Murshidabad and Jangipur on Friday. While Jangipur SP Ananda Roy has been shifted to command the Eastern Frontier Rifles unit in West Midnapore's Salua, Murshidabad SP Surya Kumar Yadav has been moved to Cooch Behar to command the newly formed Narayani Battalion. Roy is a part of the SIT investigating 138 FIRs connected with the Murshidabad violence.A Bhabani Bhawan source said DCP (Traffic-South, Kolkata) Amit Kumar Shaw would replace Roy in the SIT. Yadav was part of the probe team that was conducting raids outside the state.Shaw has been asked to take charge of Jangipur. Kumar Sunny Raj, currently SP of Ranaghat, will be the new Murshidabad SP.Earlier this month, the Shamsherganj and Suti inspectors-in-charge had been removed.The transfers come ahead of chief minister Mamata Banerjee's visit to […]

[ad_1] LUCKNOW: Five workers lost their lives and three others sustained serious injuries after the dryer at a rice mill exploded in UP's Bahraich Friday. The incident took place around 7am when 15-17 people were working at the mill located in Gulam Alipura area, police said.Eyewitnesses said the explosion triggered a massive fire, causing thick smoke to engulf the premises. Workers started collapsing as they lost consciousness. Local residents rushed to the spot and helped evacuate the injured.Bahraich chief medical superintendent Dr M M Tripathi, confirming the deaths, said the injured were referred to the local medical college. The deceased have been identified as Ghaffar Ali (22), Bablu (27), Rajnesh (30), and Zahur Ali (55) from UP, and Bittu Shah (30) from Bihar. CM Yogi Adityanath expressed deep sorrow over the incident. [ad_2] Source link

[ad_1] NEW DELHI: Putting up a strong defence of the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025, the Centre called it a secular law and accused the petitioners challenging its validity in Supreme Court of spinning a false "interference in religious affairs" narrative on mandatory registration of every waqf, including 'waqf by user'. It said this provision was more than a century old.In a 1,332-page affidavit, joint secretary in the minority affairs ministry Shersha C Shaikh Mohiddin requested SC to abide by traditional assumption of validity of a law enacted by Parliament and conduct a detailed hearing without granting any stay on operation of the law, which is to stop misuse of 2013 amendment allowing encroachment of private and govt properties. In the last hearing, SC had flagged 3 issues in 2025 law - registration documents of waqf properties, inclusion of non-Muslims in […]

[ad_1] NEW DELHI: Dr Krishnaswamy Kasturirangan, an eminent space scientist, educationist and the guiding force behind India’s space and education milestones, passed away on Friday in Bengaluru at the age of 84. A former chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) and the chief architect of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, Kasturirangan had been battling age-related ailments following a heart attack he suffered in Sri Lanka in July 2023. He breathed his last at 10:43 am at his Bengaluru residence.His mortal remains will be kept at the Raman Research Institute, Bengaluru, on April 27 for people to pay their respects. He is survived by two sons.Kasturirangan-led Isro from 1994 to 2003, a period marked by major milestones, including the operationalisation of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle and the successful flight-test of the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle. Under his […]