UDDHAV THACKERAY
any challenge as long as the common party workers are with him, Thackeray said what upset him was the fact that it was not the Congress or Nationalist Congress Party – the other constituents of the MVA coalition -- that lost trust in him.
“It’s not about numbers but how many are against me. I will leave if even one person or MLA is against me. It’s very shameful for me if even a single MLA is against me. If my own people don’t want me in the CM post, if any MLA says they don’t want me as chief minister. I will resign immediately… I will move from Varsha (the official residence of the Maharashtra chief minister) to Matoshree ( Thackeray’s private residence).”
Without taking the name of Shinde or any other rebel leader, he added, “Why make statements from Surat and other places? Come and tell me to my face that I am incompetent to handle the posts of chief minister and Shiv Sena president. I will resign immediately. I will keep my resignation letter ready and you can come and take it to Raj Bhavan.”
Claiming that some rebel legislators had called him to say that they wanted to return to the party fold, Thackeray said that NCP supremo Sharad Pawar and Congress leader Kamal Nath told him that they wanted him to continue as chief minister.
Earlier on Wednesday, Shiv Sena had asked all party MLAs to attend a legislature party meeting in Mumbai at 5 pm and issued an ultimatum, saying those remaining absent would be considered to have left the party voluntarily.
Soon after, Shinde’s camp wrote to the governor and deputy speaker, stating that it has appointed Bharat Gogawale as the chief whip as it has the required numbers, and that the 5pm meeting is illegal.
Shinde has claimed that he has the support of 46 MLAs, including about seven Independent legislators. The Sena has 55 legislators in the assembly.
Shinde’s letter sent to deputy speaker Narhari Zirwal said Sena MLA Sunil Prabhu, who was appointed chief whip by Thackeray on Tuesday, cannot the hold the post anymore given the fresh numbers in the rebel camp.
Tweeting shortly afterwards, Shinde said, “Shiv Sena MLA Bharat Gogavale has been appointed as the chief representative of Shiv Sena legislature. The reason is that the orders issued by Sunil Prabhu regarding today’s meeting of MLAs are legally invalid.”
Talking to reporters in Mumbai, Sena member of Parliament Sanjay Raut said Shinde has not put forth any conditions before the party, and that discussions are also underway with other Sena leaders who are with him.
Raut expressed confidence that Shinde and other rebel MLAs will be back into the party fold, and said their “misunderstandings will be addressed”.
Meanwhile, Shiv Sena workers staged a protest in Aurangabad, demanding action against the rebel MLAs. At least five MLAs from the district have accompanied Shinde to Guwahati.
Shiv Sena spokesperson and MLC Ambadas Danve said people have faith in Thackeray’s leadership. “We stand with Uddhav Thackeray. We are against those who leave the party,” he said.
With inputs from Agencies
and support in this hour of need,” said external affairs ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi.
Afghan ambassador Farid Mamundzay appreciated India’s solidarity and support at this “difficult time”.
“Appreciate the solidarity and support of India at this difficult time. Humanitarian situation in Afghanistan was already going from worse to worst and with the occurrence of natural disasters like the recent earthquake make life unbearable for many Afghans,” he tweeted.
Pakistan’s Meteorological Department said the quake’s epicentre was in Afghanistan’s Paktika province, some 50 kilometers southwest of the city of Khost. Buildings were also damaged in Khost province, and tremors were felt some 375 kilometers away in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad.
Some remote areas of Pakistan saw reports of damage to homes near the Afghan border, but it wasn’t immediately clear if that was due to rain or the earthquake, said Taimoor Khan, a disaster management spokesperson in the area.
The European seismological agency, EMSC, said the earthquake’s tremors were felt over 500 kilometers by 119 million people across Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.
Footage from Paktika showed men carrying people in blankets to waiting helicopters. Others were treated on the ground. One resident could be seen receiving IV fluids while sitting in a plastic chair outside the rubble of his home and still more were sprawled on gurneys. Some images showed residents picking through clay bricks and other rubble from destroyed stone houses, some of whose roofs or walls had caved in.
The death toll given by the Bakhtar News Agency was equal to that of a quake in 2002 in northern Afghanistan. Those are the deadliest since 1998, when a 6.1 magnitude temblor and subsequent tremors in Afghanistan’s remote northeast killed at least 4,500 people.
In most places in the world, an earthquake of that magnitude wouldn’t inflict such extensive devastation, said Robert Sanders, a seismologist with the U.S. Geological Survey. But a quake’s death toll more often comes down to geography, building quality and population density.
“Because of the mountainous area, there are rockslides and landslides that we won’t know about until later reporting. Older buildings are likely to crumble and fail,” he said. “Due to how condensed the area is in that part of the world, we’ve seen in the past similar earthquakes deal significant damage.” The Taliban are still trying to reconstitute government ministries abandoned by staff loyal to its previous Westernbacked government, and it was not clear how officials arrived at the casualty tolls reported by Bakhtar.
Bilal Karimi, a deputy spokesman for the Taliban government, wrote on Twitter to urge aid agencies to send teams to the area.
The “response is on its way,” the UN resident coordinator in Afghanistan, Ramiz Alakbarov, wrote on Twitter.
That may prove difficult given the situation Afghanistan finds itself in today. After the Taliban swept across the country in 2021, the US military and its allies fell back to Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport and later withdrew completely. Many international humanitarian organisations followed suit because of concerns about security and the Taliban’s poor human rights record.
In the time since, the Taliban has worked with Qatar, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates on restarting airport operations in Kabul and across the country — but nearly all international carriers still avoid the country, and reluctance on the part of aid organizations to put any money in the Taliban’s coffers could make it difficult to fly in supplies and equipment.
The Afghan Red Crescent Society, however, sent some 4,000 blankets, 800 tents and 800 kitchen kits to the affected area, according to Bakhtar’s director-general, Abdul Wahid Rayan.
The Italian medical aid group Emergency, which still operates in Afghanistan, said it sent seven ambulances and staff to the areas closest to the quake zone.
“The fear is that the victims will increase further, also because many people could be trapped under collapsed buildings,” said Stefano Sozza, country director for Emergency in Afghanistan. “This latest tragedy cannot but worsen further the condition of fragility and economic and social difficulties which Afghanistan has experienced for months.”
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif said his nation would provide help. At the Vatican, Pope Francis offered prayers for all those killed and injured and for the “suffering of the dear Afghan population.”
Afghanistan’s economy is already in crisis after international aid, which made up some 40% of its gross domestic product, was lost since the Taliban took over the country after the withdrawal of US troops last August. The US also moved to block the central bank’s access to some $9 billion in overseas reserves.
More than 24 million people are now in need of humanitarian assistance in the nation, up from about 18.4 million last year, the US Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, or Sigar, said in a report last month.
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