Kochi, October 29
One person died and over 20 were injured in a blast at a convention centre of a Christian religion group in Kalamassery here on Sunday morning, police said.
People who were present at the convention centre told media that the first blast occurred in the middle of a prayer.
“Subsequently, we heard two more blasts,” an old lady who was inside the centre said.
An officer of Kalamassery police said the cause of the blast or whether there was more than one was not confirmed.
State Industries Minister P Rajeev said the blast site is cordoned off and police and fire rescue have been pressed into service.
Rajeev said that reportedly few of the injured have suffered serious burns.
He said that all medical aid and facilities are available at the Kalamassery Medical College and if required, the injured can be shifted to other hospitals.
The minster said that information about the nature of the blast or if anyone was behind it was not known presently.
Kerala Health Minister Veena George urged government healthcare professionals to report for duty in the wake of the blast.
Another person present at the centre said there were more than 2,000 people inside the hall when the incident occurred.
According to Police, a call was received around 9 am about the blast, seeking police assistance.
Visuals of the incident on TV channels showed fire rescue and police personnel in large numbers evacuating people from the site.
Disturbing visuals of the blast inside the convention centre showed multiple fires inside the hall as people and children were heard screaming in fear.
The video also showed some people trying to quell the fires as the hall was littered with scattered and damaged chairs.
Hundreds of people were seen outside the convention centre post the explosion.
October 22, 1947, is an ominous date, when more than 20,000 armed tribesmen, reinforced by the Pakistani army and led by officers in plain clothes, invaded Kashmir through multiple routes of ingress.
Almost 5,000 tribesmen had assembled on the Pakistani side of the border on the misty night of October 21-22. Even before twilight had set in, almost 300 lorries stormed into the sleepy town of Muzaffarabad. In a couple of hours, all hell broke loose. People were massacred and subjected to atrocities. Thus began Pakistan’s ‘Operation Gulmarg’, without any obstruction and a shot being fired.
The Pakistani army, too, joined the tribesmen. Bodies lay in homes or on the streets for days. Many people were thrown into the Jhelum to be swept away by the gushing waters. There was widespread looting. Men were slaughtered, but the invaders would grab the jewellery of women. Many recited prayers and begged for their lives, but the raiders ignored such pleas while raping or abducting the hapless women.
The invasion of Jammu and Kashmir was the ultimate betrayal for the Maharaja of Kashmir, Hari Singh, because he had entered into a ‘standstill’ agreement, wherein Pakistan had undertaken to continue to treat J&K as an independent state. Ultimately, he sought Indian aid, signing the ‘Instrument of Accession’ on October 26. Then the situation developed very fast, and the Government of India took the decision to send military aid to Srinagar.
There are few instances in the history of warfare when operations are launched with no forethought, planning or preparation,
no acclimatisation of troops and devoid of intelligence inputs. This is exactly what
happened when the onus to save Srinagar fell on the 1st Sikh Battalion, which was already committed on internal security duties from Gurgaon to Rewari.
The 1st Sikh Battalion was commanded by Lt Col Dewan Ranjit Rai. The troops were hastily airlifted to Srinagar on October 27. Lt Col Rai managed to assemble the troops by 4 am at Palam and Willingdon (now Safdarjung). By first light, they were airborne. It was a daring airlift by the Number 12 Squadron of the Indian Air Force led by Wing Commander Karori Lal Bhatia. The intermittent, crackling broadcast over the wireless when the first Dakota touched down at the Srinagar airstrip at 9.30 am reassuringly confirmed to Lt Col Rai that the Indian Army had arrived.
October 27 is celebrated as Infantry Day to commemorate this occasion.
Lt Col Rai acquired civilian buses and rushed his troops to Baramulla to stall the well-organised raiders armed with automatic weapons. The raiders launched a number of assaults on the hastily dug-up defensive positions of the Sikhs, but the high-pitched war cries — ‘Bole So Nihal, Sat Sri Akal’— subdued the drum beats and drowned the cacophony of the enemy’s shouts.
The troops managed to save Srinagar and effectively stalled the Pakistani advance. But, tragically, Lt Col Rai was hit by a barrage of fire. Barely 34 years old, he was awarded the coveted Maha Vir Chakra posthumously for conspicuous gallantry.
1 Sikh played a decisive role in saving Srinagar till additional forces were inducted for the defence of Kashmir. If Srinagar had been lost at that juncture, Kashmir would have been lost too.
Jammu, October 28
The Border Security Force (BSF) on Saturday lodged a strong protest with the Pakistan Rangers over the recent unprovoked firing and mortar shelling on forward posts and villages along the International Border here, officials said.
The cross-border shelling by the Pakistan Rangers, the first major ceasefire violation since 2021, started around 8 pm Thursday in the Arnia area of the RS Pura sector and lasted around seven hours, leaving a BSF man and a woman injured.
No collateral damage in 5 years: DGP
Lethpora: The graph of terror in Jammu and Kashmir has come down in the past five years and the union territory has witnessed zero collateral damage and no law-and-order incidents, police chief Dilbag Singh claimed here on Saturday. PTI
The protest was registered at an hour-long commander-level meeting at border outpost Octroi in Suchetgarh, a BSF officer said. This was the second flag meeting between the two sides in 10 days after two BSF personnel were injured when their post in Arnia came under fire from across the border on October 17.
The incident in this sector was the first violation of the February 25, 2021, renewed ceasefire along J&K borders between India and Pakistan.
The officials said the latest meeting, which was attended by seven members each of the BSF and the Pakistan Rangers, was held in a peaceful atmosphere with both sides highlighting the need to maintain peace along the border.
Besides the two ceasefire violations, a group of people escorted by the Pakistan Rangers also came close to the International Border on October 21 following which BSF troops fired a couple of warning shots to drive them away.
The back-to-back ceasefire violations by Pakistan without any provocation have caused panic among border residents who had to flee their homes.
Deir Al-Balah (Gaza Strip), October 27
Israeli forces backed by fighter jets and drones carried out a second ground raid into Gaza in as many days and struck targets on the outskirts of Gaza City, the military said Friday, as it prepares for a widely expected ground invasion of the Hamas-ruled territory.
US warplanes, meanwhile, struck targets in eastern Syria that the Pentagon said were linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard after a string of attacks on American forces, and two mysterious objects hit towns in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, adding to the already high tensions fuelled by the three-week-old Gaza war.
The Palestinian death toll has soared past 7,000 as Israel has carried out waves of devastating air strikes in response to a bloody Hamas incursion into southern Israel on October 7.
The Health Ministry in Gaza, which tracks the toll, released a detailed list of names and identification numbers on Thursday. The toll includes more than 2,900 minors and more than 1,500 women.
The overall number of deaths far exceeds the combined toll of all four previous wars between Israel and Hamas, estimated at around 4,000.
More than 1,400 people in Israel, mostly civilians, were slain during the initial Hamas attack, according to the Israeli government. Hamas is holding at least 229 captives inside Gaza, including men, women, children and older adults.
The air strikes have flattened entire neighbourhoods, causing a level of death and destruction unseen in the last four wars between Israel and Hamas. More than a million people have fled their homes, with many heeding Israeli orders to evacuate to the south, despite continuing Israeli strikes across the sealed-off territory.
The military said ground forces raided inside Gaza, striking dozens of militant targets over the past 24 hours. It said aircraft and artillery bombed targets in Shijaiyah, a neighbourhood on Gaza City’s outskirts that was the scene of an urban battle in the 2014 Gaza war.
The military said the soldiers exited the territory without suffering any casualties. It reported an earlier, hours long raid into northern Gaza early Thursday.
Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, an Israeli military spokesman, said the raids enable forces to “uncover the enemy,” to kill militants and to remove explosives and launch pads. The aim is “to prepare the ground for the next stages of the war,” he added.
The damage to Gaza from nearly three weeks of bombardment showed in satellite photos of several locations taken before the war and again in recent days.
Entire rows of residential buildings simply disappear in the photos, reduced to smears of dust and rubble. A complex of 13 high-rises by the sea was pounded to dust near Gaza City’s al-Shati refugee camp, leaving only a few tottering bits of facade, according to the photos by Maxar Technologies.
The military says it only strikes militant targets and accuses Hamas of operating among civilians in an attempt to protect its fighters. The Israeli military said that an airstrike killed one of two masterminds of the October 7 massacre, Shadi Barud, the head of Hamas’ intelligence unit.
Palestinian militants have fired thousands of rockets into Israel since the war began.
Hamas’ military wing said Thursday that Israeli bombardment has so far killed about 50 of the hostages. There was no immediate comment from Israeli officials, who have denied previous, similar claims.
The conflict has threatened to ignite a wider war across the region.
Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed ally of Hamas in Lebanon, has repeatedly traded fire with Israel along the border, and Israel has carried out air strikes targeting Iran-linked groups in Syria.
The United States has sent two aircraft carrier strike groups to the region, along with additional fighter jets and other weaponry and personnel, in part to deter Iran and its allies from entering the war on the side of Hamas.
US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said that the strikes in eastern Syria were “a response to a series of ongoing and mostly unsuccessful attacks against US personnel in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-backed militia groups that began on October 17.” He said the operation was separate from the Israel-Hamas war.
Iran-backed fighters later fired rockets at an oil facility housing US troops in eastern Syria, according to Syrian opposition activists. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the US strikes had wounded seven Iran-backed Iraqi fighters.
Egypt’s military said a drone crashed into a building in the Red Sea town of Taba, on the border with Israel, slightly wounding six people. State media had initially said it was a rocket.
In a separate incident, the state-run Al-Qahera news said a “strange object” landed near a power station in the Red Sea town of Nuweiba, further south. Footage showed debris and smoke rising from the side of a nearby mountain.
Hagari, the Israeli military spokesperson, said “an aerial threat was identified in the area of the Red Sea,” which appeared to be the source of the Taba incident. He said that fighter jets were dispatched to the area and that Israel, Egypt and the US were tightening their defences in the region.
Last week, a US Navy destroyer in the northern Red Sea shot down three cruise missiles and several drones launched toward Israel by Iran-backed Houthi rebels in northern Yemen.
The war has also sparked protests across the region, and more demonstrations were held Friday in cities across the Middle East after weekly Muslim prayers.
In Gaza, supplies of food, medicine and fuel for powering emergency generators are running low. The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, which provides basic services to hundreds of thousands of people, including operating schools turned into shelters, has said it may run out of fuel within days.
Gaza’s sole power station shut down because of a lack of fuel days after the start of the war, and Israel has barred all fuel deliveries, saying it believes Hamas would steal them for military purposes.
About 1.4 million of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have fled their homes, with nearly half of them crowding into UN shelters.
Hundreds of thousands remain in northern Gaza, despite Israel ordering them to evacuate to the south and saying that those who remain might be considered “accomplices” of Hamas.
Over the past week, Israel has allowed more than 80 trucks with aid enter from Egypt through the Rafah crossing, the only entry point into Gaza not controlled by Israel.
But aid workers say the convoys meet only a tiny fraction of the territory’s mounting humanitarian needs. Before the war, an average of 500 trucks entered Gaza each day, according to the United Nations.
The US has been working with other mediators to send in more humanitarian aid, but Israel is insisting on strict screening procedures for all trucks that enter. Washington says Hamas has refused to open the Gaza side of the Rafah crossing to let hundreds of foreign passport holders leave.
The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees said that its aid operations were crumbling, citing distressing reports from local staff.
“For the first time ever, they report that now people are hungry.” Philippe Lazarini told reporters in Jerusalem. “Civil order is collapsing.”
Abohar, October 26
Brigadier Kuldip Singh Gulia (retd), a Sikh Regiment veteran who served with the 4th and 6th battalions of the regiment, will walk a one lakh steps on Friday to commemorate Infantry Day celebrations. Each 100 of these steps will represent the brave sacrifice and valour of the 1,000 soldiers who were part of the first battalion of the Sikh Regiment .
The Brigadier will celebrate his 75th birthday on October 28. During his 15-hour continuous walk, he will traverse the historical ramparts of Jaipur forts and avenues.
Brigadier Gulia has commanded 4 Sikh, an infantry brigade at Gandhi Nagar and was the Deputy GOC of the Mountain Division in Bareilly. He has explored many ridges and forts around Jaipur and Sariska. He has trekked over 60 km in a single day on numerous occasions after turning 70.
Also an author, Brigadier Gulia has written many books, including ‘Human Ecology of Sikkim’ and ‘Genesis of Disasters’. He has also contributed towards 15 volumes of ‘An Encyclopaedia of Himalayan Studies’ and five volumes of ‘Encyclopaedia of Human Ecology’.
Bangkok, October 27
A Chinese fighter jet came within 10 feet of an American B-52 bomber flying over the South China Sea, nearly causing an accident, the US military said, underscoring the potential for a mishap as both countries vie for influence in the region.
In the night intercept, the Shenyang J-11 twin-engine fighter closed on the US Air Force plane at an “uncontrolled excessive speed, flying below, in front of, and within 10 feet of the B-52, putting both aircraft in danger of a collision,” the US Indo-Pacific Command said in a statement released on Thursday.
“We are concerned this pilot was unaware of how close he came to causing a collision,” the military said.
China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but in a similar incident in May, the Chinese government had dismissed American complaints and demanded that Washington end such flights over the South China Sea.
China has been increasingly assertive in advancing its claims on most of the South China Sea as its territorial waters, a position rejected by the US and other countries that use the vast expanse of ocean for shipping.
China’s claims have led to longstanding territorial disputes with other countries in the South China Sea, one of the world’s busiest trade routes. A Chinese coast guard ship and an accompanying vessel last week rammed a Philippine coast guard ship and a military-run supply boat off a contested shoal in the waterway.
The US and its allies regularly conduct maritime manoeuvres in the South China Sea, and also regularly fly aircraft over the area to emphasise that the waters and airspace are international.
The B-52 was “lawfully conducting routine operations over the South China Sea in international airspace” when it was intercepted by the J-11 on Tuesday, the US military said.
Intercepts are common, with the US saying that there have been more than 180 such incidents since the fall of 2021.
They are not often as close as Tuesday’s incident, however, and with tensions already high between Beijing and Washington, a collision would have had the potential to lead to an escalation.
The US military said in its statement that the incident would not change its approach.
“The US will continue to fly, sail and operate—safely and responsibly—wherever international laws allow,” the military said.
Colombo, October 27
Maldives has started negotiations with India to remove its military presence, President-elect Mohamed Muizzu said in an interview published by Bloomberg News on Friday, as New Delhi and Beijing both vie for influence in the region.
Removing Indian troops was a key campaign pledge by Muizzu, who ousted President Ibrahim Solih last month.
Around 70 Indian military personnel maintain New Delhi-sponsored radar stations and surveillance aircraft. Indian warships help patrol Maldives’ exclusive economic zone.
Muizzu said in the interview that he had already begun negotiations with the Indian government on removing its military presence, calling those talks “very successful already”.
“We want a bilateral relationship that’s mutually beneficial,” Muizzu told Bloomberg, adding that Indian soldiers would not be replaced by troops from other countries.
Asking India to remove military personnel in no way indicated “that I’m going to allow China or any other country to bring their military troops here”, he said.
Muizzu’s win extends the tug-of-war between China and India for influence over the Indian Ocean.
Successive governments have tilted either towards India or China. Both Asian powerhouses have invested heavily in upgrading Maldives’ infrastructure and extended loans, as they compete with each other.
